The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?
超時空要塞マクロス 愛・おぼえていますか (Chōjikū Yōsai Makurosu: Ai Oboete Imasu ka)
Genre	Adventure, Drama, Mecha, Real Robot, Romance, Military Science Fiction
Anime film
Director	Shōji Kawamori Noburo Ishiguro
Writer	Shōji Kawamori
Studio	Studio Nue, Artland & Tatsunoko
Licensor	Big West Advertising
Released	July 7, 1984 (Kyoto & Osaka) July 21, 1984 (Japan)
Runtime	115 minutes
Anime and Manga Portal

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? (超時空要塞マクロス 愛・おぼえていますか, Chōjikū Yōsai Makurosu: Ai Oboete Imasu ka^?) is a 1984 Japanese animated movie based around the Macross television series.

The movie is a film adaptation of the original Macross series, with new animation. The storyline of the movie does not fit directly into the Macross chronology, and was originally an alternate-universe retelling of the story, but was later established as part of the Macross universe. Within the Macross universe it is a popular movie (ie. a movie within a television series), a fact shown in Macross 7. However, new Macross productions like Macross Frontier have used elements from both the first T.V. series and this animated movie. In Macross tradition, it features transforming mecha, pop music, and a love triangle. The movie gets its name from its romantic themes and also by the song sung during its climatic battle sequence by Lynn Minmay (voiced by Mari Iijima). In the latest Macross T.V. animated series (Macross Frontier) the first episodes used re-animated key scenes from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do you Remember Love? and Macross Flashback 2012 to give the viewers glimpses of past events.

Plot

The film revolves three chief characters, Hikaru Ichijyo (a hot-shot pilot), coquettish pop-star Lynn Minmay and the Fortress' first mate Misa Hayase. This story is framed by a war between humans and giant humanoid aliens called Zentradi. The humans only defense is the space fortress Macross, which harbors tens of thousands of human civilians from Macross City. Crew and civilians know Earth was attacked but do not know the fate of the humans on Earth. However, it is revealed that the all-male Zentradi are fighting a war against their female counterparts: the Meltlandi; both genders, bred for war, are eventually stricken by their contact with human culture, particularly due to music and love.

Do You Remember Love? begins in medias res with the SDF-Macross trying to evade the Zentradi at the edge of the solar system. The Space Fortress houses an entire city with tens of thousands of civilians who are cut off from Earth. During the latest assault, Valkrie pilot Ichijo Hikaru rescues pop idol Lynn Minmay. This fateful meeting leads to a relationship between the singer and her number one fan.

The Zentradi, meanwhile discover the debilitating and disruptive effect music has on the rank and file troops. Troubled by this, they capture Lynn Minmay, Lynn Kaifun, Roy Fokker, Hikaru Ichijyo and Hayase Misa. During an attack by the Meltrandi, Misa and Hikaru escape only to fold accidentally to a desolate world that turns out to be the Earth. As the two officers walk the blasted landscape of the now-desolate Earth they become closer. They also discover an ancient city of the Protoculture where the mysterious origins of the alien giants is revealed.

As the two galactic armies converge on the Macross, the conflict threatens to obliterate what's left of humanity whose only hope lies a song discovered by Misa and sung by Minmay.

Production Notes

Shoji Kawamori, Kazutaka Miyatake and Haruhiko Mikimoto worked on the mecha and character designs for the film.^[1] Narumi Kakinouchi, one of the creators of Vampire Princess Miyu, was the assistant animation director for this movie. During one of the action scenes towards the end of the movie, Hikaru fires a barrage of missiles towards the enemy leader, Gorg Boddole Zer. As an inside joke among the animators, two of the missiles are drawn to look like cans of Budweiser and Tako Hai (a drink which literally translates as "Octopus Highball").^[2] Musician Kazuhiko Kato composed the theme song Ai Oboete Imasu ka for the film, while the rest of the movie soundtrack was created by the original TV series composer Kentaro Haneda.

Relation to the TV series

Do You Remember Love? is a reinterpretation of Superdimension Fortress Macross in a feature film format. Almost all of the characters featured in the TV series appear in the film. Most of the seiyū from the TV series reprised their roles for the film. The love triangle and the various relationships are intact but are realized differently.

Macross 7 describes a film called Do You Remember Love? within the fictional world of Macross. However, Macross creator Shoji Kawamori also gave an explanation about the differences in the television and film depictions of Space War I: "The real Macross is out there, somewhere. If I tell the story in the length of a TV series, it looks one way, and if I tell it as a movie-length story, it's organized another way...".^[3]

Many ships, mecha, and characters were redesigned for the film.^[1] These designs have been featured in later entries of the Macross franchise. The Zentradi were given a language of their own and most of the dialogue of Zentradi characters is in that language.

The film diverges from the TV series in several ways:

• In the series' beginning, Hikaru and Minmay's relationship starts before his joining the army and her meteoric rise to stardom. In the film, Hikaru is already a pilot in Skull Team, while Minmay is already an established star.
• The Earth is bombarded by the Zentradi before the Macross returns while in the series, the bombardment happened afterwards.
• Three pilots/planes are featured as Skull Leader / Skull 1: Roy's (VF-1S Super, Roy Colors - Grey + Yellow), Max's (VF-1S, Max Colors - White + Blue) and Hikaru's (VF-1S Strike, Hikaru Colors - White + Red), as opposed to the TV series where there is only one Skull 1 which was flown only by Roy and Hikaru.
• Hikaru and Misa discover a Protoculture city-ship on the ruins of Earth that rose out of the ocean after the Zentradi attack. The Protoculture have a generally higher profile in the movie than on the show and more is revealed about them. "Ai Oboeteimasuka", the title song is itself a Protoculture relic.
• The Zentradi males and females are named Zentran and Meltran and placed on opposite sides of the Protoculture conflict. No mention is made of the Supervision Army. The Meltlandi, in addition to being in a separate fleet of their own have distinctive ship and mecha designs.^[1]
• In the original Macross TV series the Zentradi's dialogue was automatically translated into Japanese.^[4] In this animated film they are actually heard speaking a fictional extraterrestrial language specifically developed for the movie as subtitles are provided for the audience, much like the Klingon language in Star Trek (of which a word wasn't spoken until they both appeared in their first theatrical version).^[5]
• Max and Milia meet face to face during their battle in their original sizes, in which Max immediately falls in love with the giantess. He later undergoes enlargement in the sizing chamber so he can fight side-by-side with his lover, a reversal of the events in the TV series, where Milia shrunk to Max's size instead.
• The Macross is designed slightly differently and instead of having the Daedalus and Prometheus docked as its 'arms' it has two ARMD carriers.^[1] This became the design of the Macross on further series installments such as Macross II, Macross Plus and Macross Frontier.
• The origin of the SDF-1 Macross is also different. Instead of being a Supervision Army Gun Destroyer like in the TV series, in the Do You Remember Love? film the SDF-1 was originally a Meltlandi Gun Destroyer that crashed on Earth and was reconstructed by the Humans.^[1] The Zentradi attack our planet as soon as they discover the ship which apparently belongs to their Meltlandi enemies.
• The Daedalus is not referenced in the film while the beached wreckage of the Prometheus is discovered by Hikaru and Misa shortly after their space fold back into Earth. On the 1997 home video game adaptation of the film (released on the Sega Saturn and PlayStation), an all-new introduction scene depicts Skull Squadron taking off from the Prometheus before the carrier is sliced into two by a Zentraedi cannon blast from above orbit.
• During the press conference scene, three micronized (and bald-headed) Zentrans are sitting on a side table next to where Captain Global makes the announcement of a ceasefire. They are credited as Rori, Konda, and Warera, the three Zentradi spies from the TV series.
• Zentradi Supreme Leader Golg Boddole Zer's physical appearance in the film completely differs from that in the TV series. Instead of being merely a bald Zentran, his head is cybernetically fused with his mobile space fortress.^[1] Also, Boddole Zer towers incredibly high above the Zentradi in comparison to the TV series where he was slightly taller than Britai Kridanik.

International versions

Originally, two versions of a Toho-commissioned dub had been released in the United States throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Toho dub (named in Japan "Superspace Fortress Macross") had been created for international sales, and used Hong Kong and Australian actors. The better known of the two US releases of the dub is a edited version that was released by Celebrity Home Entertainment's "Just For Kids" label in the late 1980s, renamed Clash of the Bionoids. It has been heavily criticized by fans of the film for extreme cuts–nearly thirty minutes were excised from the movie. In particular, the ending was heavily modified from the original Japanese version: the scene with Hikaru calling the Macross after Boddole Zer's explosion was removed, giving the false impression that Hikaru died in the blast. Later, a subtitled version was briefly released before, presumably, it was suppressed due to the ongoing legal battles between Big West, Tatsunoko Pro and Harmony Gold. Robert Woodhead, head of AnimEigo, has said publicly that he would like to release the film (AnimEigo released the first pressings of the Macross series in the US), but believes it will most likely never get a proper DVD release in the United States due to the legal disputes surrounding the film. The movie was released in widescreen in both dubbed and subtitled format by Kiseki Films in the UK on video in the 1990s, but was notably one of their few catalogue titles not being released on DVD.

Video games

• A video game by the same name was made based on this feature anime. A loose game sequel called The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie was also made.
• In The Super Dimension Fortress Macross PlayStation 2 video game players are able to choose either a long and easier "TV path" or the more difficult and shorter "Movie path" of the game, which is based on the events of Do You Remember Love? and also has several missions that feature situations not shown on film.
• Characters of the film appear in the Super Robot Wars Alpha videogame, where the player can use Max Jenius to try to recruit Milia Fallyna to your side in one stage, but the way their final confrontation plays out in a later stage determines whether Milia gets micronized (as in the series), or Max gets macronized (as in the movie) when she finally joins you.

References

External links

Official sites:

• Macross Official Web Site (Japanese)
• Macross Compendium

Other sites:

• Macross: Do You Remember Love? (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Chôjikû Yôsai Macross: Ai Oboeteimasuka at the Internet Movie Database
• Macross Mecha Manual A website profiling the fictional vehicles of the Macross series