Mao Nome

Mao Nome is a fictional character in the Macross universe. She appears in both the prequel OVA Macross Zero and the new Macross Frontier TV series. In the Macross Zero OVA she was voiced by Yuuka Nanri.

Fictional Biography
According to the fictional continuity of Macross Zero, Mao Nome is a member of the Mayan people who live in an island on the South Pacific. Much like her older sister Sara, little Mao had known nothing but her home; the secluded Mayan Island. Mao's fascination with the technology that the outsiders bring masks her deep mystical link to the island's mysterious alien ruins, a link she shares with her sister.

The sudden arrival of Shin Kudo to the Island in 2008 sparks an 11 year old Mao Nome with dreams of release, and she centers all her attentions on the young pilot. Unlike her older sister Sara, she is carefree and spritelike. Mao yearns for a life in the cities beyond the island. She is infatuated with the pilot Shin Kudo, whom she has gotten to know well during his time here. Shin's skill in manipulating and repairing the island's few bits of machinery further infatuates the impressionable young girl. What she doesn't expect is competition in the form of the growing feelings between Shin and her sister Sara.

In the new Macross TV series Macross Frontier set in the year 2059, a version of the Macross Zero story is produced in-universe on which she is played by the character Ranka Lee. Her adoptive brother Ozma is also shown reflecting on his sister playing "Doctor Mao" indicating that she may have more than a few links to that series. This assertion is further developed when research into Sheryl's past shows that during the year 2047 A.D. a 50 year old Mao Nome (who survived the events of Space War I) was the chief scientist of the 117th Long Distance Research Fleet with a background researching the Protoculture Civilization and also headed a project to manage and prevent an alien infection (the V-Type infection) with Grace O'Connor and Ranshe Mei (Ranka's mother) as her assistants. A brief image was seen of her along with Ranka's family, revealing she has since been restricted to a wheelchair. It's also revealed that Mao had passed on a pair of fold quartz earrings to her daughter who had then passed it on to Mao's granddaughter Sheryl. By the new series end Mao Nome is presumed to have been killed during the Vajra attack on the 117th fleet in the year 2048 A.D.