An eyewitness report by Gwyn Campbell. The guests on the evening of April 23, 2013 were director Yutaka Izubuchi, audio director Tomohiro Yashida, and the saga’s original sound effects creator Mitsuru Kashiwabara. Read a complete transcript of their conversation here.
Presented here is the second of two articles published in the February 2013 issue of Otoko 40 Nen Otoko [1965 Man], a rare interview with writer/director Eiichi Yamamoto that explores the creation of characters that influenced a generation.
Issue 17 of 1965 Man magazine was published on January 11, 2013 with a cover guaranteed to grab the attention of Yamato fans. Presented here are two articles that examine the impact of Space Battleship Yamato Series 1 on the 1965 Man — and pretty much everyone else who saw it at an impressionable age. [2 pages]
In 1999, a book was published titled the Space Battleship Yamato Legacy. It covered Series 1, ending with an insightful interview with the one and only singer Mr. Isao Sasaki. In it, the legendary “Voice of Yamato” shared his privileged viewpoint of the experience.
A complete record of Yamato music releases starting in 1984. Once the saga migrated from LP to CD, fans were finally treated to content that had been locked up in vaults from the earliest days and much more besides. [3 pages]
Some may be surprised to learn that despite being an imported program, Star Blazers has some unique music of its own, all of which can be heard in the space of a few seconds, but is interesting to examine nonetheless. Read about it here and re-memorize the song lyrics, too!
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.”
