The Newbie and Short Questions thread

[jvmacross]

1 hour ago, Invid99 said:

LOL 

Yeah...more evidence that there is a Zentradi for every size required to further the plot.....

 

[JB0]

4 hours ago, Special Sauce said:

So I've only been able to see the original Macross movie, some of the robotech tv series and Macross Plus.  I've seen none of the others but want to.  What are my options, if any? Any streaming platforms that have them?

Thus far, legal options for Macross outside of Japan have been non-existent due to near-legendary licensing issues.

Though the situation is supposed to be changing, right now the only show with english streaming is the original SDF Macross television series, on Amazon.

[Invid99]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series had some issues when it came to accurately depicting the size of the Zentradi... no doubt in part due to the show's very limited budget and tight production schedule.  They were often animated as being as tall or nearly as tall as a Battroid when in reality the Battroid should be much taller than the average for a Zentradi at 12.68m.

It's also worth noting that there's a pretty significant disparity in average height among Zentradi based on their actual rank/role by design.

Your average Zentradi soldier is between 9m (29.5ft) and 10m (32.8ft) tall... five times the height of a tall man (5'11"-6'7" in scale).  There are also plenty of examples who are below the average height like Roli Dosel.

Command types are built bigger.  In human scale, Quamzin would be a whopping 2.37m (7'9"!).  Vrlitwhai would be a whopping 270.8cm (8'11"!).  Boddole Zer was even taller than they are.

The Protoculture didn't really give a damn about making their mecha ergonomically sound, so you can safely assume some uncomfortable bending is involved.

I feel like DYRL, the size were a bit more accurate for the Zentradi soldiers? In this shoot where Roy is captured, we can clearly see the Battleroid is a head larger than the standard Zentradi grunt

[Special Sauce]

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

Thus far, legal options for Macross outside of Japan have been non-existent due to near-legendary licensing issues.

Though the situation is supposed to be changing, right now the only show with english streaming is the original SDF Macross television series, on Amazon.

I see.  Well hopefully with the new agreement that will change.  Thanks for the info

[twich]

For some reason, they don’t appear to be available to stream on Amazon, neither is Robotech.  Don’t know if it was a temp glitch or something new.

[Special Sauce]

9 minutes ago, twich said:

For some reason, they don’t appear to be available to stream on Amazon, neither is Robotech.  Don’t know if it was a temp glitch or something new.

I feel like it's been made as difficult as possible to be able to get anything from this franchise.  Toys, movies, tv series etc.  All because of the stupid legal nonsense.  I don't think I've ever been into something that was made so difficult to try and enjoy.  I'm still sticking with it, just wish it was easier.

Edited April 21, 2021 by Special Sauce

[Seto Kaiba]

34 minutes ago, twich said:

For some reason, they don’t appear to be available to stream on Amazon, neither is Robotech.  Don’t know if it was a temp glitch or something new.

That, in all likelihood, has to do with Harmony Gold's problematic attempt to migrate its streaming licenses to Funimation back in 2019.

Harmony Gold has moved its portfolio of anime properties between streaming services a surprising number of times in the last ten years, likely due to Robotech's poor performance on streaming services in general as an old property that hadn't had any new material in ages.  Their most recent attempt to change licensees back to Funimation ran into issues when HG's intermediary - Kew Media Group - abruptly declared bankruptcy, liquidated its assets, and went out of business just a few months after the deal was closed.¹

Due to the bankruptcy leaving a lot of KMG's licenses invalid or in limbo, that likely disrupted Funimation's plans to add Robotech and its component shows to their library as well as any other streaming services that hosted that content via KMG.

 

25 minutes ago, Special Sauce said:

I feel like it's been made as difficult as possible to be able to get anything from this franchise.  Toys, movies, tv series etc.  All because of the stupid legal nonsense.  I don't think I've ever been into something that was made so difficult to try and enjoy.  I'm still sticking with it, just wish it was easier.

Oh, yes... it has been.  Deliberately so, in fact.

That was Harmony Gold's whole plan to "protect" Robotech... they leveraged trademark law and Big West's apathy when it came to the global market to effectively block anyone from licensing of distributing Macross titles outside of Japan.  Big West only finally started to do something about that back in 2016, and the dam finally broke this past March.

 

1. Barely a month after closing the deal to have Funimation distribute Robotech, Kew Media Group notified its investors that its CFO had made inaccurate disclosures regarding the company's working capital.  There were reports made to the media of significant internal accounting irregularities, including covering up losses by borrowing money intended for payment of royalties from their distribution arm.  When the news broke, the company swiftly defaulted on a $100 million credit line extended by three different banks, ended up in bankruptcy, and had its assets liquidated.  That left many of its contracts invalid or in limbo.

[twich]

The funny thing is on Amazon Prime, because I just checked, is that Macross II The Movie is available to rent, but the collection of OVA episodes is not, but listing for Macross Plus also have showed up with “video unavailable”, this has shown up recently, as I checked when the story of Big West and Harmony G working together broke, and it wasn’t even listed, as far as I could tell. Maybe it is a holding pattern awaiting some announcement.

[Special Sauce]

36 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That, in all likelihood, has to do with Harmony Gold's problematic attempt to migrate its streaming licenses to Funimation back in 2019.

Harmony Gold has moved its portfolio of anime properties between streaming services a surprising number of times in the last ten years, likely due to Robotech's poor performance on streaming services in general as an old property that hadn't had any new material in ages.  Their most recent attempt to change licensees back to Funimation ran into issues when HG's intermediary - Kew Media Group - abruptly declared bankruptcy, liquidated its assets, and went out of business just a few months after the deal was closed.¹

Due to the bankruptcy leaving a lot of KMG's licenses invalid or in limbo, that likely disrupted Funimation's plans to add Robotech and its component shows to their library as well as any other streaming services that hosted that content via KMG.

 

Oh, yes... it has been.  Deliberately so, in fact.

That was Harmony Gold's whole plan to "protect" Robotech... they leveraged trademark law and Big West's apathy when it came to the global market to effectively block anyone from licensing of distributing Macross titles outside of Japan.  Big West only finally started to do something about that back in 2016, and the dam finally broke this past March.

 

1. Barely a month after closing the deal to have Funimation distribute Robotech, Kew Media Group notified its investors that its CFO had made inaccurate disclosures regarding the company's working capital.  There were reports made to the media of significant internal accounting irregularities, including covering up losses by borrowing money intended for payment of royalties from their distribution arm.  When the news broke, the company swiftly defaulted on a $100 million credit line extended by three different banks, ended up in bankruptcy, and had its assets liquidated.  That left many of its contracts invalid or in limbo.

It's surprising Harmony Gold hasn't gone into bankruptcy.  How do they even make any money?  The only thing they have worth anything is Macross and they don't seem to be doing much with it anyway.

[azrael]

REMINDER: This is not a thread for discussing legal issues in detail. We have gone into length about that issue elsewhere.

2 hours ago, twich said:

The funny thing is on Amazon Prime, because I just checked, is that Macross II The Movie is available to rent, but the collection of OVA episodes is not, but listing for Macross Plus also have showed up with “video unavailable”, this has shown up recently, as I checked when the story of Big West and Harmony G working together broke, and it wasn’t even listed, as far as I could tell. Maybe it is a holding pattern awaiting some announcement.

The funny thing with streaming services is videos go up and down every month thanks to the way shows and movies are distributed on those platforms. I sure there are removal dates entered in when those videos are posted to the streaming service and that may be why Macross Plus is no longer available. Simply put, its distribution period is over and no longer available on that platform. It likely had nothing to do with any legal issue. Just that the removal date came up and poof; no longer available. Streaming services are not obligated to tell us when media is no longer available on their platform. And since everyone and their mother, grandmother, uncle, 4th cousin,etc. are putting out streaming services, don't be shock if they show up on some other platform in a few months.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, Special Sauce said:

It's surprising Harmony Gold hasn't gone into bankruptcy.  How do they even make any money? 

Their primary business is a moderately successful rental property management operation that manages eleven apartment complexes in the greater Los Angeles area.

[aurance]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Their primary business is a moderately successful rental property management operation that manages eleven apartment complexes in the greater Los Angeles area.

That is incredibly bizarre!

[JB0]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

1. Barely a month after closing the deal to have Funimation distribute Robotech, Kew Media Group notified its investors that its CFO had made inaccurate disclosures regarding the company's working capital.  There were reports made to the media of significant internal accounting irregularities, including covering up losses by borrowing money intended for payment of royalties from their distribution arm.  When the news broke, the company swiftly defaulted on a $100 million credit line extended by three different banks, ended up in bankruptcy, and had its assets liquidated.  That left many of its contracts invalid or in limbo.

That's just about right for an HG "business partner".

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, aurance said:

That is incredibly bizarre!

When companies start side businesses, the results can sometimes be rather odd.  Among the historical side businesses of my last couple of employers are things like soy-based plastics, biofuels, charcoal briquettes, glassmaking, aircraft manufacture, ballistic missile parts, radar systems, spacecraft, and museum management.  If those side projects take off you eventually end up with a conglomerate like Daewoo that does everything from make electronics to cars to guns to fabric to managing hotel franchises and container ship fleets.

(This is how we ended up with companies like SMS and Xaos in Macross... a successful company founded a side business to take advantage of an emerging market and the next thing you know Space UPS has a private army and Space AOL is managing idol groups.)

For an L.A.-based company to try to break into television is more cliche than bizarre.

[Podtastic]

On 4/19/2021 at 8:39 PM, no3Ljm said:

Various comparison chart you can find online and thru Macross Mecha Manual:

Hope it helps.

 

These size comparison charts are laughable. I just ignore them.

It makes perfect sense for a Zentraedi Soldier to be the same height as a Battroid, if the Battroids were designed for infantry actions against them. 

It does not make any sense for a Battroid to be able to squeeze into a savagely nerfed Zentraedi's uniform. Nor does it make any sense for a Zentraedi soldier to be a larger size when wearing a duty uniform, and a smaller size when wearing armour.

Nowhere in the show do we see Britai or Kamzin towering over soldiers to this absolutely ludicrous extent. If the animation is often in error, then it is a blessing, because it makes more sense and sure as hell looks better.

 

[JB0]

6 hours ago, Podtastic said:

It does not make any sense for a Battroid to be able to squeeze into a savagely nerfed Zentraedi's uniform.

Really, it doesn't make sense for ANY size zentradi uniform to fit them in any reasonable way. I love that sequence, but try very hard not to consider what's going on there.

[Special Sauce]

13 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Their primary business is a moderately successful rental property management operation that manages eleven apartment complexes in the greater Los Angeles area.

Wow, that's a departure from the entertainment industry.  I'm just glad they finally have an agreement in place.  It'll be interesting to see what HG does with it now.  

[Invid99]

We didn't see the Nousjadeul-ger suits in SDFM that much compared to DYRL?. So does that mean in the tv-show, it wasn't mass-produced, and only used for special missions? While in DYRL?, they were just a standard suit/mecha like the Regult pods? 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Invid99 said:

We didn't see the Nousjadeul-ger suits in SDFM that much compared to DYRL?. So does that mean in the tv-show, it wasn't mass-produced, and only used for special missions? While in DYRL?, they were just a standard suit/mecha like the Regult pods? 

Nah, the Nousjadeul-Ger battle suit is a mass-produced mecha in the Zentradi forces in either version of the story.

From the dates on the art, the Nousjadeul-Ger may have been so late to appear in the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series because its design wasn't completed until the series had been on the air for several months.

[Invid99]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nah, the Nousjadeul-Ger battle suit is a mass-produced mecha in the Zentradi forces in either version of the story.

From the dates on the art, the Nousjadeul-Ger may have been so late to appear in the Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series because its design wasn't completed until the series had been on the air for several months.

Ah I see thanks. Btw, a bit off-topic, but could you see the standard Zentradi space suit being upgraded as a medium-armored exosuit? Like a light-weight counterpart to the Nousjadeul-ger? Always felt they look like they already wore a exosuit some sort. 

 

Edited April 25, 2021 by Invid99

[JB0]

34 minutes ago, Invid99 said:

Ah I see thanks. Btw, a bit off-topic, but could you see the standard Zentradi space suit being upgraded as a medium-armored exosuit? Like a light-weight counterpart to the Nousjadeul-ger? Always felt they look like they already wore a exosuit some sort. 

 

I can't say I see much room for fuel, rocket engines, actuators, or reactors in there with the armor being so full of meat. That's an armored space suit, with little room left to be more.

If you "upgrade" that to a power suit by adding fuel tanks and actuators and a power source to turn it into a powered suit, you get the Aliens power loader with this guy as the operator. Enclose the "cockpit" on the power loader, and you basically have a Nousjadeul-Ger again.

...

I have longstanding questions about the heels on those boots, but that's unrelated.

[sketchley]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

I have longstanding questions about the heels on those boots, but that's unrelated.

Well, they fit into the leg controls on the Regult... kind of like the high heels European men used to wear to help with horseback riding*.

* "why did men stop wearing high heels?" - https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21151350

[Invid99]

1 hour ago, JB0 said:

I can't say I see much room for fuel, rocket engines, actuators, or reactors in there with the armor being so full of meat. That's an armored space suit, with little room left to be more.

If you "upgrade" that to a power suit by adding fuel tanks and actuators and a power source to turn it into a powered suit, you get the Aliens power loader with this guy as the operator. Enclose the "cockpit" on the power loader, and you basically have a Nousjadeul-Ger again.

True he would look like a Nousjadeul-ger, but more lightweight for shorter distance. Add on exosuit technology on the already armor. 

[JB0]

29 minutes ago, sketchley said:

Well, they fit into the leg controls on the Regult... kind of like the high heels European men used to wear to help with horseback riding*.

* "why did men stop wearing high heels?" - https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21151350

Oh!

I'd only been thinking about it from the "looks hard to walk on" angle. But from the machine interface angle, it makes a huge amount of sense. Thank you!

 

 

19 minutes ago, Invid99 said:

True he would look like a Nousjadeul-ger, but more lightweight for shorter distance. Add on exosuit technology on the already armor. 

I don't mean it would look like one. I mean it IS one, just one without the outer skin. Why stop at 95%?

Armor won't make it that much heavier, because overtechnology armor materials are incredibly durable for their weight. And the mechanisms of the machine need protection anyways. If nothing else, shrapnel from other exploded mechs needs to not sever fuel lines and shatter spacesuit face plates.

(Also, a lighter machine would get MORE range for the same amount of fuel, all other things being equal.)

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, Invid99 said:

Ah I see thanks. Btw, a bit off-topic, but could you see the standard Zentradi space suit being upgraded as a medium-armored exosuit? Like a light-weight counterpart to the Nousjadeul-ger? Always felt they look like they already wore a exosuit some sort. 

That's not the standard Zentradi spacesuit... this is:

That's the general duty Zentradi space suit, variants of which were used in almost every battlefield role including being worn by spacecraft crews.

This is a heavier armored spacesuit meant for hand-to-hand combat issued to the armored divisions.  A lightweight variant of it was occasionally used as a pilot suit.

Neither the standard-issue spacesuit nor the armored spacesuit is, in its standard configuration, equipped with flight capability or a powered motion assist.

 

A variant of the armored spacesuit that appeared in the official setting PS3 game Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy WAS presented as a flight-capable powered suit... but it wasn't exactly great in actual combat.  (It's basically the weakest enemy unit in the game by a substantial margin, and understandably so as it's basically just an ordinary infantry spacesuit that some idiot put rocket boots on.)

[Invid99]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

That's not the standard Zentradi spacesuit... this is:

That's the general duty Zentradi space suit, variants of which were used in almost every battlefield role including being worn by spacecraft crews.

This is a heavier armored spacesuit meant for hand-to-hand combat issued to the armored divisions.  A lightweight variant of it was occasionally used as a pilot suit.

Neither the standard-issue spacesuit nor the armored spacesuit is, in its standard configuration, equipped with flight capability or a powered motion assist.

 

A variant of the armored spacesuit that appeared in the official setting PS3 game Macross 30: Voices Across the Galaxy WAS presented as a flight-capable powered suit... but it wasn't exactly great in actual combat.  (It's basically the weakest enemy unit in the game by a substantial margin, and understandably so as it's basically just an ordinary infantry spacesuit that some idiot put rocket boots on.)

wow I didn't knew such a unit even existed. Thanks for the info. I personally liked it. 

[JB0]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

(It's basically the weakest enemy unit in the game by a substantial margin, and understandably so as it's basically just an ordinary infantry spacesuit that some idiot put rocket boots on.)

This is what happens when the zentradi watch The Rocketeer instead of pop idols?

[pengbuzz]

13 minutes ago, JB0 said:

This is what happens when the zentradi watch The Rocketeer instead of pop idols?

That, and when game developers (or anyone else) disregards the source material just to make "sumthing kewl"...

[sketchley]

58 minutes ago, JB0 said:

This is what happens when the zentradi watch The Rocketeer instead of pop idols?

Nah, they're just too into air-blade racing:

text translation: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/OTother/Macross7trashVol01.php

Macross 7 Trash pictures: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/Stats/Statistics/PowerSuitM7Trash/PowerSuitM7Trash.php

[Seto Kaiba]

4 hours ago, JB0 said:

This is what happens when the zentradi watch The Rocketeer instead of pop idols?

Or when some Zentradi decides to repurpose a suit made for extravehicular activity for combat...

[Biomaster]

Hello there, new Macross fan here. I'm coming up to Macross 7 on my overall journey through the franchise (loved SDF, DYRL, II and Plus) and I have a question about 7. I've heard that Macross 7 Encore are 3 episodes of the series that were witheld from airing, so could anyone say where do they actually fit chronology wise? Also, what about the 7 Plus shorts? Thanks in advance!

 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Biomaster said:

Hello there, new Macross fan here. I'm coming up to Macross 7 on my overall journey through the franchise (loved SDF, DYRL, II and Plus) and I have a question about 7. I've heard that Macross 7 Encore are 3 episodes of the series that were witheld from airing, so could anyone say where do they actually fit chronology wise?

Macross 7 Encore isn't explicitly placed in-continuity... fans have tabled a number of guesses based on circumstantial evidence from the episodes themselves, but there's no obvious fit for them.  Their stories are essentially out of continuity with the TV series proper so you can watch them after it with no real impact to your enjoyment of it.  

Bare minimum, they have to be set after episode 28 because of certain mechanical designs that are present which first appeared in episode 28 and also feature some mecha that were first used in episode 44 but obviously built beforehand.  Most fan assessments usually put them somewhere around episodes 39-42.  

 

1 hour ago, Biomaster said:

Also, what about the 7 Plus shorts? Thanks in advance!

They're... all over the place, and in no particular order.

About half of them are set before the series, showing little tidbits of backstory for characters like Ray, Veffidas, Gamlin, Gubaba, Gepernich, etc., while most of the rest aren't set at any particular/obvious time during the series.

[Biomaster]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Macross 7 Encore isn't explicitly placed in-continuity... fans have tabled a number of guesses based on circumstantial evidence from the episodes themselves, but there's no obvious fit for them.  Their stories are essentially out of continuity with the TV series proper so you can watch them after it with no real impact to your enjoyment of it.  

Bare minimum, they have to be set after episode 28 because of certain mechanical designs that are present which first appeared in episode 28 and also feature some mecha that were first used in episode 44 but obviously built beforehand.  Most fan assessments usually put them somewhere around episodes 39-42.  

 

They're... all over the place, and in no particular order.

About half of them are set before the series, showing little tidbits of backstory for characters like Ray, Veffidas, Gamlin, Gubaba, Gepernich, etc., while most of the rest aren't set at any particular/obvious time during the series.

That was very helpful! Thanks a lot again! 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Biomaster

[Zinjo]

On 4/21/2021 at 3:12 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Their primary business is a moderately successful rental property management operation that manages eleven apartment complexes in the greater Los Angeles area.

They also hold licenses on several live action imports that they distribute.  Before acquiring the rights for SDFM from Tatsunoko, they were/are an import distributor of licensed foreign works.  How many of the original licensing agreements they still have is an open question.

[Invid99]

Can somebody give me the official and right description of the Nousjadeul-ger tv version feet? Is it that large like this photo?

In this photo from episode 31 SDFM, it look smaller and more compact