My Fair Minmay~Dreaming Prelude

[Gubaba]

Here's the book:

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/books/series_dreamy.htm

And here's the translation:

http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=89985

I hope you like it!

[Beltane70]

Downloading now!

I know what I'm reading during my break at work tomorrow!

[SkullLeaderVF-X]

Here's the book:

http://www.macrossworld.com/macross/books/series_dreamy.htm

And here's the translation:

http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=torrentinfo&tid=89985

I hope you like it!

Gubaba.....THANK YOU!!!

[Vepariga]

Awesome work gubaba!! really well done and an enjoyable read! i really loved the artwork in her diary aswell!

[Gubaba]

Awesome work gubaba!! really well done and an enjoyable read! i really loved the artwork in her diary aswell!

Yeah, I liked that artwork a lot, too. Rarely seen stuff...

You also may notice that her friend Seiko looks a lot like Seiko Matsuda, whereas Akina bears a remarkable resemblance to Akina Nakamori.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Gubaba

[VFTF1]

I'm halfway through it - but would like to share one very deep impression:

Namely - only now, reading this book, do I get the feeling that the character and story of Minmey as Kawamori envisioned it, or as it was originally envisioned by the story writers of Macross, was not full realized until they got a chance to do Ranka. I mean - there is just so much resemblence of Minmey in this book to Ranka. And yes, I understand that "in fact" it's the other way around - that Ranka is made to resemble Minmay - but having only watched the series and never read the book, I was not privy to certain scenes or behaviors or adjectives being used to describe Minmey that lo and behold happen to fit perfectly with Ranka.

Kawamori writes that the stories are laced with the idiosyncracies of the authors, and that they are NOT the same as what the voice actors read, which are made only once the story boards are fleshed out.

And indeed, we see that a lot of the intention behind the Minmey character got lost when things were fleshed out into the series.

And that intention is clear - it is clear that Kawamori meant for the Minmy character to be what Ranka ended up being.

very interesting. As I read this book, I felt like Minmey was reflecting Ranka on many levels that are not apparent in the series, where she seems to always be popular and on a straight trajectory to stardom, not a "cinderella" story.

Pete

[ruskiiVFaussie]

Fantastic work, thanks so much for your effort and sharing this with us Gubaba!

[Chas]

Is it possible to get this through any means other than a torrent?

[Gubaba]

Is it possible to get this through any means other than a torrent?

Yes:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZN6IYWWN

I'm halfway through it - but would like to share one very deep impression:

Namely - only now, reading this book, do I get the feeling that the character and story of Minmey as Kawamori envisioned it, or as it was originally envisioned by the story writers of Macross, was not full realized until they got a chance to do Ranka. I mean - there is just so much resemblence of Minmey in this book to Ranka. And yes, I understand that "in fact" it's the other way around - that Ranka is made to resemble Minmay - but having only watched the series and never read the book, I was not privy to certain scenes or behaviors or adjectives being used to describe Minmey that lo and behold happen to fit perfectly with Ranka.

Kawamori writes that the stories are laced with the idiosyncracies of the authors, and that they are NOT the same as what the voice actors read, which are made only once the story boards are fleshed out.

And indeed, we see that a lot of the intention behind the Minmey character got lost when things were fleshed out into the series.

And that intention is clear - it is clear that Kawamori meant for the Minmy character to be what Ranka ended up being.

very interesting. As I read this book, I felt like Minmey was reflecting Ranka on many levels that are not apparent in the series, where she seems to always be popular and on a straight trajectory to stardom, not a "cinderella" story.

Pete

Mmm...I'm not sure what you're referrig to here, is it Minmay's ups and downs?

Because if that's the case, I think you may be overvaluing the book. I don't think the book represents the original version of Minmay, and these five stories were never meant to be a part of the series. Remember, it was published during the end of the run of the TV series, and these scripts definitely came AFTER the scripts for the TV show (I really want to emphasize this, because Shaloom states flatly in his Macross Chronology on Macross Generation that these stories were meant to be in the series but were eliminated when the series was cut down and compressed before production. The episode outlines from Macross Perfect Memory and Kawamori's introduction to My Fair Minmay contradict his statement, however).

The TV series is, let's face it, Hikaru's story, and the lion's share of the drama stays with him. The book, on the other hand, focuses almost entirely on Minmay. Hell, Jamis plays a bigger role in the book than Hikaru does. As such, some drama and tension had to be created for the book where none existed in the show. The book is definitely a LATER version of Minmay's story, and a lot of care has been put into making sure the book has drama and conflict without contradicting the show TOO much. So yes, while scenario scripts pre-date the AR scripts, these particular scenario scripts were written specifically for the book, not for the show.

But yes...I have to admit I thought it was interesting that Minmay is called "the Cinderella Girl" at one point in the bok, and that Jamis at one point says, "I'm the biggest star at Imperial Records! Me! Jamis Merin!" So Ranka, so Sheryl...

[Roy Focker]

Read it while having dinner last night. Thanks for translating it.

Minmay came off as a more complex character than she is in the series. You can see how they later borrowed from those stories. Roy, Max & Hayao coming to rescue Minmay from a sleazy record producer vs Fire Bomber coming to rescue Mylene. Kinda like the different view of Hikaru as well.

[Gubaba]

Read it while having dinner last night. Thanks for translating it.

Minmay came off as a more complex character than she is in the series. You can see how they later borrowed from those stories. Roy, Max & Hayao coming to rescue Minmay from a sleazy record producer vs Fire Bomber coming to rescue Mylene. Kinda like the different view of Hikaru as well.

Thanks for reading it!

And yeah, I think Minmay is a little more complex in the book. I kept getting annoyed at her for ditching Hikaru again and again AND AGAIN, but on the other hand, they also showed the pressure she was under to practice, practice, practice.

And I'd like to say that Labonsky the producer was BY FAR the most fun character to write. Jamis was my scond favorite...although she's the bad guy and kind of goes off the deep end, the scene after she loses the Miss Macross Contest was actually rather touching, I thought.

[VFTF1]

Well, I'm still half way through - but I will point out what I saw as similarities to Ranka:

1. Minmay's clumsiness. In the show, she does fall, but her fall is intertwined with Hikaru getting blasted by Zendradi - so it's kind of like we see both of them having a bad moment. In the book, her fall is elaborated upon and she just comes across as goofy.

Now - when she fell in the show, I thought "accident." But reading the book I think "clumsy goofy girl" - ergo Ranka.

I mean - Minmey, in the show, when she walked out in the Chinese dress, had poise and elegence and confidence. Not arrogance, but certainly confidence. So, when she tripped in her bikini I just thought - bad luck. Authentic accident.

But in the book it's clear that she's a bit clumsy, possibly due to extreme nervousness.

2. Minmay's butt and the small of her back: This whole scene, and her speech about how she thinks her legs are too thick etc etc just so reminds me of Ranka's self-doubt and belief that she's physically inferior. Again, in the show, she answers questions about how old she is and whether she has a boyfrind and she's pretty cute about it... In the book, she goes into a long winded diatribe about how bad she looks.

This, again, reminds me of Ranka, who was visibly concernd about her looks...

3. Th dressing room scene - with those two girls arguing lik cynical concieted bitches. This scene in the book totally reminded me of the dressing room scene in MF's episode 4, with all the other haughty women.

Thus the impressions.

Pete

[Gubaba]

Well, I'm still half way through - but I will point out what I saw as similarities to Ranka:

1. Minmay's clumsiness. In the show, she does fall, but her fall is intertwined with Hikaru getting blasted by Zendradi - so it's kind of like we see both of them having a bad moment. In the book, her fall is elaborated upon and she just comes across as goofy.

Now - when she fell in the show, I thought "accident." But reading the book I think "clumsy goofy girl" - ergo Ranka.

I mean - Minmey, in the show, when she walked out in the Chinese dress, had poise and elegence and confidence. Not arrogance, but certainly confidence. So, when she tripped in her bikini I just thought - bad luck. Authentic accident.

But in the book it's clear that she's a bit clumsy, possibly due to extreme nervousness.

2. Minmay's butt and the small of her back: This whole scene, and her speech about how she thinks her legs are too thick etc etc just so reminds me of Ranka's self-doubt and belief that she's physically inferior. Again, in the show, she answers questions about how old she is and whether she has a boyfrind and she's pretty cute about it... In the book, she goes into a long winded diatribe about how bad she looks.

This, again, reminds me of Ranka, who was visibly concernd about her looks...

3. Th dressing room scene - with those two girls arguing lik cynical concieted bitches. This scene in the book totally reminded me of the dressing room scene in MF's episode 4, with all the other haughty women.

Thus the impressions.

Pete

Hmmm...that DOES make sense...which is odd, because those parallels never occurred to me while I was translating the book. And it's true...in the show, Minmay doesn't interact with any of the other girls in the pageant (besides Jamis), whereas for Ranka, it's pretty clear that the other girls are self-centered and opportunistic.

I dunno...while there are definitely no overt homages in Frontier to this book, it's clear that the staff did A LOT of research of past Macross material in order to make the show...I'd imagine that this book was part of that, and perhaps some of the ideas from the book filtered into Frontier.

On a side note, can I just say how WEIRD the whole Miss Macross bit in the book was for me...? Some of the stories made my job a little bit easier by reproducing dialogue directly from the show. I already have the subtitle files, so it was just a matter of copying and pasting. And yet...here's the Miss Macross Contest...the story in the book is written by the SAME GUY who wrote the TV episode...as I started reading the story, I had the episode ready to go, so I could locate duplicate dialogue, and...there wasn't any. Only ONE LINE is the same in both the show and the book (when Mariko tells Minmay she should've brought a proper autograph book).

I think this is what Kawamori was referring to when explaining how the scenarios get changed...

[VFTF1]

On a side note, can I just say how WEIRD the whole Miss Macross bit in the book was for me...? Some of the stories made my job a little bit easier by reproducing dialogue directly from the show. I already have the subtitle files, so it was just a matter of copying and pasting. And yet...here's the Miss Macross Contest...the story in the book is written by the SAME GUY who wrote the TV episode...as I started reading the story, I had the episode ready to go, so I could locate duplicate dialogue, and...there wasn't any. Only ONE LINE is the same in both the show and the book (when Mariko tells Minmay she should've brought a proper autograph book).

I think this is what Kawamori was referring to when explaining how the scenarios get changed...

Well - you answer your own point there with that last sentence. I mean, if it's true that the voice actor's scripts ar written only after the story boards are complete, and sometimes actually once footage is made, then it's not surprising that the dialogue is totally different although...

you did say the book was written after the show, or towards the end? But maybe it was just compiled and published towards the end/after the show, but was actually written prior to it? I mean - couldn't this stuff have originally been notes or ideas or snippets of a story? I'm sure there were multiple versions of what finally got condensed into the episodes themselves?

And - speaking as a complete amateur here - because I have no where near the research experience, let alon language experience that you have - but I think it would be common sense to apply a good rule of thumb that you keep reminding people to use when looking at the different Macross OVAs and series: namely "don't get too hung up on the particulars of continuity."

Personally, I really don't see very many continuity problems in Macross (but that's possibly because I'm coming at it from the world of Transformers, which is just a total mess). However, those areas where there does appear to be a continuity problem, I think it's true that we need to look at the series and OVAs as takes on a meta-story. That is to say, there's this mythology that kind of sort of goes "a, b, c" - but it's up to particular productions to sometimes capitalize one or two letters and keep others lower-case... I don't know if that's a good analogy?...

Anyways - point is - couldn't we look at this book the same way? Or do you have definitive knowledge that it was written at a very certain date, and that none of it was sourced from prior scripts and production material that was bandied about whil making the episodes?

Finally - as to whether or not Macross Frontier is a homage to this book (insofar as episode 4 goes) - maybe. That is one way of looking at it.

However - the feeling I got was that it wasn't a homage but a fulfillment. I got the sense reading those scenes in My Fair Minmay that Kawamori had a certain vision of Minmey being a goofy, stumbling little girl who had big dreams but was also very naive, inexperienced and shy about her looks - and poof - she became a cinderella.

I mean - heck - they even CALL Minmey a Cinderella in this book.

Now - I get the feeling this is the vision Kawamori had for Minmey. But that vision got choped down.

And let's take one more item.

What is the SOLE difference between Minmey and Ranka when comparing MF to My Fair Minmey?

It's this:

Minmey is a hottie with boys tripping over themselves to date her. She IS insecure about her looks, but she's definitely a hottie in the eyes of other men and boys. Now, ALL high school girls think themselves to be fat and ugly. Seriously. Anybody with a teenage daughter will testify to it. Few young girls are mature enough (emotionally) to recognize whether they are truly attractive or whether they have real physical definiciences which need to be addressed. So Minmey's being shy about her looks and thinking she has fat legs etc in no way contradicts the legions of boys who oogle and want to go out with her.

But Ranka on the other hand...Now...I think Ranka is a beautiful beautiful girl. BUT - she certainly doesn't fit the immediate definition of a beautiful girl. She has short croppy hair, not the flowing hair that the far more feminine Minmey has. She is very skinny. Minmey's "fat" legs are actually extremely well proportioned. Looked at only as a leg - then yes - it probably is "fat" - but looked at as part of her whole body - it's a "perfect fit" that makes her an attractive woman. Young girls just don't understand how to look at themselves yet because they are only starting to learn how men percieve them (it's the same for guys - it takes a while for guys to understand what women look at).

Anyways - Ranka on the other hand, is not "wll proportioned." She's just skinny. Childishly skinny. It's like she's th girl who still hasn't "sprouted" and she has to compete with all these babes.

Finally - Ranka does NOT have legions of men oogling her and wanting to date her. Even Alto thinks she's "wierd" when they first meet. And actually, EVEN when she becomes a star - she doesn't have such an erotic following as Sheryl does. People love her for her songs and the inspiration, but there's not a lot of sexuality going on there.

Now what SDFM-TV did was it took Minmey's sexuality and her trouble with dating guys and kept that, but it threw away her self-doubt, her conviction that she's ugly, and her clumsiness - aka - threw away everything that made her similar to Ranka.

It even threw away the "Cinderella" story - because the impression one gets from SDFMTV is that Minmey is just a talented, popular, beautiful "girl next door" who makes it big. This is NOT Cinderella. Minmey was already singing and starting to gain success on Atara Island. She just continues onboard the Macross. She has poise, elegence and grace, and despite her youth and relative inexperience, she is cocky and knows how to use her charms to flirt with men.

So - a very very different picture from Ranka, yes?

But then we see the book...and Minmey is a virgin, she finds the image of loosing her virginity "gross" - it's all very new to her. Her dreams of her "dream man" from the diary are standard young girl fair - not the stuff of more sophisticated, experienced women. Her dating experience is vast, but only because guys keep demanding that she go out with them. The Creme date shows it perfectly. She's just being polite. She doesn't want to be rude or make anyone upset. So she agrees to date everybody, but naturally can't help but be bored and ends up upsetting them anyways.

This is because when a guy askes Minmey out and she says yes, the guy stupidly always thinks "yeah! Super hot Minmey picked ME!" but in reality - she was just being polite. But politeness can only go so far - your real feelings eventually start to show if something displeases you - and so Minmey gets bored and the guys get annoyed.

This isn't Minmey's fault - she just doesn't really take the dates as seriously as the guys proposing them. And she doesn't really know herself enough to know what kind of man she is looking for.

So - see - even in this sense, we get a completely different image of Minmey than what the series shows us - where she seems far more cocky and sure of herself, and certainly far more conscious of her charms as a woman and ability to flirt with guys (although in all fairness I guess this is really most visible later on when she's a star and she's flirting with her cousin, ticking Hikaru off etc)...

Anyways - point is - the book puts the stress on the Cinderella Minmey that the series doesn't show us.

Now - in my view - what might have happened was that Kawamori wanted Minmey to be like what we saw of Ranka in Macross Frontier, but somewhere between the story and the story board and the final VA script, Minmey got changed and all the Ranka-ish elements were tossed away.

With Macross Frontier, I imagine Kawamorii (who was the director, right?) had far FAR more license to do as he wanted, and judging from this book, I think he just managed to make in Ranka what he had always wanted to do with Minmey.

For me - this is a very very fresh look at Macross and Macross Frontier.

People keep talking about how Macross Frontier is an homage.

I never fully agreed with that; particularly with those voices who made the radical argument that Macross Frontier is bad because it offers nothing new, but instead recycles stuff from old series.

It's my interpretation here that, based on My Fair Minmey, we can see that Macross Frontier is actually "Macross as Kawamorii originally intended it to be." We can see that in the character of Ranka compared to the Minmey portrayed in the book vs the series. The book Minmey is so clearly identical to Ranka that it is obvious to me that Kawamorii finally managed to put the super star idol story HE concieved on screen with Macross Frontier - the story he wasn't able to get through in the original Macross.

This makes Macross Frontier the best Macross series and the most unique Macross series because it shows us what Kawamorii always dreamed of doing - done perfectly right.

Pete

[Gubaba]

VFTF!, I certainly can't say you're wrong in your view of the "My Fair Minmay" version being the ORIGINAL version of Minmay...I don't share that belief, but then...neither of us were there, right? So who knows?

My belief is that the stories here were written well after the series began...mostly because dialogue is quoted verbatim from episodes (hell, there's even a kinda sorta joke about the constantly recycled battle footage), but I have no idea if these were ideas that they planned to put in the series initially, but couldn't. I kind of doubt it, though, since Macross Perfect Memory gives a short summary of each episode in both the original 48-episode version (VERY short summaries) and the revised 39-episode version (somewhat fuller), and none of the plot points from My Fair Minmay are mentioned in them. But, as I said, the summaries are brief, so not everything could've been covered.

So the siutation could've been one where the writers said, "Hey, why don't we have a story about Minmay getting signed for her record contract? We could have two competing companies, a sleazy producer..." and someone else said. "Nope, not enough episodes." But they filed the ideas away for later. Or they simply could've come up with the ideas when hashing out the book, which is what Kawamori seems to intimate in his introduction.

So it's definitely a gray area, but I'm not sure it's as gray as you're making it sound.

Speaking of gray areas, Kawmaori's role in the original Macross seems to be one...he wasn't, as you suggest, the director (that was Noboru Ishiguro, who also wrote episode 4 of the show and "Pink Lady" in My Fair Minmay)...he's credited only as one of the mecha designers, and the scriptwriter for episode 36. However...under his pseudonym, Eiji Kurokawa, he's listed as the background supervisor. In interviews and such, a lot of the other members of the staff seem to defer particularly to him, and he's the one to give episode commentary in the "Macross Graffiti." So I think his role was a lot larger than reading the credits would have you believe. (I also got the feeling, and someone -I *think* it was Renato- backed me up on it, that Ishiguro was brought in mostly to allay fears among the sponsors about letting this wild young crew with no experience do a full TV series, and that he pretty much stepped back and let everyone do their thing...I have no proof of that, though.)

I dunno. Mikimoto created Minmay and I believe gave her a lot of her character. He also handled most of the character animation in the show. So I think the Minmay that you see in the show is primarily Mikimoto's version. I'm not sure that means that the Minmay in the book is "Kawamori's Minmay." Kawamori didn't write any of the stories for the book, after all.

And really, it shouldn't be different at all, since the writing staff for the book is EXACTLY the same as the writing staff for the show. The only difference is that the book didn't have to please the sponsors and toy-makers, or be easy to animate. So I think any differences can be chalked up, as Kawamori says, to the eccentricities of the various writers, rather than any conscious plan on the part of the creators. For the record, I don't think Minmay is the book is terribly different from Minmay in the show. I was a little surprised by her breaking off the date with the high school boy, but I was equally surprised by everyone heading off to the red-light district in one of the stories (and hey...THE MACROSS HAS A RED-LIGHT DISTRICT??? I mean, I knew that there was that "really great place" that Kakizaki wanted to go, but I had no idea that is was a whole area...).

It all seems to fit pretty well together to me...I think the book allowed the writers to get a little more "adult" than they would've in the TV series, but that's about it.

But again, I dunno. I see "deepening" of the characters, not "changing." But other people's mileage may vary.

[VFTF1]

Well - I still would be curious of your take on my Ranka/Minmey analysis, because I just see far more similarities between the two based on the book than there had been based ony just watching the shows.

As to the technicalities - it's all interesting, but while I do believe that original intent, or in this case who was behind what, is important in a book... then in the case of stories where there are multiple creators and where a story actually has multiple components (visual, dialogue, voice acting...all of this influences how we see the story).... it's actually secondary to discuss who did what. Not saying it's irrelevent - but that it shouldn't overshadow the actual work itself - which takes on a life of its' own.

As for the Red Light District - this does not surprise me. The whole point of the Macross is that civilians decide to lead relatively normal lives despite living on a star ship during an intergalactic war. If there are going to be chinese reastaurants, singing contests, cafes, schools, churches and lingerie shops then of course there will also be a red light district - and if there wasn't, there would just be a lot of red lights

Pete

[Chas]

G-man - T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U.!

THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU!!!!!!!

For a long time Macross fan this is a dream come true! To finally be able to read this book and get all of this FABulous background info. I was actually tearing up, from joy and disbelief, as I was reading this. (Truly no hyperblee. Not unlike Minmay in class when she found out that everyone had nominated her for the Miss Macross Contest.)

I must say that I agree with your take on this book as expanding the characters rather than changing them. I also agree with those who are of the opinion that with Ranka K awamori was finally able to realize the compltete Minmay. It is as if he had picked up the pieces of Minmay that were left on the script-editting-room floor all those years ago and used them to fill in Ranka's character.

In many ways I feel that Frontier is Kawamori's retelling of the SDFM story. Reinterpreted? - undoubtedly, derrivitive? - not in the least. Along with Ranka being another (closer) cut at the Minmay character. I also think that the Vajra were another (closer) cut to what Kawamori thought the Zentradi should have been. more a force of nature than an evil empire. Also the sense of them (the Zents) being manipulated by other forces (outside & beyond there control including their biological nature) was also present in the original but again revisited and hightened with the Vajra. Admitedly a large part of Why I think frontier is Kawamori retelling SDFM is because it is his last chance to 'get it right'.

Anywho, that's my two cents.

I just need to say once again how much I appreciate all the effort and work that you have put into this. From one fan to another -

ありがとうございました

[Gubaba]

Well - I still would be curious of your take on my Ranka/Minmey analysis, because I just see far more similarities between the two based on the book than there had been based ony just watching the shows.

As to the technicalities - it's all interesting, but while I do believe that original intent, or in this case who was behind what, is important in a book... then in the case of stories where there are multiple creators and where a story actually has multiple components (visual, dialogue, voice acting...all of this influences how we see the story).... it's actually secondary to discuss who did what. Not saying it's irrelevent - but that it shouldn't overshadow the actual work itself - which takes on a life of its' own.

For the Minmay/Ranka comparison, I'm really not sure...I'll have to think about it (and maybe rewatch selected bits of Frontier) and get back to you.

As for the technicalities, I agree with you. For something like a TV show, there are many hands at work, and so there really is no "author" in any useful sense of the term. However, sometimes, someone's talent DOES poke through. And in Macross, I think Mikimoto's character animation and Itano's mecha animation clearly stand out. The episodes I like the best tend to be either written by Kenichi Matsuzaki (who was also the series script editor, as well as the model for poor, wimpy Kenji Machizaki, whose pants Shammy threatened to tear off; he also invented Minovsky Particles, but that's (literally) a different story). So I dunno. I hope Renato can chime in at some point, since he's done a lot of research into who did what, and in what capacity, and has a much more coherent picture of the process than I do.

G-man - T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U.!

THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU!THANKYOU!!!!!!!

For a long time Macross fan this is a dream come true! To finally be able to read this book and get all of this FABulous background info. I was actually tearing up, from joy and disbelief, as I was reading this. (Truly no hyperblee. Not unlike Minmay in class when she found out that everyone had nominated her for the Miss Macross Contest.)

I must say that I agree with your take on this book as expanding the characters rather than changing them. I also agree with those who are of the opinion that with Ranka K awamori was finally able to realize the compltete Minmay. It is as if he had picked up the pieces of Minmay that were left on the script-editting-room floor all those years ago and used them to fill in Ranka's character.

In many ways I feel that Frontier is Kawamori's retelling of the SDFM story. Reinterpreted? - undoubtedly, derrivitive? - not in the least. Along with Ranka being another (closer) cut at the Minmay character. I also think that the Vajra were another (closer) cut to what Kawamori thought the Zentradi should have been. more a force of nature than an evil empire. Also the sense of them (the Zents) being manipulated by other forces (outside & beyond there control including their biological nature) was also present in the original but again revisited and hightened with the Vajra. Admitedly a large part of Why I think frontier is Kawamori retelling SDFM is because it is his last chance to 'get it right'.

Anywho, that's my two cents.

I just need to say once again how much I appreciate all the effort and work that you have put into this. From one fan to another -

ありがとうございました

My pleasure, sir. My very great pleasure.

[Protoculture]

Thank you, dear sir, for bringing this personal aspect of Lynn Minmay to English speaking masses.

Your effort are not in vain. Thank you again for sharing Lynn Minmay with us.

[Noriko Takaya]

Yeah, I liked that artwork a lot, too. Rarely seen stuff...

You also may notice that her friend Seiko looks a lot like Seiko Matsuda, whereas Akina bears a remarkable resemblance to Akina Nakamori.

They were big fans of Akina Nakamori. This screenshot shows one of the references to her in the anime:

[Gubaba]

They were big fans of Akina Nakamori. This screenshot shows one of the references to her in the anime:

Which episode is that? I never noticed that before.

And this has nothing to do with anything really, but...

Since it took me a good seven months (off and on) to translate the book, I found myself cycling through a lot of music that seemed appropriate and gave me the "mood" I wanted to keep focus. I started with Minmay songs, then moved on the Mari Iijima's early solo albums, and finally ended up with early greatest hits albums by Seiko and Akina. Seiko I already knew a fair bit about, but Akina Nakamori was pretty new to me. I ended up getting a few of her early album, and her second album features this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de43i9yNF4g

Which sounds a hell of a lot like "Sentimental Over the Shoulder" from Megazone 23.

After I talked with Ginrai a bit about it, I checked the songwriters for both songs. Strangely, they're not the same, but the guy who wrote the Megazone song also wrote Akina's first big hit, "Shojo A," which is on the same album as the song in the youtube link above.

Not an earthshaking discovery by any means, but I thought it was interesting...

Oh, and I will say that for an early '80s Japanese idol singer, Akina is shockingly good. I like her a lot better than Seiko, at any rate.

[VFTF1]

Reading this brief exchange between Gubaba and Noriko - I am just so happy Macrossworld exists... So many people who know so much about this stuff Awesome! I will have to check out these new girls' music. First time I ever heard of it.

As for you,Gubaba - and your mood music... see - this is the kind of stuff fans might be interested in learning, and would be perfect material for a translator's essay. It sounds like it was quite an adventure to do this book

Pete

[Gubaba]

Reading this brief exchange between Gubaba and Noriko - I am just so happy Macrossworld exists... So many people who know so much about this stuff Awesome! I will have to check out these new girls' music. First time I ever heard of it.

As for you,Gubaba - and your mood music... see - this is the kind of stuff fans might be interested in learning, and would be perfect material for a translator's essay. It sounds like it was quite an adventure to do this book

Pete

Well, to me, it was a logical progression. Minmay only has...what, ten, twelve songs? Her entire output can be put on a single 35-minute CD. Put that on endless repeat for a while, and it begins to get a little monotonous. So I switched to Mari's first few albums...but the problem is that they don't sound terribly "Minmay-esque." (They're great though, any every Macross fan should pick up at least her first two albums, "Rosé" and "Blanche"). So I went for Seiko Matsuda, who was the inspiration for Minmay...but even then I needed a little variety. Akina was not an inspiration for Minmay (her first big hit came out a week and a half after Macross started airing), but clearly she was a big enough hit with the writing staff that they named Minmay's friend after her, and, as I just found out thanks to Noriko, big enough with the animators that they threw her name into the show.

My big problem is that I'm about to pick up "Misa Hayase: White Reminiscences" again, and...what music would be right for that? Misa has about three or four songs, but that won't be enough. Perhaps a playlist of all the drippy, sentimental SDFM background music would do it...

[Bri]

Thank you very much for translating this book Gubaba

Read it this evening. The book really fleshes out the events surounding Minmay. I think it's quite interesting to see how writers created an envornment in which both Minmay and Hikaru could keep their innocence. In contrast to their more worldly surroundings. Focker acting like Cinderella's Fairy godmother and looking out for those two is SO in character. Really felt like I was seeing new episodes, a wonderful experience for a fan.

I would agree that quite a few ideas from Fontier came from this. The way Janice is portrayed, she is pretty much a proto-Sheryl, but one that had to climb the ladder without help resulting in a bitter personality. The military realising Minmay's value early on and acting on that to prevent her to be exposed to the darker side of showbizz is mimicked in Frontier where Grace uses her own might to guide Sheryl through the ranks. Same way Ranka was not allowed to win the Macross contest ( even though she acts just as cute as Minmay) and could work her way up in relative safe obscurity until she was taken under the wings of Grace. I can't help but wonder how she would deal with Paparazzi

Edited October 18, 2009 by Bri

[Noriko Takaya]

The image is from episode 18, Pineapple Salad. It's from where Max and Milia are fighting in the ship.

And yes, Akina Nakamori is quite good. In fact she is the ORIGINAL j-pop idol (That's my opinion). There was a lot of critisism when Akina's career started as her songs were considered too mature for someone her age to be singing. She has had quite a storied career too, and she is still as popular today as when she first started.

Edited October 18, 2009 by Noriko Takaya

[Gubaba]

The image is from episode 18, Pineapple Salad. It's from where Max and Milia are fighting in the ship.

And yes, Akina Nakamori is quite good. In fact she is the ORIGINAL j-pop idol (That's my opinion). There was a lot of critisism when Akina's career started as her songs were considered too mature for someone her age to be singing. She has had quite a storied career too, and she is still as popular today as when she first started.

Ah, THAT'S why I missed it...I'm working with that episode today, and I haven't gotten to the Max and Milia fight yet.

I haven't heard much Akina past the '80s. I ended up downloading her singles collection boxset ("The First Ten Years 1982-1991"), and I love it so much I'm going to buy it as soon as I can (Maybe next month, more likely January). I'd like to hear some of her newer stuff as well. As always, the problem with popular Japanese performers is the sheer VOLUME of material they release...in the '80s, for Seiko or Akina, it was...what, a single every other month, and three or four albums per year? Insane. And expensive.

@ Bri: Glad you liked it! For myself, I'm still not entirely sure about the Frontier connections...at least, I don't see any overt homages. I think if you look for similarities, you'll find them, but I really don't think it's deliberate. Hell, the Jamis/Sheryl connection was picked up by Executive Otaku on THAT Animeblog, and he has (so far) only been watching the series, not reading any associated works. I'll admit there were one or two points where I realized that some lines could be translated into an homage to Frontier, but in these cases, after checking the Frontier episodes in question, the wording turned out to be different, so I resisted the temptation.

I still would've loved to have Jamis say, "Don't you know who I am? I'm the top star of Imperial Records! Me, Jamis! Jamis Merin!"...but it would've falsified the original and misled a lot of people. And after the whole Shaloom debalce, I've become almost neurotically obsessed with making sure that my Macross work has no "agenda" behind it.

[VFTF1]

My big problem is that I'm about to pick up "Misa Hayase: White Reminiscences" again, and...what music would be right for that?

Pete

Edited October 18, 2009 by VFTF1

[Gubaba]

Pete

Very nice!

...but again, not enough. The book is about 130 pages, and it'll take at least a few months. I'm gonna need five or six hours of Misa music to tide me over.

I wish there was some collection of "Japanese '80s Songs that Make College Girls Weep Vols. I~X" because I think something like that would be perfect...

[VFTF1]

I'm gonna need five or six hours of Misa music to tide me over

Ok - the fact that I am giving you this link, rather than you giving it to me makes me feel useful to you. Here you go :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSU2kqyTeXE

And remember to keep it in the 70s only.

Pete

[Gubaba]

Ok - the fact that I am giving you this link, rather than you giving it to me makes me feel useful to you. Here you go :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSU2kqyTeXE

And remember to keep it in the 70s only.

Pete

Hmmm...that IS useful...Thanks!

[VFTF1]

Your welcome. My general advise would be to focus on sensual, mature, mood music and maybe try dating an older woman who likes Jazz. That'll help get you in a Misa mood

Here's another good slow love song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZjGMoQcZqg...feature=related

I dunno. The 80s are not mellow enough for Misa and her lost love...

Pete

Edited October 18, 2009 by VFTF1

[Bri]

For myself, I'm still not entirely sure about the Frontier connections...at least, I don't see any overt homages. I think if you look for similarities, you'll find them, but I really don't think it's deliberate. Hell, the Jamis/Sheryl connection was picked up by Executive Otaku on THAT Animeblog, and he has (so far) only been watching the series, not reading any associated works. I'll admit there were one or two points where I realized that some lines could be translated into an homage to Frontier, but in these cases, after checking the Frontier episodes in question, the wording turned out to be different, so I resisted the temptation.

I still would've loved to have Jamis say, "Don't you know who I am? I'm the top star of Imperial Records! Me, Jamis! Jamis Merin!"...but it would've falsified the original and misled a lot of people. And after the whole Shaloom debalce, I've become almost neurotically obsessed with making sure that my Macross work has no "agenda" behind it.

I understand you being carefull in the matter and I can only applaud you not jumping to conclusions as the translater.

What convinces me that there is a connection between the novel and Frontier is the similarity in plot device: to keep the idol singer a noble character she needs protection from the harsh industry. In SDFM Minmay never showed any signs that her carreer was influenced by outside forces. The fact that this happened in this novel really surprised me as in DYRL Minmay is that more cynical individual.

The novel provides the evidence that the writers of SDFM were aware of the unlikely rise of Minmay and showed that her carreer was being protected by an outside force. This proves that the protected carreer idea predates Frontier. A few jokes in Frontier show that the Miss Macross contest in SDFM at least really stuck with the writing crew (maybe because they had to write this novel), like Sheryl taking up a judge position contrary to Janice, Cathy being a former contender contrary to Misa and most importantly Ranka failing where Minmay succeded by acting moe. As mentioned before SDFM did not seem to suggest that Minmay won peoples hearts (and thereby the contest) by being cute and clumsy, the novel certainly did.

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Thanks for the hard work.

[dreamweaver13]

Gubaba, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this!! I just finished reading Fancy Days, and i'll stop for now. I want to stretch the experience of reading this thing a bit longer. haha.

Thanks for the amazing work. and thanks for giving us a chance to see another side of the stories (and Minmay!) that we love so dearly.

[Gubaba]

Gubaba, THANK YOU SO MUCH for this!! I just finished reading Fancy Days, and i'll stop for now. I want to stretch the experience of reading this thing a bit longer. haha.

Thanks for the amazing work. and thanks for giving us a chance to see another side of the stories (and Minmay!) that we love so dearly.

You're welcome!

So...did YOU understand the "mouth-pulling" scene...? I didn't when I read it, and even my Japanese friends had to guess at what it meant. Fortunately, I think his guess was right. I tried to make it a little clearer in the English version...but not too clear.