by Do you remember when your eyes met?
The anime “The Super Dimension Fortress Macross” celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022 from broadcasting in 1982 (-83). With the robot anime boom of the 1980s represented by “Mobile Suit Gundam,” “Macross” incorporated the youth culture of love rice and idols into the story and led to a hit.
The movie that has been popular for 40 years, the year after the end of the TV animation, is the movie “Macross: Do You Remember Love?” Released in 1984. A story that adheres to the contents of the TV series to some extent and challenges an unexpected concept that an enemy alien who has no culture other than the history of the battle is moved by the entertainment of “song” on the earthside. The movie will be a hit with a distribution revenue of 700 million yen. And two women will be in the limelight in this movie.
Idol Lynn Minmay and singer Mari Iijima
He said, “I invited fans with romantic comedies and idols,” but I was one of the fish. I wasn’t very familiar with “Macross” at the time, but I was shocked by the songs played in the TV commercials for the movie. …… “♪ Do you remember ~ When your eyes meet ~” ……. A clear singing voice, “Who is singing !?” Upon investigation, I learned that the character was Lynn Minmay and the singing voice was Mari Iijima, a singer who is also the voice actor.
Do you like it? Dislike? Lynn Minmay
The pioneer who set and established an “idol” during the animation work would be Lynn Minmay of “Macross.” It was famous that set it apart from other characters in the TV series. By the way, the model was Seiko Matsuda.
In the movie “Do you remember love?” It can be said to have spread the name of Lynn Minmay to the world. She is a 17-year-old top idol, and she mesmerizes the audience with her beautiful voice on stage from the beginning. However, she is involved in a battle with an alien, she meets Hikaru Ichijo, a soldier, and she falls in love. She approaches the media by showing her kissing to the media, but later Ichijo is attracted to Misa Hayase, the chief operator of Macross, and falls in love. During the decisive battle between the climax enemy and the Earth Army, her singing voice shakes the hearts of enemy aliens and leads the war to an end.
In the movie, there are not many mecha vs. mecha donpachi scenes. The love triangle between Minmay and Misa over Ichijo is more vital than that. Minmay was a character who projected the image of an idol at the time when there was a big gap between the front and back, saying that he was cute but had a slightly high-flying personality. He was a flirt, but the professional soul of an idol was terrific. Therefore, it was so extreme that it was ranked high in the “like category” and the “dislike category” in the magazine’s female anime character popularity vote. Still, the production side had set a vital idol in the first place, so it is a strategy. In the end, it was a “big hit.”
Mari Iijima who made a break with Minmay
Another woman who made a break with the movie is Mari Iijima, a singer-songwriter. She signed to a music office when she was in college, and in 1982 she passed the Macross voice actor audition and won the role of Lynn Minmay.
And in 1984, her third single was the movie theme song “Ai, Oboete?”. The CD will be a massive hit with sales of 270,000 copies. In an era when it was rare for a voice actor to be exposed to the media, she appeared in numerous song programs, gaining idol popularity for her clear singing voice, outstanding singing ability, and cute cheeks on her bob hair.
