His personal feelings tend toward two women: his friend-turned-idol Japanese-Chinese girl Lynn Minmay, and Misa Hayase. While initially growing feelings for Minmay, he also begins to grow a fondness for Misa throughout the series. The relationship between Hikaru and Misa slowly evolved throughout the series. In the beginning, they had a difficult superior-subordinate relationship, starting with Hikaru calling Misa "old woman" ("obasan") when he saw her for the first time on his Valkyrie's screen. However, the intensity of their relationship gradually softened after going through a series of crises and intimate moments together: Hikaru rescued Misa from the Mars base before the base exploded (Episode 7: Bye Bye Mars); they had their first "mission kiss" while demonstrating "Protoculture" to the Zentradi people (Episode 11: First Contact) and later managed to escape together (Episode 12: Big Escape); they accidentally shared an evening together while trapped in the transformed Macross and revealed to each other their respective lovelorn stories (Episode 21: Micro Cosmo).