The third installment of the Space Battleship Yamato series, Be Forever Yamato, will premiere in early August.
At the end of the second film, Farewell to Yamato, the series was ended, so it will be interesting to see what the third film is about. The reason for forgoing a third film was, “there is no better theme than this.” Perhaps it was a matter of honesty, thinking that there would be no need to make a third film it would be inferior to the first two.
Since this is the third film, it is natural to assume that Be Forever Yamato contains a theme that surpasses the previous film. Needless to say, Yamato‘s theme is love. When that love reached the level of human love and was elevated to a religious level, Yamato‘s main staff was unable to find a form of love that surpassed it. That was probably the main reason they had to declare the second film to be the end of Yamato.
Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind is about contact with lifeforms other than Earth. “We are not alone” is a grand theme of communicating with living things beyond Earth. But will Spielberg be able to surpass this theme in his next film?
Director Toshio Masuda cited the pain of being unable to make a sequel because the theme is too big. The main staff of Yamato, including Nishizaki, creates works by pursuing a theme. Therefore, unless a core theme is created, the image of the work cannot be born.
As with the previous film, there was a lively discussion between Nishizaki, Matsumoto, Masuda, and the scriptwriter about this third film. During that process, the theme was finalized. In contrast to the “aesthetics of death” of the previous film, this one is the “aesthetics of life.” It is a kind of love for one’s neighbor as opposed to love for humanity.
In this third film, Kodai and Yuki Mori face off against their enemies in the midst of separation. There is a sadness in not being able to see the one you love. However, that is just one form of love. From there, the theme that love is something you believe in begins to pulse. A love that has risen to the level of religion changes into a human longing to be together.
“There are many scenes where Kodai yells loudly,” said Tomohiro Katsumata, the animation director. “There were some opinions that he should be more calm because he is the main character…” Be Forever Yamato is a very human story with a lot of ups and downs.
The film has many highlights. The visuals will be more grandiose because they have been scaled up from the previous work. In other words, Cinescope will be introduced. In addition, it seems that current anime technology will be fully mobilized, so there is no doubt that it will be a superb work visually.
Another highlight will be the relationship with the music. For Yamato, music is not just background sound. Just as the images build up to the theme, the music also powerfully voices the theme. This time, big talents such as Yoko Yamaguchi, Akira Fuse, and Yu Aku participated on the music staff. It can be said that the music has been further enriched.
With a new theme and further strengthened images and music, Be Forever Yamato is being produced at a rapid pace for its theatrical release on August 2nd.
Now, at this point, I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but will a message appear again at the end that this is the last of Yamato? Probably not, because Yamato has surpassed the themes of previous works and encountered a new one.
For Yamato, the “theme of love” is not something fixed, but something that will surely continue to expand.