When September arrived, the premiere of Final Yamato was six months away. All the meters that measured its progress ticked forward with production milestones, media coverage, a historic live event, and more. Here’s what dropped along with the autumn leaves…
Early September: Final Yamato Storyboard Part B finished
The exact date of completion was not recorded, but the storyboards that corresponded to Part B of the script began just after Yamato‘s launch and continued through Emperor Lugal’s account of the origin of Dengil. After editing, it would go to approximately the 68-minute point of the film (35mm version).
See every page of Part B here
September 10: Animage Vol. 52
Animage‘s 5-page Final Yamato article had a couple exclusives: a detailed synopsis of the film’s entire first act (ending with Yamato‘s return to Earth), and the official announcement that the story would be set in the year 2203. Yoshinobu Nishizaki even went on record with his explanation for this.
But what elevated Animage above its competition this month was the Yamato Dictionary, a 164-page paperback that is exactly what it sounds like. The first third was a section of color stills focusing on characters and stories, and the balance was filled with black & white pages that alphabetically explored the entire saga up to and including Yamato III.
Read the article and excerpts from the dictionary here
September 10: The Anime Vol. 35
Final Yamato got a handsomely-designed 6-page article in which Yoshinobu Nishizaki talked about the character beats of the story and the responsibility of meeting expectations that had built up over nearly ten years. It was also announced for the first time that Junko Yagami had been chosen to sing an “insert song” for the movie.
Read the article here
Deeper in the magazine, animator extraordinaire Yoshinori Kanada got the spotlight in the “Anime People” interview column. The interview was conducted in midsummer, when he was preparing to start work on both Final Yamato and Harmagedon, which were destined to fight it out at the box office.
Read the interview here
This looseleaf “memo page” was included as a bonus item, probably formatted to fit popular student organizers of the time.
September 10: My Anime, October issue
A 5-page Final Yamato article gave everyone a close look at the Queen of Aquarius and expounded on the newly-revealed fact that the film was being prepared as Japan’s first-ever 70mm anime. This was followed by an expansive collection of comments from the now fully-engaged production staff, including some never heard from before (or since).
Read the article here
September 10: Animedia, October issue
Animedia‘s Final Yamato article ran 6 pages that combined a Yoshinobu Nishizaki interview with a look back at Series 1, Episode 1 to highlight the character moments that the new film would draw from. Meanwhile, Kodai and Yuki took first place in a reader poll to choose “best anime couple” (below left)
Read the article here
Also included: a 2-sided bonus poster (above right).
September 21: Fascinating Piano Yamato LP & cassette
The second entry in the “Rhapsody album” trilogy arrived with pianist Toshio Suzuki taking the spotlight. Under other circumstances, it would have been Kentaro Haneda, but he was busy helping Hiroshi Miyagawa with the enormous undertaking of composing the score for Final Yamato.
The album consisted of ten tracks that covered and expanded on music from different parts of the saga. Read more about it here.
Released in conjunction with the album was a book of sheet music titled Play on the Piano, Space Battleship Yamato, which offered the piano parts for all ten tracks. The book was sold by a company named International Sheet Music Publishing.
September 21: Farewell to Yamato Complete Drama cassettes
1982 was the penultimate year for merchandising, which made it the last chance for experimentation, and Nippon Columbia outdid themselves with a rush of inventive releases. This dual-cassette drama recording of Farewell to Yamato was one of them, containing the entire unedited sound-mix of the movie on extended-length cassettes.
Since Polydor still held the rights to Kenji Sawada’s recording of From Yamato With Love, the Isao Sasaki cover version was used here instead.
September 24-26: Star Blazers micro-con at Babelcon ’82
The month closed not with a bang in Japan, but in the US. Specifically the state of Michigan, where the Star Trek Club of Grand Rapids held their annual SF convention, known locally as Babel Con. And we have the story directly from the horse it road in on, Steve Harrison:
It was the era of the small local/regional Science Fiction/general media convention. I know it took us our second year to break 500 in attendance, I think we eventually hit 1,200 or so and leveled off for some time. It was enough to pay the bills.
The Holiday Inn had minimal function space, so the MicroCon was in a suite where you just had to grab some floor in front of the TV. Everything was on VHS, played through my 40-pound top-loading VCR. We had a pretty constant 20 or so people watching for the entire weekend (numbers varied due to drift, and English-dubbed anime drew more ‘casual’ watchers). They grooved on Star Blazers and a wild assortment of then-recent anime mixed with full length movies (Galaxy Express, Arcadia of my Youth, Lupin III Mystery of Mamo and so on).
We generated a badge and a small handout, mainly a list of anime and a barebones explanation of Yamato III, which I had gotten not long before the con. I recall people just being glued to the set during that. I do think it’s important to note that Star Blazers fans could enjoy Yamato in raw Japanese reasonably easily. I always felt (and still do) that The New Voyage works purely on visuals and the music and is easily digested by any fan.
I think total attendance was over 800. So maybe 20-50 people total over the weekend isn’t a huge number but this was for a bunch of multi-gen VHS copies in raw Japanese, no subs, not even much narration to explain what’s going on.
Above and beyond serving as an early point for anime fan fellowship, Babel Con ’82 took out an ad on local TV, specifically positioned during an episode of Star Blazers. Steve explains:
While I was not directly involved with the ad buy, I was still a consultant to the con staff, and I insisted that the Micro-Con be mentioned. I’m pretty sure the cost of that ad was fairly cheap, including production. WWMA-17 was a brand new UHF station competing in a market that had the three ‘majors’ plus a UHF station that went live in 1979. Since Star Blazers was ‘full barter’ at the time, I suspect we paid for 30 seconds that was SUPPOSED to be station ident and public service time. I think the ad buy was like $40 or so. If I had more money I surely would have gone strip (all five days) on that. Production was handled by the station, pulling art from whatever files they had on hand.
Watch the ad on Youtube here
Also spotted in September
Bandai pamphlet
The on-the-nose title of this free monthly promotional booklet was Model Information, distributed to hobby shops by Bandai. The September issue included two pages of Yamato models, some of which were still in production.
Anime magazines published in September
The Anime publishes the first cover story for Superdimension Fortress Macross, to premiere on TV in October.
September brings two more covers for Urusei Yatsura, one each for Ideon, Godmars, and Xabungle.
October 8: Final Yamato Storyboard part C finished
The next big production milestone took the storyboards past the halfway point of the film, starting with Yamato‘s prep to warp for Aquarius and finishing with the crash-landing attack on Uruk. With this, 90 minutes of film time had been covered with about an hour to go.
See storyboard Part C here
October 10: Animage Vol. 53
The Final Yamato article ran 5 pages that contained comments from staff members involved in both mecha design and song production. Tokuma Shoten was also readying the Space Battleship Yamato Perfect Manuals for January, and advertised them for the first time in this issue.
Read the article here
October 10: The Anime Vol. 36
The Final Yamato article ran 4 pages, interviewing Nishizaki and other key staff members about the movie’s unprecedented ahead-full-on-all-fronts production model.
Read the article here
October 10: My Anime, November issue
Final Yamato got a 6-page article that highlighted Yoshinori Kanada’s conceptual designs and reported on the songs being created for the film.
Read the article here
October 10: Animedia, November issue
Yamato actually got two articles this time. The first was a 5-page look back at Series 1 in a column titled “Anime Theater,” and Final Yamato got 4 pages with a Yoshinobu Nishizaki interview and comments from the design staff.
Read the article here
October 12: First flyer and advance tickets
Given away in theaters five months prior to the premiere, this flyer came with the following text to stoke the appetite:
The end of Yamato, the story that evoked passionate, youthful memories in people’s hearts!
Space Battleship Yamato was born in 1974. Since then, three TV series, one TV special, and three theatrical films have been produced, marking the 10th anniversary in 1983. Yamato, which established an immortal milestone in anime history and created passionate memories of youth in people’s hearts, will finally come to a conclusion on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.
Over the past ten years, Space Battleship Yamato has sparked countless discussions. The greatest attraction of this concluding chapter, which brings everything to a close, is the union of the love between Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori, who grew up alongside Yamato, and the heroic final moments of Space Battleship Yamato, which witnessed their union.
As the culmination of the Yamato series, this final installment is more moving, more dramatic, and more grandiose than any previous Yamato, and will surely remain an eternal masterpiece of anime history, living on in the hearts of fans forever.
The story begins in the year 2203, when the water planet Aquarius, wandering from outside the Milky Way, approaches Earth. According to cosmic mythology, Aquarius is the planet that brought torrential rains to the Earth when it was a burning rock, 4 billion years ago, giving birth to humanity. Floating continents once existed above its surface with traces of human habitation, but now only ruins remain. And there, a single queen, the Queen of Aquarius, resides in eternal beauty.
Now, the cosmic myth from over 4 billion years ago is becoming reality, as Aquarius is approaching Earth and may once again submerge the entire planet in water. Only 16 days remain until its arrival!
Meanwhile, a nebula emerges from a dimensional rift and collides with the Milky Way at incredible speed, destroying the interstellar nation of the Bolar Federation and Dessler’s Galman-Gamilas Empire in the process. Upon learning of the incident, the Earth Defense Force dispatches Yamato to investigate the core solar systems, marking the beginning of an epic drama…
Yamato discovers the planet Dengil, which has been submerged by the water planet Aquarius. On Dengil, there are people with the same physical structure as Earthlings, except for the color of their skin, who have developed incredibly advanced science and formed a mechanized army said to be the strongest in the universe. Having lost their home planet to flooding, they decide to make Earth their new home and launch a massive invasion to conquer it.
After completing the investigation, Yamato hurries back to Earth but is suddenly ambushed by a mysterious fleet of giant spaceships, leaving all crew members unconscious and their whereabouts unknown.
Who is the true enemy attacking Yamato and Earth? Aquarius, Dengil, or another massive foe? With many mysteries, surprising characters, the romance between Kodai and Yuki, and numerous spectacular scenes and adventures worthy of the finale, this final voyage of Space Battleship Yamato is already causing a huge sensation…
When the flyer appeared, it was the signal that advance tickets for Final Yamato were ready to be purchased at theaters. And the first one you could get was itself a collectible item, limited to 50,000 pieces.
Photos posted on Facebook by Isamu Ebisawa
It included a silkscreened “cel” attached to a space background, matching the image on the flyer. The tickets shown above were unused; the right portion would be torn off at the theater.
October 16: Tokyo Sports article
On this day, the Tokyo Sports newspaper added some new information to the feed for those tracking the status of Final Yamato‘s music. It turned the spotlight on Tomoko Kuwae, who had a brief bout of fame three years earlier and was now recording “insert songs” for Final Yamato that would hopefully return her to stardom.
Read the article here
October 17: Yoshinori Kanada, The Animator 1 doujinshi
Kanada strikes again! After his entry into the anime business in 1970, his energetic and unconventional style broke boundaries and elevated him to star status as an animator who could breathe life into a scene as few others could. By the time he was employed as an art director on Final Yamato, he’d already contributed to every previous part of the series with his most visible work being the supply base invasion in Be Forever.
This 142-page doujinshi served as a compendium of production art (storyboards and layouts) covering the first 11 years of Kanada’s career. It devoted 8 pages to Be Forever and 10 to Yamato III. Other works included the Galaxy Express movies and several “super robot” shows from the 70s.
Read our tribute to Kanada here
October 21: Roadshow, December issue
After two years off, Shueisha’s Roadshow movie/TV magazine finally returned to the Yamato beat. At a glance it might seem like they were offering the first advance tickets for Final Yamato, but nope. This was in fact a chance to win tickets for Farewell to Yamato, which would play in theaters all over the country in November to provide an early boost.
The explanation read as follows:
Yamato is back!
Space Battleship Yamato Final Chapter Release Commemoration
BIG CHANCE! Nationwide screening
16,103 people will be invited! Provided by Toei
Get the latest excitement from RS News before anyone else!
Packed with content
We’re offering a chance to win a chance to see the fun-filled Yamato through a lottery!
We’ve been waiting for you. As promised last month, here’s your invitation to the Farewell to Yamato screenings. Of course, this event is to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Yamato and the upcoming release of Yamato Final Chapter in March of next year. We’ve prepared plenty of new information, including the trailer. Additionally, this event offers the opportunity to watch the second theatrical film, Farewell to Yamato, which is one of the most memorable films in the series. Screenings will take place at 44 locations nationwide, ensuring that even those who rarely have the chance to attend can enjoy the event.
The accompanying list indicated theaters in 13 cities and the number of seats that were up for grabs at each one. Screenings would start November 3 and travel from city to city throughout the month.
October 22: Final Yamato digital wall clock
The first Final Yamato merch of any kind was this item, offered by the official fan club. Large-size wall clocks had been a standard for fan club products since the days of the first Yamato movie, so it was only natural for the Final Yamato version to be an up-to-date digital timepiece.
The backside had a logo that invoked the 10th anniversary of Yamato, which linked directly to a live event that happened on the same day…
October 22: 10-year anniversary party
A party was thrown at the Hotel Okura in Tokyo to mark the passage of ten years since Yoshinobu Nishizaki convened a group of writers to begin the process of making Space Battleship Yamato. Songs were sung, memories were shared, and the presidents of companies that took part in Nishizaki’s success wished for continued prosperity with Final Yamato.
October 23: Tokyo Times article
The following day, Tokyo Times summed up the party as well as anyone could:
Yamato creator, keep up the good work!
A gathering to encourage Yoshinobu Nishizaki • 88 people participated
Space Battleship Yamato, the spark that ignited today’s anime boom, began its broadcast on Japanese TV in 1974 and will mark its 10th anniversary next year. A major anime production, Final Yamato, commemorating the 10th anniversary, aims for a March 2024 release and will begin production next month. [Translator’s note: as we know, it was already well underway.] A gathering to encourage Yoshinobu Nishizaki, the creator of Yamato, was held on the 22nd at the Hotel Okura in Tokyo’s Asakusa district.
The gathering to encourage the father of anime culture was attended by 88 prominent figures, including Toei President Shigeru Okada, Tokuma Shoten President Yasuyoshi Tokuma, Toho President Isao Matsuoka, Shochiku President Ryuji Otani, Nippon TV President Morihisa Takagi, Fuji TV President Tatsuro Ishida, Nippon Columbia President Takami Shobouji, and Shogakukan President Tetsuo Aisuke.
At the party, Okada and Tokuma, among others, spoke frankly about the challenges ahead for the success of Final Yamato, but Nishizaki stated, “In 1977, the first Yamato film was a huge hit, which led me to mistakenly believe that the work was my own doing, and I sometimes acted arrogantly. Based on this bitter experience, I have resolved to approach the work for the March release of Final Chapter with the core principle of creating a work in collaboration with others.”
In addition, as a new initiative for Final Yamato, Tokuma Shoten will create a new music label called “Animage” in collaboration with the anime magazine Animage, and an insert song sung by Tomoko Kuwae will be released in mid-December.
October 23: Princess Information Vol. 22
The latest newsletter from Yoko Asagami’s fan club arrived in members’ mailboxes as October wore on. Fingers crossed, maybe one day we’ll get to see the inside of one.
October 25: Fan club magazine #31
This issue provided another example of the disconnect between official publishing dates and actual content. The main article was about the opulent anniversary part on October 22, which makes the October 25 date on the magazine’s back cover a bit questionable. (Let’s just assume it came out a month later.) Nevertheless, the event was described in detail and followed by an extensive collection of Dengil mecha designs.
See the pages here
Also spotted in October
Bandai pamphlet
The Model Information booklet for October followed up the previous issue with two more pages of Yamato kits.
1983 Final Yamato calendar
The exact release date of this item is unknown, but it was a handsome package with 12 lavish illustrations from the Final Yamato art department, some of which would be used on other products. It was the seventh and last Yamato calendar of the original production years. The next one would cover the year 1996.
See it from cover to cover here
October context
This was a banger month for anime premieres on TV, all of which were crammed into the first half.
October 3: Super Dimension Space Fortress Macross
Directed by Yamato veteran Noboru Ishiguro with mecha designed by Studio Nue, the next genre-defining anime powerhouse took its place on the map.
Read more about it at Anime News Network here
October 7: Space Adventure Cobra
As a followup to the Cobra movie released in July, the series continued the adventures of its rogueish pulp SF anti-hero on the small screen.
Read more about it at Anime News Network here
October 12: New Maya the Honeybee
This sequel to the first Maya series (1975-1980) doesn’t seem to have a Yamato connection, but there definitely is one. Starting out as a 1912 German children’s book, The Adventures of Maya the Bee inspired the teenage Leiji Matsumoto to create his first manga, Adventure of a Honeybee, and start him on a lifelong dream to somehow animate it. He actually came close to getting his chance in 1974, and if it had worked out he probably wouldn’t have been available to work on Yamato. So we all got pretty lucky there.
Read more about that close call here
Read more about the series at Anime News Network here
October 13: Endless Orbit SSX
Interestingly, Leiji Matsumoto’s next anime project began airing the day after Maya. Like Cobra, it was a followup to a film from the summer. In this case, it picked up where Arcadia of My Youth left off and sent Captain Harlock and crew off for 22 episodes of new space action.
Read more about it at Anime News Network here
Anime magazines published in October
Two covers each for Godmars (one year on the air) and Macross (just starting). One cover for the new Leiji Matsumoto TV series Infinite Orbit SSX.
Bonus History Nugget
SF Future War Account: All Warships Launch!
Tokuma Shoten, December 1978
This SF anthology may seem a bit out of place here, but it has an interesting connection to Final Yamato. It was illustrated by members of Yamato‘s original design house, Studio Nue – and the cover was painted by mecha master Kazutaka Miyatake.
In a Yamatalk event with Miyatake held in September 2013 (reported here), Yamato 2199 director Yutaka Izubuchi revealed that during his time as a mecha designer on Final Yamato, he showed this cover art to Yoshinobu Nishizaki. His intention was to sell Nishizaki on this approach for the ship designs, but the producer instead zeroed in on the space-as-ocean symbolism. It is believed that this had a strong influence on the look of Final Yamato‘s climax.
Click here to see Studio Nue’s illustrations for this book.
What’s next
The flood begins! And we’re not talkin’ about Aquarius! New entries are added to the music catalog, the first wave of publishing arrives, anime fans begin to write their own story, and Final Yamato production stampedes forward as the weeks peel off the calendar. Click here and watch what happens as Vintage Report 41 takes us the end of 1982!