Battleship Yamato Wreck

In The Beginning, There Was SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO

In the year 1974, a new anime series debuted in Japan that drew a line from the far reaches of outer space to the infinite depths of the human heart. Space Battleship Yamato brought Japan's best artists, writers, and filmmakers together under a new genre called "Space Adventure Roman," and they created a shock wave that can still be heard today. Spanning ten years, the saga incorporated three TV series (known to the English-speaking world as Star Blazers ) and five magnificent, monumental movies that not only made box-office history, they also inspired the 'anime boom' that brought us some of the most exciting entertainment in the world! Yamato 's mission was to save humankind and bring peace to the universe. The epic SF adventure that created a generation of anime fans begins here, with the first Yamato TV series! Planet Earth is counting down its final days to extinction at the hands of the mysterious Gamilas Empire. Space Battleship Yamato , the first to break the speed of light, embarks on a journey to Iscandar with the mission to retrieve the Cosmo Cleaner D, a radiation removal system which will hopefully rescue the Earth. What awaits Yamato is humankind's first-ever journey of 296,000 light years. As I delved into that first episode, I had no idea what was going on other than the fact that the show was Blowing. My. Mind. I had nothing else to compare it to. Leiji Matsumoto’s animation style was stunning, a panorama of infinite beauty to my eyes. Then there were the space battles, the vintage/golden age sfnal adventures, trippy visuals, the military elements, and most of all, a significant focus on the characters and their relationships. Additionally, the show featured very mature themes. War. Death. Conquest. Greed. Love against all odds. I’m sure I didn’t process all of it until much, much later. But I was walking on air for years and years. Anyway, a major part of my attraction to the series was, of course, the romance between Kodai and Yuki. Kodai is your typical hotheaded Alpha male hero and Yuki is the “ordinary” heroine who tames him. In some ways, their romance is very traditional, especially in terms of gender roles. However, Matsumoto and Co. tweaked the tropes enough that Yuki developed into a totally amazing heroine whose capacity for love left me weeping with joy.

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