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{{quote|''We're off to outer space,''
''We're leaving Mother Earth,''
''to save the human race...OUR STAR BLAZERS!''|''Star Blazers'' theme (uses same melody as above -- more or less)}}
 
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.
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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.
 
Compare to ''[[Space Carrier Blue Noah]]'' (aka ''Thunder Sub'' in english English-speaking countries) for a thematically similar anime.
 
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Adaptational Badass]]: in the 2010 movie, Analyser is a belt-mounted PDA/"[[New Gods|Mother Box]]" before being installed into his traditional robot body - except ''it's over 20 feet tall.''
* [[Alien Invasion]]
* [[Anime First]]: One of the earlier examples. Some fans claim that the whole idea of anime as a medium of its own and not just an outlet for manga started with this series.<ref> It actually started much earlier in the early-mid 1960s with Toei's first animated TV series ''Ookami Shonen Ken'' ("Ken the Wolf Boy").</ref>
* [[Anime Theme Song]]: (Uchuu Senkan YAAA-MAAAA-TOOOOOOO...!)
** And the dubbed US version was pretty catchy, too...
* [[Anyone Can Die]]: {{spoiler|Pretty much everyone important as well as a lot of minor characters except the main character... and then he dies... and comes back in the sequel series as a cheap retcon.}}
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* [[The Asteroid Thicket]]
** The ''Yamato'' can use its naval anchors to build one as a shield around the ship.
* [[Award Bait Song]]: Steven Tyler's [[Narm Charm|Narm Charmy]]y "Love Lives", for the live-action film adaptation.
* {{spoiler|[[Back from the Dead]]}}: {{spoiler|Okita ''was'' dead at the end of the first TV series, but for some reason the writers decided to bring him back as Captain in ''Final Yamato''}}
** {{spoiler|Desslok. Makes more sense in the American dub, where he was in a dimension where time worked differently, and was merely trapped a moment ''from'' death.}}
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* [[Cool Starship]]
* [[Creative Differences]]: Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto both claim they are the sole creators of ''Space Battleship Yamato''. (The court system has sided with Nishizaki.) Both have made their own separate ''Yamato'' projects<ref>the short-lived ''Yamato 2520'' [[OVA|OVAs]] from Nihizaki's camp, and Matsumoto's ''Great Yamato'' manga</ref> between 1983 and their settlement in the 2000s.
* [[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".
* [[Dead Guy, Junior]]: Starsha's sister Sasha dies in the first episodes getting her message to Earth. In ''New Voyage'' and ''Be Forever Yamato'', we find out that Starsha and Kodai's brother Mamoru named their daughter "Sasha".
* [[Death Is Cheap]]: Dessler
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* [[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.
** Then the ''much'' better known ''Star Blazers'', with its [[Luke Nounverber]] heroes and the elimination of all the [[No Swastikas|Nazi-Germany-derived names]] among the bad guys. Not to mention the ship itself becoming the ''Argo''<ref> As the Japanese title indicates, the ship is known as the "''Yamato"'' in the Japanese version; the same name as the original WWII vessel that was unearthed.</ref>.
* [[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.
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* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: The whole point of {{spoiler|''Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato''.}}
** In the 2010 movie, {{spoiler|[[Anyone Can Die|several folks including Kodai himself]].}}
** The death of Kodai's brother Mamarou is [[Retcon|retconned]]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
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* [[The Movie]]: Currently five movies with a [[Revival]] movie (after years of rights disputes) released in late 2009, plus a 2010 [[Live Action Adaptation]].
* [[Mythology Gag]]: Dr Sado's cat appears just [[One-Scene Wonder|once]] in the series when he's sending a message home; in the 2010 movie, it's with the doctor ''on'' the Yamato.
** Similarly, the resemblance between Starsha and Yuki is lamphadedlampshaded with {{spoiler|Yuki temporarily ''becoming'' Starsha.}}
* [[A Nazi by Any Other Name]]: Dessler and the Gamilons in general. {{spoiler|which makes his subsequent [[Heel Face Turn]] kind of disturbing}}
* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Averted...except in episodes where it isn't. In general, the dub was inconsistantinconsistent about this. One episode addresses that several crew members had died, however, in the final Iscandar episode, the poisonous gas used by the Gamilas/Gamilons is portrayed as "radioactive sleeping gas", implying that anyone infected would come out of it at some point, yet Kodai/Wildstar's (and the rest of the crew's<ref>The "Star Force" moniker only exists in the dub</ref>) reaction to Yuki/Nova clearly indicates that she {{spoiler|had died, although just before that, she had used the Cosmo Cleaner D/Cosmo DNA [[Disney Death|just in time for her to come out of it.]]}} Then later in the same episode, Captain Okita/Avatar is directly portrayed as {{spoiler|dying from his already existing radiation poisoning before he has a chance to see the Earth restored.}}
* [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]]: Sanada seems to invent amazing devices on the fly to get out nearly any situation. For example, Dessler's last attack in the final Season 1 episode, firing his [[Wave Motion Gun|Dessler Cannon]] at the Yamato, only to have the blast reflected by a device based on Gamilon technology.. never before seen before that moment on the Yamato, and never mentioned again.
** In fairness, by that point he had had months to tinker new stuff together without interruption. There's no reason we ''would'' have seen it until the ship was finally attacked. [[Forgotten Phlebotinum|Still doesn't explain why it doesn't return in the second season.]]
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** Deslar gets back at the ''Yamato'' crew for that in the second season by merely warning them {{spoiler|he's still alive}}.
*** He later provokes another one in episode 23: the ''Yamato'' is preparing to launch the last, desperate attack at the Comet Empire when a Gamilas bomber materializes before the ship, signaling that not only Deslar is back in battle but that he's using one of the more devastating tactics of the series, one that the ''Yamato'' survived the first time only due to sheer luck.
** Deslar apparently loves causing [[Oh Crap]] faces: in the third season he provokes a series of them by {{spoiler|asking his generals why they attacked the ''Yamato'', a ship he SPECIFICALLY''specifically'' warned them not to attack as he's now an ally of Earth. Poor generals expected to be executed in some horrible fashion, by the look of their faces...}}.
* [[Old School Dogfighting]]
* [[One-Woman Wail]]: "The Universe Spreading To Infinity". The Wail also appears as backup vocals for some versions of the theme song.
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* [[See the Whites of Their Eyes]]: Even the damn [[Wave Motion Gun]] has to be fired at spitting distance.
** 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.
** SuprisinglySurprisingly ''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.
** As the only woman on this ship, Yuki's duties include serving tomato juice to other (male) crewmemberscrew members and ''doing their laundry''. Her title in the EDF may as well have been "[[Team Mom|Mom]]". Even worse, in the episode the showed her washing the uniforms, most of them suffered [[Clothing Damage]] later, mocking her efforts.
** Averted in the [[Live Action Adaptation]], in which some main characters receive a [[Gender Flip]], including Aihara and Dr. Sado. There are also a number of women seen throughout the ship in various interior shots.
** Tim Eldred's Star Blazers [[Web Comic]] (see below) lampshades how many unrelated jobs Nova was shown performing and says she is acclaimed as a brilliant jack-of-all-trades RennaissanceRenaissance woman.
* [[Someone to Remember Him By]]: {{spoiler|the 2010 movie ends with Yuki ''and her son with Kodai''.}}
* [[So Once Again the Day Is Saved]]: "There are only ''X'' days left!"
* [[Space Clothes]]
* [[Space Is an Ocean]] / [[Space Sailing]]: Refurbished wet navy ships, complete with anchors and anti-fouling paint below the "waterline". Though it's a bit jarring to see a ship in the first episode<ref>Kodai Mamoru's vessel, which was NOT''not'' a refitted wet-navy ship</ref> "sinking" into the distance well before the obligatory explosion.
** [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the fact the ships are expected to land in and operate on water as well as space, and the fact that the titular ship ''is'' a wet-navy ship in the first place.
* [[Spoiler Title]]: Only in the original Japanese series
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* [[Touched by Vorlons]]: the 2010 movie omits Starsha's message and has the capsule land on Earth instead (in the original series, it landed on Mars), so they reinforce their claim to remove the radiation by curing Kodai despite him being at ''ground zero'' of the crash. Dr. Sado is justifiably spooked.
** This might be a [[Mythology Gag]] to the original series, where {{spoiler|Yuki activating the untested Iscandar purifier by hand when Dessler was flooding the Yamato with radiation apparently lets her come [[Back from the Dead]] later on.}}
* [[Unfortunate Names]]: Philippine fans of ''Star Blazers'' snickered when they first heard the original Japanese name of the lead character. "Susumu" sounds exactly like a playful way of saying "Susu mo," which means your nipple. Though he was much more oftenlyfrequently called by his family name, Kodai, for some reason the subbtitlessubtitles of the subbed release kept calling him by his first name, making certain dramatic moments Narm. (You hear "Kodai! Kodaaaaiiiii!" while you see "Susumu! Susumuuuuuuu!")
* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Dessler/Desslok in episode 24.
* [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]]: the [[Bee People]].
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* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: The [[Trope Namer]].
** 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''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).
* [[Web Comic]]: Produced by Tim Eldred, who was also the artist for the [[Too Good to Last|short-lived]] [[Comics|comic book adaptation]] by Argo Press. [http://www.starblazers.com/department.php?page_id=126&PHPSESSID=0b70566c73a7da9064373f049a27563b/ Here, check it out.]
* [[We Could Have Avoided All This]]: See [[Secret Test of Character]] above.
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* [[Worthy Opponent]]: too many to name.
** ''Star Blazers'' even has one bizarre [[Woolseyism]] in which a funeral for dead crew-members is translated into a funeral for dead ''enemies'', to show the respect that both sides have even as they try to slaughter one another. It would have worked if you wouldn't have been able to see the obviously human bodies inside the caskets.
**In a Metafictional manner. The (friendly this time but still fearsome) Marines they meet up with are obviously stereotypes of US Marines and NOT''not'' the Imperial Special Naval Landing Force. In one episode they do such feats as climbing on top of enemy tank hulls and popping grenades down the turret hatch to the delighted awe of onlookers.
* [[Xenafication]]: Yuki/Nova in the 2010 live action film, where she becomes the leader of the Black Tiger fighter squadron.
* [[Younger Than They Look]]: [[Half-Human Hybrid]] Sasha, due to her Iscandarian origins, is ''one'' year old in ''Be Forever Yamato'' despite looking like a teenager.
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