December 2015 brought the year to an end with a drumbeat of activity that has been remarkably consistent since the end of anime production for Yamato 2199. Assuming that Series 2 is a lock, a dropoff in activity will only be a breather before the ramp-up to a new story. Meanwhile, here’s everything the last month of 2015 had to offer.
December 1: Hyper Hobby returns
Hyper Hobby magazine vanished without a word at the end of December 2014, but made a glorious comeback in June as a bimonthly mook under the name Character Land. Its page count is heftier and its content is about the same, leaning heavily into live-action tokusatsu. But Yamato and other anime still get their due. Volume 4, for example, contained an article comparing the impact of Star Wars with that of Yamato, Gundam and Macross. There was also a dual interview with 2199 director Yutaka Izubuchi and mecha designer Kazutaka Miyatake to mark the occasion of his October gallery show (see Report 51).
These articles will be presented in a future update.
December 1: Yamatalk promo
The biggest thing on the Yamato radar this month was the impending release of the two 2199 concerts on home video, the campaign for which was already well underway. It included a Yamatalk event in November (see last report) called Yamato Sound Chapter Part 1. On December 1, a two-minute video was posted on Youtube featuring composer/conductor Akira Miyagawa talking about Part 2 (scheduled for December 18) and previewing some of the concert footage.
See the video here.
December 1: 1/8 Yuki Mori figure, Iscandar dress version
Embarrassed but resolute, this figure appears to bring Megahouse’s Yamato Girls line to a conclusion. As of this writing, no further Yamato Girls have been announced. But with an impressive 14 figures (not counting color variants or Captain Okita), Megahouse obviously did well and can probably be counted on to be part of the next production.
See more photos at the Megahouse website here.
See the entire figure lineup here.
December 1: Game news
Yamato 2199 Battlefield Infinity, the online game for Japanese smart phones, reached its one-year anniversary and went hog wild this month with a barrage of campaigns. The promo text will be presented here throughout this report with no further introduction…
Yamato 2199 Battlefield Infinity first release anniversary commemoration!
On December 1, 2015, Battlefield Infinity celebrates its one-year anniversary! This is entirely due to the support of all the users! To express our gratitude, each user gets the gift of Yamato & Deusular II golden-spec first anniversary limited-edition decals! Passengers board these sparkling gold anniversary units, two commanders serving in command rooms for the first time!
UN Cosmo Navy
Ship type: solid gold Battleship Yamato (GOLD-01)
Passenger: An Kinumi
Special skill: gives damage to enemy units in an effective range of 365
Garmillas Imperial Army
Ship type: Special first-class sold gold combat ship
Passenger: Ziska
Special skill: gives damage to enemy units in an effective range of 365
Receipt period: December 1-31
Battlefield Infinity increases its momentum with its first anniversary and delivers content everyone can enjoy. Don’t miss it!!
December 2: Game news
The Christmas celebration is right around the corner! Messenger of Christmas Eve ~ the Holy Night second half of the game begins!!
In addition to the earlier search and development, “Christmas tickets” are available in the regular area. Enemy flagships lie concealed in the final stage of the regular area!
You can collect tickets with a search depending on your style of play! You can gather them passively in a search stage or actively, so play according to your own style! The Messenger of Christmas Eve main event starts soon! Collect Christmas tickets and obtain limited elite Santa units to prepare for a powerful enemy!
Obtain Reality special units in rare buildup!
In the current “Christmas limited buildup”, reality versions of two beautiful women appear as Santa. They are available only in this special buildup! Their special elite skill improves your firepower by a whopping 10,000%! Furthermore, their durability value is doubled to endure the attack of the enemy!
In the Messenger of Christmas Eve story, normal units cannot compare to the powerful enemy commander! Only limited Santa units with special powers can defeat this enemy, so prepare for this chapter!
Elite Santa units
UN Cosmo Navy
Type 100/Xmas (Akira Yamamoto)
Garmillas Imperial Army
Snuka/Xmas (Melda Dietz)
Special skill (both sides)
Skill type: Firepower increase
Skill effect: Constant movement. Firepower in the Messenger of Christmas Eve event area rises a whopping 10,000%!
The event area opens December 9.
December 4: Yamato Crew Premium Fan Club renewal gift
The Yamato Crew Premium Fan Club officially opened its doors in the fall of 2012, and each fall afterward fans were invited to renew their yearly membership. The benefits have been priority invitations to special events, access to extras at the Yamato Crew website, and – most importantly – a subscription to the quarterly Ship’s Log magazine.
As an extra incentive, membership renewal comes with a letter of acknowledgement from UNCF headquarters and a special gift. This year’s gift was a metal medallion measuring 2.25” across and an impressive .25” thick. Similar to a medallion issued by the original fan club in the early years, it features a relief of Captain Okita on one side and Yamato/Star Blazers logos on the other. The felt keepsake case is another prize all by itself.
December 5: Yamato Lecture 13
Going by the scant information available, this edition of Yamato Lecture (which returned to its Tokyo home base) was the one nobody could miss. The guests were 2199 series director Yutaka Izubuchi, scriptwriters Shigeru Morita and Hiroshi Onogi, researcher Kano Tsukasa, and production staff member Yoshihiro Nozaki. Any of those individuals would be a coup for this fan-run event, but all of them together was most certainly a victory for the ages.
Since on-site photos are strictly forbidden and Japanese fans take their responsibilities seriously, the only images available come from the Yamato Lecture Twitter page, which included the custom bar menu and a commemorative trinket for Izubuchi’s birthday (December 8). A birthday cake had been prepared for the occasion featuring a 1982 illustration by Izubuchi that is familiar to longtime fans around the world.
Beyond that, the best we can hope for is a transcript in one of the future Yamato Lecture doujinshis.
The custom bar menu items for Yamato Lecture 13 were as follows:
Alcoholic drinks: Dengil guard cavalry, Scheherezade, Lonely Witch, and Fly High.
Non-alcoholic drinks: Kiryu’s tea time, Kaoru Niimi’s school days, Mars-born pilot, and Solid brown.
Food items: Navy pot, Holy ra, Space navy admiral curry, and Kiska serving.
December 9: Game news
“Santa unit” is the key to victory! Messenger of Christmas Eve event!
Santa units jam into the Messenger of Christmas Eve event, which begins simultaneously for both the UN Cosmo Navy and the Garmillas Imperial Army!! Units appear on stage with exceptional durability and armor value that normal units cannot compete with!
Only a Elite Santa unit can provide an effective attack in Messenger of Christmas Eve. On the other hand, while they are very effective against other units, your own durability and armor level are fragile, so it’s easy to get completely destroyed! A Elite Santa unit is the key to victory! Get them with Christmas tickets or obtain them in the Limited Christmas Buildup!
Special Elite Santa units
UN Cosmo Navy
Type 100/ Xmas (Akira Yamamoto)
Garmillas Imperial Army
Snuka/Xmas (Melda Dietz)
Elite skill (both sides)
Skill type: Increase firepower
Skill effect: Constant movement. Firepower in the Messenger of Christmas Eve event area rises a whopping 10,000%!
Rare elite units appear in Messenger of Christmas Eve!!
Following the two beautiful Santa women are two event bosses who board ships with Christmas specs. They appear as elite units during “rare buildup”!
Special elite units
UN Cosmo Navy
Nagato/Xmas (Juuzo Okita)
Garmillas Imperial Army
Deusular I/Xmas (Dessler)
Special skills (both sides)
Skill type: Point up
Skill effect: Constant movement. Acquisition of ranking points improves for all allies in your fleet in the event area. When Reality Units appear, earn ranking points 5 times faster! In this event, complete for ranking points for when the stage clears. Ranking rewards are extravagant!
Reality units Akira Yamamoto and Melda Dietz appear, with Aberdt Dessler and Juuzo Okita as the event bosses. Further enemies in the event stage are Yuria Misaki and Hilde Shulz, appearing only in the ranking rewards! All six people appear in special Santa versions! Aim for the top ranking and earn Santa-version units!!
Event period ends December 28.
Battlefield Infinity increases its momentum every day regardless of the busy holidays and delivers content everyone can enjoy. Don’t miss it!
December 11: Game news
Battlefield Infinity Twitter character voting campaign to be held!
Elite unit chosen by vote appears as “Reality L”
During the campaign period, use a designated hashtag on Twitter to vote for your favorite elite units that appeared in past events! After the voting period ends, the most tweeted unit on each side will become a “Reality L” for rare buildup for a limited time! You decide the unit to be resurrected on Christmas Eve!
Hashtag: #yamato2199bficharavote from December 11-15.
Buildup period: December 22-28.
December 14: Concert video promotion
Fans whose daily train commute took them through Akihabara’s JR station were undoubtedly delighted to see this huge billboard for the upcoming concert video releases.
According to one Twitter user, Captain Okita’s voice could be heard over the PA system.
December 17: Game news
Battlefield Infinity “Santa Units” are a big success! Second half of the Messenger of Christmas Eve game begins!
Santa units increase buildup chances in the second half of Messenger of Christmas Eve!
In the second half of the game, buildup chances improve for Santa units, which are indispensable to clear the event! Four people in Santa units come up for rare buildip: Type 100 Recon Plane (Akira Yamamoto) and Nagato (Juuzo Okita) for the UN Cosmo Navy, and Snuka (Melda Dietz) and Deusular I (Dessler) from the Garmillas Imperial Army!
Also, a high-difficulty stage has been added to the second half of the game! The endurance and armor value of the enemy rises, making it harder to clear the stage, but the amount of ranking points rises significantly as a result! Confident commanders should take the challenge of this high-difficulty stage!
Hints for this stage:
Confront the “Christmas ship” of the enemy with an “elite Santa fighter”! The armor and durability of an enemy’s “Christmas ship” (Nagato/Juuzo Okita and Deusular I/Dessler) are much too high for an ordinary unit! Use a “special elite Santa fighter” (Type 100/Akira Yamamoto and Snuka/Melda Dietz) to break down the enemy’s armor!
Raise the levels to increase your ammo! The “elite Santa fighter” uses a lot of missiles to inflict more damage on the enemy. Because the number of weapons at the upper level are high, raise it for the lower units to play a more active part in the later stage!
Increase mobility to avoid attacks! Your endurance value is low against “elite Santa fighters,” and it is very easy to get damaged by enemy attacks. Use greater “mobility” to increase your chances of avoiding an enemy attack! Clear limited stages 1 and 2 to earn a “Mobility enhancement module” and clear the limited search stage for a “Mobility reinforcement request.” Get them both in Messenger of Christmas Eve! Skills that increase the mobility of your allies (such as “narrow area mobility enhancement”) are also effective!
Event period: through December 28.
Battlefield Infinity shows greater upsurge and various events for the holidays!
December 18: Yamatalk event
The next Yamatalk featuring composer/conductor Akira Miyagawa and anime writer Ryosuke Hikawa took place on schedule at the Marunouchi Piccadilly theater. The following report was published at Yamato Crew:
Akira Miyagawa Yamatalk Part 2 ends with Scarlet Scarf
An official report of Yamato 2199, Yamatalk Sound Chapter Part 2
Yamatalk ~ Yamato Sound Chapter Part 2 with Akira Miyagawa took place on the night of December 18 at the Marunouchi Piccadilly. Mr. Miyagawa, who took charge of the music for the Yamato 2199 took the stage with anime and tokusatsu expert Ryosuke Hikawa to continue from Part 1. The event included a screening of a 47-minute concert film of the Yamato Music Team Big Ceremony 2012, and a special talk to entertain the many fans who had gathered.
The talk began with the relationship between Space Battleship Yamato and wind music (wind orchestra). First, though Yamato is a long-running series, there is a reason it remains in many people’s memories even when there are no current movies. The story goes that brass bands also have a big influence when they play the Yamato theme as a cheering song in the summer National High School Baseball Championship. The many fans who had gathered for the Yamatalk agreed with this.
Also discussed was Yamato’s effect on Akira Miyagawa’s relationship with two orchestras, the Osaka Symphony Orchestra and the Toke Civic Wind Orchestra, a uniquely large formation of 120 musicians who participated in Big Ceremony 2012. The performer layout was shown, along with the composition list and part of the script by event chairman Shinichiro Ota.
Mr. Miyagawa described how his previous experience in opera lead him to write an overture for the concert, and it was also his suggestion that female pop vocalist Yucca perform The Universe Spreading into Infinity live on stage.
“While it didn’t happen at Big Ceremony 2012, afterward I appeared on TV with Junko Yagami, the original performer of Love Supreme. Not only did I feel the strong feelings of my father (Hiroshi Miyagawa) in the new arrangement, but I also heard quite a few secret stories.”
The audience was surprised to learn that when Big Ceremony 2012 was recorded, it was not assumed that it would be released on DVD and Blu-ray. However, the same camera crew later filmed Yamato 2199 Concert 2015, which was different from the version released on CD (two performances were carried out, one at noon and one in the evening), and their commitment showed in the pickup.
The multitrack recording that was collected for the CD was also used for the Blu-ray heard through the theater’s 5.1ch surround system in this evening screening. Both Miyagawa and Hikawa praised the sense of presence and the detail of its sound reproduction. Fans in the audience seemed to enjoy the sound as much as the picture.
The Blu-ray demonstrated that those seeing the concert for the first time will be as satisfied as those who saw it in person back in 2012.
At the end of the event, Mr. Miyagawa took a keyboard harmonica in hand to play The Scarlet Scarf. Just like last time, it changed the atmosphere of a movie theater into that of a concert venue as the Yamato sound brought down the curtain.
December 19: Producer Premium meeting
As mentioned in the producer interview from Ship’s Log #12, exec producer Shoji Nishizaki has been carrying on one of his father’s traditions by appearing at special club meetings to interact with Yamato fans. One such meeting took place December 19 at the Yakitori Yamato restaurant (which he owns). As with Yamato Lecture, photos of the event were prohibited, but Twitter user “Warp2220” got us a shot of the famed 2-meter Yamato “precision cut model” which had been relocated to the restaurant for the occasion.
December 23: Game news
Limited units appear after selected in Twitter vote campaign
The “Twitter vote campaign” was carried out from December 11 – 15 and the majority of the votes were cast for Kuroshio (Daisuke Shima) and Domelaze III (Domel). Now they will appear in rare buildup for a limited time!
Limited unit details:
UN Cosmo Navy
Kuroshio (Daisuke Shima)
Skill type: Damage nullification
Skill effect: When using this skill, successful avoidance becomes 100% for 5 turns. This medium-size warship unit has outstanding versatility and can attack unilaterally for 5 turns. It can also be used as a decoy to reveal enemy action!
Garmillas Imperial Army:
Domelaze III (Domel)
Skill type: Battleship tactics
Skill effect: Increases battleship firepower 50%. Continuously improves firepower for a regular battleship and raises the skills of an entire fleet. An excellent unit that plays an active part as both a flagship and for offense.
Discharge period: December 23 – 28.
Battlefield Infinity shows an upsurge and a variety of events for the holidays with content everyone can enjoy. Don’t miss it!!
Click here to continue