5TH ISSUE
Yamato Newspaper
TV Space Battleship Yamato 2 Latest News
Roadshow article reprint series
Telezart is gone, Teresa is dead! It seems that Yamato will become even more dramatic toward the end of the story. We can’t help but wonder, how will it end? This month, we bring you Yamato‘s fierce battle and passion along with a message from Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki.
ARTICLE 1
Teresa’s prayer stops the Comet Empire’s advance
Telezart scatters into the universe!
Yamato has left the planet Telezart. But Teresa and Shima are separated. What is she going to do as the only one left on Telezart? The comet continues its advance without rest!
Teresa remains on Telezart after all. The comet gains speed, now only 27 days away from Earth and one day away from Telezart. Yamato is only three days ahead. On board Yamato, Shima is worried about Teresa who was left alone. Teresa, while enduring the pain of separation, sends a message to leave Telezart’s airspace and head for Earth as soon as possible. While intercepting these communications, the comet continues to swallow and crush everything in its path.
Teresa calls out to the White Comet: “Great Emperor Zordar, stop your advance now. If you refuse, I will consider it an invasion of Telezart. Stop your advance immediately!”
Sabera, Goenitz, and the other leaders of the Comet Empire completely dismiss Teresa, but Zordar gives them strict orders not to underestimate her. As if to confirm the emperor’s caution, white energy suddenly flares from the empire’s computers, generated by Teresa’s prayer. “If you advance any further, you’ll be sorry!” she warns desperately.
But Zordar, who calls himself the order of the universe, will not listen to Teresa’s simple prayer for peace. He can see that her power is not to be underestimated, but there is no time to change course!
Staring at the approaching comet, Teresa’s face lights up with a certain determination. She enters into a pose of prayer and a circle of light gradually spreads out from her body. Soon, the light appears to expand from inside Telezart, covering the planet. The image of Teresa in prayer floats in the light.
The comet approaches rapidly and Telezart’s light expands in front of it, growing brighter and brighter. The luminous gases surrounding the White Comet are immediately blown away in an electrical discharge. The fortress city begins to appear. The interior of the empire is in turmoil. The floors shake and the walls crack. The propulsion system also stops.
It is the battle of Teresa’s life. She and the comet are both engulfed in light, which then diffuses throughout the dark universe. Telezart has exploded. Is Teresa dead? Did she protect the universe at the cost of her life?
Yamato‘s crew is moved by Teresa’s great love for the peace of the universe. Tears stream down Shima’s cheeks. His heart is filled with pain and sadness at the loss of a loved one, and amazement at the power that love had created.
And yet, the Comet Empire does not disappear! When the light fades, it still exists in the darkness of space! But Teresa’s fight was not in vain. Through her power, the comet’s trajectory has changed, and its speed has indeed diminished.
ARTICLE 2
To challenge Yamato again!
Dessler succeeds in escaping!
Dessler spends his days in humiliation in a small prison. Can he stay here? He has a score to settle with Yamato!
Dessler was caught in Sabera’s plot and thrown into a prison in the Comet Empire. But he is not a man to give up and sit still. He tricks Sabera into triumphantly opening the door and seeing him in shame, then takes the guard’s gun and aims it at her.
“Sabera, I’m going to leave you now,” he says. “This room is a little too small for the great leader of Gamilas.”
Talan arrives to help him escape. Taking Sabera as hostage, Dessler and Talan quickly board a fighter, launch under heavy fire, and return to the Gamilas fleet. Sabera is furious and attempts to challenge the Gamilas fleet, but Emperor Zordar stops her.
“Dessler is an honorable warrior. If he were a man who would desert the battlefield, he would not risk death to escape. If he were a coward, his men would not trust him enough to come to his aid.”
He fully understands the feelings of Dessler, who escaped to fight Yamato. But Sabera and Goenitz deceived him and brought Dessler down, and cannot be forgiven. Ordinarily, this would earn them a death penalty!
Dessler returns safely to his ship and launches at full speed to fight Yamato again. Yamato, unaware of Dessler’s pursuit, is about to make a quick trip to the Saturn base by a big warp.
ARTICLE 3
Kodai and the others crush Geran’s task force
The decisive battle between the Earth Defense Fleet and the Baruze Fleet is imminent!
Ahead of the comet, the fleet led by Baruze is already about to invade the solar system. What is Earth’s countermeasure?
Zordar orders Baruze’s large fleet to advance and invade Earth before the comet arrives! The Earth side is aware of this move, and Andromeda‘s top officer gathers the entire Earth fleet at Saturn’s base on his own initiative. Yamato joins the Earth defense fleet at once after destroying the Comet Empire’s advance base on the 11th planet. Hijikata believes that the key to the battle against the Baruze fleet is aircraft combat. His plan is to destroy Baruze’s fighter task force first, then engage the fleet in a decisive battle.
Kodai follows Hijikata’s order to take an aircraft carrier and destroy Baruze’s task force, and immediately launches in Yamato. The earlier the enemy is detected, the better. Both the enemy and allies send out scout planes to search for each other. The Earth side succeeds in catching the enemy just a little earlier.
Cosmo Tigers, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers attack the carrier group led by Geran, and they are helplessly destroyed. Geran commits suicide. The Earth side has won. Baruze gives up on his carrier unit and moves into Saturn space. The forces are now evenly matched. The great battle between the Earth Defense Fleet and the main Baruze fleet is approaching.
ARTICLE 4
What will happen in the end? Rising anticipation and excitement final episode (airing on 4/7)
Yamato climaxes at last!
After many battles, the final battle between Yamato and the Comet Empire is about to begin. Will Yamato disappear after all?
What will become of Kodai and Yuki’s love? Will Shima and Teresa stay together? What about Dessler? What about the decisive battle between the Comet Empire and Yamato?
Now that the Earth Defense Fleet has been destroyed and Captain Hijikata’s Andromeda has been lost, Yamato 2 will soon reach its climax. In the movie Farewell to Yamato, the last scene of Yamato with only Kodai and Yuki on board disappearing toward the Comet Empire’s super battleship brought tears to the eyes of Yamato fans all over the country. What will happen on TV?
At this point, we can’t reveal the future story, but here are highlight scenes from episodes 24 and 25 ahead of their airing. If we write in too much detail, it will ruin the fun, so we’ll only go into it a little bit.
Episode 24 depicts a fight to the death between Kodai and Dessler. Kodai, despite his injuries, confronts Dessler, and Yuki defends him. Dessler stares at the two of them…
After the confrontation with Dessler, Yamato heads for Earth. On Earth, there is chaos in the face of the Comet Empire, which has landed in the Pacific Ocean. Earth has already decided to surrender, but Yamato has not given up.
Then comes Episode 25. Yamato launches a torpedo attack on the comet fortress city. It seems that the battle unfolds under circumstances quite different from those in the movie. Then, Kodai, Sanada, Saito and others get into the fortress city. What will be the outcome? In any case, the climax of the 26th episode is a mystery!
ARTICLE 5
Farewell to Yamato wins the 7th Cinema Grand Prix Readers’ Choice Award!
Message from Producer Nishizaki thanking fans
Farewell to Yamato won the Readers’ Grand Prize at the 78th Roadshow Cinema Awards on February 23rd. Producer Nishizaki was unable to attend the award ceremony because he was in the U.S. Taking time out of his busy schedule working on Yamato 2, here is his message to the Yamato fans of this magazine.
The other day (February 25), a nationwide news report appeared in newspapers, TV and radio reports regarding Academy Corporation’s “failure to file tax returns.” I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all Yamato fans for your concern. As the general manager of the Academy group, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
However, there is a discrepancy between the news report and the facts, which is based on a difference of opinion. When I started planning the Space Battleship Yamato movie, I decided to put all my other business aside in order to concentrate on my work as a producer. That is still the case today. Therefore, I am not the president of Academy Corporation. The financial and tax affairs of Academy are handled by Mr. Kenichiro Ota, who is the representative director of Academy. Even now, I still trust him with all my heart.
On the day I returned from America (Feb. 25) where I was working on the U.S. broadcast of Space Battleship Yamato, I was surprised to see the newspapers and immediately investigated. As a result, the issue should not be described by the term “tax evasion.” Technically speaking, it was an “amended return,” and the matter had already been resolved as of December of last year.
Despite the difference of opinion, I feel deeply responsible for the misunderstanding that resulted in the large tax correction. However, I believe that the “true image” of a producer is in their work. If it were false, it would not have been accepted by everyone. The works I produce give me a place to talk about what I think and feel.
Currently, I am working on a “Yamato telefeature,” which is scheduled to air this July, and a theatrical film to be released next spring. I look forward to seeing you through these works. I would also like to thank the many fans who have called and written to me with encouragement.
Farewell to Yamato had the honor of winning Roadshow magazine’s 1978 Cinema Grand Prix Readers’ Choice Award. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all of our fans for their support.
Space Battleship Yamato Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, February 28, 1979
(Want to know more about this “tax evasion” business? Read about it here.)