Basically, if you’ve got some money and are faced with two CD’s you could buy, since you’re already out at the store and have a bit extra to pick up one more disc including the selections you already know you want… well, if one of them’s some artist you’ve never heard of while the other’s got that franchise name on it you may have heard of at one point… you’re more likely to buy the franchise than the no-name artist, especially in a place like Japan where idols are manufactured by the dozen, pumped out there to become one-hit wonders (if that), and then vanish into the mire as the next idol shows up to take her place before her name even got all that big.

As for Nakajima, she may be the one they’re trying to groom to be the next Sakamoto, but her usage in Macross Frontier wasn’t the best for it, IMO - she didn’t get to show off any range she might have, and the way they composed Diamond Crevasse 50/50 was atrocious, in my opinion - if they’d kept it in the same sort of style as the acapella version they could’ve had a winner on their hands… but instead someone decided to “Ranka” the song up, which took away any emotional impact it had, and made a mockery of it (especially given how it was used in the show from when we first heard it - she was singing it while watching fighters charging off into batle.. and we saw it mostly in similar situations in the series as things went on).

May’n never is popular when she’s with Universal, I have to say that I can’t eat her J-Urban music. Like Haesslich said, only Fallin’ in or Not charted because it featured SEAMO, but the single only charted for 1 week with around 500 copies sold. That why HoriPro dropped her J-Urban career with Universal and find a new way to promote her. Now May’n re-debuted with Victor Entertainment and now, I have to say that her fate is tied for anime song forever and it’s really a double edge knife. May’n may never be a mainstream J-Pop singer, look how Macross music is doing well in the charts, she or Megumi never got a Music Station or Kouhaku performance.

But I think May’n isn’t the main star that Macross F is promoting, the beloved girl is Megumi Nakajima. They give her so much song and even cover Lynn Minmay legendary songs. I think they are promoting her like Mari Iijima with Lynn Minmay. Mari Iijima is forever tied with the legendary Minmay and no one see her as herself even she is talented in both singing and composing. I wonder who will follow her if Megumi isn’t Ranka Lee.

Macross and Gundam enjoy a lot of brand-name recognition for being among the oldest franchises that have continued to perpetuate themselves over the past twenty-five or so years (I dare you to find a Super Robot show that’s done the same), and thus have the same sort of mindspace that titles like “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” do here… and a similar sort of niche as far as sales go, for the most part, due to the same reason that you can’t get away with just slapping “Star Wars” on a frisbee. However good the music, however, if nobody listens to it… nobody buys. The reason anime OSTs don’t usually sell well is because, no matter how good the music may be… it’s anime - it’s something not for adults, or for students who are in or just finishing college unless you’re a ‘geek’. So, as a result, you don’t see Oricon listing anime OSTs often - although GITS:SAC OST3 did make the Top 20 in August 2005 (IIRC), which was considered a minor miracle at the time.

Now… Macross is an old franchise, and people who saw the first show have some nostalgic feelings for it, much as Star Wars Episode I was so eagerly awaited some 22 years after Episode IV came out - those kids who had grown up with it had fond memories, and thus returned to see what it was like now they were adults. So, that part of the franchise watches the show, sees some familiar things, and is happy. They buy OST’s - great, you’ve got some sales there. Other people buy the OSTs because they heard Kanno’s working on them; excellent. Others may have been May Nakabayashi fans - excellent. So, OST 1 sells decently.

Then OST 2 rolls around - those people who buy OST 1 buy OST 2. And then we see extra sales for OST 2 show up, which put it into the #2 spot on the Oricon Daily sales; where did those extra sales come from? People who are watching the show? According to the figures for the last week Macross Frontier was on the air, about a week before OST 2 hit the shelves (9/26), the ratings for the show were 2.3% of households polled were watching, with the figures for the few weeks before that being 2.0% and 1.7%… way behind the 18.7% that Sazae-san or the 12.7% popularity that Chibi Maruko-chan enjoyed… or even the 3.5% popularity of Code Geass S2’s ending. Yet OST 2, a week later, sells even better than OST 1 or the singles did.

Why the big bump in sales? It can’t just be the fans of the anime - there’s obviously not THAT many of them. It can’t just be the fans of Kanno, May’N, or Nakajima - there aren’t that many of them either yet, although their numbers have undoubtedly grown since the show began airing. Where did the extra sales come from? People buying 10 copies at once? Or those disinterested people who never saw the show, but saw the name “Macross” on the OST’s cover, maybe had heard about it or saw an episode of the original series or Macross 7 way back when and had fond memories, who decided to pick up OST1 or one of the singles on a whim? And then decided they liked the music?

Yes, the music’s important, but the mindshare’s required to get bigger sales figures that the pop stars these CD’s are competing with already have with their fans…. who are not going to necessarily be the same people that normally buy an anime OST. Thus I suggest the name ‘Macross’ itself may have intrigued people who would not have otherwise thought about buying an anison OST (since anime is a thing for kids or losers)… but because the name was familiar like Gundam, merited another look, and then they found they liked what Kanno, May’N, Nakajima, and Sakamoto (in this OST) did. Notice that Gundam OST’s these days also make the Oricon Daily or Weekly charts as well.. although they don’t stay there long, and usually don’t post the numbers that Nyan Fro and Nyan Tra did.