Reign of Chaos Episode 17

Listen To My Brightslap!

In this episode, things get mixed up as we do TWO whole review segments! We continue our Macross reviews with Macross 7 and then we dive into another famous anime franchise with the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam! It's gonna be a blast!

EPISODE BREAKDOWN-
Intro (0:00:00-0:05:39)
Commercial-Fighters Ready! (0:05:42-0:07:10)
Segment 1-Macross 7 (0:07:14-0:59:31)
Commercial-Shinjuku Station Livestreams (0:59:33-1:01:10)
Segment 2-Mobile Suit Gundam (1:01:12-1:42:46)
Commercial-MacrossWorld's SpeakerCast (1:42:48-1:43:53)
Outro (1:43:55-1:45:51)

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE-
Welcome to Jurassic Park by John Williams, from Jurassic Park
Gallant Char! by blank, from Mobile Suit Gundam
Seventh Moon by FIRE BOMBER, from Macross 7
Planet Dance by FIRE BOMBER, from Macross 7
Totsugeki Love Heart by FIRE BOMBER, from Macross 7
Holy Lonely Night by FIRE BOMBER, from Macross 7
Diamond Calling by FIRE BOMBER, from Macross 7 P*L*U*S*
Sono Chi no Sadame~JoJo by blank, from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Amuro Forever by Andrew W.K., based on the original by blank, from Mobile Suit Gundam
0-G Love by Mari Iijima as Lynn Minmay, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross
Roundabout by Yes

CHECK OUT MY WEBZONES!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group
Shinjuku Station's Livestream

OTHER PODCASTS
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
Macross SpeakerCast

P.S. All Reign of Chaos episodes are available on the iTunes store.

Reign of Chaos Episode 16

The Top Gun of Anime

In this episode, we continue our review series on Macross with the 1994 OVA, Macross Plus. I feel the need, the need for speed!!

EPISODE BREAKDOWN-
Intro (0:00:00-0:06:33)
Commercial-Shinjuku Station Podcasting (0:06:35-0:07:43)
Segment 1-Macross Plus (0:07:45-0:47:06)
Commercial-Fighters Ready! (0:47:08-0:48:36)
Outro (0:48:38-0:52:32)

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE-
The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News
Voices by Akino Arai as Myung Fang Lone, from Macross Plus
Information High, by Gabriela Robin as Sharon Apple and Yoko Kanno, from Macross Plus
Diamond Calling by FIRE BOMBER, from Macross 7

CHECK OUT MY WEBZONES!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group

OTHER PODCASTS
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
Macross SpeakerCast

Reign of Chaos Episode 15

 Macross II: Electric Boogaloo

In this episode, we continue our review series on Macross with the 1992 OVA, Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN-
Intro (0:00:00-0:04:39)
Commercial-Gundamn!@MAHQ (0:04:41-0:05:54)
Segment 1-Macross II (0:05:56-0:29:56)
Commercial-Macross SpeakerCast (0:29:58-0:31:02)
Outro (0:31:04-0:33:20)

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE-
The Hush of 200 Million Years by Mika Kaneko, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again
Code name: Heero Yuy by Kou Otani, from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing
Ishtar's Song
Sobai ite - Please Come Back To Me by Mika Kaneko, from Super Dimension Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again
0-G Love by Mari Iijima as Lynn Minmay, from SDF Macross
Information High by Sharon Apple, from Macross Plus

CHECK OUT MY WEBZONES!
White Phoenix, the blog with Everything Under The Sun!
DayDream Jedi
Reign of Chaos Facebook Group

OTHER PODCASTS
http://gundamnmahq.blogspot.com/
http://chaostheater.blogspot.com/
http://fightersready.freeforums.org/index.php
Macross SpeakerCast

Macross 30: From A Galaxy Far, Far Away

Author’s Note

I’m relatively new to Macross. I first saw the original series, Superdimension Fortress Macross, around this time in 2011. Despite that short amount of time, I’ve grown to love this franchise as much as, if not more, than Gundam. In fact, these days I fanboy about Macross as much as I did when I first saw Gundam Wing.

As for this fic, it’s of course inspired by the newly released PS3 game, Macross 30: The Song That Connects The Galaxy. Originally I was going to write something of a novelization of the game… even though it hadn’t been released yet. But then inspiration struck, or rather I should say an idea I had had ever since I first saw Macross struck. See one of the reasons I was first attracted to the show was the starfighter aspect. I’ve always been a fan of starfighters and the second I laid eyes on the VF-1 Valkyrie, I knew it was the X-Wing of Macross. The thought then followed, what would happen in a dogfight between the X-Wing and the VF-1?

By the time I got to writing this, the arrival of the actual Macross 30 was nigh and I realized that this would be the better story to work on. After I’ve actually played through the game, then I can write about it. For now, let’s indulge in a little fantasy and see what happens when one of the most famous sci-fi franchises in America meets one of the most famous from Japan. LET’S FIRE!!!

Dramatis Personae

SMS Ouroboros

Captain Aisha Blanchette (human female from Ouroboros)

Lt. Leon Sakaki (human male from Sepheela)

Mina Forte (human [?] female from Ouroboros[?])

Major Roy Focker, Skull One (human male from Earth)

Lt. Hikaru Ichijo, Skull Leader (human male from Earth)

Commander Misa Hayase (human female from Earth)

Lynn Minmay (human female from Earth)

Hibiki Kanzaki, Rookie One (human male from Earth)

Lt. Sylvie Gena, Faerie One (human female from Earth)

Ishtar (Marduk female from ??)

Lt. Isamu Dyson, Eagle One (human male from Eden)

Myung Fang Lone (human female from Eden)

Cmmd. Max Jenius, Blue One (human male from Earth)

Capt. Milia Fallyna Jenius, Red One (zentradi female/meltrandi)

Lt. Gamlin Kizaki, Diamond One (human male from ??)

Ens. Shin Kudo, Skull Five (human male from Earth)

Sara Nome (human female from Earth)

Mao Nome (human female from Earth)

Tom Kazansky (zolan male from Zola)

SMS Frontier

Cmmd. Jeffery Wilder (human male from Macross Frontier)

Major Ozma Lee, SMS Skull Leader (human male from Macross Frontier)

Capt. Klan Klan, Pixie One (zentradi female/meltrandi from Macross Frontier)

Ens. Mikhail Blanc, SMS Skull Two (human male from Macross Frontier)

Ens. Luca Angelloni, SMS Skull Three (human male from Macross Frontier)

Ens. Alto Saotome, SMS Skull Four (human male from Macross Frontier)

Sheryl Nome, the Galactic Fairy (human female from Macross Galaxy)

Ranka Lee, the Superdimensional Cinderella (human female from Gallia 4)

Lt. Nene Rora, Pixie Two (zentradi female/meltrandi from Macross Frontier)

Sound Force

Basara Nekki (human male from Earth)

Mylene Flare Jenius (human/zentradi from Macross 7) 

  

The Rebel Alliance/New Republic

Cmd. Luke Skywalker, Rogue Leader (human male from Tatooine)

Princess Leia Organa (human female from Alderaan)

General Han Solo (human male from Corellia)

Chewbacca (wookie male from Kashyyyk)

See-Threepio (masculine droid)

R2-D2, astromech droid

Cmd. Wedge Antilles, Rogue One (human male from Corellia)

Cpt. Tycho Celchu, Rogue Two (human male from Alderaan)

Lt. Wes Janson, Rogue Eight (human male from Tanaab)

Lt. Derek “Hobbie” Klivian, Rogue Seven (human male from Ralltiir)

Lt. Corran Horn, Rogue Nine (human male from Corellia)

Lt. Gavin Darklighter, Rogue Five (human male from Tatooine)

Lt. Ooryl Qyrgg, Rogue Ten (gand male from Gand)

Lt. Asyr Sei’lar, Rogue Six (bothan female from Bothuwai)

Inyri Forge, Rogue Three (human female from Kessel)

N.U.N.S. HAVAMAL Taskforce

Ushio Todo (human male from ??)

Lt. Rod Baltomar, Knight One (human male from Sepheela[?])

Ganeth Modor (zentradi male from Ouroboros)

Cpt. D.D. Ivanov, Schwalbe One (human male from Earth)

Lt. Nora Polyansky, Schwalbe Two (human female from Earth)

Sharon Apple (female AI from Eden)

Col. Grace O’Connor (human female cyborg from Macross Galaxy)

Major Brera Sterne, Antares One (human male cyborg from Gallia 4)

Guld Goa Bowman, Omega One (human/zentradi from Eden)

Lord Feff (marduk male)

Galactic Empire Forces

Admiral Kostick (human male from Coruscant)

Markus Raethe (human male from Coruscant)

Col. Gren Gallen (human male from Sernpidal)

Cpt. Anya Kade (human female from Churba)

Lt. Sade Dathran (human male from Sluis Van)

Mission 1

Interlopers

The morning quiet over the islands of Ouroboros, both those floating in the ocean and those floating in the sky, was shattered by the roar of thermonuclear turbines, as a quartet of Valkyrie fighters roared across the sky.

“This is a feeling I never get tired of!” thought the pilot of the lead Valkyrie, Leon Sakaki. Technically the machine he was piloting was an YF-25 Prophecy, prototype of the VF-25 Messiah, every variable fighter was referred to with the nickname as a way of honoring the original VF-1 Valkyrie. Behind him, flying in the diamond formation was Ensign Shin Kudo in his VF-0A Phoenix to his left, his friend Mina Forte in a light blue VF-11C Thunderbolt to his right and bringing up the rear was Hibiki Kanzaki in his VC-079 Civilian Valkyrie.

Leon wasn’t sure what Hibiki was doing tagging along. The guy had an itchy camera finger and was constantly following just about everyone else and frankly it was a bit annoying.

“This is the biggest story I’ve ever covered! I gotta get a record of this or nobody’ll ever believe it!” he’d say. Leon supposed it was a bit understandable, if the stories were true and Hibiki and his friends Sylvie and Ishtar came from some kind of alternate timeline.

At least Hibiki hadn’t brought the dour Dennis Lone with him. Leon wasn’t sure he could handle Dennis this early in the morning. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he opened up a channel to the other pilots.

“OK Mina, you ready for this?”

“I think so,” she replied, only a trace of hesitancy in her voice. When Leon and Aisha Blanchette, the director of Ouroboros’ branch of SMS, had found Mina in some of the many ruins that dot the surface of the planet, she’d quickly shown an amazing ability to grasp complex concepts. Valkyrie piloting for instance. Today was just supposed to be a simple training run to help improve Mina’s skills with the venerable VF-11.

“OK, but this course is going to be kind of tricky. Remember to shift between the three modes or you’ll get points taken off.”

“I know that Leon! Relax, this will be fun!”

Leon grinned.

“All the same, Shin is going to go first, give you a bit of benchmark to shoot for.”

“But Shin’s a properly trained pilot! He’ll outscore me for sure,” said Mina.

“And with talk like that, you definitely won’t,” replied Shin with a grin as he threw his Valkyrie into a banking dive and shot between a pair of rocky spires.

The “course” they were following wasn’t real per se, but programmed into the computers of their planes and was displayed on the holographic canopy HUDs. The other three pilots pulled up rolled so they could get a good view (and good shots for Hibiki) of Shin weaving his way through the spires, arches and tunnels of the large island they were flying over. The Ensign deftly navigated the course, shifting from Fighter mode to GERWALK to Battroid with the skill of an experienced hand. Truth be told, Shin was still a relatively novice pilot and there were certainly more skilled and experienced pilots onboard the Macross Quarter, but he was giving it his all in flying this course. He dived over a small butte then shifted into GERWALK to bounce himself over an outcropping and then shifted into fighter mode and shot through a stone arch to complete the course with a loud whoop of excitement.

Leon looked down at his main display. One minute, forty-one seconds. Definitely a good time for this complicated course, but he bet he could do at least five seconds better. Of course that would have to wait until Mina had her turn.

“Alright Mina, your turn. Good luck!”

“Watch the curvy tunnel, it’s tricky to get through, even in GERWALK,” added Shin.

“You’ll do great Mina!” added Hibiki.

“Thanks for everyone! I’ll do my best!” she said, smiling widely. Shin then banked her Thunderbolt down, preparing to fly between the rocky spires as Shin had done, when Hibiki’s voice cut across the comm.

“Hey, were we expecting anyone else to be out here today?”

Leon and Shin quickly scanned their radar displays. Sure enough, there were a dozen contacts headed straight for them, labeled unknown on the display. Leon cursed under his breath. As like as not it was a squadron of bandits out to see what they could scavenge or steal. Bandits had been an almost constant thorn in Leon’s and SMS’s side ever since he’d got to the planet; was it just too much to ask for one day without tangling with them?

But as the contacts drew closer to their position, Leon was able to magnify their image on his main display and what he saw frankly baffled him.

What the yak are those things?

The approaching unknowns had spherical cockpits, or at least Leon thought they were cockpits, with octagonal viewports and stubby pylons extending out from the sides, supporting two vertical…wings? Leon wasn’t sure what to make of them; they didn’t look aerodynamic in the slightest and Leon had to wonder how they even stayed up in the air.

“I think they may be trying to contact us, I’m reading a transmission coming from those unknowns,” said Shin, “It’s on an unusual frequency. Just give me a sec here…” A moment passed and then a harsh, grating voice crackled over Leon’s headphones.

“In the name of the Empire, identify yourselves!”

“Empire?” thought Leon, “Who are these guys?”

“Uh, guys, what should we do?” asked Hibiki nervously.

“We should probably respond, no reason to not appear friendly, at least for now,” offered Shin.

“OK then,” said Leon, adjusting his radio, “This is 2^nd Lieutenant Leon Sakaki of Strategic Military Services, Ouroboros branch. Who am I talking to?” he asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

“Strategic Military Services? I take it that’s not the name of this planet’s military?” the voice barked back.

“Uh, no, that’d be NUNS. Er, New UN Spacy,” replied Leon.

“You will take us to this ‘New UN Spacy’ immediately,” snapped the voice, “Failure to comply will result in severe repercussions.”

“Cheery fellow isn’t he?” snarked Shin.

“I suppose we’d better do what they say,” said Hibiki, “I don’t like the look of them.”

The strange craft were closer to where they were flying now and Leon could hear a strange moaning sound, possibly the ship’s engines? Hibiki was right, something about this situation was definitely off. Unfortunately, in all the confusion, they had forgotten about Mina.

Just as the strange ball-shaped craft were passing low over the island, Mina dived over the butte that Shin had flown over, down into the cleft, shifted into GERWALK and then bounced back up to fly through the arch. Only she had just come out of a tunnel and had been concentrating so hard on flying the course the she didn’t realize that the unknowns were almost on top of her. She came shooting up out of the cleft like a GERWALK rocket and almost saw the formation too late. She cried out in alarm and juked to the side but still clipped one of the unknowns’ hexagonal wings. The response was almost instantaneous. A quartet of the flying balls broke out of the formation and opened fire on Mina, green energy bolts flashing from the underside of the pod cockpits. Mina shrieked in alarm but was still able to shift into Battroid and duck through the enemy fire, pirouetting in mid-air and opening fire with her 30mm gunpod and Mauler laser cannon. The gunpod and laser beam cut through the first of the four unknowns and turned into a rapidly expanding fireball, causing the other three to break off. But now the other eight were orienting on Mina.

Leon  and Shin wasted no time. They shifted into GERWALK, locked onto the nearest enemy and opened fire with their missiles. Even though this had been a training run, the chance of running into bandits was high enough that all Valkyries always launched with at least some out board missiles and Leon was now particularly glad this had been the case. The missile storm took out four of the unknowns, but the rest were able to dodge. Mina shifted back into fighter mode, locked on to an enemy that was trying to loop away and fired a trio of missiles after it. The strange craft managed to dodge the first two but then the third slammed into its large wing, blowing chunks off and crumpling it. The fighter lost altitude and exploded against one of the spires.

The remaining fighters decided that discretion was the better part of valor and peeled away. Shin was just about to lock onto the remainder when Leon stopped him.

“Let them go, this has already gone bad enough.”

“I’m so sorry Leon, Shin! I was trying so hard to fly the course that I didn’t notice them until it was too late!”

“It’s alright Mina, it was an accident, although I’m not sure they’ll see it that way…” said Leon.

“Don’t worry,” broke in Hibiki, “I got it all on tape, so we’ve got some evidence.”

“Then we should get back to the Macross Quarter as soon as possible,” said Shin.

“No argument there. Let’s go!” said Shin, banking the YF-25 Prophecy around on a course back to the mothership. As Mina, Shin and Hibiki formed up with him, Leon couldn’t shake the feeling that something big was about to happen.

ZZ's Home Stretch

EPISODES 37-41

I read about it, I was warned about it and here it is: the point where this series goes downhill again.

It starts off innocently enough with the revelation of the new Nahel Argama (which is fast becoming one of my favorite ship designs) but then weird things start happening. First off, why is the AEUG suddenly so uptight about teenagers in Gundams? Probably 'cause Wong Lee doesn't like Judau much, I guess. So Judau and the Junkyard Kids pull a Star Trek III and nab the Nahel Argama for themselves, while Bright heroically sacrifice's his command to prevent Shinta and Qum from being in the show at all. YYYEEEESSSSSS!!!!
But then we revert back to the status quo of the first 17 episodes of the show where nothing much is going on, especially now that we're in the home stretch of this series. The AEUG is written off as suddenly Federation-like so that Judau and the You-Know-What's can be the stars, Haman decides to dye her hair blond and and do her best Bond Girl impression by sneaking onto the ship and then Tigerbaum. Oh, Tigerbaum....

One nice thing though is the return of Mashymre and his svelte new partner Illia Pazom. Now THIS is how Mashymre should have been from the start! He's so much more... villain-y like this. Too bad he's only going to be around for a few more episodes before following in the footsteps of Vegeta. Illia looks and sounds like an interesting character, but again, it's just too bad that she's only got a few episodes left before the end. I imagine she didn't show up earlier because she was thought up late in production perhaps?

So yeah, first the Moon-Moon sisters show up again. Why are these hippies back again? Didn't they make a big stink about how Sarasa or Rasara or whichever should not leave the colony? And now they're here and suddenly ZZ has gotten much more like the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And then Tigerbaum. Oh boy, here we go...

Now, there's nothing wrong with a colony being built to imitate environments on Earth, they do it all the time in Macross (Frontier's Island 1 was built to imitate San Francisco and Shibuya, for example) but somehow it doesn't work here. It just makes it feel like the show is suddenly caught in a bad kung fu movie. And this Stampa guy... Holy Protoculture, Jabba the Hutt is less slimy than this guy. And smarter too. This guy could have been at least creepy what with being a pervert, mafioso and pedophile but he just looks, acts and feels like a moron.
You know, I'm going to take back some of my previously words. I though Moon-Moon was the lowest point of the series... no... no, it's this. Totally this. These two episodes actually made me mad, whereas Moon-Moon just had me shaking my head and groaning.
It's all even capped off with appearances by ugly MSV suits. I swear, all it would have needed was an appearance by the Juaggu and that would have been the end of everything.

All in all, it was a descent from dramatic heights to mediocrity. And somehow I don't think it's going to get too much better. Since there's only six episodes left, the last entry will be on those episodes. Alright, final lap ahoy.

Dropping Colonies Like A Boss

Anyway, i got ahead of myself and now i have to do episodes 27-36.

This chunk begins with the excellent two-parter, Leina's Blood. The Neo Zeon have invaded Dakar and its up to our intrepid heroes to crash the party, rescue Leina and free the city. Of course it's not as easy as all that when Puru childishly starts the attack early by firing the canons on the Mega Rider too soon. She is a rather mercurial one isn't she?
Judau does his best James Bond impression, complete with a showdown with a femme fatale. I like this bit of dialogue between them as the party more than shows the corruption of the Federation officials but Haman's methods probably won't help any either. Then she makes her mistake: shooting Leina. Oh and is Judau ever pissed. I wouldn't be surprised if at that moment he could have pulled a Darth Vader on her. It really does go to show how strong Judau's Newtype potential is when he Haman runs away from him almost screaming in terror. Even when Kamille started poking into her memories she didn't get this upset.

Oh and random cameo by Yazan. How in the name of Tomino did he survive that fall and end up back on Earth, invited to a swanky party of all things?

Anyway, the drama builds to a climax as the Gundam team battle the Neo Zeon through Dakar along with Karaba's GM III's. Hullo Hayato, haven't seen you since Zeta! Glemy engages in several duels with the Gundams and I really have to wonder why he is so attached to Leina. Is she the little sister he never had or something? Puru sneaks Leina off and tells her that she needs to leave Judau alone so she can fight. Leina interprets that as wanting to hurt Judau and CATFIGHT! I goes to show how screwed up Puru's upbringing was that she wants to have a big brother in Judau and thinks the onyl way to do that is to kill Leina and take her place. Fortunately, Judau arrives and calms everything down. It's not to last as Leina supposedly goes the way of Yuna Roma Seiran and has a MS fall on top of her. It's a great death scene with lots of powerful emotion, right down to Judau coldly refusing Puru's misguided kindness. There is one thing that's a little weird about it: Roux is strangely pretty tactless about the whole affair. Hmmm.

Of course I know that Leina isn't actually dead, which really sucks. Total cop-out. Why even bother with the scene and the subsequent fallout if she's not dead. So let's break this down. In order to believe that Leina's not dead, we have to accept that Sayla Mass, of all people, just happened to be wandering around in the jungles around Dakar, in the middle of a battle, and just so happened to arrive at the cabin Leina was in, decided to investigate the cabin out of the blue, found Leina and took her away, without telling anyone. IIRC, Leina was still conscious; did she really just go along with Sayla and not say, "Hey, not just yet, I need to tell the others."
It really doesn't make one ounce of sense when you think about it and once she was better.... why wouldn't she have contacted her brother and told him she's alright? Doesn't. Make. Sense.

We get a few more episodes of desert wandering. Roux is strangely very cold to Judau about Leina's "death" and it's really not endearing her to me. She even leaves the ship, which is doubly perplexing, going so far as to steal a Core Fighter. Man, if I were Bright, the second she set foot back on the ship, it'd be Correction Time.

We also get the first reveal of Glemy's Puru clones. This guy has to be some kind of Pedobear with his naked lolis on display in cold sleep.

The Argama then arrives in Ireland and the drama gets ratcheted up again. Bright meets with some Federation officials and things quickly go south. Any respect i had for the Feds is gone, AEUG/Londo Bell FTW. They try to keep Bright and Judau locked up but it's randomly Fa to the rescue. Which means... Kamille's back! He's not very coherent, but he's back!

Haman drops a colony at this point so it's up to our heroes in the AEUG to fix the Federation's mess. Lots of great battles here with the Gundam team going all out but you know what i would have preferred? Amuro to have shown up with Hayato and Kamille to be lucid so that Amuro could go out in the Mk. II, Kamille in the Zeta and Judau in the ZZ. Now that would have been EPIC.
We also have the death of Puru here against Puru Two in the Psyco Gundam Mk. II. and that was actually pretty sad. I was beginning to really like Puru.
I forgot to mention a great scene where Bright shows Hayato the room that Katz stayed in. Now I hated Katz as much as anyone else, but this was still a powerful, moving scene. Oh wait.... is that pineapple salad I smell? And a steak as well? Why yes, it is! Yes, because of this, Hayato is doomed to die, but at least he goes out in a manner worthy of a First Gundam character. RIP buddy, you dun good.
Episode 36 ends with a memorial service, a fitting why to end this cluster of episodes. Judau and the Junkyard Kids are heading back to space next time....... wait a minute.... wasn't there something about Tigerbaum....? Ah fudge-sticks.....