Macross 2009.2.22 Launch Event Wrap-up

22.02.2009 by Adrian A. Lozano

The Macross SDF-1 launching ceremony based on fictional events which played out during the first and second episodes of the original Macross series took place on Sunday Febuary 22nd at the UDX Akiba Square in Akihbara Tokyo. The first episode originally aired in October of 1982 but the actual launch ceremony taking place in the animation took place in February 2009. With the phenomenal success of Big West’s most recent Macross installment Macross Frontier a two week celebration campaign started on February 7 in the Otaku Mecca Akihabara.

Akihabara played stand-in for Ataria Island and the UDX building played the part of the SDF-1, and for sixteen days old and new Macross fans ran around to participating electronic stores, toy shops, restaurants, and maid cafes in the hunt for Macross stamps. Fans needed to collect at least three of the sixteen Macross character stamps found at locations on the stamp rally entry card. The entry card could then be taken to the Tokyo Anime Center for a chance to win either one of the Daedalus or Prometheus event entry tickets limited to 500 per event.

The launch event started at 10:00 am featuring limited event only goods and new products. Yamato Toys showed off a 1/2000 scale Do You Remember Love SDF-1. Even for a mockup it featured amazing details and it even had super tinny 1/2000 Mecha to go along with it. We also got our fist look at Bandai’s impressive Macross Quarter DX Chougoukin. It will be some time before any of these items hit retail and online stores but next month Banpresto will have out their Ichiban KUJI Macross Frontier prize items at participating convenient stores.

At 4:00 the Prometheus talk show started and was broken into two parts. Part A was a prearranged Q&A with Shoji Kawamori, Haruhiko Mikimoto, and Kazutaka Miyatake. Part B was Macross F series and movie oriented with Shoji Kawamori, Yuuichi Nakamura (Alto), Aya Endo (Sheryl) and Megumi Nakajima (Ranka). The three voice actors did narration over mostly series footage and a brief new shot of movie footage along with a new Ranka Lee song called "Sō Da Yo". The talk show ended with everybody singing happy birthday lead by Nakajima for Kawamori, Nakamura, and Endo each having birthdays in February. Still very little information was hinted about the movie other than what was presented. Following the event Joysound did a fan karaoke concert.

The Daedalus event kicked off at 6:30 with a brief projected rundown of early Macross history prior to the animated launch ceremony. The reenacted launch had new and old animation and was synced with flashing stage lights and smoke machines when the SDF-1’s main cannon fired and again when the space fortress launched. Michio Hazama (Captain Bruno J. Global) and Katsumi Suzuki (Hayao Kakizaki) did live voice over with the animation, and yes there were Kakizaki steak jokes. Nobutoshi Hayashi (Basara Nekki Voice Actor) sang a acoustic set for the first part of the mini concert, an emotional Megumi Nakajima closed out the event with a "My Boyfriend's a Pilot", “Seikan Hikou “, "An Angel's Paints" and "Do You Remember Love?" The overall event was great aside from a few technical sound difficulties during Nakajima’s performance.

We also have addtional photos over at www.animenewsnetwork.com