is a Japanese science fiction anime series written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974, to March 30, 1975, totaling up to 26 episodes. It revolves around the character Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar in the English version) and an international crew from Earth, tasked during an interstellar war to go into space aboard the space warship Yamato, derived from the World War II battleship of the same name, in response to a message of aid from the planet Iscandar in order to retrieve a device which is able to reverse the radiation infecting Earth after being bombed by the Gamilas (Gamilons).
Space Battleship Yamato is one of the most influential anime series in Japan. Its turn toward serious themes and complex storylines influenced later works in the medium, including Gundam, Macross, and Evangelion, in addition to influencing the style of video games such as Space Invaders.
Development The first ideas for what would eventually be Space Battleship Yamato began in 1973 by producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, but the project underwent a number of revisions and overhauls before settling on the final design. The team responsible for the creation of Space Battleship Yamato consisted of Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Keisuke Fujikawa, Eiichi Yamamoto and Aritsune Toyota. It was initially planned to be a tokusatsu, and Nishizaki was inspired to create something set in space after reading Methuselah's Children. Aritsune Toyota offered his 1970 novel as a further source of inspiration for Nishizaki.
In 1973, works such as The Poseidon Adventure and Japan Sinks were enjoying considerable success. Eiichi Yamamoto believed this was because of the way in which they depicted people being able to survive in extreme circumstances, and this influenced the creation of Yamato. Additionally, he believed that, overall, industrialisation caused people to become more miserable, and Yamato was designed to show a triumph of humanity and love.
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 crew from all over the world journeying through space in a hollowed-out asteroid in search of the planet Iscandar. There was to be much discord among the crew with many of them acting purely out of self-interest and for personal gain. The enemy aliens were originally called Rajendora. The Rajendorians were robots whose exact form was unknown, and it was to be revealed towards the end of the story that the Rajendorians, along with the rest of the life on their home planet, had died over a hundred years ago.
The first rough draft of Yamato came towards the end of summer 1973, where the Yamato (named as such by Nishizaki) was a regular spaceship, that used a large rock as a shell, and the story was notably darker. Heavier emphasis was placed on the character's flaws, who were overall more misanthropic, and only one of them would survive until the end of the series.
The production of Yamato in its conceptual stage was overseen by Eiichi Yamamoto, until 1974, when he had to leave to work on a documentary film. As a replacement, Toshio Masuda, who had worked on Tora! Tora! Tora!, was considered, but had to decline as he had other projects of his own to focus on, though he would become involved in the production of the 1977 film. The role was given to Leiji Matsumoto, who had at an earlier stage declined an offer, due to his desire to have complete creative control. Matsumoto overhauled the story, designing the titular ship after the IJN Yamato, its crew, and the Wave Motion Gun, which came from Sexaroid, an erotic comedy manga written by Matsumoto in 1968.
In the earliest stages of production, Space Battleship Yamato was planned to be 52 episodes in length, before reducing this to 39, and ultimately, 26. The bulk of the cut content centered around Gamilas, who had more characters, and more complex motivations and goals. Additionally, in this earlier stage, the Yamatos battles were more closely tied to events in World War II – for example, the battle near Neptune in the first episode represented Germany circumventing the Maginot Line.
The first draft for Space Battleship Yamato was completed on May 21, 1974. In August, a ten-minute pilot episode was created, with at least nine copies being sent to the relevant organisations, and, after the pilot's success, pre-production of the anime began, with the first episode airing in October that year. The original series contained 26 episodes, following the Yamatos voyage out of the Milky Way and back again. A continuing story, it featured the declining health of Yamatos Captain Okita (Avatar in the Star Blazers dub), and the transformation of the brash young orphan Susumu Kodai (Derek Wildstar) into a mature officer, as well as his budding romance with female crewmember Yuki Mori (Nova Forrester). The foreign edits tend to play up the individual characters, while the Japanese original is often more focused on the ship itself. In a speech at the 1995 Anime Expo, series episode director Noboru Ishiguro said low ratings and high production expenses forced producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki to trim down the episode count from the original 39 episodes to only 26. The cut episodes would have introduced Captain Harlock as a new series character.Fenelon, Robert. Yamato Forever, Animerica, Vol 3 No 8, August 1995.
Storyline
Original series In the year 2199, Earth is threatened by the Gamilons, an alien race that has been bombing Earth for around five years. The last line of defense is at Pluto, where Captain Juzo Okita, alongside Mamoru Kodai, command the Earth Defense Force's remaining vessels. Gamilon forces ask the Earth Fleet to surrender and in the English version (Star Blazers) Okita tells the Gamilon fleet that they are "idiots". The Gamilons proceed to destroy the Earth fleet, except for the Yukikaze, commanded by Mamoru and the Kongou, commanded by Okita. Mamoru decides to stay behind so Okita can retreat to Earth.
During the battle, an unknown spacecraft, neither Terran nor Gamilon, is detected by the Kongou. The craft reaches Mars, where it jettisons a capsule prior to crashing to the surface. Earth Defense Force orders two space cadets commanding the Mars center, Susumu Kodai—Mamoru Kodai's younger brother—and Daisuke Shima, to investigate. The pair investigate the wreckage and discover a humanoid alien who apparently died after exiting the smaller capsule. The cadets also find a small capsule near the alien's body, which the two deliver to Earth Defense Force. The capsule contains a message from a distant planet known as "Iscandar", ruled by Queen Starsha. In the message, Starsha says that she has the means to restore Earth to normal using "Cosmo DNA", but that she is unable to send it to Earth herself. However, Starsha states that the capsule contains plans for the "Wave Motion Engine", which can propel a ship at faster-than-light speeds and allow Earth to come to Iscandar to get the Cosmo DNA. It would also be able to shoot heated up energy, at its front end, known as the "Wave Motion Cannon". By this point in the series, Earth's radiation was already seeping underground, and it would take an entire year to wipe out the underground cities all of earth were living in. To try to combat this, the EDF, alongside the entire world, started a plan to use an old WWII battleship as the last saving grace of the entire Earth population.
While the Yamato was being rebuilt underground, a scout jet from the Gamilon base on Pluto flew around the Yamato's "wreckage", alarms sounded throughout the EDF base, which led to Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima flying off to the wreckage without orders. They started fighting the scout plane, which was much faster and more agile than the fighter jet Kodai and Shima were in. Their fighter jet crashed into the ground near the Yamato, and they crossed over a hill and saw the Yamato's wreckage, which was hiding the Space Battleship under the rocks.
In episode three, the rebuilt Yamato, still hiding under the wreckage of the old battleship, has to do an emergency launch as the Gamilon base on Pluto sends a missile referred to in Star Blazers as the "Ultra Menace Missile". Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima are called to the Yamato to test out the systems before the eventual launch. When the crew of the Yamato learn of the danger headed towards the wreckage itself, the Yamato launches and Susumu Kodai, chief of the tactical unit, manages to fire the Yamato's shock cannons at the Ultra Menace Missile. It looked as if the Yamato had been destroyed, but to much of the EDF's surprise, the Yamato came out unscathed, flying through the clouds of the explosion that just happened. In the series, every episode, around 1–10 days are taken off the deadline to return home from Iscandar. At this point in time, the Yamato had 364 days left until the human population would die from the radiation.
After the Yamato took off from Earth, it had arrived at the Moon, where the first space warp would occur. In the series, the timing would have to be perfect enough that it hit the middle of going in between the third dimension and the fourth dimension. The warp goes almost perfectly as they arrive at Mars, completing the first of many warps along the mission to Iscandar.
After warping to Mars, it flew by, headed for planet Jupiter, which had a huge magnetic field. By the time it crossed the inter-planetary space between Mars and Jupiter, Jupiter's gravity started pulling the Yamato in. Then, the Yamato fell into a methane sea upon Jupiter's bands of gas and clouds. The Yamato detected a floating continent using infrared technology, but its video panel couldn't show it yet due to the dense clouds and gas on Jupiter. As it fought against the gravity of Jupiter, Susumu Kodai went to check out the floating continent, and was attacked by a Gamilon fighter pilot. After a while it was decided to use the Wave Motion Gun for the first time against the floating continent. The Yamato got into position in front of the floating continent. The gun charged up and fired at the floating continent, destroying it completely, and killing the gamilons on the base.
Original film edition
The series was condensed into a 130-minute-long movie by combining elements from a few key episodes of the first season. 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, which was released in Japan on August 6, 1977, 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 and Latin America, where it was called (Star Patrol, in Brazilian Portuguese) or (Starship Intrepid, in Spanish), though it was later released on video in most countries.
Factions Earth Federation The Earth Federation or just Earth, is a nation which controls the entirety of planet Earth. It was founded in 2201, after Earth won once the Yamato returned to Earth in late August-early September 2200 (as shown in the original movie).
History Before the Earth Federation, the United Nations was the main liberation force for Planet Earth during the Earth-Gamilas War, which lasted from 2191 to 2200, after the Battle of Gamilas occurred. It was founded in 1945 after the fall of the Japanese Empire, and lasted until 2201 when it was officially turned into the Earth Federation.
Great Gamilas Empire the Great Gamilas Empire, or simply Gamilas (also known as Gamilon in the English dub), is an alien empire located mainly in the Large Magellanic Cloud alongside its twin planet, Iscandar. It is led by Supreme Leader Dessler (or Leader Desslok) and Deputy Leader Hyss (or General Krypt).
History