In 1977, Yamato set the times in motion
“The universe expands into infinity.” This phrase, which always adorns the beginning of the legendary anime Space Battleship Yamato, never ceases to stir the nostalgia of many people who spent their youth in the 1970s.
In the early hours of August 6, 1977, 500 young people crowded in front of two movie theaters in Shibuya, Tokyo. This was the first all-nighter in the history of anime films, and they had come to see the Space Battleship Yamato movie. In response to the commotion, the box office opened two more theaters and decided to start showing the film at 6:00 a.m. By this time, the line was several blocks long.
It was a dramatic revival of the TV anime version, which was ignored by the public and had been branded a “loser” with a viewership rating of 7%. This incident, known as the “Yamato boom,” was also the beginning of anime, Japan’s leading content industry. The film eventually recorded box office revenues of 2.1 billion yen.
The following year, Farewell to Yamato was released, and the all-night queue grew to 15,000 people in Shibuya alone. This film was also shown at 6:00 a.m. It grossed 43.3 billion yen, ranking second in revenue for Japanese films that year. From this point on, anime feature films became an established box office phenomenon. This was truly the hottest period for anime in Japan.
Time passed, reaching the year 2009. Space Battleship Yamato was revived as Yamato Resurrection 26 long years after Final Yamato. When the news of its revival was reported, it ranked first in the Yahoo search rankings on May 19th of that year.
In December 2010, the live-action Yamato starring SMAP’s Takuya Kimura was released. In the radioactive year 2199 A.D., the battleship Yamato is revived as Space Battleship Yamato. The famous original story was reconstructed with a modern sensibility. 2010 was named the year of Yamato, and many goods, publications, and campaigns were held.
For many people, Yamato continues to be an unforgettable and special thing.
In the first TV series (1974) the protagonist, Susumu Kodai, was a young man of 18. In Resurrection, he had grown up to be a 38-year-old adult with a 16-year-old daughter. He is still troubled by the emotional scars of the many wars he has fought, but he is determined to save the Earth from extinction. The new crew is modern and light-hearted, and the control system has been upgraded with 21st century internet sensibilities. There was some “newness” that momentarily confused the fans. However, the underlying romanticism, sentiment, and passion were undeniably the Yamato of the past.
On the other hand, the live-action Susumu Kodai played by KimTak was 38 years old, just like the actor. He is a veteran who has left military service, but upon learning of the existence of the planet Iscandar, which will save the Earth, he gets on board Yamato again to fight. The concept of a young veteran gives the story a scent of refraction and conflict, and we feel like it has inherited the spirit of Yamato drama.
When Yamato first appeared, the environment surrounding it was decidedly different from today. The anime market was in its infancy, and Yamato had to compete with all the TV shows and movies. As a result, it was a success. It was praised or slammed in the tabloids, weeklies, and newspapers. It was not the anime industry or the anime market that established its reputation and created its impact. It was Yamato that created the impact.
The shadow of an anime industry that cannot produce new works
There is a huge anime market in Japan today.
There are various elements that make up a story, such as robots, moe, boy’s love, school, fantasy, biography, science fiction, etc., and the combination of these elements gives birth to a new work. Its success or failure is determined by the quality of that combination. It is, as it were, an anomaly in an environment where all the frames have been exhausted. This is the crucial difference from the time when Yamato debuted.
In the winter of 2009-2010, the anime film One Piece Film Strong World was a hit. The box office revenue was recorded at 4.8 billion yen. On the other hand, it is also a fact that anime content itself is fading.
The Asahi Shimbun reported in its May 4, 2009 edition that “The anime bubble is collapsing, DVDs are sluggish, and new programs are decreasing.”
The number of new programs starting in April had declined from a peak of 60 in 2004 to 30 five years later.
Regarding the industry, “The reason why home video is not selling well is because fans have realized that the works that have increased in number are just a bunch of pretty girls, mecha and other elements that are likely to sell.”
A producer added his own discourse; taking America as an example, the overseas market had also been on a downward trend since its peak in 2002. The bankruptcy of Group TAC in August 2010, a prestigious production company known for producing Manga Nihon Mukashi Banashi and Touch, was a testament to the current state of the industry, despite the “Cool Japan” fervor of some.
[Translator’s note: Group TAC also had a Yamato connection, since it was the studio that worked with Yoshinobu Nishizaki to develop his concept for New Space Battleship Yamato in 2004. See their work here and see what else they worked on here.]Let’s take a look at the recent box-office rankings for Japanese anime films.
In 2009, the first was Pokémon – Diamond Pearl – Arceus, The Conquest of Time and Space (4.67 billion yen). Second, Evangelion 2.22 (4.0 billion yen). Third, Detective Conan: The Jet-Black Chaser (350 million yen). Fourth, Doraemon: The New Record of Nobita’s Pioneering Space History (24.5 billion). And fifth, Summer Wars (150 million yen).
In 2008, first was Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (155 million yen). Second, Pokémon the Movie: Diamond Pearl Giratina and the Ice Sky’s Bouquet of Flowers (480 million yen). Third, Doraemon: Nobita and the Green Giant (3.37 billion yen). Fourth, Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear (24.2 billion). And fifth, Crayon Shinchan The Hero of the Gold Spear Calling the Storm (230 million yen).
In 2007, first was Pokemon – Diamond Pearl – Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai (5.2 billion yen). Second, Doraemon: Nobita’s New World Adventure: Seven Wizards (35.4 billion yen). Third, Detective Conan: The Jolly Roger (250.3 million yen). Fourth, Evangelion: The Movie (200 million yen). And fifth, Crayon Shinchan, the singing butt that calls the storm! (1.55 billion yen).
(From “Statistics of the Japanese Film Industry” by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan).
With the exception of Studio Ghibli, these are all familiar, long-lived franchises. Evangelion is not even a sequel, but a remake. In other words, all popular anime movies today, except for Ghibli’s, are not new movies, but series. The key to success is PR and the linkage effect with TV programs.
For example, if we look at the box office records of anime films, we can see that the highest ranking anime film of all time, excluding Ghibli films, the Pokemon series, One Piece Film Strong World, and the overseas Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc. was Farewell to Yamato, which grossed 43 billion yen 32 years ago.
The works of top creators such as Yoshiyuki Tomino (of Gundam) and Mamoru Oshii of are not even close. In a sense, these masters also represent a fragmented market. The same can be said for the works of lesser-known artists.
There are many reasons why Yamato became a hit. The charm of Leiji Matsumoto’s characters and mecha, Hiroshi Miyagawa’s music,etc. However, even if each one of them is an excellent point of appeal, it is difficult to become a catalyst to make a certain genre known to the world. Anime seems to be flourishing, but is overshadowed by the current situation of anime expression, so there is no time like the present to analyze the success of pioneers.
Why is the Battleship Yamato Reborn to Save the Earth?
“XXX days to the extinction of the Earth.”
This famous phrase is presented at the end of every episode of the first Yamato TV series (hereafter referred to as Part 1). This was not only for impact, but also a reflection of the times.
When Yamato first aired in 1974, Japan’s real economic growth rate was -1.2%, far below the previous year’s 8%. The real economic growth rate in 2008 was -3.7%, down 5.5% from the previous year’s 1.8%. For Japan, which had been on an upward slope since the end of World War II, the 9.2% decline in 1974 must have been a bigger shock than the more recent one.
This economic decline was caused by the oil shock that broke out the year before. In addition, Japan at that time was at a major crossroads. In the post-war period, Japan prioritized industrial development to enhance the “national wealth,” as represented by Prime Minister Ikeda’s theory of doubling income. The conservative governments that followed in the aftermath of the war intended to raise incomes, not to distribute wealth. The culmination of this policy was Prime Minister Tanaka’s “Archipelago Transformation Theory,” a development boom that involved all of Japan.
However, the strains of development manifested in the form of environmental destruction, pollution-related diseases, and garbage problems. People were left behind by the steadily rising economy. In other words, the disparity was still evident.
Yamato was created during the time of the greatest postwar crisis. The producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki (deceased, died November 7, 2010) wrote about the intention of the project as follows:
Environmental pollution! Galloping inflation! Worldwide recession! The oil shock in 1973! The years following the oil shock have witnessed Japan’s industrial and economic structures suffer from repeated distortions. The oil shock was enough to shake the roots of our social structure, too, that developed with the remarkable economic growth of postwar Japan.
Today, we appear to be only serving as a gear of the gigantic industrial mechanism and are spiritually isolated. Mankind should not act as a gear of a large mechanism. Mankind are humans who can think and dream.
(from the Yamato movie program book, August 1977.)
The crisis of the Japanese economy and society was widely shared at this time, and several works were produced to sound the alarm. For example, Sakyo Komatsu’s science fiction novel Japan Sinks (1973). In this novel, a huge earthquake destroys the Japanese archipelago, and the ultimate crisis of sinking is depicted.
As for anime, Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972) was the first. At a time when Earth is trying to tackle the environmental crisis as one, the film depicts a battle between the science-abusing Galactor and the righteous science side of Gatchaman.
In Tekkaman (1975), the protagonist searches for a second Earth because of the horrendous pollution in our environment. It has a more straightforward message (in fact, it ends after leaving the solar system). At first glance, Yamato also seems to be in line with this trend.
The ultimate question of Yamato is, “Why does the Battleship Yamato come back to life to save the Earth?” Simply put, there is no way that the structure of a battleship submerged in the sea during World War II could be converted into a spaceship. Rather, this should be considered from the structure of the work itself. Why did the story need the battleship Yamato?
Yamato is a story about Susumu Kodai and other young people. The big difference between Yamato and other anime works is that an old man is in the spotlight. The most important man in the story, Captain Juzo Okita says, “We must endure the humiliation of today for the sake of tomorrow.” He stresses the importance for human beings to never give up; to live and survive. His words become a guide not only for the younger generation like Susumu Kodai, but for the entire story. On the other hand, sometime the casualness of the youth is too much for even his shoulders to bear, so he is supported from the side by Dr. Sado and Hikozaemon Tokugawa.
In today’s society, the idea that youth = progress has become all-consuming. In today’s fast-paced business world, the word “old” is now almost a sin. But what makes Yamato unique is not just the importance of aging and maturity. Shiro Sanada, the head of the technical team, is a universal scientist so to speak, but he sometimes denies the reason for his existence.
“Machines kill people. How can that happen? Science is for the happiness of human beings, and human beings are greater than science.” (Part 1, Episode 18).
He does not deny that science = progress, but he always has doubts about it. In other words, Yamato does not save Earth only by the power of youth = progress = science. This doesn’t mean that if environmental pollution is brought about by science, then science can’t be used for good.
Rather, Yamato is rooted in a place beyond such ideas. This is the meaning of the Battleship Yamato, or the restoration of something old. If this is seen as nationalism or militarism, it is a failure to read the sense of the times. This was a decisive difference from contemporary works.
What the Slow Life Manifesto of the 1970s Means
In the 1970s, there were some words and deeds that moved the times. It was “Discover Japan” (1970), created by Kazuo Fujioka of Dentsu. In his advertising campaign proposal, he wrote:
“Travel is not a journey to see, but a journey to create oneself, to discover Japan, and to rediscover oneself. Let’s call it Discover Japan.“
(Akihide Mori, The Age of “Discover Japan,” Kotsu Service, 2007).
At this time, not only was there an oil shock, but the Japanese people, who had been working hard to “catch up with and overtake the rest of the world,” felt the contradiction of environmental pollution and a sense of emptiness. They suddenly began to realize the necessity of stopping.
Sensitive to the atmosphere of the times, the Japanese National Railways (now JR) launched a campaign, the catchphrase of which was, “Discover Japan.” Rediscovering the Japan around us is, after all, the most important thing. To rediscover the Japan around us was to rethink what was secret and what wasn’t as strong as we thought.
Around this time, there was also an incident of the return of Japanese soldiers for the first time in 30 years. In 1972, Corporal Shoichi Yokoi returned from Guam. In 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was found on the Philippine island of Lubang. This was a counterattack from the past against Japan’s postwar pursuit of wealth alone.
Around this time, the folklorist Miyamoto Tsunekazu began to be reevaluated. His book Forgotten Japanese (Misokusha, 1960) is a collection of old Japanese customs and manners that were secretly still alive even in the midst of modernization. It gradually gained sympathy, and Miraisha began publishing a collection of his works in 1988.
The underground theater of Juro Karo and Shuji Terayama, who began their activities in the late 1960s, was also based on a strong denial of progress. What they expressed was the original landscape of Japan that had been left behind, and the restoration of local customs.
“With the awareness of the ‘saturation’ of pollution and consumption, the pendulum has begun to swing back once again, and ‘traditional spirit’ and ‘countryside and villages’ are beginning to be reincorporated into Japanese values.”
(Hiroshi Kawakami, Consumers in the Age of Saturation, Brain, July 1972).
There is another catchphrase that typifies this period: “Little Japan, where are you going in such a hurry?” This was a traffic safety slogan selected from a public contest in 1972.
Isn’t that era somewhat similar to the present one?
The economy has become unsustainable, a great disparity has emerged among people, and suicides are on the rise. All the institutions of our society are suffering from metal fatigue. Instead of working hard and moving forward, we need to look down at our feet. The slow pace of life these days is like a reworked version of the old catchphrase.
The Battleship Yamato has been resurrected. The old man, Captain Okita, sticks to his belief of “live and let live,” and the young man, Susumu Kodai, shows hesitation in fighting. It seems that Yamato, with its story like this, synchronized with the consciousness of the time, and that is why it won the sympathy of many people.
The crisis of the past has not disappeared, but it has come back to life and is once again before us. What can we “discover” when we look back on Space Battleship Yamato now?
Continued in Chapter 1: The Birth of Subculture