Macross: Do You Remember Love? - Relation To The TV Series

Relation To The TV Series

Do You Remember Love? is a reinterpretation of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross in a feature film format. Almost all of the characters featured in the TV series appear in the film. Most of the voice actors from the TV series reprised their roles for the film. The love triangle and the various relationships are intact.

Macross 7 describes a film called Do You Remember Love? within the fictional world of Macross. Series creator Shoji Kawamori also gave an explanation about the differences in the television and film depictions of Space War I: "The real Macross is out there, somewhere. If I tell the story in the length of a TV series, it looks one way, and if I tell it as a movie-length story, it's organized another way...".

Many ships, mecha, and characters were redesigned for the film. These designs have been featured in later entries of the Macross franchise. The Zentradi were given a language of their own and most of the dialogue of Zentradi characters is in that language.

The film diverges from the TV series in several ways:

• In the series' beginning, Hikaru and Minmay's relationship starts before his joining U.N. Spacy and her meteoric rise to stardom. In the film, Hikaru is already a pilot in Skull Team, while Minmay is already an established star.
• The Earth is bombarded by the Zentradi before the Macross returns while in the series, the bombardment happened afterwards.
• Three pilots/planes are featured as Skull Leader / Skull 1: Roy's (VF-1S Strike, Roy Colors - Grey + Yellow), Max's (VF-1S, Max Colors - White + Blue) and Hikaru's (VF-1S Strike, Hikaru Colors - White + Red), as opposed to the TV series where there is only one Skull 1, which was flown only by Roy and Hikaru.
• Hikaru and Misa discover a Protoculture city-ship on the ruins of Earth that rose out of the ocean after the Zentradi attack. The Protoculture have a generally higher profile in the movie than on the show and more is revealed about them. The film's title song is itself a Protoculture relic.
• The Zentradi males and females are named Zentran and Meltran and placed on opposite sides of the Protoculture conflict. No mention is made of the Supervision Army. The Meltlandi, in addition to being in a separate fleet of their own have distinctive ship and mecha designs.
• In the original Macross TV series, the Zentradi's dialogue was automatically translated into Japanese. In this animated film, they are actually heard speaking a fictional extraterrestrial language specifically developed for the movie as subtitles are provided for the audience, much like the Klingon language in Star Trek (of which a word wasn't spoken until they both appeared in their first theatrical version). This language was subsequently used in further installations of the Macross universe.
• Max and Milia meet face to face during their battle in their original sizes, in which Max immediately falls in love with the giantess. He later undergoes enlargement in the sizing chamber so he can fight side-by-side with his lover, a reversal of the events in the TV series, where Milia shrunk to Max's size instead.
• The Macross is designed slightly differently and instead of having the Daedalus and Prometheus docked as its 'arms' it has two ARMD carriers. This became the design of the Macross on further series installments such as Macross II, Macross Plus and Macross Frontier.
• The origin of the SDF-1 Macross is also different. Instead of being a Supervision Army Gun Destroyer like in the TV series, in the Do You Remember Love? film the SDF-1 was originally a Meltlandi Gun Destroyer that crashed on Earth and was reconstructed by humans. The Zentradi attack Earth as soon as they discover the ship which apparently belongs to their Meltlandi enemies.
• The Daedalus is not referenced in the film while the beached wreckage of the Prometheus is discovered by Hikaru and Misa shortly after their space fold back into Earth. In the 1997 home video game adaptation of the film (released on the Sega Saturn and PlayStation), an all-new introduction scene depicts Skull Squadron taking off from the Prometheus before the carrier is sliced into two by a Zentraedi cannon blast from above orbit.
• During the press conference scene, three micronized (and bald-headed) Zentrans in suits and ties are sitting on a side table next to where Captain Global makes the announcement of a ceasefire. They are credited as Rori, Konda, and Warera, the three Zentradi spies from the TV series.
• Zentradi Supreme Leader Gorg Boddole Zer's physical appearance in the film completely differs from that in the TV series. Instead of being merely a bald Zentran, his head is cybernetically fused with his mobile space fortress. Also, Boddole Zer towers incredibly high above the Zentradi in comparison to the TV series where he was slightly taller than Britai Kridanik.
• Exsedol Folmo's appearance here (as having a larger cerebrum, tendrils, and greenish appearance) would actually be worked into the Macross continuity. Exsedol feared losing his cerebral capacity due to being micronized for an extended period of time. He voluntarily underwent this change so as to preserve his intellect. In the Macross universe, it is also stated that Exedore played himself in the film.