Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Report 38

Thanks to several announcements and some special events, 2202 activity ticked up slightly in August. We also finally got the 2199 manga in English and the month concluded with the most unexpected announcement of all: the next Yamato series! Here is everything fans were talking about in August 2019.

August 1: Fan club news

As fall approaches, so does renewal time for memberships in the Yamato Crew Premium Fan Club. For each renewal, there is an annual thank-you gift that changes depending on your member level: Gold, Silver, or Bronze.

For the 2019 renewals, Gold members (top level) will receive an art print, sake cup, and lapel pin (pictured above). Also a cap, polo shirt, pass case, stickers, a birthday card, and a New Year’s card (not pictured). This is in addition to the quarterly magazine and priority access to special events.

Silver members get a magazine subscription, but will not receive the pictured items. They do get some of the others with purchase access to the rest. Bronze members receive only one magazine a year and the lower-end bonus items. Fans outside Japan can sign up, but will need to go through someone with a Japanese address.

August 2: Trading card gallery

Since the start of Yamato 2199, collectible trading cards have been flowing like floodwater. A complete collection was difficult to assemble even for fans in Japan. But the flood seems to have stopped along with 2202, and Yamato Crew brought relief to a grateful world by publishing an entire trading card gallery online.

Click here to see them all.

August 5: Boat Race Omura merch

The publicity campaign for Boat Race Omura ramped up throughout the summer as the August 27 event approached. On this day, prize lottery winners won Yamato 2202 tie-in phone cards and tote bags with much more to come.

August 7: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 28

Hachette’s giant Yamato model shifted focus with this volume, moving from the forward hull up to the bridge tower, which started from the top and slowly worked downward. This time, the structure just below the first bridge was added along with a LOT of fiber optics for internal lighting.

Photos posted on Twitter by Hachi Kuji.

See Hachette’s instruction video here.

See an unboxing video here.

August 9: Concert news

Key art was unveiled for the upcoming Yamato 2202 concert, symbolizing the nature of this particular performance as a more intimate affair than the orchestral concerts of previous years. Rather than emphasizing the score, Close To You Tonight appears to focus more closely on the songs. So far, all the 2202 vocalists are on the bill except Sayaka Kanda.

Promo text read as follows:

A luxurious crew gathers for this concert, centering on musician Akira Miyagawa, who has created Yamato Sound for two generations. Akira Miyagawa creates a totally new Yamato Sound in a special arrangement with other musicians in his circle. Furthermore, in addition to Koichi Yamadera, Shino Arima, and Yuya Hoshino who sang ending theme songs, Ayaka Hirahara will deliver a live performance. This is a special program which is different in flavor from an orchestral organization.

Some of the merry adventurers from Yamatour 2019 will return to Tokyo for the concert, which means a hot & fresh report will be posted here on Cosmo DNA in the October 15 update!

August 9-12: Comiket 96

Once again, thousands of fans descended upon Tokyo Big Sight for the twice-annual Comic Market, the largest event of its kind on Earth. Yamato fans had a lot of new doujinshi to choose from, and Character Designer Nobuteru Yuuki was on hand with a set of illustrated postcards (which were later made available through Yamato Crew).

See a gallery of Comiket 96 products here.

August 13: Yamato Crew goods

The day after Comiket, Nobuteru Yuuki’s postcards did indeed turn up for sale at Yamato Crew, where we were reminded that membership has its privileges

The set was offered in a bundle along with four new 2202 clear files, but only Gold-level fan club members had immediate access.

Silver and Bronze members were also eligible, but only after the Gold members had their pick. (Which means that non-fan club members were probably out of the running.) The bundle was scheduled to ship in mid-September.

August 14: Event news

The Fukuyama Anime website announced that 2202 Chapter 7 would return to the big screen for a one-time event at a Fukuyama movie theater on October 27. In a throwback to the event screenings that accompanied each chapter, fans would be treated to a live appearance by Writer Harutoshi Fukui, Director Nobuyoshi Habara, and Scriptwriter Hideki Oka. But rather than a simple stage greeting, this time they will provide a running commentary for the entire film.

See the news post here.

August 14: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 29

This volume answered a long-standing question that fans must have been asking: how am I going to display this thing? Pedestals were provided for the ever-growing forward section, accompanied by another hull plate and its requisite fiber optic.

Photos posted on Twitter by Hachi Kuji

See Hachette’s instruction video here.

See an unboxing video here.

August 14: Yamato 2199 manga in English

Not a dream! Not an imaginary story! We actually have an official English verison of the Yamato 2199 manga by Michio Murakawa!!!

After a short delay, Dark Horse comics unleashed an omnibus which collects the first two Japanese volumes. This takes us through Episode 4 on Enceladus.

The translation is by Zack Davisson, who also did the classic Leiji Matsumoto manga for Seven Seas (see our interview with him here.) In addition to the manga itself, he also painstakingly translated several pages of mecha design work, providing our first glimpse into Junichiro Tamamori’s thought process.

The collection is edited by Carl Horn with an afterword by Cosmo DNA editor Tim Eldred. Three more volumes will follow; Vol. 2 is scheduled for November 26 and Vol. 3 for February 11. Order it from your local bookstore or comic shop today! (Or Amazon, if those options elude you.)







August 16:
Funimation part 2 preorders open

And that ain’t all, English-speaking world! After a long wait, Funimation announced a release date for the second half of Yamato 2202 on Blu-ray. Episodes 14-26 are scheduled to arrive on November 26, just in time for a Thanksgiving weekend binge watch. Bonus features include a conversation with the English cast and a commentary on Episode 23.

Order it from Funimation here or from Amazon here.

August 18: Boat Race Omura pre-show

Boat Race Omura was just over a week away, but on this day fans could line up to watch the qualifying rounds and see the Yamato tie-in displays. Photo above posted on Twitter by Ayaka19790825.

Keep reading to find out what the fans saw!

August 21: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 30

This volume returned to the forward hull, adding another hull plate and covers for the torpedo launchers. Photos posted on Twitter by Hachi Kuji and NCC1701refit.

See Hachette’s instruction video here.

See an unboxing video here.

August 22: Boat Race Omura news

You can’t have a Yamato tie-in event without a Yuki! Today it was announced that Ayaka Sumiya would be appearing as the Yamato 2202 ambassador at Boat Race Omura, now only five days away. 49 men and 3 women would be competing over six days with many related events.

August 26: Family Theater news

Back in April, satellite network Family Theater announced a “Yamato Project” to launch on October 6, the 45th anniversary of the original series. On this day they announced exactly what that project would consist of: a rebroadcast of the entire saga from October through December (everything but the live-action movie) and a first-ever cinema screening of Farewell to Yamato in a 4K remaster.

This screening is scheduled for November 9 in Odaiba, Tokyo with only 200 tickets available, to be won in a lottery held by cable company J Com. It’s not unreasonable to assume that if someone went to the trouble and expense of remastering Farewell in 4K, they’re going to make it more widely available somewhere down the road.

Visit the Family Theater website here.

See a promo video here.

August 26: Nihonsakari collaboration campaign

Starting today, a tie-in campaign was launched between Yamato 2202 and a sake brewery called Nihonsakari. For a limited time, six-packs of certain sake products came with Yamato packaging and postcards that could be mailed in for a prize lottery.

The prizes would be Yuki Mori figures (7 winners), 2202 aprons (50 winners), and 2202 wooden boxes (100 winners). The campaign was scheduled to run through November 25.

August 27-September 1: 65th Memorial Boat Race Omura

The outcome of the race is mainly of interest to local fans in Japan, but if you want to dig for it there’s a lot to see at the official Twitter page, Youtube channel and website.

For Yamato fans, the real draw is the tie-in aspects of the collaboration, which can be seen in a photo gallery here.

August 28: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model Vol. 31

The last volume for the month of August returned to the bridge tower and added a very recognizable part, the second bridge. Which came with even more fiber optics for interior lighting.

Photos posted on Twitter by Hachi Kuji and CorgiStar52.

See Hachette’s instruction video here.

See an unboxing video here.

August 30: Star Blazers/Yamato magazine #4

This issue of the fan club magazine brought the month to a close with the most exciting news we could ask for: the official announcement for the NEXT Yamato series!

The title is Yamato 2205, The New Voyage. Of course, everyone will recognize that as the name of the 1979 TV movie in which Yamato, Dessler, and Starsha are caught up in their first battle against the Dark Nebula Empire. But Executive Producer Shoji Nishizaki has made it clear that future stories will explore original territory, so there is no guarantee that the original New Voyage is getting a remake. With Harutoshi Fukui returning as the series writer, it’s virtually guaranteed that this will go far beyond what we’ve seen before. The director has not yet been announced.

Text accompanying the announcement read as follows:

Even before the excitement of Yamato 2202 Chapter 7 has cooled down, we deliver information to our readers on the next project as soon as possible, faster than anywhere else. Titled The New Voyage, it depicts the world three years after 2202. Scheduled to be screened in the fall of 2020. Look forward to the new Yamato story!

As indicated by the “jazz caption trio” on the cover, the primary topic for this issue is music. Out of 56 pages, 40 are filled with musician interviews, a complete discography, and sheet music for the original opening and end themes. Among the smattering of other articles is this handy guide to the birthdays of favorite characters, which ought to inspire a lot more fan art in the future.

And finally (above right) there was an announcement for an exciting new project that will finally return us to the original saga. The text reads as follows:

Urgent orders for Yamato crew!!

AQUARIUS ALGORITHM: Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection Chapter 0

The past and the future (algorithm) intersect

After a fierce battle, Space Battleship Yamato sank into the sea of Aquarius. 12 years have passed since then. Susumu Kodai and his family head out to search for Yamato and encounter an unknown enemy. An original novel that links Final Yamato to Yamato Resurrection finally begins by up-and-coming SF writer Katsuya Takashima. Kodai, Yuki, and Space Battleship Yamato fly on a new journey.

Amazing new serialization starts next issue!!

August 31: Mecha Collection model kit 14

Neu Balgray joined the ranks of mini-kits with this release, essentially a reissue of the Andromeda carrier variant in red.

However, its distinguishing piece is a Garmillas-made antenna system, which was also provided as a bonus part in 1/1000 scale. This would allow modelers to customize their 1/1000 carrier models into a larger Neu Balgray.

Builders got right to work and posted their results online. See a gallery here.

Also spotted in August

Hero’s Record game art

The Hero’s Record mobile game kept on going and kept on delivering promotional artwork to social media. See a gallery here.

See clips of the game in action here, here and here.

Fan art

New additions to the world of fan art were posted to Twitter. See a gallery of both characters and mecha here.

Fan models

Modelmakers stepped into a time fault in the month of August and came out with enough kits for an entire year. Seriously, it was a deluge. Click on these galleries and be overwhelmed:

Yamato and fightercraft | Andromeda & variants | Dreadnoughts and others | non-2202 mecha

Michio Murakawa on Instagram

This is your semi-annual reminder that you should be following manga artist/production designer Michio Murakawa on Instagram, where he posts a wealth of Yamato art there that can otherwise pass you by.

2010 flashback

Some may remember the largest Yamato model ever built, a monster that was on display in November/December 2010 to promote the live-action movie in Tokyo. As with all such extravagant displays, it seemingly disappear overnight when its time was served. But in this case, a Flickr user named Autumn009 captured the process of it being dismantled. See their photo gallery here.

See more photos of Yamato promotion here.


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