Bubbles was the smarter of the two. With Lisa and Rick you have to wonder.  :rofl:

  I think she was selfish and self-centered and meant to be that way - caught up in the hype of fame and money (very Western values).  She was a foil to show Rick’s evolution to duty and a sense of following something greater than himself without worry about glory or fame (maybe a more traditional value set - particularly in the Far East?).  Minmei always wanted to be the center of attention and epitomize the me, me, me generation that was developing in the eighties.  Rick was a hotshot at the beginning of the series and his evolution was clearly shown against Minmei’s lack of development.  So I think she was shallow and self-centered, but only to serve the greater story arc.

Minmei always wanted to be the center of attention and epitomize the me, me, me generation that was developing in the eighties.

I can’t say I 100% agree with you there. I have headr more then once that Minmei was completely self absorbed. That may have been true in the beginging, however that changed drasticaly starting at Force of Arms. While I don’t think she was the greatest singer, I do think her song, “We Will Win” was meant to be an expression of her sense of community, the loss of her family and all she knew of Earth, and her anger at the devistation. I think watching the Earth destroyed openned her eyes and made her realize the me, me, me was just not gonna cut it. Later, when Rick is injured, Roy goes to her and asks her to visit him. Once again she shows concern for another, “of course I’ll go see him. If it wasn’t for Rick I would not be here.” On the surface it seems to be a “he saved my life” statement, but I think it has a deaper meaning. Because of him, she had the drive to continue on and fufil her dreams. He kept her out of harms way. He also kept her alive by keeping all of the citizens of Macross alive by being a good soldier. She further displays her concern for others by taking time away from shooting her big movie to go see Rick in the hospital. Later in teh series she gets into a fight with Kyle about how much of their profit should go towards charity. He counters her concern for others with a pragmatic “we have to eat right?” statement, but she was certainly willing to give away everything she made to help others.

Self, self absorbed? No, that is just not a fair and honest argument. Perhaps early on, but she definately started to grow past that as she progressed.

Unfortunately, Sentinals did NOT help her development. They started off the Sentinals by showing her as once again totally self absorbed. They took her all the way back to Minmei at the start of Macross and then added to that her older age and made her cinical. Bad combinations. Frankly, I do have to wonder what the writers of Sentinals were thinking.

¿Seriously, though, why’s EVERYONE (or so it seems) gotta beat up on some little girl who’s ONLY CRIME was to have a pretty face and a decent voice? I say it’s (deleted) envy.