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Posted (edited)

I had been putting off doing a Rewatch because I wanted to do it properly... For a while now, anytime I rewatch a series, I keep track of it on Facebook, putting up a picture and writing a little blurb. I realized that that wouldn't fly for Macross, and doing a real job on it was a pretty daunting task to consider... But I finally went ahead and started.

My goal is to do something akin to Captain JLS's 365 Days of Robotech, or the episode commentary from ourstarblazers.com, but there's no way I can be quite THAT authoritative. Still, it's a start.

Part 1:

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/the-great-macross-rewatch-1/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/the-great-macross-rewatch-2/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/the-great-macross-rewatch-3/

Edited by Gubaba
Posted

They make good "liner notes." It's also great to get a catalogue of all the bits of background information spread throughout the Speaker Podcast, translations, etc.

Posted (edited)

Got to the end of the world in my rewatch.

Zentradi bombardment starts and there's several scenes of the world getting wrecked, including one of a flower shop and a little girl getting vaporized. Having seen that scene a bajillion times in the years since Robotech first aired when I was a wee laddie, I'm more or less unfazed by it.

One of the folks I'm watching it with is not particularly familiar with the show, and exclaimed "God DAMN!" when it happened. He was apparently expecting a more sanitized armageddon, as one tends to in these things. Not explicit examples of actual people being wiped from existence.

It's good to have a fresh pair of eyes to remind me about some of the things I take for granted. Like exactly how dark that is if you haven't seen it on and off pretty regularly ever since you were old enough to talk.

I'm also reminded I really like the post-war arc for the way it shorts out "they all lived happily ever after" and showcases the problems zentradi have integrating into human society.

We're only two episodes into it, so we've not yet gotten to the part where Minmay attempts to destroy Hikaru's life. But I've typed a good wall of text about THAT in the past, so it doesn't bear repeating.

We DID contemplate the cost of real estate in the post-apocalypse while watching Misa clean Hikaru's house, though(due to an accidental use of the word "apartment"). Figured it ought to be cheap since there's no shortage of available land. While traditional construction resources are in short supply, there's more metal than anyone could want just laying around and the Macross seems able to fabricate a good facsimile of more-conventional materials given how many times they rebuilt Macross City inside the ship. And thus, homeownership should be easily attainable and there's no reason for apartments to exist.

Edited by JB0
Posted

More accessible to the Japanese watching it at the time, perhaps? Or, Hikaru and Co. were used to apartments from before the fighting, and more than anything else wanted something normal and comforting.

By the way, what's the definitive way to watch this?

Posted

More accessible to the Japanese watching it at the time, perhaps? Or, Hikaru and Co. were used to apartments from before the fighting, and more than anything else wanted something normal and comforting.

Naw, it wasn't the show's word choice. They don't say what it is that I noticed.

We were talking about Misa's cleaning and I called it an apartment, then immediately corrected to house as his residence(though small) was an independent, freestanding building.

I suppose it's even entirely possible it's just really luxurious barracks. Like I said, there's no shortage of freely-available land in the area. You could make the barracks about as sprawling as you wanted.

I just... can't really figure out a scenario where rental properties make sense when there's so much land available.

And construction costs should be depressed from a surplus of zentradi laborers. I can't imagine a scenario where a large zentradi DOESN'T make construction cheaper.

Posted

Naw, it wasn't the show's word choice. They don't say what it is that I noticed.We were talking about Misa's cleaning and I called it an apartment, then immediately corrected to house as his residence(though small) was an independent, freestanding building.I suppose it's even entirely possible it's just really luxurious barracks. Like I said, there's no shortage of freely-available land in the area. You could make the barracks about as sprawling as you wanted.I just... can't really figure out a scenario where rental properties make sense when there's so much land available.And construction costs should be depressed from a surplus of zentradi laborers. I can't imagine a scenario where a large zentradi DOESN'T make construction cheaper.

You should read "The Lost Two Years"...

But, yeah... You're WAY ahead of where I am...

Posted

excellent initiative Gubaba. I'll go ahead and refresh too as you go along. One cannot rewatch Macross too many times.

Posted

Gubaba, just to let you know, I'm rewatching this as well. I might as well get them all in before Delta airs on a regular basis (not counting the rough 12/30 episode). What episode are you on, and how many episodes are you doing per day?

Posted

I just... can't really figure out a scenario where rental properties make sense when there's so much land available.

Maybe it has something to do with the ease of maintaining the property - you don't have to fix things yourself, you get your landlord to do it. (and throw in some stuff about someone keeping an eye on the place while the military are away on multi-day/week missions for good measure)

Posted

Gubaba, just to let you know, I'm rewatching this as well. I might as well get them all in before Delta airs on a regular basis (not counting the rough 12/30 episode). What episode are you on, and how many episodes are you doing per day?

The write-ups take a long time, so I'm moving somewhat slowly. I'm trying to do one per day to get a good head start on them, but my goal from posting the write-ups is one DVD per week. For the TV series, that means two episodes on Sunday, and two episodes on Wednesday. If I get far enough ahead, I'll increase it.

Lost Two Years is still on my reading list. I just haven't sat down to do any proper reading in a while.

Ah. Hikaru's pad is referred to as military-assigned barracks there. And yes, giant Zentradi do pretty much all construction work.

Posted

Maybe it has something to do with the ease of maintaining the property - you don't have to fix things yourself, you get your landlord to do it. (and throw in some stuff about someone keeping an eye on the place while the military are away on multi-day/week missions for good measure)

Excellent point. I was thinking too much about the base costs and not the human element.
Posted

Minmay's desire to be a bride always felt a bit out of character to me and does so even now. Of course, as someone who's never felt the sheer abandonment and solitude these 2 have in this episode, I might be being a bit hash on her.

Posted (edited)

Speaking of amicable partings. I'm quite displeased with Sony. Here I was hoping Harmony was on the verge of letting go their stranglehold on Macross (failed kickstarter), Sony has went and got the live action movie rights to Robbotech. If they make a successful movie may as well kiss Macross in America good bye for another half century.

Edited by Skull_Leader91
Posted

Wait, so Yot-chan bought Nyan-Nyan and made it into a worldwide franchise? what's the source for that?

I sort of assumed Kaifun did it, as he would inherit, whatever his relationship with his owner parents... But I have probably missed something.

Posted (edited)

Read it all so far (that's up to part 5/episode 4). For me, the part about Limm Minmay being prone to sudden changes of character was always part of the point. I think thye make it explicit in episode 5 that Hikaru was surprised with the change - but this is by no means the last change.

Perhaps I just like Minmay (as a character, and Macross version only) somewhat more than is common on this website. But I see her behaviour in Episode 4 as a good part of her character setup. And this "I wanna be a traditional girl" will come back, with a vengeance, in the last episodes. "I'm a strong girl and I want you to go into the army now" - to "now I am again a traditional girl and I want you by my side, to care for you, so you leave the army now" is pretty much the point of the Hikaru-Minmay arc, and Episode 4 sets it up rather well.

And yeah - thanks a lot :) the notes make me notice some things that I failed to catch in my "watches". They are very useful.

Edited by Saruta
Posted (edited)

Wait, so Yot-chan bought Nyan-Nyan and made it into a worldwide franchise? what's the source for that?

I sort of assumed Kaifun did it, as he would inherit, whatever his relationship with his owner parents... But I have probably missed something.

As far as I know, the first source is in the liner notes for the "Macross 7 Docking Festival" CD, but it's been repeated in Macross Chronicle as well.

Kaifun apparently ended up producing Fire Bomber American, for what it's worth.

post-939-0-70272700-1447993780.jpeg

Edited by Gubaba
Posted

And yeah - thanks a lot :) the notes make me notice some things that I failed to catch in my "watches". They are very useful.

You're welcome! But, err... Useful for what...?

Posted

You're welcome! But, err... Useful for what...?

For understanding and working out the details of the setting. (Commonly known as "fan wanking"). Also, for enjoying the parts I failed to notice because they were too fast!

Posted

For understanding and working out the details of the setting. (Commonly known as "fan wanking"). Also, for enjoying the parts I failed to notice because they were too fast!

You should give up your fanfic and come on to the research side!

Posted

You should give up your fanfic and come on to the research side!

Most of the time this is what I am doing anyway, because it always feels like there is not enough knowledge. Sadly, I'm limited in what I can learn without actually knowing any Japanese. So I always have to trail the tails of people who do understand Japanese. (That can make for fun aerobatics).

Posted

As far as I know, the first source is in the liner notes for the "Macross 7 Docking Festival" CD, but it's been repeated in Macross Chronicle as well.

Kaifun apparently ended up producing Fire Bomber American, for what it's worth.

attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

No wonder it hurts the crap out of my ears. That drunk. What was he thinking?

Posted

I had been putting off doing a Rewatch because I wanted to do it properly... For a while now, anytime I rewatch a series, I keep track of it on Facebook, putting up a picture and writing a little blurb. I realized that that wouldn't fly for Macross, and doing a real job on it was a pretty daunting task to consider... But I finally went ahead and started.

My goal is to do something akin to Captain JLS's 365 Days of Robotech, or the episode commentary from ourstarblazers.com, but there's no way I can be quite THAT authoritative. Still, it's a start.

Part 1:

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/the-great-macross-rewatch-1/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/the-great-macross-rewatch-2/

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/the-great-macross-rewatch-3/

I'm glad you have this up. I'm going to enjoy going over it again in the coming weeks with your notes and kibitzing. :)

Posted

Thanks, guys! And I'm sorry... I wish I could do them faster. I'm currently a little about ten episodes ahead of the posts. I'd like to get twelve episodes (three weeks) ahead just in case I get busy and need some cushion space. But it generally takes me a couple of hours (at least) to do the write-ups, so speeding through them isn't as easy as I was hoping it would be.

Anyway, here's Part 4:

Bye-Bye Mars

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/the-great-macross-rewatch-8-bye-bye-mars/

Longest Birthday

https://gubabablog.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/the-great-macross-rewatch-9-longest-birthday/

Posted

That's a wonderful bit of detective work you and Renato did finding out the source of that text in the transmission from Mars. An obscure British childrens book.

Posted

That's a wonderful bit of detective work you and Renato did finding out the source of that text in the transmission from Mars. An obscure British childrens book.

I brought the book with me to MW Con this year. Absolutely no one was impressed.

post-939-0-03966700-1448571640_thumb.jpeg

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