Mari Iijima -- 0-G Love

Zero-gravity love...um...er...yes, well...perhaps it is something that the folks at NASA Mission Control muse about when things are somewhat slow. For me, there are two things that come to mind when the phrase is uttered. One is the final scene from the 007 movie, "Moonraker" when James Bond provides a definitive demonstration of it to the world authorities including his boss M.

The other thing is the much more innocent "0-G Love" as sung by everyone's favorite space aidoru, Lynn Minmay (whose voice is provided by singer-songwriter Mari Iijima) from the very first entry of the "Macross"（マクロス）franchise. Of course, when Minmay is mentioned, I'm always going to think of "Ai Oboeteimasuka?"（愛・おぼえていますか）, the weaponized song of choice that is used by the good guys in the 1984 movie version of the same title.

However, I also think of that quintessentially cute little insert song that Minmay sings at the beginning of the movie, "0-G Love", which is about as light and fluffy as anti-gravity or a well-made souffle, and given even more airiness thanks to Iijima's（飯島真理）adorable delivery. I heard that it was actually first used back in the original TV series but I never heard it or any of the other original songs proper since what I caught in my university days was the Americanized version titled "Robotech" by Harmony Gold.

The song was written and composed by Akane Asa and Kentaro Haneda（阿佐茜・羽田健太郎）, the same duo who created the majority of tunes for Iijima/Minmay including the lonesome cowboy-like "Runner" for the late Makoto Fujiwara（藤原誠）. The translation for the lyrics is available up at Anime Lyrics, and basically it's about that the girl secretly soaring up to Cloud Nine after getting the kiss from her beau. Without getting too geeky, I have to admit that I love the way Iijima pronounces "furafura" and "fuwafuwa". Teen love indeed.