Create a well-thought-out and meaningful letter for Mari Iijima, in an effort to appeal to her humanitarian side and convince her to want to visit the Boca Raton Achievement Center, where I (Cameron McCaffrey) currently do volunteer work at the front desk. Make note of how I was diagnosed with Asperger’s at an early age. Also note how back in October 2023, I lost both of my parents within nine days, and have been working with various people (including BRAC executive director Evelyn Falconer) to get back on my feet and make something of myself. Demonstrate an awareness of and respect for Mari's professional achievements, as well as her personal accomplishments, and point out all of the ways in which students would benefit from her presence at the achievement center. Above all, write the letter in such a way as to maximize the odds that should she see and read it she would not only respond but commit to visiting the Boca Raton Achievement Center, and make it clear what an honor it would be to have her here. Note that Evelyn Falconer will be more than happy to answer questions and address any concerns, and that she can be reached by phone at +1 (561) 559-9768 (business) or +1 (561) 427-8710 (personal), or by email at care4kids2@gmail.com. Also note that for more information about BRAC, they can visit https://bocaratonachievement.com. BRAC's address is 500 NE Spanish River Blvd., Suite 30, Boca Raton, FL, 33431. Use the following information as a reference:

The Boca Raton Achievement Center, or BRAC for short, is a supportive, innovative educational environment which provides a special needs educational environment for students with autism and related disabilities ages 11-22. BRAC provides direct instruction in academics, life skills, health and fitness, independent living, and vocational training. Their vision is to empower individuals with varying abilities through education and training to access an adult life full of purpose and pride, built around their strengths and preferences. Their mission is to provide students with disabilities a learning environment based on individual needs and strengths, rooted in support, consistency, and kindness, and centered on a sense of community and inclusion, thus giving each student the support they need to explore and acquire skills necessary to be successful in their education, independent living, and the career of their choice. For middle and high school students, they offer small group instruction, individual schedules, interactive and engaging curriculum (including STEAM), individualized classroom instruction and support, daily opportunities to practice social communication, career & life skills training, off-campus community and job exploration opportunities, fitness, and health. They also have an adult program, which includes a full day of programming from 8:30am to 3:00pm, self-directed schedules, individualized schedules based on preferences and strengths, career skills training (on campus and in the community), recreation exploration, and social skills. In addition, there is after school enrichment which takes place Monday through Friday from 3:00pm to 5:00pm and includes such engaging activities as a yoga class, tennis, music and movement, visual arts and fitness training. We believe that education is the key to unlocking the world and a passport to freedom, justice & equality.

Mari Iijima (Iijima Mari, born May 18, 1963 [1]) is a Japanese singer, singer-songwriter, radio DJ, music producer, voice actress, actress, and talent. Female. Born in Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture [1]. Lives in Los Angeles, United States. Blood type O. In the 1980s, when voice actors were not in the public eye, she played the role of Lynn Minmay in the TV anime “Super Dimension Fortress Macross” while waiting to make her singing debut, and the theme songs she sang gained idol-like popularity. Because of this, she has sometimes been called the original idol voice actor [2].

Career
Born as the eldest daughter of a dentist, she has an older brother. Influenced by her music-loving parents, she began playing the piano at the age of three and started composing music in the fifth grade of elementary school [Note 1]. She planned to study music in Germany to become a classical pianist from junior high to high school, but at the advice of Akiko Sugitani, whom she was studying under at the time, she aimed to become a singer-songwriter. At the same time, she was influenced by and a fan of the American band TOTO. After graduating from the Piano Department of the National Music High School Affiliated to the National University of Music, she entered the Piano Department of the National University of Music [3].

While at university, a demo tape she sent to a record company was recognized, and she signed with Victor. Before making her singing debut, she was cast as the voice of idol singer Lynn Minmay in the TV anime “Super Dimension Fortress Macross”.

In September 1983, she made her major debut with her first album “Rosé,” featuring her own lyrics and music, produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto [1]. In December of the same year, she released the single “I’m Sure I Can Say”.

In 1984, she was a Thursday personality on the popular radio program “Miss DJ Request Parade” [Note 2]. The theme song for the movie version of “Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?” titled “Do You Remember Love?” peaked at number 7 on the Oricon chart and appeared on various song programs such as “The Best Ten.”

After that, she moved away from the anime field, and released the single “1 Gram of Happiness” (ending theme for TBS’s “Exciting Animal Land”) that same year. Her third album “Midori,” released in 1985, recorded two consecutive weeks at number 2 on the Oricon chart. She was active in live performances and was called “Queen of the Campus Festival”. As her work became busier, she repeated years at university and dropped out in September of the same year.

In 1987, after working together on a radio program, she was invited by Tatsuro Yamashita to move to MOON RECORDS. The first album after the move, “Coquettish Blue,” was supposed to be produced by Yamashita, but Iijima decided to self-produce it [4] and it entered the Oricon top 10.

In 1988, she released her second album on MOON RECORDS, “Miss Lemon.” In 1989, she released “MY HEART IN RED,” which included participation from TOTO members such as Joseph Williams and Jeff Porcaro whom she was a fan of, and she dueted with Joseph on “Send Love To Me” [Note 3]. That same year, she participated as a featured vocalist on Van Dyke Parks’ album “Tokyo Rose” on the track “Calypso.” Afterwards she married James Studer, music producer she worked with from “Miss Lemon”, and moved to Los Angeles, USA. From then on, based in Los Angeles, she released works produced in collaboration with Studer and also gave birth to twin boys in her private life.

In 1999, she divorced Studer (although he still collaborated on some works). After her contract with MOON RECORDS ended, she began working as an independent artist. Her first self-produced CD “No Limit” featured all songs with English lyrics. Subsequent albums were mainly in English, with some Japanese lyrics mixed in. She also started acting, appearing in American TV dramas, commercials, and Japanese short films.

In 2001, she released “Right Now,” which featured Robben Ford, as well as TOTO members Steve Lukather, Simon Phillips, and Mike Porcaro.

In 2006, a song from her album “WONDERFUL PEOPLE,” “Unspoken Love,” won the Best Asian Song Award at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards, the largest indie music award in the United States [5]. In 2008, she self-nominated for the 50th Grammy Awards for Best Pop Female Artist and Arrangement for the song “Swim” from the album “Uncompromising Innocence.”

Since then, she has continued to release albums at intervals of every 2-3 years on her own label and also returns to Japan every year to perform concerts at Tokyo’s Hakujitsu Hall.

In 2022, she moved the venue to “Blues Alley Japan” and held “Mari Iijima Live in Tokyo 2022 ‘New Step’,” livestreaming both the day and night performances.

In 2023, she celebrated her 40th anniversary with a “Mari Iijima 40th Anniversary Live ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’” at Billboard Live Yokohama.

Characteristics
The role of Lynn Minmay
There was some conflict about being talked about in the image of Lynn Minmay, a character from “Super Dimension Fortress Macross,” which she played before her singing debut. “As for Macross and Lynn Minmay, I have various feelings. It was a repeated process of accepting and then releasing it within myself, and then accepting and pulling away…” she said [6].

In 1982, when she signed a singing contract with Victor, a director suggested, “Why don’t you audition for a new anime series’ voice acting role?” [7] (at the time, Victor had already decided to release “Super Dimension Fortress Macross” music products). She took the audition the next day as a test of courage, where she performed her own song, and she was chosen for the role of Minmay based on the chief producer Noboru Ishiguro’s words, “It’s good to have someone who can sing because it’s a singer’s role.”

Although she did not know much about voice acting or anime, she portrayed the role of the fictitious idol with innocence and sang the songs in the series like “My Boyfriend is a Pilot” and “Love Flows,” even creating the choreography herself. With the hit of the work, a fan club was established before her singing debut, and she gained idol-like popularity.

Kazutaka Kawamori, who co-directed the movie version, said, “If it had not been Ms. Iijima who played the voice of Minmay, she might not have become such an idol in the story. That was inspired by the rise of Ms. Iijima’s popularity[8].”

Even after the series ended, the impression of “Lynn Minmay” followed her in her main music activities, and some fans projected the image of “Lynn Minmay” onto the real her, hoping she would sing Minmay’s songs at concerts. The media also treated her like an idol, often asking her in interviews, “Ms. Iijima, did you write songs yourself?” [9].

Because of these worries, she consciously stopped getting involved in sequels and projects, and sometimes didn’t sing “Do You Remember Love” at concerts (the surrounding staff were also considerate about it). One of the reasons she moved to the United States in 1989 was that she wanted to escape the name “Lynn Minmay” [10].

Later, when she started activities in America, she was surprised that “Macross” was well-known due to the influence of “Robotech” [Note 4], and the dilemma with the role was understood and approached by overseas fans. She realized again how great it was to be a part of such a work [10]. From the mid-1990s, she became involved in “Macross” related events and game production, and she started to appear as a guest at anime song live performances and overseas anime conventions.

In 2006, she provided the voice for Lynn Minmay in the English dubbed DVD “Super Dimension Fortress MACROSS”, after 22 years. It was the first attempt for a Japanese original anime voice actor to play the same character in a foreign version, and it can be said to be a unique job for Iijima, who has lived abroad for a long time. Although there was a time when she didn’t even want to see Minmay’s face, when she confronted Minmay in the recording studio after a long time, she was moved to tears and promised in her heart, “I will take care of you for the rest of my life” [11].

Hiro Yuuki, who played the protagonist Hikaru Ichijo in “Macross,” remained close to her like siblings after the collaboration, and they deepened their friendship with each other’s families. In a live performance just after Yuuki’s accidental death in 1996, she sang a song of tribute to Yuuki during the encore. The tribute song “I Won’t Forget” is still unreleased on any album.

“Macross” related activities [details omitted for brevity]

Episodes
The official profile states that her debut work was the September 1983 album “Rosé” [16], and Iijima herself recognizes it as such [4], but the single “The Spoon of Dream Colors,” which includes the main theme of “Mrs. Spoon,” had been released prior, effectively marking it as her debut song. However, at that time, Iijima sang it without knowing that it would be recorded, saying, “I don’t know where it stands in my career” [4]. Lyricist Takashi Matsumoto touched on this matter while saying that he considers it “a source of pride” for himself [17]. Matsumoto was unaware of Iijima’s role in “Macross” until he saw the movie later, despite having written the lyrics for later singles such as “1 Gram of Happiness” and “Cecile’s Umbrella” [18]. His personal desire to have done something with “Macross” became one of the motivations for taking on the lyrics of “Interstellar Flight” (insert song for “Macross F”) [18].

The nickname “marin” comes from the title of a song on the debut album “Rosé,” but the “marin” sung about in the song refers to a toy clown doll that does backflips on a horizontal bar, purchased from Tokyu Hands, wearing red polka-dot clothes and having thin, white arms. In Keisaku Tachikawa’s shoujo manga “Dream-Food Guide,” a character named “marin” appears based on this inspiration.

Minmay in “Macross” was portrayed with a higher voice than her natural voice, imagining the stuffed animals she played with as a child. Later, when she received voice training as an actress in America, she damaged her vocal cords while practicing to lower her vocal range and has since been working on restoring her normal voice [11].

During her first appearance on “The Best Ten,” she mentioned that she loved hamburgers, leading host Hiroshi Kume to jokingly call her “a round face like a hamburger” [19]. Singer Masamichi Sugi, who shares the same name “Mari,” was a close friend, and they duetted on “The Usual Party” (B-side of the single “1 Gram of Happiness”). Iijima has also guest-performed on Sugi’s 12-inch singles and concerts with “Masamichi Sugi and His Friends.” The titles of her albums in the 1980s were based on the concept of “color.”