{"id":39138,"date":"2023-12-17T23:32:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T07:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/?p=39138"},"modified":"2025-01-14T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:09:08","slug":"024b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourstarblazers.com\/vault\/024b\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamato<\/em> Year 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Yamato<\/em>‘s 50th year on Earth was fittingly one of the busiest in terms of attention given to the original works with most of the spotlight on Series 1. As the REBEL 3199<\/em> series got off the ground, it was propelled in no small part by increased awareness of its roots. Here is our annual lookback at all the excitement.<\/p>\n

Jump to individual topics:<\/p>\n

TV & Cinema<\/a> | Music<\/a> | Studio Khara activity<\/a> | Live Events<\/a> | Products<\/a> | Media Coverage & Online activity<\/a><\/p>\n

Each page links to the next for continuous reading<\/p>\n

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Cosmo DNA activity<\/h2>\n

Quick moment of trivia: in its 22nd year “on the air,” Cosmo DNA topped 2,000 individual articles. When you add all the spinoffs and galleries, this website offers over 4,000 individual pages of Yamato<\/em> content. Remember that the next time you can’t think of what to do with yourself.<\/p>\n

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Vintage Reports<\/h3>\n

From a personal standpoint, this series continues to be the most enjoyable part of my month (Tim Eldred, editor). It’s a chance to poke into all the forgotten or hidden corners of Yamato<\/em> world and add valuable context to the things we already knew…or thought<\/em> we knew. In 2024, these reports took us from May 1979 through the end of 1980, a period that included The New Voyage, Be Forever<\/em>, and the first half of Yamato III<\/em> with a deep well of surprises and treasures in between.<\/p>\n

Find all the Vintage Reports here<\/a><\/p>\n

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The making of the 4k remasters<\/h3>\n

2023 heralded the beginning of the anniversary countdown with an exquisite 4k remaster of the 1977 Yamato<\/em> movie, followed quickly by the same for Farewell to Yamato<\/em>. What did it take to bring these two legendary productions up to a modern standard, and what was learned along the way?<\/p>\n

Find out here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Farewell to Yamato<\/em>: the lost footage<\/h3>\n

When Farewell to Yamato<\/em> returned to movie theaters in 4K at the start of 2024, some claimed that they remembered seeing extra scenes in 1978. As it happens, a fan named Yuji Onuma explored this topic in depth in a 2006 doujinshi. Onuma’s article was generously translated for Cosmo DNA by Anton Mei Brandt.<\/p>\n

Read it here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Final Yamato<\/em> novelization<\/h3>\n

Longtime fans generally agree that, of the four different novelizations for Final Yamato, the best came from writer Keigo Masaki. This is what made it the jumping off point for the Dawn Chapter novel series (2 books and counting) and inspired a full English translation here at Cosmo DNA – which concluded the same month this lookback was posted.<\/p>\n

Read the entire thing here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Be Forever Yamato<\/em>: the radio drama<\/h3>\n

Despite their huge popularity, the live Yamato<\/em> radio dramas still linger in relative obscurity, since news coverage was fleeting. At least until 1980. By the time the Be Forever<\/em> radio drama was aired, media was there to cover it. <\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to see the result and listen to the show itself<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Why did Office Academy become West Cape Corporation?<\/h3>\n

In late 1980, the home office for Yamato suddenly went by a different name. The story behind it involved a frozen food company, a buddhist organization, a shady lawyer, a former prime minister, accounting malpractice, and a near-catastrophic level of personal loyalty. How did those things lead to the founding of West Cape Corporation? Fair warning: your head will spin and your eyes will cross before you reach the end of this story. <\/p>\n

Read it here<\/a><\/p>\n

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Hero’s Hill<\/h2>\n

Our annual farewell to those who have joined the sea of stars<\/p>\n

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July 12: Noriko Ohara<\/h3>\n

Another member of the original voice cast went silent on this day. Noriko Ohara’s acting range is perfectly represented by the two characters she voiced in Yamato 2<\/em>: Jiro Shima and Sabera of the Comet Empire. In fact, she was best known for this precise range, playing young boys in Doraemon, Future Boy Conan<\/em>, and others, and sexy ladies in both anime and live action film dubs.<\/p>\n

See Japan’s farewell to Ms. Ohara here<\/a>, and see her prodigious credit list here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In addition to her huge catalog of voice recordings, Ms. Ohara also left behind at least one album of original songs titled Invitation<\/em>, released by King Records in 1980.<\/p>\n

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October 17: Toshiyuki Nishida<\/h3>\n

Toshiyuki Nishida, who passed at age 76, is not well known outside Japan, but in his home country he was a beloved, award-winning character actor with many long-running roles in film and television. Yamato<\/em> fans met him as the live-action version of Chief Engineer Tokugawa in 2010.<\/p>\n

Read more about him at Anime News Network here<\/a><\/p>\n

Like many actors, Nishida also had some pipes; watch him sing If I Could Play the Piano<\/em> (with accompaniment by Yamato<\/em> alum Kentaro Haneda) here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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November 18: Mitsuru Kashiwabara<\/h3>\n

On December 16 it was announced that Sound Designer Mitsuru Kashiwabara passed away on November 18 at the age of 91, leaving behind a world that has touched us all since the first time we heard the roar of a shock cannon, the tinkling glass, the tick-tick of Analyzer’s treads, and too many other enticing sound effects to list here.<\/p>\n

Studio Khara and the Oricon website offered a tribute to the man whose works will outlive all of us and continue to entrance generations not yet born. Read what they had to say about Mr. Kashiwabara here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Continue to TV & Cinema<\/a><\/p>\n

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