Random Macross Frontier Thoughts, Part 2

Here there be spoilers.

The series is about 2/3 done. There were a few weak episodes unfortunately, which is a bit of a letdown given the very high standards it set in the first 7 episodes.

So the VF-25 is named the Messiah, nice. Wonder what the VF-27’s (Brera’s VF) is.

The Macross Quarter is maybe too agile. Doesn’t feel like a cap ship. Of course I can appreciate improving technology and its smaller size making for a much more agile ship compared to the SDF-1, but it seems nothing it does can be as dramatic as the Daedalus attack. I wonder if the Macross Frontier will ever swing into action.

Nene (the pink haired Meltlandi) cowered behind KK when the two girly men fought? How far the mighty has fallen. I’m thinking maybe the Zentradi and the Meltlandi have started breeding naturally, so the younger ones are not engineered for aggression.

The “fold engine unaffected fold dislocations” plot device in episode 12 is pretty weak. “Here, I just so happen to have this top sekrit tech that will solve your previously unsolvable problem.” And why? Why did they decide to mount blingy speakers on Mike’s VF? I know it’s an homage to Macross 7, but its something I’m trying to pretend never happened. I was hoping Mike would go on and kick some ass.

The appearance of the Global made the fanboy in me weep in happiness, though it was more of a cameo.

Nobody remembers Raramia. She’s not had a single line before she got killed off and that’s bloody sloppy storytelling. Completely pointless. I bet the production team were thinking “we need to kill off a named character here, FOR GRITTINESS. But oh, it couldn’t be one the fans care about.” Pfft.

Was that Ranka’s mum? She looks like Sheryl with seaweed green dye. I’m thinking Sheryl’s an artificial construct. A clone, maybe, or a bio-engineered human based on Ranka’s mum. A small tidbit, her name as shown in the credits is Ranshe Mei.

Alto getting shouty is annoying. Its pretty theatrical though, so I’ll just put it down to his love for performance.

Is it just me, or is the techno Aimo terrible? I mean, the original isn’t all that, sounds like a Voices II or something, but at least I don’t hate it.

Episode 17 is just a big bait and switch for old fans. Pineapple cake? Bleeding in chair? Check out a comprehensive list of the Death Flags here. But man, Ozma’s GAR. So GAR Kathy can do naught but swoon in the presence of his GARness. I liked the Fire Bomber songs in this episode and how they were used, for what its worth.

Poor Sheryl. Sheryl gets no love.

Random Macross Frontier Thoughts

Holy Homage, Batman! I’m surprised nobody’s picked up on this yet (found nothing via Googling anyway). Most anime fans of my generation will have realised Saotome Alto shares a family name with Ranma, which is appropriate. But, what nobody’s picked up on is that the Italian boy Ranma voice actor’s family name is Alto.

Is the VF-25 the F-35 Lightning II to the VF-19’s F-22 Raptor? The VF-25 has a more conventional design (drawing heavily from the classic VF-1) and is probably cheaper and simpler (armaments carried externally, no passive stealth design). Disappointed that there’s been no sightings at all of the VF-19 or VF-22 in the show yet. I do wonder about the other VF found in the opening sequence, it resembles the Macross II Valkyrie…

Ranka’s performance in Episode 5 is just out of place. It might have worked better with just guitar accompaniment, maybe provided by a random wandering busker.

The locker scene veered dangerously close to yuri.

WW2 style bomber art would have been cool on the Pixies Queadlunns. Maybe of male pixies.

Ranka’s hair and phone bothers me.

Ayreon 01011001 DVD

Found in the special and limited editions. Well worth the extra cost, especially for this one line:

“Dear Penis, give my butt a sign”

– Simone Simons

Clever girl…

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Categorized as Music

Altered Consciousness

Just pulled an all night, and then in the morning I threw on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s, and somehow additional dimensions in the music which I have never noticed before just leapt out of the speakers and blasted right through my consciousness.

Its an album I listen to a lot, and so I thought I knew it, but apparently I don’t know it at all. Perhaps I should try some Jimi next time.

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Categorized as Music

Deaths March 2008

The first quarter of 2008 isn’t over yet and already two men who shaped my world have passed on.

To use what is by now a cliché, Gary Gygax failed his last saving throw on the 4th of March. Thanks Gary, for all the hours of imagination, joy and friendship your creation brought me and countless other geeks across the multiverse. I will never forget the days of “Traps? Pfft! I boot the door down.”. The Order of the Stick put it more eloquently then I ever could, so the strip shall have to speak for me.

Jeff Healey was a giant of music, and it is criminal that he is not held in higher regard by the general public. Few knew that his real love was for old American jazz or that he played the trumpet and clarinet expertly. Here he is at his incendiary best absolutely ripping it up on the title track from his debut album “See The Light” with a little help from Dr. John, Marcus Miller and Omar Hakim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBBCJ68mC4c

Nine Inch Nails – Ghosts I-IV

Trent Reznor has done it: a double album of new instrumental music available as a high quality, DRM-free download, very reasonably priced 2 CD set (US$10) or either one of a pair of luxurious deluxe packages. I’ll be grabbing the 2 CD set myself (yes I’m cheap).

In the mean time you can check out Ghost I, which is available for free (TPB torrent link, as the NIN server seem to be having problems dealing with the digg hordes).

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Categorized as Music

Castle ActiveRecord Bug?

Or perhaps it was actually NHibernate at fault. I was trying to set up a many-to-many relationship with attributes on the association table and the ActiveRecord CreateSchema call just kept complaining that my assocation table already exists and cannot be created again.

After an hour or so of head-scratching, turns out the error only occurs when I use GUIDs as the primary key in the association table. Switching to good old “int” solved everything. I wonder if that has been fixed in the trunk, I should go code spelunking.