Space Battleship Yamato

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Space Battleship Yamato
宇宙戦艦ヤマト
(Uchū Senkan Yamato)
Genre Drama, Military, Science Fiction
TV anime
Directed by Leiji Matsumoto
Studio Academy Productions
Network Yomiuri TV
Original run October 6, 1974 – March 30, 1975
No. of episodes 26
TV anime : Space Battleship Yamato II
Directed by Leiji Matsumoto, Noburo Ishiguro, Toshio Masuda
Studio Academy Productions
Network Yomiuri TV
Original run October 14, 1978 – April 4, 1979
No. of episodes 26
TV anime : Space Battleship Yamato III
Directed by Leiji Matsumoto, Noburo Ishiguro
Studio Academy Productions
Network Yomiuri TV
Original run October 11, 1980 – April 4, 1981
No. of episodes 25
TV anime : Star Blazers (US TV version)
Directed by Billy West
Studio DiC
Network Flag of United States NBC/CBS
Flag of Australia Channel Seven
Original run May 8, 1980 – December 4, 1982
No. of episodes 137
Movie: Space Battleship Yamato: The Movie
Directed by Toshio Matsuda
Studio Academy Productions
Released August 6, 1977
Runtime 130 minutes
Movie: Farewell Space Battleship Yamato
Directed by Leiji Matsumoto, Toshio Matsuda
Studio Toei Animation
Released August 5, 1978
Runtime 151 min
Movie: Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage
Directed by Toshio Matsuda
Studio Toei Animation
Released July 14, 1979
Runtime 90 min
Movie: Be Forever Yamato
Directed by Leiji Matsumoto, Toshio Matsuda
Studio Toei Animation
Released August 2, 1980
Runtime 145 minutes
Movie: Final Yamato
Directed by Leiji Matsumoto, Toshio Matsuda, Yoshinobu Nishizaki
Studio Toei Animation
Released March 19, 1983
Runtime 160 min
OVA: Yamato 2520
Directed by
Studio
No. of episodes 3
Released

Space Battleship Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato?) is a Japanese science fiction anime series and the name of its eponymous space craft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato or Star Blazers; an English-dubbed and partly edited version of the series was broadcast on American and Australian television under the latter title. In Spanish it is known as Nave Espacial, in Portuguese, in Portugal as A Força Astral, in Brasil it is known as as Patrulha Estelar, in Arabic as Nousour El Fada (Space Eagles) and in Greek as Διαστημόπλοιο Αργώ (Spaceship Argo).

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Development

The release of Space Battleship Yamato is often cited as the beginning of the Golden Age of Anime
The release of Space Battleship Yamato is often cited as the beginning of the Golden Age of Anime

Conceived in 1973 by producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, the project underwent heavy revisions. Originally intended to be an outer-space variation on Lord of the Flies, the project at first was titled "Asteroid Ship Icarus" and had a multinational teenage crew journeying through space in a hollowed-out asteroid in search of the planet Iscandar. There was to be much discord among the crew; many of them acting purely out of self-interest and for personal gain. The enemy aliens were originally called Rajendora.

When Leiji Matsumoto was brought onto the project, many of these concepts were discarded. It is his art direction, ship designs and unique style that accredit him in fans' eyes as the true creator of Space Battleship Yamato, even though Nishizaki retains legal rights to the work.

[edit] Production run

[edit] Original series and Space Cruiser Yamato

See also Space Battleship Yamato characters and Space Battleship Yamato planets

The first season began airing in Japan in 1974. Set in the year 2199, an alien race known as the "Gamilas" ("Gamilons" in the English dub) are raining radioactive bombs on Earth, rendering the planet's surface dead and uninhabitable. Humanity lives in refuges built deep underground, but the radioactivity is slowly infiltrating the underground cities too. Earth's space fleet is hopelessly outclassed by the Gamilas and all seems lost until a mysterious space probe is retrieved on Mars. Blueprints for a faster-than-light engine are discovered, and a message from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud says that she has a device, the Cosmo-Cleaner D (Cosmo DNA), which can cleanse Earth of its radiation damage.

The inhabitants of Earth secretly convert the ruin of the Japanese battleship Yamato into a massive spaceship, the Space Battleship Yamato of the title, complete with a new, incredibly powerful weapon called the "wave motion gun". In the English dub, the ship is still the historical Yamato and referred to as such, but is renamed the Argo (after the ship of Jason and the Argonauts) once rebuilt. A tiny but intrepid crew of 114 leaves in the Yamato to go to the Large Magellanic Cloud and retrieve the mysterious device, if it exists. Along the way they discover the plans of their blue-skinned adversaries: the planet Gamilas, sister planet to Iscandar, is dying; and its leader, Lord Desslar ("Desslok" in the English dub), is trying to irradiate Earth enough for his people to move there, at the expense of the "barbarians" he considers humanity to be.

The first season contained twenty-six episodes, following the Yamato 's year-long voyage across the Galaxy and back. An continuing story, it features the declining health of the determined captain Okita (Avatar in the English dub), and the transformation of the brash young orphan Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar) into a mature and capable-acting captain, as well as his budding romance with female crewmember Yuki Mori (Nova). The foreign edits tend to play up the individual characters, while the Japanese original is often more focused on the ship itself.

The series was condensed into a ninety-minute theatrical movie by selecting a few key episodes, editing them heavily, and sticking them together; as a result, the first-season movie leaves large gaps and doesn't flow very well. Additional animation was created for the movie (such as the scenes on Iscandar) or recycled from the series' test footage (such as the opening sequence). The movie was edited down further and dubbed into English in 1978; entitled Space Cruiser Yamato or simply Space Cruiser, it was only given a limited theatrical release in Europe, though it was released on video.

[edit] Arrivederci/Farewell Yamato and second season

The 90-minute movie version of Yamato outperformed another space opera, Star Wars, at the Japanese box office, leading to the production of a second movie that would end the story. In Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (also rendered as Arrivederci Yamato), the Yamato and her crew face the onslaught of the Comet Empire, a civilization from the Andromeda Galaxy who seek to conquer Earth, led by Zwordar the Great (Prince Zordar). The Earth ship is aided by an anti-matter woman, Teresa of Telezart (known as Trelaina in the English dub), while the Comet Empire have restored to life Earth's greatest enemy, the Gamilas' leader Desslar, who is eager for revenge. After a massive battle which destroys both Earth and Comet Empire forces, the Yamato crew defeat Zwordar's plans, but at the cost of the ship and their lives.

As the popularity of this franchise became clear (due largely to an enraged fan outcry from those who saw the movie), a second season of the television series was produced, retconning the movie and presenting a different plot against the movie's enemy without killing off the Yamato or its primary characters. Expanding the story to 26 episodes, the second season featured additional plots such as a love story between Teresa and Yamato crew member Daisuke Shima (Mark Venture) and an onboard antagonism between Kodai and Saito (Knox), leader of a group of space marines. The English dub of this season is considered the best by many of the series' American fans.

Footage from Arrivederci Yamato was reused in the second season, particularly in the opening titles; the sequence of the Yamato launching from water was also reused in two of the subsequent movies.

[edit] Subsequent movies and third season

The theatrical movies Yamato: The New Voyage and Be Forever Yamato came next, both featuring a new enemy, the Black Nebula Empire. In the former film, Desslar (called Desslok in the English dub version) sees his homeworld destroyed by the grey-skinned aliens, its twin planet Iscandar next in line for invasion. He finds an eventual ally in the Yamato, on a training mission under acting captain Kodai. The latter film sees the Black Nebula launch a powerful weapon at Earth, which will annihilate humanity if they resist a full-scale invasion; the Yamato, under a new captain, travels to the aliens' home galaxy, only to discover what appears to be a future Earth in which the terrible proclamation has come to pass.

Following these movies, a third season of the TV series was produced, broadcast on Japanese television in 1980. In this, the Sun is hit by a proton missile, which accelerates the star's life cycle, and humanity must either evacuate to a new home or locate a means of preventing a supernova. At the same time, the remnants of Desslar's Gamilan Empire seek a new home close to the centre of our Galaxy, where they encounter their forebears in the Galman Empire, and come into conflict with a new alien race, the Bolar Federation. Originally conceived as a 52-episode epic, funding cuts meant the season had to be reduced to 25 episodes, with a corresponding loss of overall story development.

The saga ended in 1983 with the fifth theatrical movie, Final Yamato. In this feature, the Galman Empire is destroyed by a chance collision of galaxies, while the Yamato, back under the command of Captain Okita (who was cryogenically frozen after his apparent death in the first season), encounters the planet Deingil too late to save its humanoid civilisation from being flooded by the water planet Aquarius. The surviving Deingili, a warrior race who believe only the strong should survive, plan to use Aquarius to flood Earth and destroy humanity, in order to create a new home for their race. When all seems lost, the Deingili are destroyed by Desslar and the remains of his people (in gratitude for the human crew's honoring the Galman dead), and the Yamato is filled with tritiated water and detonated like a giant hydrogen bomb by Okita to divert the water stream. A great deal of time is taken at the end of the film showing the fragments of the Yamato repeatedly "sinking" beneath the waves in space, Okita going down with his ship. The unedited version also shows Kodai finally marrying his long-time sweetheart Yuki (and subsequently "consummating" their marriage).

[edit] Cultural impact

  • The theme song from Space Battleship Yamato is frequently performed by military bands of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, an example of life imitating fiction.
  • The downtown area of the Japanese city Tsuruga in Fukui Prefecture has about two dozen bronze statues, each about four feet tall, depicting characters and scenes from the Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999 TV shows and films.
  • The Aum Shinrikyo cult — long before their sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subways — promoted their faith with inspirational videos that emulated the animation style, cosmic images, and theme music from the series.

[edit] The Star Blazers dub

In 1978 Westchester Corporation identified Yamato as a potential "kids' property" (Starlog, June 1980)[citation needed], and bought the rights to the first two seasons. Dubbing and editing were done by Griffin-Bacal Advertising and production and syndication by Claster Television. Being marketed at a school-age audience, Yamato was bowdlerized by the American editors in order to satisfy the broadcast standards and practices offices of American TV stations. However, far fewer edits were made than with another 1970s anime, Battle of the Planets (a heavily-censored version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman), and even in its edited American form retains practically all of its uniquely Japanese characteristics in terms of content, plot, character development, and philosophy.

Principal changes included Westernisation of character names, reduction of personal violence, toning down of offensive language and alcohol use, and removal of sexual fan service and references to World War II. Many fans nonetheless regard it as more "adult" than other cartoons shown in the US at the time, as personal tragedy, funeral scenes for fallen comrades and the extinction faced by humanity were left intact. The very Japanese theme of "the honorable enemy" was also a tremendously important aspect of Desslok's character development in the second and third seasons, as well as in the later movies.

The most significant change made by Griffin-Bacal was purely narrative: whereas in the original series the Yamato and its crew were regarded as a single entity, the narrator each week urging "Yamato, hurry to Iscandar!", in Star Blazers the crew were named the Star Force and became the focus of the show, with the Argo merely being the vessel in which they travelled (though it retained its source in the Japanese battleship, the name-change being covered in dialogue).

The first two seasons (whose DVD releases are titled "The Quest for Iscandar" and "The Comet Empire") were broadcast in 1979 and 1980. By the time the third season of Yamato was released, however, the original voice actors had moved on and, being non-union, were uncontactable by the American production company. The third season (released as "The Bolar Wars") played to a small test market at the time and was not as widely seen until its release on video and DVD, and remains less popular than the first two seasons. Many of the original English voice actors have since been tracked down and interviewed for the Star Blazers DVD releases.

[edit] American Comic Adaptations

To date three American comic adaptations have been published; two as comic book series and the most recent as a web comic.

The first series was published by Comico in the late 1980s and served as a postscript to the second season. In this series it was discovered that the White Comet Empire's rear fleet (comprising fully half of the empire's entire fleet) still existed and - with Earth's entire fleet other than the Argo having been wiped out - only the Argo stood between the massive fleet of the empire and Earth.

In the mid-'90s Voyager Entertainment published 12 issues of a Star Blazers comic book before publication was halted due to poor sales.

Star Blazers Rebirth is currently being published as a web comic, with new chapters appearing on the official Star Blazers site every month or two. The art and story is by Tim Eldred, who was also responsible for the Voyager Entertainment series. In Star Blazers Rebirth the Earth is once again threatened by a menace from space headed for the Earth 25 years after the first series; this time in the shape of what appears to be a black hole. At first Earth's government does not believe the information, on the basis that black holes aren't supposed to be able to move. However, they eventually agree to send Earth's newest and most powerful starship, Andromeda II, to investigate. Upon reaching its destination, Andromeda II is quickly destroyed with all hands onboard, though not before transmitting its data to Earth. Shocked by the disaster, and disgusted at the lack of response from Earth's government (other than to begin evacuating the citizens of the Earth to the far less hospitable planets discovered during the third series), Sandor and Wildstar (now grey-haired, bearded, in his mid-40s, and constantly haunted by the past - as well as by pasts which never happened) devote their wealth and energies to rebuilding the nearly shattered Argo, which was encased in ice and left floating in Earth orbit at the end of Final Yamato. Since most of the old surviving bridge crew of Argo are now captains in command of their own ships, many of the new crew members are the children or grandchildren of the original Argo crew. In keeping with the original series' emphasis on human mortality, one of these children is the daughter of one of the original crew's most important members, who (apparently) died in the Andromeda II mission to investigate the mysterious black hole. In the meantime, the decision to relocate Earth's population to numerous colonies has left Earth's forces stretched far too thinly, with several colonies beginning to break away from Earth's control. Short on supplies, Argo heads toward the center of the galaxy in attempt to learn more about the mysterious black hole and a rash of attacks on Earth's colonies.

[edit] Remakes

[edit] Yamato 2520

In the mid 1990s, Nishizaki attempted to create a sequel to Yamato, set hundreds of years after the original. Yamato 2520 was to chronicle the adventures of the eighteenth starship to bear the name, and its battle against the Seiren Federation. Much of the continuity established in the original series (including the destruction of Earth's moon) is ignored in this sequel.

In place of Leiji Matsumoto, American artist Syd Mead (Blade Runner, Tron and Star Trek: The Motion Picture') provided the conceptual art.

Due to the bankruptcy of Nishizaki's company Office Academy, and legal disputes with Matsumoto over the ownership of the Yamato copyrights, the series was never finished and only three episodes were produced. Most Yamato fans were generally underwhelmed by the series' first episodes and were not disappointed by its cancellation.

In March of 2002, a Tokyo court ruled that Nishizaki legally owned the Yamato copyrights. The two parties eventually settled, and Nishizaki began work on a new movie titled Yamato Rebirth (set after the original series), while Matsumoto planned a new Yamato series. However, additional legal conflicts have since stalled both projects.

[edit] American remake

During the mid 1990s, the Walt Disney Company purchased the theatrical rights to a live-action Yamato movie. The most highly publicized script reportedly put a ragtag crew of misfits (none of whom are named after any of the original show's crew from either the Japanese or English version) aboard the rebuilt United States battleship Arizona (which was sunk by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor) on a mission to save Earth. The project is believed to have been shelved following Michael Eisner's departure from the company.[citation needed] In April 2006 it was announced that Benderspink and producer Josh C. Kline had teamed up to make another attempt at creating a live action version of the story.

[edit] Trivia

  • Many video games based on the series have been available over the years. The Nintendo GameBoy, PC Engine Super CDRom, and the Bandai Wonderswan had a unique Yamato release for each platform. The series has become quite popular on Sony's game platform in recent years, with Bandai releasing three Space Battleship Yamato games for the PlayStation and another three games for the PlayStation 2. In addition to these, the Yamato theme was also extended to another Japan-only PlayStation 2 release, this being a pachinko game titled Fever 7. Note that no Yamato games have ever seen a release outside of Japan.
  • The Space Battleship Yamato series generally involves themes of brave sacrifice, noble enemies, and respect for heroes lost in the line of duty. This can be seen as early as the second episode of the first series, which recounts the defeat of the original battleship Yamato while sailors and pilots from both sides salute her as she sinks (this scene was cut from the English dub, but later included on the Star Blazers DVD release). The movies spend much time showing the crew visiting monuments to previous missions and recalling the bravery of their fallen comrades. Desler, the enemy defeated in the first season and left without a home or a people, recognizes that his foes are fighting for the same things he fought for and eventually becomes Earth's most important ally. In this — the Japanese concept of "the honorable enemy" — and many other respects, Star Blazers is almost certainly the most "Japanese" anime to survive the editing process and be widely syndicated in the United States.
  • In the Space Battleship Yamato time line, later spaceships built by Earth look more like normal spaceships, but tend to show traces of the "converted sea-battleship" shape of the Yamato.

[edit] References in other works

  • The Space Battleship Yamato occasionally makes cameo appearances in Leiji Matsumoto's Captain Harlock universe; most notably the recent Galaxy Express 999 manga. However, probably partially due to licensing restrictions, the crew is never seen or mentioned during any of these instances, and we are left to speculate whether the crew is the familiar crew or a different one altogether. Also, given the timelines of the various Harlock and 999 stories, it would appear to make the Yamato a time-travelling ship, as well. Equally likely, Leiji Matsumoto uses the Yamato as his trademark.
  • The concept represented by the wave motion gun (an extremely powerful main weapon that requires time to charge beforehand and leaves the ship powerless and vulnerable after firing) has been used in other science fiction, including the Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade, the Watchtower in Justice League Unlimited, and the Yamato Cannon of the Terran Battlecruiser in the computer game StarCraft. Macross (the first part of the American series Robotech) took the concept even further, making the ship rearrange itself into a humanoid form to fire the power-draining weapon.
  • A Space Battleship Yamato poster is seen on the walls of Noriko Takaya's private quarters in the anime Gunbuster.
  • In Martian Successor Nadesico the character design of Admiral Jin Fukube (retired) and some of his background are similar to that of Juzo Okita. Also, in a scene where Yurika, captain of the Nadesico, is accessing computer files about famous naval captains of the past, one of the files shows a picture of Okita.
  • Episode 22 of Excel Saga ("Invasion, Mother") is a satire of both Space Battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock.
  • In the Art of Conquest Expansion pack for the strategy game Empire Earth, the UFAR Faction use a giant battleship in the last mission called the Yamato.
  • In Marvel Comics' Bizarre Adventures #27/3, July 1981, in the story "Show Me the Way to Go Home," which featured Nightcrawler and the Vanisher, a single panel in which the two teleport through several dimensions simultaneously due to the interplay of their respective powers with the Darkforce, one wedge of the panel contains a drawing of the Yamato cruising through space.
  • In an episode of the 2002-2003 anime series Mahoromatic — Something More Beautiful, Mahoro battles an enemy at the end where his arm forms the Yamato. It then fires at her using the Wave Motion Gun. In another episode, the series' male lead Misato Suguru is seen (in a short fantasy sequence) in Kodai's red-and-white uniform and anti-blast goggles preparing to fire the wave motion gun. Behind him is his nude, large-breasted teacher, Saori Shikijou, who is begging him to "shoot your wave motion gun of love into me."
  • In episode 5 of Ultimate Girl, one of the cosplay costumes Silk is forced to wear by an enthusiastic Tsubomi is a red (and skimpier) version of Yuki's yellow catsuit from Space Battleship Yamato, which Tsubomi describes as "a little nostalgic"; the Yamato itself is seen in space behind her.
  • In episode 11 of the 2006 anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, the SOS Brigade is challenged to a game of The Day of Sagittarius III by The Computer Society President. In a brief scene where the characters imagine themselves in the game, The Computer Society President appears as Desslok, complete with a goblet in his right hand. His ship is destroyed by a weapon similar to the Wave Motion Gun.
  • In the pilot episode of the cartoon series Megas XLR, when Coop is randomly pressing buttons to find out what they do, the front of Megas opens up to reveal the front end of the Yamato, which then fires the Wave Motion Gun.
  • The "Wave Gun" is one of the best weapons in the Naval Ops/Warship Gunner series by Koei. It features a similar level of destruction and style.
  • The level 4 boss of the arcade/console games Metal Slug 2 and Metal Slug X is a caricature of the Space Battleship Yamato.
  • Keroro Gunsou's Platoon's favorite anime is Captain Geroro, a pun on Captain Okita in Space Battleship Yamato.
  • The starship Halberd from the final episodes of Kirby:Right Back at Ya! is a stouter, "chibi" version of the Yamato.

[edit] Parallels with Star Trek

Yamato is often called Japan's answer to Star Trek[citation needed], and many similarities in the way the two sagas play out raise speculation as to whether they borrowed from one another.

  • The original Yamato chief engineer Tokugawa (Orion in Star Blazers) bears a strong physical resemblance to Scotty, as seen in the movies. The English dub even gave Orion an Irish accent, an almost direct homage to Scotty's Scots accent.
  • Be Forever Yamato and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan both feature the introduction of a niece or nephew of one of main characters: Kodai's (Wildstar's) niece Sasha, and Scotty's nephew Peter Preston. Sasha was initially introduced as chief mechanic Sanada's (Sandor's) niece, Mio. Both Peter and Mio/Sasha die bravely defending their respective ships.
  • The Genesis device in Star Trek II, like the Cosmo DNA of Yamato, could be used to create/replenish life on dead worlds. Also, in Be Forever Yamato, the destruction the Dark Nebula Empire Fortress Dezarium caused the creation of a new galaxy from the Dark Nebula contained in a Double Gravity Galaxy. This is similar to the Reliant 's destruction triggering the Mutara Nebula to condense into the Genesis Planet in Star Trek II however smaller in scale compared to the creation of a new Galaxy in Yamato.
  • "Be Forever Yamato" and "Star Trek: TNG and Votager" both featured an enemy culture that replaced their anatomical structures or physiological processes with enhanced electronic and mechanical components. In Star Trek, they were called the Borg. In Yamato, they were the Dezariums of the Dark Nebula Force.
  • Star Trek II featured the death of Spock, and Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato featured the death of everyone, save a few supporting characters, making continuation of either franchise unlikely. However, due to fan acclaim, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was written specifically to resurrect Spock, and the TV series Space Battleship Yamato 2 (essentially an extended retelling of the movie) was produced specifically to change the ending of the Comet Empire conflict so that at least the main crewmembers survive. Each addition ensured the continuation of the sagas.
  • The plot for the beginning of the second season "The Comet Empire," which follows the Yamato landing on Earth and being taken, against orders, on a rescue mission back into space by Lt. Captain Kodai (Wildstar) and his crew, is echoed heavily in Star Trek III. Both include the theme of a more advanced successor to the main character's starship, the total automation of said successor, and the haughty arrogance of its captain. Star Trek III and "The Comet Empire" both witness the breakout of the older ship from her docking port, and the subsequent chase by the more advanced vessel.
  • The entire third season of Star Trek: Enterprise revolved around a story arc quite similar to that of the first season of Yamato. The arc actually began in the second-season finale "The Xindi", in which seven million people are killed in a surprise attack against Earth by the Xindi. In response, the starship Enterprise (NX-01) is sent on what turns out to be a year-long mission to contact the Xindi and prevent them from launching a follow-up attack which would destroy the planet.
  • In the "Star Trek: Enterprise" Xindi Saga, Star Fleet command issues the use of Space Marine fighters similar to "The Comet Empire" saga where their invaluable service and sacrifice were to neutralize the enemy. Enterprise's Major Hayes and Yamato's Seargent Knox both suffered heavy trauma and died in the line of duty.
  • Doctor Sado (Dr. Sane)'s rustic common sense and eccentric personality is similar to Dr. Leonard McCoy.
  • In the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Warhead" numerous alien super missles which were capable of destroying distant cosmic targets with super deadly consequences were similar to hyperion missles in the Bolar Wars Saga of Yamato. Similarities included warp capable missles that were able to travel long light-year distances. Such warp missles were fired by the Bolar Federation against Deslar's new homebase on planet Galmania.

[edit] Parallels with Crusade

Many fans have noticed a number of strong similarities between Star Blazers and Crusade, the short-lived spinoff of Babylon 5.

  • Both shows featured an untested new starship design that was essentially in a class by itself (the Argo in Star Blazers, the Excalibur in Crusade).
  • The principal ships in each series were on long-duration missions against great odds, and were essentially operating autonomously from all but the most nominal outside authority for long periods of time.
  • The basic over-arching plot of both series involved a desperate attempt to save earth from utter destruction in a finite period of time. (In Star Blazers, the crew only had one year to save Earth from radiation poisoning, or everyone on it would die; in Crusade, the crew only had five years to find a cure for the Drakh plague, or else everyone on Earth would likewise perish.)
  • Both shows made frequent use of a large weapon (the Wave Motion Gun on Star Blazers, the Excalibur 's Main Gun on Crusade) that offered massive destructive power, but took a long time to recharge, and left the ship largely defenseless for a period of time after firing it.

[edit] Parallels with Star Wars

  • Analyzer (IQ-9 in the US version) was a dome-headed, track-wheeled robot with AI, multiple utilities, the ability to fly, and an often stubborn personality. Three years later, a similar little robot would become well known to American audiences as R2-D2.
  • Over the course of the Star Blazers saga, Derek Wildstar (Kodai) transforms from a brash young man into a capable and wise leader, a career path that would be followed in a similar fashion as Luke Skywalker progressed from fighter pilot-wannabe to Jedi Master. Both lose their immediate families to the forces they ultimately battle, and both later discover a family member still lives after all (Wildstar's older brother, and Skywalker's father). In addition, both "Wildstar" and "Skywalker" convey a certain important destiny to be met in outer space.
  • The Gamilon uniforms in Star Blazers loosely resembled the Nazi-era uniforms worn by the German military during World War II. This is also true for the uniforms worn by Imperial officers in Star Wars.
  • At the end of Yamato and Star Wars, the leading villains (Desslar and Vader, respectively) each have a change of heart just as final victory is in their grasp, and ultimately side with their respective adversaries (Wildstar and Skywalker).
  • In one of the "Yamato" movies "Be Forever Yamato," a "Deathstar" like planet called "Dezarium" was made entirely of super alloys. The crew could only destroy the enemy auto-planet from the inside similar to how the Rebels in "Star Wars" in the "Return of the Jedi" had to knock out the main power source at the center of the artificial base. The destruction of the central core caused a cascade effect completely obliterating the enemy. However as the Deathstar's destruction was localized over Endor, Dezarium's destruction was so violent from the nuclear reaction between WME and the enemy powersource, it destabilized the enemy's Double Gravity Galaxy creating a new galaxy from the explosion.
  • When the series was first shown on American television in 1979, many TV critics and first-time viewers saw the show as a Japanese animated version of Star Wars; several of these later recanted after learning the show predated Star Wars by three years. (George Lucas had not even begun writing a script for his creation yet.)

[edit] English title

For many years, English-language releases of the anime bore the title Space Cruiser Yamato. Nishizaki, a sailing enthusiast who owned a cruiser yacht, ordered that this translation be used out of love for his boat. However, it is inaccurate, as 戦艦 senkan means "battleship" and not "cruiser" (which in Japanese would be 巡洋艦 junyōkan). Today, Yamato releases, including the Voyager Entertainment DVD, are marketed either as Star Blazers or Space Battleship Yamato.

[edit] External links

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