February 25: Big Jacket Collection Blu-rays
Following the release of the first two in January, the remaining three movies in the classic catalog came out in Bandai Emotion’s “Big Jacket Collection” format. The discs themselves are standard-format Blu-rays. The “Big Jacket” is simply an LP-size package that warms the hearts of longtime collectors.
Order them at these links…
The New Voyage: Amazon.co.jp | CD Japan
Be Forever Yamato: Amazon.co.jp | CD Japan
Final Yamato: Amazon.co.jp | CD Japan
February 25: Hobby Japan #682
This issue of Hobby Japan (with an April cover date) brought us Part 17 of the Yamato Mechanics serial, focusing on the Bolar battleship Ra-Jendora.
But that’s not all! There was also a 10-page article showcasing Ndopara’s 1/1000 L’Andromeda garage kit and the recent reissue of Bandai’s 1/000 Ginga.
See all of this content here
February 27: CG video by Haru
When you see the name “Haru” on a CG Yamato video, drop everything. In February, he completed a dream battle against Dezarium’s Goruba and the EDF’s Shunran, which was designed for the Playstation 2 games.
Haru’s explanation:
This is a video about how ridiculously strong the Andromeda-class super-dreadnought strategic battleship Shunran is. At the time this was completed, I hadn’t seen REBEL 3199 Chapter 5 yet. Looking forward to the Goruba strategy in the main story.
See it on Youtube here
February 27: Week 2 handout
As Chapter 5 began its second week in theaters, the free handout changed to another type of illustration board, this one reproducing a vintage Cosmo Tiger model sheet from the classic era.
Photo at right posted on Twitter by otachu_sado
February 28: Yamato dog tag keyholders
Seemingly out of nowhere, a new collectible turned up in Japanese vending machines. Manufactured by NIC (New Item Creative), it’s a series of six classic Yamato dog tags with the ship on one side and characters with English text on the other.
A complete set can be purchased from the online retailer Rakuten here
Also spotted in February
Gashima Cinema screenings
Earlier in this report, we discovered a theatrical screening of Farewell to Yamato in Osaka. Well, if you were prepared to travel over land and water, it was also possible to see the first Yamato movie (4K version) on a big screen, and more besides.
Gashima Cinema is located in Sado, a city that covers an island of its own just off the northern coast of Niigata prefecture. As part of the Niigata International Animation Film Festival, this theater screened four works that involved Director Toshio Masuda. The three anime films in the set included Yamato, a Triton of the Sea compilation, and 1985’s Odin! If you made the trek to Sado, you had five chances to see each one between February 5 and March 1.
Fan art
The arrival of new REBEL 3199 episodes must have super-charged everyone in Japan, because the fan art posted on social media was more lit than ever. See the latest character gallery here and mecha gallery here.
Fan models
The race to bring ever more obscure Yamato mecha into the real world only gets hotter every month, especially with 3D printing in the mix. See all the latest contenders here: Gallery A (Earth mecha) | Gallery B (everyone else)
Michio Murakawa on Bluesky
Manga/anime artist Michio Murakawa kept us up to date on the production of his next Yamato 2199 chapter and other Yamato-related musings.
See his February entries here
Shinya Takahashi auction art
Classic-era Character Designer Shinya Takahashi brought a new set of original drawings to market on Yahoo Japan Auctions in February.
See them all here
Hoshi Suzu blogs
Over in the blogosphere, weekly columns rolled out from Hoshi Suzu as he reacted to the pre-release videos and then went into a rapture when Chapter 5 delivered exactly what he was hoping for.
Click here for the February entries if you’re not afraid of spoilers
Chapter 5 reaction blogs
Hoshi Suzu wasn’t the only one whose coffee was spiked by Chapter 5; three other bloggers poured out rave reviews one by one after seeing the film.
Click here to see what they had to say (which is, of course, also loaded with spoilers).
Star sighting
A Twitter user by the name of manpon brought a previously-overlooked cameo to our attention with this still from the 1985 anime feature film Goshogun Etranger. In this scene, the character Shingo is examining a collection of models in a museum of Goshogun artifacts. But who’s that at frame right…?
File this under “What The”
Another Twitter user with the unwieldy name “Kongo-class Battleship 22 Hagoromo” brought us the most unexpected artifact of the month with these pages from a Korean knockoff manga.
No specific information was shared about this discovery (or its year of origin), but the influence is undeniable and the uniforms bear a striking resemblance to concept art from the pre-Matsumoto design phase.
See the original Twitter posts here, here, and here
Yamatunes for February
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Bonus: First Chapter 6 teaser
Posted on March 1, it was clear from the first frame why this one was held back for over a week. It picks up directly from “the last minute” of Chapter 5 and becomes a major spoiler for its entire 30 seconds. Yamato has gone through the looking glass and the story is now in uncharted territory.
If spoilers aren’t a problem for you, click here to see a full breakdown.
What’s Next
March came in like the proverbial lion, picking up with the second half of Chapter 5’s theatrical tenure and generating more buzz to keep the party going. Head back here for the next report when we round up everything that happened and begin the countdown to Chapter 6. Until then, follow our Facebook page for daily posts and breaking news!
And if you hankering for more Yamato history, click right over to Vintage Report 46 where we see what filled the summer of 1983 while Final Yamato was back in the shop for its 70mm tune-up.
Cosmo DNA writer/editor Tim Eldred here, inviting you to a party that’s just one click away. If you’ve enjoyed this website and my various Star Blazers comics, it’s my duty to tell you that they represent only a fraction of a career that spans more than 40 years. ARTVALT is where I open my archives and roll out all sorts of weird and cool things ranging from unknown to world famous! New updates happen on the first of every month!
And HEADS UP: a brand new sci-fi webcomic titled The Last Blue Eagle is underway and ready for you read RIGHT NOW! Click here to join the fun! (No paywall.)