The explosion of diverse media coverage continued well after the August premiere of the Yamato movie brought anime into Japan’s mainstream entertainment culture. October 1977 felt like a collective breath of air after the avalanche of September, but the next wave was coming.

October 1: Roadshow magazine, November issue

Space Battleship Yamato vs Star Wars read the cover blurb at the bottom right. Unless you personally lived through 1977, it’s difficult to understand how truly revolutionary Star Wars was. It brought us a new flavor, a new tone, a new feeling never felt before. In Japan, it was further intensified by breathless magazine coverage for over a year before the film itself arrived in June 1978. Yamato happened along at just the right time to capitalize on that anticipation.

This was only the second issue of Roadshow to cover Yamato, but it was obvious that they were enamored with it. This cover story ran 15 pages with a strong graphic presentation that was unique for the magazine. And there was plenty more to come.

Read the article here

October 1: Eiga Fan magazine, November issue

Yamato‘s third consecutive appearance in Eiga Fan took the form of a multi-page color foldout (referred to as a “wide”) with story, character, and mecha info.

See it here

October 15: Movie Arts magazine No. 319

Glancing through the pages of Movie Arts, filled with coverage of adult movies and grindhouse cinema from both East and West, the words “high-minded” do not spring to mind. But it’s descriptive of the Yamato movie review found in this issue, written by an author who was decidedly NOT in the target audience. It’s also quite a payoff to Leiji Matsumoto’s conversation in Treasure Island about the dangers of misinterpretation, as this excerpt illustrates:

“Space Battleship Yamato did not even tickle the nostalgia of a middle-aged man like me. The film is about the remodeling of Yamato, which is the main point. I am not sure what to make of it, but it was a bit of a mess. Even for me, it had complicated repercussions.”

Read the article here

October 15: Parody Edition Space Battleship Yamato doujinshis

This 2-volume set from a fan club called Character Class Lab was quite an achievement. Both were published on the same day and delivered a whopping 144 pages of parody comics that must have been in the works for quite a while.

See both issues from cover to cover here (volume 1) and here (volume 2)

October 25: Hobby Japan No. 100 (December issue)

Hobby Japan magazine has long been a source for Yamato news in the world of models and toys with countless pages of coverage over the decades and prodigious articles that can be found elsewhere at Cosmo DNA. Founded in 1969, its very first Yamato coverage came in the December 1977 issue (published in October) just two months after the feature film worked its magic.

At this time, only the first round of Bandai kits had been released (which included the notorious spring motors), but the explosion was coming. Click here to read that vintage article in full, which also provided a rare glimpse into Yamato fandom, a roundup of current products, and the delightful bonus of a future star sighting.

October 25: Iscandar Vol. 5 doujinshi

The Cosmo Battleship Yamato Connection fan group killed it again with this 52-page ‘zine that offered more production art and commentary on the intricacies of the ship and crew, and the complete voice recording script for TV Episode 26.

See it from cover to cover here.

October 28: OUT magazine, December issue

The main article this month was a huge feature on Locke the Superman, but the cover also promoted a Space Battleship Yamato Corner inside. It was part of a section consisting of fan mail and art submissions, mainly parody manga.

See it all here

---