Kita Kitsune Monogatari<\/a> [The Glacier Fox]<\/em> instead. I resent that movie to this day. (Laughs) I\u2019m kidding. It\u2019s actually a pretty good movie.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I didn\u2019t see Farewell<\/em> for the first time until it was broadcast on TV the following year (January 3, 1980). I remember shedding tears in front of the TV. I\u2019d already seen Yamato 2<\/em> on TV before Farewell<\/em>, so it was slightly unexpected.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jun16\/104a04.JPG\")
<\/span><\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> When you mentioned before \u201cThis is the thing I still have to do\u201d, what did you mean by that?<\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> Going step by step, the Yamato<\/em> boom from Farewell<\/em> to Be Forever<\/em> was unprecedented, as was the Gundam<\/em> boom after that. When the boom was over, Yamato<\/em> was forgotten and so was Gundam<\/em>. They both got another opportunity when the rental video era arrived. When I saw it in a store I thought, \u201cOh, Yamato<\/em>, I miss you\u201d and I rented Farewell<\/em> with that feeling. I was already a college student by that time, and I started watching it with the feeling of \u201cmaybe it will make me cry again,\u201d and I was in tears by the end. (Laughs)<\/p>\nWhen I considered how well the heat of that movie synchronized me with my own childhood I was impressed that \u201cit stuck,\u201d but on the other hand it felt a little dangerous. There was public discussion at the time it came out along the lines of, \u201cIs this movie praising kamikaze tactics?\u201d and it does seem to forcibly lead the audience down that path, so there was a certain sketchy atmosphere to it, and that sketchiness had clung to it.<\/p>\n
You could say it praises suicide if you take it in \u201ca certain direction,\u201d but its context was different from that of a war movie, at least at the time. It\u2019s not even a so-called anti-war film, but the feeling was that it was talking about something in a whole different dimension even though it didn\u2019t stipulate what that \u201csomething\u201d was at the time.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em> There were some adults who frowned upon it for \u201cglorifying suicide.\u201d But it wasn\u2019t as simple as that\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> The point of view of the creator was different than merely being simple or complex. I\u2019ve watched it again every time the media changed, like from LD to DVD. Finally, I watched it again \u201cfor work\u201d on blu-ray after about ten years, and though it depicts the battle between Earth and the White Comet Empire, it\u2019s not depicted in the structure of nation vs. nation. That makes it different from a regular war movie, and it also depicts war differently than the story of Earth vs. Gamilas.<\/p>\nWhen one country fights another, they clash with the enemy \u201cto protect our country.\u201d Is this a glorification of suicide? The spirit of self-sacrifice was pretty common in Hollywood movies, and in the present it\u2019s easily tied into extremist thoughts and fanatical ideas, such as in Islamic countries, but this has nothing to do with how the White Comet Empire is depicted, so Farewell<\/em> isn\u2019t a story of nation vs. nation. In Gundam<\/em>\u2019s case, the war between nations it portrays is one of conservatism vs. reformation, ideology vs. ideology, and Farewell<\/em> doesn\u2019t have that at all.<\/p>\nSo, what will it be? When you think of the first Yamato<\/em> movie, it naturally comes into focus. Couldn\u2019t I say Earth is a \u201ccountry\u201d and Gamilas is \u201cthe enemy,\u201d and the attack pushes Earth to the verge of extinction? It is learned that there\u2019s a way to avoid this crisis, so Yamato<\/em> goes out on a desperate voyage. However, the savior from the stars is right next to the enemy country, and Yamato<\/em> ends up being forced to fight on the enemy mainland.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jun16\/104a02.JPG\")
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As a result, they annihilate the enemy country, but it was nothing to cheer for. The Gamilas invaded Earth to move there because their planet was dying. After the fight, Kodai sees the results with his own eyes and says, \u201cWhat a stupid thing, we should have shown them love instead.\u201d This \u201cawareness\u201d is the growth story of the first Space Battleship Yamato<\/em>, which gives it a clear distinction from most war movies. Rather than battle, it\u2019s about love for one another. If a live-action war movie were to make this its main subject, I\u2019m certain it would come off as hackneyed. <\/p>\nEven though it sounds stupid, when you look at the state of reality love is actually a very necessary thing. The medium of anime brings persuasive power to a convincing portrait of this ideal, and Yamato<\/em> itself is first-hand proof. That\u2019s why it resonates. Rather than being a \u201cpiercing\u201d movie, I think Farewell<\/em> is one that resonates in the heart.<\/p>\nStarsha weighed the fate of her neighbors against that of the distant Earth people, and her salvation showed the only path for \u201cwinning happiness with one\u2019s own hands.\u201d The purpose of the first work was to show why humans are human, depicting both cruelty and splendor. I\u2019d say that makes it a masterpiece. The challenge with Farewell<\/em> was how to surpass the masterpiece. <\/p>\nWhen the crew of Yamato<\/em> comes back to the ground after that, what do they do next? When you put it that way, it\u2019s obvious. They shouldn\u2019t fight any more. But then how can you tell a story? First, the mysterious communication arrives from Planet Telezart. It seems to be a cry for help. Earth has been rebuilt, even though it would be rather rushed in just one year (laughs), but most people don\u2019t even look at the call from Telezart. So in a flow of righteous indignation, Yamato<\/em> launches voluntarily with the determination that \u201cwe will fight!\u201d The story begins with a rescue mission, but the powerful White Comet Empire is waiting there.<\/p>\nThey\u2019re different from the Gamilas. They\u2019re strong people that only have the simple logic that they should rule, and you have to decide if they are good or evil. The first Yamato<\/em> depicted a conflict and clash of nations, and the sequel is structured on poetic justice. If it was just about defeating the bad guy like in Kamen Rider<\/em>, it would be unsatisfying for Yamato<\/em>, and Farewell<\/em> wouldn\u2019t have the feeling of closing a circle. It would just give you a taste rather than a feeling of fullness.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jun16\/104a07.JPG\")
\nArt by designer Makoto Kobayashi<\/em><\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> So what conclusion do you arrive at?<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> When Yamato<\/em> fought Gamilas, they were in \u201cenemy territory\u201d and had no choice. The thesis that war itself is bad is completed, since even constantly fighting for self-defense leaves you haunted by emptiness. Therefore, when Kodai sees the destruction with his own eyes and says \u201cwe should have shown them love,\u201d the \u201clove\u201d he speaks of is \u201chumanism,\u201d which is what makes us human. How long can someone hold out to protect their humanism? Maybe that was adopted in the story of Farewell<\/em>. For that matter, its the battle between the ideal of \u201cPeople must hold to love and humanism\u201d and the reality that would smash it.<\/p>\nSuch a metaphysical conflict becomes the structure of Farewell to Yamato<\/em>. When you think of the White Comet Empire as a \u201chostile nation\u201d rather than a \u201cbad guy,\u201d they become a metaphor for \u201creality.\u201d Their logic is that the strong should rule, which is the same logic symbolized now by globalism. That logic says that the winner should prevail. But if human society is assimilated into this winner-take-all logic, something will certainly be lost. That would be humanism.<\/p>\nIf human nature arrives from \u201cabundance,\u201d and the diversity of people, what are we prepared to do to protect it? And then shaking free of the extreme argument of \u201cI\u2019ll die for it\u201d was what Farewell<\/em> was all about. If you don\u2019t do that, you can\u2019t oppose the \u201creality\u201d of a formidable enemy. Risking your life for God and country may be doubtful, but risking your life to protect what makes us human\u2026it may be as the song says, \u201cThere is worth in throwing away your body.\u201d [Quoting from the end title song, From Yamato With Love.]<\/em>
<\/p>\nFrom the time when I first saw Farewell<\/em> over 35 years ago to when I was reunited with it as a job, that was the message I took in. \u201cI have no choice but to die\u201d is certainly the extremism of a dangerous fanatic. But part of that message is still there in the bones, and conversely it may be necessary to talk about it once again now.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jun16\/104a05.JPG\")
<\/span><\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> Precisely because it is now\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> Precisely because it is now. Stories about the mass consumption society or the full maturity of Japan after the postwar reconstruction were originally made to be of the era of 1978, but in an age where the economic logic is to plunder wealth from people, I think the story will have even more resonance.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> I think you\u2019ve analyzed the story in a way no one else has up until now. This may be a good time to think about what is depicted in Farewell<\/em>. It\u2019s often described as \u201cself-sacrifice out of love,\u201d but what actually is \u201cself-sacrifice\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> It\u2019s properly described by words, but the implication was too deep for a child to take into consideration. It was talked about in the first Yamato<\/em> (Episode 13). The prisoner tries to commit suicide, and Kodai screams, \u201cIf you were human, you\u2019d know the importance of life!\u201d It\u2019s a great contradiction, but it\u2019s not inconsistent. It\u2019s a conviction that comes out of being human.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> I was a fourth grader at the time, like you, so I didn\u2019t have the life experience to properly interpret Farewell<\/em>. Making it that sort of trauma made the shock even stronger.<\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> No, I think it was the same even if you saw it as an upper teen or in your twenties. It was too shocking, so I think most people stopped thinking about it.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> I think seeing Farewell<\/em> caused a big change in our generation\u2019s perception. Among people of the Yamato<\/em> generation older than us who first saw Farewell<\/em> during an emotional period of their lives, I think it still causes discomfort in many of them.<\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> After seeing Farewell<\/em>, you might correctly think, \u201cIsn\u2019t it a contradiction in the end to use your own life as a weapon?\u201d and that feeling probably won\u2019t be overturned in our lifetime. Since we saw it as children, I don\u2019t think we could really understand it. But now that we\u2019re adults, we can analyze it flatly because we\u2019re seeing it from one step removed. Thanks to this, I think I\u2019ll be able to capture the core of the work and reproduce it properly in Space Battleship Yamato 2202, Soldiers of Love<\/em>.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> Then the theme is \u201clove.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> Yes, it\u2019s \u201clove.\u201d It\u2019s hard to get yourself to say that, isn\u2019t it? (laughs) When it comes to the \u201clove theme\u201d or \u201clove saves the Earth,\u201d wasn\u2019t Yamato<\/em> the original instigator?<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jun16\/104a08.JPG\")
\nArt by mecha designer Taiji Ishizu<\/em><\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> 24-hour television began just three weeks after Farewell<\/em> was released on August 5 1978.<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> At the time, the word \u201clove\u201d wouldn\u2019t be obsolete for another two or three years. \u201cLove\u201d got overused after that, and young consumers became apathetic toward it. In the end, it may have been Yamato<\/em> that stood as the vanguard, as expected. As much as Farewell<\/em> tried doing it, the next year it was resurrected without any fuss. Well, I suppose instead that the resurrected Yamato<\/em> hit our generation the hardest. Even then, fans had mixed feelings toward Farewell<\/em>. It was business, after all, and love faded. But all that aside, what moved Yamato<\/em> from the first work to Farewell<\/em> was \u201clove,\u201d without question.<\/p>\nIt has a different weight and feeling than \u201clove\u201d in English, and the Japanese are hesitant to say \u201clove.\u201d It became more obsolete with the use of the word \u201croman.\u201d [Romance] Now \u201clove\u201d is no longer spoken of openly. But it\u2019s still the root of \u201chumanism,\u201d and \u201clove\u201d is what makes humans human. It just can\u2019t be helped. We can\u2019t do it without making a show of it. To be a little more trendy, I could rephrase the theme of Yamato 2202<\/em> as a \u201ctest of love.\u201d Seeing who is tested and how is what you can enjoy watching.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> \u2026great determination and resolution. The first time I read the title you came up with, I got goosebumps. Before you did Gundam UC<\/em>, I think the other Gundam<\/em> works deliberately avoided \u201cnewtype theory.\u201d This time you\u2019re aiming to re-inject the theme of \u201clove\u201d into Yamato<\/em>, aren\u2019t you?<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> That\u2019s putting it a bit bluntly, but I suppose it\u2019s true. Yamato<\/em>\u2019s engine is the Wave-Motion Engine, and you could say that \u201clove\u201d is the poetic engine of human beings. As for Gundam<\/em>, it\u2019s a story of human potential, summed up in the word newtype. Neither was planned from the beginning, but a point of view arose by the end of the work, so it doesn\u2019t matter. What finally surfaced out of them was the engine, which is received by people as the theme of the work. <\/p>\nIf it\u2019s just a character thing and the framework is avoided, it becomes like a doujinshi, which is specifically made to reinforce one viewpoint and poke into the corners for insignificant details. As I said before, the rule of thumb is that assuming a broad posture allows you to get a broad viewership.<\/p>\n
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Interviewer:<\/em> In terms of the world in this next work, some predicted that it would be Space Battleship Yamato 2201<\/em>, since it\u2019s the Gatlantis story. What were the intentions behind changing the year?<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> A couple of things make it easy to remember. The title logo highlights the number 2, so it easily has the image of Part 2 of the Yamato<\/em> remake. And you might say that including the subtitle Soldiers of Love<\/em> gave us the possibility of going with either the ending of Farewell<\/em> or of Yamato 2<\/em>.<\/p>\nAnother thing was that one year is too short. (Laughs) Well, I suppose even two or three years would be considered inadequate, but since that\u2019s such a trifling trick to use, you could say you should look forward to seeing it.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em> It\u2019s a good title, isn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> I was prepared for some opposition to Soldiers of Love<\/em> as a subtitle, but it was surprisingly okay. As soon as I submitted the proposal I proceeded to actually write the script, and as I result I think the consensus was \u201cthis guy is serious.\u201d Announcing it this time to everyone like this made it feel all the more meaningful.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> Then Farewell<\/em> and Yamato 2<\/em> are the basis for the story.<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> Of course, as everyone knows, it is a remake of Yamato 2<\/em>, but it can\u2019t be denied that the sensibilities of Farewell<\/em> stand out. So, while citing the nostalgic gadgets here and there, the story is modified for the purpose of telling a modern version of the story and theme, so it is being redefined. It\u2019s frustrating to talk about it without being able to reveal the content. (Laughs) The quickest, best way will be to watch the first episode and see which parts of the original are carefully reproduced, mixed with different things, and when you see it in total you\u2019ll surely get the feeling that this \u201cremake of Farewell<\/em>\u201d is a \u201ccontinuation of Yamato 2199<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\nAs for the modifications and the implications of an update, there\u2019s also a considerable amount of homework left unfinished from Yamato 2199<\/em>. To put it more precisely, rather than feeling padded out, the entire 26 episodes feel like a dense work that just barely has enough time to tell its story. We\u2019re building upon themes of the two and changing it.<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> What do you consider to be homework from Yamato 2199<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> First of all, the issue of the Wave-Motion Gun. By piling \u201cit\u2019s evil for us to be complicit in war\u201d on top of the original thesis, it becomes homework that\u2019s very much worth doing. And because Gamilas didn\u2019t fall, naturally the situation of interstellar affairs changes, too. Plus, there\u2019s the issue of Yuki\u2019s memory loss.<\/p>\nIt reminds me of something I saw the other day on the news. When you think of the problem of population vs. pension, people who are older than 55 in 2016 seem to leave the game with their winnings, but there are no guarantees that younger generations will get the pensions they were promised, so first we have to talk about restructuring it. It seems that there\u2019s a generation that won\u2019t get to leave the game with their winnings no matter how hard they work, and that\u2019s the Yamato<\/em> generation. That\u2019s not the cross we should be bearing together. What we thought we could take for granted, we can\u2019t, and the world that\u2019s updated day by day is steadily causing our unease to grow worse and worse\u2026<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault-images\/jun16\/104a09.JPG\")
\nArt by mecha designer Junichiro Tamamori<\/em><\/p>\nAfter the trip to Iscandar is finished, Kodai feels a sense of alienation on the revived Earth, and he doesn\u2019t feel like he has a place there. I have to say that Andromeda<\/em> will appear, because of course everyone expects that. Earth breaks the treaty that was made calmly between Captain Okita and Starsha, and it becomes a world of Wave-Motion mania.<\/p>\nKodai, who has to live with that, has feelings of stagnation and despair that are well in sync with us in the Yamato<\/em> generation. But then a powerful enemy appears before them\u2026<\/p>\nAnyway, I will say that we\u2019re paying close attention to the morality issue of the Wave-Motion Gun, and I\u2019ll ask you to look forward to it.<\/p>\n
Interviewer:<\/em> You could say that\u2019s the first point of attention.<\/span><\/p>\nFukui:<\/em> There are many others, but we\u2019ll get to them. Also, both Farewell<\/em> and Yamato 2<\/em> take a little while to get going, but since it\u2019s Yamato 2202<\/em>, we\u2019ll start it right up!<\/p>\nInterviewer:<\/em> Is the atmosphere different from Yamato 2199<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n
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