Mari Iijima -- Tenshi no E no Gu （天使の絵の具）

Several months ago, I gave Mari Iijima（飯島真理）, aka Lynn Minmay（リン・ミンメイ）, her due as the singer behind one of my favourite anime songs, "Ai wo Oboeteimasuka"（愛をおぼえていますか...Do You Remember Love?） for the movie version of the very first entry in the "Macross"saga. I always saw that song as the anime equivalent of "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem, as used in the classic movie, "Casablanca"(my very favourite old movie...I'm not only into kayo kyoku and anime, y'know). The good guys literally used Minmay's epic ballad as the rallying cry to defeat the invasive Zentraedi.

So after that epic musical climax, and the denouement of all of the surviving characters, grateful but exhausted, what to do? Lynn takes the audience off to the closing credits with an uptempo and hopeful aidoru tune that not only makes me remember the movie but 80s aidoru-dom in general. "Tenshi no E no Gu"(An Angel's Paints) is the title of my 2nd-most remembered song by Iijima, who wrote and composed it.

Iijima provided Minmay's career of songs throughout "Ai wo Oboeteimasuka", but it has always been the title song and "Tenshi no E no Gu" that have stuck in my mind in the 29 years since the movie was released. Iijima/Minmay's breezy but soaring voice along with with the tinkly synths and electric guitar and the backup chorus will eternally bring back the Japanese 80s to me. The song was the B-side to the song "Ai wo Oboeteimasuka" and made for a nice light contrast with its heavy-hitting sister.

The video above, by the way, is the final part of the video "Macross Flashback 2012" that was released in 1987 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the original TV series. Bringing together  excerpts from both the original series and the movie, the video also included new footage which was even more richly animated than the movie. I was lucky enough to have received the video as a present, and still marvel at how the characters looked and moved back then. As "Tenshi no E no Gu"plays, we finally get a visual synopsis of how Lynn Minmay grew up to become the super space aidoru before taking off in the SDF-02 as an older, wiser and more wistful lady.

The above video has the actual singer Mari Iijima performing "Tenshi no E no Gu". Perhaps it's a bit cheeky (if complimentary) of me but I think the line is very fuzzy when it comes to distinguishing Iijima from her iconic anime character. And I think after all these years, if she ever showed up at a ComiCon or an AniCon, there would be major mayhem.

Only hearing this now as I write this up, but "Tenshi no E no Gu"was also a track on Iijima's 2nd album, "blanche", released in April 1984, three months before the Macross movie was even released, so her early fans got to hear this more atmospheric take before the way more famous aidoru version. The album was produced and arranged by the legendary Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）. This version is a strangely haunting ballad.

Glad to have discovered it. It's for these discoveries that I started the blog after all.