IN-DEPTH EXAMINATION
Suddenly Space Battleship Yamato Surfaces
The Secret of Crazy Popularity
What’s the old saying about “occult” movies!?
The sci-fi anime film Space Battleship Yamato (produced by Academy Co., Ltd.) has suddenly surfaced and became the talk of the town during summer vacation. Yamato sank three years ago when it was aired on TV due to low viewer ratings. However, as soon as it was transformed into a movie, it became so popular that some people stayed up all night to see it on August 6th, the day of its premiere. Yamato will never sink, I guess.
America’s Star Wars, Japan’s Yamato
Toshio Masuda, Director of Space Battleship Yamato, just returned from America at the beginning of August. Naturally, he had a chance to see how the much-talked-about Star Wars was doing over there.
“The boom of ‘occult’ movies has not completely gone away yet, but it is getting a little tired. I think we may be seeing a trend toward ‘space’ movies next to ‘occult’ movies. Setting aside the fads of the film industry, I think there is an undercurrent among young people. A movement toward space that transcends the boundaries of Earth. Unlike the more pessimistic science fiction films with a twist, Star Wars is a film that simply celebrates American humanism. The theme of Space Battleship Yamato is love for humanity. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that such films were made unexpectedly in both the U.S. and Japan, and that they have been equally popular in both countries.”
However, unlike Star Wars, which literally conquered the American market at light speed, Yamato had a long and painful diving period. It is as if the battleship Yamato, which sank off the coast of Okinawa at the end of World War II as the last relic of the era of the “big artillery ship” era, has been resurrected as Space Battleship Yamato.
The idea of reincarnating the battleship Yamato as a space battleship came from a lone wolf producer named Yoshinobu Nishizaki (42). Along with him, manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and screenwriters Keisuke Fujikawa and Eiichi Yamamoto worked out the story and concepts.
The year is 2199 A.D., and the Earth is under attack by the Great Gamilas Empire, led by the dictator Dessler. Earth is contaminated by radiation. The human race attempts to resist by burrowing underground, but the radiation permeates there as well, and there is only one year left before extinction.
Then, a message arrives from Iscandar, a planet of love and peace. Iscandar has the Cosmo Cleaner D, a device that removes radiation. If we bring it back to Earth, humanity will be saved. However, Iscandar is 148,000 light-years away in space, with a time limit of only one year.
Rising up from the seabed, connected to humanity’s last hope, the battleship Yamato is converted to a space battleship, keeping its original form, and launches for the planet Iscandar. Along the way, Yamato encounters missile sites of the Gamilas and the most powerful fleet in the universe awaits them, led by Admiral Domel. Will Yamato be able to return safely and save mankind?
Withdrawing from the TV front with a deficit of 52 million yen
Space Battleship Yamato was first made as an anime for TV and aired on Yomiuri for six months from October 1974.
Producer Nishizaki said, “We lone wolf producers have a hard time finding a place to express ourselves. Even when we finally get a place, the money does not come down from above. As you know, anime takes a lot of time and manpower. In the case of Yamato, the production cost of one TV anime was 5 million yen, and each one lost 2 million. I made up the deficit by bringing in earnings from my advertising business. I made 26 episodes. Speaking of hardships, including the editing of the theatrical movie, money struggles accounted for about 80% of the weight.”
In spite of this, Space Battleship Yamato suffered a dismal average rating of 3~4%. Behind the scenes, there was a popular program called Girl of the Alps Heidi (Fuji TV). Sadly, Yamato, which is not based on an existing story, and has little name recognition, sank (?) without a trace. However, this defeat was not in vain.
Left: Leiji Matsumoto says, “I made it the way I wanted to make it.”
Right: Isao Sasaki, popular with children for his theme song
Leiji Matsumoto, who was in charge of art and design, had this to say: “Mr. Nishizaki asked me if I wanted to participate in the project, but it was my first time making anime, so there were a lot of things I didn’t understand, and I had many difficulties. In particular, I was not satisfied with the colors of the TV anime I had seen so far. I wanted to create something of my own in terms of color.”
“I’m sure that I lost some confidence because of the poor TV ratings. On the other hand, I was able to reopen my mind and do what I wanted to do without worrying about the ratings. I think that led to the success we have today.”
Despite the low ratings, the viewers who watched the program certainly became Yamato fans. Unbeknownst to the producers, fan clubs sprang up all over the country. UBYF (Universal Battleship Yamato Family), YA (Yamato Association), SBYFCII (Space Battleship Yamato Fan Club II), CBYC (Cosmo Battleship Yamato Connection), etc., etc. There are approximately 215 of them with a total of around 60,000 members, mostly junior high and high school students. Each club publishes its own magazine and they interact with each other.
Even the most fussy educational mothers were overruled
by their children on this occasion.
One of the reasons for this sustained interest is Yamato‘s mechanics. But that’s not all. Fan club members are unanimous in saying, “The story, pictures, characters, mecha, music, etc., are all combined into a single comprehensive work of art.”
Yamato‘s big gun blows away the cram school era
Of the many artists involved, Hiroshi Miyagawa, who was in charge of the music, says, ” When we think of music for a science-fiction film, we tend to associate it with inorganic electronic music. But in this film, where the theme is the drama and love between human beings, I wanted to express the universe captured by the heart, pulsating with sadness and joy. As film music, it may not be as good as Bernstein’s West Side Story, but I did it with a lot of spirit, hoping to somehow catch up to it.”
The excitement of Yamato‘s surfacing was first seen in the sales of records. The first record was released in October 1974, when the “on-air” program was launched, two theme songs (sung by Isao Sasaki) were released as a single by Columbia. After selling 30,000 to 40,000 copies, the broadcast ended and the pressing was discontinued.
“However…” says the Columbia side, “last year, record stores all over the country started asking us if we had copies of it, and we started getting a lot of inquiries. In the end, we sold over 100,000 copies in one year. Then we decided to do an LP as well. We just released a soundtrack album on July 25, and have already sold over 300,000 copies. I think it is certain that we will break the 500,000 line and make a bestseller.”
In addition, producer Nishizaki edited Space Battleship Yamato for theatrical release and showed it at the Cannes Film Festival last October. The film did not compete in the festival, but received considerable acclaim, and his confidence in his work was somewhat restored. In January of this year, the film was successfully presented to America for the first time. [Translator’s note: these dates are incorrect, as laid out in previous reports; the Cannes festival was held in May 1977.]
Some people stayed up all night on the eve of the film’s premiere.
Unfortunately, the film was shortened to 1 hour and 38 minutes (as opposed to 2 hours and 8 minutes for the Japanese version), but it was a great success. However, it was unavoidable, as no anime in America, even those produced by Disney, exceed two hours in length. This was a breakthrough, and the market expanded to France, England, Australia, India, the Soviet Union, and so on. It is likely that the film will eventually be screened in about 20 countries.
Of course, the fan club members are aware of these developments, and their excited voices were suddenly saying, “If this film is going to be shown in theaters in the United States, it should definitely come out in Japan.”
Producer Nishizaki took this as a push from behind and ran it around to movie distribution companies, but none of them would take it seriously. Finally, in mid-May, the Tokyu Corporation said, “Let’s give it a try.”
Main characters Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori
There are six Tokyu theaters in the Tokyo area. The rest were rented through Toei’s Western Film Department, but even with this it meant only about 20 theaters nationwide.
However, on August 6, the day of the film’s release, there was an all-night line in front of the Shibuya Tokyu Rex, as if it were the final game of a high school baseball tournament. The first one to arrive was Itaru Saito (high school sophomore). He had been waiting in line since 10:30 p.m. on the night of the 4th. Some junior high school students even said that they begged their fathers to let them take the day off from cram school just for this one day.
One mother who accompanied her junior high school child said, “I don’t really know what’s going on, but my child insisted, so I gave him the day off from cram school and stayed up all night in line.”
Thus, Space Battleship Yamato completely emerged and showed its majestic form with its giant cannon. It was able to blow away the world of the cram school era, even if it was just for one day.