{"id":1600,"date":"2013-06-25T06:29:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T06:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=1600"},"modified":"2022-06-22T18:48:24","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T01:48:24","slug":"172","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/172\/","title":{"rendered":"Eternal Story of Jura<\/em>: the “Secret” Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just about a year after most people thought they’d seen the last of Yamato<\/em>, Leiji Matsumoto wrote and drew this completely new Gaiden (side-story) that fit somewhere into the first series. See it exactly as it appeared for the first time in Japan, straight out of the rough pink pages of Playcomic<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

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There are several examples of Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>‘s “secret” lore, the kind that goes beyond common knowledge, that have trickled out over the years and become transmuted into conversational currency between fans. The fact that Captain Harlock almost appeared in the anime, or that the Be Forever<\/em> publicity campaign included a sea cruise, or that the third TV series was supposed to be twice as long; they all add up to an enjoyable “background noise” of banter that keeps the topic interesting. (Which of course is the whole purpose of this website.)\n<\/p>\n

\nThere are also the rumors that continually float around in defiance of all logic, like the idea that George Lucas copied Yamato<\/em> in Star Wars,<\/em> or that Captain Harlock actually was<\/em> in the anime, or that Yamato 2<\/em> was entirely conceived after Farewell<\/em> became a blockbuster in theatres. They don’t stand up to scrutiny, but they also contribute to an ongoing conversation.\n<\/p>\n

\nThen there are the bits that got practically no play whatsoever outside Japan, the ones that make mouths hang open and instantly deepen everyone’s understanding of the Yamato<\/em> phenomenon. Eternal Story of Jura<\/em> fits into that category.\n<\/p>\n

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Akita Shoten, publishers of Adventure King<\/em> magazine and Leiji Matsumoto’s Yamato<\/em> manga, had another periodical fancifully named Playcomic,<\/em> which angled for an adult readership. Out of the blue, just about a year after most people thought they’d seen the last of Yamato,<\/em> Matsumoto wrote and drew a completely new Gaiden (side-story) that fit somewhere into the first series.\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat makes this all the more remarkable is that almost nothing else was happening with Yamato<\/em> during that year. Yoshinobu Nishizaki was working on a compilation film retitled Space Cruiser Yamato,<\/em> but it would be marketed only to English-speaking audiences. Any thought of creating a domestic version was still several months in the future.\n<\/p>\n

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\nSo for all intents and purposes, this single manga was THE event for Yamato<\/em> fans in 1976. The story was reprinted in Akita Shoten’s “Big Manga Book” in June 1977 (just ahead of the Yamato<\/em> movie’s thunderous premiere) and popped up again in volume 3 of Matsumoto’s Cosmoship Yamato<\/em> manga in 1980. Often appearing in subsequent reprints, the story achieved a sort of low-level fame in later years among Japanese fans who gave an occasional nod to the story in their doujinshi (fanzines), and finally zoomed back into prominence as, of all things, a video game\n<\/p>\n

\nAround the time of Yamato<\/em>‘s 25th anniversary in 1998, Leiji Matsumoto returned to the series after a hiatus of about 15 years to participate in a renaissance of new products. Chief among these was a line of games for the Sony Playstation, starting with one based on the first TV series. The followup to this was called Space Battleship Yamato: Tracks of Heroes,<\/em> a “fan disc” filled with goodies centered around an entirely new game based on Eternal Story of Jura.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/span>So what actually IS the Eternal Story of Jura?<\/em> We’re about to answer that question decisively. For the first time, the complete manga is presented here as an English-language “scanlation.” These pages are exactly as they appeared for the first time in Japan, straight out of the rough pink pages of the 1976 Playcomic.<\/em> The only thing missing is the feel of sandpaper on your fingers.\n<\/p>\n

\nFor the benefit of new readers, character names have been changed to their Star Blazers<\/em> equivalents. Click here<\/a> to enjoy this eclectic Yamato<\/em> story. (Read from right to left.)\n<\/p>\n

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Story and art \u00a9 Leiji Matsumoto, 1976
\nOriginally published by Akita Shoten
\nTranslation by Earnest Migaki, assembled by Tim Eldred<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/h3>\n

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Another source for a reprint of the Jura<\/em> manga is a little-known hardcover book published in 1982 by Asahi Sonorama. Shown above is the dustjacket for Leiji Matsumoto’s Special Collection,<\/em> a treasury of manga representing his personal favorites, one chapter from each of his best-known titles. The Jura<\/em> manga represents Yamato<\/em>, and is printed in pristine quality.<\/p>\n

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The newest place to find Jura<\/em> is the English edition of the entire body of Leiji Matsumoto manga, published in April 2019 by Seven Seas Entertainment. Buy it at finer bookstores everywhere, order it from your local comic shop, or get it at Amazon here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As stated above, little else happened with Yamato<\/em> in 1976, but events were already in motion for an explosive comeback, and another Matsumoto manga would be among the shrapnel.<\/p>\n

Continue to Cosmoship Yamato 2<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publishing-series-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1600"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32488,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions\/32488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}