The destined showdown!
Just as the Star Force is about to intercept the Comet Empire, Desslok reappears! Launching a sneak attack at the crucial moment, he finally corners his enemy and renders them helpless…but the only move that counts is the last one!
Life and death struggle! Two brave men!
With the last battle seemingly over and Earth already surrendering to Prince Zordar, Wildstar and Desslok face each other man to man. It is a showdown long in coming…and only one of them will walk away!
Argo: strategic invasion of the imperial city!
Against all hope, the Star Force begins an assault on the Comet Empire at the last possible moment, forcing it back into space and stabbing with a killing blow directly into its heart–but wars never end simply, and this one is no exception!
Be Forever, Argo!
Shrugging off the Star Force, Prince Zordar turns his ultimate weapon against the Earth and blasts away in a mad fury. The Comet Empire seems to have won. But there is one force left, stronger than all the anger and hatred in the universe…
Yamato had always been made with music at its heart. Most other movies and TV shows basically treated music as an afterthought, something to be added at the end of the process. Yamato went the other way, making music an integral part of the process from the earliest stage. And no film generated more music than Final Yamato
The initial 52-episode plan for Yamato III meant a lot of music would have to be written to emphasize the newness. This lead to an embarrassment of musical riches when the series was cut down to 25, and it took decades for it all to be released. See the complete record here.
By 1980, the saga had knocked down so many barriers and standards that a new film was practically a guaranteed blockbuster. Every single aspect of Be Forever was amplified, and since music was Yamato‘s strongest natural resource, it was placed front and center throughout the promotional buildup.
By the time The New Voyage went into production, Yamato music had become a national and cultural phenomenon in Japan with popularity that rivaled the anime itself. Maestro Hiroshi Miyagawa, the man most directly responsible, was now integral to the saga, and new dimensions was added to his work in 1979.
One of the best-kept secrets of Yamato 2 was that Hiroshi Miyagawa composed all of its music in the same marathon session as Farewell to Yamato, which produced an enormous amount of score that took decades to release. See how it unfolded in this look back.
The music of Farewell to Yamato was the only way fans could relive the film at home, and it perfectly delivered the same emotional impact felt in a theater. This body of work left no doubt that Japan’s music industry had changed forever, not just in anime but for the mainstream as well. Here is a complete record of its releases.
The Yamato movie was the biggest blockbuster in Japanese cinema history. This new phenomenon was full of surprises. Never before had thousands of fans camped out overnight, nor had a merchandising campaign taken off so swiftly, nor had music played such a powerful role in bringing an anime to the public eye.
As soon as the Yamato movie became a certified hit in 1977, the race was on for anyone with musical talent to ride the wave by publishing their own version of the opening and closing songs. Presented here is a diverse gallery of albums containing covers of the Yamato Theme and/or The Scarlet Scarf.
Final Yamato set a new record when its first video release arrived before the film itself finished its first run in theaters, and that was only the beginning. When a revised 70mm director’s cut followed in late 1983, it kicked off a long sequence of video releases accompanied by increasingly unique packaging.
Like Yamato 2 before it, Yamato III took many years to finally appear in full on home video, preceded only by a 90-minutes compilation movie edited as a TV special. But as the series moved from one video release to another, it was continually enriched by new package art. See it all here.
The most unique element of Be Forever‘s presentation, a normal-to-widescreen transition in the midst of the story, was fantastic to behold in a theater but later became a problem to be solved on home video. This record collects all the video releases in one place and see how they met the challenge of “Warp Dimension.”
The New Voyage was the first Yamato production to have deleted scenes which received tiny, intriguing glimpses in books and magazines. They were the stuff of legend until home video finally revealed them to the public years later. See the entire record of the film on video here.
This overview examines every video release of Yamato 2 from its first VHS set in 1990 through its DVD box in 2001, with special attention paid to the diverse packaging art that refreshed the look of the series was each new appearance.
Long considered the pinnacle of the Yamato saga and all the theatrical anime of the 70s, Farewell has consistently been the leader of the saga in video sales, often the first to break new formats as they are developed. Here is a complete record of its video releases and their diverse packaging.
It should come as no surprise that Series 1 leads the pack for the number of times it has been released for home viewing from all the way back in the summer of 1977 right up to the blu-ray edition in the summer of 2012. See the entire history of these releases and the unique packages they came in.
The Yamato movie sounded the first official Anime Boom, and the world would never again be the same. When the time came for home video releases, it was at the head of the line. Often sharing release dates with the other films, it was always first in everyone’s hearts as the one that started it all.
In February 2008, Bandai released the Space Battleship Yamato TV DVD Box. Completely remastered, it brought the first series back to life in crystal clarity and sweetened the pot with a newly-designed 1/700 scale model kit! Read all about how this revolutionary combination set was created.
Despite the early ending of Yamato III, interest remained high and there was still plenty of creativity in the mix. The series concluded in early 1981, but the promise of another movie loomed large in the future, so books published throughout ’81 and ’82 still had plenty to talk about. Here is the complete record.
Farewell to Yamato put Yamato 2 at somewhat of a disadvantage in terms of dedicated publishing. With so much of its content already covered, it was not an automatic choice for many publishers. Despite this, there was still plenty to choose from for fans who were willing to hunt for it.
The Groundwork
It took an enormous effort to make the first Yamato TV Series. It’s a classic tale of struggle and perserverence that should be told for the rest of time. Compared to that, less attention is paid to the big story that came next: how it was topped.
The Aritsune Toyota Draft
In December 1977, the writers were encouraged to roam in whatever direction their imaginations took them. Therefore, their ideas differed significantly from the finished film. Toyota was the first to crack the story, basing his concept directly on Nishizaki’s proposal.
Brainstorming Sessions, May-July 1981
For the first time in anime history, the conception of a film was made part of the public record while it was still in progress. We begin with this segment, which reproduces the major talking points of all six Final Yamato brainstorming sessions.
Story Drafts, May-August 1981
Here we track which ideas planted the seeds for the final product and which were blown away on the wind. Some would have lead to a variant of the film while others would have created different stories altogether.
July 1981 Story Draft
After all the brainstorming sessions concluded, Eiichi Yamamoto was assigned with the task of weaving the strongest concepts into a single narrative to establish story structure before further work was suspended until the beginning of 1982…
