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 , also known as in Japan, 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 Ente ...

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 '' Super Dimension Fortress Macross'' television series and '' Macross: D ...

in the

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

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 the ...

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

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto inf ...

. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Biography

Iijima was born in

Tsuchiura, Ibaraki is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 138,033 in 60,069 households and a population density of 1123 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 29.7%. The total area of ...

. 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 an anime television series from 1982. According to story creator Shoji Kawamori, it depicts "a love triangle against the backdrop of great battles" during the first Human-alien war. It is the first part of two franchises: The ''Super D ...

'' 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 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 musician, songwriter, arranger, and record producer who has composed various film and television soundtracks. He is best known for his 1967 album ''Song Cycle (album), Song Cycle'' and for his ...

' 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 ...

''. 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. Mari Iijima Live 2

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 Gre ...

' 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 including ''Beelzebub'', Bishamon in ''Noragami'', Petit Charat/Puchiko in ''Di Gi Charat'', Mint in ''Galaxy Angel'', Sinon in '' Sword ...

). 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 list ...

that appears in

Echo and Narcissus Echo and Narcissus is a myth from Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'', a Roman mythological epic from the Augustan Age. The introduction of the myth of the mountain nymph Echo into the story of Narcissus, the beautiful youth who rejected Echo and fel ...

. 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 a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 women pop singers Japanese women singer-songwriters Japanese radio personalities Japanese television actresses Japanese video game actresses Japanese voice actresses Japanese women record producers Musicians from Ibaraki Prefecture People from Tsuchiura 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