"Comeback tour? I have never retired!"

Iijima Mari is best-known to anime fans as the voice of MACROSS's enduring idol Lynn Minmay. It is not something that she's always been comfortable with. But lately, she's had to come to terms with a lot of changes in her life, and she now looks back on being Minmay with fondness, and talks about the recent changes in her life.

Q: You have been visiting many conventions now, so what has the reaction been like and what does this mean to your American career as a singer?

Iijima Mari: Every conference is different but I've been enjoying going to conventions and meeting so many people, but they are kinda... cool, maybe it's just LA.
I enjoyed Baltimore very much. It's a beautiful place and the people were very nice. It was not as hyped. As a singer, I just finished my English album. I went to pick up the CD today from the factory so I have CDs already done here which I plan on selling after my show. I'm just hoping that people buy my album, since the costs came all out of my pocket.

Q: How did you become an anime singer?

IM: People think I'm an animation singer, but actually the only animation I did was MACROSS. So I'm not really an anime singer.
The reason why I did MACROSS... As a child I took classical music lessons. I wanted to be a pianist but then I wanted to write my own songs. I had like 100 songs by when I was 18, and then I made one demo tape and I made some copies and sent it to a few places.
JVC/Victor told me they told me they want to sign. The next day was the last day of the MACROSS singing auditions, and I think almost 500 girls wanted to be Minmay, but I was the last one. JVC said "Why don't you try?" because the MACROSS soundtrack was going to come out from JVC, so they wanted me to go. I had no idea about animation numbers, so I sang my own songs with piano. Other girls sang some popular songs. And they chose me.

Q: Since you've had much more of a career since MACROSS, at what point did you introduce the whole MACROSS thing to your kids?

IM: One day when they were like three year old, I tried to show them that movie, MACROSS: DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE?, but they were not interested. They were more into movies like TERMINATOR 2. At that time I did not know anything about R-rated movies, and when watching TV they were very quiet so I was happy.
They saw ROBOTECH on the Cartoon Network, and they could remember that Mommy did that, Mommy had done that girl's voice singing (although that wasn't really me).

Q: What challenges does doing a full-length, all-original English album pose?

IM: For me the hardest part was writing all the English lyrics by myself, I could write something, but sometimes the rhythms didn't work so I had to adjust the rhythm part. I had thought I wrote it so perfectly, but my partner would tell me otherwise. I wanted him to be really honest with any criticism.
I also think my pronunciation got much better than when I first came to Los Angeles ten years ago. At that point, I couldn't think about doing my songs without worrying about pronunciation, but because now it's easier because I talk to people in English.

Q: Is there one song that you would recommend on this new album?

IM: The album title is "No Limit" and there is a song on the album with that title. That kind of represents my spirit, that you don't have any kind of limits, you can do anything you need. But that one song that kinda touches your heart is going to be "Us."
I'm breaking up with my husband right now, and it took so long for me to be okay about it. That song was originally in my Japanese album called "Good Medicine," I really love that song so I made it into English. I think that song touches people's hearts since it's a true story. All my songs are true stories, I don't tell any fiction in these.

Q: What are your plans right now as you've just finished these albums?

IM: I made two albums in a very short amount of time, so musically I need to rest for a while.
I go to auditions every once in a while, and I have an agent for actors. I just got a part just yesterday in PACIFIC BLUE; it's going to be one of the principle roles for that particular episode. That was really exciting because I thought I did really bad. At the first audition I did really well, and I felt natural, and then I realized how much the casting directors liked me so I had to answer in front of the producers because the casting directors wanted me to go over the dialogs with them. So I thought "Ok, I must have done good." I got so nervous and then I made mistakes and asked if I could have another chance, which they gave me. And I was crying in the parking lot calling my friend "I could have had it" and then I went to my manager crying crying, and then I got the part. So it was a very emotional day. It's my very first role. I have never done any acting. It's very exciting.

Q: Do you want to start a career in acting then?

IM: For me, acting is something different. My main thing is always music, and I'm not going to change that. But sometimes I get... I'm a hyper person so I get bored sometimes so it's really good. Just going to the auditions is really exciting.

Q: Do you listen to other people's music for entertainment, and if so, what's in your CD player right now?

IM: Yes. Ummm... I have a few CDs I listen to almost everyday. One album is called Domino by Squeek, I also like the Goo Goo Dolls. I like hard rock, not like metal just that energetic rock.

Q: What's your opinion about your music being popular all around the world, including South America? And what do you think about visiting those places?

IM: I get goose bumps... I had no idea my music was popular all around the world. I didn't even know I had any fans in North America until I started using the internet and I discovered pages about myself using search engines.

Q: Do you have any hobbies?

IM: I play tennis, twice a week. I started from scratch but I can hit the ball.

Q: Do you do live perforamces in Japan these days?

IM: I do every year three shows: Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka... the 3 big cities. But no since I don't have a contract I don't know. It's going to be very hard for me to do that. In Osaka and Nagoya, I perform for around 500 people. The Tokyo show is bigger.

Q: What do you hope your fans tell people who don't yet know who you are?

IM: That I have a beautiful voice. (laughs) And that I am songwriter.

Q: Has the anime industry ever offered you any other roles? If someone offered you a role today would you take it?

IM: I actually don't know if they've asked me or not because it may have stopped at my manager's desk. But now, if it's a good role I'd like to do it.

Q: So you were never contacted about doing your role in the radio drama MACROSS GENERATION?

IM: No...

Q: One of the recent things you did in Japan was recording "Friends" with Sakurai Tomo. What was it like working with her?

IM: I hope she likes me. She was not like when I was younger and working with big name producers. She was wild, and she's not afraid. I wanted to be her friend but I don't know what she thought of me.
I like her. I like strong girls. Much more than the person who says "I can't do it, I can't do it". I think I did a good job writing that song, and it was a really good project.

Q: What's your opinion of the English dubbing they did for ROBOTECH?

IM: Actually I only saw one or two episodes. When I first heard her voice I thought, "Wow, it sounds like me," and I was kind of impressed they found someone so close. It may have not been that close to me, but the voice matched Minmay's face. But the music... umm....

Q: Is it hard promoting yourself in the American market?

IM: I've always wondered if I was too nice. Even for the Japanese market, I'm really too nice. But you know recently, I've discovered my bitchy side. So I'm feeling stronger, like I can kick everybody's ass.
I would think it would be good if I got on the David Letterman show or something. That would be good, but I don't think I'm going to get that chance. But that can be one of my dreams...

Q: You've said you write when the spirit moves you... How do you work when you've been given the task of writing for a specific situation or anime?

IM: When I set about writing "Friends" I started to think about Minmay and Mylene meeting for the first time. And I worked from that idea...

Q: When working on your English album, did you have to change the meaning of your songs when you translated them into English?

IM: I recently explained this to my Japanese fans. It's like if I want to say "I love you," it's so short, but in Japanese it's "Watashi wa anata wo aishite imasu." So if I want to translate my Japanese song to English, it finishes much quicker. I have to add much more, so I did add much more meaning to these songs.

Q: There have been a few bands from Japan that have tried to break into the North American market, and to some extent there's been a stigma associated with it since they haven't been terribly successful. How do you hope to overcome this?

IM: Usually they have a big budget sponsored by a record company, but I'm not like that. I just live here, and I know a lot of people in the business and I try to build up relations with them, and I want to be an American artist here. I don't know how well my CD is going to do but I'm going to try.

Q: Do you find it frustrating that the central core of your fans come from the anime fan community? Do you resent Minmay's popularity in any way?

IM: Not any more. I think I'm lucky now, because...well Minmay's my life. I didn't like that part a few years ago, but now I really like it. I've always liked Minmay.