Another tragedy struck the anime world, with the news that Kazuhiko Kato, the composer of the “Do You Remember Love?” song from the 1984 Macross movie, had committed suicide in a hotel in Karuizawa. The timing of the sad event was especially pointed for me, since I was in the middle of my “Weekend of Macross geekery,” playing the new Macross Ultimate Frontier (quite frankly the best anime game ever made) on my PSP, and was playing just as the news popped up in my twitter feed. The announcement of Kato-san’s death was sad for other fans as well, coming just hours before the Macross Crossover Concert, with five singers including Mari Iijima performing for fans. There are of course many cool songs in the anime world, but for me, “Do You Remember Love?” was the song, the very first one I heard in Japanese, which I vowed to understand someday. Mr. Kato had many achievements in his life including writing many beloved songs and forming a band called The Sadistic Mika, which became the first Japanese band to tour in Great Britain back in the 1970s.
Ai Oboete Imasu ka? composer Kazuhiko Kato will be missed.
