The year is 2199.
Humanity is fighting a losing war against an alien race known as the
Gamilas. With the Earth suffering heavy
bombardment, the days are numbered for the human race. However, in their greatest hour of need, Humanity
receives a message from the stars, an offering of a weapon that could restore
the planet and end the war once and for all.
There’s only one problem: the weapon far across the galaxy on the planet
Iscandar. With only one year before the
Earth becomes fully uninhabitable, Earth’s military pulls all of its remaining
resources into one vessel to endure the journey to Iscandar. Packed with advanced weapons and a crew of
veterans and hot blooded young pilots, the Space Battleship Yamato takes to the
stars for the greatest mission of all: save the Earth.
When I think about it, like really think about it, the
oldest Anime I think ive ever seen are the bits of Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28-Go
(aka Gigantor). Next to that, I think it
might be either Naussica (from 1975) or Mobile Suit Gundam or Galaxy Express
999 (from 1979). Point is, I feel like
ive short changed myself my Anime watching experience by not checking out
titles older than the 80’s. I say all of
this because Yamato 2199 feels like a proper nod to a classic series that is
well regarded as an early gateway Anime title.
And if it was anything as magical as the opening episode of this updated
retelling, I really have missed out and need to change that.
Besides the updated animation, it feels like there might
be very little the production crew will be doing to spiff up the old Yamato
and, really there isn’t any reason to do so.
The character designs, the music (especially the classic Yamato theme)
and even the proto Macross style action resemble the 70’s style of Anime
brilliantly and hold up very well against modern Anime techniques. This kind of aesthetic that helps invoke that
feeling of nostalgia for epic space operas courtesy of Leiji Matsumoto (who
created the original Space Battleship Yamato series as well was Galaxy Express
999) and subsequently Shoji Kawamori (the Macross saga). This show really is Yamato HD and I do wonder
if anything will be changed or updated with this adaptation in the story
department. Since Ive never seen the
original series I cant be the expert who points out what’s different from
what. Still, the first episode left a
good impression, from the opening clash of battleships (though maybe not quite
as good as the beyond epic scale opening battle from Legend of the Galactic
Heroes) to Kodai discovering the ruins of the Yamato (cue the theme song).
If anything, watching the first episode of Star Blazers:
Space Battleship Yamato 2199 made me want to track down the original SBY series
from the 70’s and check it out. I wonder
if I should do that before continuing on with this one. I don’t want to be the guy who says it’s ok
to watch this and not the OG…mostly cause I feel I’d get a lot of verbal and
physical abuse for making such a claim.
Still, there’s something strangely special to this updated version, right
down to the fact that they included the classic name of the US release of
Yamato in the new title (when it arrived here in the States it was redubbed
Star Blazers, even changed the theme song to match). So I’ll say it’s a 50/50 chance ill continue
on with this one.
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