Be Forever Yamato Bibliography

Since this was the first new high-profile feature film since Farewell to Yamato two years earlier, every effort was made for it to surpass its predecessor. It didn’t quite accomplish this in terms of the quantity of books published, but the quality, creativity, and variety more than made up for this. For one thing, there were more anime specialty magazines by this time and monthly coverage of Be Forever could be found in all of them. (See this coverage in our Be Forever Yamato Time Machine.)

Not included in this bibliography are manga titles, novels, and special publications from West Cape Corporation. Links for all of them can be found at the end of this page.

Monthly Animation Magazine #7

8.25″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Bronze Co., July 1980

Monthly Animation was a different kind of anime specialty magazine, one that followed international productions and wrote with a greater eye toward analysis than promoting the latest trends. To wit, this issue’s Be Forever cover story included very insightful interviews. Read them here.

The Anime Magazine #8

8.25″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Kindaieiga Co., July 1980

The Anime had been around for 8 issues when the first Yamato cover came up in connection with Be Forever. It contained a 20 page article comprised of equal parts artwork and interviews, just one of many such articles that filled anime magazines as the premiere approached. Read the article here.

Animage Magazine #26

8.25″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Tokuma Shoten, Aug. 1980

After appearing on Animage‘s first two covers in the summer of 1978, the magazine brought Yamato back two years later just as Be Forever hit the movie screens. The 16-page article was typical of Animage‘s in-depth coverage for the film throughout 1980, even reporting on the radio drama. Tokuma Shoten was a promotional partner for the film, which gave them access to plenty of exclusive info. Read the article here.

Monthly OUT Magazine

Approx. 7″ x 10″ (B5)
Minori Shobo, July 1979

This was Yamato‘s last appearance on the cover of OUT Magazine, an association that went all the way back to its historic April 1977 issue. Be Forever got a very generous 56 pages of coverage which consisted of interviews, model sheets, color stills, a music review, and background info lovingly written by fans for fans. Of special note was a timeline that may have been the first to chart all the story events leading up to Be Forever. Read all of this content here.

Kinejun Motion Picture Times #791

7.25″ x 10″ (B5)
Kinema Jumpo Co. Ltd., Aug. 1980

Two years after their first Yamato cover story, the editors of movie magazine Kinejun followed up with this one, which fronted for 27 pages that included color stills, interviews with members of the production staff, and a partial screenplay. (The rest was published in a later issue.) Read this content here.

TV Guide

5.75″ x 8.25″ (A5)
Tokyo News Agency, Aug. 1981

Yamato‘s third time as a cover feature on the Japanese edition of TV Guide happened for the last week of July, 1981. It promoted the August premiere of Be Forever on the Fuji network, which warranted an eight-page article. Click here to see it in full.

Movie Series
Space Battleship Yamato Big Collection

36 pages, 8.25″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Asahi Sonorama, Sept. 1980

This full-color magazine was published to commemorate Be Forever, but gave equal time to the first two Yamato movies as well. It contained an archive of promotional material and a brief history of events and merchandising. Several pages were devoted to the promotion of Be Forever with unique photographs of such events as the sea cruise and Budokan concert.

Anime Poster Big Compendium

160 pages, 5″ x 7.25″ (B6)
Akita Shoten, Sept. 1980

This is as good an example as any of the popularity of anime by the year 1980. Champion Graphic, an imprint of Akita Shoten, put together this substantial full-color collection of poster art from various anime productions dating back to the 60s. Leiji Matsumoto’s productions opened the book with Yamato movie and promotional posters getting 10 pages of coverage.

Be Forever Yamato
Roadshow Special Edition

112 pages, approx. 8.25″ x 10″ (A4 trimmed)
Shueisha, Sept. 1980

Shueisha’s Roadshow special for Be Forever upheld the high standards of earlier editions. It contained a section of double-page highlight scenes, a character guide, background paintings, the complete screenplay, staff interviews, model sheets, song lyrics, and a full-color retrospective on the previous Yamato movies.

Be Forever Yamato
Terebi Magazine Special

88 pages, 8.25″ x 10″ (A4 trimmed)
Akita Shoten, Nov. 1980

This full-color spinoff of Terebi [TV] Magazine provided an excellent overview of the film organized by subject. It contained a section on Yamato mechanics, Earth character profiles, Dark Nebula mecha and characters, and a story digest. This was the last Terebi Magazine special devoted to Yamato; no edition was produced for the final film.

Be Forever Yamato
Precise Illustrated Edition

16 single-sided sheets, 9″ x 7.25″
Asahi Sonorama, Sept. 1980

Sonorama published two of these unique sets (the other was for Farewell to Yamato) with fold-out blueprints of the movie’s major spacecraft and other mecha. Each sheet was bound on one side and opened to 18″ x 13.5″ when cut free of the spine. They featured isometric views of their subjects with occasional cutaways and technical notes. Single sheets were also dedicated to Gamilas warships and the Comet Empire Dreadnought.

Be Forever Yamato
Anime Cel Collection

60 pages, 8.25″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Shonen Pictorial Co., Sept. 1980

Repeating the format of their successful cel collection books for Farewell to Yamato, Shonen Pictorial Co. produced this set of 12 pseudo-cels for Be Forever which were combined with a guide to the film’s story.

SF Fantastic Animation Materials
Be Forever Yamato Setting Data Collection

234 pages, 8.25″ x 10″ (A4 trimmed)
Shonen Pictorial Co., Sept. 1980

This was one volume in a short-lived series that devoted a large page count to extensive coverage with several exclusive features. Regrettably, Be Forever was the only Yamato film to receive this treatment (the only other known volumes were devoted to My Youth in Arcadia and Galaxy Express). It contained a full-color photostory, character profiles, Yamato‘s interior, the complete screenplay, model sheets, an event report for the summer of 1980, the complete script of the Be Forever radio drama, the complete movie storyboard (including deleted scenes), and a voice actor round table.

Be Forever Yamato
Roman Album No. 36 Deluxe

122 pages, 8.25″ x 11.25″ (A4)
Tokuma Shoten, Oct. 1980

TOP TEN PICK

The fourth Yamato Roman Album came just 7 months after the third, but showed another tremendous leap forward in sophistication. It was Tokuma’s finest volume yet in terms of layout and design with sections now labeled in English, perhaps as a nod to the growing international audience. It contained a Cine Digest (photostory), Special Area (highlight scenes), Art Area (locations), Character & Mechanic Areas (model sheets), and a Staff Area (commentary). Support material included original illustrations of Yamato hardware and promotional coverage. Strangely, there was also a page showing 13 completed model kits, only 4 of which were actually released.

Be Forever Yamato
Anime Comics 1 & 2

160 pages each, 5″ x 7.25″ (B6)
Akita Shoten, Oct. & Nov. 1980

This 2-volume set from the Champion Graphic division of Akita Shoten retold the story of the film in anime comic form, color stills with word balloons for dialogue. Read more about anime comics here. Other volumes were published for the first and second movies.

Be Forever Yamato
Perfect Memoir No. 11

210 pages, approx. 3.75″ x 7.25″
Leed Co., Oct. 1980

This was Leed’s second Yamato volume, a handy guidebook to the movie that could travel in anyone’s pocket or purse. It contained a story digest, highlight scenes, character and mecha encyclopedia, staff and music notes, a glossary, and new product catalog.


Be Forever Yamato Big Compendium
Screen magazine special

68 pages, approx. 10″ x 14.5″ (B4)
Kindaieiga co., Oct. 1980

This was the largest Be Forever publication in terms of page size, a full-color tabloid-format special edition of Screen movie magazine. It opened with large-scale highlight scenes, moved through a photostory of the film interrupted by a gigantic centerfold of the Yamato cutaway art, and finished with a look back at past stories and a collection of staff comments. In terms of the “wow” factor, it is only surpassed by Westcape’s Final Deluxe hardcover book. Kindaiega co. published a similar magazine for Final Yamato in 1983.

Below is a bonus sticker sheet produced by the same publication.


Be Forever Yamato & All Space Battleship Yamato Perfect Memoir Deluxe 4

258 pages, 8.25″ x 5.75″ (A5 horizontal)
Leed Co., Oct. 1980

What it lacked in page size this compendium made up for in thickness, covering the entire saga up to and including Be Forever. Starting with 34 pages of film story, it moved on to an extensive encyclopedia of characters and mecha, a section on favorite scenes and a collection of song lyrics. It concluded with 70 pages of tightly-packed model sheets from Be Forever. “Perfect Memoir” was the name of a series of paperbacks from Leed Co. The “Perfect Memoir Deluxe” had a slightly larger format.

Be Forever Yamato
Eternal Treasure Storybook

Approx. 7.25″ x 4.75″
Jitusgyono Nippon Co., Oct. 1980

This unusual horizontally-formatted storybook of the film was the only known Yamato product from this publisher. It combined color and black & white stills with text to tell the story of the movie and came with its own slipcase.

Be Forever Yamato Encyclopedia
Keibunsha No. 68

320 pages, 4″ x 5.75″ (A6)
Kodansha, Oct. 1980

The fourth Yamato book in the Keibunsha series matched the established format of previous editions, starting with a story digest and continuing with encyclopedic pages of model sheets and black & white stills. The production notes included an overview of the saga and information on products and fan clubs. It was one of the four Encyclopedias to be reprinted for a box set in 1999.

Space Battleship Yamato
All Mecha Big Collection

320 pages, approx. 4″ x 6″ (A6)
Asahi Sonorama, Oct. 1980

This thick, small-format paperback was Sonorama’s answer to the popular Keibunsha series published by Kodansha. Using a combination of stills, model sheets, and artwork derived from Sonorama blueprint sets, every mechanical device up to and including Be Forever was examined in black and white punctuated by a few color pages. A subsequent volume for Final Yamato was published in 1983.

Leiji Matsumoto Anime Fantasy World

128 pages, approx. 8″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Kindaieiga co., Nov. 1980

This was the first large-format book to explore Matsumoto’s anime projects, which by this time included Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999 and a movie titled The Legend of Marine Snow. Read a short Yamato essay from this book here.

All of Leiji Matsumoto

16 pages, 8.25″ x 11.75″ (A4)
Unknown publisher, 1980

This slim magazine resembled a movie program book and promoted the debut of Matsumoto’s next major TV series, Queen Millennia. It included brief coverage of Be Forever.

Be Forever Yamato vol. 1 & 2 Sonosheet Books

18 pages each, approx. 7.5″ x 10.5″
Asahi Sonorama, 1980

This two-volume set of panel books (printed on thick card stock) retold the story of the film for children, combining simple text with large color stills. “Sonosheet” was Sonorama’s term for a 45rpm flexi-disc of the Yamato theme that came with each volume.

Be Forever Yamato Shueisha Anime Picture Books

18 pages each, approx. 7.5″ x 10.5″
Shueisha, 1980

This three-volume set of panel books (printed on thick card stock) retold the story of the film for children, combining simple text with original art and paintings based on animation stills.

Monthly magazines were also a source for movie coverage and even the occasional tip-in bonus item. This horizontally-formatted Be Forever film book was included in the September 1980 issue of Terebi Land magazine, whose association with Yamato went all the way back to Series 1. (See the “lost” manga from Terebi Land here.) Foldout posters such as the one shown below (printed on both sides) were also common.

Above: Foldout calendars from unknown magazines, 1980

Related links:

Be Forever Yamato manga
Be Forever Yamato novelizations
Publications from West Cape Corporation

Continue to the Yamato III bibliography

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