As the countdown to the final chapter ticked over into 2019, activity ticked up with it. January delivered a pack of announcements, a new trailer, tons of fan activity, and more. Let’s dive in for the complete roundup…
January 4: Episode 14 on TV
In Zabaibal’s Violent Attack, Discover Teresa, a brutal ground battle on Telezart brings our heroes through Gatlantis’ tank corps to their first face-to-face meeting with Teresa…and “The Edge” himself, Aberdt Dessler. This episode brought TV viewers to the end of theatrical Chapter 4.
See the trailer for this episode here.
January 5 & 6: Facebook Society model show
The fifth annual gathering of the Facebook Plamodel Society took place at a bookstore in Akihabara over the first weekend of July, and one modeler’s Yamato display was particularly eye-catching.
See a photo gallery here.
January 6: Hiroshima broadcast begins
2202 found a second home on TV when it began broadcasting in Hiroshima Prefecture in a late Sunday night slot. When this news was announced, Director and Hiroshima native Nobuyoshi Habara stated: “I really appreciate it! We are thankful to everyone involved for their efforts! Is this hour a ‘Hiroshima-related animation block’ that happens to include Yamato? Since I directed both of these projects, I am very honored. After finishing Yamato’s production, I’ll take a break and return to my parents’ house where I’d like to watch Yamato on the air locally!”
January 10: Animage Vol. 488 (February issue)
This issue of Animage, which originally launched in the summer of 1978 to cover Farewell to Yamato, published the first interview pertaining to Chapter 7. Daisuke Ono (Kodai) and Hiroshi Kamiya (Keyman) sat down to give their first impressions of the ending as actors, and their thoughts on which Yamato characters they would take on their own personal missions.
Read the interview here.
January 11: Movie marathon
You know a series finale is closing in when your binge-watching options increase. On January 11, fans had the option of staying home for Episode 15 or seeing Chapters 1-3 in an all-night screening at the Shinjuku Piccadilly theater, which ran from 1:45am to about 4:30am early Saturday morning.
Two fans who chose the latter were Moriya 3203 and Aoi 2199, who posted these photos on Twitter upon entering the theater. Moriya reported that the audience applauded at the end of each chapter.
January 11: Episode 15 on TV
TV viewers rolled into Chapter 5 with Teresa, Cry for Dessler! This is the episode that featured the long-awaited flashbacks to Dessler’s younger days and Keyman’s dramatic turn against Kodai.
See the trailer for this episode here.
January 18: Episode 16 on TV
In Farewell, Teresa! Flowers from Two Desslers, Keyman is torn between two paths, a dilemma that only becomes clear when he seeks guidance from Teresa and returns to Yamato.
See the trailer for this episode here.
January 22: Hatena blog
On this day, Bandai’s behind-the-scenes blog published photos of two model kit prototypes from the Mecha Collection: the imminently-about-to-arrive Cosmo Tiger II and the two-color Dreadnought (due in February).
See the article here.
January 24: Mecha Collection model kit 09
The Cosmo Tiger II joined the mini-kit lineup in a completely new sculpt that preserved the “Version K” style with a down-angled nose.
The original 1978 Cosmo Tiger (above right) arrived much earlier in its lineup, coming in at kit #2 after Yamato.
Fans were quick to build and customize their new Tigers, and packed the Twitterverse with photos. See them here.
January 24: TV Guide
The issue of TV Guide spanning January 7 to March 1 contained a four-page interview with voice actor Hiroshi Kamiya discussing the role of Klaus Keyman and his personal growth as an actor.
Read the interview here.
January 25: Chapter 7 flyer
On this day, the last Yamato 2202 flyer appeared in theaters as a free handout. It includes the following slogan: 40 years after Farewell to Yamato, overturning all expectations of the truth at the last.
In this case, “last” is synonymous with “finale.” (Japanese fans have been using the English word “last” in reference to the finale of Farewell for decades.)
January 25: Advance tickets
When Chapter 6 arrived in theaters, fans could buy advance tickets for Chapter 7 with a poster as a bonus item. To boost sales again on this day, posters were swapped out for clear files bearing the same image.
January 25: Hobby Japan #597
This issue contained a generous 8-page article displaying custom-built versions of the most recent Bandi model kits and promo for the upcoming Hachette Yamato and “Final Battle Spec” model kit, due out in March.
See all the pages here
January 25: Production news
The official 2202 website announced a true milestone on this day…
Afreco all-up memorial cast comment and group photo
[“Afreco” is a portmanteau of “After Recording,” meaning a voice recording that takes place after animation is produced.]Afreco for the Yamato 2202 series is now finished (all 26 episodes), and we now have an all-up commemorative group photo with cast comments after the long voyage of about two years.
Front row, from left: Scriptwriter Hideki Oka, Writer Harutoshi Fukui, Yuko Kaida (Sabera), Kenichi Suzumura (Shima), Houko Kuwashima (Yuki), Daisuke Ono (Kodai), Hiroshi Kamiya (Keyman), Takayuki Sugao (Okita), Hideaki Tezuka (Zordar), Nobuyoshi Habara (Director.
Second row, from left: Kenji Akabane (Nanbu), Hiroki Touchi (Saito), Eriko Nakamura (Kiryu), Megumi Hayashibara (Kanzaki), Mugihito (Tokugawa), Rie Tanaka (Yamamoto), Aya Uchida (Misaki), Houchu Otsuka (Sanada), Ayahi Takagaki (Toudo).
Third row, from left: Arisa Komiya (Kusakabe), Toshihiko Kojima (Cmdr Toudo), Hiroshi Tsuchida (Yamazaki), Yuuki Chiba (Ota), Kouki Uchiyama (Miru), Motoki Takagi (Hoshina), Masato Kokobun (Aihara), Masaki Terosama (Burrel), Tomoyo Kurosawa (Ichinose), Kiyohito Yoshikai (role unnamed)
Daisuke Ono (Susumu Kodai): The journey of Yamato is a great sum. I am proud to have arrived here with the staff, cast, and the entire crew involved with Yamato.
Houko Kuwashima (Yuki Mori): It took more than two years to continue this endless afreco voyage, and it is finally finished. My heart is never ready for the last round, and I get an empty feeling where I don’t want it to end. And yet, I actually feel elated. That’s how you’ll feel when you see Chapter 7. Everyone who has traveled with us so far (whether at the cinema or on-demand), please come and see an ending that will go beyond your imagination. I put a lot of love into Yuki’s lines!
Kenichi Suzumura (Shima Daisuke): Now that the long journey has finally come to an end, I realize that it feels like I was really on the space battleship when I look back at various things. The encouraging seniors and the reckless juniors, happy colleagues, the staff who poured their passion into it, and above all everyone who cheered us on for so long are members of this Yamato crew. Every day I communed with my friends was a pleasure. The journey has reached an end for now, but I’m looking forward to meeting again someday.
Hiroshi Kamiya (Klaus Keyman): Yamato’s long journey has ended. It took about two years. I was able to use that time more luxuriously than the usual anime work. I think I will remember this work for the rest of my life, along with the various meetings and partings in the meantime.
January 25: Video art revealed
On this day we got our first look at sleeve art for the Chapter 7 home video, which bears more than a passing resemblance to the cover art for the 1992 Yamato 2 LD box (above right).
See an enlargement of the new art at the bottom of this page.
January 25: Pepper Lunch collaboration
Pepper Lunch, the fast-food steak restaurant chain, renewed its collaboration with 2202 in a new campaign that would run through March 7. Customers who bought specific meals could be entered to win one of several prizes: 10 “final battle spec” Yamato models, 10 Chapter 6 blu-rays, and 10 Chapter 7 posters.
January 25: Episode 17 on TV
All hell begins to break loose when Gatlantis launches its assault on the solar system in Naval battle off Saturn’s shore • Assemble the Wave-Motion Gun fleet! Poor, poor Kato…
See the trailer for this episode here.
January 28: Yamato 2199 manga announced
Are you sitting down? It was already stunning to learn that Seven Seas Publishing would finally deliver the classic Leiji Matsumoto manga to us in English this year…but now we’re getting Michio Murakawa’s Yamato 2199 manga to boot!
As reported by Crunchyroll:
Dark Horse Licenses Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Manga
Dark Horse is bringing a Yamato manga adaptation to English audiences this year with the announcement of Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199. The first volume of the series, based on the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime, is due out on July 31.
Michio Murakawa adapted the story to manga, with Junichiro Tamamori illustrating covers, Zack Davisson translating, and animator and Yamato fan Tim Eldred providing an afterword. Each double-sized omnibus edition packs in two Japanese volumes for a total of 344 pages, as well as a bonus section full of diagrams for Earth and Gamilas spacecraft.
You read that right, and yours truly will indeed be making a contribution. There are currently eight volumes of 2199 manga, which will yield four English volumes. As longtime readers of this website already know, the manga contains numerous elements we didn’t see in the anime, which means we’ll have something new to look forward to in each volume.
There is also the matter of completion still in the air; Murakawa was only about 2/3 of the way through the story when it went on hiatus so he could work on Yamato 2202. He blogged about this when it happened and said he intended to go back to it afterward. All we can do is wait with the assurance that it’s a work very close to his heart.
January 29: Official tweet
This photo was published on the official 2202 Twitter feed with a caption indicating that something had just been edited. We would found out what in just two more days.
January 30: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model vol. 001
The biggest news of the month happened right at the end of the month, first with the formal launch of this massive new product from Hachette. As detailed in Report 29, this glorious beast will be shipped out a few parts at a time to stores and to subscribers. One volume per week with a total of 110 volumes. At the end of it, users will have a diecast and plastic Yamato well over 3 feet long with lights, sound, and moving parts (and an exclusive series of 2202 magazines). The arrival of vol. 001 already gave us a lot to chew on…
Like the test-market version reported in these pages last summer, vol. 001 came with a magazine, a DVD, and parts for the iconic bow of the ship. Fans on Twitter shared their photos immediately, saying that the parts were substantially upgraded and the finished piece has a solid and satisfying heft. (Photos posted by K1115Uta and Kent’s Plamo.)
From this photo, the re-engineering is obvious at a glance; the new vol. 001 is on the left and the test market vol. 001 is on the right. (Photo provided by friend-of-the-website Minori Itgaki.) According to a new promo video, a few more mechanical features have also been added, included an internal rotating hangar bay.
Find promo videos on the official website here. See an unboxing video here and an assembly video here.
Those who subscribed direct from Hachette in Japan would receive a special introductory kit in mid-February containing a storage box for parts, three fightercraft, a plate listing ship specs (presumably to be attached to something) and a personalized crew ID. Unfortunately, subscriptions only ship to Japanese addresses.
So how do you get it outside Japan? There are three mail-order sources ready to serve you: Amazon.co.jp, CD Japan, and Hobbylink (which offers a consolidation service to cut down on shipping cost).
If obtaining one of these beauties is beyond your means, just stay with us and watch one take shape here in the Cosmo DNA nerve center as parts arrive month by month. The two year journey of Yamato 2202 may be coming to an end, but another two-year journey is just getting started.
January 31: Chapter 7 trailer
The OTHER huge thing that happened at the end of January was the arrival of a new 60-second trailer for Chapter 7 that feels like an entire episode all by itself.
See it on Youtube here!
Also spotted in January:
Usuki Illumination Festival
Usuki is a coastal city on the southernmost large island of the Japan archipelago, and a tourist destination thanks to its many stone Buddhas. On December 8, the 2018 edition of Usuki’s Illumination Festival kicked off with plenty in store for fantasy lovers, including a WMG-firing Yamato made entirely of lights. The festival ended January 13.
Photos posted on Twitter by Koji Ishibashi. See his video of the display on Facebook here.
See comprehensive video coverage of the festival on Youtube here. Yamato appears throughout.
Makoto Kobayashi on Twitter
Makoto Kobayashi unveiled his art for the Chapter 7 slipcase, one side in late January and the other in early February. See enlargements of both at the end of this page.
Kio [Edakio] Edamatsu on Twitter
Edakio shared over two dozen of his production layouts in January, keeping pace with the episodes that aired on TV.
See a gallery here.
Nobuteru Yuuki on Twitter
Character designer Nobuteru Yuuki checked in a couple times over the month to report on production milestones. The image above left was posted January 21 to announce that character layout checks were finished on Episode 26. At right is a production envelope containing elements for the last scenes to be delivered for the same episode, posted January 25.
Fan art
Fans posted an impressively steady stream of artwork on Twitter in all categories.
See a character gallery here and a mecha gallery here.
Fan models
Modelers went into overdrive, just about matching the prodigious output of the Cosmo Navy’s time dimensional factory. A record number of Andromeda variants appeared, enough to earn a gallery page of their own.
See the Andromeda gallery here. See everything else here.
Kiyohito Yoshikai voiced one of Saito’s Cosmo Marine’s, “Masaru Kurata” in both Ark of the Stars & 2202, so that’s probably the role he had in Chapter 7. I noticed you mentioned “Role unnamed” next to his name.
There is a “new” group for discussing Space Battleship Yamato on reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/StarBlazers
Can i order models on hobby search, and have them delivered outside Japan? This is because i want to buy a load of models in bulk and Amazon dosent have all the ones i need and hobby search shows them. If not then do you know a place where i can get most if not all of the 2199 and 2202 models, maybe even older models as well? Without going to Japan.
I’ve never used Hobby Search, so I can’t help you there.
Most people outside Japan use Hobbylink (HLJ.com)
I’ll try that then. Thanks for the info.
It will also likely be two to three years before what will likely be the “redemption” of the Bolar and other storylines plus the Akwerians (spellcheck) in a more likely than not “Yamato 3” reimagining, then maybe the long awaited “Resurrection” continuation.
Yamato 3? I thought the remakes were gonna end with 2202?
We don’t have an official word on that one way or another, just suggestions. If I were in charge, I’d make new stories from here with elements from the originals. For example, a Dessler movie with elements of The New Voyage rather than a remake of The New Voyage. Enough to keep the flavor we like.
I would definitely like to see a “2205” series, carrying the storyline forward. While I haven’t seen the final four episodes of 2202, I have enjoyed the way that they have enhanced the first two series up to this point.
My recommendations would be:
1. Focus on Dark Nebula Empire, and mostly from New Voyage. But use the cool flying saucer mecha from Be Forever–the black ships with the EDF bridges like the Pleiades. Not the flying ming urn from New Voyage.
2. No need to make the Dark Nebulans mechanical at this point, since the Gatlanteans fulfill that function (at least in the sense of new Battlestar Galactica cylons/replicants–bioengineered lifeforms). But they are the last “compelling” enemies in the original series.
3. Again, not having seen the last 4 2202s, I get the sense that the Aquarian storyline isn’t resolved.
4. Ditch the Bolar Federation entire plot line (and Jason Jetter, Flash Contrail…). All of Yamato III into the dumpster unless they can really radically rework the whole thing (as Tim suggested for New Voyage). The Bolar Federation ships are boring as is the Bolar Federation plotline (“nuclear fusion continues inexorably on the sun”), and Bemlayze is just a watered-down Zordar.
5. More development on backstory for core characters (not sure who survives yet). In Yamato III I hated that we got to know Jason and Flash at pretty much the expense of any character development for Wildstar, Dash, Eager, etc–and now there are stlll under-developed characters in the new version despite.
6. Seems logical that Yanamami would end up at the helm in the next series…the last of the three OS captains other than Wildstar going solo, or the “team” effort in Yamato III. While I enjoyed Wildstar as captain–he was the hook of the show for US series II, this isn’t the same EDF and not the same Wildstar. Sandor very much outranks him and is a functioning XO instead of being Spock lite.
7. I would actually rather see the Denguilians again instead of the Bolar. While Final Yamato is a bit tedious, at least they ramped up the mecha. Uruk is visually interesting, and well, there’s the whole mechanical horse thing. But please no water in space….
8. There are elements of Resurrection that are actually useful, and so much better than Yamato III. Not so much old Wildstar, but they created interesting characters for the crew, and some of the other spacefaring civilizations had interesting ships as well. We don’t need a “Cold War” in space, but the galactic alliance concept still has merit.
tldr; no Bolars, use anything else. Thx.