Staff says title, date subject to change; new footage, "Sō Da Yo" song previewed

The planned Fall opening date for a theatrical film remake of the Macross Frontier anime series was announced via an itasha (vehicle decorated with character art) mini-van outside the "Macross: The Super Dimension Space Launching Ceremony" event on Sunday. However, creator Shoji Kawamori and the cast members Yuuichi Nakamura (Alto), Aya Endo (Sheryl), and Megumi Nakajima (Ranka) noted in the actual event that the new date and even the title of the project is subject to change. During the event, the voice cast performed a live audio recording for a promotional video of the theatrical film project. The promotional video included brief new footage of the arena for Sheryl's concert in the story and Nakajima's new song, "Sō Da Yo."

The "Macross: The Super Dimension Space Launching Ceremony ~It's Really 2009 Already…It's 2/22 (Nyan Nyan Nyan), Deculture!~" event marked the precise month when the events of the very first episode of the first Macross science-fiction romance series supposedly takes place. The event was split into a two-part "talk show" with guests from several Macross projects, and the actual "ceremony" itself. During the first talk show segment, Valkyrie mecha designer and story co-creator Shoji Kawamori, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, and mechanical designer and Studio Nue co-founder Kazutaka Miyatake discussed how they met at school and Studio Nue. They also reminisced on how Macross came together and how Macross has grown in the 27 years since its first airing. The second talk show segment had the live audio recording for the Macross Frontier film's promotional video and a discussion of what the cast wanted to ask "kantoku-san" (the director) to do with their characters.

During the ceremony itself, brief new footage of a computer-animated Macross spaceship was shown during its launch day. The story's fictional ceremony was recreated with new and old dialogue by actors Michio Hazama (Captain Bruno J. Global) and Katsumi Suzuki (pilot Hayao Kakizaki). (Sho Hayami, the voice of the pilot Maximilian Jenius, was unable to attend due to flu.) The event ended with a song by Nobutoshi Hayashi (Basara Nekki) and a mini live concert with Nakajima. Dressed as the singer character Lynn Minmay from the first Macross series and film, Nakajima sang covers of Macross songs such as "Watashi no Kare wa Pilot" ("My Boyfriend's a Pilot"), "Tenshi no Enogu" ("An Angel's Paints"), and "Ai, Oboeteimasuka" ("Do You Remember Love?").

More images from the event can be seen here.

Image © Big West/Macross F Project, MBS