2010-10-23, 17:11
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Link #123 |
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Beautiful fighter.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: England, UK
Age: 37
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Thanks so much for the translation Yot-chan. I laughed my arse off when originally checking this out in volume 06, though now knowing what's been said makes it all the more fun.
Best parts are of course, Macross 7 shout out, Isamu x Guld doujin and Luca death. 
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2010-11-25, 02:30
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Link #125 |
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Minmay Guard
Join Date: May 2009
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Just dropped by the bookstore and picked up the Nyan Dra comic by Megane Kikuya today. It's not really anything new, since I saw all the comics when they were serialized in Macross Ace, but it's still nice to have in book form.
 It's of course based on the Nyan Dra drama albums, telling one story from each of the four volumes, and generally favoring the stories written by Hiroyuki Yoshino. Four stories are included: "Alto Meets Sky," "The Melancholy of Pixie Team," "Pineapple Cake," and "Galaxy Memory." Of these, only "Galaxy Memory" (which I'm sure you've all already seen) could be considered essential, but the stories on the albums vary wildly, from interesting to mediocre, to worthless. The comic adapts most of the good stories, and avoids the terrible ones (suggestions if they ever decide to do Vol. 2 of the comic: "Sheryl's Heart-Thumping First Experience," "Luca and the Three Ghosts," and "Alto and Sheryl and a Chinese Dress"). Spoiler for Sample pics chosen COMPLETELY AT RANDOM.:
The artwork is really nice. Kikuya captures the characters well. There's only one picture of a mecha (Klan's Queadluun-Rea's head), but that looks pretty good, too. Most of the compliments of Kikuya's work, though, should be directed at his adaptation of the stories. Audio dramas of necessity don't have a lot of motion or action; they're mostly just characters talking to each other. Kikuya does a great job of making them more dynamic on the page. Sometimes, as in "Alto Meets Sky," he even expands the story quite a bit, which in some ways is great (After performing in Romeo and Juliet, as Juliet of course, Alto gets accosted by Michel, who asks him, "So, what are you planning on doing next? Cinderella? The Little Mermaid?") but also adds a few continuity problems into the mix: namely, that "Alto Meets Sky," focusing on Alto in middle school, doesn't have Sheryl or Ranka in it, and so Kikuya wedges them in. In Ranka's case, this is fine...at the end, she stares transfixed at what looks like a shooting star inside the ship, but is actually Alto flying his Ex-Gear. But adding Sheryl into the story totally doesn't work. This is set somewhere around 2055, and yet Michel and Luca are ogling a Sheryl photobook. Shouldn't it be another few years before she debuts...? But I guess that, in the grand scheme of things, this comic breaks less with continuity than, say, the Sheryl: Kiss in the Galaxy manga, so I probably shouldn't be carping. Overall, yeah...I'm glad I got it, which is more than I can say for some of the other Frontier comics (*cough* SMS Tales *cough*). The funny thing for me is that the book came with a questionnaire for market research purposes, and I finally realized, "HELL YEAH! I'm part of their target demographic now!" So I'm gonna fill it out and send it in. It asks seven questions: 1. Where did you find out about this comic? A. Macross Ace B. Some other magazine: C. From a friend D. Saw it in the bookstore E. From a website: F. Other: (I answered "A.") 2. Why did you buy this comic? (Check all that apply) A. I like Macross F. B. I like Sheryl. C. I like Ranka D. I'm a fan of the artist. E. The cover illustration was interesting. F. I like the "Nyan Dra" drama CDs. G. Other: (I chose A, F, and wrote in "I love Macross mecha and Nanase" in G.) 3. How often do you buy "Macross Ace"? A. Every issue. B. Sometimes. C. Never. (I chose A.) 4. How often do you buy "Gundam Ace"? (Same options as question 3. I again chose A.) 5. Did you buy the DVD or Blu-Ray of Macross F: The False Diva? A. I bought the Blu-Ray. B. I bought the DVD. C. I didn't buy it. (I chose B.) 6. Will you go see Macross F: The Wings of Farewell? A. I'll definitely go. B. Maybe I'll go. C. I won't go. (I chose A.) 7. Additional comments about the book: (I want to write something for this, but I'm not sure what to put yet..."Please make fewer high school stories and more action stories," maybe. Or "Please explore more of the Macross universe." I dunno.)
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2010-11-25, 04:30
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Link #127 | |
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Minmay Guard
Join Date: May 2009
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2010-11-25, 05:03
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Link #128 | |
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Beautiful fighter.
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: England, UK
Age: 37
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 Heh those pictures at random (did you scan them?). I had a feeling you loved them when i first came across them in Macross Ace volume 3.
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Last edited by Shiroth; 2010-11-25 at 06:56. |
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2010-11-25, 11:25
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Link #131 | |
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Minmay Guard
Join Date: May 2009
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2010-12-03, 11:12
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Link #133 |
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Minmay Guard
Join Date: May 2009
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Based on the conversation going on in the Sheryl Nome thread, I think it's time for another Frontier manga review. This time, it's Macross F: Secret Visions, which is plotted by Hiroyuki Yoshino and written and drawn by "okiura" (who was, for the first few chapters, known as "NOSHI." Why the name change? Beats me).
 It's hard to know what exactly to say about this comic. It's one of the "flagship titles" of Macross Ace magazine (along with Macross the First and Macross 7th Code), and it's been running since issue #1 (although it didn't appear in the last two issues). The fact that it's plotted by Yoshino (the scriptwriter from Frontier) gives it an authenticity a lot of the other comics lack, but, as of Vol. 1, the story appears to be just beginning to take off, and it's hard to tell where it's going to go from here. It's also hard to tell exactly when it's supposed to be set. Unlike the "Nyan Dra" drama album episodes which (mostly) play fair with chronology (generally being set either before the series, or during specific episodes), Secret Visions is not an easy fit anywhere. Sheryl is a student at Mihoshi High, but her illness is not yet apparent. However, Ranka is a professional singer in the story (albeit a young one, needing a lot of guidance from Sheryl). And that's BEFORE a major new character is introduced. See what I mean? Clearly, the timeline isn't much on Yoshino's mind, so I guess if it doesn't matter to him, it shouldn't matter to us. It starts off quite episodically, but gradually builds a plotline, which comes to something of a cliffhanger at the end of the book. The problem (for me) is that the early episodes are more like episode 8 than any of the rest of the show. The first chapter involves Sheryl filming a special music video, and Luca has secured the use of some powerful L.A.I. speaker pods to accompany her (these are indistinguishable from the speaker pods used by Michael and Ranka in episode 12). So, of course, the whole gang goes along to watch. The joke is that the speakers are SO powerful that they rip Sheryl's clothes off while she's singing. The second chapter begins to set the plot in motion, as a massive Zentradi battleship moves closer and closer to Frontier, but spends most of its time as everyone relaxes in a hot spring (and yes, Alto accidentally stumbles in while Ranka and Sheryl are naked). The third chapter also incrementally moves the story along, but also has a long section where Sheryl shows off her holographic costume changer to Alto, switching instantaneously from costume to costume (including Minmay and Mylene costumes) before malfunctioning and settling on "NUDE." (An argument ensues over whether or not it "counts" since Sheryl wasn't ACTUALLY nude.) Are you beginning to see why I'm kind of ambivalent about this comic? Luckily chapter 4 is no-nonsense, as Sheryl and Ranka perform a duet concert, and SMS launches to intercept the Zentradi battleship. Again, it ends on something of a cliffhanger (and something of a twist, as well). So I'll be interested in seeing where the comic goes from here. The art is really good...more stylized and individual than the Nyan-Dra comic, but all the characters are again quite obviously themselves. It definitely looks different from the show, but in a good way. Spoiler for Sample pics again chosen COMPLETELY AT RANDOM:
Okiura also does a good job during the dancing and singing sequences...at one point, the art gets extremely sketchy, and it seems almost careless until you realize that it captures the motion of Sheryl and Ranka's dancing quite well. He also manages to come up with a pretty bizarre Zentradi mecha, which is quite cool. So yeah...the art is the biggest draw for me currently. The story seems to be at a crossroads between simply setting up situations for Ranka and Sheryl to lose their clothes, or actually telling an interesting story. Obviously, I hope it goes for the latter. I'm assuming we'll know by the time Volume 2 comes out.
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2010-12-03, 19:52
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Link #135 | ||
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Minmay Guard
Join Date: May 2009
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Note that I'm not DEFENDING the approach...merely explaining it. Quote:
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2010-12-04, 03:12
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Link #136 | |
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Age: 48
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