After graduating first in her class at the UN Spacy Officers' Academy, she earned a bridge post aboard the SDF-1 Macross. Her rank was First Lieutenant at the beginning of the series. She and fellow SDF-1 bridge officer Claudia LaSalle became close friends. As Misa herself admits, her mind is constantly preoccupied with duty. However, this mindset changed after she met the young pilot Hikaru Ichijyo, who at that time was in love with the soon-to-be superstar Lynn Minmay. The relationship between Misa and Hikaru slowly evolved throughout the series. In the beginning, Misa and Hikaru had a difficult superior-subordinate relationship, starting with Hikaru calling her "old woman" ("obasan") when he saw her for the first time on his Valkyrie's screen, which, much to Misa's chagrin, resultsed in his senpai Roy Focker having a good laugh. 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).