Roy Focker


 * This article is about the character from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. See Roy Fokker for the derived character in Robotech''.

Roy Focker (ロイ・フォッカー) is a fictional character from the Japanese anime science fiction series Macross (which was loosely adapted as the first story arc of Robotech) and the prequel OVA Macross Zero. He is voiced by veteran seiyuu Akira Kamiya in the original Japanese TV anime series and by Brett Weaver in the 2006 ADV Films English dub.

Fictional Character Biography
Roy Focker is an American who was born and lived in the United States in the late 20th century. During his college school days he had interest in prehistorical civilizations and archeology studies, and was in a relationship with his senior Aries Turner. However, after being left by her, Roy dropped his studies and became a stunt pilot in the air circus lead by Hikaru Ichijyo's father. Some time later he decided to join the U.N. Spacy after most of his friends died in the U.N. Wars. His flight instructor during this time was D.D. Ivanov.

During the war Roy became a talented and strong-willed fighter pilot, known for his love of women and alcohol. Focker was selected later as one of the first test pilots for the development of the variable fighters by the U.N. Forces. In 2008 he is deployed as a squadron commader with the Skull Team aboard the stealth carrier CVN-99 Asuka II on a secret mission in the South Pacific and flies the VF-0 Phoenix in battle against the SV-51s of the Anti-U.N. Forces. The work done on the VF-0 helps the coinciding development of the VF-1 Valkyrie.

Despite his long absence during the U.N. Wars and the death of Hikaru's father, Hikaru still remained a close friend to Roy and considered him his sempai (upperclassman/big brother figure). After the end of the U.N. Wars, Focker involved himself in the VF-X development project flying both the VF-X and the VF-X-1 (non-transformable and transformable flight test prototypes of the VF-1 Valkyrie), and his flight experience earned him the command of the VF-1 Skull Squadron aboard the super-large-scale semi-submersible attack aircraft carrier CVS-101 Prometheus.

During Space War I Roy Focker is still a smoking, drinking womanizer who constantly defies death and, when not on another desperate mission, enjoys life and its pleasures to the fullest. He has a relationship with Claudia LaSalle, an officer stationed on the SDF-1 Macross bridge.

Roy dies in episode 18 ("Pineapple Salad"), from wounds sustained while defending Macross from Milia Fallyna's force of Queadluun-Rau battle suits. Instead of going to the hospital to treat his wounds, he chooses to play the guitar while waiting for Claudia LaSalle to finish her pineapple salad; while she's cooking for him, he collapses from a sudden internal bleeding and passes away few minutes later. To Hikaru's chagrin given his then shaken self-confidence in his flying skill in war, he is promoted as the new leader of Roy's squadron, using his mecha as well.

In The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? 1984 film adaptation of the original TV series, the character Roy Focker dies aboard an alien Zentradi ship while fighting Quamzin Kravshera. In the movie Roy sacrifices himself to let both Hikaru Ichijyo and Misa Hayase escape.

Additional Notes on the Character
Roy Focker was named in honor of the Fokker aircraft company, and its founder Anthony Fokker who built the Fokker E.I, the Fokker Dr.I and Fokker D.VII fighter aircraft during World War I. In flashback sequences, Roy flies a reproduction Fokker D.VII, and gives Hikaru a model of one as a "get well" gift. Furthermore, although several possible scenarios regarding his death abound, the Red Baron (for which the Fokker Dr.I was most famous) was possibly shot down in combat by a Canadian pilot called Roy Brown, the origin of Roy Focker's first name.

The colors on Roy's VF-1S Valkyrie are similar to those of the VF-84 Jolly Rogers unit that flew the F-14 Tomcat, a plane that inspired the basic design of the VF-1 Valkyrie.

Video games

 * In any rendition of the famous RPG crossover of Super Robot Wars involving Macross, Roy Focker constituted a major character in the overall story, and did not die as per the scenario of Macross. In these games, Focker was fighting alongside many other robot anime icons, especially those voiced by his seiyu Akira Kamiya (e.g. Ryoma Nagare of Getter Robo, Akira Hibiki of Reideen, Kazuya Ryuzaki of Daimos, and Sanshiro Tsuwabuki of Gaiking).

Legacy
In the sequel series Macross Frontier, the leader of the Frontier fleet's S.M.S. Skull Squadron is Ozma Lee. Like Roy, he shows elements of the same personality and becomes a mentor figure to series protagonist, Alto. In addition, food involving pineapples (in this case, pineapple cake) appears to have nearly lethal effects - Ozma is badly wounded on the day he promised to prepare pineapple cake for Ranka with Cathy's recipe, and the evidence of his injury produces a similar shock with SMS groundcrew as that produced after Roy Focker's final flight. Breaking the fourth wall, Michel notes that if Ozma had died, it would have been "The most moving scene ever!".