Love, Do You Remember?

It’s time to mark a very special anniversary which has meant a lot to many of my generation. While you might reasonably expect me to write about the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and mankind’s first historic walk on the moon, which will have been covered by others, I’m actually talking about the Macross 1984 movie “Do you remember love?” film, which began its general release on July 21, 1984, exactly 25 years ago Tuesday. (This was the then-15th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Japan time; the film had a limited showing two weeks before in two Japanese cities.) The release of the Macross movie did nothing less than redefine everyone’s perception of anime up to that moment, showing how good extremely well-made animation could be and cementing Macross as one of the major achievements of the era. Like the release of Star Wars in 1977, the Macross movie imprinted itself on the minds and imaginations of a generation of otaku, and will forever be remembered with nostalgia. Back in high school I rented a VHS copy of the movie from a comic shop in San Diego and took it home to watch with my friends. It was my first exposure to the Japanese language, to say nothing of my first anime shower scene, and it really opened my eyes to an amazing new world.