The last countdown month to Part 1’s theatrical premiere was an exciting one with news flashes, a big update of the official site, and a very well-received preview screening. Here’s a roundup of all things 2205 in September 2021.
Quick reminder, if you haven’t read the final 2202 Report, the rest of the September news is collected there, and you don’t want to miss it. Starting next month, everything will be folded into the 2205 Reports.
September 15: Advance ticket promo
Convenience stores in Japan truly live up to their name. You can get a meal there, pay your utility bills there, and even buy movie tickets there. Starting on this day (through the end of the month), fans could buy their Yamato 2205 movie tickets from a Loppi vending machine and earn themselves a pair of metal magnets (about 3″ x 2″) featuring production art of Dessler and Starsha. The finished products will be picked up at the same convenience store locations from December 9, a pretty good way of getting customers to come back for more.
September 22: Official site update
The official 2205 website got a nice, fat update on this day to the character and mechanic sections. All the major characters and new mecha were profiled with plenty of hints about their development in the story.
See the official pages here and our fully translated character/mecha guide here.
September 23: Part 1 advance screening
The luckiest fans on Earth got to see Yamato 2205 Part 1 two weeks ahead of everyone else at this special screening that included stage greetings from cast and crew. Attendees showered the film with praise on Twitter afterward, but gave away no details.
Those who bought tickets through official sources got two free gifts for their effort; a tote bag and a reproduction of the mysterious “press sheet” art that was tipped in the fan club magazine but never actually distributed until now.
Numerous online news sources reported on the event the next day. Here’s a roundup of what was said…
Yamato 2205 Part 1 TAKE OFF Completion announcement stage greeting report
Writer Harutoshi Fukui
Published at the official 2205 website
See the original post here.
On September 23rd, we held a stage greeting for the completion of Yamato 2205 Part 1 at the Shinjuku Piccadilly theater. Daisuke Ono (Susumu Kodai) and Yu Hatanaka (Ryusuke Domon) took the stage, along with Writer Harutoshi Fukui, Director Kenji Yasuda, and MC Eriko Nakamura, who played Mikage Kiryu.
In the opening speech, Mr. Ono said, “Today, this theater is the bridge of Yamato. You are Yamato‘s crew. I’d like to set sail for space together with you.”
Mr. Hatanaka talked about his feelings as a new cast member: “I’m really excited to see how this new journey and the new crew will be received by everyone. I hope you will enjoy Yamato today.”
Director Kenji Yasuda
Based on the last scene of Yamato 2202, Mr. Fukui described the point of this work: “Susumu Kodai will be in hell even after returning to the earth. It’s good that he was welcomed by the consensus of all humanity, but from here on, the media will be after him wherever he goes. There will be no time to relax. And every time something happens in the future, he may feel remorseful, thinking that he caused Earth to lose the power it originally possessed.”
“The script team and I needed to do something with this when Kodai faces a different kind of hardship in 2205. I decided at the very beginning to make it a story about the restoration of Susumu Kodai’s soul, incorporating 2202.”
Director Yasuda, who is participating in the Yamato series for the first time, said,
“At first, I was told that they wanted someone who didn’t know Yamato to make the film. I thought, ‘Well, if that’s the case…’ and decided to join. When I started working on the project, I found out that there was a huge amount of things that I needed to learn and know, which I hadn’t been prepared for. That’s when the hell began. (Laughs). There’s more depth to the characters and the history than I thought, and this time there’s a new development that follows on from 2202, so we decided to break it down while we worked on it.”
Yu Hatanka (Domon)
“We have a lot of new crew members, but we also have a lot of different planets and different dramas going on at the same time. Of course, we had to make each one of them rich and vivid. I’ve done various works in the past, but I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project with this much information. I’m sure you’ll be surprised.”
Hatanaka talked about Ryusuke Domon, the character he will be playing, and foreshadowed the drama with Kodai. He felt Domon was “cocky, even when looking at the script, but he has a lot of confidence, so he can’t be fooled by talky adults. I’m boarding Yamato with the attitude of ‘Susumu Kodai, do you know what you’re doing?'”
He also talked about Yamato in general: “I think all the passion is really great. I saw the special compilation Age of Yamato in the theater and I couldn’t stop crying. I thought it had a universal and very bold message. In 2205, I believe we’ll be able to deliver a new journey to you with an even higher level of passion. I’m sure you’ll be really excited. I hope you can feel it on the screen.”
Daisuke Ono (Kodai)
Mr. Fukui commented on Hatanaka’s casting, saying, “I thought that his direct and right-angled style was perfect for Domon.”
Mr. Ono revealed that Kodai and Domon overlap each other to some extent: “Kodai and Domon are very similar in terms of their passion, their drive to go forward, and their strength of will. I felt like I was seeing myself when I was younger. I feel the same way about Yu Hatanaka.”
At the end, Ono said, “I’m really happy to be able to share the new journey of Yamato with you in the theater. Every time I have been involved in Yamato, every time I have acted in it… I’ve experienced a lot of painful things, a lot of anxiety over decisions to be made, and a lot of emotional turmoil. But I think I have been able to continue my journey because I have friends who travel with me. I feel that we are facing an ordeal in this era. But we’re traveling with Yamato, I’m sure we can overcome this challenge. Yamato is a ship of hope. Let’s all get on this ship together and travel to the future from here!”
With these last words and warm applause, the stage greeting came to an end.
Another source of information was Mantan Web, which published a trio of short articles…
Yamato 2205 is a story of “The restoration of Susumu Kodai’s soul”
Ryusuke Domon brings drama to life
On September 23, a preview of Yamato 2205 Part 1, the latest in the popular Yamato anime series, was held at the Shinjuku Piccadilly (Tokyo).
Writer Harutoshi Fukui, who appeared on stage, said, “I had to make up my mind whether I should do it or not. After Susumu Kodai returned to Earth in 2202, I thought it would be hell for him after that. No matter where he goes, he never feels at ease. I decided to make it a story about the restoration of Susumu Kodai’s soul, incorporating 2202.”
“There is another theme, though,” Fukui revelaed. “A new character, Ryusuke Domon, also appears. Yamato‘s crew up to this point knows how much Kodai is struggling and they know how he feels, so they keep quiet. He doesn’t want to be around Kodai, but Kodai’s masochistic side keeps him close by.”
Yu Hatanaka: Yamato 2205 is perfect for Ryusuke Domon!
Daisuke Ono also gives his approval:
“We have similar passion and directness.”
Daisuke Ono, who plays Susumu Kodai, spoke about both Mr. Hatanaka and his character: “Hatanaka-san and Domon are similar in their passion and directness, and they are synchronized. I said to Mr. Fukui and Mr. Yasuda, ‘He’s a perfect match!'”
Delighted, Hatanaka replied, “Thank you very much!”
Mr. Ono said, “Kodai and Domon are very similar in terms of their passion. It’s as if I’m watching my own youth. I feel the same way about Yu Hatanaka.”
Mr. Hatanaka respectfully answered, “[Mr. Ono’s] presence is so great, I feel like I have to get there!”
Backstage: Yu Hatanaka modeled the new 2205 jersey, soon to be sold through Yamato Crew. Photos posted on his Twitter page.
After nine years of playing Susumu Kodai in Yamato,
Daisuke Ono is getting closer. “I’m almost Susumu Kodai!”
Daisuke Ono, who has been playing Susumu Kodai for about nine years since Yamato 2199 started in 2012, revealed his thoughts about it: “I’m getting closer and closer to him. Susumu Kodai has given me some things. I’m almost Susumu Kodai!”
2205 consists of two chapters. The first, TAKE OFF, will be screened from October 8.
In preparation for its release, Mr. Ono called out, “This time period is full of trials and tribulations, but if we travel together with Yamato, we can overcome them. Yamato is a ship of hope. Let’s all set out for the future!”
September 23: Bonus items announced
It became a tradition with Yamato 2199 for theaters to hand out a bonus gift (while supplies lasted) to all ticket holders for the film. This gift consisted of art prints in faux production envelopes, with a new batch every week to encourage return customers. On September 23, the art images for all four weeks of 2205 were revealed.
September 24: Return of the 3-meter model
The huge 1/100 Yamato was back in the Shinjuku Piccadilly lobby on this day, and those who had seen it before were surprised by its third incarnation; a new paint job, modification to the bow structure, and some additional remodeling that reveals itself on closer inspection.
Many fans posted their photos on Twitter, giving us enough for a very substantial gallery. Click here to see it.
September 24: Yamato Crew apparel
Today, the first 2205 apparel was announced at the Yamato Crew online store, scheduled to ship out in early October. This started with the green and white jersey, previously modeled at the advance screening. (Order page here.)
Next, a Dessler T-shirt with his poster caption on the front: “And still…to live?” (Order page here)
And finally, a poster T-shirt with Domon’s caption on the front: “I expect nothing from adults.” (Order page here.)
Since Yamato Crew does not ship outside Japan, this is something else you’ll have to order through a friend there. Like this one, for example.
September 29: Photos from the workshop
After the new renovations to the 3-meter Yamato sparked interest online, the official Production Committee Twitter account responded with photos from the workshop that showed the production process. Of course you need to see them, that’s why they’ve been collected into a gallery here.
September 29: Yamato Journal updated
It’s been a while since we’ve seen new content from Yamato Journal, managed by Bandai’s online news source V-Storage. But the power gauge is now rising again on the Wave-Motion news engine and the first new character entries have been added since 2019. They use the same data found on the official website, but present in their own way.
Visit the site here.
Also spotted in September
Fan art
You can feel the excitement of a new Yamato adventure building when you see how productive the online community becomes, channeling that anticipation into art. The output in September was simply phenomenal. (And yes, a lot of people are still trying to figure out what Sasha might look like.)
See a character gallery here and a mecha gallery here.
Fan models
That same energy was also evident in the continuing flood of model kits posted on Yahoo Japan and Twitter. See what the modelers came up with here: Gallery A | Gallery B | Gallery C |
Space Rocker Yaguitar
These amazing photos were posted on Twitter by “Chief Engineer Umai,” who builds both model kits and custom guitars.
“My second Yamato concept guitar is finished, but I discovered a problem! The neck needs to be replaced. I’ll work on it slowly.”
Click here to visit Umai’s Twitter page and check on his progress.
Yamato Laundry
This photo was posted on Twitter by C-rime to point out an oddity of the Japanese language. In the Yamato logo, the four kanji characters for “Space Battleship” are pronounced “Uchu Senkan.” In the logo shown here, we have four completely different kanji characters that are pronounced the same way, but translate to “indoor bathwater cleaning.” The katakana characters in the blue bar along the bottom read “coin laundry.”
It’s obvious that this opportunity for wordplay was not lost on the logo designer.
Looking at some of the articles and the Facebook review you posted. I wonder if they’ll adapt Be forever and if so, in what way.
To be honest, I never really got into Be Forever, it felt like an underwhelming sequel to The New Voyage. But they way parts of it have been adapted in the reboot, with the Gate of Lerta (the gate in the Ark) and keyman. I wonder if an adaptation of Be Forever will be mostly all new content. Focusing on the Dark Nebula and who they are and where they’re from.
Of course i haven’t seen 2205 yet, waiting on the fansub (though if anyone can direct me to a raw version, that’d be most appreciated. I’m already going to be buying a bunch of models but i can’t seek to find the bluray), so I don’t know how much is explained with the Dark nebula or where Stasha (chapter 2)is leading. So I could easily be mistaken on my previous comment.
Even so I’d still love to see an exploration into the Dark Nebula, just like what we got from Gatlantis in 2202. Itd be really cool to see them expanded upon and explained. Perhaps they have previous ties to Iscander, could explain the resistance to the Wave Gun on the Autoplanets, or maybe they are iscandarians from a previous age. (It always seemed odd to me on why I Iscandarium and Gamilasium, or whatever those ores where, where a thing. Felt like a week excuse for them to be there). Maybe they have relations to the Bolar federation. Or were perhaps a group of gamilans who escaped Iscandar when Gamilas was enslaved by them (hence the shear fear towards anything iscandarian and the reverie to them as well), now back for revenge.
I could speculate all day, but until I’ve seen it I won’t know. I do hope Be forever is adapted, in whatever way it is. Though I can’t wait for when Yamato III gets its turn. Or when I get to see 2205 properly.