MACROSS 7
FIRE BOMBER
RAY LOVELOCK
"Power to the mystery!"
Age: Unknown
Birthdate: 30 September
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Bloodtype: O
Nationality/Race: African
Seiyuu: Suguhara Masashi
First appearance: episode 1
Formerly one of the UN Spacy's most talented ace pilots, Ray Lovelock was part of the Pink Pecker elite combat fighter squadron, along with Kinryu (later of Diamond Force) and Stephan. Ray and Stephan were especially close, and Ray also became close friends with Stephan's girlfriend, Akiko.
On a trip to the mountains, Stephan asked Akiko to marry him. Before accepting his proposal, Akiko went to ask Ray's advice and question his feelings for her. Ray, who knew that Akiko was torn between the two of them, declined to answer, feeling that stealing his best friend's girlfriend would be wrong. Akiko, angry at Ray for avoiding the question, decided to marry Stephan.
Before they could marry, however, tragedy struck. Ray and Stephan were separated from Kinryuu during a battle and Ray made the decision to attack. Stephan tried to stop him, and was killed in the process. Stricken with guilt, Ray resigned from the military and fell into a deep depression. Helping Akiko deal with her own grief was too much for him, and Ray turned to alcohol, leaving his friends and wandering off on his own.
It was on one of these drunken journeys that he spied a young boy singing to a mountain. He didn't know it at that time, but the young boy was Nekki Basara, and that was the beginning of Fire Bomber. Ray recognized that Basara's ideas about music were revolutionary and found a new dream in the band. It was Ray that finally contacted the UN Spacy to speak to Captain Maxmillian Jenius about a "Sound Force" and who acquired the Fire Valkyrie for Basara.
PERSONALITY
As the band leader, Ray is an extremely patient man. Many times, he is the one to break up quarrels between Basara and Mylene, both of whom have little patience with each other. Both of them, in return, see Ray as a sort of substitute father figure and come to him for advice. Ray is quiet, but very intelligent, and acted as Fire Bomber's manager and scheduler before Akiko stepped in. With his ties to the military, Ray is also the contact and leader for Sound Force. The name Ray Lovelock is still a famous one in many military circles, and Ray usually gets what he wants from the military without any trouble.
APPEARANCE
Ray is a tall, muscular man with dark skin and dark hair. He usually dresses all in red with dark pants and a red tassled headband. For flying, he wears a yellow-tan flightsuit, helmet, and Sound Energy Converter.
MUSIC
As Ray is obviously a military man by nature, it might at first seem strange that a man like him would ever join a band and be the least bit musical. However, Ray formed Fire Bomber for two reasons: one, to fulfill Basara's dreams of singing, and two, to continue with Operation M. Neither of those reasons come close to the idealistic goals of Basara or even Mylene, but out of everyone in the band, Ray is the most grounded in reality. Basara and Mylene are visionaries, but without Ray to keep them focused towards their goals, Fire Bomber would have never become the phenomenon that it was. And of course, Ray's apparent talent for the keyboard doesn't hurt the band either...
Ray plays keyboard on all Fire Bomber songs and also plays the Introduction duet at the beginning of concerts with Veffidas.