Misa Hayase
Misa Hayase is one of the principal fictional characters of the Japanese anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which launched the eponymous franchise. She is a central figure in the series’ primary romantic storyline, forming part of a widely noted love triangle with Hikaru Ichijyo and Lynn Minmay.
She appears in the original television series, its film adaptation Macross: Do You Remember Love?, and the OVA Flash Back 2012. In the original Japanese productions, she was voiced by Mika Doi, who later reprised the role in several Macross video games. In the English-language dub released by ADV Films in 2006, the character was voiced by Monica Rial.
In 1983, Misa Hayase won the first Animage Grand Prix Award for Best Female Character, reflecting the character’s early popularity and critical reception within Japanese anime fandom.
In Macross
Within the fictional continuity of Macross, Misa Hayase is depicted as a career military officer born into a long-established military family, the only daughter of Admiral Takashi Hayase. Motivated from an early age to pursue military service, she enters the UN Spacy Officers’ Academy, graduating first in her class before being assigned as a bridge officer aboard the SDF-1 Macross with the rank of First Lieutenant. During this period, she forms a close professional and personal friendship with fellow officer Claudia LaSalle.An important element of Misa’s early characterization is her unresolved attachment to Riber Fruhling, a fellow UN Spacy officer for whom she harbored romantic feelings. Riber is killed during an attack on a returning UN Spacy fleet before Misa is able to express those feelings, an experience that informs her emotional reserve and strong emphasis on duty.
Misa’s initially strained relationship with civilian pilot Hikaru Ichijyo, marked by conflicts over authority and conduct, gradually evolves over the course of Space War I as they experience prolonged combat conditions and repeated crises together. This evolving relationship becomes one axis of the central love triangle of the series, contrasting Misa’s professionalism and sense of responsibility with the public persona and emotional expressiveness of pop idol Lynn Minmay.
Following the conclusion of Space War I, Misa and Hikaru’s relationship stabilizes after a prolonged period of emotional uncertainty. They later marry and have a daughter, Miku Ichijyo. At the end of the television series, Misa is selected by Admiral Bruno J. Global to command the long-range colonization vessel SDF-2 Megaroad-01. In subsequent canon material, Hikaru is depicted as leading its Valkyrie contingent. The ship departs Earth as part of the UN government’s space colonization program and is declared missing several years later.
Production
The character was written by Macross creator Shōji Kawamori, based on a character concept he considered innovative at the time. She was conceived as one of the principal commanders aboard the SDF-1 Macross, and as direct superior officer of the series’ male protagonist, fighter pilot Hikaru Ichijyo, while also later becoming his romantic partner. Kawamori has stated that he had not encountered this combination of professional hierarchy and romantic development in contemporary Hollywood movies before. In commentary included in the Animeigo liner notes, he described the series’ central roles by stating that “in Macross, Hikaru is the hero, Misa is the heroine, and Minmay is the star,” explicitly distinguishing Misa’s narrative function from Minmay’s celebrity-driven prominence. According to Kawamori, later films – most notably Top Gun – employed a similar dynamic, pairing fighter pilots with superior officers in a narrative that combined aerial combat with popular music. He remarked that “many people pointed out that later films like Top Gun copied that idea and setting, as well as including the combination of many songs and fighters too.”In the American adaptation of the series, Robotech, Misa was renamed Lisa Hayes, and her background was altered to depict her as Caucasian American.
Characterization
Misa Hayase is characterized as a disciplined and emotionally restrained career officer whose sense of personal identity is closely tied to her professional role. In contrast to Lynn Minmay’s highly expressive and publicly oriented personality, Misa is portrayed as strong-willed, reserved, and deeply committed to duty, often prioritizing responsibility over personal fulfillment. This contrast aligns with series creator Shōji Kawamori’Misa’s emotional reserve and strong sense of obligation frequently complicate her personal relationships, particularly in her evolving romantic involvement with Hikaru Ichijyo. While she demonstrates decisiveness and composure in command roles, she struggles to articulate vulnerability, with moments of emotional openness often emerging only under extreme circumstances. Her close friendship with fellow officer Claudia LaSalle provides a rare space for emotional candor and guidance. In the film The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? Misa’s characterization and relationship with Hikaru broadly follow the same thematic framework established in the television series, emphasizing her professionalism, emotional restraint, and gradual romantic development.
Reception
Misa Hayase has been widely recognized for her narrative importance and character development within the Macross series, particularly for her role in its central romantic storyline and her portrayal as a competent female military officer. In 1983, she won the first Animage Anime Grand Prix for Best Female Character, reflecting her popularity and critical recognition among contemporary anime audiences. Critical commentary on The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? has similarly highlighted Misa’s role in the film’s emotional core, with reviewers noting that her involvement in the love triangle with Hikaru Ichijyo and Lynn Minmay reinforces the film’s themes of emotional sacrifice, loss, and maturity amid wartime conditions.Legacy
Later installments in the Macross franchise have occasionally echoed aspects of Misa Hayase’s characterization, though without directly replicating her combination of narrative centrality, professional authority, and romantic function. In Macross Frontier, the supporting character Catherine Glass bears a visual resemblance to Misa and is similarly portrayed as a pragmatic, no-nonsense military officer; however, unlike Misa, Catherine occupies a secondary role and is not positioned at the center of the series’ romantic storyline.Elements of Misa’s personality and narrative function have also been identified in Macross Frontier