‘Yamato’ returns for one final tour
I’ve been meaning to blog this for a couple of days and just haven’t had the time. Leiji Matsumoto’s classic anime Space Battleship Yamato is set to take to the skies once again after a quarter-century absence. I think I speak for a lot of anime fans my age (pushin’ 40, for the record) when I say that Yamato is probably the anime that made me a fan of the genre.
At a time when most after-school distractions featured wise-cracking rabbits or spinach-addicted sailors, Yamato was a solid piece of human drama in which people seriously put their lives on the line for something important and frequently lost said lives. I don’t think I’m going to far in saying that Yamato taught me that death had meaning, that war had a human cost, and that the people on the other side of that war had lives of their own.
When it was announced earlier this week that Yamato director Yoshinobu Nishizaki would be bringing back Yamato as his farewell project, I was both stunned and filled with elation. Nishizaki has founded an entire animation studio – aptly called ‘Yamato Studio’ – and plans on releasing the film in 2009. According to this article at Variety Asia, Nishizaki has seen some legal problems (including bankruptcy, drug charges, and bail jumping) but is now in the clear.
The plot of the film sounds oddly familiar (*cough*battlestargalactica*cough*):
Set in 2220, the pic will depict the evacuation of 300 million people from Earth to avoid certain death from an expanding black hole. The Yamato, a space battleship, is leading the rescue fleet when it is attacked by an alien force.
…but who cares. Word has it that an all-new crew (undoubtedly with ties to the original) will helm the Yamato – which will mean absolutely nothing to you kids out there. But, grant the old man a little patience as he takes a stroll down memory lane, yes? I know that Yamato might seem a little quaint in this post-Death Note and Naruto world, but Yamato definitely has its’ place.
Bonus – Crappy YouTube version of Yamato, S1E1
Yes – this is ‘Star Blazers’ – that’s what Space Battleship Yamato was called when I was a kid. Back in the 70’s there wasn’t much effort made to preserve the original studio’s work.
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Wave Motion Gun, Baby!