The fan community didn’t know it yet, but the end of 1979 tipped them just past the halfway point between The New Voyage and the next big adventure, which was still known only as “Yamato Part 3.” With Space Carrier Blue Noah off and running, the next new Academy TV series was quickly on the way, which also had the word “Blue” in the title.
It was announced in the period covered here, accompanied by another rush of riches that closed out a very eventful year and gave way to an even bigger one.
November 1: Bouken Oh [Adventure King], December issue
The 15th chapter of Leiji Matsumoto’s Yamato 2 manga was published here, a 20-page installment in which Yamato finally reaches the 11th planet where the Space Cavalry is pinned down. Rather than diving in to rescue them, the ship just intercepts a life boat carrying Saito and his wounded men. There is the initial personality clash, and we push on with just one more chapter left.
November 1: Third Grader, December issue
One of the best things about being a Yamato fan is the surprise discoveries you make if you keep digging long enough. One such surprise could be found in Shogakukan’s student digest magazine for third graders: a New Voyage manga, adapted and drawn by artist Minoru Nonaka. It was a short one with only two installments, and didn’t get a reprint until 2018.
The first part comes from that reprint, a bonus feature from the large format 2-volume Cosmoship Yamato “Boukenou Revive Version” published by Fukkan.
See the first part here
November 20: The New Voyage storybook
This 40-page retelling of the movie was formatted with minimal text and color stills. Shogakukan utilized this format for many other children’s books based on movies and TV shows, including both anime and live-action. There was a total of 7 Yamato volumes, of which this was the last.
November 20: Keibunsha #49, The New Voyage Big Encyclopedia
The third Yamato book in Kodansha’s Keibunsha series started with encyclopedic pages of stills and model sheets, then moved into a story digest that briefly revisited earlier productions before commencing with a retelling of The New Voyage with text and stills. Production notes included cast and crew profiles, followed by product and fan club info, a glossary, and mission maps. Though this volume of the Keibunsha series had far fewer color pages than its predecessors, it offered the same comprehensive coverage of its subject. It was one of the four Encyclopedias to be reprinted for a box set in 1999.
November 20: Space Battleship Yamato Choral Suite
Song Suite for Chorus, Piano and Percussion
Nippon Columbia, LP: CQ-7031 Cassette: CAK-686
Taking Yamato music into yet another direction, this album gathered compositions from Series 1 and Farewell to Yamato (along with five of the relevant songs) into new arrangements performed by a choral group with minimal accompaniment. It was hoped at the time that it would inspire more such albums, but the fad only lasted through the early 80s. A rare album today, it gained additional notoriety when its creator, Jo Hisaishi, went on to become director Hayao Miyazaki’s composer of choice. He also created a second choral album for The New Voyage in 1982.
November 26: 3 Big Anime Choral Suite concert
This is one of those events that would have been lost to history if a dedicated fan hadn’t held onto this single document. It’s a foldout program from a live concert that brought Yamato, Galaxy Express, and Captain Harlock into a single performance for the first time. Seven Yamato songs and four each from the others formed an unforgettable playlist. Since the event was sponsored by music rights holder Nippon Columbia, you could rightfully ask why it wasn’t released on an album, but the only answer would be, “Good question.”
Also spotted in November
Dessler Battle Carrier model kit, large version
This was Bandai’s second edition of Dessler’s flagship from The New Voyage, preceded by the Mecha Collection mini-model a month earlier.
Retailing for 1000Y, it stretched to a respectable 13″ long and included three fightercraft. A smaller 700Y version would appear in the summer of 1980.
Unlike this website, the magazine cover above is NSFW
Gallant Men, December issue
The magazine Gallantmen was so close in style and content to the Japanese Playboy, you could have switched covers and not known the difference. Why has it come up on a Space Battleship Yamato website? Because the December 1979 issue profiled Yoshinobu Nishizaki in a regular feature that examined the lifestyles of Japan’s alpha males.
As the richest and most successful producer of anime films, not to mention a conspicuous consumer, Nishizaki definitely fit the bill. His fortunes would change quite a bit in subsequent decades, but this article gives us quite the snapshot of where he landed on the millionaire’s map back then. (And fair acknowledgement of what got him there.)
Read the article here
Terebi Manga Karaoke Omnibus LP set
Nippon Columbia had released collections of TV theme songs for many years, but this was something new: a huge collection of favorites in karaoke form with all lead vocals stripped out. 64 songs were spread over four discs, opening and end titles from 32 programs including Yamato, Galaxy Express, Cyborg 009, Captain Harlock, and many more.
It also came with a substantial booklet with complete lyrics. See a selection of pages here.
6th Grader, December issue
Shogakukan’s student digest for sixth graders took another look back at The New Voyage with a serialized version of the story that combined manga art with stills.
November Context
Anime magazines published in November: Animage December issue (Tokuma Shoten), Animec #8 (Rapport), OUT January issue (Minori Shobo)
The Anime Vol. 1 December issue (Kindaieigasha), Monthly Animation #0 (Bronze Co.)
Not just one, but two new magazines entered the fold in November. The Anime started out as a one-shot special back in August, probably as a testbed. The fact that its name was inherited for a monthly publication is a sure indicator of success. Its format was exactly the same as Animage, which was quite a gauntlet to throw down.
Monthly Animation differed from its contemporaries. Rather than packing in as much news and promotion as possible, they took a journalistic approach. The main articles were essays and interviews with prominent industry figures written for a maturing audience. It would only last for eight issues, but it had plenty to offer in that brief lifespan.
December 1: Bouken Oh [Adventure King], January issue
The end of the year coincided with the end of Leiji Matsumoto’s Yamato manga. In 16 pages, Yamato‘s crew gets a long distance look at the White Comet before conducting a space warp. A single enemy fighter watches them go and reports that they are headed to Telezart. The final page (above right) depicts the arrival. And then…back to the anime version if you want to keep going.
The closest Matsumoto would ever come to this again was his Great Yamato manga, which jumped ahead to the year 3199. Read about it here.
December 1: I/O Vol.5 No. 1, January issue
Amateur home computing was an underground fad in the late 70s, and magazines like this one popped up around the world to help grow the community. One purpose they served was to publish open source coding for homemade projects. This issue presented readers with a very early homemade Space Battleship Yamato computer game written by a self-described salaryman with a hobby.
See the article here
December 1: Third Grader, January issue
The last issue of this magazine to be published in 1979 brought us the second half of Minoru Nonaka’s manga adaptation of The New Voyage. With this, it came to a total of just 40 pages (which the main reason it didn’t get its own paperback reprint).
Click here to see part 2, direct from the pages of Third Grader
Learn more about Minoru Nonaka here
December 1: Fourth Grader, January issue
Shogakukan’s student digest for fourth graders put The New Voyage on its front page with a handful of photos and the following text:
Famous Scenes
Yamato had finished a hard battle. However, it had to launch for a new battle without a moment’s rest. Fight, Yamato, for peace in the universe!
December 1: Space Battleship Yamato Complete Collection
This brick of a product from Nippon Columbia was without equal, symbolizing both the popularity of Yamato and the limitations of the time. It was the first on-demand version of Series 1 anyone could get, all 26 episodes in audio-only format. In other words, the unedited sound mix from each episode on 13 LP records (or 8 90-minute cassettes if that was your preference). It all added up to a huge box set that came with a 90-page book. Its like would not be seen again until the arrival of laserdiscs.
Such a massive product requires more than one photo to convey its grandeur, so get an eyeful here
December 1: Space Battleship Yamato b/w
Yamato!! The New Voyage
Anime Karaoke Series #2 45rpm single, 12/1/1979
Nippon Columbia, CK-546
The growing popularity of karaoke and the profusion of impossibly catchy anime themes collided at full force in the late 1970s, giving another lease on life to songs that had already been sold in other forms. This single brought the two catchiest Yamato tunes together for the first time. With Isao Sasaki’s voice removed, fans now had their own opportunity to be backed up by the Royal Knights (on side A) and the Feeling Free Chorus (on side B).
This single was the second in a series of five, all of which were derived from Terebi Manga Karaoke Omnibus (shown higher up the page). It was one of the last times the term “Terebi Manga” had been used in general commerce, since it was systematically being replaced by the word “anime” and would disappear altogether in another year or two. Of course, the smash success of Yamato was the catalyst in making that happen.
December 5: Series 1 rerun begins
The first series returned to Nippon Television for another victory lap on this day, keeping the torch lit into 1980.
December 15: Space Battleship Yamato Big Compendium
Terebi-Kun magazine spun off two Yamato 2 specials earlier in the year, then followed up with this hefty volume from the “Deluxe” series. It was a colorful 112-page encyclopedia of all things Yamato, from the first TV series up to The New Voyage. It contained character profiles, Yamato/Earth/allied mecha, and character & mecha catalogs for the Dark Nebula Empire, Gamilas, and The Comet Empire. The book then switched to black and white for a TV and movie digest.
The back cover carried an ad for Bandai models that prominently featured the new Dessler Battle Carrier.
December 9: Middle 1st Age, January issue
Obunsha’s student digest for 7th graders came with a special insert titled TV/Movie/Entertainment that delivered a news flash: the Yamato movie would return to Fuji TV on January 2, and Farewell would make its broadcast debut on January 3.
December 24: The Best One, February issue
The sixth issue of Gakken’s entertainment magazine (now published monthly) offered a 4-page article that revisited the movies in advance of their January broadcasts. The article was augmented by an update on Blue Noah and the first news of Academy’s next anime series, to debut January 9: The Blue Bird.
See it all here
December 25: The New Voyage manga Vol. 2
Picking up from Volume 1 in September, the second volume opened with Yamato‘s eleventh-hour arrival at Iscandar. Akira Hio concluded his manga adaptation in 208 pages. Just as his previous adaptations gave readers their first glimpse into unseen story material, this one was the first place anyone could see content that had been deleted from the movie. It would later turn up as bonus scenes in video releases.
Read more about The New Voyage manga here
December 25: Fan Club magazine #13
The last club magazine of the year opened the dawn of a new decade with Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s message for 1980. He gave some hints about what was to come next, but at the time it wasn’t known if it would be ready for summer or a whole year later. Read the message here.
Elsewhere in the issue could be found a 2-page roundtable conversation featuring fans talking about their devotion to Yamato and what they hoped to see in Part 3. Read that conversation here.
The characters of The Blue Bird were introduced, Blue Noah got a partial episode guide, and the back cover featured the first promotion for Office Academy’s New Voyage deluxe hardcover, coming in May 1980.
December 25: Monthly Animation Magazine #1
The first full-up issue of this magazine from Bronze Co. didn’t have any direct Yamato content, but poked around the edges with some more news on The Blue Bird and a heartwarming profile of Yuki Mori’s beloved voice actor, Yoko Asagami.
Read this content here
December 28: Voice Actor Festival
Published by Shogakukan, this 72-page book is as good a representation as any for the enormous popularity of anime voice actors at the end of the 70s. With Yamato cast members in the lead (that’s Kodai and Yuki in the foldout), a huge crowd of “Seiyuu” was catalogued and profiled along with articles and interviews that explored their exciting careers.
See the photo gallery pages from this book here
December 31: Leiji Matsumoto finishes Yamato Part III story draft
While fans were kept at bay with the steady flow of media and merch, Yamato Part 3 was inching through the concept phase. After meeting privately with Yoshinobu Nishizaki in October, Leiji Matsumoto took the reins to write a story treatment. His second draft was delivered on New Year’s Eve.
The overall structure and core concepts in this draft would remain intact in the finished film, but many details and almost all of the dialogue changed, leaving it a sort of “alternate universe” version of the story. The most significant change was the timeframe. Sasha (going by the name Mio Okita) had naturally aged to 17, meaning 17 Earth years had passed since The New Voyage.
Read it here
Also spotted in December
Isao Sasaki, New Best Hit 16
Sasaki was back with another collection of his greatest TV themes. Yamato!! The New Voyage, The Rival, and Teresa Forever were joined by three from Galaxy Express, three from Gatchaman, three from Ultraman, and more. An unusual choice was Requiem, the theme to a live-action cop drama titled G-Men ’75. Listen to it here.
Iscandar Vol. 10 doujinshi
This was the third issue of Iscandar published in 1979 by a fan club called Cosmo Battleship Yamato Connection. It ran 42 pages with commentary, fanfic, parody manga, and more. See it from cover to cover here.
December context
December 15: Lupin III, The Castle of Cagliostro
The second Lupin III feature film was a sleeper at first with little box office activity. But the steadily rising fame of Director Hayao Miyazaki (best known at the time for Future Boy Conan) would lure many viewers back for a second look and ultimately make it one of the most beloved anime movies of all time. The second Lupin III TV series was still on the air at the time, having started in October 1977 and destined to conclude in October 1980 (with a Miyazaki episode).
Anime magazines published in December: Animage January issue (Tokuma Shoten), OUT February issue (Minori Shobo), The Anime January issue (Kindaieigasha), Monthly Animation No. 1 (Bronze Co.)
Also spotted in 1979
Kyushin TV commercial
Around the time Yamato 2 was on the air (January through April), Analyzer had a side gig. Here, we see him in a TV commercial for an herbal medicine called Kyuushin. Like a battery for a robot, it keeps you in good health!
See the commercial on Twitter here
Learn more about Kyushin (if you want to) here
Princess Information fanzines
Since Yoko (Yuki Mori) Asagami scored the most popular female voice actor ranking for three years straight, it should come as no surprise that she had an official fan club, and that club had its own fanzine. Several issues are shown above; see more here.
Egg Vol. 2 doujinshi
This one was filled with fannish love and devotion, but contained no publishing date more specific than 1979. That said, it’s a joy to flip through. See it from cover to cover here.
1979 Music catalog
Not a single month passed in ’79 without a new LP or cassette rolling out the Yamato theme or some other song from the vault. It’s not always possible to pin down their exact release dates, so most of them haven’t appeared in previous vintage reports. Now that we’ve reached the end of the year, music mayhem is upon us.
See a gallery of 1979 releases here
What’s next
January 1980 dawns with the starting gun for Yamato Part 3 preproduction and only gets more exciting from there. Fans who thought they’d seen “peak Yamato” would have to redefine the term as the busiest year yet got underway.
Come on back for Vintage Report 24 to see it unfold one day at a time.