While the creative minds at West Cape Corporation continued building Final Yamato, word of its development worked its way beyond the borders of the official fan club. Be Forever got its first TV broadcast, and new voices were heard from distant Osaka that would later shake and shape the world of anime.
July 1: Yamato III Secret Notebook
Volume 17 in the “Perfect Memoir” series was the Leed Company’s last contribution to Yamato, one of the few books dedicated entirely to Yamato III. It offered a nice grab-bag of material in a 210-page digest including character profiles, highlight scenes, an episode guide with a color photostory for the finale, features on Dessler’s history, character & mecha encyclopedia, glossary, and short production notes. It was issued in a unique “slim” format, shown above at almost actual size.
July 3: Bouken Oh [Adventure King], August issue
The final installment of Hiroshi Aizawa’s 10-part Yamato III serial appeared here with a 12-page compression of the climax. To wrap things up quickly, the showdown with Bemlayze and the Bolar fleet happened at Planet Shalbart instead of Earth, then Yamato headed for home with the Hydro Cosmogen. The end.
Read the entire Yamato III manga serial here
It was also the end for Yamato in the pages of Bouken Oh after a long history that began with Leiji Matsumoto’s original serial in 1974. Bouken Oh itself, which started all the way back in 1949 under the title Shonen Shojo Kyouou, would cease publication after the March 1983 issue, to be replaced by a new Akita Shoten monthly titled TV Anime Magazine.
July 10: Watch Man magazine
Back in the days of terrestrial broadcasting, you needed print media to keep track of video media. Without it, you’d miss a lot. Watch Man, published by Obunsha, was a competitor to TV Guide that offered broadcast listings and related entertainment news in a large format. It may have been the first publication to break the news of a Yamato triple feature coming in August, backed up by a lavish 6-page article.
Read it here
July 10: The Anime Vol. 21
There was no Yamato coverage in this issue, but one of the bonus items was a pack of eight postcards that included a still from Yamato III, so that was nice.
July 10: Animedia, August issue
Likewise, no coverage was to be found here, but the regular pinup section surprised fans with a new Yamato mini-poster.
The same section included a photo of everyone’s sweetheart Yoko Asagami (the voice of Yuki) and a wildly off-kilter image for Blue Noah, which had been off the air for over a year.
July 10: My Anime, August issue
The fifth installment of the Yamato III anime comics serial took us through episodes 7 and 8 in 15 pages.
Read it here
July 26: TV Guide, August 1 issue
Yamato‘s third time as a cover feature on the Japanese edition of TV Guide happened with the issue covering July 26 to August 1. An 8-page article promoted the August premiere of Be Forever on the Fuji network.
Click here to see it in full.
July 30: Yamato III manga Vol. 2
The Yomiuri TV network’s decision to cut their commitment in half meant that Takayuki Masuo’s second volume would have to compress 16 episodes into 188 pages. Naturally, a lot of plot had to be excised. The TV series finished in April 1981, volume 2 of the manga (published by Asahi Sonorama) appeared almost five months later, and Masuo & Yamato went their separate ways afterward.
Read more about this manga here
July 31: Final Yamato story draft
After the sixth brainstorming session on July 24, Eiichi Yamamoto was assigned with the task of weaving the strongest concepts into a single narrative to establish a story structure. The galactic collision and Planet Aquarius were established at this point, and Okita was revived, but many other points were quite different from what would end up on film.
Read Yamamoto’s July 31 draft here
July context
A new super robot series joined the pantheon on July 3: Warring States Goshogun, which would later be exported to the west as part of Macron 1. Mobile Suit Gundam II: Soldiers of Sorrow arrived in theaters on July 11, giving the series another boost into the stratosphere of popularity.
Anime magazines published in July
Three Matsumoto covers and two for Mobile Suit Gundam as the second movie premieres in July.
August 1: Fanroad, September issue
It was easy to miss, but the news section of this month’s Fanroad magazine (now published bimonthly) raised a flag for the Yamato triple feature coming to TV in August. The text read:
You’ll be glued to the screen!
There are lots of specials on TV this summer!
For example, the nostalgic Yamato will be aired three times! Will this attract new fans!? (NTV, mid-August)
August 1: Sound Anatomy by Hiroshi Miyagawa
Series 1 animation director Noboru Ishiguro was the first staff member to publish his memoirs when his book TV Anime Frontline came out in July 1980. Now it was composer Hiroshi Miyagawa’s turn. Published by Chuokoronsha, this 254-page book was a collection of his lively music columns from the Asahi Shimbun [Newspaper].
Surprisingly, only one of those columns discussed his work for Yamato; read it here.
August 5: Anime Masterpiece Collection
The premise of this book (from Contract Publishing) was to curate 52 anime masterpieces (all movies) for you to watch, one per week over the course of a year. Farewell to Yamato was among them, earning a two-page summary of its highlights. Most of the choices came from Japan, but some international titles were included. It also doubled as a handbook for superfans, advising on things to collect and where to find anime studios in Tokyo.
August 6: Final Yamato story notes
Following the story draft written on July 31, Aritsune Toyota added another round of his own notes to the continuing development effort. Read them here under the heading “Set 5.”
Final Yamato was put on hiaitus after this point. The most likely explanation is that the story simply wasn’t coming together fast enough. The movie had been initially promised for summer 1982, which meant that a script had to be in place by a specific date in 1981. As with the previous Yamato movies, Toei pictures was set to distribute the film, and decisions for their 1982 release schedule had a deadline. With that deadline would have come a direct question: “is it ready or not?” Looking back, we know what that answer must have been.
Toei did release a big SF anime movie in the summer of 1982, Leiji Matsumoto’s My Youth in Arcadia. We can speculate that Final Yamato‘s development went on the back-burner once this decision was made, since it did not resume until January 1982.
August 10: Animage Vol. 39
This issue featured an in-depth retrospective of action SF anime titled Changes in Battle Scenes. Over 15 pages, the article examined how anime fighting action had evolved from Astro Boy all the way up to the present day with cutting-edge titles like Mobile Suit Gundam. Production staff members gave brief commentaries on how they approached the demands of battle scenes and what strides were made on film and TV. Space Battleship Yamato was the only title to get a double-page spread, which can be read here.
Incidentally, the cover for this issue promoted the return of Captain Harlock in Leiji Matsumoto’s much-anticipated feature film, Adieu Galaxy Express 999.
August 10: My Anime, September issue
The 6th part of the Yamato III anime comics serial covered episodes 9 and 10 in 15 pages.
Read it here
August 10: Animedia, September issue
Animedia welcomed Yamato back on the occasion of the triple-feature TV broadcast with a lush, 7-page article that profiled each film and concluded with a forward-looking message from Yoshinobu Nishizaki. See the article here.
The issue also offered a handsome poster of Kodai and Yuki (above right). The artist was uncredited, but it was almost certainly Yutaka Ono, who illustrated the 1979 “Hot Blood” novelization. See his work here.
August 12-19: Triple feature broadcast
The Fuji network won the hearts of Yamato fans all over again with three consecutive broadcasts. The original Space Battleship Yamato aired on the 12th (first time since January 1980), followed by The New Voyage on the 15th (first time since August 1980), and the TV premiere of Be Forever on the 19th (just over a year since the theatrical premiere and five months since the “Space Roadshow” revival).
August 22-23: Daicon III
If you knew where to look, you could find new Yamato animation this weekend. It was very brief, but it was there on a screen, handmade by a team of art students based in Osaka. It was shown to an unsuspecting audience of sci-fi fans at the Daicon III SF convention and the world would never be the same again.
Take a deep dive into this event here and learn more than you might have expected about this nexus point in anime history.
August 25: Fan club magazine #24
This issue was unusual for a couple of reasons. First, it came with a flexi-disc, a thin plastic record titled “Yamato Fan Club Sound Gift,” which featured spoken messages from Yoshinobu Nishizaki and others.
Read a transcript of the presentation here
Second, it made good on Nishizaki’s promise to turn fans into active participants in Final Yamato; the lead article was a 7-page account of a discussion between him and 11 hardcore fans at club headquarters. Each had something unique to say about their love of Yamato and what they wanted to see in the finale.
Read the discussion article here
Also included was a continuation of the writers’ brainstorming transcript and a “leftover” article about a mecha element of Yamato III.
Read both of these articles here
Also spotted in August
Star Blazers Fan Club newsletter, issue 3
The third issue of the quarterly Star Blazers Fan Club newsletter arrived in mailboxes this month, offering a brief news update and a short synopsis of Be Forever.
Read it here
August context
Sayonara [Adieu] Galaxy Express 999, the theatrical sequel to the 1979 Galaxy Express feature film, debuted August 1 and gave Leiji Matsumoto another eternal masterpiece.
Anime magazines published in August
Leiji Matsumoto scores again with four cover stories. This was a big summer for him with Adieu Galaxy Express 999 in theaters and Queen Millennia on TV.
September 1: Animec No. 20
The big topic for this issue was “What Makes an SF Anime?” and the editors at Rapport Publishing invited comments from a range of industry creators to answer that question. This included Director Noboru Ishiguro, who explained why he considered Yamato a B movie, and Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, who shared his opinion on Mobile Suit Gundam for the first time.
Read both articles here
September 10: Animage Vol. 40
News of the final Yamato voyage was updated in this issue with the following blurb, which was destined to be overtaken by history…
In 1982, Yamato will be reborn!
Many fans have probably already caught the information, but it’s been decided that Yamato will set off on its final journey.
It is said that the image for the last scene of this Yamato, called The Final Chapter, is already fixed in producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s mind. Or perhaps it would be better to say that The Final Chapter began when the final scene was decided. How it ends, and how this closure is achieved, are important themes for Yamato‘s final chapter.
Now, about that final scene…according to producer Nishizaki, “I can’t reveal the details yet, but I’m thinking of a scene that will surprise the fans.” Unfortunately, it seems we’ll have to wait until the second half of next year to see the finale.
Producer Nishizaki, who is pouring his heart and soul into The Final Chapter, has also postponed the production of two or three other films, including live-action movies. He feels a strong attachment to Yamato, which he thinks is “something extraordinary.” Production is going smoothly, and the story and script have already been completed. [Translator’s note: not really. It was still very much a work in progress.]
In order to make this story as dense as possible, the staff has been holding several brainstorming sessions since May, and have had heated discussions. In the brainstorming, which includes reflections on the past, ideas have already been coming up since the first meeting. Should Yamato‘s end be in space, or should it sink back to the bottom of the ocean? Should a clear conclusion be made about Kodai and Yuki Mori’s love? If a captain is on board, Kodai will be more lively. Perhaps what was missing in Be Forever Yamato was a captain who controls the ship. [Translator’s note: maybe they were thinking of Yamato III.]
Yamato is said to have been the catalyst for the anime boom. This finale will mark the 10th anniversary of the series. With the weight of those years bearing heavily on their shoulders, producer Nishizaki and the Yamato staff will be presenting the launch of Yamato to us in 1982.
September 10: My Anime, October issue
The 7th part of the Yamato III anime comic serial covered episode 11 and the first half of 12 in 15 pages. Admiral Dagon was out and the Bolar Federation was on the doorstep.
Read it here
September 10: Animedia, October issue
Leiji Matsumoto’s Queen Millennia TV series dominated the cover, but a Be Forever pinup could be found inside, spliced together from pre-existing artwork.
September 25: Let’s Play Piano: Space Battleship Yamato
Tokyo Ongaku Shoin [Music Study] published its second all-Yamato sheet music collection on this day. There were now 15 songs in the catalog, and this book was the first to offer a piano arrangement for each of them.
Also spotted in September
Wave-Motion Vol. 13 doujinshi
Fan-made doujinshis continued to expand in 1981, but with so much Yamato media on hand, Yamato doujinshis were becoming few and far between. But seemingly nothing could discourage “Yamato Fan Club Wave-Motion,” since their series would still go on for years. This issue ran 24 pages with a variety of features.
See it from cover to cover here
All of Leiji Matsumoto, World of SF Roman LP
Matsumoto’s growing list of anime productions had built up a huge library of songs with Adieu Galaxy Express being only the latest. Nippon Columbia commemorated them with this 2-record collection of 24 songs that included four from Yamato.
More broadly-based song collections were still a hot item, and Nippon Columbia added two more to the stack in September. Terebi Manga Best 32 (left) was another 2-record set with six Yamato songs stretching from The New Voyage to Yamato III. Terebi Manga Best Collection Deluxe (right) contained 16 tracks, including the Yamato theme and The Scarlet Scarf.
Anime magazines published in September
Three covers for the new series Space Warrior Baldios, one more for Leiji Matsumoto.
What’s next
With no new Yamato anime on the calendar for at least another year, the merch machine shifted gears to deliver the next best thing: another wave of Yamato music. See that and more in Vintage Report 36, which brings us to the end of 1981.