The number of products for Yamato 2 was quite small, but the overall quantity increased during its broadcast thanks to the involvement of two dedicated sponsors: Nomura Toy Company and Ezaki Glico, Japan’s biggest confectioner. See the entire lineup here. [2 pages]
Part 5: The Voyage Continues
Previous model kits were still in steady release when The New Voyage made its debut in July 1979. New mecha was introduced in the story that Bandai brought to plastic in an effort to feed the insatiable hunger for Yamato.
Today’s Yamato toys not only outnumber the originals, they surpass them. In the early days, they were made by tradesmen who didn’t know what Yamato would become. Now they’re made by Otaku who are driven to pay homage. That’s a big difference that you can better appreciate when you see the results. [2 pages]
Part 11: The Crown Jewel
In January 2007, the biggest and most ambitious model kit in Yamato history made the record books when Bandai released the game-changing 1/350 scale Yamato. See it from front to back and read about how it came to be.
Part 4: the Sustained Explosion Yamato 2 kept fans primed for new model kits. This was also the birthing period for the next Bandai revolution, the smaller-scale Mecha Collection kits that retailed for only 100yen (about a dollar) and ignited a modelmaking fever like none before it.
The creativity exhibited by modelmakers in Japan is enormous, and (in some cases) as imaginative as the original ship designs themselves. In this three-part record, we have the pleasure of seeing Yamato through their eyes. Yamato and fighters | Earth Defense Forces | Enemy Spaceships
Plenty of new products were readied for Final Yamato, but the enormous amount of competition from other anime was consuming a lot of resources. The experience of Yamato III had shown that children were pretty much out of the picture by this time, so all the products were oriented toward older fans.
Garage kit manufacturers assemble several times a year at various hobby shows to sell their carefully-handcrafted works, and Yamato is always well-represented. The kits are difficult to obtain outside Japan and require high-end expertise to build. For the rest of us, here is an extensive photo-tour of these “Yamato Supermodels.” [2 pages]
Many Japanese garage kits are exquisitely-designed statues of popular characters. Yamato characters haven’t been turned into garage kits as often as those of other anime productions, but enough of them exist — of one standout character in particular — to fill up a skilled modeler’s shelf.
Part 3: the Explosion Farewell was loaded to the gills with intricate spaceships that set new standards that tested the capabilities of Bandai’s model designers. Their success boosted Bandai to the very top of Japan’s model kit industry, where it has remained ever since.
Merchandising for Final Yamato was light for two basic reasons. First, the fans were getting older and second, many of the previous items were still available. This allowed the new product line to aim for a higher degree of sophistication since they would most likely appeal to older teens and adults.
When we last left our heroes, games based on Space Battleship Yamato had just made the jump from paper to pixels, but many years would pass while Yamato took every step down a road that lead to home electronics and the high-end world of pachinko. That journey is fully documented here. [2 pages]
Part 8: Finishing Touches Final Yamato gave Bandai and its Yamato customers one last spin on the dance floor. Of the kits that concluded a very successful ten years, only one was new, but now that Bandai had become an industry leader, there was plenty more to come.
Part 2: The Comeback
Although the excitement had begun to build well ahead of the Yamato movie’s premiere, licensors maintained a wait-and-see-attitude. It took Bandai three months to release their first movie-related kit, but it was just as revolutionary as Yamato’s comeback.
In 1985, previously-unseen Yamato animation appeared exclusively at Taito game centers in Japan, in a now-extinct Laserdisc game based on Final Yamato. It’s no longer possible to play it, but enough pieces survive for us to examine this amazing artifact from beginning to end. [2 pages]
Released by NEC in 1999, this gave fans something they could only dream about during the production years: a virtual Yamato that could be explored at will and a digital database for the first TV series. Examine this groundbreaking masterwork from top to bottom and find out what it took to create it here.
When one considers the gameplay possibilities Yamato offers, typing doesn’t immediately spring to mind, which makes the extraordinary quality of these games even more surprising. These four articles examine each game in detail with animation stills, movie files, and more. Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4
Part 1: The Windup
This series covers the entire history of Yamato model kits. We begin with those released in conjunction with the first TV series, which was just a small smattering in accordance with the risk of any new and untested program.
1998 was the year Leiji Matsumoto returned to Yamato for its 25th anniversary, and the single most important event that happened under his watch was the creation of Yamato games for the Sony Playstation. In every important respect, it was what Japanese fans were waiting for all along.
With updated designs and lively new animation this evolution of Yamato might just as well have been a brand new anime. Bandai released three Playstation games from February 1999 to September 2000. They breathed new life into the first and second Yamato stories and laid the groundwork for more to come.
“The challenge of Typing Warp begins! Enjoy a revival of Yamato’s trip to Iscandar! With new animated footage (both 2D and CG), creative games, and action-packed typing, the Typing Warp computer games had a lot more to deliver than their name might imply. Explore this one, entirely based on Series 1.
The expanded capacity of PS2 had tremendous benefits; higher resolution, faster processing, and greater data storage did wonders for the rendering and gameplay possibilities. Combine that with an imaginative new take on a classic Yamato story and you have a recipe for greatness.
Yamato games made prior to November 2007 were played at home, but that was the month Japan’s Fujishoji Co. finally brought the saga back to a place it hadn’t been since 1983: the public square. CR [Card Reader] Yamato Pachinko was a take on the journey to Iscandar which took the interactivity to epic proportions.
March and April 2012: Extended interviews in Hobby Japan and Dengeki Hobby, the three-man media blitz before Chapter 1 (Yutaka Izubuchi, Ryusuke Hikawa, and Akira Miyagawa), the April 7 premiere day with an on-stage talk show, and the first blu-ray release. [2 pages]
Maestro Hiroshi Miyagawa, the award-winning pop music composer and creator of the score for Japan’s famous anime series Space Battleship Yamato died of heart failure on March 21, 2006. He was 75. Anyone who has ever listened to his work knows that those words barely scratch the surface.
A tribute to pianist/composer Kentaro Haneda (1949-2007) who assisted maestro Hiroshi Miyagawa, and poet/lyricist Yu Aku (1937-2007) who wrote almost every word in the Yamato songbook.
The making of Yamato 2 in 1978-79 was a very different experience than the seat-of-the-pants production of the first series, but it was no less interesting or challenging. This series of articles explores that process from beginning to end, starting with an overview to provides context.
March 2012: The manga debuts in New Type Ace and magazine coverage explodes in Hobby Japan, Dengeki Hobby, Great Mechanics DX, Nikkei Entertainment, New Type, 2nd Magazine, and Megami. The premiere of YRA Radio Yamato and the first product tie-in. Also: early model sheets for Garmillas and Iscandar mecha!
