I received my shipment of the first issue of the new
Macross Chronicle today and I've had a chance to look it over.
As we all know, the Macross Chronicle is not one book but a series of loose-leaf style sheets inside a thin folder (with three-hole punch in each sheet). The first issue contains 20 pages and each issue is divided into specialty sheets titled
Mechanic Sheet,
Character Sheet, Timeline Sheet,
World Guide Sheet,
History Sheet,
Technology Sheet,
Gallery Sheet,
Song Sheet,
Goods Sheet, and four other miscellaneous sheets named
Glossary, Tribute, Making and Extra Sheets. Each Macross Chronicle issue is made to fit inside a Macross Chronicle binder (sold seperately) which features dividers for 7 categories; Mechanic, Character, Timeline, History, Technology, World Guide and Special.
Macross Chronicle Issue One details the VF-1J Valkyrie, including a 2-page fold out painting of the fighter mode in high detail colors, drawn by Tenjin Hidetaka (known for his beautiful Macross art work on the Hasegawa model boxes and his own Tenjin Hidetaka Valkyrie Artworks of Macross book). There is not an abundance of line art to be found here but the VF-1J section does include line art of VF-1J white/red in full color Fighter and Fighter ventral view, full color Battroid and Battroid rear view and full color GERWALK and GERWALK rear view. Also included are full color pictures for all modes of the Max and Milia variants of the VF-1J Valkyrie. Also included is the VF-19 Excalibur Custom Sound Booster (color Battroid mode only) sheet, Lynn Minmay Character Sheet, Haruhiko Mikimoto Gallery Sheet (with another 2-page fold out painting), Mash Macross II Character sheet, 1999-2004 Timeline Sheet, Sharon Apple History Sheet, Technology Sheet, Sheryl Nome Song Sheet, the old Bandai 1/55 scale VF-1J transformable toy Goods Sheet, a subscription sheet and a Yamato advertisement sheet for the VF-1A Valkyrie 1/48 scale Max and the VF-1S Super Valkyrie 1/48 scale Hikaru weathered.
Without a doubt the Macross Chronicle is designed to be a
fan book. It's filled with plenty of flavor text, official trivia and is very colorful. It's designed to cover ALL aspects of the Macross universe, NOT focus upon only one facet of the fiction. So it cannot be emphasized enough that - based on the mechanic sections of issue 1 - the Macross Chronicle is NOT a replacement for the art books of the Macross Mecha, like the
Shoji Kawamori Macross Design Works book for example. Other than the full color pictures, there is not a lot of extra line art to admire and most of the non-color pictures are small. However, since this is the first time we've ever seen the Macross mecha colored in a collected work, this book is a real treasure.
Speaking as owner of the Macross Mecha Manual, the coloring is definitely a step up from my own coloring work :)
Here's some sample pictures:
http://www.new-un-spacy.com/miscella...le01-front.jpg
http://www.new-un-spacy.com/miscella...1-vf1j-pg3.jpg
http://www.new-un-spacy.com/miscella...e01-minmay.jpg
http://www.new-un-spacy.com/miscella...f1jfighter.jpg