In the previous part of this analysis, I examined the impact of Melissa’s attack on Misa when she related her two losses, the absence and coldness of her father, and her second thoughts on her choice to join the military. Here’ I’ll discuss how Misa’s emotional and mental state impacts whatever plans her father may have had for her future.

Takashi’s Plans

In this series, we already saw that the Hayase household, under Takashi’s undisputed positioning as its head, didn’t inspire Misa to envision her “possible selves” and that instead, Takashi himself had prescribed for Misa only three alternative “possible selves”: (a) a wife, (b) a soldier’s wife, and (c) a soldier’s wife who is also nominally a soldier. Especially regarding the prospect of her becoming a soldier’s wife – or, in the novel’s own words, the wife of a “splendid military man,” Takashi tells Misa she should be “content with that.” This, of course, contradicts the official narrative from Macross Chronicle that he rates her more as a fellow officer than as a daughter (DeAgostini Japan, 2013).

Especially when we consider this information side by side with his conduct in White Reminiscences and episode 24 of SDFM, we can deduce that his original plan for Misa’s future was a marriage appropriate to the Hayases’ social status. Whether this plan involved a “splendid military man” or this idea entered his mind during Misa’s romance with Riber is anyone’s guess. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if a “splendid military man” was one of the options Takashi had in mind for Misa ever since she was born; other options could include young diplomats and state officials. An additional argument for such a hypothesis is that he’s canonically shown as mediating marriages – notably, Bruno Global’s with Miho.

Plan A

Misa’s acquaintance and romance with Riber seem extremely convenient for Takashi. He’s portrayed as respecting Riber’s intellect and principles, and even trusts him to say nothing to Misa about his machinations for her premature enrollment into the Far East Officers’ Academy. Additionally, he and Riber’s father are old friends. If a Fruhling-Hayase dynastic union hadn’t been on his mind before Misa met Riber, the two teenagers’ romance very likely added it as a welcome “bonus” for him; although Takashi never articulated such a thought, it’s plausible. For all the pain and grief Riber’s subsequent loss brought Misa, this romance now seems less organic and more – for want of a milder word – “curated”. It is for this reason that I’ll consider the idea of Misa simply marrying Riber as Takashi’s Plan A.

Plan A de luxe

However, Riber’s armor-piercing question about Misa’s future dreams forces her to scramble to concoct a convincing answer out of the thin air in the empty drawer in her mind labeled “My Future Dreams”. Taking into account her awareness of the fact that she can’t be “daddy’s little girl” forever, she invents her first “possible self” – a soldier, like her father and Riber. Despite her mother’s sorrow at this idea and his own initial dismissal, Takashi eventually concedes and arranges for her to be admitted in the Far East Officers’ Academy at the illegal age of fourteen.

Although Takashi describes his decision as “rash” in his “[b]urn after reading” letter to Riber, the novel gives us enough evidence that he acted according to a plan: he abused his rank and pulled strings and favors to get others to do something highly illegal and – normally – career-ending for everyone involved. He made sure he could credibly reassure Riber that Misa would never see battle in her career, but would instead be a rear-echelon paper-pusher like Captain Kevin Darling from Blackadder Goes Forth. None of this can be done without careful planning.

The “engine” here is the same as the “base” Plan A – Misa gets married to a “splendid military man,” but this time her life and status get upgraded “trim”: she gets her wish to become a – nominal – soldier; Takashi sees his only child carry on the family legacy and can use his influence to accelerate her career path, ensuring her elevated institutional and social status; the Fruhling and Hayase families unite.

Plan B

The UN Forces’ colossally moronic – I’m being way too lenient here – decision to recall the Mars Base’s personnel for combat deployment leads to the death of all of those researchers, specialists, and technicians – of course, Riber was among the casualties. Thus, the Misa-Riber marriage was now off the table. Misa, however, was still alive. So, after her graduation, he could have her transferred to wherever he’d be transferred – there’d be plenty of “splendid military men” for her to choose from, especially at the UN Forces’ High Command headquarters in Alaska. Of course, the Fruhling-Hayase union could no longer happen, as the Fruhlings’ two children were both dead – their daughter was killed by Anti-Unification guerillas before the events of White Reminiscences and now Riber followed her fate.

An Unceremonious Burial

Ōnogi went to great lengths to declaw Misa by inserting an unwarranted self-doubt (“she still didn’t really know if her father had been right to use his influence to enter her in the academy”) to mitigate her rightly angered reaction to Takashi’s machinations. Even if she weren’t as competitive as Takashi wrote in his “[b]urn after reading” letter to Riber, the abuse she suffered because of his meddling should be enough to ruin whatever goodwill she still had for him – it’s a matter of basic self-respect, after all. If we want to be honest about it, Misa had every reason in the observable universe to despise him. For his own self-gratification, he denied her a well-rounded, humanist, civilian, encyclopedic education and stole her adolescence; he left her without any kind of emotional support when she needed him most; as if these weren’t enough, he made her a target for the public shame and humiliation Melissa dished out at her.

Make no mistake: Melissa’s attack didn’t come out of nowhere. Everyone in the academy could see that Misa shouldn’t be there – officers, instructors, other cadets. Personally, I have no doubt Melissa had already been gossiping behind Misa’s back about Takashi’s nepotist arrangements, in all likelihood absolving Takashi and blaming Misa. The only one who was oblivious to this was Misa; she believed that the sole reason for her enrollment was her personal worth and ability. But she was caught in a web of lies spun around her by her father and a cadre of complicit academy instructors and administrators. Takashi abused Misa’s trust and, even worse, her idolization of him – being his “little girl forever” was her one true wish for many years, after all.

In light of all these, it becomes sorely obvious that the self-doubt Ōnogi has Misa express is inconsistent with what she was feeling at the time and with her own, proud, and resolutely independent character. Still, it’s clear that she can’t stomach the thought of allowing her father to continue interfering with her career. She wants her achievements to be hers; she wants her life to be hers. The scenes that follow, despite their brevity and underwhelming, anticlimactic tone, show the formation of the series’ fiercely independent and self-reliant Misa.

Takashi congratulated her on her graduation in a rather lukewarm manner, and informed her he was transferred to Alaska, to the UN Forces’ High Command headquarters, before inviting her to join him there – he “very much wish[ed] for [her] to join [him] there.” But Misa had already had enough. She didn’t respond. He tried again, asking her to at least consider it. Again, no response. She had to stand on her own two legs, without him pulling strings behind her back.

Then, after she deliberately skips her commencement, which precludes her from this purple assignment to Alaska by her father’s side, she explicitly tells him she wants to try to become an officer using only her own skills. To this, he responds that, from now on, he’ll offer her no assistance. However, he couldn’t help adding a passive-aggressive remark, telling her that she chose a difficult path for herself and that he hopes she’s ready for it. Takashi concedes to Misa’s decision for her life, after having spent years grossly confusing meddling for help and emotional abandonment for duty.

In the second scene, Ōnogi has Misa frame her rationale in a manner not entirely consistent with her mentality and circumstances (“I only made it because you gave me a helping hand. So in my own mind, no, I haven’t grown up yet.”). The problem here was not whether Misa had grown up or not, but that he sabotaged her own sense of achievement: Misa would have much preferred to be denied admission upon first application and succeed after trying again.

Still, Misa buries her father’s last plan for her – the Alaska transfer where she’d serve by his side – in the most unceremonious manner: a firm, silent dismissal at first, then a steadfast refusal. She gives him no choice. He deserves no choice, actually: he forfeited having a choice when he abused his institutional power and prestige to put Misa in the military academy illegally and kept her in the dark, knowing that – as he wrote to Riber in the infamous “[b]urn after reading” letter – she’d rebel if she found out.

This is where I’ll have to take a short break from publishing new posts while I prepare the twelfth part of this series, which will be the last article I’m dedicating to the analysis of Misa’s father. In it, I’m going to focus on his institutional role and how it ends up dominating and defining his personality, and – of course – how it affects his relationship with his family.

Afterwards, I’ll turn my attention to Misa’s mother, Sakiko. Despite her conspicuous absence in the TV series, where she’s only mentioned once, without even being given a name, and merely to inform the reader of her status as deceased and of Misa’s physical similarity to her, I believe her actions and attitudes, as depicted in White Reminiscences, are not inconsequential; instead, they influence and inform Misa’s outlook on life, and especially on her personal agency and independence and – crucially, since SDFM itself is first and foremost a love story – familial and romantic relationships.

Bibliography

1. DeAgostini Japan (2013). ‘Hayase Takashi’ [早瀬隆司], in Weekly Macross Chronicle [週刊マクロス・クロニクル] / New Edition, Character Sheet M-Sheet 09A: ‘People of the United Nations Military’ [地球統合軍の人々]. Tokyo: DeAgostini Japan (In Japanese.)
2. Ōnogi, H. (1984). Hayase Misa: Shiroi Tsuioku [早瀬未沙 白い追憶; Misa Hayase: White Reminiscences]. Animage Bunko. Tokyo: Tokuma Shoten. (In Japanese.)