For a period of about two years (2016-18), something mysterious was going on at the fringes of Yamato world. A “secret project” was in development while Yamato 2202 was getting underway. So secret that it went practically unknown to fandom at large until almost ten years later. That project was called Yamato Millennium, and thanks to a unique chain of events, it’s ready to see here and now.

If you’d prefer to skip right to the feast, scroll down past this text to find the images themselves. But if you want some context for your experience, and a tale of suspense to liven it up, read on.

Tim Eldred here, switching over to first person mode. In order to amass the mountain of material that informs my work at Cosmo DNA, I’ve made a habit of continuously scanning online resources. The most valuable resource by far has been the Yahoo Japan Auction site, which I’ve been haunting almost every single day since 2006. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Over and above the countless items I’ve purchased, the volume of data it has provided in that time is beyond measure.

As you can guess, it gets very repetitive if you look at it on a daily basis. The stuff I know about turns into a landscape, and the stuff I don’t know about pokes up like a telephone pole. That’s when I straighten in my seat and go into “Analyzer mode.” The rarities, especially production-related materials, are what keep it exciting. When I spot one, and the price is not ridiculous, I’ll jump into the fray and start bidding.

(If you want an example of what that has led to, click here and here.)

This can get intense. One thing I’ve learned about certain Japanese collectors who target these things is that they tend to horde a rare item. Once they obtain it, it vanishes into their personal vault, never to be seen by the rest of us. As though it never existed in the first place. This is the precise opposite of Cosmo DNA’s founding principle: AFA (Access For All). Share everything with everyone and make Yamato world bigger.

Auction listing with closing price indicated

On August 12, 2025, one of those rarities popped up on YJ Auctions. The description read as follows:

Yamato Millennium
Space Battleship Yamato [Setting Materials Collection] 24 Sheets A4 Size

This is a used item, but it is in very good condition with no noticeable stains or scratches. It was stored in a personal file. Everything shown in the images is included.

Not a lot to go on, but the pictures spoke for themselves. This was unmistakably a previously-unknown Yamato project with mecha design by the most authentic designer possible: Kazutaka Miyatake of Studio Nue. He was there at the very beginning in 1974, and is still at it today. The opening price was pretty low (well under $100) so I decided on the spot to enter the fray when the auction neared the end of its 7-day period.

In the pre-dawn hours of August 19, I pried myself out of bed to find that my top bid (20,000 yen) had been surpassed. This was going to be a fight. I was convinced that one of those hoarders was on the other end, and it was up to me to preserve this material for the future. A bidding war commenced. I raised, my opponent raised. Then again. And again. The numbers kept getting bigger. 30,000. 40,000. Every time I decided I couldn’t go higher, I recited “AFA” to myself and dove back in. 50,000. 60,000. Now it was getting dicey. This spending level was increasingly hard to justify.

When it topped 80,000 yen, I just couldn’t continue. I closed my browser and went back to bed as the sun was coming up. I had no choice but to lie there and grieve for what was lost to the world.

A couple hours later, I went back to the screen to start my day. Via Facebook, I consulted with friend-of-the-website Minoru Itgaki, the first guy I call upon when there’s a mystery to solve. I wanted to see if he could tell me what Yamato Millennium actually was. Here’s what he had to say about it:

I heard about a project that Yamaket commissioned from Kazutaka Miyatake. The project was canceled, and a huge amount of materials went to waste. It seemed to be an official project. He complained that his work had been wasted because the project had been canceled. Someone said that since it had been canceled, there would be no problem with making a doujinshi. He said he couldn’t, probably because he was legally bound.

Interesting. That would explain why it went unseen until now. Maybe somebody involved on the Yamaket side finally decided to part ways with the material. They certainly got a handsome payout.

Then I checked my email.

To my surprise, there was a message titled, “Yamato Millennium Concept Designs from 2018″

It was from someone I hadn’t met yet. A Swedish Yamato fan named Felix Innergard. My mouth fell open as I read what he had to say:

I recently came across these pictures on the Japanese auction website and I have found no information about it online, maybe you know something about this? There was 24 pages in total being auctioned off and I think these were done by Kazutaka Miyatake. I did actually end up winning the auction and thus I will have access to all 24 pages once it’s shipped.

I fired off an immediate response:

Oh, Felix…

Oh, Felix…

I wish you had sent me this information sooner.

I WAS BIDDING AGAINST YOU!

I thought you were a ferocious collector in Japan who would take the materials away from the public eye and hide them forever. I kept raising my bid hoping to preserve and share this historical artifact on my website. When I lost, I thought the opportunity was gone. But now you revealed the secret behind the bidding war. What a strange tale!

Strange indeed. Felix has been reading Cosmo DNA for years, and shared the defining principle: AFA. The material would not be lost after all. We spoke some more and made the necessary arrangements to go public. Minoru Itgaki generously agreed to interpret Miyatake’s scratchy handwriting and translate what he could.

And now, thanks to a very lucky twist of fate, here is what we know (so far) about Yamato Millennium.