is a Japanese actress and singer. She writes and produces most of her own music, and plays the piano and other instruments. After being signed to

JVC Victor is a subsidiary of JVCKenwood that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It is known as JVC Entertainment in countries where Sony Music Entertainment operates the R ...

in 1982, Mari first became known for her voice-acting role as

Lynn Minmay Lynn Minmay ( Japanese: リン・ミンメイ ''Rin Minmei'', Chinese: 鈴明美 / 林明美 ''Líng Míngměi / Lín Míngměi'') is a fictional anime character from the ''Macross'' franchise who has been considered the first fictional chara ...

in the

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

Macross is a Japanese science fiction mecha anime media franchise/ media mix, created by Studio Nue (most prominently mecha designer, writer and producer Shōji Kawamori) and Artland in 1982. The franchise features a fictional history of Earth and t ...

''. Her debut original album, ''Rosé'', was released in 1983, which was produced by composer

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Life and career

Iijima was born in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki. Her original demo tape was picked up by

in 1982 and she was signed to the record company as a singer-songwriter. Soon afterward, she was asked to audition for the role of

in ''

The Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a Japanese science fiction anime television series. It is the first part of the ''Super Dimension'' trilogy and the ''Macross'' franchise. The series aired in Japan from October 1982 to June 1983. According to story creator Shoji Kawam ...

'' by the label and the producers chose her to play the role. The series quickly became a mega hit and brought Iijima to stardom. Her debut album, ''Rosé'', containing no ''Macross'' tracks, had lyrics and music written by her. It was produced by

, who used the new

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980s, th ...

digital synthesizer A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds, in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital rec ...

(released the same year) while producing her album. ''Rosé'' debuted at number 10 on the charts in September 1983, and she started her career as a singer-songwriter. Iijima moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to expand her music career. That same year, she appeared as a guest vocalist on

Van Dyke Parks Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, record producer, singer, and former Warner Bros. Records executive whose work encompasses orchestral pop, elaborate recording experiments, Ame ...

' album ''

Tokyo Rose Tokyo Rose (alternative spelling Tokio Rose) was a name given by Allied troops in the South Pacific during World War II to all female English-speaking radio broadcasters of Japanese propaganda. The programs were broadcast in the South Pacific ...

''. It was around this time that she married James Studer, who had been her producer on her 1988 album ''Miss Lemon''. The couple had two children, Andy and Ryan, before separating in 2001. Mari Iijima Live 2

After releasing her first independent (and first English language) album, ''No Limit'', she was nominated for the 2000 Los Angeles Music Awards' Best Pop Artist for the album and she was in the final four for the award. She won the best Asian song for her track ''Unspoken Love'' from the album ''Wonderful People'' at the Just Plain Folks Awards in 2006 and performed as a guest performer. In 2006, she reprised her role as Lynn Minmay in

ADV Films A.D. Vision Holdings, Inc. (known simply as ADV and also referred to as ADV Films) was an American multimedia entertainment distributor headquartered in Houston, Texas, and founded in 1992 by video game fan John Ledford and anime fans Matt Gr ...

' English-language release of ''Macross'', which made her the second Japanese voice actor to reprise her role in an English anime dub (following only

Miyuki Sawashiro is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator. She has played voice roles in a number of Japanese anime/games including ''Beelzebub'', Bishamon in '' Noragami'', Petit Charat/Puchiko in '' Di Gi Charat'', Mint in '' Galaxy Angel'', Sinon in ...

). She dedicated her performance in the ADV dub to Arihiro Hase, the Japanese voice actor of Hikaru Ichijo in ''Macross'' and a close friend of Iijima. She maintained good relations with Hase's mother after his death by suicide in 1996. Iijima released her twenty-first studio album, called ''Echo'', in August 2009. The title was taken from the nymph character

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

that appears in Echo and Narcissus. The album's theme is unrequited love. She has continued to perform into the 2020s, both live and in videos, but a Tokyo concert planned for August 2020 was postponed to January 11, 2021 (then to August 28, 2021), due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

crisis. Iijima stated on her website that she "likes the ring of '1.11'" as a sign for the future.

Discography

Original albums

Compilation albums

EPs

Singles

Soundtracks

Filmography

Video games

References

External links

Official blog
* * (Victor Entertainment) * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Iijima, Mari 1963 births Living people Anime singers Japanese emigrants to the United States Japanese radio personalities Japanese television actresses Japanese video game actresses Japanese women pop singers Japanese women singer-songwriters Japanese women record producers People from Tsuchiura Singers from Ibaraki Prefecture Victor Entertainment artists Voice actresses from Ibaraki Prefecture Warner Music Japan artists 20th-century Japanese actresses 20th-century Japanese women singers 20th-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singers