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penguintruth wrote:

... the only thing that would get me to buy SDF Macross again would be a new English dub, since the ADV one is almost as terrible as Robotech. (Just because Mari Iijima can speak in English, doesn't mean she can act in it.)

Agreed, plus hearing everyone except Mari Iijima saying "muh-CROSS" is galling.

I noticed that those DVDs are squeezing nine episodes on each disc. Yeah, THAT's not going to look terrible on your 50-inch flatscreen.

Last edited by GWOtaku on Tue Jul 29, 2014 10:19 am; edited 1 time in total

Lest we forget, ADV's Macross release did not do that well In the U.S. It's super depressing to see people think that boycotting a $20 deal for 18 episodes will somehow send a message.

It certainly will: that there's no point trying to bother.

And this will not kill Harmony Gold, which will happily go on keeping Robotech alone in print for as long as possible. Hate and ignore em if you want, but don't kid yourself.

Greg Aubry wrote:

penguintruth wrote:

... the only thing that would get me to buy SDF Macross again would be a new English dub, since the ADV one is almost as terrible as Robotech. (Just because Mari Iijima can speak in English, doesn't mean she can act in it.)

Agreed, plus hearing everyone except Mari Iijima saying "muh-CROSS" is galling.

I noticed that those DVDs are squeezing nine episodes on each disc. Yeah, THAT's not going to look terrible on your 50-inch flatscreen.

The animeigo set squeezed 4 episodes per single layer dvd. So 8-9 episodes per dual layer dvd (as the robotech set) should give you mostly the same video quality as the animeigo set.
Now when it comes to audio it's different. The japanese audio track on the animeigo sets is quite full in comparison to the tiny sounding japanese track on HG's sets.

I already have the animeigo set + the italian dubbed edition of Macross (not robotech). There's no chance in hell I'll be buying this new Robotech set even if it has the english audio for Macross. Now were they to sell Southern Cross (original japanese) and Mospeada sets that are long out of print I'd buy them. But a robotech set no freaking way.

Greg Aubry wrote:

I noticed that those DVDs are squeezing nine episodes on each disc. Yeah, THAT's not going to look terrible on your 50-inch flatscreen.

Assuming they fill the disc, that's only ~944MB an episode which just isn't enough when you're dealing with mpeg2. So yeah, even if it's from the same master as the previously releases, it should look worse because it must be that much further compressed even if you consider the missing audio track.

But this whole argument is goddamn stupid now; Japan has BluRays out and old, terrible, ugly, poor contrasted, poorly colored, and bleedy masters need to disappear. Even if you forget the actual BluRays and 1080p video, then at least the remastered DVD is that route you'd want to pursue. And those DVDs have been out since sometime in 2011, so I'd say time and the subsequent release of the BD has put enough 'distance' as to not worry about reverse imports.

GWOtaku wrote:

Lest we forget, ADV's Macross release did not do that well In the U.S. It's super depressing to see people think that boycotting a $20 deal for 18 episodes will somehow send a message.

It certainly will: that there's no point trying to bother.

And this will not kill Harmony Gold, which will happily go on keeping Robotech alone in print for as long as possible. Hate and ignore em if you want, but don't kid yourself.

robotechfanboys.txt

rockman nes wrote:

GWOtaku wrote:

Lest we forget, ADV's Macross release did not do that well In the U.S. It's super depressing to see people think that boycotting a $20 deal for 18 episodes will somehow send a message.

It certainly will: that there's no point trying to bother.

And this will not kill Harmony Gold, which will happily go on keeping Robotech alone in print for as long as possible. Hate and ignore em if you want, but don't kid yourself.

robotechfanboys.txt

Yup.

The best way to kill Robotech is to not support it. Don't support the Kickstarter. Don't support the retreaded products. Let it die. Let the rights lapse. Then maybe someone will finally dub Macross Frontier. Maybe.

And you KNOW you're not supporting Kawamori et al. if you were to buy this release, as I doubt HG pays any royalties back to Big West, Studio Nue, and of course not to Satelight. Your money only goes to Harmony Gold to support what Harmony Gold wants. You're not supporting Macross by buying this, so this may as well be worse than piracy. When you buy R1s from other companies, money trickles back in royalties and licensing fees, but other than HG being "legitimate", I fail to see how it's any different than buying bootlegs.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

And you KNOW you're not supporting Kawamori et al. if you were to buy this release, as I doubt HG pays any royalties back to Big West, Studio Nue, and of course not to Satelight. Your money only goes to Harmony Gold to support what Harmony Gold wants. You're not supporting Macross by buying this, so this may as well be worse than piracy. When you buy R1s from other companies, money trickles back in royalties and licensing fees, but other than HG being "legitimate", I fail to see how it's any different than buying bootlegs.

This too.

The fact that TNA Wrestling is about to go under following them losing their TV contract is proof that when consumers hold companies like this accountable by not supporting them, they will eventually fold. And that's the goal.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:

And you KNOW you're not supporting Kawamori et al. if you were to buy this release, as I doubt HG pays any royalties back to Big West, Studio Nue, and of course not to Satelight. Your money only goes to Harmony Gold to support what Harmony Gold wants. You're not supporting Macross by buying this, so this may as well be worse than piracy. When you buy R1s from other companies, money trickles back in royalties and licensing fees, but other than HG being "legitimate", I fail to see how it's any different than buying bootlegs.

This is pure bullshit. I don't like HG, but they do have a valid/legal contract with Tatsunoko insofar as Macross (the tv series) is concerned. And Tatsunoko had the legal rights to the Macross animation (on which a Japanese court ruled, giving Tatsunoko the rights to the Macross animation, while all the other rights to characters, story, derived mecha from Macross to Studio Nue/BW).
Buying the Robotech/Macross boxset is not piracy nor bootlegging. Saying otherwise is being intellectually dishonest if even worse. So walw6pK4Alo calm down. Spouting nonsense will make you look even more ridiculous.

Having a contract doesn't mean much - they very well could've paid a one-off fee without any royalties.

Last edited by walw6pK4Alo on Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:20 am; edited 1 time in total

I didn't say they WERE piracy or bootlegging, just the equivalent as far as supporting Macross. Your money goes to a dead end to a terrible company that gives nothing back to Japan. Any money they gave Tatsunoko was 30 years ago and while it makes them technically legitimate as far as the law is concerned, it doesn't make them above scorn.

Polycell wrote:

Having a contract doesn't mean much - they very well could've paid a one-off fee without any royalties.

Having a valid legal contract means everything instead.
Unless you mean the Japanese courts threw a dice in deciding what Tatsunoko owned and what BW/Nue owned ?

Tatsunoko, the Japanse courts decided legally owned the Macross animation, and they decided to whom and how they would license it. There is no conspiracy here.
Taksunoko legally licensed the animation rights to Macross the tv series to HG. Taksunoko were happy, HG was happy.

What HG did afterwards was shit (trademarking the name Macross and the UN Spacy symbol). But this had nothing to do with Tatsunoko.

I understand hating HG for blocking the Macross franchise in the rest of the world. I despise them for that. Nonetheless as far as Macross the tv series is concerned, HG is the legitimate licensor outside of Japan. And that's it. They can sell, repackage Macross with Robotech etc... however they like. And it's all legal.

rockman nes wrote:

robotechfanboys.txt

Yup that's me, a guy who has ADV Macross and Plus and II and an imported DYRL BD set. You've sure got me pegged.

Here's an Answerman column on this from almost a year ago that most people either don't know about or don't seem to want to deal with (emphasis mine):

Quote:

That's actually a really good question! I have no idea, and have occasionally wondered that, myself. So, to answer your question, I had to dig deep. And by "dig deep," I mean send an email to two people I've known for years. Back breaking work, writing this column.

First, the idea that Harmony Gold is standing in the way of Stateside releases of Macross-related shows is one that has been floating around for years, and originated from a few cagey responses from industry professionals at anime conventions. I wanted some confirmation that Harmony Gold had Macross-related trademarks, and whether they were willing to work with anime companies that might want to release Macross-related shows that Harmony Gold had no financial stake in. I sent an e-mail to Kevin McKeever at Harmony Gold, who was good enough to forward my question onto their legal department. Here's their response:

Quote:

The original Macross television series was the result of a monumental collaborative effort involving several companies of creative individuals. We at Harmony Gold appreciate all the hard work these combined talents put forth to make Macross possible. As the legal rights/co-copyright/trademark holder for Macross outside of Japan, Harmony Gold's door is always open to any anime company who wishes to have their product reach a global audience through our world-class distribution partners.

In other words, yes they own the trademark. And the implication here is definitely that they'd be open to using those trademarks ONLY if they're the ones that get to distribute the show. So, how did LA Hero and their successor company Manga Entertainment manage to get both Macross II and Macross Plus out on store shelves without getting Harmony Gold all over their case?

I... don't know. I tried to find out. Ken Iyadomi used to run LA Hero (which licensed both properties before being purchased by Manga Entertainment), and then worked for Manga during their release. I reached out to him, but he declined to comment, stating only that the rights situation for the entire Macross world was "crazy." He's doubtlessly referring to not just Harmony Gold, but all the legal nuttiness involving Studio Nue and Tatsunoko in Japan, which culminated in a lawsuit some years back. In short, even without Harmony Gold in the way, Japan probably doesn't even have it together legally to license a Macross show overseas.

So what have we learned? Not much, I'm afraid: just that nobody touches Macross anything without involving the Robotech people, and that whatever wormhole in space and time that once allowed LA Hero to license those two OAVs back in the 90s has long since closed, leaving us forevermore Macross-less.

Sooo yeah, it's not necessarily as easy as some fantasy scenario where HG suddenly dies. I look at a status quo where I fear we get nothing for another 20 years if it's left alone. I'm not cool with that. But maybe that's just the way it'll have to be. Sigh.

Then again, licensing hells have died before. Maybe I'm too pessimistic. Maybe we can at least get the next Macross thing streamed, after how far things have come.

Beatdigga wrote:

So this is going to include the ADV dub?

All I remember from that was that the guy that played Edward Elric played Hikaru.

Let alone scoring Minmay's Japanese VA to voice her for the dub too!

H. Guderian wrote:

Imagine if some company kept on re-re-releasing the original 1979 Gundam, and everything from the movies and Zeta onwards was never seen overseas. Many fans can debate if they liked Wing, Seed, 00 or various other Gundams because we can actually at least get to them.

Oh lord, we'd never hear the end of that one! I think something like that happened in Italy at one point.

Polycell wrote:

Chrno2 wrote:

But many it's just amazing that they somehow held on. I mean what have they been doing all this time that has kept them afloat.

They're also into real estate, which is probably it.

They even got a snazzy theater out in LA I could only dream of running a crappy show in!
http://www.harmonygold.com/theater/

Time to update, they just cancelled the Kickstarter.

Quote:

Funding Canceled Funding for this project was canceled by the project creator 17 minutes ago.

I won't doubt they'll come back with a less lofty goal, maybe raise the same $200k for a set of trailers and other junk.

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