TOP HEADLINE:
Why is Space Battleship Yamato so popular?
CENTER HEADLINE:
Suicide Attacks and Poisonous Behavioral Ethics…
FAR LEFT HEADLINE:
The younger generation sees discipline in high school baseball
1. Reporter’s Eye
After summer vacation, children returned to school and asked each other questions like, “Did you see it?” Those who did had a lot to talk about, and the ones who didn’t were downcast. The topic of conversation was Farewell to Yamato (Toei). Adults may think, “It’s just a sci-fi animation (movie).” However, the appeal is so strong that it is guaranteed to reach them, too. So, what is the secret of its popularity? And what does the film have to say to teenagers? In a word, democracy.
Hiroshi Shiraishi (Editorial Committee)
2. 1.9 million visitors in three weeks
Farewell to Yamato has been as popular as America’s science fiction film Star Wars, which hit theaters this summer, attracting approximately 1.9 million viewers nationwide in its first three weeks of release. The soundtrack album has been released (by Columbia) and From Yamato With Love by Kenji Sawada (Polydor) has remained at No. 4 on the Hit Songs list. Both have sold approximately 300,000 copies.
3. “Permit” for an all-night lineup
First, let’s look back on the movie we saw this summer. In early August, when this movie was released, junior high and high school boys lined up all night long in Osaka and Tokyo. In Osaka, there were about 500 people. A few dozen of them lined up a week in advance and secured the “right” to be the first in line. They even brought their own walkie-talkies and managed the queue with ease.
The theater staff, which did not want to allow people to stand in line, tried to send them home, saying, “This is not allowed for children.” But they were just waiting and proudly showed their parent’s “permit” that said, “All-night lineup is permitted.” When the staff called the child’s home, they said, “How could you allow him to stay up all night?”
The troubled theater moved up the morning showtimes to 6:30a.m. In Tokyo, some theaters decided to show the film at 4:30 a.m., just after dawn.
This was hardly surprising. The theaters were so packed that the air conditioners did not work. Near the end, white handkerchiefs were moving around in the dark seats. Not for sweat, but for wiping tears. Some children rubbed their faces with baseball caps because there were no handkerchiefs.
In Osaka, a boy in high spirits surprised the staff when he asked for permission to throw a paper tape at the end. They refused, saying, “We don’t want the screen to be damaged,” and he backed off. But then two girls asked if they could offer a bouquet of flowers. If this were a concert, I could understand, but for a movie, of course, it was unheard of.
It is rare to see such a well-loved movie. For those adults who have not seen the film, let me introduce the content, including the previous one.
This Yamato is a modified version of the Battleship Yamato of the former Navy, which was sunk by the U.S. Air Force in the waters near Okinawa at the end of the Pacific War. It was originally intended to be a “Noah’s Ark,” escaping from the radioactive Earth, but it was redesigned as a space battleship equipped with new weapons based on a message from a planet at the edge of the universe.
The year is 2199. The completed Yamato sets out in search of a radiation removal device in uncharted space. She battles evil villains that block her way and successfully brings the device back home after surviving numerous dangers. She saves the Earth from crisis.
So far, this is the first Space Battleship Yamato. It is just like The Odyssey, or a tale of a voyage in search of the elixir of immortality. Yamato‘s lonely battle resembles the German battleship Bismarck, which played an active role in World War II.
4. The tragic last scene
The second work, Farewell to Yamato, takes place two years later. Yamato, about to be decommissioned, faces up to a comet that is attacking the universe. Before going up against the comet, Yamato peers into the abyss of space and encounters a doomed planet. The story is another breathtaking drama with an intellect that makes full use of space science. Yamato wins the battle, but the comet reveals itself as a fortress satellite. After it is destroyed in another deadly battle, a huge battleship emerges from the shattered satellite and threatens the Earth.
Yamato is now covered in wounds and running out of energy. As a last ditch effort, Yamato rams the enemy and smashes it to pieces. The last scene is a momentary flash of light in the far reaches of space. Then it fades away as if nothing happened. It is a sad farewell, disappearing like the end of Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique symphony.
Now, let’s explore it in comparison with Star Wars.
First, the appearance of the Yamato. The hull, bridge, turret, and other features of the Battleship Yamato are all preserved. In the space age, it doesn’t seem right to see such a heavy figure floating in space. On the other hand, it does not have the coldness of a mechanism, but rather the warmth of a handmade car. In other words, it has the feel of a classic car.
There is no doubt that this picture is filled with nostalgia for Yamato. In Star Wars, which has no nostalgia, the coldness and sharpness of the mechanisms
is the selling point.
5. Battleship Yamato‘s regret
Next, the battle of Yamato.
In light of former crewmember Mitsuru Yoshida’s memoir The Last Days of the Battleship Yamato, we can see that Space Battleship Yamato traces the last battle of the original Yamato. The battleship was exposed to numerous enemy strikes and bombardments. It caught fire and its crew fell one after another.
But this time, Yamato does not sink. In place of the original, which sank without even being able to use the world’s largest guns, this Yamato goes on a rampage, firing all of its bullets. Then, as if to avenge the regret of the original Yamato‘s failure to carry out its suicide attack, this Yamato carries out its own. It is as tough as a living being with a will of its own. Here simmers a passionate desire to let her bloom magnificently.
Secondly, the crew members are all Japanese, and their names are modeled after familiar historical figures such as Okita, Tokugawa, and Sanada. They are all on a mission, and think and act in unison.
In Star Wars, two young men play an active role in rescuing a beautiful, lonely woman whose home planet has been shattered. One acts out of love and revenge, the other is after a prize. I was surprised to see how different the stories are between Japan and America, even though they have similarities.
Even more Japanese is Yamato‘s drama of duty and humanity. For example, at the memorial statue of Captain Okita, who was killed in action, the doctor drinks a bottle of sake. The crew members soon gather one after another. The depiction of that day being the anniversary of Okita’s death is typical of the story.
The young warrior Susumu Kodai, the hero of the film, boards an attacking ship and cuts his way through the enemy. In the scene where he confronts his nemesis, who is seriously wounded, both men remain motionless with their hands on their guns, encouraging each other to “shoot.”
Eventually, the enemy drops his gun. He then utters a tearful line, “Though I have taken refuge with the Comet Empire, my heart is far closer to yours” and throws himself into space. Even though the gun is not a sword, it would still be a legitimate Ninkyo drama.
In addition, the theme song is an Enka (traditional Japanese ballad). One of the lyrics (from the first film) reads, “Someone has to do this.” This is the same Enka pattern as Overcoming Flowers and Storms and You Must Pay Off the Sparks That Fall on You. The performance was also played by a solo violin and trumpet in a melancholy manner.
Third is the view of life and death.
In the last scene, Kodai tells the surviving crew members to abandon the ship after telling them about the preciousness of life. Then he sits down with his girlfriend, who died in the battle. Alone, he controls the Yamato and launches a “suicide attack.” The logic is, “Life is immortal. Death is a way of life for rebirth. It is an act for the people I love and our beloved planet.”
It is so clear and admirable that even I am shaken by it. But according to the creator, Yoshinobu Nishizaki (44), “It asks you, ‘Could you die for the ones you love?’.”
If that is the case, is he saying that we should not blindly glorify the deaths of kamikazes, but that we should have enough love and courage to die for something? There seems to be criticism of postwar customs here.
6. Three reasons [for popularity]
1 The cool mecha
2 The Japanese world of duty and humanity
3 Courage to die for what you love
7. Therein lies democracy
With these three points, the banner of Space Battleship Yamato becomes very clear.
In other words, it is a high-minded statement of nationalism. Speaking of nationalism, isn’t the trend of this sort of work similar to the naval battle novels that we prewar boys devoured with great excitement?
At the time, Japan was advocating supremacy, and nationalism was at the height of its influence. It is true that this is still present today, albeit in a different form. However, culturally, the aesthetics of Japanese life, such as giri (duty) and ninjitsu (humanity), which were abandoned as old husks after World War II, are rapidly being reclaimed.
Yamato is appealing to something in the Japanese consciousness. What is it?
8. Everyone dies
So far, this is an adult’s way of thinking. My son, an eighth grader who is a Yamato fan, says something different.
“It’s a shame that everyone dies. Up until then, it seemed like the space age where the science and intellect were wonderful. It’s strange that it goes back to the past in the end by ramming the enemy. I don’t think Yamato looks cool. The best part is the space science, which is based on simple science knowledge, so it makes sense. But the best part is the crew’s dress and discipline, and the way they are all united in their blood, and the way they act with a single purpose. Yes, it is just like high school baseball.”
Restoring love and trust in human relationships. This is what the younger generation is unconsciously seeking in today’s world of human alienation. Yamato seems to have empowered the younger generation with a classic approach that clearly separates right from wrong.
9. Reaction to the Exam Wars
The war of exams is too often a half-hearted attempt. What is war? If the experience of an adult is painful, no matter how much you explain it, nothing will be gained by the children.
What is peace? Is the exam war, in which a child’s neighbor is to be regarded as an enemy rather than a friend, a sign of peace?
What is freedom? Is it the casual act of writing a “permission slip” to stand in an all-night line?
Looking back since the end of World War II, the watchwords of democracy that we have been shouting for the past 33 years have all been left ambiguous and unfulfilled. Yamato‘s ethic of action is an attempt to smash the accumulated status quo. This ethic can be poisonous. But children are tired of things that are neither poison nor curative.