Composer Hiroshi Miyagawa did more than change the world of anime music with his brilliant Symphonic Suite Yamato in 1977. He also planted the seeds for a whole new crop of Yamato music: the concept album. Fans’ cups ran over as one album after another explored the outer limits of the Miyagawa universe.
With his extensive background as a producer of concerts and musical theatre, it was a natural step for Nishizaki to see live performances as a secondary aspect of the Yamato phenomenon, and a whole new form of anime promotion was born. Here is a rundown of the many Yamato concerts that lead the way. [2 pages]
The Space Battleship Yamato theme is now universally recognized as a classic, approaching the level of a national anthem in Japan. Here we examine the circumstances of its recording and present a broad overview of the many, many times it has been released to the public.
Bandai Character Plastic Model Chronicle is a 2007 book that covers Bandai’s prehistory in 1958 all the way up to the present with many photos of the ‘breakthrough’ kits that pushed the company into the realm of giants. Presented here is a chapter on the Yamato models that made the company an industry leader.
Not everything in anime publishing began with Yamato, but it was certainly the engine that drove it into the modern age. As the audience grew and expanded, publishers who had previously aimed only at the younger set quickly found themselves designing books for teenagers and adults. Read all about their work here.
Shortly after the TV premiere of Yamato 2, Matsumoto wrote this essay in which he recounts his memories of growing up the post-World War II years and carries it forward to his work on Yamato, which was now at the peak of its popularity. He also writes about his own father, who was the living model for Captain Okita.
Originally published in Yamato Perfect Manual #2, which offered more depth and detail than had been previously published outside Office Academy & West Cape Corporation. The 2nd volume contained extensive staff commentary, including this Matsumoto essay about the making of both Series 1 and Farewell to Yamato.
One of the most talented Yamato veterans is the virtuoso manga artist and animation director/designer Yasuhiko Yoshikazu. Here he talks about his Yamato experiences in 1983, shortly after the theatrical releases of Final Yamato and his own feature film, Crusher Joe.
Yamato events are now long over with, but enough documentation remains to provide a substantial and entertaining record of this unprecedented phenomenon. If you were enough of a fan to follow Yamato from place to place Grateful Dead style, this is what your calendar would have looked like from 1975 to 1983.
Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki fully recognized the contribution of private fan clubs to Yamato‘s smash success in 1977. Hot on the heels of his announcement that there would be a Yamato sequel, he set into motion phase two of Yamato fandom: the founding of an official fan club. Read all about its most exciting years here.
OUT was a magazine by fans for fans. This article perfectly represents that approach; the transcript of a round-table discussion at a Yamato fan club meeting. At the time, Yamato 2 was just past the halfway point of its first broadcast and with each new episode enlarging the context of the saga, there was plenty to discuss.
Yamato toys exploded like shotgun pellets past the model kit revolution and peppered the Japanese “play” culture with whole new categories. This article gives a broad overview of the toys made by Popy, Nomura, Mimuko, Liberty Planet, Megahouse, and many others from 1974 to the present day.
When a Yamato sequel was announced in November 1977, Nomura decided to get involved. By the time pre-production for Yamato 2 began in May 1978, Nomura had signed on as a key sponsor, gambling on the notion that they could deliver what the fans would expect. Fortunately for all concerned, they were right.
In 1981, the new magazine My Anime included autobiographical essays. Nishizaki was the first to take up the invitation, and he wrote a very personal account of his early struggles in the anime business. It’s a great snapshot in time and an unusually candid self-expose that can’t help but inspire.
The history of Yamato cutaway art
A surprising number of interior diagrams have been published over the years, almost none of which entirely agrees with the others. Here is a comprehensive look at how Yamato has evolved from the inside out.
The Yamato saga was the result of skillful intentions and some very lucky accidents. These factors combine to make Yamato an ideal frame through which a pivotal period in anime history can be observed and measured. One way to do that is to examine the design evolution of the Yamato itself.
From its very beginnings right up to today, the Yamato series has had as big a presence in manga as in anime, sometimes moreso with multiple adaptations existing side by side. Then there are the Star Blazers comic books that appeared outside Japan. They are all examined in this comprehensive history.
“Anime Comics” was the term publisher Akita Shoten devised to catch the attention of Japanese fans in 1980. They were composed of stills derived from film frames, arranged on a page to retell the story of the film. They did an excellent job of making anime comics look easy to assemble, but they most certainly were not.
Any devoted anime fan with some cash to spend can easily bury themselves in all manner of publishing from to manga to magazines and more. But one form of print media is still off the radar of English-only fans: novelizations. Examining the history of Yamato novels reveals a lot about who published them.
Also produced by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Triton had made its TV debut two years before Yamato. These programs and another named Blue Noah formed a triumvirate of action/adventure shows that made Office Academy an industry leade. Let’s examine these “brothers” of Yamato and see how they fit into the overall picture.
Immediately after 1979’s The New Voyage, two new projects demanded Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s attention: the development of Be Forever Yamato and the conversion of the first two series into Star Blazers. Despite the insane workload, he added a third project to the mix: the TV series Space Carrier Blue Noah.
It is difficult to determine exactly how many fanzines poured out of the first-generation fan clubs, so it’s impossible to guess what percentage is represented here. But this sampling, which covers the years 1975 to 1980, is certainly enough to grasp the wide range of quality and creativity that was devoted to keeping Yamato alive.
