Pop Culture Timeline

The following is a timeline of events in the Pop Culture world, important to some. The following is mostly for flavor, and optional reading, but certain characters may feel it worth payign attention to. This file will be updated over time.

NCA 1 to NCA 117
NCA 18 Gekigangar III airs for the very first time in Neo Japan, during the third quarter. The show strikes a cord among colonial viewers, who find it to be wonderfully retro in its presentation, particularly given the comparatively mundane efforts at creating actual mecha. Others go on to praise the series' message of friendship and surviving against all odds. Unexpectedly, the show starts to pick up an adult audience as its cult following starts distrubuting episodes through the colonial Internet.

NCA 20 Gekigangar III reaches Neo America. The series has been there for over a year thanks to internet fansubs, and the series' appeal has reached record heights throughout the United Colonies Federation. It has a particular following among the departing colonists bound for Jupiter.

NCA 58 The First Impact Wars End. After a long period of strife, culture resumes in full force. The year marks the beginning of the Gekigangar V OAV series. The war has left it's mark on humanity at large, leading the giant robot to become a pop culture figure rather than only a mere instrument of destruction. Giant robots can be found marketing everything from Fast Food to Dish Washer Detergent. It is not uncommon to see war heroes from this era endorsing these products either.

NCA 68 After almost fifty years and a bitter, five-year court battle, Earth-based distribution company BG Video successfully secures the rights to distribute the now-classic Gekiganger III on Earth. In celebration of the long-coming revival, the surviving cast commemorate a statue in Tokyo's Akihabara district.

NCA 78 Macross Restoration Starts. Message boards discuss the evidence that we are not alone in the universe. The most famous of these debates occurs on the "3chan" Earth-sphere-wide message board when anonymous uploads pictures from the restoration from his camera phone. The board collectively names the aliens who built the ship the name of "the Masters". Many believe it to be a trap for humanity.

NCA 86 The fighting game Gundam Fight All Set releases in arcades. The fighting game features all the stars from the yearly Gundam Fights. The game is to be updated annually with new characters and unlockable moves.

NCA 88 The widely unappreciated Zoids league game releases. While the game becomes a favorite among some, It never is any competition to the popularity Gundam Fight All Set carries.

NCA 97 The legal battle ensues between the developers of the Zoid league game and the Gundam fight game. The case is over the use of a name of a fighter in both leagues, Gentle Chapman. After the developers of Zoids League are unable to carry on, they go with the different but recognizable name of "Sniper Chapman."

NCA 100 The adorable Bonta-kun animation airs for the very first time. This children's program inspires a following mostly among children but soon branches out to college kids. The character soon can be found on anything from stuffed animals to lunch boxes.

NCA 102 Core Tip Games develop a new miniature game which takes Neo Japan by storm. "Xenotech" combines models from robots from the First Impact Wars, original creatures designed by vetern comic artists, and shows like Gekigangar III to create system which sets imaginations flying.

NCA 102 Bontaland opens it's gates in Tokyo this year. The theme park is a popular attraction for young and old alike. The franchise grows with every animated cartoon which has now split into 3 separate shows: The Bonta-kun Adventures, FIGHT! Bonta-Kun Defenders, and The Bonta-kun and Grey Boo Fun Time Hour.

NCA 103 Second Impact occurs. In the chaos of the resulting wars, the 3chan servers, working with incredible lag from the various Sides, are filled with theories, the dominant one saying that this is a punishment from "the Masters" for screwing up their ship and generally doing it wrong. Posts appear pointing at government involvement in the tragedy, but shortly thereafter the 3chan group goes bankrupt, leading to the seventh and final death of 3chan. While the same spirit returns in the ESchan boards, founded after the peace treaties ending the Second Impact Wars, the entire topic becomes taboo. This continues into the present day, extended even to historical discussions, which become very formal - and sparse.

NCA 103 The first photographs of Scub Coral growths reach ESchan. Many think these are either the "Masters" themselves, or an attempt to colonize the planet via invasive terraforming. Others believe they're a new form of fungus. A few claim to have experiences with the plants that imply they are intelligent, but these are discounted by most of the more serious talkers, though the unusually far-flung or drug-damaged maintain their truth.

NCA 104 Zoids League Championships releases into arcades. The game receives more success than it's previous title and is widely popular until the release of that year's Gundam Fight All Set.

NCA 104 The Voderack Religion forms in Hindustan. Within months, the religion has spread world-wide as Scub Coral sightings become more prevalent. Many join the faith in the hopes of understanding these new changes.

NCA 105 A hacker breaks the unspoken rule by spamming several boards with evidence of government involvement with Second Impact. Many soon start questioning the validity of the documents, sparking new debates among the more paranoid or newer users. Within two days of the postings, the hacker drops out from contact and his messages are deleted. ESchan community sentiment rules this as a botched attempt at a prank.

NCA 105 Core Tip Games creates Duel Creatures, a card game which starts gaining in popularity upon initial release. Cards become valuable collectibles on internet auctions, auctions reaching hundreds of dollars. Core Tip also develops a new electronic system for it's Xenotech game, allowing players to watch CG animated battles of their miniatures.

NCA 105 The first "Lifters" take to the sky, started by a graduate biology class in UCLA studying the mutated "Skyfish" that appeared along with the Scub Coral. The novelty spreads along the California coast, as well as among extreme sports enthusiasts.

NCA 107 Zeon War Veteran, Toshi Yamamoto restores a decommissioned RX-78 Gundam. The Gundam, now known as Asakusa Gundam, is made the choosen protector of the shrine and shopping arcade nearby. The owner even jokes that Asakusa Gundam will protect consumers from high prices. The Tokyo district is now one of the more visited areas of Neo Japan. The age of using giant robots as marketing devices begins again.

NCA 108 The Summer Of Love occurs. The event adds to the overwhelming distrust of the EFA. Several of the posters on Eschan begin to compile the facts from the second impact accounts, the Macross photographs, Scub Coral accounts, and other such information to compile a report. This report lives infamously around those on the internet. Known as Eyes to The Blue Sky Document, the file is said to be distrubted in secret.

NCA 110 Virtual-On Hits the Arcades for the first time. It becomes a hit as the only giant robot fight simulator. Despite claims the system feels to simple and childish, Virtual On machines make their owners large sums of money.

NCA 110 The successful Bonta-kun Franchise opens EuroBontaland. The Theme park offers the same enjoyment of the original park as well as some exclusive such as Ocktoberfest Thursdays and a romantic boat ride modeled after 20th century Vienna.

NCA 110 Gundam All Fight Set '98 machine sells for 12 million yen. The machine is one last surviving copies of the machine after Gentleman Chapman's third consecutive win causes rioters to destroy the machines.

NCA 110 Neo America builds its own shop inspired mech. Shoppinkaiser becomes the mascot for the mall of America and promises to blow away high prices. It also doubles as a ride for the children. For only fifty cents, Shoppinkaiser's detachable Cockpit Propulsion Driver or CPD will rise and sit back down slowly to give kids and young adults alike the ride of their lives. Millions of mech fanboys flock to Mall of America to experience this ride as a rite of passage. Due to high demand, however, the cockpit is expanded to make room for bigger clients. A fierce rivalry is staged by Asakusa shopping arcade owners and Mall of America executives in order to generate higher marketability. Message boards begin to separate into pro-shoppinkaiser and pro-Asakusa Gundam groups. Within the month, multi million dollar chain store Joymart begins work on their own robot.

NCA 111 Virtual-On 2 Hits the arcades.

NCA 111 War Hero Amuro Ray markets the designs for his robotic companion, Haro. The design takes off as engineering majors across the world begin designing their own custom models based on the models sold in stores. Soon Haros can be found doing a variety of functions around the world. Amuro Ray makes millions. The sudden popularity of Haro soon takes away from long time children's TV star, Bonta-kun. While this isn't the end of the children's cartoon character, two of his three shows are canciled.

NCA 111 The Aggressors Toy Line reaches the market. The series is made of 12 inch collectable action figures of giant robot pilots. While the fictional pilots are easily accessable, people across Neo Japan and the Atlantic Alliance search for the rarer figures based of real life pilots such as Sanger Zonvolt and Elzam von Branstein. The figures are later renamed to Zengar Zombolt and Erzam Buransutain when the Von Branstein family sues for royalties from likeness rights.

NCA 111 Within a month of the Aggressors toyline, Zeon announces it's own Heroes action series. Despite the intent, the figures sell amazingly well among the EFA due to collectors wanting to have a complete set of both sides. The rarest figure, Ramba Ral, sells for a thousand dollars on a online auction site. Following this news, The Zeon based company releases a collectors set called "Ral's Last Stand."

NCA 112 Burning PT version 1 hits the Arcades. As a response to the widely popular Virtual-on 3, Burning PT boasts a more complex command scheme which many find to be too complicated. Others begin to appreciate Burning PT's structure as the most "real" feeling robot combat system. Fans of Virtual-On however claim that Burning PT's controls are too complicated to give a realistic feeling and the range of manuvers one can accomplish seem too limited. Despite this arguement, several of the hardcore players discover several bugs within the Burning PT code, begining to exploit them to effectively break the game.

NCA 112 After a long battle, Euro-Bontaland closes its doors. After a robotics malfunction which injures 11 guests and its waning popularity, the park is unable to create enough revenue to keep its doors open. Despite this, Tokyo Bontaland still is one of the top theme parks in the world.

NCA 112 In a move that surprises the gamer community, The Burning PT developer hires players who discovered bugs in the code. This is said to be the largest hiring of amatuer programers in the history of video games.

NCA 113 Burning PT Home Edition ships to homes around the world. The new control scheme is said to a radical change from the arcade machines. This leads to many arcades demanding a patch due to the loss of sales caused by the Home Version. In another bold move, The creators of Burning PT announce a tournament to discover the top players around the world.

NCA 113 Ray=Out's first issue. The counter culture magazine is put out by Revoluaries called Gecko State. With it's first issue, the lifting craze skyrockets. Internet culture is astounded when the Eyes to the Blue Sky document are printed in the first three issues.

NCA 113 Prominent Mecha and Pop Culture fan blog M-Fan goes online for the first time. By the end of the year, it's one of the most popular on the net.

NCA 114 The Gundam Fight All Set franchise goes into overdrive with a number of new titles. These include the 3D Brawler, Gundam Fight Battlefields, the popular turn based strategy, Gundam Fight S and the notoriously difficult Gundam Fight IKUZE, a throwback to the 'bullet hell' games of old. Also released at this time was the infamous and short lived Gundam Fight Dream Girl: Love On The Tournament, a dating sim series with character designs based on the Gundam-Tan series of images created by an anonymous webartists. There were also rumors of a Gundam Fight Dream Girl X: Love Under The Battlefield, however, to date, no copies have been found anywhere legitimately, and it is generally believed to have been a hoax, or just an undeveloped title.

NCA 114 The three way rivalry is born. Joymart releases Joyvangelion to counter Asakusa Gundam and Shoppinkaiser. Joymart states that Joyvangelion is a hero who will fight for the common man using his know how to get the best deal for the little guy. The rivalry escalates when a Joymart is opened one train stop from Asakusa shopping arcade.

NCA 114 Burning PT Version 2 announced. A new group of programmers start work on Version 2, aiming to have the Home Edition released simultaneously.

NCA 115 New Gekigangar Movie annouced! New and old fans alike wait with baited breath for the finished product.

NCA 116 4th Burning PT Tournament takes place. In a stunning upset, Tenzan Nakajima defeats both former champions. Many on the internet call foul due to Tenzen's attitude during the tournament. However for now, Tenzan remains on top.

NCA 116 Lacus Clyne releases her first single. Controversy starts over her Coordinator heritage among radicals. Most call her the era's new idol. Her core popular among the Plant colonies.

NCA 116 New Gekigangar Movie comes out. While some say the movie doesn't live up to the original, newer fans find themselves dreaming of piloting. This leads to a military boom which many flunk out of.

NCA 116 NHK broadcasts its first episode of Idolmaster. The show is a reality show where girls across the world compete to be a song idol sponsered by the network. Within months, the show is brought to worldwide circulations and pinups of the girls can be found on walls and lockers across the world.

NCA 116 Teppelin rises from the ground. Many think this is an alien invasion by the long forgotten "Masters". Some regard the visitors as Earth's saviors and disappear after attempting to go see the site for themselves. Footage is found and shows "bigfoot" taking the amatuer photographers away. Most regard as a hoax. The footage is circulated by a DVD found in the Spring issue of Ray=Out

NCA 117 5th Burning PT Tournament takes place. Ryusei Date is crowned victor after Tenzen Nakajima fails to show up for his match. Many claim this is because of his reputation among the community.

NCA 117 Lacus Clyne's popularity sky rockets with her newest single, "Quiet Night" While most of her core audience is in the Plant colonies, she has quite a few fans on the Earth as well.

NCA 117 With Lacus Clyne's recent popularity, vocal synthesizers based on the popstar start appearing on the net. The most popular of these is VirtualClyne, which suffers a brief hit to it's popularity when it temporarily goes pay-to-use.

NCA 117 Aidafan34 releases a video which shows an actual robot launch in Tokyo-3. Metube pulls the video within an hour, citing it as stolen footage from a movie in production. While Aidafan34 begins posting about how his dad yelled at him for putting his life in danger. Most disregard him as a loser and discount his claims.

NCA 117 A cosplay bar featuring uniforms from the Zeon War opens in Akihabara. The bar has two levels, one featuring Federation girls and the other featuring Zeon girls. Two actual heroes are adapted into female versions: Amuro-chan and the Mysterious Red Comet-chan. In order to promote the Asakusa Shopping Arcade, the girl who plays Amuro-chan becomes the designated pilot of Asakusa Gundam.

NCA 117 Scandal erupts in the Lacus Fandom community when rumors begin to circulate that there are two different people going by the name Lacus Clyne. When asked for comment, her manager denies such statements and says Ms. Clyne's different styles are merely to keep her music fresh to fans who attend many of her shows.

NCA 118
Early NCA 118 lolmaxter.com starts up. It is constantly suffering downtime due to the massive website popularity. Who knew that captioned images of Gundam Maxter would be so popular?

November Images that claim to be concept art for Gundam Fight Dream Girl X: Love Under The Battlefield surface on a Russian imageboard. The images become the source of a fan recreation of the game, which receives a cease and desist later in the month.

November With the 20th Anniversary of the Luxion's ill fated voyage approaching, model corporation Bees Knees announce a very limited run of 1/100 Luxion replicas, expected to sell out before the end of the year. A percentage of proceeds from the ships are to go to a memorial fund for helping the families of those who died on board the Luxion. Only one of the limited run of models is announced to be given away, to Admiral Yuzo Takaya's surviving child.

November Paragon Studios announce they have the rights for a live action Gekigangar III movie. Few details are released, apart from the fact that kabuki actor Yukito Saotome is set to play Joe Ubitsubame, while Ken Tenku is to be played by John Nome. Rumors also appear the Robert Downey LV, a co-ordinator, has been approached to play all-american pilot, Cowboy Johnny.

November With the 60th anniversary of the Gundam Fight Treaty being signed, All-Set Studios release a compilation of all the Gundam Fight All-Set games released since the series start in NCA 86, for all systems. The set is most known for it's unlockable remake of Gundam Fight All-Set!, the original game, using the GFAS 118 engine, and it's inclusion of the now exceedingly rare Gundam Fight All-Set '98 - King Of Gundam.