Thoughts about Space Battleship Yamato, or through reflections through Space Battleship Yamato.
Published February 3, 2026. See the original post here
Considering the meaning of “REBEL”
What is history? We are alive now. We have the right to continue living in the next moment. Isn’t it human nature to seek that one-in-a-million chance and devote all our efforts to survival?
These are the words of Susumu Kodai from the original Be Forever Yamato.
On January 23rd, I went to a preview screening of Chapter 5 of REBEL 3199. Since returning, these words have been bothering me.
The Dezarium people of 3199 believe (or are forced to believe) that “it doesn’t matter if we disappear in order to correct a false history.”
To them, the lives of others and their own lives seem equally insignificant. For the sake of Mother Dezarium’s “correct” history, they would not hesitate to wipe out their own people or even themselves without hesitation, just as they did the Garmillans.
Kodai’s words in the original work are the exact opposite of this. We are alive and existing in the present. Therefore, we have the right to continue living, even if it means resisting fate (which you could also call “correct” history). Isn’t it human nature to make every effort to achieve that?
Furthermore, these words also seem to connect to Yuki’s words in Part 1, Episode 25: “Love doesn’t come to fruition just by accepting fate. You said it, that you have to grasp your own happiness.”
As an aside, I’m from the post-Farewell generation of the original Yamato, so I first watched Part 1 in its entirety after the original broadcast of Yamato III and before the release of Final Yamato. (It was a rerun on Nippon Television in 1982.) Up until then, I’d been imprinted with the idea that Farewell was a moving work and a masterpiece (and the sequels after Farewell actually share this tendency), so the emotion brought about by Part 1 was something completely different to me; a fascinating story about using every ounce of wisdom to stubbornly resist and survive. I was too young to put it into words at the time, but I knew that this was different.
I suddenly thought that the subtitle of 3199, “REBEL” (rebellion/resistance), is exactly what it means.
Following Mother’s will, saving the universe and Dezarium. Even if it means his own disappearance. That is the reason for living found by Alphon, born as an outlier. In a sense, he could only find meaning in his life by becoming a sacrificial pawn for the greater cause.
That’s just tragic.
I’m sure that Susumu Kodai from the original work would punch him, saying, “What kind of life is worth dying for, a life created only to die? How ridiculous!” (putting his own faults aside).
In fact, we may all live with the same obsessions as Alphon in real life, more or less. If we’re not useful for something, if we don’t have the ability, if we don’t have appeal, then our existence has no value. That’s was it was like for me back in my middle and high school days, when I was obsessed with my academic ability. Live against it. Resist it.
How will Yuki and Kodai confront Alphon in the remake?