{"id":1535,"date":"2013-06-25T05:43:47","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T05:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2025-10-13T11:42:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T18:42:57","slug":"420","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/420\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamato<\/em> Year 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It goes without saying that the biggest Space Battleship Yamato<\/em> event of the last year was the opening of the Yamato Resurrection<\/em> movie, but there was plenty more going on to keep fans busy. Here’s a look back at one of the busiest Yamato<\/em> years in quite some time. (See the Yamato Resurrection<\/em> merchandising reports<\/a> for everything connected to the movie.)<\/p>\n

January 2: RIP Osamu Ichikawa<\/h3>\n

The first Yamato<\/em>-related event of the year was unfortunately the loss of voice actor Osamu Ichikawa at 72. He played the minor but memorable role of Miru, the Comet Empire officer assigned to keep tabs on Dessler. Star Blazers<\/em> fans knew him as Morta. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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February 1: Anison Punk<\/em> sheet music<\/h3>\n

The first music-related release of the year was a book of sheet music titled Anison Punk 1<\/em> from publisher Depro, which included punk-style guitar arrangements of Yamato, Galaxy Express, Dragonball, Touch,<\/em> and other themes. Many other such books have been published, so this was by no means an outlier.<\/p>\n

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February 4: The Foolish Yokosuka Regiment Goes East<\/h3>\n

The first actual music release of the year could be found on this CD by Show-SKA (a portmanteau of “Showa” and “Yokosuka” with wordplay, since they’re a SKA band) titled The Foolish Yokosuka Regiment Goes East<\/em>. The band specializes in renditions of Showa-era pop songs, and the Yamato<\/em> theme was one of them on this collection, along with the Evangelion<\/em> theme and the title song from Macross Do You Remember Love<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Get more info on this album here<\/a><\/p>\n

Hear their music on Youtube here<\/a><\/p>\n

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February 5: Yamato 2<\/em> Pachinko<\/h3>\n

The second event of the year was the rollout of Fuji’s Yamato 2<\/em> pachinko game in Japan, for which an entire new product line was created. The real attraction, however, was the game’s astonishing CG footage. Read all about the game and its products here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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February 18: Always Youth Cinema Edition<\/em> CD<\/h3>\n

EMI Music Japan released this 2-disc collection of 40 classic film songs of the Showa Era, including the Yamato<\/em> theme. Other songs in the fantasy\/adventure category came from Mothra<\/em> and Gamera<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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February: Monchichis<\/h3>\n

The most inexplicable Yamato<\/em> product of the year also appeared in February: Kodai and Captain Okita rendered as plush Monchichi monkey dolls. Somewhere in the world, someone felt this was necessary.<\/p>\n

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March 18-21: production announcement<\/h3>\n

The start of production on Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection<\/em> had been announced online in the summer of 2007, but it took until this month for it to gain a live presence. Film company and master licensor Tohokushinsha promoted the movie in their booth at Tokyo Anime Fair, sweetening the presentation with lovely ladies in Star Force uniforms.<\/p>\n

See a Japanese report here<\/a>. Read reports from TV’s Patrick Macias here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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March 25: Black Jack & Space Battleship Yamato<\/em> CD<\/h3>\n

Akira Miyagawa, the son of composer Hiroshi Miyagawa, added another entry to the world of Yamato<\/em> music with a CD of live performances. He conducted the Osaka Symphony Orchestra through the 4-part Yamato<\/em> Suite along with three tracks from Black Jack<\/em> and three more from his father’s archive. It was released by King Records (KICC728).<\/p>\n

April 19: Akira Miyagawa in concert<\/h3>\n

Akira was also very active on the concert circuit as a composer\/conductor. In April he led the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in their 184th Sunday Concert, which was chock full of anime music with his father’s Yamato<\/em> scores taking the lion’s share of the time. Isao Sasaki was on hand to sing the theme songs, because that’s what you do in a live Yamato<\/em> concert.<\/p>\n

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March 25: Anime Hit Hit March Special Edition<\/em> CD<\/h3>\n

Victor Entertainment is known for a series of marching band songs used by school bands, and this special edition rounded up 17 of the favorites, including the Yamato<\/em> theme. Also included were songs from Dragonball, Dr. Slump, Astro Boy, Totoro, Sailor Moon, Ponyo,<\/em> and others.<\/p>\n

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May 3: Yamato Party 2009<\/h3>\n

Yamato Party is a one-day all-Yamato<\/em> event run by fans for fans, dating all the way back to 1984. After a five-year break, they roared back to life with Yamato<\/em> Party 2009 and the roving reporters of starblazers.com were there to see it in person. Among other delights, it featured the world premiere of footage from the forthcoming Yamato Resurrection<\/em> feature film. Read a complete report of the event here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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May 16: Yamato<\/em> in concert<\/h3>\n

Yamato<\/em> music was heard live again in a special concert at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. Conductor Naoto Otomo was a key member of the music staff during the production years, leading Symphony Orchestra Yamato<\/em> through all the sessions for Final Yamato<\/em> and the 1984 Grand Symphony<\/em><\/a>. 25 years later, he lead the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra through a new performance of that same concert. His next project would be to conduct the score of Yamato Resurrection<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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June 27: Models reissued<\/h3>\n

As a nod to Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>‘s 35th anniversary, Bandai reissued a large portion of their famous model kit line from the production years. For the first time since 1978, this included the rare multi-ship “Space Panorama” kits shown here.<\/p>\n

Read the full history of Bandai’s Yamato<\/em> models here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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July: Jumbo bath towel set<\/h3>\n

President Japan released this interesting pair of towels featuring Kodai and Yuki with a “stealth promo” for Yamato<\/em>‘s return to theaters in 2009. They measured an impressive 30″ x 60″.<\/p>\n

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July 18: Noboru Ishiguro at Otakon<\/h3>\n

Fans were already buzzing about the upcoming Yamato Resurrection<\/em> feature film when Series 1 & 2 alumnus Noboru Ishiguro first broke the news of another exciting project at Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland: a live-action Yamato<\/em> movie was scheduled to go into production in the fall. The official website went live shortly after the announcement, but all it had to offer was a cast list as shown above. This was the case until the promotional campaign officially got underway January 1, 2010. (See details at the end of this report.)<\/p>\n

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July 25: Cosmofleet reissues<\/h3>\n

Another July event was a comparatively minor one; toy manufacturer Megahouse gathered ten of its existing spaceship miniatures into a new set called the “Cosmofleet Best Selection II.”<\/p>\n

See the previous sets here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

August 15: Manga reissued<\/h3>\n

Always a classic, Leiji Matsumoto’s manga for Series 1 and Farewell to Yamato<\/em> was reissued in a thick, single-volume paperback collection (shown at right). This was the 65th edition in 35 years, meaning that for all intents and purposes it has never gone out of print.<\/p>\n

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September 19-23: Perfect Revival Exhibition<\/h3>\n

By this time the promotional campaign for Yamato Resurrection<\/em> had begun to ramp up in Japan. The first live event was a gallery collection called the “Perfect Revival Exhibition.” It featured cels, original art, and vintage products from the archives along with production art from the new movie and a giant 15-foot model of the ship. The event was attended by a Japanese blogger who kindly allowed us to translate his report. See it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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September 25: Yamato<\/em> theme sheet music for saxophone quintet<\/h3>\n

Winds Score WSEW-09-007
\nSeptember 25<\/em><\/p>\n

Winds Score has been a very prolific publisher of Yamato<\/em> sheet music since 2007. Official description: “Famous as the opening theme for the anime “Space Battleship Yamato,” this song, composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa and with lyrics by Yu Aku, continues to captivate audiences even after the anime finished airing.”<\/p>\n

Visit the Winds Score website’s Yamato<\/em> page here<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to a sample recording on Youtube here<\/a><\/p>\n

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October: live-action movie production begins<\/h3>\n

The live-action Space Battleship Yamato<\/em> movie went into production at Toei Studio in Japan. Principal photography was completed in only a month, giving way to a long period of post-production. The film is scheduled to open in Japan on December 1, 2010. The image above appeared on an update of the official website on January 1. Additional details can be found at the end of this report.<\/p>\n

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October 19: Yamato Fact File<\/em> begins<\/h3>\n

The first Yamato<\/em> periodical since the official fan club magazine<\/a> made its debut. Weekly Space Battleship Yamato Fact File<\/em> was a serialized magazine published by the De Agostini company. Their Japan bureau is well-known for similar magazines dedicated to Mobile Suit Gundam, Star Trek<\/em>, Toho monster movies, and many other titles. <\/p>\n

Each weekly issue of Fact File<\/em> contained pullout pages formatted to be placed in custom binders as a substantial Yamato<\/em> encyclopedia totaling over 2600 pages. Read a detailed overview of the magazine here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nContinue to Part 2<\/a>
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