Legacy Years Bibliography, Part 3

Hobby and Game books

Yamato Style

28 pages, Bandai, Jan. 2007

The release of the 1/350 scale Yamato model kit from Bandai in early 2007 marked a crowning achievement for the hobby division: the largest and most sophisticated Yamato in the company’s history, which was largely built upon the highly successful Yamato kits of the late 1970s. This full-color book was a bonus item in the package, an interesting look at how the ship has evolved as a 3-D object over the decades punctuated with reviews of significant products and comments from industry professionals.

Click here to view the entire book from cover to cover.

Space Battleship Yamato Modeling Guide

110 pages, Media Works, April 2007

This excellent book was a spinoff of Media Works’ popular Dengeki Hobby magazine, a very satisfying assemblage of new material on Bandai’s 1/350 Yamato kit, articles from previous issues of Dengeki, and a photojournal of every Yamato kit ever made along with vintage toys and promotional materials. There was also an imaginative gallery of movie scenes recreated with model photography. Highly recommended for serious collectors.

Space Battleship Yamato Modeling Guide Full Version

174 pages, Media Works, September 2011

The “Full Version” contains all 110 pages of the first edition, combined with new material from Dengeki Hobby published in the interim.

Space Battleship Yamato Mechanic Memorial

52 pages, Toho, November 2009

This was a full color retrospective of Yamato toys and model kits dating back to 1974. It was released as a limited edition of 13,000 copies as a tie-in to Yamato Resurrection and was sold in theaters and bookstores. It first became available at a November 2009 preview screening in Tokyo.

Space Battleship Yamato Model Anthology

154 pages, Hobby Japan Press, March 2011

Despite running Yamato articles for years, Hobby Japan had never previously collected them into a dedicated volume – an oversight which was finally corrected here. Its 154 full-color pages collected articles dating back at least to 2007 when the 1/350 model was released.


Game Books

Playstation Game 1 The Faraway Planet Iscandar

This game ignited a major resurgence in Yamato merchandising when it was released by Bandai in February 1999. The involvement of Leiji Matsumoto and fresh new visual interpretations by Keisuke Masunaga breathed enthusiastic new life into the franchise. Read all about the game here.

Above, left to right:

Materials Collection booklet

60 pages, Bandai, Nov. 1998

This limited edition paperback was the first publication of any kind for the game, distributed three months before release. It featured color stills and mecha art, but Character sketches dominate the book, none of which were reprinted elsewhere. Personal messages from each designer punctuate their sections. The book was a promotional giveaway limited to 600 copies.

Materials Collection mini-booklet

48 pages, Bandai, undated

This smaller package had much of the same material but with more color pages. It was probably made as a giveaway for the Tokyo Game Show in March 1999.

Tokuma Intermedia Mook

98 pages, Tokuma Shoten Intermedia Co., April 1999

Consisting almost entirely of maps and strategy tips, this book includes very little for the non-gamer.

Navigation Guide

96 pages, Softbank, March 1999

Of all the strategy guides produced for the first Playstation game, this one is second behind the Locus edition in terms of appeal for the non-gamer. Its ratio of gameplay info to general info is lower, meaning more pages are devoted to the art of the game than most others. It also includes a short interview with Leiji Matsumoto.

Playstation Winning Method Special

112 pages, Keibunsha, March 1999

Full color from front to back, this book is primarily filled with maps, charts, and graphs, but also contains several stills from the game’s cutscenes and a few product pages showing model kits and contemporary video releases. It also contains some of the best views of the CG elements rendered for the game.

Visual Fanbook and Playing Guide

128 pages, Locus, May 1999

This aptly-named volume is a terrific combination of TV series coverage and a guide to the first Playstation game. Though most of the book is a collection of maps and strategies, a sizeable portion is devoted to the making of the game and comparisons with the first anime series. The large number of stills makes this a good addition to your shelf even if you don’t have access to the game.

Fixed Data Materials Collection

TOP PICK
130 pages, Studio DNA Media Books, May 2000

As various anime programs have been turned into games, artbooks have kept pace with the process and investigated how an older series is spruced up for a new medium. There is no finer example of this than the Fixed Data books for the Yamato Playstation games. If you don’t own a copy of the games themselves, these volumes function perfectly well on their own, leaving strategy to other books entirely and spending all their pages on photostory, artwork, and interviews.

Comic Anthology

212 pages, Studio DNA Media Books, May 2000

Manga and illustrations; adapts key episodes of the TV series in a new format. Highly recommended. Back up to Part 1 of this bibliography for more information.

Playstation Game 2 Farewell to Yamato

The Farewell game received less publishing than the its predecessor (based on Series 1), but the quality certainly did not suffer. Read all about the game here.

Complete Guide

160 pages, Enterbrain, June 2000

Of all the books devoted to the Playstation games, this is the least flashy and most utilitarian. A few pages are spared for artwork, but most are filled with hardcore, nuts-and-bolts strategy for playing the game itself. It’s probably indispensable if you’re trying to work your way through the caverns of Telezart or the decks of Desslok’s flagship, but if you’re just looking for some pretty drawings, there are better places to go.

Enjoyment Book

160 pages, Keibunsha, Aug. 2000

Of the two strategy guides devoted to the second game, this is the better one for non-gamers since it devotes a larger number of pages to the character designs, and even a few to the original battleship Yamato.

Fixed Data Materials Collection

TOP PICK
130 pages, Studio DNA Media Books, Jan. 2001

Identical to the previous “Fixed Data book for game 1. Highly recommended.

Playstation 2 Books

The entire Dark Nebula saga, originally told in The New Voyage and Be Forever Yamato was adapted into a trilogy of PS2 games with the same energy as the PS1 games, but with better graphics, expanded scenarios, and some significant changes to the story. Read all about the game here.

Identical guidebooks were published by Enterbrain for all three PS2 games. They are heavy on charts and maps, which makes them more utilitarian than collectible, but in the absence of meatier fare, they provide a good look at the continued evolution of Yamato in this new format.

Game 1: The Reminiscences for Planet Iscandar
Complete Guide, December 2004

Game 2: Counterattack of the Dark Nebula
Complete Guide, March 2005

Game 3: Collapse of the Double Galaxies
Complete Guide, May 2005

At right:

Design Works

64 pages, Bandai, January 2005

Measuring just 5.5″ x 7.75″, this mini-hardcover is the only published source for comprehensive character and mecha designs from the PS2 games. Only a small percentage of the art appears in the Complete Guide books. This volume was sold only in a deluxe pack edition of Game 1.

CR Space Battleship Yamato pachinko game promotional kit

Fujishoji, November 2007

CR [Card Reader] Yamato Pachinko was one more take on the journey to Iscandar which took the interactivity to Las Vegas proportions. By all accounts, its debut was a very high-profile event with the sort of promotion normally lavished on a movie premiere. Attendees of the rollout party (and other promotional events) walked away with a handful of goodies, starting with the extensive press kit shown above left. It included an enormous presentation book (approximately 10″ x 15″) and a collection of leaflets. It all came in a surprisingly deluxe plastic slipcase (above right) with a push-button panel that activated a sound chip with the full Wave-Motion Gun countdown dialogue. Naturally, the gun itself lit up at zero.

See the full presentation book and other elements of the press kit here. Read all about the game itself here.

CR Space Battleship Yamato 2 pachinko game promotional kit

Fujishoji, February 2009

14 months after the smash debut of CR Yamato, the sequel game exploded on the scene with numerous upgrades and some absolutely mind-boggling new animation. As before, a generous bag of giveaways went to everyone at the rollout event (shown above left) including a game guide, a DVD, a bottle of shochu, and a press kit in the same oversize format as the previous one. The slipcase was a handsome metallic red to match Yamato‘s lower hull, and was packed full with another gorgeous presentation book and all manner of flyers.

See the entire presentation book and other elements here. Read all about the game itself here.

CR Space Battleship Yamato 3 pachinko game promotional kit

Fujishoji, March 2010

CR Yamato 3 built on the quality of its predecessors with an even mix of everything up to and including the third series. Therefore, it also delivered a taste of Be Forever. The phenomenal CG animation was the basis for art that filled two full color books in landscape format, a matching poster and shopping bag, and a 12-minute DVD.

Mini-pamphlet | Book A | Book B

Read all about the game itself here.

Space Battleship Yamato Pachislo promotional kit

Yamasa, February 2010

A slickly-designed press kit is customary for every high-profile Pachinko game, and the one for Pachislo Yamato nicely maintained the tradition. It consisted of a full-color 40-page book (with a black slipcase) packed full of giant graphics that practically yell at you. There was also a promotional DVD with about 12 minutes of footage and a wireless mouse for PC users.

See the book from cover to cover here. Read all about the game itself here.

Star Blazers gaming

Above left is issue 80 of Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer, a magazine published in fall 1987 by Diverse Talents, Inc., which contained a tactical game to be played with Mecha Collection mini-models. Above right is the first volume of the Star Blazers Fleet Battle System, published in 1997 by Musashi Enterprises. Read much more about both here.

Continue to Bibliography Part 4: Textbooks and Manga

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