Seeing Kawamori at AnimeNYC was a Macross Fan’s Dream
Deculture!
AnimeNYC was this past week. After five years of not attending conventions, I decided to break the absence and return. It couldn’t have been a more exciting comeback and experience. It was so long awaited. While I did my usual escapades in a con, there was one aspect of AnimeNYC I was eager to see. Specifically, one person, Shoji Kawamori, the co-creator of my all-time favorite mecha franchise Macross.
For those uninformed, Macross is a multimedia franchise primarily consisting of anime. The franchise debuted in 1982 with its first anime series, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. The success of the TV series spawned a movie adaptation and several successors, the most recent entry in 2021. Licensing disputes had kept the franchise from the international stage outside Japan. However, in 2021 the dispute was resolved, allowing for Macross to take center stage.
It was a pleasant surprise to see Kawamori was going to be a guest at AnimeNYC, and was even more of a reason to attend, no matter what. If possible, I wanted to even meet him and get his autograph.
Kawamori was slated to appear and talk in two panels on Friday and Saturday of the convention. The timeslots were 5:30PM and 12:30PM respectively. The first panel on Friday being an overview and telling of Kawamori’s career and what made him into a creator along with talk of his involvement various non-Macross projects. Saturday would be an in-depth look into the Macross franchise itself.
Both panels were immensely fun and informative. Kawamori seemed as enthusiastic and energized to speak to the fans as we were to hear from him. Even through an interpreter, you could feel the brightness emanating from him.
Kawamori regaled stories on how he became a creator and found his inspirations and particulars on his works’ production process. Each story was interesting, or funny, or both. One such story is how he recruited an animator Kouji Itou. Kawamori mentioned that he had enjoyed playing and setting off firecrackers in his younger years and as many as he possibly could. When interacting with Itou and playing with firecrackers, Itou said he would one up Kawamori by doing it on a bicycle. It was then Kawamori knew Itou understood him, and they would get along.
It was also interesting to hear of his works before Macross. In college Kawamori and friends put out a doujinshi sci-fi series, which he claims would have been the first “power suit” work if they had officially published, even before the iconic Gundam franchise. He also mentioned his work on designs for toys and products, some of which would be taken and utilized for the worldwide famous Transformers franchise.
On the topic of Macross, Kawamori detailed the lead up to the first Macross series, how his previous works had influenced the concepts for the series. One thing that he did mention was his desire to try and go someplace new. To go against or away from trends. For one was the conception of the idea of a transforming battleship or cruiser which would eventually be the titular Macross ship. Kawamori also mentioned how the direction of the original series moved to putting an emphasis on music, culture and peace. Once again wanting to break conventions and not let the story end up another typical war story, he took advantage of how the Zentradi were portrayed to put the idea into motion. The ultimate execution of the idea would be seen in the movie version of the series, Macross: Do You Remember Love?
It was after the original Macross and Do You Remember Love? (and Macross II: Lover’s Again) where Kawamori said he fell into a slight lull. Having accomplished and released much already, and ever the innovator, Kawamori tried to figure out what to do for a sequel wanting to do something new. Ten years after the original series, convinced by some staff, he ultimately came up with the concepts for Macross Plus and Macross 7 simultaneously. As Kawamori detailed, when he had submitted both proposals to the executives he had little expectations for approval as one series getting approved was already a high bar to clear, let alone two. He even mentioned an almost desire to get rejected so he could stop doing Macross and potentially be lazy. Much to Kawamori’s surprise, both Plus and 7 would get approval.
Although on the topic of Macross 7, Kawamori detailed a hilarious story on the fan reaction to protagonist Nekki Basara. There were objections right from the start regarding Basara’s actions. In the series, Basara would fly out on the battlefields and perform his music, in hopes that the fighting would stop. Fan reaction was polarized, with many complaints about Basara. “Is he dumb?” was a common complaint Kawamori sighted as hearing and seeing in fan response. After one episode which Basara fired off a missile, complaints came from the other side, with the “Is he dumb?” complaint returning. According to Kawamori, in response, the production team simply called it a day and gave each other high fives on a job well done.
Moving on from Plus and 7 Kawamori skipped ahead (due to time constraints in the panel) to Macross Frontier. Once again thinking about how to change things up, Kawamori explained how he really thought of a balance between music idols and war. He explained that he was uncertain about how music composer Yoko Kanno would react to the idea of involving more emphasis on idol pop music to fit modern times. But according to him, the concept of a Galaxy renowned pop idol appealed to Kanno. That idol character being Sheryl Nome, a character who, along with another character Ranka Lee was a topic in the panel altogether.
Macross Frontier has the most contentious and evenly matched romantic love triangle in the franchise. The two contender points being the characters mentioned above, Sheryl Nome and Ranka Lee. As a means of gauging Kawamori asked by a show of hands who in the crowd preferred which character. Based on his reactions, it sounded as if Ranka had more hands, it was nonetheless still almost even. Among the crowd behind me I could hear, “I like both to be honest.” a sentiment I shared.
Kawamori detailed that the evened odds in both popularity and in storytelling led to a conundrum for the production team, wondering how the series would end. Specifically how the love triangle would conclude. Every Macross series to that point had a conclusive end to their love triangles. But Frontier’s had gotten so strong it led to an inconclusive ending for the series. The problem would be remedied in the eventual movie adaptations of the series, with Sheryl Nome winning.
It came as one of the biggest shocks to me hearing that. As a fan, the Frontier love triangle is one of the most entertaining in the franchise, full of both comical and nail-biting moments. However, getting the perspective of a producer and the problem such an element can create when it is too strong was interesting and informative.
The experience from Frontier made Kawamori want to avoid any love triangles for the next entry Macross Delta. However, as he was pressured by executives to keep one as it was a pillar of every Macross series to that point. That decision and pressure resulted in a half-hearted effort. As one of the presenters at the podium with Kawamori said, that lack of effort could be seen by those who watched the series. With the movie adaptations/retellings of Delta, Kawamori was free to do as he pleased allowing him to be rid of the love triangle and focus entirely on the romance between the main protagonists. It resulted in Delta’s movies being arguably better, especially the second film.
Regarding any future Macross projects, specifically the one announced last year, Kawamori teased the crowd with only a couple of words on the PowerPoint presentation “New Macross”. It was a similar move to Harrison Ford on Conan before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens , where he was forbidden from saying anything. The only thing he could say was to keep watch and wait for any news, and that the series was in production.
Kawamori did have one last surprise for us though, a group photo. With one of his staff standing at the podium phone in hand, Kawamori moved to the center of the seating asking us to gather around him. It was awesome just being in close proximity to Kawamori, let alone a photo.
AnimeNYC proved to be a grand return for my convention life, and ignition to another Macross honeymoon phase. Seeing and hearing from Kawamori left me so energized and enthusiastic. So much so I only played Macross music on the train ride back home. I feel so inspired for my own creative works after hearing Kawamori’s experiences and stories, eager to deliver on the enthusiasm I’ve built. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next.
