Shameful Otaku Secret!

Kawamori’s Mona Lisa

I had never thought too much about Do You Remember Love? until watching it this year. It’s been falsely accused of wrongly altering the story or just plain being a standard movie-compression. Really, it’s presented as a work of historical fiction that exists in-universe for Macross. It portrays Minmay with heroism but little sympathy and Hikaru as kind of an asshole, but it gives Roy Fokker a death in battle, so overall it’s a mixed bag. But two things come to mind: Firstly, the animation is one of the crowning achievements of pre-computer anime. And second, there’s that dramatic set piece: Minmay sings “Ai Oboete Imasuka” as the world is turned on end and the human race changes forever.

Perhaps Mona Lisa’s a bad term; after all, Da Vinci only painted that once. Kawamori, however, is a more obsessive artist who tends to try over and over to get the same piece right. Trouble is, he did it once, and modern technology (especially in the hands of the oft-underwhelming Satelite) can’t make it any better than it is right here. The song, the battle, the scope, the majesty of the whole scene will suck you right in. It’s the moment for which Macross exists.