Lynn Minmay

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Portrait of Lynn Minmay, the iconic singer of the Macross series.

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Lynn.

Lynn Minmay, also spelled Linn Minmei (Japanese: リン・ミンメイ Rin Minmei, Chinese: 鈴明美/林明美 Pinyin: Líng Míngměi) is a fictional anime character from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross television series and The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? movie. She is also in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Flash Back 2012 music video collection. The first Macross series and its Minmay character was adapted as the first part of the Robotech television series. Minmay is the embodiment of the music that plays a crucial role in setting Macross apart; as such, she has become the iconic character of that series.

In Macross (and Robotech), Minmay is the love interest of the main character Hikaru Ichijyo (Rick Hunter in Robotech) and becomes an idol singer and movie star onboard the spacecraft SDF-1 Macross. Her songs, which cause confusion amongst alien Zentradi soldiers, play a critical role in Space War I against Boddole Zer's Zentradi fleet.

The original Japanese Minmay is voiced by Mari Iijima (who also wrote some of the songs and sang for the series) who became a famous J-Pop singer due to the success of the series. Iijima has also undertaken to reprise the role in the English dub of the series for ADV. This would be the second time that a key character in an anime series was voiced by the same voice actor in both Japanese and English. Reba West voices Minmei in Robotech.

An English translation of the Chinese characters in Lynn Minmay's name is "bright and beautiful bell." The adaptors of Macross in Chinese-speaking countries changed the character 鈴 ("bell") for her family name to the similarly pronounced 林 ("grove").

[edit] Background

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Born in Japan (though she is of partial Chinese descent) as Linn Minmei, Minmay moved in with her aunt and uncle on fated South Ataria Island in hopes of finding the path to fulfill her dream of becoming a star. On the day of the Zentradi invasion, she meets Hikaru and a series of events leads to her being swept off on the SDF-1 Macross along with the rest of the surviving population from that island. While on the space fortress, Minmay wins the Miss Macross beauty pageant and is propelled into celebrity. When the Macross returns to Earth, she is the only civilian allowed off the space fortress. After her trip home in Japan (where her parents remained), Minmay returned to the fortress with her cousin Lynn Kaifunn (and Hikaru's competition for her affection) in tow. Ultimately, Minmay sings the songs that end the first war against the Zentradi.

During the second part of the series, the very fame and success she craved finally left her tired and virtually alone during the latter part of the series, and she tries to run away from her celebrity status and searching to start anew, with a more simple life along side Hikaru, who is now more confused than ever in defining his feelings for Minmay and Misa Hayase; all of this while new conflicts arise between the human and Zentradi survivors of the first war. At the end, both Hikaru and Minmay would realize they are very different people, and they may not have a future together as a couple.

In 2012, she embarks on the SDF-2 Megaroad-01 spaceship that next disappears in space, becoming a legend in the Macross universe.

[edit] Additional notes on the character

Minmay's personality is that of any teenage girl, fun-loving, playful, full of dreams and hopes that she may realize some day. After their initial encounter during the start of the Space War I, Hikaru builds a deep infatuation on her that grows on and on throughout the series. But after Minmay wins the Miss Macross contest and becomes a distant pop idol, his feelings for her change, as she becomes too involved not only in the popular culture, but as a symbol of the human struggle against the Zentradi. Minmay also displayed insecurity and doubts about her attraction toward Hikaru and her cousin Lynn Kaifunn.

In the film The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Minmay's portrait was a bit different from the first Macross series. In the movie's story, she was already a popular singer and movie star, and she and Hikaru had never met before until the events that turn up on the movie. Hikaru is portrayed as a Valkyrie pilot who is a Minmay fan, and apparently falls for her after their meeting; Minmay, for her part, already tired on living on the eye of the media, initially befriends Hikaru after he saves her life, and she sees him as a friend from the outside of the crazy world of fame she has been living. As the plot evolves, she also begins to fall for him, yet it is too late, as Hikaru realizes he loves Misa, and his fascination for Minmay was just that and nothing more.

Her hit songs include "My Boyfriend's a Pilot," "Little White Dragon," and "Do You Remember Love?" The first song that Minmay sings, "Cinderella" in Episode 4, was not written for the show. Instead, the song had been written by Iijima prior to being picked for the role of Minmay. The fact that she was a songwriter was one of the factors that led to her being selected. Coincidentally, the very last song that Minmay would sing in a Macross animated production, "An Angel's Paints" (天使の絵の具 Tenshi no Enogu) from the Do You Remember Love? movie and Flash Back 2012 video, was also written by Iijima.