Yamato Year 2022, Part 4
Fun finds
Odds and ends that popped out of corners and out from under the refrigerator of Yamato history…
1987 TV special
On New Year’s Eve 1987, a 3-hour documentary was broadcast in Japan titled Yomiuri TV Anime: 30 Years of Animation, hosted by top voice actor Akira Kamiya. Of course, Yomiuri was the broadcast home for all three Yamato TV series, but that was only the tip of the iceberg when you take into account all the other famous shows they handled. Lucky for us, someone recorded the entire special and uploaded it to Nico Video (Japan’s version of YouTube). Here are links for all 7 parts:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Yamato is covered in part 4, and includes interviews with Kei Tomiyama (Kodai) and Yoko Asagami (Yuki).
January: Yesterday’s fan art
This one’s a real time capsule. The photos above and below were posted by an original-generation supercollector who goes by the Twitter handle Kodai and Yuki. The caption was simple: “many illustrations sent to the Space Battleship Yamato fan club.”
In other words, this one-of-a-kind cache of fan art, previously seen only in the pages of the original fan club magazine, still exists. More importantly, it is in the hands of someone who knows its worth. This is truly good news.
January: Photoblast from the past
Here’s another piece of history that showed up on Twitter in January, posted by Hybrid Morning, an FM radio station based in the coastal prefecture of Miyazaki. The Yamato connection is this: in the summer of 1980, the legendary Adventure Roman cruise kicked off from Miyazaki harbor.
These two photos of the cruise ship, decked out in Yamato regalia, were sent to the radio station by Yukitoshi Gunji, president of a company named Miyazaki Car Ferry. They were shared on Twitter with thanks to him.
Find a full report on the Adventure Roman cruise in the 1980 summer retrospective here.
February: Still more toothpaste in the tube
A fan with the Twitter name tori_san_2013 posted this photo of a newspaper clipping from September 25 1980. It promoted a TV special titled Space Battleship Yamato: All About Its Love and Adventure. The tagline reads, “Battle scenes from two TV shows and two movies, the love affair of Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori, and the first preview of a new work that will launch this fall!” (Referring to Yamato III, which began in October.)
In other words, there’s yet another vintage TV special that isn’t available anywhere. As far as we know…
March: Back this horse
Twitter user ishinohikaru posted this photo on Twitter March 12 when he noticed that several horses at Nakayama Racecourse had anime-related names. This particular steed is named “Iscandar.”
March: Cardboard Yamato revisited
Back in January 2021, we learned of an unusual grocery store (called Okabayashi Shoten) that displays several elaborate cardboard sculptures of anime characters. On March 24, Twitter user ayaka19790825 found the store and confirmed that this is still the case.
Word has gotten out, apparently making the store a magnet for fans with phones. See more photos here and here.
April: Fighting spirit
We’ve seen plenty of photos showcasing the newly-refinished Yamato character statues in the port town of Tsuruga, but never quite like this. Like the Yamato crew, they remain standing through any hardship.
These photos were posted on Twitter by Tamagawaya uc, whose captions included the terms “ice age Analyzer” and “donburi sake becomes donburi rice.”
April: Star Force assemble!
This once-in-a-lifetime photo was shared on Twitter by DJ CheeF; it brought together one of the largest Yamato cosplay groups ever seen in one place at a late 80s San Diego Comic Con.
April: Post office posters
Want another example of how big Yamato was back in 1978? There was even a tie-in with the the national post office. The promo poster at left was unearthed by Twitter user Mat Hama, informing customers of the December 20 deadline to get your New Year’s postcards in the mail to be delivered on New Year’s Day. At right is an earlier find, which reads “You can’t send New Year’s cards through warp.”
April: Bridgestone ads
In case you’ve forgotten, you share a planet with the most awesome bicycle ever made. These 1978/79 ads from Bridgestone were posted by Twitter user Solachan1104. Learn much more about the bicycle here.
May: Solo Guitar Mood, Film music for pleasure
Ritter Music, October 25, 2006
An unexpected find: sheet music by guitarist Daisuke Minamisawa. It includes several world-famous compositions from multiple genres with a handful of anime themes. As you may have already guessed, the Yamato theme is one of them. The book comes bundled with a CD containing recorded performances of each song.
If this is something you want to tackle, you’ll find a PDF of the sheet music here. Info on the book can be found here, and you can see a Youtube video of the author performing the theme here.
September: Designer watches
Twitter user utdesign took fan art in a whole new direction, applying evocative color schemes to imaginary wristwatches.
Just one color change makes quite an impression, like the Queen of Iscandar herself.
And wherever you find Iscandar, its evil twin will not be far away.
See more experiments in watch design at utdesign’s website here.
October: Ancient handkerchief
Pocket handkerchiefs with anime characters on them were among the first bits of merchandising, and a wave of them accompanied the Yamato movie in 1977. This sample, posted by Twitter user Asa Hirom was among them, but it’s an unusual design that hadn’t previously turned up in any official reference. So…bootleg? Stranger things have happened.
(Side note: if you can guess the pun in the title of this entry, award yourself the Solid Nerd Medal.)
October: Mitsuko Horie album cover, 1978
In 1978, the accomplished anime theme singer Mitsuko Horie was still two years away from recording a Yamato song (for Be Forever) but she managed an amazing tie-in that may have been unintentional. The album shown here, titled World of Anime Roman, was released in May, three full months before Farewell premiered in theaters. Yukiko Hanai’s design for Yuki’s daywear hadn’t been released to the public yet, but Ms. Horie somehow found a perfect replica for her album cover.
It may have been a simple coincidence, but she was well-connected to the anime industry, which just might have given her the means to pull this off. Either way, it would have been quite a coup to have this album in stores when Yamato fever hit in August. Special thanks to Solachan1104 for posting this on Twitter.
Read an interview in which Mitsuko Horie shares her Yamato memories here.
See a Mitsuko Horie discography here.
December: It belongs in a museum
What you see here is perhaps the single rarest Yamato collectible; a proposal book for the first TV series, spotted in a store somewhere in Miyazaki, Japan, and posted on Twitter by teruru2047. It was written in the summer of 1973 by Eiichi Yamamoto (before Leiji Matsumoto joined the team) and it is believed that only 80 copies were produced to pitch the show. The exorbitant price tag converts to over $17,400 as of this writing.
Photos posted on Twitter by Enouchi
Want to see and read what’s inside? Click here.
December: “I’m a model train enthusiast”
This entry might belong in a model gallery, but it’s unique enough for special attention. A modeler with the Twitter handle “Electric Express” produced this charming throwback to August 1980, when a single commuter train in Tokyo was renamed the Yamato-Go to deliver fans to theaters on the premiere day of Be Forever. The specific type of train car is indicated as an 8003F.
Visit the modeler’s Twitter page here.