[Yot-chan]

The Shaloom Question

Soon after Macross Frontier began its run on TV, a lot of behind-the-scenes information began to enter the English-speaking fandom courtesy of Shaloom of the Spanish forum, Macross Generation. This information was initially leaked out bit by bit, and then more information was consolidated in the form of liner notes, which accompanied Macross Generation's fansubs of Frontier. Shaloom not only provided exclusive information about Frontier, but also about previously unknown books and magazine articles about the original Macross series from 1982.

The sheer amount of data makes it difficult to summarize the contents of these posts, but the most exciting or controversial of them were:

1) That Sheryl was originally meant to be a minor character, until she proved popular in episode 5. The following episodes were hastily rewritten to give her a more prominent role.

2) That Sheryl was meant to die at the end of the series, but due to overwhelming fan support, this outcome was changed.

3) That Kawamori let his college friend (and frequent collaborator) Hiroshi Ohnogi write episodes 18~24, giving Ohnogi free rein to do whatever he wanted with the series. And also that Kawamori himself wrote episode 25.

4) That Ohnogi came out squarely on the side of Sheryl, wanting to sculpt her into the most memorable character he could; yet he encountered resistance from Kawamori, who favored Ranka.

5) Various personal stories about, for example, how Ohnogi and his wife met while making the first Macross series in 1982, and a script Ohnogi wrote for a love scene between himself and his wife, and how those "real-life" moments became part of the story of Frontier.

6) Many Macross novels and short stories written by Ohnogi in the early-to-mid 1980s.

Unfortunately, investigation of Shaloom's claims indicate that none of this information is true. The scripting duties on Frontier, according to every Japanese source, were performed by Hiroyuki Yoshino. Ohnogi is mentioned nowhere in any book, magazine, or DVD relating to Frontier (with the exception of episode 10: since some of the dialogue is taken verbatim from Macross Zero, which was written by Ohnogi, he is listed as a "script collaborator" for that episode).

Shaloom later admitted that his information was false, but declined to give specifics; without those specifics, it is hard to tell how much behind-the-scenes info about Frontier that has been disseminated among western fans is accurate, and how much is false. Furthermore, Shaloom gave similar information regarding Macross Zero, including claiming that he flew to Japan to interview Kawamori (the interview appears to be mostly cut and pasted from various existing Kawamori interviews).

In his explanation and apology, Shaloom said that he misremembered details while putting together the liner notes, but this does not appear to be credible, given that sources cited include interviews with Ohnogi (that Shaloom claimed he painstakingly transcribed) and books that Shaloom claims he owns, none of which appear to exist.

The current administrators of Macross Generation Forums have indicated their support for Shaloom and their belief that it was all a series of innocent mistakes. They have also made clear that they no longer view the topic as being worthy of discussion. Many errors remain, both in Shaloom's posts on the forum, and on the main site itself.

Recently (Aug. 6), Shaloom made a statement on Macross Generation that he would still be getting exclusive information direct from his contacts at Big West, the production company behind Macross. Since he does not appear to have any contacts at Big West, and since all his previous information was found to be false, this statement is suspect.

As such, any information from Macross Generation should probably be viewed with skepticism, unless accompanied by verifiable sources.

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Link to the thread discussing this entire affair at Macrossworld: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/inde...howtopic=30224