Space Battleship Yamato 2205 Report 14

August 2022 was about average in terms of activity, but there’s never a dull month in Yamato world. The first full-scale book arrived and Star Blazers Lambda reached its dramatic conclusion all at once! Here’s the rundown of all of that and more…

August 1: Yamato 2205 Complete Works

Finally, a BOOK. Those who have been Yamato fans since the early days know just how valuable these things are, always preserving art and info found nowhere else. This one is a real beauty, 176 pages featuring a huge collection of character and mecha designs in both color and black & white. The rear portion contains the complete text of Harutoshi Fukui’s proposal for the series, which includes a few nods toward 3199. Look for a translation in a future Cosmo DNA update.

Order your copy of 2205 Complete Works from Amazon.co.jp here or CD Japan here.

August 3:
1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 176

Following last month’s completion of Hyuga‘s bridge tower, Hachette turned its attention to the business end of the Wave-Motion Gun. From here, it is expected that construction will proceed from bow to stern.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here

August 10:
1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 177

Hachette’s second volume of the month added lighting to Hyuga‘s WMG and delivered the first hull section with its requisite fiber optics. It may not look like they connect to any lighting, but a glance at the box cover shows where the first running lights appear.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here

August 12: Star Blazers Lambda final chapter

28 chapters and done! With their numbers dwindling, the Topness pilots plunge onward through the wormhole to find and destroy the Seireness base. Somewhere at the other end, Linne awaits rescue. Click here to see an ending that defies all expectations!


Photos posted on Twitter by mekamiyaph


August 14: Anime Japan Fes 2022

Comiket 100 took place the weekend of August 13 & 14, and it has become tradition for an anime song [anison] concert to happen close by on the Sunday evening. This one featured the “great gods” of anison, Ichiro Mizuki, Isao Sasaki, and Mitsuko Horie. With a lineup like that, you know Yamato and its contemporaries were well-served. (In fact, it’s an anison tradition for the entire performer lineup to combine for the Yamato theme as the last number.)

Read a recent interview with Mitsuko Horie here.

August 17:
1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 178

This week, the Hyuga model parts jumped over to the other side of the hull with a new bow panel and the first segment that tapers outward to widen the frame.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here

August 20: Ensemble Vega Concert

Wherever Akira Miyagawa’s chamber music orchestra goes, Yamato music goes with them. On this day, they performed a set in a Tokyo concert hall that included Beatles tunes and a Yamato montage.

This brought to everyone’s attention the fact that Akira recently published a collection of essays modestly titled “Akira-san” Is a Genius Who Enjoys Music. Released in March by NHK Publishing, it covers his wide-ranging career and includes memories of his father Hiroshi. There is Yamato content in the book, so you can be sure to see it in a future Cosmo DNA update.

August 21: A Voyage to Remember on TV

In Japan, channel BS12 features an evening program called Sunday Animation, and starting on this day it was filled by three Yamato movies over three weeks. This compilation of Yamato 2199 was the first. It wasn’t the first time it could be seen on the air, but it would lead to the first free broadcast of Age of Yamato as movie number 3.

See a BS12 commercial for the films here.

August 24:
1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 179

Hyuga‘s port-side hull took its next jump with a new panel including the designation, a missile launch port, and (of course) more fiber lights.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here





August 25: SF Magazine No. 753

Japan’s SF Magazine has a long and venerable history, having been in print for over 60 years. While it is primarily a writer’s magazine featuring short stories and novellas, it has also provided an important platform for artists; specifically the collective known as Crystal Art Studio which evolved into the one and only Studio Nue. That was the subject of this issue’s cover story, marking the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary design group that helped propel Space Battleship Yamato and many other legendary titles.

Over 60 pages were devoted to the studio’s history with a comprehensive timeline, interviews, and lots of rare illustrations from their early years. The cover painting by the great Naoyuki Katoh put a lot of very high-visibility mecha into a single image for the first time and ignited a deluge of pre-orders that sold out the initial print run before the magazine even went to press. A second print run was quickly arranged to meet the demand.

Order a copy from Amazon.co.jp here.

See an enlargement of the the cover at the end of this page.

See Naoyuki Katoh’s collected Tweets about the cover here.

August 28: Ark of the Stars on TV

BS12’s second movie in their string of three was 2014’s Ark of the Stars. Age of Yamato would follow a week later, getting its first airing on September 3.

August 31:
1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 180

Hyuga‘s last volume for August (and the 10th overall) took a nice step forward with another hull panel that allowed all the parts for the month to come together into a single piece. But, of course, this was still only a small part of a very big and complex model to come.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here




Also spotted in August

Fan art

You know the drill by now: fans around the world draw great stuff and post it on Twitter every month. We soak it all up and look forward to more.

See a character gallery here and a mecha gallery here.

Fan models

As time moves forward and 3D printing gets added to the modelbuilding toolkit, we get to see more than the anime designers and mainstream model companies ever dreamed of. See the August output here: Gallery A | Gallery B

Fan manga

Here’s a very rare item for your reading pleasure: a short manga story by Yumatahazuki, a Japanese fan artist whose work graces our character gallery just about every month every month. By his kind permission, it is presented here in English.

Yamatunes found in August:

Silence of the Universe on solo piano
Click here
Anime fans hear Yamato songs for the first time
Click here


The Bright Red Scarf English-language cover song
Click here
Infinite Universe theme on piano…for 30 minutes
Click here


Yamato theme on violin and keyboard
Click here
From Yamato With Love single by Kenji Sawada
Click here


Honorable Mention

This manga, published in English by Denpa in June 2022, belongs on the shelves of Gundam fans, Yamato fans, and general anime fans alike. It’s a satirical biography of how Mobile Suit Gundam was made, with a lot of comedy overlaid onto reality by artist Hideki Owada. Gundam was the next giant anime hit after Yamato, and numerous connections between the two IRL ensured that many Yamato references would be part of the story – including the apocryphal scene above.

Don’t wait another moment; click here to order your copy from RightStuf today!


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