What will happen in Hideaki Anno’s version of Yamato?
Juzo Okita, General Domel, Commander Dessler…
The “absurd strategy” that stunned viewers of the Showa era anime Space Battleship Yamato
By Rinko Takato
See the original post here
Rinko Takato became a writer after making her web debut with a novel. In addition to anime and games aimed at women, she is knowledgeable about boys’ manga and gekiga. If she were to go to a deserted island, she would pack Berserk, Drifters, and Land of the Lustrous.
The TV anime Space Battleship Yamato began airing on October 6, 1974, half a century ago. The story begins with Earth being invaded by the planet Gamilas. With radioactive contamination progressing, humanity is only one year away from extinction.
The story goes that in order to obtain the “Cosmo Cleaner D,” a radiation removal device, they build the Space Battleship Yamato under cover of the battleship Yamato, and head to the planet Iscandar, 148,000 light years away. This masterpiece led the anime boom of the 70s, and I think many fans still tremble at the scene where Yamato takes off from the red-brown bedrock.
The success of the first installment of Space Battleship Yamato (26 episodes in total) led to the creation of many TV series and theatrical works. On October 6th of this year, the 50th anniversary of the TV broadcast of Space Battleship Yamato, Khara Inc., headed by Director Hideaki Anno, announced that they are working on a new theatrical anime of Yamato. This caused a big stir, especially on the net.
In previous works by Director Anno, such as Gunbuster and Neon Genesis Evangelion, there were some incredible plot twists that stunned viewers, but did you know that the anime Space Battleship Yamato also had a number of “crazy tactics”?
Episode 11: Captain Okita’s unexpected idea breaks through a pinch!
Captain Juzo Okita of Yamato is a heroic soldier, but also a wise strategist with a PhD in astrophysics. I was surprised by the unexpected way that Captain Okita eliminated terrifying enemy weapons.
As Yamato bids farewell to the solar system, countless “Dessler mines” named after Dessler, the leader of the great Gamilas Empire, await. Unable to warp or use the Wave-Motion Gun, Daisuke Shima, who is at the helm, moves forward while avoiding the mines, but the mines move in tandem with Yamato. Yamato is forced to stop because the mines detonate not only on direct contact, but also when the ship comes into contact with the electromagnetic waves they emit.
Captain Okita, who realizes that the Dessler mines have drones and controllers, orders Yuki Mori to use radar to search for the control mines. With the cooperation of Shiro Sanada and Analyzer, they succeeded in dismantling a control mine, and many of the mines surrounding Yamato are deactivated. However, the next problem is how to clean up the deactivated mines around Yamato. Captain Okita gives the protagonist Susumu Kodai a terrifying instruction: “Do it with your own hands.”
Dressed in a space suit, Kodai leads the Black Tiger squad to remove the mines by hand. Kodai says that the mines don’t react to human movement, but the mines are filled with enough explosives to sink Yamato, so it’s undoubtedly an extremely dangerous job.
Episode 20: They abuse the alien creatures, and use the base as a decoy to corner Yamato with an artificial sun!
Speaking of the military men who represent Gamilas, the famous ones are Vice-President Hiss, the adjutant named Talan, and a chubby man who is thrown into a hole by Dessler because “Gamilas doesn’t need vulgar men.” zbut we can’t leave out General Domel.
Domel is nicknamed “Space Wolf” and is a great general who receives a medal from Dessler in the story. His thick chest, broad shoulders, thick eyebrows and wavy sideburns are manly, and above all, his large split chin makes an impact. Despite appearing midway at Episode 13, Domel has many battles with Yamato, and is also the creator of many eccentric strategies.
For example, the secret weapon “drill missile” deployed in the battle for the Rainbow Cluster neutralizes Yamato‘s most powerful weapon, the Wave-Motion Gun. However, Domel also showed off other “absurd strategies” that shocked viewers at the time.
Yamato arrived at Balan, the intermediate point, where Domel serves as the base commander. Domel massacres Balanodons, alien creatures, to stir up the sense of justice of the Yamato crew, and furthermore, by deliberately showing that the Balan base is thinly defended, he lures Yamato into attacking. He then takes advantage of this opportunity to carry out a nasty plan to drop an artificial sun from above Yamato, to destroy the ship along with his base.
Kodai, noticing something is wrong, turns the bow of Yamato around and tries to fire the Wave-Motion Gun at the artificial sun, but there is not enough time to charge the energy. Kodai’s actions are also quite outrageous. He tries to buy time by shutting down Yamato‘s engines and letting it fall.
In the end, there is still not enough time, but Dessler orders Domel to abort the operation after Deputy Commander Goeru, who was demoted when Domel took over, reports Domel.
This gives Yamato time to recharge its energy, and it succeeds in causing a huge explosion of the artificial sun with its Wave-Motion Gun. The Balan base is destroyed by fragments of the artificial sun that rain down on the ground. For Domel, whose mission and base are destroyed just before victory by a single tip-off, it is truly a case of adding insult to injury.
There is one more outrageous operation by Domel, which is unspectacular but cleverly targets people’s psychology. When Yamato left the solar system, communication with Earth was lost. However, communication is restored near Balan, 70,000 light years from Earth.
In fact, this is because General Domel deliberately relayed their communication. The aim is to confuse the crew of Yamato by showing them the current state of Earth, which has been driven to the brink of destruction. In the end, only the communications team leader, Yoshikazu Aihara, suffers from homesickness as Domel intended, but depending on the timing, it might have been more effective. It was a truly nasty strategy that exploited human psychology.
Episode 24: A fierce battle that leads to the destruction of the planet itself!
Dessler finally takes command himself, leading to a total war with Gamilas as the battlefield, and a treasure trove of crazy strategies.
Yamato‘s destination, Iscandar, and Gamilas are double planets, but both are nearing the end of their lives. Gamilas itself is in the inner core (underground), but the landscape is becoming increasingly sulfurized. Sulfurous gas smoke and sulfuric lava flow from volcanoes, the sea and rain are thick sulfuric acid, and sulfuric acid storms blow due to hydrogen sulfide winds, making it a truly terrifying environment.
Dessler lures Yamato to such a place and carries out a plan to submerge it in a sea of concentrated sulfuric acid. First, he wraps Yamato in magnetized ferromagnetic ferrite and uses the power of the magnet to drag it into the underground.
Yamato‘s third bridge melts off as it lands in the sea of acid, and when it surfaces, it is bombarded with depth charges and missiles from the underground ceiling. Attacked by an artificially created sulfuric acid storm, the Yamato is in a truly desperate situation.
Kodai, helpless in this pinch, asks Okita, who is recuperating, for advice. He is told to “dive into the (acid) sea.” The real intention is an absurd plan to search for ore veins and fire the Wave-Motion Gun before the Yamato melts down, inducing volcanic activity on the surface of Gamilas.
Dessler is astonished by Yamato‘s bizarre counterattack, but he orders the firing of missiles from the underground ceiling city as if it is an all-out war. However, since the buildings in the ceiling city themselves are missiles, it is inevitable that the citizens of Gamilas will be involved, which is also a pretty absurd plan.
In the end, the planet itself collapses, unable to withstand the attacks of both Yamato and Gamilas. After witnessing the terrible state of Gamilas in ruins, Kodai leaves behind the famous words, “Instead of fighting, we should have loved each other.” It is a very sad and bitter battle.
Many fans must have learned about warp, the speed of light, and the enormous distance of thousands of light years from Space Battleship Yamato. At the same time, they also learned about the tragedies and human love that occur repeatedly in battle.
I look forward to seeing what message Yamato will convey to us as it appears in a new era.