Lynn Minmay
Virtual idols originate from Japan, with roots in anime and Japanese idol culture, and dating back to the 1980s, starting with the "Macross" mecha anime franchise (adapted into the "Robotech" franchise in North America). The first virtual idol was Lynn Minmay, a fictional singer who is one of the main characters in the anime television series "Super Dimension Fortress Macross" (1982) and the animated film adaptation "" (1984). Voiced by Mari Iijima, Lynn Minmay became the first fictional idol singer to garner major real-world success. The theme song "Do You Remember Love?" (from the film "Macross: Do You Remember Love?") reached number seven on the Oricon music charts in Japan, and the song has since been covered numerous times over the next several decades.