HG and Robotech Debates

[HappyPenguins]

The problem with that task, is that it would require one, or more people to watch it again, and probably again after that. Things I know for a fact I cannot bring myself to do. I've seen it 2.5 times, and I think that's about all I can stomach. The fact that HG keeps bragging about it being a top 10 pick in some no namer magazine, and winning best animated film in some film festival where it was pretty much the only entry actually helps people turn away from it (except the diehards, and no harm there).

quoted for truth lol

[Gubaba]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-...cek-passes-away

Animation historian Jerry Beck reported on his blog on Sunday that American producer Carl Macek passed away due to a heart attack on Saturday. Macek and Beck had co-founded Streamline Pictures in 1988.

Macek is best known for producing Robotech, the redubbed and edited adaptation of three different anime series — Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada. He also worked on the dubbing of many anime projects from Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years (redubbed and edited adaptation of Captain Harlock and Queen Millennia) to more recently, Bleach and Naruto.

[Funkenstein]

So, what does this mean for Robotech?

[Aladdin Sane]

So, what does this mean for Robotech?

Nothing, realistically.

Things will go ahead as they had been (which is to say, not very quickly). Macek had had very little to do with the franchise for the last decade, and I doubt his returning to it this year was much more than a PR stunt to appease those who have become disenfranchised since Shadow Chronicles. It's still in the hands of Yune and Co.

[jenius]

What's really sad is that Yune & Co have just about nothing going for them. It's a total amateur shop and bringing Macek back in brought a true professional into their workhouse. While Macek's talent was more for recognizing good anime than creating it he had enough industry experience to maybe guide Yune & Co toward making something that could be recognized as good. His departure from this world brings us back to an HG we can only prays sells all of its rights to WB.

[MastaEgg]

Now we'll never know what happened to Rick Hunter!

[Dynaman]

Now we'll never know what happened to Rick Hunter!

I know, I read it in "End of the Circle" years ago. Anything else is a retcon, or a retcon, of a retcon. I stopped caring after the first retcon.

Now for tasteless (but not crude) humor (this did not seem appropriate in the Carl Macek thread)

Are they going to let Reba West sing at the funeral?

EDIT - this is offered in the spirit of the "This is a Dead Chapman, he is deceased, he is no more" line of humor.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Dynaman

[Keith]

Rick Hunter died years ago of plagiarism poisoning.

[SIGHUP]

Hey, do individual posts disappear or something? I was going to reply to chrisk's post about him just playing around about the Macross cosplay and if I were to post about Comic Con in my view. I was just going to say that basically all the posts on RTX "news" are done by me. MEMO posts mostly in the forums.

As far as Rick Hunter, didn't he get lost in space? Oh wait that was Hikajojo.

[chrisk]

Hey, do individual posts disappear or something? I was going to reply to chrisk's post about him just playing around about the Macross cosplay and if I were to post about Comic Con in my view. I was just going to say that basically all the posts on RTX "news" are done by me. MEMO posts mostly in the forums.

Hey SIGHUP, I actually replied yesterday until I realized it wouldn't be appropriate with Carl Macek's passing.

It makes me wonder, what's next? With Carl Macek gone, it seems like the Robotech "25th anniversary" finally has some significance, and not some excuse to hawk "limited edition" toys and comics. Will the Tatsunoko people show up to pay their respects in the next cons?

It would be nice to hear your perspective SIGHUP on San Diego, and to hear what exactly are these guys going to do with this latest blow to the franchise. I

was kidding about the tuna hat.

[Seto Kaiba]

So, what does this mean for Robotech?

Pretty much nothing, actually... I'm sure the Robotech fandom will work themselves into a furor proclaiming how he was the great visionary he spent all those years lying and exaggerating to paint himself as, but in reality nothing is really going to change for Robotech. He was only recently brought back on board the franchise in an advisory capacity, so the only thing he really accomplished was to tag along on the convention tour as Tommy Yune's sidekick. The next major installment in the animated Robotech franchise, Robotech: Shadow Rising, is still on indefinite hiatus while they wait for Warner Brothers to restore the investor confidence that was lost by Carl Macek's of failed sequel attempts. By the same token, the live-action Robotech movie is mired in development hell while they wait for a script and try in vain to stir up some interest by talking to poo-tier directors.

Rick Hunter died years ago of plagiarism poisoning.

Eh... even though your posts in the RIP Carl Macek thread have been deleted, I can kind of see where you were coming from when you said what you did. While I do feel some degree of sympathy for the loss recently suffered by Mr. Macek's family, I find myself unwilling to suddenly write him a pardon for all of the dishonest, sleazy, and borderline racist things he said and did over the years. I will admit it does feel a little petty, but such is the price of bad karma.

There's no doubt in my mind that Harmony Gold will keep Carl's magnum opus alive... if only by stringing the die-hard Robotech fans along for eternity by never offering any closure for the story of "Rick Hunter".

As far as Rick Hunter, didn't he get lost in space? Oh wait that was Hikajojo.

Wait, wut? You mean Admiral Rick Hunter ISN'T lost in space?

When last I checked, the REF was still launching ships to "find Admiral Hunter"... who may or may not still be falling into a negative space wedgie. The man's been lost in space for longer than Will Robinson, and he doesn't even have the benefit of a robot that goes "Danger Rick Hunter! Danger! Danger!" for plucky comic relief purposes...

It makes me wonder, what's next? With Carl Macek gone, it seems like the Robotech "25th anniversary" finally has some significance, and not some excuse to hawk "limited edition" toys and comics. Will the Tatsunoko people show up to pay their respects in the next cons?

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? It'll be interesting to see if they fly out to pay their respects or not. You'd think they would, since Toyoharu Yoshida (Ippei Kuri) worked on Robotech II back in the day.

[taksraven]

Eh... even though your posts in the RIP Carl Macek thread have been deleted, I can kind of see where you were coming from when you said what you did. While I do feel some degree of sympathy for the loss recently suffered by Mr. Macek's family, I find myself unwilling to suddenly write him a pardon for all of the dishonest, sleazy, and borderline racist things he said and did over the years. I will admit it does feel a little petty, but such is the price of bad karma.

I would love to talk about some attitudes towards recent events involving a certain person, but I don't think that the mods are going to tolerate it. Which is a pity. I noticed that some of my comments about that person that I put here were moved to the tribute thread.

Normally I have no problems if people wish to speak ill of the dead, and I have certainly done it myself at times, but in this case I see no need for a final payout on anybody, since its already been said before and serves no purpose. Even the IMDB includes the nickname "Antichrist of Anime". Isn't that bad enough? Do we need to keep kicking?? I don't think so.

I guess that this means that everything is back in Tommy Yune's lap again and thats not what he wanted, I would think. Maybe its time for HG to accept that this could be seen as a bad omen and that its time to stop development of RT. (Which I think that they have already done anyway.) I think that their big hope is that WB will continue to develop the LAM and buy all the RT rights off HG for a nice sum. Thats my theory anyway.

Taksraven

Edited April 20, 2010 by taksraven

[DrStrangelove]

Meh, I bet HG, Yun and Co., will eventually blame their lack of progress on Macek's untimely death.

Edited April 20, 2010 by DrStrangelove

[Vepariga]

Just an observation i had last night I was thinking where robotech will even go in the future, If they have established thus far that Mospeada tech is the peak, then wouldnt robotech be just a continuation of the Mospeada universe and de-tach itself from macross. you could almost say robotech shadow chronicles is a Mospeada movie.

[Funkenstein]

Just an observation i had last night I was thinking where robotech will even go in the future, If they have established thus far that Mospeada tech is the peak, then wouldnt robotech be just a continuation of the Mospeada universe and de-tach itself from macross. you could almost say robotech shadow chronicles is a Mospeada movie.

Thats basically the only way forward for HG. It can't do anything with Macross due to the licensing issues, and it only really has Mospeada to fall back on (No one liked Cavalry).

[Seto Kaiba]

I guess that this means that everything is back in Tommy Yune's lap again and thats not what he wanted, I would think. Maybe its time for HG to accept that this could be seen as a bad omen and that its time to stop development of RT. (Which I think that they have already done anyway.) I think that their big hope is that WB will continue to develop the LAM and buy all the RT rights off HG for a nice sum. Thats my theory anyway.

Realistically, since Carl Macek's return to the franchise was in an advisory capacity rather than taking over as creative director, responsibility for developing Robotech's future was never lifted from Tommy's shoulders. I can't picture them actually interpreting this as a bad omen for Robotech's future... I wouldn't be surprised if they justified keeping the franchise lurching towards oblivion by saying Carl would've wanted them to keep going. I must admit that despite my feelings of antipathy for the man, I thought Carl Macek would be a better creative director than Tommy Yune... if only because, his 100% failure rate aside, he was at least trying to do new and original things with the Robotech story instead of just making Genesis Climber Mospeada II: the Search for More Money.

I definitely agree with your assessment of their motives though. It would definitely explain the way they've handled the franchise over the last few years if they put the kibosh on any kind of development-related spending to make the pre-transfer audit go that much faster. I doubt that Warner will actually buy Robotech from Harmony Gold though... or even show interest in doing so. If they thought Robotech was going to be a big earner, they would be talking to first-tier directors, not Sylvain White.

Meh, I bet HG, Yun and Co., will eventually blame their lack of progress on Macek's untimely death.

Oh, now THAT would just be public relations suicide... even the die-hards would poo out a kidney in sheer rage if they did that. Even I would find that extremely sleazy and offensive.

Just an observation i had last night I was thinking where robotech will even go in the future, If they have established thus far that Mospeada tech is the peak, then wouldnt robotech be just a continuation of the Mospeada universe and de-tach itself from macross. you could almost say robotech shadow chronicles is a Mospeada movie.

's why one of the derisive nicknames I address RTSC by is Mospeada II: the Search for More Money. It picks up right where Mospeada left off, but the budget's half-assed, quality control is nonexistent, and the dialogue's like something cut and pasted from a bad Star Trek-Robotech crossover fiction.

Thats basically the only way forward for HG. It can't do anything with Macross due to the licensing issues, and it only really has Mospeada to fall back on (No one liked Cavalry).

Essentially, yes... but that doesn't mean they couldn't try to introduce something new apart from the uglier redesigned uniforms and the spandex underoos everybody wears. True, they can't do anything with Macross because of licensing issues, but that hasn't stopped them from trying to Macross-ize Mospeada by giving the AFC-01 Legioss (Alpha) a set of super parts similar to those of the VF-1, and dragging in all kinds of other small, non-infringing references to Macross.

There's no denying that Robotech fans largely hate the Masters Saga/Southern Cross, but there may also be a licensing issue there since that too is a Big West-funded series.

[azrael]

There's no denying that Robotech fans largely hate the Masters Saga/Southern Cross, but there may also be a licensing issue there since that too is a Big West-funded series.

Doubtful. I don't recall any rights issue involving Southern Cross. Big West's involvement with merchandise would have only lasted 10 years under an exclusive agreement, after which, the rights revert back to Tatsunoko. I don't recall Tatsunoko asking Big West for help in making that show so Southern Cross won't be a problem.

[BeyondTheGrave]

on Macek's untimely death:

On HG trying to capitalize upon it:

[Bri]

's why one of the derisive nicknames I address RTSC by is Mospeada II: the Search for More Money. It picks up right where Mospeada left off, but the budget's half-assed, quality control is nonexistent, and the dialogue's like something cut and pasted from a bad Star Trek-Robotech crossover fiction.

This makes me wonder why Tatsunoko never went for a true sequel to Mospeada. It's foreign licensing would have been guaranteed with HG for RT and Mospeada has it's own small fanbase.

As for Macek, way before his time and my sympathies to his family. He was a pioneer in introducing audiences to anime and localizing content. A shame he let his pride get in the way of admitting that his methods did not stand the test of time, nor truly crediting the works of others he used.

[Ginrai]

's why one of the derisive nicknames I address RTSC by is Mospeada II: the Search for More Money. It picks up right where Mospeada left off, but the budget's half-assed, quality control is nonexistent, and the dialogue's like something cut and pasted from a bad Star Trek-Robotech crossover fiction.

Wow, you're right. Now that you mention it, that DOES sound like Mospeada. Mospeada DID have a half-assed budget with weak, inconsistent animation and poor dialogue. The entire series was animated by AnimeFriend and it doesn't look so hot even for the '80s.

[Seto Kaiba]

This makes me wonder why Tatsunoko never went for a true sequel to Mospeada. It's foreign licensing would have been guaranteed with HG for RT and Mospeada has it's own small fanbase.

Odds are they decided not to go with it for the same reason they only produced a single wrap-up OVA... despite the small but loyal fanbase the original Mospeada had, the merchandise just didn't sell. Robotech's New Generation saga suffered almost exactly the same fate. Among Robotech fans, it's a distant second to Macross, with a small but loyal following, and merchandise that just doesn't sell. Look at the Robotech.com store... the Macross Saga MPCs sold out frighteningly fast, while some of the Alphas have been in the store for YEARS without selling out.

Wow, you're right. Now that you mention it, that DOES sound like Mospeada. Mospeada DID have a half-assed budget with weak, inconsistent animation and poor dialogue. The entire series was animated by AnimeFriend and it doesn't look so hot even for the '80s.

Okay... lol. I was trying to be kind to Mospeada, since even it compares favorably to Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles.

[VF5SS]

Mospeada is just another unfortunate disposable title from the early 80's real robot boom. It almost died when IMAI took a huge hit in the 80's.

Now it's just another relic caught between two markets.

Also according to rumor, Big West and Tatsunoko were still fighting over Southern Cross. This is when Banpresto was looking to use it in a SRW game and couldn't figure out the rights. Bandai was a sponsor at some point.

[taksraven]

I just got banned from robotech.com, YAY!!

It was worth it though.

Taksaven.

[HappyPenguins]

I just got banned from robotech.com, YAY!!

It was worth it though.

Taksaven.

What did you say now?

[taksraven]

What did you say now?

All I did was post a Top Ten list of things that Carl Macek whispered before he died.

Taksraven

[Seto Kaiba]

Mospeada is just another unfortunate disposable title from the early 80's real robot boom. It almost died when IMAI took a huge hit in the 80's.

Eh... to be fair, Genesis Climber Mospeada probably would've been a much more interesting show if they hadn't fallen victim to executive meddling at the behest of their toy partner and put more emphasis on transforming fighter jets.

What did you say now?

Fear not... I have preserved taksraven's epic trollage for posterity.

http://www.macross2.net/temp/ForTheLulz.png

[taksraven]

Fear not... I have preserved taksraven's epic trollage for posterity.

http://www.macross2.net/temp/ForTheLulz.png

A million thanks for that.

My alternate number 1 was "But I don't want any pineapple salad"

Its harsh and I know that I am a bloody hypocrite, but it popped into my head this morning and it wrote itself.

Sorry to anybody here that is really offended.

Taksraven

[HappyPenguins]

All I did was post a Top Ten list of things that Carl Macek whispered before he died.

Taksraven

come on now, I can understand if you didn't like the man, but come on he just died

you don't have to like him, just show some respect.

[anime52k8]

Fear not... I have preserved taksraven's epic trollage for posterity.

http://www.macross2.net/temp/ForTheLulz.png

good one.

[taksraven]

come on now, I can understand if you didn't like the man, but come on he just died

you don't have to like him, just show some respect.

I showed respect by not putting the material straight into the Macek tribute thread that the RT website was running. I don't want to dwell on this forever because the mods here only have so much patience, I apologise to Maceks widow and family (like they would be reading this) and anybody else who was offended.

And thats it, if you want to talk about it more, PM me.

Taksraven

[Seto Kaiba]

A million thanks for that.

My alternate number 1 was "But I don't want any pineapple salad"

You definitely should have gone with "But I don't want any pineapple salad" for your original #1. It would have been funnier. I'm sure some people found it offensive, but these days it's a virtual guarantee that if you're going to speak you'll offend someone... no matter what you say. Carl was a public figure, and as a public figure you're not exempt from parody, no matter what your circumstances are. I thought it was a spectacular dig at Harmony Gold as a whole, their endorsement of fanatical hate in the Robotech fanbase, and Carl's own refusal to admit that the practices which created Robotech didn't stand the test of time.

come on now, I can understand if you didn't like the man, but come on he just died

you don't have to like him, just show some respect.

To be fair... considering the things you've done in the name of antagonizing dougbendo, I think you've long since forfeited the right to complain about anyone else's off-color humor.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Seto Kaiba

[Aladdin Sane]

come on now, I can understand if you didn't like the man, but come on he just died

you don't have to like him, just show some respect.

Too soon?

For what it's worth, I thought the list was amusing without being particularly disrespectful.

[HappyPenguins]

You definitely should have gone with "But I don't want any pineapple salad" for your original #1. It would have been funnier. I'm sure some people found it offensive, but these days it's a virtual guarantee that if you're going to speak you'll offend someone... no matter what you say. Carl was a public figure, and as a public figure you're not exempt from parody, no matter what your circumstances are. I thought it was a spectacular dig at Harmony Gold as a whole, their endorsement of fanatical hate in the Robotech fanbase, and Carl's own refusal to admit that the practices which created Robotech didn't stand the test of time.

To be fair... considering the things you've done in the name of antagonizing dougbendo, I think you've long since forfeited the right to complain about anyone else's off-color humor.

while you do make a point, there is a difference here.. dougbendo is a horrible person that has done nothing good and all he does is trash talk people and make threats. Carl Macek was a respected figure in the RT fandom and a good man, even if you may not care for him. Thing is you shouldnt compare bendo to macek

[azrael]

Mod Mode:

I guess you numb nuts need to be told to shut up cuz none of you seem to take a hint. Attack the man's work all you want but seriously, but as a person, leave the dead guy alone. If I hear one more tasteless comment out of any of you, I'm just gonna drop a ban hammer.

[Duke Togo]

This will probably get me yelled at, but some of the poison I've see spewed in this thread over the past several months really makes me question the purpose of this thread. And then this BS when a man has just died? All because of a cartoon? Some of you need to grow the hell up or go someplace else.