|
is a Japanese science fiction anime series created by Leiji Matsumoto, and the name of its eponymous space craft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato and 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 and in Brasil as Patrulha Estelar and in Arabic as Nousour El Fada (Space Eagles). Development
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. When all seems lost, a mysterious message is received by Earth's military forces, revealing plans for a faster-than-light engine and containing a message that Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar in the Large Magellanic Cloud 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. An intrepid crew 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 Desler ("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. A 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 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. Arrivederci 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 civilisation 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 Desler, 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. 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. In the former film, Desler sees his homeworld destroyed by the grey-skinned aliens, its twin planet Iscandar next in line for invasion. He finds an unlikely 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 its life cycle, and humanity must evacuate to a new home or locate a means of preventing a supernova; at the same time the remnants of Desler's Gamilas 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 story development. The saga ended in 1983 with the fifth theatrical movie, Final Yamato. In this 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 to create a new home. When all seems lost, the Deingili are destroyed by Desler 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). Cultural impact The Star Blazers dub In 1978 Westchester Corporation identified Yamato as a potential "kids' property" (Starlog, June 1980), 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. The show was marketed at a school-age audience; however, far fewer edits were made than with another 1970s anime, Battle of the Planets (a heavily-censored version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman). Principal changes included Westernisation of character names, reduction of personal violence, toning down of bad language and alcohol, 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 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. When the series was released on American television in 1979, many TV critics made statements to the effect that this was a Japanese cartoon ripoff of "Star Wars". However, many were forced to retract their statement when they learned it was released on television in Japan in 1974, three years prior to "Star Wars" and George Lucas had not written a script for his space saga yet. Though the series was repeated on Australian television several times during the 1980s, the series has not been aired on American television since the third series ended its run. Although fans frequently request both the Cartoon Network and the Sci-Fi Channel to pick up the show, neither has done so. The reason is unclear. The official reason from both stations is that the company which currently holds the American rights to the series is asking too much money for the broadcast rights. However, the company says that the fee it has requested is commensurate with similar deals regarding anime of that period. Another theory is that both networks feel that the series doesn't meet modern animation standards, though since the Cartoon Network has been running the far earlier and considerably more primitive Gigantor in an early morning timeslot throughout 2006, this theory doesn't stand up as well as it once did. 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. It seems likely that Star Blazers Rebirth will be published as a graphic novel once the web series is completed. 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 and Turn A Gundam) 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 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 since then have stalled them both. 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. 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. Trivia Parallels with Star Trek Yamato is often called Japan's answer to Star Trek, and many similarities in the way the sagas played out raise speculation as to whether the two borrowed from each other. Parallels with Crusade Many fans have noticed a number of strong similarities between Star Blazers and Crusade, the short-lived spinoff of Babylon 5. 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. | |||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
 |
|
| |