Space Battleship Yamato 2205 Report 11

Activity remained steady in May as fans took the wheel and filled in the gaps for their fellow fans with art, modeling, and even a glorious four-hour radio show. Here’s the full rundown of what happened during this interesting month.

May 4: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model, Vol. 163

Hachette’s giant Andromeda model (now back on a weekly schedule again) continued toward its finish line with more work on the aft section: lights were installed in the main hull and one of the secondary engine cowlings was assembled.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here


Photo posted on Twitter by host Androw Umeda

May 7: Radio Suite Be Forever Yamato

In the grand tradition of the vintage years, annual 4-hour radio shows devoted to Yamato music reappeared in the remake years. Clover radio broadcast three of them from May 2018 through May 2022, lovingly curated and featuring guests from the production side. After the third show, Clover went off the air. Luckily, another station (based in Saitama prefecture) absorbed Clover’s audience and brought the radio suite back to life with its original hosts, one of which is manga/production artist Michio Murakawa.

The Be Forever radio suite was broken down as follows…

Hour 1: BGM highlights from Series 1 (1974) through 2022
Hour 2: Yamato 2205 BGM highlights and dialogue comparisons of vintage “drama records”
Hour 3: Guest corner with Character Designer Nobuteru Yuuki
Hour 4: Listener requests (from Twitter) for classic tracks and rarities

Nobuteru Yuuki left behind the original art shown at right, and the entire show was rebroadcast two weeks later on the 21st. Contrary to the promo art shown above, it was NOT available worldwide. Alas. Let’s hope they fix that next time around.

May 11: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model, Vol. 164

With this volume, the aft section of Andromeda was finally taking shape. Two more secondary engines came together (now making it three) and got bolted to the lower section of the hull along with their fiber optics.

On the downside, those who bought their volumes in stores rather than subscribing were hit with an unexpected obstacle; Hachette’s supply chain problem reared its ugly head again, preventing one of the engine cowlings from being included in this volume. This meant some builders were stuck in place until it reappeared in a later volume.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here

May 13: Space movie popularity poll

This item flew under the radar when it happened, but was picked up by E-Camper.jp on May 13, so it’s new to us.

September 12 is “Space Day” in Japan, commemorating JAXA Astronaut Mamoru Mohri‘s launch on STS-47 in 1992 (he launched again on STS-99 in 2000). Just before this day, the online Voice Note Magazine conducted a poll among 300 readers to rank their favorite “space movies.” The results were published on September 14.

The top three choices in all age groups combined were Star Wars, Space Battleship Yamato, and E.T. Examining the age groups one at a time revealed some interesting trends. Here’s how they broke down:

20s and under: Star Wars, Space Brothers, E.T., and Interstellar
30s & 40s: Star Wars, Armaggedon, and Space Brothers
50s: Star Wars, 2001, and Yamato
60s: Star Wars, Yamato, Armageddon, 2001, Star Trek, and E.T.
70s Yamato, Star Wars, E.T., and 2001

See the original article here

May 13: Star Blazers Lambda, Chapter 25

This chapter of the Space Battleship Yamato Next manga by Ryuko Azuma definitely felt apocalyptic with a pitched battle happening over the lunar base and the Topness pilots going all out against the “strongest Seireness,” as indicated by the chapter title. Linne has concluded her business on Earth, but can she make it to the moon in time to save her team?

Find out here.


Photos posted on Twitter by Saityorou

May 14: Shizuoka Hobby Show

Bandai didn’t have any new 2205 products to debut, but Yamato still had a presence in two ways at the first big post-pandemic hobby show. First, exhibitions by private clubs featured custom-built kits to dazzle the eye. See a photo gallery here.

Second, this particular hobby show always includes live performances of anime themes. This year, the Shizuoka Music Club presented a mini-suite of Yamato music that can be heard here:

Yamato victory theme | Final Yamato Cosmo Tiger theme | Garmillas national anthem (angle A) | Garmillas national anthem (angle B)

May 18: Senryu contest winners announced

Shortly before 2205 Chapter 2 arrived on home video, the official website launched a Twitter campaign for fans to submit their own Senryu for judging in six categories. Senryu is a form of short comedic poetry similar in construction to haiku. After sifting through over a thousand entries, the Yamato Production Committee posted the winners on Twitter to share with the world.

Kodai category (above)

Grand Prize

You laugh “Welcome back” from the bottom of your heart

Honorable Mention

He is me, a young man on same path.
Can I stand on both feet for this voyage?


Dessler & Starsha category

Grand Prize

Blue skin soaked with tears as the light fades away

Honorable Mention

You’re alive, so I can smile and die
Blue crystal blooms forever in my heart
If there is love, I can charge at Goruba


Yabu category

Grand Prize

Yabu-san, engineer Yabu, and daddy

Honorable Mention

I pray for my father to be safe
I am not on the planet, but on the family ship
Waiting for my turn to be carried on my father’s shoulders


Rookie crew category

Grand Prize

It’s stupid, isn’t it? People are stupid.

Honorable Mention

Your muscles won’t betray you, Caroline
The next generation will be on the ship when the veterans are gone


Mecha category

Grand Prize

Goruba is the food poisoning souvenir of a stupid dog

Honorable Mention

“Good sound!” I haven’t forgotten the sound of the engine
The ship sleeping in red rust, come back to life


Other category

Special Award

Dezarium dreams for a 1000-year millennium
Love goes to the end of the starry light years
Love and fate. The ship is the mirror of the human heart
The sleeping child does not know the warmth of her mother’s hand
A new voyage is good for what ails you!

Special thanks to Minoru Itgaki for translation support



Photo above right posted on Twitter by pipipi1014

May 18: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model, Vol. 165

The main engine nozzle finally arrived in this volume, allowing builders to add it to the internal lighting structure of the ship. Since Andromeda isn’t jam-packed with all the motorized gimmicks of Hachette’s Yamato model, this was a much easier process.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here

May 19: Yamato 2202 pachinko game announced

The first 2202 pachinko game rolled out from Bitsy/Fields in June 2021 as reported here. The second, titled “Only One,” is due out in September from Sankyo. While these are only playable in Japan and are mostly opaque to the rest of the world, they always come with interesting game mechanics and fresh animation.

A flashy 1-minute promo video was released on May 23; see it here.


Photo above right posted on Twitter by TakeChannel36

May 25: 1/350 Diecast Gimmick Model, Vol. 166

the last volume for May contained the underside of the aft section, its relevant fiber optics, and another big distributor box for the interior. With only four volumes left (one of which would contain the controller), big things were on the horizon.

See Hachette’s instruction video here

See an unboxing video here

See a modeler’s blog here

May 27: Akiba Souken poll

In April, we saw poll results on the mecha of Yamato 2205 Chapter 2. This time, fans voted on their favorite characters with predictably unpredictable results.

See their rankings here.

May 28: Hobby Japan Web article

The debut of Hachette’s 1/350 Hyuga diecast gimmick model was a month away when Hobby Japan published a short but interesting article about it. It included closeup photos showed off more of its features, and some of Mecha Designer Junichiro Tamamori’s visual notes on its construction.

See the article here.


Also spotted in May

Fan art

The artwork posted on Twitter every month is always a breath of fresh air, especially with the next anime project an unknown distance away. See this month’s character gallery here and mecha gallery here.

Fan models

Customized model kits covered the gamut in May with all the creativity we’ve come to expect month after month. For some reason, there was an unusual number of L’Andromedie models, as if a fan challenge was underway.

See the latest finds here: Gallery A | Gallery B | Gallery C

Solo Guitar Mood, Film music for pleasure

Ritter Music, October 25, 2006

We’ll close the month with an unexpected find, a sheet music book by guitarist Daisuke Minamisawa. It includes several world-famous compositions from multiple genres with a handful of anime themes. As you may have already guessed, the Yamato theme is one of them. The book comes bundled with a CD containing recorded performances of each song.

If this is something you want to tackle, you’ll find a PDF of the sheet music here. Info on the book can be found here, and you can see a Youtube video of the author performing the theme here.


Continue to Report 12


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