Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers 50th Anniversary Retrospective | Production Secrets & Facts
Вставка
- Опубліковано 11 жов 2024
- Like Leijiverse on Facebook! / leijiverse
I made it (at least in my own timezone)! Happy birthday, Space Battleship Yamato!
50 years ago today, on October 6th, 1974, the original Space Battleship Yamato premiered on Japanese television. This epic 365-day journey from Earth to Iscandar aboard the titular spaceship, an infamous World War 2 naval vessel retrofitted as a last ditch effort against an invasive force known as the Gamillas (or…Garmillas…or…Garmillans) almost ended up DOA like its IRL inspiration. The series was wrought with difficulties, but the indomitable Yamato, unlike its World War 2 inspiration, eventually rose to prominence, becoming a touchstone moment in the history of anime and pop culture, in general. This is the story of how one future anime legend would come to course correct one of Japan’s first international mega-hits with audiences of all ages…after almost getting wiped from existence by a little girl.
Get the original Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) on DVD on Amazon.com here:
Series 1 ow.ly/6rG950AOjIF
Series 2 ow.ly/Ea8650AOjIH
Series 3 ow.ly/wv3G50AOjIG
You can pick up the "Space Battleship Yamato" Movie collection on @Amazon.com!
amzn.to/4dh48VF
The first two episodes of "Space Battleship Yamato: Star Blazers REBEL 3199" are now streaming on Crunchyroll!
crunchyrollstor...
Enjoy "2199" and "2202" on Crunchyroll if you haven't already!
crunchyrollsto...
Using these affiliate links to make a purchase compensates the project so it can keep sharing the Leijiverse!
I grew up with Star Blazers and it actually pushed me into space science's once I went to high school and once I graduated I knew I wanted to become an astronomer and that's what I am today. Haven't found it yet but maybe one day I'll find Iscandar.
@@danlabok7117 it's basically a water planet with Japan in the middle
@@Leijiverse we've discovered many exoplanets that have characteristics of being a water planet, so maybe there's one with a continent that looks like Japan and I hope who ever discovers it names it Iscandar. After all, we found Vulcan but unfortunately it's way too hostile so very doubtful we'll find any pointy ear, green blooded hobgoblins 😆
Thanks for this video. Star Blazers is a cherished part of my childhood. It was also my first introduction to sci-fi starting to enter more mature themes.
I also deeply lived Robotech so nice to know there was a bit of a connection.
@@OneCatholicSpeaks absolutely! Anime has a very clear lineage, which makes it fascinating to study
Yes more Leijiverse video essays!!!!
Mo Matsumoto, No problems
I first learned about this series as a little kid at my grandfather's house in Boston (they were broadcasting the Comet Empire series at the time). Later, as I grew up, I got into the series and movies as a whole (my first watching of series 1 was with no dubbing nor subtitles, so it was like seeing an opera... but I managed to follow along) and am a proud owner of 2 sketchbooks, plus one cell book, several soundtracks, and models. You get extra bonus points from me for including my favorite bit of the SCY soundtrack (the one with the little oboe solos and the "wakajawaka' guitar) 😀
Thanks for sharing those memories! It was funny cutting up the soundtrack for this.
It's already 50 years? Damn, I love Yamato, mainly for it's music and it sadens me how unwknown this series is in Europe, I really wish I could have grow up with it.
That's 50 trips to and from Iscandar!
I did grow up with Star Blazers and Albator, here in Canada. (Captain Harlock was only available in French at that time as Albator) What I remember most was endless attempts to build the space ships out of lego, and trying to imitate the art style in drawings. Did the show's message and meaning reach me as a kid, maybe not. But it sure had an impact on my sense of style.
@@themercer4972 Reminds me that the only close thing we had here was Nadia, secret of Blue Water, with czech dub. It aired on local kids channel, and I regret that I never saw it as a kid, that would influence my sense of style for sure.
@@Peter22055 I remember seeing Nadia, but only after watching Roboteck. What struck me most was the resemblance between Captain Gloval & Captain Nemo.
@@themercer4972 Well that's simple, both Captain Global and Nemo (who is also quite similar to Jule Vern's version ) are inspired by Captain Okita
The series that inspired me to become an animator. Yamato forever!
@@demoskunk awesome!
It is amazing the lasting effect this show has had on more than one nation, more than one generation.
@@Malbeefance a very human message
Great.
A very researched and intelligent video.
Thank you so much! Very glad you enjoyed it.
The OG space anime, without it we wouldn’t have had classics like gundam, macross or many more
Considering those two are directly inspired, I'd have to agree. Thanks for watching.
Hey everyone!
I remember when I first saw the Space Cruiser Yamato compilation film on KTLA 5's 'Family Film Festival' (hosted by Tom Hatten) in the summer of 1978. I was still in Jr. High School and had figured it was a new take of STAR WARS (yeah, I know...) I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by it.
Growing up I had watched other Anime series (The Amazing 3, Gigantor, Speed Racer and Kimba the White Lion are the ones I really remember) without knowing they were from, and what was known as Anime in Japan. That all changed when I saw the Space Cruiser Yamato film; and Tom Hatten explained some of the production history and the fact it was an entertainment form called 'Anime' in Japan, and I now knew where some of the 'other' cartoons I enjoyed growing up looked the way they did, and why the stories were different (read Not like any Hana Barbera cartoon), from the other US cartoons I saw.
It started my real interest in Anime and I LOVED Star Blazers and ran home to see it every afternoon - yes VCRs existed, but they were VERY expensive until a few years later and I didn't have access to one or I would have taped every episode - (and yes, Anime was both harder to find in the US until after Robotech was a huge hit in the US circa 1984, - of which I did tape every episode😉 - although yeah, it was obvious how much was changed after the MACROSS saga, and I was annoyed when I found that Carl Macek made some major changes to the MACROSS part and used two disparate and unconnected Anime series to pad 'ROBOTECH' to the needed 65 for syndication in the U.S. - but that's a whole other story - and what Anime did make it over was wholly changed even worse than ROBOTECH.)
In the late 1980s they started showing a lot more Anime at Science Fiction and other conventions, (I also found a local Anime club that showed original stuff on Laserdisc in the original Japanese that met monthly) and by the 90s enough had made it over that you would occasionally see a 'better' (but still not without changes for the US audience) dubbed and subbed Anime. It wasn't until the early 2000s that you had a few companies trying to do more faithful subs and dubs that eventually grew into the situation we have today.
For all the recent drama regarding some translating localizers adding the occasional political message with a line here and there - only those who tried to find clubs and other venues to actually watch Anime know how truly improved the current situation is compared to the subs and dubs of the 70s, 80s and early 90s. There were plenty of times I watched something in Japanese with no clue what the dialog was beyond a phrase I picked up here and there; or at best had a hastily typed synopsis that someone who knew Japanese took the time to create for something shown at a Convention or Anime club.
You U.S./English speaking Anime fans today have no real idea how good you have it, compared to those of us who were addicted to it in the 1970s & 80s. But yeah, times change. (Now, get the f**k off my lawn! 😉)
@@armsman5322 thanks for sharing those memories!
Thank you! This was great.
@@Darkuni you're great! Be great!
Happy Anniversary SBY. I salute you. I enjoy this sci-fi series. I watched this series in America under the title Star Blazers. I also watched the documentary SBY The Making of an Anime Legend. Yoshinobu Nishizaki originally called it "Asteroid Ship Icuras". Same plot, except it focused on a giant rock w/sub light engine, heat ray gun and nuclear bazooka. The enemy was called Legendera. However, Leji Matsumoto suggested to ditch the rock and replace it w/battleship Yamato. In the movie Be Forever Yamato did use the Yamato hidden in Asteroid Icuras. Also, George Lucas' Star Wars came out three years after SBY. Simular characters, different plot.
@@scotthintze5901 yes, many Star wars fans still get that confused
Wonderful video! Lots of interesting background info to the series. 😁
@@Gothy_Senpai thank you, Gothy! So glad you enjoyed it
Great video a fun fact: Satoru Ozawa creator of various submarine manga and anime like blue submarine no.6, submarine 707 and tide line blue, was originally asked by Nishizaki to do it, his idea the ship would not make it back within a single generation. So the ship would launch with babies on board in cryogenic suspension. And the crew of the ship would have to raise the children as the voyage progressed and the cast would be all male Nishizaki obviously did not want this so Ozawa declined Nishizaki exclaimed “who else could do this if you won’t?”
To which Ozawa replied “How about Leiji Matsumoto? He draws ships too you know.” And the rest is history!
@@elijahguest1885 this makes a lot of sense, especially because Matsumoto has his own Submarine Super 99 manga, which undoubtedly references Blue Submarine. Blue Noah is another obvious reference.
Undoubtedly and if you go look at his two sequels Sumbarine 707 F, and Blue submarine A06 he references Matsumoto with the different alien empires and sci fi elements he adds. Goes to show how great artists inspire each other over and over
@@elijahguest1885 btw, way to rep that otoko oidon scan!
I first saw SBY as "Star Blazers" in the '80s on AFN (Armed Forces Network) in Germany, which after watching his, gives me a bit of a chuckle. Before my father's job brought us there, the only anime I had really been exposed to was Speed Racer (okay)* and Battle of the Planets - which I had enjoyed enough to follow even with it's increasingly difficult time slot shift.
AFN was, at the time, the only English speaking channel for the American soldiers and their families, so choice was limited, and closely scrutinized by the network's producers. They had brought in a few other anime series, but most were frankly forgetable (and not just to me - I couldn't find them later anywhere). They'd play for a few months - if that long - then swap out for another equally uninspiring series. Then... StarBlazers. I was hooked, and the series was stable playing all the way through the Battle for Iscandar and the Comet Empire. In fact, the day we left to go back to the States for my father's next assignment, one of the key episodes was playing, and it was a very sulky teenager who had to be practically shoved into the plane... whining that there was "only ten minutes left, can't we delay that little bit?"
I don't think I've seen all of the various series, movies, and other media, I have enjoyed what I have managed to get to. Even the live action movie, which a school friend from that time frame was eager to point out to me when it was first available. While it took some liberties with the storyline itself, I think it kept the spirit. And withholding the robot's existence until the point that it did - fantastic.
I also enjoyed the 2199 series, which did a good job of expanding the cast in a meaningful and functional way (yay for Yuri not being stuffed into multiple roles!).
Happy Anniversary, Yamato. May you continue to inspire.
Thanks for sharing your memories!
Wow. I didn't know about Nishizaki's history with embezzlement(?) 😮
@@PeterHamiltonz it's not well documented.
I love the original space battleship Ya-ma-to ⚓ the remake not so much & the live action movie is garbage 👎 this video was very informative thanks 👍
To each their own! Glad you enjoyed the video.
Is there a reason why the video's narrator IS YELLING HIS WAY ALL THE WAY THROUGH THIS THING ? And why does he mispronounce every Japanese proper name ?
@@east103W I guess you don't know what yelling is. I literally soft spoke this whole thing into my mic. I did not mispronounce every name.
@@Leijiverse kudos on what you’re doing on your channel content-wise but yah.. your mispronunciations on many names and terms is pretty distracting. Hopefully, you can befriend some native/bilingual speakers to help you with future vids.
@@mrbeggar76 what names?
By the way, since you seem to be a fan of Reiji Matsumoto, I will explain his "blonde woman complex."
In the West, there is a misconception that Japanese people are arrogant and racist, but in reality, the inferiority complex of the Japanese people was huge for a quarter century after the end of the war.
64 Japanese cities had been reduced to ashes by the war, and then the US military came in large numbers. In order to make the Japanese people "pro-America," GHQ showed them a flood of American movies and dramas.
As a result, Japanese people (children, boys and girls) who were just in the process of forming their ego at the end of the war came to have a strong admiration for America and the opposite, self-loathing.
It's like an entire generation of Japanese people were brainwashed by America.
All Japanese people of this generation worship American actresses and have some kind of special feelings towards blonde women.
When you wonder, "Why is the goddess = blonde woman in Matsumoto's works?", remember the above, although it is just one reference.
@@takaakiyamada5451 matsumoto's primary female inspirations include a German actress, a Japanese singer, and many of his female ancestors. His integrative approach to society never read to me as self-loathing. The ability to humorously denigrate oneself is admirable, though I understand how you perceive it as a pathology.
There is no complex, but an obvious desire to integrate European (not necessarily American) ideals that put individual life over society into the storytelling of Japan. It's a resonance that Matsumoto will forever be attributed to.
@@Leijiverse Thank you.
I'll tell you one more thing that might be helpful.
Space Battleship Yamato had Japanese children crazy about it until part 2.
But by part 3, it was completely abandoned.
By that time, children's enthusiasm had shifted to "Gundam."
I was one of those people who experienced that.
The first Gundam is very highly regarded in Japan.
But it is not generally known in the West or America.
When Westerners mention the name "Akira" as a representative of sci-fi anime, Japanese people shrug their shoulders.
I have a couple of comments, before Star Wars look out, there was Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture. And I had the VHS but that is gone, I have the DVD movie collection but I was the DVD series as well, and one more comment, in the first series when the Argo made it to Iscandar Derek Nova and Sandor met Starsha of Iscandar, she said, "I have someone here that should be taken back to Earth," Derek sees his brother Alex and is happy, Nova turns to look at Starsha as she walking away, Nova follows Starsha and asks her, "Do you want us to take him with us," Starsha wells up and walks away, and I well up every every time I watch that, Alex is looking at Starsha and "saying goodbye dear Starsha," Starsha just looks up at him and says, "I love you Alex, I love you", I'm crying now writing this, they went on to be together on Iscandar, Alex stayed, amazing love story. She nursed him back to health and fell in love with him in the process. One more thing, My cousin was injured and the nurse that was treated him fell in love with him and they got married and still together today.
My replies back to you are being deleted..? Sent you a message on x when you have a chance.
I see this one? Sometimes UA-cam will just not allow you to comment. I've noticed this on my other account. Thanks for letting me know on Twitter.