The Macross Valkyrie Thread

[Seto Kaiba]

Unfortunately, most of my "knowledge" about Macross 2 comes from the Palladium RPG books, which had great write-ups but I suspect were also rife with inaccuracies.

I've had a few conversations with the publisher about that game over the years. Palladium Books tried real hard and made a lot of unnecessary extra effort to seek out official information about the OVA, but between being very poorly served by an "expert" fan who seemingly didn't know his own arse from a hole in the ground, how spread out information about the OVA was in Japanese hobby magazines, and the wildly inaccurate information which English language hobby magazines were printing, the game ended up having so much wrong that you'd have fingers left over if you counted the parts the game actually got right.

Everything, even the year the story is set in, is listed incorrectly in the game. It's actually quite impressive in a "You tried" sort of way. It was the many MANY obvious errors in that game that first set me down the path of becoming a translator. I never marked directly on my copies, but the regulars in my RPG group used to joke that if I did my copy would have more red ink than black.

(I think my favorite error is the size given for the Macross Cannon-class gunships. The ones that are very clearly made from four Zentradi 4,000m long Nupetiet Vergnitzs-type fleet command battleships, which are canonically 6,000m long in cruiser mode and 4,000m long in storming attack mode. Palladium Books and Dream Pod 9 listed them as 488 meters long... on a page that has screenshots from the OVA showing one dwarfing an entire squadron of 500m-class Zentradi pickets.)

[Bluegazer79]

Unfortunately, most of my "knowledge" about Macross 2 comes from the Palladium RPG books, which had great write-ups but I suspect were also rife with inaccuracies.

(I think my favorite error is the size given for the Macross Cannon-class gunships. The ones that are very clearly made from four Zentradi 4,000m long Nupetiet Vergnitzs-type fleet command battleships, which are canonically 6,000m long in cruiser mode and 4,000m long in storming attack mode. Palladium Books and Dream Pod 9 listed them as 488 meters long... on a page that has screenshots from the OVA showing one dwarfing an entire squadron of 500m-class Zentradi pickets.)

Snip

Heh-heh, yeah that stood out to me as a seemingly obvious error, leaving me wondering "Did they leave out a zero or decimal place?...", because yes at 488m it would place the Macross Cannon in Macross Quarter territory, as opposed to the gargantuan size they otherwise seemed to be.

Gloria and Heracles seemed out of scale as well.

One of my favorite pieces of artwork from the Palladium RPG was also, unfortunately, incorrect. If I remember correctly, it was an illustration of a VF-2SS SAP in "Soldier" mode in a sort of "hero" pose, launching missiles from its arm and leg launchers, hovering with.... clouds in the background, indicating it was flying around in an atmosphere (face palm).

Following up on the railguns, yes that also confused me about the Defender EX, as the animation seemed to show the arms as energy weapons, but as pointed out they were in fact railguns....

It would have been interesting to learn more about the VF-XX fighter, and the state of the Zentran soldiers more generally who were serving in the UN Spacy. Had they all converted to flying the VF-XX? Or were some of them still deploying with the more traditional Zentran mecha? Per the storyline of Macross 2, they certainly weren't short on surplus Zentradi hardware, as evidenced by the UN Spacy warships.

[Bluegazer79]

It was the many MANY obvious errors in that game that first set me down the path of becoming a translator.

-- Snip --

I really appreciate your taking the time to translate the source materials and distributing the information for the rest of us. I've enjoyed the Macross Mecha Manual since the early days, and regularly check for updates (thanks for keeping it up and alive!).

Do you have any suggestions regarding sources for translations? I've been slowly trying to use Google Translate on my Master Files books, with the obvious frustrations, tedium, and rather poor translations.

[Seto Kaiba]

One of my favorite pieces of artwork from the Palladium RPG was also, unfortunately, incorrect. If I remember correctly, it was an illustration of a VF-2SS SAP in "Soldier" mode in a sort of "hero" pose, launching missiles from its arm and leg launchers, hovering with.... clouds in the background, indicating it was flying around in an atmosphere (face palm).

There was another similar one like that for the Macross Cannon-class, showing it flying through clouds even though their stats said that it wasn't able to enter the atmosphere...

(Which was, itself, a bizarre contradiction to the setting where basically any ship with a gravity control system - meaning any ship period - can fly in an atmosphere in at least a limited fashion.)

It would have been interesting to learn more about the VF-XX fighter, and the state of the Zentran soldiers more generally who were serving in the UN Spacy. Had they all converted to flying the VF-XX? Or were some of them still deploying with the more traditional Zentran mecha? Per the storyline of Macross 2, they certainly weren't short on surplus Zentradi hardware, as evidenced by the UN Spacy warships.

The VF-XX is unfortunately shafted by its role as the oldest currently-in-service VF in Macross II and a transitory model between the pre-2054 VF designs like the VF-1改 Refined Valkyrie or VF-4S Lightning III and post-2054 VF-2 series. It was the first new model developed using the technology reverse engineered from the captured Nosjadeul-Ger battle suit factory satellite in the 2060s and the proof-of-concept for the 2070-era VF-2 Valkyrie that diverged into the VF-2SS and VF-2JA in the 2080s. It was largely retired from service when the Mardook invaded in 2092, while the Spacy pilots had mainly transitioned to the VF-2SS.

2092-era Earth didn't really make much distinction between Humans and Zentradi (which would be understandable given that Zentradi on post-Space War 1 Earth outnumbered humans 8 to 1) so there don't appear to be a lot of Zentradi-only roles aside from the giants we see who are presumably the deck crews of the Zentradi ships the UN Spacy makes use of.

Do you have any suggestions regarding sources for translations? I've been slowly trying to use Google Translate on my Master Files books, with the obvious frustrations, tedium, and rather poor translations.

Ah, Google Translate produces some... interesting... interpretations. That's the problem with machine code translators in general, is that many aren't context sensitive and will just pick and apply Definition #1 from their internal dictionary for any word. It produces some VERY interesting gaffes with Chinese too, especially in the dry goods section of your grocery store where it can start dropping F-bombs.

The fan translators working on Macross stuff have kind of taken a divide and conquer approach. Richard Clark of Gubabablog does a lot of stuff the light novels Aaron Sketchley of Sketchley's Macross Gateway does piecemeal stuff from Macross Chronicle and periodicals, and in the past I've mainly focused on full-length artbooks. Branching out a bit lately with a project I'm way behind on launching that aims to expand Mecha Manual style coverage to the rest of the setting.

[Mafty]

Translation issues and fan misinformation do seem to be a reoccurring problem in the Anime community at times, and this was particularly the case early in the fandom(look at a lot of issues surrounding Robotech for example, or the odd changes made in the DBZ dub). I remember hearing about an "Interview" Kawamori gave after Macross Frontier, that later turned out was a fabrication made up by somebody in the community. There are also numerous issues where rumors about Gundam series behind the scene issue are taken as fact(I'll admit, I used to do this, until I started looking more into sources validity).

On a more minor note; upon the release of many fantasy and science fiction anime (where the naming system in series is not necessarily based in Japanese) there is often debate on the correct English translations of the names.

The far future setting actually makes a lot of sense for Macross II, particularly in the widely different designs of the mechs(kind of like the Non Canon Gaia Gear, with it's radically different and exotic mech and vehicle designs, which is saying something as most side stories by Tomino had unique designs provided by the mech designer).

The Mardook Variable Fighter being a successor to the Battle Pod , also makes sense when you examine the design, which kind of looks like a battle pod modified into a mech.

[Seto Kaiba]

Translation issues and fan misinformation do seem to be a reoccurring problem in the Anime community at times, and this was particularly the case early in the fandom(look at a lot of issues surrounding Robotech for example, or the odd changes made in the DBZ dub).

That's a bit different... in part because shows like Robotech lacked official materials of their own, and Dragon Ball Z's dub was a deliberate and necessary bowdlerizion intended to meet broadcast standards in the west. Perhaps the worst example of that kind of thing is Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, which will always and forever have issues in its coverage because differences in trademark law enforcement mean it can never get a truly accurate translation with English translators having to write around the literal hundreds of trademarked song titles, album titles, and names of artists or bands Araki used for character and stand names.

Fans later came along and made things worse, but it was already awful from the outset for reasons unrelated to the quality of the translations. (Not counting the hilariously bad Streamline Pictures subs for the Robotech Perfect Collection. THAT was a genuine bad translation of legendary proportions, full of pants-on-head idiot level work.)

On a more minor note; upon the release of many fantasy and science fiction anime (where the naming system in series is not necessarily based in Japanese) there is often debate on the correct English translations of the names.

That's also not really a translation problem, per se, but a difficulty caused by there being several different accepted transliteration systems which are equally valid and the inherent limitations of the Japanese alphabets. With a side order of translation issues going the other way as Japanese authors struggle to sound out their chosen transliterations in kana with mixed results (e.g. Maruyama's Overlord or Miya Kazuki's Ascendance of a Bookworm) or adopt deliberately confusing transliterations that can't be sounded out at all (e.g. Macross's Zentradi names). It's less a matter of objectively right vs. objectively wrong and more a matter multiple answers that are equally valid until the author clarifies the matter.

The far future setting actually makes a lot of sense for Macross II, particularly in the widely different designs of the mechs(kind of like the Non Canon Gaia Gear, with it's radically different and exotic mech and vehicle designs, which is saying something as most side stories by Tomino had unique designs provided by the mech designer).

Macross II's far future setting is, as I understand it, for somewhat similar reasons of wanting to do a sequel but needing to put some distance between the sequel and the original for reasons of IP ownership. Big West was making the OVA without most of the original creators, so they had decided to put enough distance between it and DYRL? to avoid any possible legal issues. The technological differences aren't as radical as in Gaia Gear, but then Macross II did take the view that human development of overtechnology proceeded at a more reserved pace with a number of fits and starts as new doodads were captured and analyzed.

The Mardook Variable Fighter being a successor to the Battle Pod , also makes sense when you examine the design, which kind of looks like a battle pod modified into a mech.

It's never been described as a successor to the battle pod. Indeed, the Mardook make extensive use of their Regult and Glaug equivalents. It's just another elite Zentradi unit used by the Mardook's even-more-expendable mind controlled Zentradi.

[Bluegazer79]

Do the sources ever discuss how the leg thrusters work in the Neo Glaug/Variable Glaug? This has always been one of my favorite designs, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the logistics of hovering/limited flight when in Gerwalk/"Glaug" mode. Is plasma from the engines re-routed through the legs to the feet? Or, are they separate thrusters that use slush hydrogen?

Also, do we have a sense of the power output on the large bore beam cannon?

Due to the relatively simple transformation mechanics of the Neo Glaug, with the central body/fuselage being fixed (just the arms, legs and engines move), it would seem like a reasonably "tanky"/durable design.

I would have loved to see the Neo Glaug as the primary antagonist in the Macross Plus shows in lieu of the X-9, not just playing second fiddle to the X-9 in the video game.....

[False Prophet]

You know, with how much the Protoculture had their noses in everything, and just how humanity is trying to trace back their steps, it would be fun for the next Macross to build on the ideas alluded to in Zero and Delta--having a cult that say only they know the full plan the Protoculture had in store for human, and is willing to take action to "correct" mankind. And then it turns out that not all the things they preached were wrong...

Anyway, how would the landscape of VF design change if in the main timeline, engineers are able to iron out all the problems with power distribution while achieving the same level of power output of the VF-2? Would we see railguns being put on VF?

And while I was researching about the VF-1SS's Gunroid mode (What the hell is it?), I came across this paper: https://s3images.coroflot.com/user_file ... eZZVjK.pdf Anyone know if is there anything wrong with the information being presented?

Is it just me or does it feel like the VF from Macross II seem to have taken a cue from the arcade at the time? What I mean is that the VC-079, VF-1SS, Marduk VF, etc. look like they would fit in a shoot 'em up game, unlike the more fighter-like design of the YF-19 and YF-21.

...Now I want a game where you can control the Gigamesh. It is such a shame that the Zentrandi in the main timeline never got their hands on something that cool.

[Mafty]

I can't find any more information on the Variable Glaug's Thursters or Beam Cannon output. However there are actually a couple of reasons behind the limited Zentradi Mechs in Macross Plus

This post with Kaiba (viewtopic.php?p=397316#p397316) discusses the background of Plus. Basically in the mid 80s Kawamori came up with an independent story idea called "Advanced Valkyrie", which never got out of the pre production stage. Ten years later the designs and outline were ultimately reworked as Macross Plus(a similar thing happened with Kawamori's Air Cavalry Chronicles which was reworked story wise into Vision of Escaflowne and mechanical wise into Macross 7, Several Macross video games, ultimately Delta).

The base story of a feud between test pilots is kept the same. However the story was moved to planet Eden in the 2040s instead of Earth in the 2000's, the group NOVA was changed to UN Spacey, One of the characters became part Zentradi, Plus the whole Idol love triangle thing. This is why story wise you don't really see Zentradi mech, because it initially wasn't a Macross story at all. Indeed aside from Guld's Zentradi heritage , you really see on one direct instance of war with renegade Zentradi, in the opening sequence.

Also I agree with False Prophet, it would be interesting to find out more about the whole Bird Human Protoculture thing from Zero.

[Seto Kaiba]

Do the sources ever discuss how the leg thrusters work in the Neo Glaug/Variable Glaug? This has always been one of my favorite designs, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the logistics of hovering/limited flight when in Gerwalk/"Glaug" mode. Is plasma from the engines re-routed through the legs to the feet? Or, are they separate thrusters that use slush hydrogen?

Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of technical information available on the Variable Glaug.

As the turbine section of the main engines remains up on the back of the unit, I'd assume that the legs are operating using a sub-engine of some kind like the VF-22.

Also, do we have a sense of the power output on the large bore beam cannon?

For the same reasons as above, officially no.

It seems likely that, as a large and supposedly high-powered electron particle beam cannon, its output is probably several dozen megawatts.

Due to the relatively simple transformation mechanics of the Neo Glaug, with the central body/fuselage being fixed (just the arms, legs and engines move), it would seem like a reasonably "tanky"/durable design.

It's actually mentioned as being somewhat delicate. Apparently the transformation and its odd aerodynamics make it a difficult craft to handle and make its power distribution system a bit peaky.

I would have loved to see the Neo Glaug as the primary antagonist in the Macross Plus shows in lieu of the X-9, not just playing second fiddle to the X-9 in the video game.....

Well, for what it's worth, the Neo Glaug did have a manned variant that becomes a proper antagonist mecha in Macross R and the novelization of Macross Frontier. (Apparently quite a popular option for the Zentradi in the New UN Forces.)

You know, with how much the Protoculture had their noses in everything, and just how humanity is trying to trace back their steps, it would be fun for the next Macross to build on the ideas alluded to in Zero and Delta--having a cult that say only they know the full plan the Protoculture had in store for human, and is willing to take action to "correct" mankind. And then it turns out that not all the things they preached were wrong...

It's probably not an idea that would gain a lot of traction since many Zentradi believe Earth's culture is The Best Thing Ever and the declassification of records surrounding the Birdhuman incident combined with the many incidences of the Protoculture building reckless and self-destructive things that backfired on them and/or needed to be sealed and buried for the good of the galaxy would make any claim of the Protoculture's perfect plan a highly dubious one at best. Especially since events like the Varauta conflict were not suppressed and the declassified records from the Birdhuman incident were adapted into a popular movie.

Anyway, how would the landscape of VF design change if in the main timeline, engineers are able to iron out all the problems with power distribution while achieving the same level of power output of the VF-2? Would we see railguns being put on VF?

You'd probably have seen VFs with a lot less engine power to free up the plasma for generator output. The Valkyrie II only has around twice the main engine power of a VF-1 but more than three times the generator power available.

Then again, some defensive systems on main timeline VFs are just such massive energy hogs that it may still have taken ages to reach that point... energy conversion armor consumed the vast majority of the available generator output on the VFs of the first few generations. They were beaten by pinpoint barriers for most power-intensive system from the 4th Generation onwards.

And while I was researching about the VF-1SS's Gunroid mode (What the hell is it?), I came across this paper: https://s3images.coroflot.com/user_file ... eZZVjK.pdf Anyone know if is there anything wrong with the information being presented?

That's not a paper, that's an excerpt from a magazine article published in R. Talsorian Games' long-defunct anime hobby magazine V.Max.

The anime boom in the early 90's spawned a lot of relatively short-lived anime hobby magazines from publishers in the US and Canada. Most were iffy quality-wise and a lot of them used the same small group of authors so misinformation was rampant therein. The article contains quite a few inaccuracies, and is mostly plagiarized from Bandai's B-Club magazine volume 79. Much of the information is wrong, with the author putting their own suppositions in where they could not find information. The VF-4 was designed as a transformable fighter from the start, like the VF-5000, and the VF-5 is a different aircraft and program entirely. The VF-1R is also known as the VF-1改 Attack Valkyrie, and it's about eighteen years older than the article claims. It also conflates the VF-2 and VF-2SS, which were introduced ten years apart.

Is it just me or does it feel like the VF from Macross II seem to have taken a cue from the arcade at the time? What I mean is that the VC-079, VF-1SS, Marduk VF, etc. look like they would fit in a shoot 'em up game, unlike the more fighter-like design of the YF-19 and YF-21.

Their designs are fairly typical for the time they were made... though Macross II did result in at least two games in that genre, a side-scrolling arcade game based on the OVA itself and a PC Engine game Macross 2036 that is a canonical prequel to the OVA and the only starring role of Max and Milia's oldest daughter Komilia.

...Now I want a game where you can control the Gigamesh. It is such a shame that the Zentrandi in the main timeline never got their hands on something that cool.

The Gigamesh was a playable mecha in Artdink's "Flight Action RPG" Macross Ultimate Frontier for the PSP.

(Artdink is also the developer of Macross 30 and the only Macross Delta game I'm aware of, Macross Delta Scramble[/u].)

[Mafty]

So what exactly is the difference between a Battle Pod and a regular Mech? It almost seems as though like the Ball in Gundam, or the AT-ST and AT-AT in Star Wars, the smaller units might be more vulnerable. That being said various armies keep using them so maybe that's not the case.

[Seto Kaiba]

So what exactly is the difference between a Battle Pod and a regular Mech? It almost seems as though like the Ball in Gundam, or the AT-ST and AT-AT in Star Wars, the smaller units might be more vulnerable. That being said various armies keep using them so maybe that's not the case.

Macross really doesn't have a single "default" category for its mecha the way other settings like Gundam do.

Zentradi mobile weapons are divided into a couple different categories. "Pods" is a really broad category that covers a wide variety of non-humanoid mobile weapons that make up the majority of the Zentradi inventory. There are a bunch of different types, but they tend to be structurally a cockpit, a propulsion system, and some weapons or mission-specific hardware. Almost all of them lack manipulators entirely and the few that have them have only basic ones. The regular Battle Pods are intended for both land and space warfare. The Air Combat/Dogfight Pods are essentially the Zentradi's equivalent of fighter aircraft. Reconnaissance Pods are the equivalent of ELINT/AWACS aircraft, and so on. Battle Suits are not quite a powered suit given that the pilot isn't controlling the limbs directly, being essentially a more advanced form of Pod with a humanoid form and precision manipulators intended for elite forces.

[Bluegazer79]

I'm curious about the mission described in the Project Super Nova brief. My memory is that a primary part of the mission was to have a variable fighter fold into or near a hostile fleet, and attack command & control or a flagship with reaction weaponry. I'm curious about the logistics of how exactly this was supposed to work?

-- Would the VF-19/VF-22 use a fold booster to get close, discard the fold booster, perform the mission, then return to the fold booster for the trip home? Or:

-- Was the intent for the VF-19/VF-22 to keep the fold booster attached during the raid, and fold out as soon as they'd launched the reaction missiles?

-- Does the variable fighter sized fold booster have sufficient power for two nearly consecutive folds?

-- Does the fold booster run on its own power, or does it draw power from the VF?

-- Were all subsequent Gen 4 and Gen 5 variable fighters designed with this capability/mission profile in mind? Or was this specific to the VF-19/YF-21/VF-22 program?

[Seto Kaiba]

I'm curious about the mission described in the Project Super Nova brief. My memory is that a primary part of the mission was to have a variable fighter fold into or near a hostile fleet, and attack command & control or a flagship with reaction weaponry. I'm curious about the logistics of how exactly this was supposed to work?

One quick correction... it was without using reaction weapons. 4th Generation Variable Fighters were developed at a time when tensions among emigrant planets and between emigrant planets and the central New UN Government were on the rise, so a big part of their intended operational role was suppressing armed uprisings and terrorist groups on emigrant planets. Using thermonuclear reaction weapons against another NUNG member state was pretty much off the table for any local New UN Forces group and the central forces.

-- Would the VF-19/VF-22 use a fold booster to get close, discard the fold booster, perform the mission, then return to the fold booster for the trip home? Or:

-- Was the intent for the VF-19/VF-22 to keep the fold booster attached during the raid, and fold out as soon as they'd launched the reaction missiles?

-- Does the variable fighter sized fold booster have sufficient power for two nearly consecutive folds?

Fold boosters in the 2040s were single-use systems rated for a one-way trip of not more than 20 light years. It wasn't until later, in the 2050s, that the technology improved to the point that they could be used for multiple fold jumps and longer distances.

The only described attack of this type was a training exercise used to demonstrate the capabilities of the 5th Generation YF-24 Evolution prototype in 2057. In that instance, the fold booster was used to jump directly into close proximity with an enemy flagship and launch a (simulated) missile strike against it before bugging out under cover of the fighter's active stealth.

It seems likely the 4th Generation VFs were intended to do something similar, using a fold booster to either enter orbit of a planet or the vicinity of an enemy ship discreetly, launch their attack, and then operate under the cover of their active stealth while they link up with friendly forces advancing to take advantage of the enemy's disorientation after their command structure was decapitated.

-- Does the fold booster run on its own power, or does it draw power from the VF?

The initial type was likely internally powered by a high energy capacitor, given that we see Liza Hoyly "borrow" one from the arms dealers selling to the whale poachers in Macross Dynamite 7 and use it without physically connecting it to her "borrowed" VF-17.

Later, reusable models likely set up a connection by which that capacitor could be recharged in the field from the Valkyrie's generators.

-- Were all subsequent Gen 4 and Gen 5 variable fighters designed with this capability/mission profile in mind? Or was this specific to the VF-19/YF-21/VF-22 program?

This operating profile ended up on the back burner almost immediately for a number of reasons:

• Isamu and Guld's little stunt in 2040 (Macross Plus) in which they independently penetrated Earth's orbital defenses led to the central New UN Forces and New UN Government becoming reluctant to permit the VF-19 (and VF-22) to be exported to emigrant governments in light of the risk that those capabilities could be used against them should the VF-19/VF-22 fall into the hands of anti-government forces.
• Earth and the central New UN Forces ended up scrapping plans to adopt the VF-19 as the next main fighter shortly after they started transitioning their forces to the VF-19A. The first few units sent in to retrain on the new model ran into significant trouble doing so when the VF-19's exceptonally high performance proved to be more than average pilots could handle, leading to a number of accidents and crashes resulting from its pilots losing control of it under high g-loads. This decision, combined with the above, led to the VF-19 being sidelined and joining the VF-22 as a Special Forces Valkyrie.
• In 2050-2051, tensions between the pro-centralization and pro-autonomy factions within the New UN Government and New UN Forces exploded into an event referred to in the 2060s as the Second Unification War. The pro-centralization faction that wanted to concentrate governing authority back on Earth and govern emigrant planets remotely launched an armed coup intent on seizing control of the government by hijacking Earth's own defense flagship Macross 13. Their plot was discovered and subsequently foiled shortly after the coup attempt began by the combined effort of the 727th Independent Squadron of the Spacy's VF-X Special Forces and an elite anti-fascist paramilitary force called Vindirance that was covertly supported by pro-autonomy New UN Forces personnel including the Jenius family. In the wake of that confict, governmental reforms granted more autonomy to the emigrant governments and imposed tighter and more local controls over the New UN Forces regional commands to prevent those abuses of military authority that had been used to suppress emigrant pro-autonomy movements in the past. As such, the conflicts that capability'd been developed for largely stopped happening.

[Seto Kaiba]

-- Were all subsequent Gen 4 and Gen 5 variable fighters designed with this capability/mission profile in mind? Or was this specific to the VF-19/YF-21/VF-22 program?

To briefly add to what I said on this point in my last post, despite the New UN Forces ultimately scrapping plans for widespread adoption of Shinsei's VF-19 in favor of the less-extreme but just as advanced General Galaxy VF-171 pretty much any 4th or 5th Generation VF is capable of operating like that. The same technology that allowed that is present on all 4th and 5th Generation VFs, it's more a matter of that specific type of operation ending up much less important after the Second Unification War ironed out most of the tension between emigrant governments and the tensions between a number of emigrant governments and the central New UN Government.

Mainly, that operating profile depended on a combination of fold booster compatibility and the adoption of 3rd Generation active stealth technology and improved passive stealth measures more than anything else.

[Bluegazer79]

I'm curious about the mission described in the Project Super Nova brief. My memory is that a primary part of the mission was to have a variable fighter fold into or near a hostile fleet, and attack command & control or a flagship with reaction weaponry. I'm curious about the logistics of how exactly this was supposed to work?

One quick correction... it was without using reaction weapons. 4th Generation Variable Fighters were developed at a time when tensions among emigrant planets and between emigrant planets and the central New UN Government were on the rise, so a big part of their intended operational role was suppressing armed uprisings and terrorist groups on emigrant planets. Using thermonuclear reaction weapons against another NUNG member state was pretty much off the table for any local New UN Forces group and the central forces.[/list]

Hah! Goes to show the things a person forgets 25+ years after watching an OVA.... Thanks for the correction on that, I had it in my head it was intended for Zentran fleets (thousands or millions of ships), it would make sense that they would avoid reaction weapons otherwise.

[Mafty]

So the Fold Booster is single use only. I seem to remember in the old review for one of the Macross 7 OVA's (SPOILER), Chris pointed out how Fire Bomber discarded their only Booster's at the beginning , and it's not shown how they can return to the ship. So if someone folds to an active battleground, how exactly do they get back?

Also with the VF-19 thing, didn't Chief Johnson say that the VF-19 testing ended up killing a lot of test pilots due to the strain? So it really seems like Isamu was one of the few who could actually handle it.

Also I thought I read somewhere that Isamu and the YF-19 make a cameo appearance in the Second Macross Frontier movie. Is that actually true?

[Seto Kaiba]

So the Fold Booster is single use only. I seem to remember in the old review for one of the Macross 7 OVA's (SPOILER), Chris pointed out how Fire Bomber discarded their only Booster's at the beginning , and it's not shown how they can return to the ship. So if someone folds to an active battleground, how exactly do they get back?

They link up with friendly forces following on the initial assault. Or they carry a second fold booster, as shown in a few shots in Master File.

Also with the VF-19 thing, didn't Chief Johnson say that the VF-19 testing ended up killing a lot of test pilots due to the strain? So it really seems like Isamu was one of the few who could actually handle it.

Dr. Neumann did... the YF-19 had, at the time Isamu joined the program in 2040, had a troubled development and test cycle that had seen one of the prototypes destroyed in a testing accident and four test pilots removed from the program. Two especially unlucky test pilots died in the line of duty, and the other two were hospitalized with severe injuries. IIRC, the English translation of the OVA somewhat insensitively referred to it as two of 'em receiving a double-promotion in their coffins and the other two "giving the health plan a whirl". The deaths and injuries were the result of crashes and other failures, not the fighter's performance on its own.

Also I thought I read somewhere that Isamu and the YF-19 make a cameo appearance in the Second Macross Frontier movie. Is that actually true?

So... half right? Lemme find my Obi-wan Kenobi robes so I can "certain point of view" up in here...

Macross Frontier: the Wings of Farewell does technically have an Isamu cameo. Mind you, the reason I say "technically" is that Isamu himself is not actually in the movie. A fighter piloted by him appears in the movie as part of the New UN Forces and SMS reinforcements at the end of the film and he has one line of dialog that is enough to clue fans in as to who is flying the fighter in question, but the character is not visible in the cockit and not named or otherwise identified except in the credits. It's entirely on fans to join up the dots.

HOWEVER... the fighter he arrives in is not a YF-19. It looks like a YF-19, but it isn't one. Prior to Macross Chronicle's 2nd Edition offering it an official designation, it had several conflicting ones. The movie artbook calls it only "VF-19 SMS verson" and the novelization of the movie called it a "VF-19ADVANCE". The official line cut a dash between the two and called it the VF-19EF/A Excalibur ADVANCE and "Isamu Special". After Isamu's retirement from the NUNS he tried to get his hands on a VF-19 through "unofficial" channels by asking Dr. Neumann to sell him parts under the table and Dr. Neumann was having none of it. To stop Isamu from committing a crime, Dr. Neumann strongarmed Isamu into funding a test model VF-19 that could be used for late service life upgrade data collection that he could fly when he took a job with SMS. It started as a VF-19EF, an export type developed by the Macross Frontier fleet based on the VF-19E and which had previously been used by SMS. Isamu had it selectively customized for the purpose of restoring as much of the YF-19 No.2's unstable handling and appearance as possible. Under the hood, it's a late 2050s production VF-19, but it has the YF-19 No.2's paintjob and some downgrades to things like the airframe control AI to make it perform more like the YF-19 No.2.

[Seto Kaiba]

-- Does the variable fighter sized fold booster have sufficient power for two nearly consecutive folds?

-- Does the fold booster run on its own power, or does it draw power from the VF?

I was doing a bit of idle translation work while I waited for a repairman to finish pronouncing an appliance deceased, and stumbled across a related interesting point.

Variable Fighter Master File: VF-19 Excalibur and Variable Fighter Master File: VF-22 Sturmvogel II offer some commentary on the initial type OTEC/Shinnakasu FBF-1000A Fold Booster. It doesn't directly address the power supply question, but it does offer an explanation for why that initial model fold booster had such short range and was single-use. Initially, the miniaturization of the fold system was achieved in part by reducing system complexity and offboarding as many computation-intensive tasks as possible to the Valkyrie's control AI. The obstacle to reusability and to longer-distance fold jumps is said therein to be that the quality of the fold carbon used in the initial-type fold booster was low. The simplified fold system of the fold booster required large quantities of fold carbon to produce enough heavy quanta to fold higher-dimensional spacetime, and the subsequent breakdown in the fold carbon caused by the fold booster's simplified operation left it only reliable for not more than 20 light years, one way, one time, before needing to be serviced or replaced. Later-generation fold boosters apparently took advantage of improved synthesis of fold carbon to use better-grade materials.

(There is also an interesting aside in the VF-22 book where it is alleged that the inspiration for the Dimension Eater, the horrific fold bombs that were used to such great effect in Macross Frontier, came from a General Galaxy transport ship's ad hoc weaponization of a fold booster to repel an unknown attacking force in 2043.)

[Seto Kaiba]

For the curious, it looks like we finally have an answer to the question of what the custom VF-31AX Kairos Plus's specs look like courtesy of Variable Fighter Master File: VF-31AX Kairos Plus.

It's... underwhelming. By in large, the specs are almost completely unaltered from the stock VF-31A Kairos. The only noteworthy differences are the wingspan's 170cm narrower on the AX type, it sits a little flatter (but that may be a typo), and it has a new model engine FF-3001/FC3 that somehow has exactly the same performance as the FF-3001A engine used on the stock VF-31A (1,645kN).

It really is beginning to look like, cosmetic changes aside, the Kairos Plus really is just a Kairos with a Fold Wave System.