The first teaser for Chapter 7 only lasts 30 seconds, but packs in maximum imagery. Despite this, the dialogue we hear consists of only two lines. First, a haltingly slow speech from Alphon that evokes his final moments in Be Forever Yamato.
The original 1980 line: Yuki… I truly loved you, with all my heart.
The new 3199 line: Because I was alive, our paths crossed…because [through you] I was finally able to truly live.
After this, we hear Kodai shouting Sasha’s name as long and hard as he can. If you remember what caused him to do that in Be Forever you can guess what might cause it again.
The music also pulls threads from 1980; it’s Akira Fuse’s timeless ending song Until the Day of Love, which we’ll hopefully hear again as the finale for 3199.
Now let’s see what story the visuals might tell us…
Chapter 6 ended with Ginga smashing the snot out of a Goruba in Earth orbit, and the first two shots look like they’re from the same scene, but they’re just different enough to suggest an additional exchange with another Goruba. We’ll see.
Next we have Sasha pleading with someone. The room behind her looks like the same one Niimi was in at the end of Chapter 6, so she could be addressing Niimi.
Then we have a dynamic shot of Alphon fighting hand to hand against Dezarium guards, likely the ones that surrounded Alphon the last time we saw him.
At long last, 46 years after we first saw her, Arizona takes to the skies. The disc-shaped weapons teased briefly at the end of Episode 22 bob and weave in the air. The nodes on top of the “umbrella caps” look suspiciously like magnetron drones.
Channeling Captain Okita, Yuki raises her head and stares hard into camera, now in command of Arizona.
The floating discs appear to both absorb energy and fire it back in blasts that sure look like they’ve got some Wave-Motion behind them.
A quick shot of Matoko Kato tells us we haven’t heard the last from her yet.
Next we see Kodai and Sasha on the surface of 2026 Earth, still in Tokyo. The extreme tilt tells us something momentous is happening. When we saw a shot like this in Be Forever it was her telling him she was staying on “future Earth.”
This photo, posted on Twitter by Desutoria2191, shows us the source for the background: a row of buildings in Akihabara, Tokyo. Their comment:
This has gotta be the Akihabara background, right? I’m glad we’re still seeing the modern Earth. But the fact that she’s just hanging out in her usual ship uniform–does that mean the fake Earth has been totally abandoned with no one left? Or maybe since it’s Akihabara, people just think it’s cosplay and let it slide?
On 2207 Earth, the Grand Reverse finally rises off the ground for the first time since Episode 1.
Elsewhere, Grodez drifts forward out of what may be a warp field.
Yamato powers up its ultimate party pooper and we cut to Sanada realizing something. This is a close match to the shot in Be Forever where he states that Wave-Motion Energy causes Dezarium’s metal to go critical.
A real white-knuckle moment as a unit of Space Marine armor rockets forward in a tight space between two ship hulls. As they gain forward and clear the scene, we see that the ships are Ginga and an automated Gladiator battleship. We haven’t seen one of those flying since Chapter 1.
A single shot of Isidore, looking like he just woke up from a nightmare. One of the hazards of being human?
Then a single shot of Nanbu in the VR control dome for an unmanned battleship. Freed from Dezarium custody by his father, he at lasts gets to attack the enemy directly. The grid at the far right could be icons representing Ajax-class ships; if so, Nanbu is controlling a fleet of 30 vessels.
Seiya Kitano speaks into a communicator, looking pleased with whatever is happening off screen.
On the ground on Earth, Fleur and Maxim watch the Grand Reverse burn (now without its legs).
The last time we saw Analyzer, he had accompanied Sasha down to the surface (and beneath) of 2026 Earth. Now he’s tumbling away from us, having been struck hard enough to lose a foot tread. In Yamato III Analyzer had a “berserker” moment trying to warn everyone about the “super psycho energy” of Planet Phantom, which got him tied up. This goes a little farther, though.
The most disturbing image of the teaser is this one, which raises a LOT of questions. In the foreground, Analyzer’s hand reaches out helplessly. On the ground is Sada, who should be in 2207. Looming over her is a Dezarium Garm Biu “spider bot.” Above and in the background is Sasha being held aloft by Dezarium energy. Behind her is the organic architecture we saw briefly at the end of Chapter 6, beneath the surface of 2026 Earth.
In Yamato III, the equivalent moment was the discovery of Queen Ruda inside the organic interior of Planet Phantom.
We go out, as always, with a shot of Yamato in action. This time it’s all guns blazing inside what looks like another organic environment. More specifically, it looks a lot like the structures we saw around the alien body referred to as the “Witch of Uralia.” This is almost certainly the crash-dive into the depths of Dezarium.
Speaking of which…
At left is Kia Asamiya’s teaser art for Chapter 7. At the right is a master shot of the Dezarium “core city” from Be Forever Yamato. It’s pretty obvious where we’re heading for the finale.
Special thanks to Anton Mei Brandt
Watch the teaser again here