[Anime] Celebrating 30 Years of Singing Love Songs in Space

Yep, thirty years. 30. Three-zero. Lots of good memories about it.

Admit it, that helmet and visor looked cool, even with today's standards.

So what's Macross, you say? Well, SDF-1 Macross is that huge warship above; its fictional history stated that around 1999 that alien battleship crash landed on Earth, and the entire world was plunged into chaos as to who or what global organization will control the gigantic relic. Fast forward 2009, UN Spacy has finally refitted the alien tech for human use, turning it into one heck of a massive aircraft carrier. Needless to say, the rest was history as to why it had to go on a journey from Pluto and back to Earth.

And did I say it could also transform into a robot? Yes. Giant carrier, giant robot. Even I can't fathom the sheer size of that.

I once had a toy of this, but the scale was puny compared to THIS behemoth.

So the story goes on like humans having first (violent) contact with aliens, and the notion of "protoculture". What that term really means I can't even give a definite answer. Some say it's a some sort of gene, technology, or something else that a "master creators" handed down to one of their created races, and some speculate that we humans (or in the aliens' point of view, "micronized" humans") are that legacy of sort.

But let's not go there, it kind of makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Super Dimension Fortress: Macross is one of those classic Japanese animation that has both good quality art and story. Sure, maybe you old folks like me are saying, "But Macross is a dang love story!"; yes, it's a love story, but a love story with good backdrop story.

Oh yeah,. Show 'em how it's done right, Roy.

It's a love story in the sense that it's about this one guy named Hikaru Ichijo (or Rick Hunter in the English translations) and his growing career of becoming a fighter pilot for Macross. Along the way, he crosses paths with friends, old and new, and becomes tangled in a romantic conflict that our high school literature would start making dissertations about it.

Minmay's signature pose, copied by all other divas.

Lynn Minmay is the "voice within Macross"; in the television series she was among the civilian population caught in the crossfire between the crew of Macross and the alien race, the Zentradei. Eventually, this citizens set up shop within the hulking space fortress, aptly naming it Macross City. And during which Minmay, with a bit of coaxing from Hikaru, climbed her way up to becoming a pop singer/idol.

And yeah, did I say Hikaru has a huge crush on her?

Misa Hayase is Macross' bridge Ex-O (Executive Officer), essentially the second-highest ranking officer. Basically she oversees the whole fleet and fighter squadron might of the warship.

In a pinch, Misa is that strong-willed feminine that sticks to command and all that. But beneath that "facade" is a tender woman who lost her love (well, in the television series that is) and can be emotionally break down by the mere memory about it.

To say that when she loves a person, she truly loves that person to the point she will sacrifice something, one way or another. That's her.

Real smooth, Roy. Reaaaaal smooth.

Last but not least is Roy Focker, distinguished ace pilot and the so-called Skull Leader of Skull Squadron variable fighter group. Fondly called "big brother" by Hikaru because he was part of a circus flying group before he joined Macross, Roy's a total loudmouth, and jokes around when he wants to, but can be serious when the situation arises.

Not to mention he's a total drunkard at times.


So where's the love story? Well, back in my childhood when Macross was first aired during the late eighties/early nineties, I was rooting for Hikaru and Minmay, because of the obvious attraction Hikaru has for her as well as it was the most overt love conflict early in the series.

See? Even Roy approves.

Sadly, I never got to finish the series back then. So I was a bit stupefied as to what happened to the story. Fast forward to around the late nineties, I was able to get hold of a copy of Macross: Do You Remember Love? At first I thought it was a compressed version of the television series, but to my surprise, it was more of a "retelling" of the whole Macross series: Hikaru was already a pilot for Skull Squadron, and Minmay has already established herself as a pop idol. But yeah, watch the movie if you want to learn more, if you haven't done already.

What's more surprising for me was that instead of a simple love story with conflicts in it, it was a love TRIANGLE story with conflicts in it. Turns out Misa has fallen for her subordinate, Hikaru. And yes, this happened on both the television series and movie version.

So it's like from this:

Ah yes, glowing dresses. Staple during those times.

 To this:

Hikaru, you snagged it big time. Roy would've proud.

Turns out in the series, at first it was Minmay and Hikaru, as they were really close during the first few episodes, but because of her rising popularity as singer and pop idol, Minmay gradually became distant to Hikaru. It came to a point that she was at the peak of her career that in today's modern internet terminologies, Hikaru was friendzoned and came close to the brink of being totally ignored all together.

And all the while Misa was falling for Hikaru, because of several occasions that they were together, either on-duty or not.

Just by the look of her smile you can say she's fallen for him. Big time.

Now THAT'S what I call a conflict, indeed.

So to sum it up, Macross has paved way to several things:

1) Conflicts can be solved by friendship and singing. Hey, this is Macross, not Gundam.
2) Exploding in space should look like this:

Yellow bright spheres that pop like bubbles. Check.

3) You can never have TOO MUCH missiles. Micro-missiles, as a matter of fact. And sometimes they call it "missile-spamming".

Blow 'em to smithereens!

and lastly,

4) A catchy background music and/or singer to go with the mood.

Concert among the stars has taken a whole new meaning.

If you're asking what's more about this 30th anniversary thing, well....they released the so-called "Hybrid Pack" to the market.

You'll go green with envy with this.

Essentially is a Blu-Ray, digitally remastered version of Macross: Do You Remember Love?, with the description of

The 1984 movie Ai Oboeteimasuka (Do You Remember Love?) is packed together with a brand new game Watashi no Kare wa Pilot 2012. Every screen in the movie is remastered, so every explosion, dog fight and all the love scenes bring even more impact to the audiences.

Oh, I so want that.

To finish off this blog piece, here's a Youtube clip of Minmay singing the Protoculture legacy at the climax of Do You Remember Love?. As one commenter put it, "If there was a song for world peace and beyond, it has to be this song."

I couldn't agree more.