Macross "Canon"

[Yot-chan]

Originally Posted by karice67

Just wondering - did they also say when and where in the universe they were published, like this one does?

The VF-19 book was published in May 2050, from MBS Publishing House, and the VF-1 Space Wings book was March 2030, from Macross Broadcasting Publishing.

[karice67]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

So, basically every piece of Macross Frontier fiction is supposed to be a different take on things by authors in-universe? Even the TV series? I'm not so happy with this intepretation, if that is the case. I'd rather see the TV series as the "true story" and the other works go from there, each presenting a idealized version of the real events.

Yup, that's how Kawamori approaches it.

I personally think he has a point: for example, about 10 years ago, I read Black Hawk Down and then saw the film. They are different, and some of the changes were made so that it would flow better on screen, others because they wanted to distance themselves from a real person because of what he did in subsequent years (or so I've heard). However, is the book the 'real story' of what happened in Modagishu in 1993? Nope. At best, it's what one person has put together based on a lot of other documents, and also what many of the people involved told him. And even those people aren't completely represented in either book or film, or even both combined. I find it interesting to think about Macross along similar lines.

That said, I interpret his 'parallel worlds' comment as saying that he doesn't mind how fans and viewers decide they want to look at it. It's just that if you ask Kawamori himself, 'different representations of a real history' is how he has created/supervised everything Macross for quite a few years.

So, as I've noted before, it's entirely up to you what you want to make of Macross 'canon'.

Originally Posted by Yot-chan

The VF-19 book was published in May 2050, from MBS Publishing House, and the VF-1 Space Wings book was March 2030, from Macross Broadcasting Publishing.

Thank you! I'll add that to the info post too

[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by karice67

So, as I've noted before, it's entirely up to you what you want to make of Macross 'canon'.

As for me, I'll keep the different continuities separate.

[karice67]

This article about 'listening' and story-telling in African culture isn't directly related to this topic, but I think it's an interesting point to consider when comparing Kawamori's approach to what quite a few (Westernized) fans seem to want...


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Also, added

Originally Posted by karice67

edit: A question that arises is: exactly when did Kawamori decide on the above approach? Materials that some older Macross fans have found suggest that it was still being ironed out during the development and production of Macross Plus and Macross 7. (see the Q&A thread on MW for more details.)

to the first post, and revamped the 3rd post.

[karice67]

For the record, I've added the disclaimers from more of the Variable Fighter Master Files Series to the second post. Interestingly, the majority of them were published in-universe in Macross City, the exceptions being the VF-25 encyclopedia/reference (Macross Olympia) and the VF-22 encyclopedia/reference (the Planet Eden).