The Newbie and Short Questions thread

[Master Dex]

Yeah, the joke is funny, but realistically the average lifespan for humanity must have gotten better. I mean genetic engineering is everywhere and we know Zentradi live longer so they could have reverse engineered how to apply that to humans as well. (Incidentally that is likely Millia's excuse in reply to the original question).

[Gatsu]

The reason that Max and Milia look young is kind of an in-joke on the part of the show's creators.

Namely, Max is a genius (or Jenius)... and growing old is a state of mind for normal men.

Ok so that is an hironic way to say that Macross7 subject is terrible. I sincerely don t have the courage to see an anime where a fighter's pilot fights using his songs...

Edited September 23, 2016 by Gatsu

[Seto Kaiba]

Yeah, the joke is funny, but realistically the average lifespan for humanity must have gotten better. I mean genetic engineering is everywhere and we know Zentradi live longer so they could have reverse engineered how to apply that to humans as well. (Incidentally that is likely Millia's excuse in reply to the original question).

It's been a while since last I saw Macross 7, but IIRC they say that a Zentradi is hardier than a human... not longer-lived. Milia had simply never caught a cold before and leapt to the illogical conclusion that she was dying, when all she had was the space equivalent of the common cold.

By 2067 they probably have started to get a handle on what the Zentradi average lifespan is... but in 2045 that was probably still unknown. We've seen several Zentradi still hale and hearty enough to go about their business in 2059 while still being First Space War veterans... but that doesn't mean they're necessarily longer-lived than the humans they're virtually identical to on a genetic level.

Ok so that is an hironic way to say that Macross7 subject is terrible. I sincerely don t have the courage to see an anime where a fighter's pilot fights using his songs...

Nah, Max and Milia are actually probably one of the best parts of that show.

The only real bad parts about Macross 7 are Basara's personality (he's an a-hole, no two ways about it), the repetitive use of the same handful of animated sequences in the combat, and the repetitive use of the same couple songs in the first half. (The budget wasn't huge.)

The rest is actually watchable.

[Master Dex]

Yeah I'm a Max fanboy and I pretty much watched the show originally for him. I happened to become a Fire Bomber (and Fukuyama in general) fan as a result of it.

I don't hate on Basara too much, I kind of like him... but Seto is also not wrong, he's kind of a dick and wants everyone to see things his way and won't view any situation objectively. I tend to admire characters that are generally disliked but have their reasons. Basara doesn't necessarily deserve to be vindicated as much as he is, but at the same time he also managed to succeed in his quest to get the enemy to listen through his music. You'd think this would go to his head but Basara seems to mellow out a bit after that and in Dynamite 7, while he is definitely still Basara, he seems somehow calmer to me (while still being dickishly pushy on his position and then proven right despite his attitude).

Then again, he also proceeds to steal borrow a VF at the end of that, lol. Not an easy character to defend, heheh.

[Kelsain]

It's been a while since last I saw Macross 7, but IIRC they say that a Zentradi is hardier than a human... not longer-lived. Milia had simply never caught a cold before and leapt to the illogical conclusion that she was dying, when all she had was the space equivalent of the common cold.

By 2067 they probably have started to get a handle on what the Zentradi average lifespan is... but in 2045 that was probably still unknown. We've seen several Zentradi still hale and hearty enough to go about their business in 2059 while still being First Space War veterans... but that doesn't mean they're necessarily longer-lived than the humans they're virtually identical to on a genetic level.

Is it just that the Zentradi aren't sure how long they live, because they usually die in battle? Or are they not sure of how the Zentradi body behaves in Miclone size?

I think I'm jumbling old RT information in my head - thinking that Bodolza, Vrlitwai & Exsedol have been alive for hundreds of years, and that Macro Zentradi are essentially ageless. If that were so, it would support both of the questions above.

Please correct me if there's canon information from official Macross continuity there. I was big into the Palladium RPG back in the day, can't read Japanese & my eyes honestly gloss over in the Mecha/Tech thread half the time. So I'm always suspect of whether any of my thoughts of the Macross history have bad Macek/Simbeida junk sneaking in.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Kelsain

[JB0]

Is it just that the Zentradi aren't sure how long they live, because they usually die in battle? Or are they not sure of how the Zentradi body behaves in Miclone size?

If I 'm not mistaken... it's a little of column A, little of column B.

For the most part, their hardware isn't exactly the most survivable of designs, so it is easy to die if you are one of the grunts on the front lines. Even an ace like Milia lived one piece of shrapnel away from death.

And there's very little data on long-term miclonizing, because why would anyone do that?

[Zinjo]

The reason that Max and Milia look young is kind of an in-joke on the part of the show's creators.

Namely, Max is a genius (or Jenius)... and growing old is a state of mind for normal men.

The Joke aside, it is speculated that humans living in space would remain younger looking and likely live longer since one of the chief aging catalysts on Earth is the radiation from our sun. Take that agent away and humanity could conceivably live for a very long time and look relatively youthful. The Zentradi are primarily a space faring species, so living for hundreds of years (if you are so lucky) would not be remarkable to them.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Zinjo

[Seto Kaiba]

Is it just that the Zentradi aren't sure how long they live, because they usually die in battle? Or are they not sure of how the Zentradi body behaves in Miclone size?

Mostly that first one.

I think I'm jumbling old RT information in my head - thinking that Bodolza, Vrlitwai & Exsedol have been alive for hundreds of years, and that Macro Zentradi are essentially ageless. If that were so, it would support both of the questions above.

Yeah, that's from The Show That Must Not Be Named... or, to be precise, the comic books that were produced for same. Those comics depicted some of the Zentradi characters as being quite old, hundreds or thousands of years old and effectively immortal barring combat injury.

Vrlitwhai wasn't exactly ancient in the original Macross series... IIRC he was 38.

[JB0]

The Joke aside, it is speculated that humans living in space would remain younger looking and likely live longer since one of the chief aging catalysts on Earth is the radiation from our sun. Take that agent away and humanity could conceivably live for a very long time and look relatively youthful. The Zentradi are primarily a space faring species, so living for hundreds of years (if you are so lucky) would not be remarkable to them.

Well... funny thing about the sun's radiation... we get LESS of it on Earth than we would in stellar space. The Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere do a really good job of sending most of that radiation somewhere other than our faces.

And it turns out radiation shielding is hard, and most of the things that do a good job(like lead and water) are also really heavy, which is why only a small part of the ISS has enough radiation shielding to safely ride out a solar flare inside it.

That said... overtechnology seems to have provided humanity with lightweight and durable radiation-opaque materials.

At least, one would hope so, given the big honkin' glass domes they put on their colony ships. If those aren't unusually good radiation blockers for visually-transparent materials, colony life is not very healthy.

[Seto Kaiba]

On the box art for the VF-19A of SVF-569 "Lightnings" is the carrier CV-339.

What is it? When is it, Where is it?

I think its an Uraga Class carrier BUT thats a starship, not waterborne.

I actually found the ship's name completely by accident a moment ago... CV-339 is identified in the back of This is Animation: Macross Plus as being the B.J. Gloval (sic.) (should be "Global"). The book has a VF-11C Super Thunderbolt from the SVF-41 Black Aces as the representative squadron from that ship.

[Sildani]

Amazing how often when, looking for one bit of information, you find another you were looking for earlier!

[JB0]

I actually found the ship's name completely by accident a moment ago... CV-339 is identified in the back of This is Animation: Macross Plus as being the B.J. Gloval (sic.) (should be "Global"). The book has a VF-11C Super Thunderbolt from the SVF-41 Black Aces as the representative squadron from that ship.

Oh no! Harmony Gold is gonna sue Big West for trademark theft now!

[Seto Kaiba]

Amazing how often when, looking for one bit of information, you find another you were looking for earlier!

I know, right? I've made some of my weirdest finds that way, like looking for the comment about the VF-2JA's vernier count and stumbling across a bore for the Strike Valkyrie's beam cannon.

Oh no! Harmony Gold is gonna sue Big West for trademark theft now!

Engrish can be a cruel mistress at times...

(But here's me wondering why the UN Forces were apparently so invested in the idea of having ties to the Navy's Black Aces that they founded a Spacy equivalent squadron TWICE... once in the years leading up to the First Space War, and again after they copped it in said war along with the ARMD Ranger.)

[Scream Man]

(Mind you, we see this taken up to 11 with Macross Frontier's Island-1, which, in the movies, is shown to have three distinct layers of city, with the two "correctly" oriented ones separated by an upside-down city clinging to the underside of the top layer.)

I have never noticed that, and had no idea. Rewatched the first Frontier movie and, like you aid, you can see it when Ranka does her toy commercial. Thats super cool! Are there any other times we can see this, or is there a blueprint or design series anywhere?

[Seto Kaiba]

I have never noticed that, and had no idea. Rewatched the first Frontier movie and, like you aid, you can see it when Ranka does her toy commercial. Thats super cool! Are there any other times we can see this, or is there a blueprint or design series anywhere?

Yeah, it was a neat touch... I mean, it's a lot easier to fit 5 million people into a space roughly the size of downtown San Francisco if you have two equally large areas of highrises underneath it.

I don't believe it's discussed in depth anywhere though.

[Scream Man]

So the only way we know it's a thing is because of that one scene?

[guyxxed]

I have to say, that's one thing that's always disappointed me about Frontier: the lack of support material for the world. SDFM and DYRL both had extensive concept art published for pretty much every aspect of the productions (I grinned like a fool when I came across the sketches of the UN Spacy coffee mugs in Macross: Perfect Memory). I've seen some artwork for the environmental designs in Frontier, but mostly as tiny little border images in publications that focused mainly on character designs. I get it, that's what's popular from Frontier, but as a concept art fanboy, it's always been disappointing to me. I've seen more setting art for Delta than I have from Frontier, and Frontier's got some really cool stuff in it with some obviously extensive thought put into it that I'd love to explore more deeply. The whole design of Island 1 is fascinating to me. I'd love to have a Perfect Memory style book for Frontier, or something like the Earth and Garmillas books from Yamato 2199.

...and as long as I'm wishing, I'd like a pony, too.

[Seto Kaiba]

So the only way we know it's a thing is because of that one scene?

More or less, yeah... there's some concept art for it in one of the art books, but not much.

[sketchley]

More or less, yeah... there's some concept art for it in one of the art books, but not much.

There's also written stuff on it... somewhere. I can't name it right now, but I remember being surprised because it was about the TV series version, not the movie version (probably Macross Chronicle... re: Deep Akiba or Akihabara).

[Aries Turner]

Rewatched the first Frontier movie and, like you aid, you can see it when Ranka does her toy commercial. Thats super cool! Are there any other times we can see this, or is there a blueprint or design series anywhere?

Mind you, that doesn't mean there are people upside down there, as in different layers of artificial gravity, possible but more complex than a single one. Those look more as floor -1 to -30 of the upper city, the lower floors having a nice view of the lower city. That being said, it doesn't make a lot of sense if you could just make the skyscrappers go all way down to the lower layers. Then again, it follows closely the shape of hypothetical floating island city designs of the 90s, somewhat close to this one but completely square. In those designs, however, each 'floor' was 5-10 stories tall, with buildings that didn't reach the 'ceiling'.

P.S.: There is a scene in DYRL that really looked as different layers of gravity, with cars running over the 'ceiling'. Have to watch that again to confirm.

Edited October 1, 2016 by Aries Turner

[mickyg]

I was looking at the pictures Jvmacross posted up just recently of the Macross Captains. Lovely renditions by Tenjin-san!

However, this image of Captain Wilder got me wondering:

Anyone know what the thing on Captain Wilder's collar is? It looks like some sort of goggles or case for something. But I know that's silly and can't possibly be right. So is it ever explained?

[Saruta]

Where can I find VF sizes? I am specifically interested in the VF-171 (might be commissioning an art that has the Battroid and some humans).

[Seto Kaiba]

Where can I find VF sizes? I am specifically interested in the VF-171 (might be commissioning an art that has the Battroid and some humans).

*coughs and points to the link to M3 in his signature*

[Andras]

In the VF-4 VFMF, are there any indications as the the performance of the AMM-3 Flechette missile and how it compares to the AMM-1?

[Master Dex]

I was looking at the pictures Jvmacross posted up just recently of the Macross Captains. Lovely renditions by Tenjin-san!

However, this image of Captain Wilder got me wondering:

Anyone know what the thing on Captain Wilder's collar is? It looks like some sort of goggles or case for something. But I know that's silly and can't possibly be right. So is it ever explained?

It might be though, we know he is an avid surfer.

[Gatsu]

The Joke aside, it is speculated that humans living in space would remain younger looking and likely live longer since one of the chief aging catalysts on Earth is the radiation from our sun. Take that agent away and humanity could conceivably live for a very long time and look relatively youthful. The Zentradi are primarily a space faring species, so living for hundreds of years (if you are so lucky) would not be remarkable to them.

It would be quite the opposite... sun radiation is essential in the right amount for human's health as the body needs it to produce vitamin D. The bad part of sun radiation should be blocked by earth's atmosphere, at least in a healthy planet. So, assuming in Macross spaceships they have the correct amount of gravity (without whom there would be a terrible decay in physical health), all that living in artificial light environments would instead reduce their life span and health.

Also in Macross Frontier you can see a photograph of Dr Mao Nome wich looks about 60 years old coerently with macross dates if you consider that in Macross 0 she is about 15 years old. So, why does Mao Nome get old like all normal human beings and Max doesn't?

I'm also thinking about another thing.... how the hell should be supposed to be the VF-0 hip's articulation and mechanisms??? i mean basing on Kawamori's drawings and hasegawa kits, not on Arcadia models.

Edited October 6, 2016 by Gatsu

[JB0]

It is actually possible NOW to make artificial lighting with broad-spectrum light and the needed UV components, actually. Especially if you want huge amounts of light. In fact, some modern light technologies require filters because they put out too MUCH UV.

So that isn't really a problem, as it is one solvable without the benefit of overtechnology. Though I imagine that overtech makes it easier to do at much lower power levels, and to get the brightness levels needed to simulate a citywide "sun". They may cheat with a more diffuse light source plus the hologram of a sun in the sky to trick the brain into filling in the gaps, but highly directional lighting is still preferable to get shadow behaviors consistent with natural lighting.

[Gatsu]

It is actually possible NOW to make artificial lighting with broad-spectrum light and the needed UV components, actually. Especially if you want huge amounts of light. In fact, some modern light technologies require filters because they put out too MUCH UV.

So that isn't really a problem, as it is one solvable without the benefit of overtechnology. Though I imagine that overtech makes it easier to do at much lower power levels, and to get the brightness levels needed to simulate a citywide "sun". They may cheat with a more diffuse light source plus the hologram of a sun in the sky to trick the brain into filling in the gaps, but highly directional lighting is still preferable to get shadow behaviors consistent with natural lighting.

Yes i now about artificial sun light but the point is that there is not reason for me to think that living in space would increase humans lifespan. Also the photo of Mao Nome demonstrates that humans in Macross series do get old like normal human beings.

[Zinjo]

(But here's me wondering why the UN Forces were apparently so invested in the idea of having ties to the Navy's Black Aces that they founded a Spacy equivalent squadron TWICE... once in the years leading up to the First Space War, and again after they copped it in said war along with the ARMD Ranger.)

I would suspect because the US Navy is the most recognizable being the largest.

However, I would like to see squadrons from other nations also memorialized in UNS or NUNS squadron names as a return to the international nature SDFM was supposed to be.

Though not many nations have flashy squadron names like the US. The French name their De Gaulle squadrions alpha numerically, which is not nearly has fun or flashy as the US Navy.

[Seto Kaiba]

I would suspect because the US Navy is the most recognizable being the largest.

However, I would like to see squadrons from other nations also memorialized in UNS or NUNS squadron names as a return to the international nature SDFM was supposed to be.

Yeah, there is a pretty obvious American bias in the (New) UN Forces.

They did throw the other key nations of the UN Government a bone when they were deciding on names for the first fourteen ARMD-class ships though. Around half had American Navy reference names, but you also had the Invincible, Clemenceau, Akagi, Minsk, Haruna, and Kiev. (Two were named for the first two prime ministers of the UN Government, leaving six ARMD-class ships with American names.)

[duckbomb04]

I haven't kept up on Macross since Zero came out in... 2004? What's a good series to jump back into things with - Frontier, Delta, or other?

[Nazareno2012]

I haven't kept up on Macross since Zero came out in... 2004? What's a good series to jump back into things with - Frontier, Delta, or other?

I suggest Frontier (TV series and movies), as you might get disappointed with Delta

[frothymug]

I was looking at the pictures Jvmacross posted up just recently of the Macross Captains. Lovely renditions by Tenjin-san!

However, this image of Captain Wilder got me wondering:

*snip*

Anyone know what the thing on Captain Wilder's collar is? It looks like some sort of goggles or case for something. But I know that's silly and can't possibly be right. So is it ever explained?

Pretty sure he used to be a pilot. These may have been used back in his day.

[mickyg]

So they are actually supposed to be goggles? How crazy!

[Seto Kaiba]

Pretty sure he used to be a pilot. These may have been used back in his day.

Yep, he was a New UN Forces VF pilot before he joined SMS.