Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Difference between revisions

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[[File:yamato.jpg|frame|No, [[Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You|the Yamato is NOT about to shoot you.]] That's what the [[Wave Motion Gun|big muzzle in the bow]] is for.]]

 

{{quote|''Saraba Chikyuu yo!'' (Goodbye Earth!)

''Tabidatsu fune wa,'' (The departing ship is,)

 

{{quote|''We're off to outer space,''

''We're leaving Mother Earth,''

 

In 2199, the surface of the Earth has been bombarded into an uninhabitable radioactive wasteland by an alien race from the planet Gamilon. The Gamilon fleet (Gamila in the Japanese original) is superior to humanity's few remaining warships, and the extinction of humanity is likely within a year. In the middle of a losing battle against the Gamilon fleet, a spaceship from the planet Iscandar arrives and crashes on Mars. Two space cadets investigate the wreck, and discover a beautiful woman, dead, with a message for Earth: if Earth can send a ship to Iscandar, Queen Starsha of Iscandar will give Earth technology that will neutralize the radioactive contamination on the planet, and save humanity.

Originally made in the early 70s, it was dubbed to English under the title ''Star Blazers,'' and aired in U.S. afternoon syndication during the late 70s. It was the first Japanese anime series to air in the U.S. that required every episode to be shown in its proper order. The show returned to American airwaves as part of [[Syfy]]'s Anime block starting April 21, 2011.

 

 

 

Also, starting on April 27, 2012, a remake of the original series called ''Space Battleship Yamato 2199'' began to air. It will be a 26 episode anime based on the first series and divided into 7 films for theatrical release.

* [[Comic Book Adaptation]]: There were four comic adaptations set in the ''Star Blazers'' universe. The latest is the webcomic ''Rebirth.''

* [[Composite Character]]: {{spoiler|Yuki briefly turns into Starsha in the 2010 movie.}}

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]

* [[Cool Starship]]

* [[Culture Clash]]: A meta example. American viewers might wonder why Japanese would choose the ''Yamato'' (which was something of a [[Guy in Back]] most of the war) instead of a ship with such a distinguished combat record as, say, the [[Worthy Opponent|IJN Zuikaku.]] After all Americans chose the formidably battle-seasoned USS Enterprise to give to [[Star Trek|Captain Kirk.]] However the ''Yamato'' was something of a Japanese icon and to this day it has a model in the Etajima museum.

* [[Cultural Translation]] (or [[Woolseyism]] or [[Macekre]], depending on who you ask): In ''Star Blazers'', the scenes showing Wildstar's backstory go out of their way to avoid mentioning that he lived in Japan. His home is called "Great Island" and sushi (clearly shown on screen and looking like nothing else besides sushi) is called "chocolate cake".

* [[Dub Name Change]]: This actually happened twice, with different names.

** First the original English dub of the movie, called ''Space Cruiser Yamato'' (or sometimes just ''Space Cruiser''), which is fairly obscure. The most glaring change here was the renaming of Daisuke Shima to "Shane O'Toole" and making him a [[Token Minority]] Irishman.

* [[Earthshattering Kaboom]]: The destruction of planets Gamilas and Iscandar (by a [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]) in ''The New Voyage''

** In a [[Kick the Dog]] moment, the Comet Empire pauses on their invasion route to blow up a planet inhabited mainly by dinosaurs. Strangely, the weapons used to do this are never actually used against Earth.

** The death of Kodai's brother Mamarou is [[Retcon]]ned in the ''2199'' remake. In the original series, Mamarou refuses to retreat due to [[Honor Before Reason]], since he can't live with the shame of retreating. This leads to his death being a arguably pointless one. In ''2199'', his death is played as a straight [[Heroic Sacrifice]] with him staying behind to ensure Okita's ship can withdraw safely.

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]] : Most of the other ''Star Blazers'' voice actors were never heard in anything else, and a few remain unidentified. The big exception is Sgt Knox who is voiced by Chris Latta (in what may be his very first voice acting role) who would later become legendary as the voice of [[G.I. Joe|Cobra Commander]] and [[The Transformers (animation)|Starscream]]. His voice for Knox sounds a bit like Steeler, another ''GI Joe'' character that he voiced.

* [[Hollywood Cyborg]]: Sanada/Sandor

* [[Honorifics]]: In the original Japanese version, "Leader Desslok" is referred to as "Dessler-sama", which can be best translated as "Lord Dessler".

* [[Ramming Always Works]]: The Yamato rams Dessler's ship in Farewell Yamato and the remake, season 2, and all it did was ''bend some metal''. Dessler's ship fares worse in the remake: the engine is actually damaged by the ram rather than [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Kodai running through the halls, shooting robots and grenading the engine to kingdom come.]]

** Yet, at the end of ''Farewell Yamato'', ramming works completely correctly: a titanic fireball.

* [[Redshirt Army]]: The Earth Defense Forces.

* [[Religious and Mythological Theme Naming]]: The ''Yamato'' was renamed the ''Argo'' in ''Star Blazers'', for the Greek mythological ship in which Jason and the Argonauts set sailed upon.

** This was a plot point in the Comet Empire series: the Empire's Wave Motion Gun-like ship outranged the Earth fleet, picking off ships without needing any other weaponry.

** Surprisingly ''averted'' in the 2010 movie: {{spoiler|the first time the WMG appears, it is fired at a Meteor Bomb beyond visual range and nails it dead-on}}. Then brought back once more in the finale when {{spoiler|the WMG's muzzle is jammed about halfway through the film so Kodai flies the Yamato right up to the target before pulling the trigger, [[Taking You with Me|vaporizing both the Meteor Bomb and the Yamato]]}}.

* [[The Smurfette Principle]]

** Apparently imposed by [[Word of God]] in the middle of the first season. Several (unnamed) female crew members were seen in episode 10. Then producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki decided that Yuki was the only woman. The others were never seen again.

** Not to mention [[Crazy Awesome]].

** Interestingly, the [[Wave Motion Gun]] was not treated as something invincible: at the end of the first season Deslar's one was reflected back at him (after coming back, he'd always be ''very'' careful at using his [[Wave Motion Gun]] against the ''Yamato'', taking care to neutralize or prevent the deploying of the WMG reflector before firing), and in second season we have three different incidents of [[Wave Motion Gun]]s utterly failing in their job (first was the Comet Empire's vanguard fleet flagship firing her Magna Flame Cannon while inside Saturn's ring only for the energy beam to explode against the rings' particles, giving Earth's fleet the time to reach their weapons' range and annihilate the vanguard fleet; then the Earth Defense Force fired ALL their Wave Motion Guns at the Empire's comet fortress and failing to make any damage; third was the ''Yamato'' finding herself attacked again by Deslar and charging the gun, only for having Deslar mining the space before the muzzle and getting a good laugh as the ''Yamato'' couldn't fire without being destroyed by her own weapon).

* [[We Could Have Avoided All This]]: See [[Secret Test of Character]] above.

** Strangely, this was mostly excised in the dub, making it come across as more warlike than the original. In the dub, Starsha is portrayed as regretting not telling Earth that Iscandar and Gamilon {{spoiler|were twin planets, which happened to also be true in the Japanese version as well.}}

 

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[[Category:The Seventies]]

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Multiple Works Need Separate Pages]]

[[Category:Anime of the 1970s]]

[[Category:Anime of the 2010s]]