Macross: Do You Remember Love?

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Directed by Shōji Kawamori
Noboru Ishiguro
Produced by Akira Inoue
Hiroshi Iwata
Tsuneyuki Enomoto
Screenplay by Sukehiro Tomita
Story by Shōji Kawamori
Based on The Super Dimension Fortress Macross
by Shōji Kawamori
Starring Arihiro Hase
Mari Iijima
Mika Doi
Music by Kentarō Haneda
Production
company
Distributed by Big West Advertising & Toho
Release dates
  • July 7, 1984 (1984-07-07)
Running time
 115 minutes
145 minutes (Perfect Edition)
Country Japan
Language Japanese

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), also known as Super Spacefortress Macross (commonly referred to by the acronym "DYRL?" among Western fans), 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 film 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 (i.e. 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 film. 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 climactic battle sequence by Lynn Minmay (voiced by Mari Iijima). In Macross Frontier, a later series in the Macross universe, the first few episodes use re-animated key scenes from this film and Flash Back 2012 to give viewers glimpses of past events.

Plot

The film begins in medias res with the space fortress Macross trying to evade the Zentradi at the edge of the Solar System. The Macross houses an entire city with tens of thousands of civilians who are cut off from Earth, after it had executed a space fold on the first day of the Earth/Zentradi war - taking the city section of South Ataria Island with it. During the latest assault, Valkyrie pilot Hikaru Ichijyo rescues pop idol Lynn Minmay, but are both trapped in a section of the fortress for days. Even after their eventual rescue, this fateful meeting leads to a relationship between the singer and her number one fan.

The Zentradi, meanwhile, discover the debilitating and disruptive effect that human music has on the rank and file troops. Their supreme leader, Gorg Boddole Zer, suspects that the human culture is deeply related to an ancient music box he has kept with him for eons. Then, the Zentradi discover an opportunity to examine the humans further when Hikaru borrows a Valkyrie trainer unit without permission and flies Minmay across Saturn's rings. The Zentradi capture Hikaru and Minmay, along with Lieutenant Misa Hayase, Minmay's cousin/manager Lynn Kaifun, and Hikaru's superior Roy Focker in the ensuing chaos.

Aboard Britai Kridanik's ship, the humans are being interrogated about their culture when a squadron of Meltrandi, led by Milia 639, invades the ship, giving the humans a chance to escape. Hikaru and Misa escape from the ship, but Focker is killed and Minmay and Kaifun remain aboard while the two officers get caught in a space fold.

Exiting from the fold, Hikaru and Misa arrive on a desolate world that turns out to be Earth, as the entire population was wiped out by a prior Zentradi attack. As the two officers roam the remains of the planet, they become closer. They also discover an ancient city of the Protoculture, where the mysterious origins of the alien giants is revealed. In the city, Misa discovers an artifact that contains lyrics to an ancient song.

Many days later, the Macross arrives on Earth. Just as Hikaru and Misa are debriefing their story to Captain Bruno J. Global, the fortress is attacked by a Meltrandi fleet. During the battle, ace pilot Maximilian Jenius defeats Millia aboard the Meltrandi's main ship, which destroys the Macross' main cannons with one shot. The Meltrandi are forced to retreat when the Zentradi arrive - with Minmay's singing voice as their weapon.

Captain Global announces a truce and a military pact between the Macross and the Zentradi. Hikaru and Minmay reunite, but Minmay realizes he is now with Misa. Meanwhile, Misa works on translating the ancient song for use as a cultural weapon, as requested by Boddole Zer. However, when the Meltrandi return to attack, Boddole Zer loses patience and recklessly has his capital ship wipe out half the fleets of both factions.

Once again, the Macross finds itself in the middle of a brutal war. Hikaru persuades Minmay to perform the translated song. As the Macross flies across the battlefield, Minmay's song causes a union with Britai's fleet and the Meltrandi against Boddole Zer. After the Macross breaks into Boddole Zer's ship, Hikaru flies his Valkyrie into the supreme commander's chamber and destroys him with his entire arsenal. After Boddole Zer's ship is destroyed, Macross bridge officer Claudia LaSalle asks why the song caused such a turnaround to the war. Misa explains that it is a simple love song.

The film ends with a concert by Minmay in front of the rebuilt Macross.

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 on his way to 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").

The film's soundtrack was composed by Kentaro Haneda, featuring new orchestral tracks and some music from the original TV series. The theme song "Ai, Oboete Imasu ka" ("Do You Remember Love") was composed by Kazuhiko Kato and performed by Mari Iijima. The ending theme "Tenshi no Enogu" ("An Angel's Paints") was composed and performed by Iijima.

Release

The film premiered in Japanese theaters in July 7, 1984. It received a huge marketing campaign that generated very long lines of fans; many of them camped outside cinemas the night prior to the film. These events were dramatized in the anime comedy Otaku no Video from 1991.

Relation to the TV series

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

Macross 7 describes a film called Do You Remember Love? within the fictional world of Macross. Series 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...".[2]

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.


International versions

According to Carl Macek, when asked by Cannon Films to produce a film version of Robotech, he mentioned he was interested in dubbing and localizing Do You Remember Love? with the voice cast from the series, but Harmony Gold USA was unable to license the film for "political reasons." Megazone 23 Part 1 was used instead.[4]

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 Super Spacefortress Macross in Japan) had been created for international sales by a Hong Kong dubbing facility. The better known of the two US releases of the dub is an 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 catalog titles not being released on DVD.

Video games

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Miyatake, Kazutaka (2005-06-01). Macross and Orguss Design Works (in Japanese). Japan: Mobic. pp. 15–29. ISBN 4-89601-629-7.
  2. ↑ "Shoji Kawamori Interview". Animerica Vol. 3 No. 1. Viz, LLC.
  3. ↑ "Translation & Cultural Notes". The Super Dimension Fortress Macross Liner Notes. AnimEigo. 2001-12-21. Retrieved 2009-08-28. Episode 11 First Contact (November 2009) - The Zentradi video screens contain some of the first instances of written Zentradi -- though it was not an actual language at the time, but simply encoded Japanese or English words. Designer Miyatake Kazutaka developed the Zentradi 'script' to hide references in the alien text.
  4. ↑ "ANNCast Classic: Macek Training". January 9, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2016.
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