Macross Delta Preview Episode .089

I'm kicking off 2016 in a Super Decultcha way, watching the preview episode .089 for Macross Delta!
M: Delta takes place in the year 2067, only a few years after Frontier, there was a lot to take in this preview and the pace was relentless but I enjoyed it. For those new to Macross it might be a little overwhelming. I was happy they kept the galactic map that showed the courses of the immigration fleets across the galaxy that was seen in Macross Frontier!
I was actually surprised this episode introduced so many characters, we first meet Freyja Wion the young stowaway that dreams of competing on Planet Laguna to be the newest member of Walkure, an idol group that is dispatched along with the Delta Squadron to combat the Var Syndrome, a mysterious disease that destabilizes the victim and sets them into a violent homicidal rage (terrorism). I thought Freyja Wion was adorable and displayed many of the same naive tendencies that we've seen in the past with other young wanna be idols...Minmay, Mao Nome, Ranka Lee.

Then we meet Hayate Immelmann a laid back kid working on planet Al Shahal on the cargo docks, he hasn't found anything in life that truly excites him....yet.
Next we meet Mikumo Guynemer the lead vocalist of Walkure who appears to be undercover on a mission but is aware of Freyja, soon after we meet Second Lieutenant Mirage Farina Jenius! Hayate reminds me of Max and then Mirage has his last name.....interesting.
Then the Var outbreak strikes at a Zentradi base and all hell breaks loose at Al Shahal City and the Delata Squadron with their respective Walkure procede to neutralize the threat!
It was cool seeing the old school Regults in action after so many years, seeing the Walkure "transform" to "go live" was kinda silly in a Sailor Moon kinda way, not cool like Kill La Kill,  I hope they don't show this sequence every time they "transform".

After my second viewing I'm getting a Macross II vibe from certain aspects of Delta such as when we hear the dirge like hymn that causes the Var outbreak on Al Shahal on the Zentradi base. The long staircase with the throne at the top reminded me of where Ishtar sat in MII . And the Walkure remind me of the Minmay Attack from MII as well.
Seeing the Aerial Knights come out of fold was a relief, the Vajra were ok but I much prefer humanoid enemies over bugs, the dog fight between SV 262 Draken and the VF31 Siegfried was ok, but nothing extraordinary.
I tried to rationalize why the Aerial Knights hate the Walkure so much and the only illogical conclusion I could come up with was they hate rainbows and pop music groups (I can relate).
I do know the Aerial Knights are from the Kingdom of Windmere....and so is Freyja, that is gonna be a thorn in the Aerial Knights plans to vanquish the Walkure! Ahhh the drama!
I enjoyed the episode and look forward to future of the series and franchise as a whole.

Macross Delta Update: Live Stream 10/28

It's been awhile since I've anything worthwhile to report about the next Macross series since Frontier! I'm hyped to say come October 29th we will finally get some details on M Delta via a live stream, the winner of the idol contest, characters, the location and hopefully a teaser trailer.
Also there's a great article on Forbes ( yes that Forbes) about Macross and the upcoming new series...
Macross Delta on Forbes.com

Macross Delta Announced!

 So last week I decided to introduce my son to the wonderful world of anime, and I choose my favorite anime series of all time Super Dimensional Fortress Macross!
My wife says he's too young to appreciate it....she may be right but he's definitely fascinated by the Valkyries and the Macross...the whole love triangle appears to be lost on him. I find it funny that he realizes the Intro/Outro songs as well as Minmay's songs (Mari Iijima) are in Japanese but it doesn't bother him. (I think he would rather listen to Minmay than Anna and Elsa).











The night before last my son wanted to build robots with his little boy lego's and we ended building the Macross (it didn't take 10 years). Not half bad considering my limited supplies :)









































So today I paid a visit to macross world ....it's been awhile since I visited that site! I went there on the daily back in 08/09 when Macross Frontier was released.
I didn't expect to see news on a new series for at least a few more years but alas it appears the search is on for the next galactic idol!
Macross (Delta) circa 2067 chronologically  only 8 years after the events of Macross Frontier. Hopefully there will be updates before the end of the year!

And for the record Sarah Nome and Sharon Apple should be in the above poster also! 

DECULTCHA!!!

Knights of Sidonia

I just completed the first season of Knights of Sidonia based on the Manga written by Tsutomu Nihei.
The basic gist is the Earth was destroyed by an alien entity named Gauna thousands of years ago that can morph into what ever it consumes. The remnants of Humanity escape in giant ships that look like elongated pencil sharpeners, aboard the Sidonia, we see civilians and military exist within the confines of the Sidonia. The military use mecha called Gardes to defend the Sidonia against the Gauna. A young man named Nagate emerges from deep within the bowels of the ship and demonstrates superior piloting skills. He is immediately enlisted as a Garde pilot by Captain Kobayashi.
After reading Hideo Kojima's praise for KoS, I was intrigued. So I set aside a few hours and watched all 12 episodes.
The Knights of  Sidonia anime has a very sanitized look to it, not meaning everything in the anime has a pristine appearance but rather a minimal use of color. The closest comparison I can come up with would be the game Mirror's Edge. There's a heavy focus on achromatic color....grays, blacks, whites which lends a sense of realism to the show.
Unlike...
  
Funny thing is aside from the color pallet in Sidonia there are some similarities with Macross, episode 5 "Adrift" totally reminded me of Hikaru and Lynn Minmay's time together in the bowels of the Macross, and by the end I started getting the whole love triangle vibe between Nagate, Izana, and Yuhata....all Sidonia needed was a Miss Sidonia contest....

At first I was overwhelmed by all the different characters and had a difficult time keeping track of who was who but the show did a decent job fleshing out the characters in the short amount of episodes and killing off enough that by the end of episode 12 I knew who was who and how they related to each other.
I also enjoyed the fact that by the end I had many unanswered questions regarding the mysteries within Sidonia, the Gauna, the Immortals, Placental Shizuka, fortunately a second season will be coming that will hopefully expand on this intriguing story.
My all time favorite anime is Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, it balanced the drama and and action better than Star Wars IMO and Sidonia seems to be following the same formula. The battle scenes against the Guana are tense and the stakes are always high. I like that the Gauna aren't just cannon fodder and cast members are all yellow shirts.....I didn't expect Shizuna to die right after being rescued by Nagate, that definately created some believable drama between Nagate and the other characters in Sidonia. And that balance betwenn action and drama is what will set this anime above many others.
There's also some fresh ideas in this series such as gender less humans that will develop into either a male or female based on there attraction to a certain gender, human photosynthesis to aide in food shortages during loooooooooong distance space travel (and what trip in space isn't long? Also I'm not sure how effective photosynthesis is in outer space :/)
I enjoyed Knights of Sidonia it reminds me of SDFM and I think this series has potential. Check it out on Netflix!

Macross Frontier: Episode 1 Close Encounter, 2 Preview

The idol singer, Sheryl Nome of Macross Galaxy fleet comes for the Galactic Idol concert to the Macross Frontier fleet.

Sheryl Nome is the top idol who is consistently ranked at the top of the charts for the Milky Way network.
Ranka Lee is a huge fan of Sheryl Nome, and dreams to be like her some day. Ranka has a part-time job at the Chinese-style food restaurant Nyun Nyun and is a high school student aboard the Macross Frontier. Ranka has an older brother, Ozma, who leads the special SMS Corps . Ozuma pilots a VF-25 with the skull leader paint scheme with fast packs in the first episode. He scores a ticket for his younger sister Ranka so she can go to the concert but she gets lost trying to take a short cut and meets Alto Saotome, a senior at the same high school. Alto is in the pilot training course at school along with Michel Bran and Luka Angeloni. Alto's peers tease him constantly, calling him princess, and beautiful.

Meanwhile a VF-171 scout ship is destroyed by an unknown enemy as the Macross Frontier moves closer to the center of the galaxy. The Macross then launches a squadron of unmanned Ghosts (seen at the end of M+), the unknown enemy makes quick work of them by using a high range jamming device...I guess Isamu and Guld were justified when they crashed the armistice celebration.

The NUNS scrambles and launches a squadron of VF-171's which finds this unknown enemy more then they can handle soon the SMS corps are called in to assist the NUNS, Ozma and his team engage the enemy as they push towards the Frontier.
Sheryl's concert is cut short when one of the creatures breaks through the dome of the Frontier and begins destroying the city. This is very reminiscent of SDFM in many respects, the colonists flee to shelter as the battle ensues between the main enemy, a red creature with marking that resemble the ones seen in Macross Zero on the Mayan Island and one of Ozma's wingmen. The episode end with Alto jumping into the unmanned VF-25 in Gerwalk mode with the Hikaru paint scheme and unloading it's gunpod into the strange alien.

The episode left me wanting more, the amount of fanservice was terrific! and the icing on the cake was hearing ai oboeteimasuka from DYRL as the credits were scrolling! The Macross dynamic is there, but I wonder if Sheryl Nome is connected to Sarah or Mao from M0. Will we see more of the birdman? I can't wait till the next episode, below is the teaser for episode 2, enjoy!

Macross Frontier

Twenty Five years ago, in 1982 the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross aired in Japan, and was brought to America by Harmony Gold reworked as Robotech. As a child I was drawn into the story and later rediscovered the Macross series in it's true form. More recently I've enjoyed new additions to the Macross Saga including Macross Plus and Macross Zero. So I'm extremely excited to discover on the 25th anniversary of the original Macross Saga Big West will be airing a new series around April 2008 on the Mainichi Broadcasting System (MBS)! MF will continue the series tradition of love and music set to the backdrop of humanities struggle to survive against all odds. I hope this series makes it to the US unaltered due to the ongoing legal issues between Big West and HG.
For now enjoy the trailer below and be sure to check out the Macross Frontier web site http://www.macrossf.com/

Anime Review: Macross Zero

Back in 1982/83 an anime was created that to this day is my all time favorite, that anime is The Super Dimension Fortress Macross.

Macross is the story of a giant interstellar battle fortress that crashes on South Ataria Island in the South Pacific in the year 1999. For the next decade humanity attempts to unite under the formation of U.N. government and rebuild the ship.


This is where Macross Zero's story begins, 2008, the U.N Wars escalate and the Anti-U.N & U.N forces clash near the small South Pacific Island of Mayan.


The first episode of this 5 episode OVA,Ocean and Wind, introduces us to F-14 fighter pilot Shin Kudo. After being shot down by the Anti UN's newest fighter, the SV-51, he wakes on the Mayan Island (the island where the ocean and wind mix). He meets Sarah Nome (the hand guided by the wind),a shamen who can hear the will of the wind and her sister Mao Nome who seems to have a connection with the ocean. The inhabitants of Mayan are a primitive, tribal people that seem to live in peaceful harmony with nature and are unaware of the war around them. They pass on their traditions via the spoken word and tell the youth of how humans originally lived in the ocean and how when the aliens, "birdmen" came to earth.


Meanwhile on the Asuka II Aircraft Carrier Roy Focker reunites with an old friend, Aries, a cultural anthropologist he went to school with years ago. After her briefing of the discovery of a new energy source detected near Mayan, thought to be "AFOS", left behind by the the aliens aproximately ten thousand years ago the two catch up briefly. The next day Roy Focker is set to pilot the first live battle with VF-0, the first variable fighter!

Back on Mayan Shin spends time with Mao and Sarah as they each show him aspects of life on Mayan.

The seeds are planted.....

The peace and tranquility are shattered when Sarah foresees a violent wind headed for the Mayan Island and an arial dog fight breakes loose over Mayan between Roy Focker and the VF-0 and a SV-51. The first time you see the transformation of VF-0 will leave you speachless! The mix of cell drawn artwork with CG graphics is well balanced and looks fantastic!

Episode 2: The Stars on the Ground continues with the telling of the Mayan lore about Rooy Kanu, Rooylo and their children, how Rooylo left and the song of destruction engulfed the earth. The Elder tells the story all in the backdrop of a war that is enveloping the Mayan Island, high above Roy Focker comes face to face with his former flight instructor D.D.Ivanov who switched aliegences and joined the Anti -UN army. The battle is faced paced and very impressive, the detail of the fighters using CG is incredible. It's almost believeable seeing Roy's valkerie manuever thru the landscape, ailerons adjusting to change airspeed and altitude!

The battle concludes between the two in a stalemate while DD's wing mate, Nora Polyansky, takes on the rest of Fockers skull squadron. Roy finds shin and the two return to the Asuka II as the UN forces pull a large section of AFOS from the ocean floor. UN researchers begin to analyze the artifact and note the similarities with ASS-1, which stands for Alien Star Ship 1aka SDF-1.

Meanwhile Shin begins training as a VF-0 pilot under Roy Focker. Later Roy sends Shin on a mission to protect LaSalle while she visits Mayan to conduct further research on the island people. Mao and Shin meet again as he returns to the village. Later that night Shin is woken by the feint sound of a song, he follows the song into the forest to finds Sarah and discovers the power of her song...

Episode 3: The Blue Death begins at the sacred fountain with Shin and Sarah. Aries and her guard Edgard meet up with Sarah and Shin, Aries sees the stones with ancient mayan markings and recalls Professor Hussel Nakajima's notes on human-protoculture intervention.

Back aboard the Asuka blood begins too drip from the torso of AFOS, after some analyizing it's discovered it's the same as Sarah's.

Later that day Mao takes Shin on a snorkeling trip to see her "treasure", this visually impressive scene hints toward the connection between the cheiftan's story of creation and the evolving relationship between ,Mao, Shin and Sarah. Mao makes her feelings known to Shin in this episode when she kisses him. We also discover the treasure is the Shard of Elysium...the head of AFOS.

The Shard of Elysium activates and the UN / Anti UN forces scramble to retrieve the head and steal the torso aboard the Asuka II. During this battle Roy and DD resume their personal grudge match and Nora heads out to take the head of AFOS.

In a daring rescue Shin saves Mao and the head of AFOS from an Anti UN deep sea unit. Shin brings Mao back to Maya moments before the battle spills onto the shores, UN forces begin to evacuate the Mayan people as the battle rages all around the village. Sarah decides to test fate and runs off into the forest, Nora intercepts Shin as he tries to return to the Asuka II with the head of AFOS. The dogfight ends in a draw as both crash in the mayan forest and the head is lost again.

Episode 4:The Secret Forest Shin and Sarah are captured by the relentless Nora and the Anti UN forces. Aries is captured also and the three are introduced to Professor Hussel Nakajima. The professor explains the tale of the Birdman and the song of destruction. During their ongoing dogfight DD damages Roy Focker's VF-0 and he crashes the the party. Roy grabs Aries and the two escape into the forest. Shin and Sarah escape as well. Nora puts in a call to the Anti UN flagship to nuke the island.

Meanwhile the two couples wander aimlessly through the forest,Roy and Aries recount their memories from their past and wonder how the two would've been IF...

Meanwhile elsewhere in the forest Sarah and Shin spend the time consoling each other. Shin begins to understand Sarah's feelings toward life outside of the beautiful Mayan Island and reveals his feelings for Sarah. But the peace and beauty of the moment is forever destroyed when the island is carpet bombed by a squadron of SV-51's carrying hydrogen bombs.

Episode V: The Birdman begins with the Anti UN Forces retrieving the head of AFOS and capturing Aries and Sarah. Roy and Shin return to the Asuka II where the war between the UN and Anti UN has come to a boiling point. Mao awakes after having a transfusion using AFOS blood. The two parts of AFOS begin to activate and Mao begs Shin to save her sister.

Meanwhile Professor Hassel on board the Anti UN flagship pleads with Sarah to sing the song of destruction to end the war.

Roy and Shin board retro-fitted VF-0's and launch in a last ditch effort to save the women they love. The final battle of the war begins! Shin and Roy against DD and Nora push the limits of their skills in a final showdown in the clouds. Shin is able to reach the ship Sarah is held captive on but his Valkerie takes a fatal shot to the head and plummets to the ground below, Sarah cries out in distress and awakens the birdman. The two parts unite in the midst of the climactic battle and begins destroying all the large warships.Shin regains conscience just before plummeting into the ocean, and is astonished to see the legendary Birdman and Sarah controlling it through her song.

Does Shin save Sarah? Does Roy save Aries? Does the earth get destroyed by the Birdman? I won't ruin it for you, Macross Zero is another gorgeous addition to the legacy of Macross, all the aspects that made the original Macross a timeless classic are here, Valkeries, War, love triangles, music, and dealing with the loss of loved ones. Macross Zero does an amazing job of showing the contrasting beauties of a tropical paradise and the CG Mecha, which is also represented in both Shin and Sarah's views of the necessities of life. Each new Macross focuses on a different type of music, in M0 it's much less traditional. Sarah's song feels more ethereal than say Minmay, Fire Bomber or Sharron Apple. Regrettibly this is another great chapter from Macross that you will only get to enjoy subbed due to the BW/HG lawsuit. And the subtitles are garbage, this review may have some mistakes in character names because of the piss poor subtitles. The Story is fascinating and takes the evolution of mankind and blends it with Macross lore. It was also fun to see Roy Focker pre SDF-1 and another La Salle. I wonder if we'll see more of Shin or Sarah in the Future?The OVA is presented in 16:9 ratio, offers either english or chinese subs and the choice of dolby 5.1 or 2.0 stereo.

B-

Anime Movie Review: Appleseed

Before Major Motoko Kusanagi and Bateau there was Deunan Knute and Briareos from Shirow Masamune's manga Appleseed. The story revolves around the couple who are members of ES.W.A.T, Olympus's special forces that protect the surreal peace and tranquility of the city state.
The story takes Deunan from the war torn badlands where a war that has ended years ago still goes rages on. Brought back to Earths last remaining city, Olympus. Here she is reunited with her ex Briareos who is now seventy five percent machine. Olympus appears to be paradise, a utopia of sorts, but all is not as it seems in Olympus. The story begins to unfold when Hitomi, a Bioroid, explains that the half the population of Olympus is actually bioroid to help qwell human emotion and maintain the peace and tranquility. But there are some who resent the bioroids intervention with humanity and stage a terrorist assault on the bioroid care center where bioroid life extention is administered, thus causing bioroid genoside. After a special session of congress is assembled Prime Minister Athena declares marshal law without the assistance of the Olympus regular army lead by General Uranus an avid anti bioroid supporter.The only way to save the bioroids now is to unlock the secret of Appleseed.
Shirow Masamune once again pushes the limits of CG animation, the visuals of Appleseed are simply amazing, the first few minutes of the post apocalyptic fight scene alone rival that of top hollywood blockbusters such as Terminator. The story isn't childsplay either, this anime deals with aspects such as racism, human preservation and evolution, fate, love, trust and betrayal and even has shades of Issaac Asimov's I robot and the laws that govern all robots.
The Appleseed soundtrack has some sweet tracks from world famous DJ Paul Oakenfold, the Basement Jaxx, Boom Boom Satellites rocking track I will dive for you and others. The movie is rated R and has a running time of an hour and 45 minutes. Appleseed features Dolby Digital 5.1 and is presented in anamorphic widescreen, extras include commentary by Director Shinji Aramaki and Producer Sori, Staff profiles and music/scene cues. Check out http://www.appleseedthemovie.com for more.
A
Also check out the upcoming Appleseed ExMachina DVD website http://www.warnervideo.com/appleseed/

Game Review: Robotech: Battlecry

Change or die.

Robotech Battlecry will have fans of the HG anime feeling a bit nostalgic. I'll admit I bought this title simply because I grew up watching the show and the idea of piloting a veritech, fighting the Zentradi was exciting. The games cell shading art style seemed appropriate and was relatively fresh, only a handful of other games, including Sly Cooper used it.

I soon realized my nostalgic feelings were misplaced, what held true for the anime held true here as well. Robotech is not Macross, the story of Macross is what I really enjoyed....and later when I learned about the "reimagining" of Macross by HG I learned there was a major difference.

There is a lead character, Jack Archer and his wing man Izzy Randal. Battlecry also has the occasional cameo by Minmay, Lisa or Roy, which is nice fan service. The game is broken down into 5 chapters each with plenty of missions, the first chapter is straight from H.G. Macross with the missions named after the episodes of the show, "Booby Trap", "Countdown", "Bursting Point", and "Force of Arms". After that though Battlecry goes off on it's own timeline which takes place at the same time as Space War I.

There was more than just flying around in a Valkyrie (veritech) that made the show such a cult classic, there was the human element of love, loss, music that brought emotion.

Robotech Battlecry kinda skims the surface as far as that's concerned and puts most of it's focus on a flight sim that allows the player to "transform" into 3 modes while escorting, scouting or defending members of the RDF all while blowing up Zentradi. Each configuration of the veritech offers unique advantages/disadvantages over the other and each are almost specific to the type of mission you're on. The developers, Vicious Cycle, did a commendable job with the Veritech animations, and the overall look and feel is true to the series. The game does suffer from the feeling of repetitiveness but yet it offers plenty of reply value to collect all the RDF metals which unlock maps in two player, different paint schemes, armored veritech and cast interviews. The cast interviews are pathetic compared to the extras on games such as Lunar Silver Star Story Complete. It feels like a total afterthought, there's one with Rebecca Forstadt (voice of HG Minmay) where she's sitting in a patio chair in the back of some building and you have to struggle to hear her over the passing public bus! AWFUL!!! Another thing that the game really needed was a controllable camera, some missions really suffered from not being able to move the camera, it becomes very annoying being shot at from a blind spot and having to change to a more maneuverable mode to manipulate the camera so you can find the enemy shooting at you. The story itself isn't very gripping either, nor was the main antagonists Gorian, Skardde and Zeraal.

And your reward for beating the final boss and finishing the game.....I won't tell ya but it's gotta be a first in video game history. I understand what they were trying to do, but I don't think it worked and was totally anti climatic.

I think only fans that grew up with Robotech will stick with this title till the end...

5/10