It’s good for Starsha and Sasha to have eternal life, but should a new woman appear?
Kasahara: Yamato will have a reason to fight. The galactic collision is dangerous for them, even though it’s the reason Evil begins to target the Earth. They jump out of the safe zone of Earth. If Evil begins their actions from there, it would be very clear. Then there’s Aquarius. They won’t know if it’s acting independently, what sort of planet it is, or what it’s after.
Masuda: There could be a queen. There was a will in that celestial body to give water and life to Earth. If it gave life, then life has gone in a wrong direction. And so, once more it brings water, leaving behind only new life.
Kasahara: That seems like a selfish god. (Laughs)
Eiichi: Whether or not there was a queen 4 billion years ago, Mr. Toyota established that there were no human beings at the time. Water was the only source of life. When water came to Earth it was the beginning of life, and life evolved on the other side in outer space for the next 4 billion years, so that human beings were born to both.
Nishizaki: I’m thinking of either a princess or God. The image of a woman appears in space. If it’s like the image of Teresa [from Farewell to Yamato], it wouldn’t be God. Teresa had the power to see the future with antimatter. I’m just wondering if it should be a flesh-and-blood God. Since Yamato is the sort of movie which kind of demands that something be out there in the vacuum of space, I want one scene like that.
I thought Starsha and Sasha could lend a hand since they continue to have eternal life, but Eiichi-san said a new woman would be good. (Laughs) So that settles it, the queen of the water planet is not God. The planet of water is a natural phenomenon. However, it isn’t simply a painted image, but a place where people live, like on a floating continent-type of place. Or should it be a group of planets centering around the main body of Aquarius? I’m just not certain.
Eiichi: Does the queen have the same ability as humans, or does she have the power to influence the orbit? If she has that ability, the problem is why she would strike the Earth after a certain interval. So maybe her limit is that she cannot correct an orbit.
Nishizaki: Rather than on Planet Vulcan, I want to use Mr. Toyota’s idea about an explosion of tritium somewhere. A planet covered in water would become a powerful hydrogen bomb, and if it explodes with a boom, the flow changes and Earth is saved. Then Yamato wouldn’t be playing an active part because in the end it’s a natural phenomenon. If it’s connected to Yamato causing something or other, the orbit could be changed in the end.
Kasahara: Sounds good. The story would be ruined if Earth people had the ability to prevent the Aquarius flood. We could say Yamato‘s activity lead to some supernatural action that prevented disaster. Some kind of ability is needed against Aquarius.
Nishizaki: There could be humans on Aquarius who evolved differently. How about that?
Eiichi: The Earth has inferior humans and Aquarius has superior humans. Earth people learn this through Yamato‘s activity, and would probably reach the conclusion that they should be like them.
Nishizaki: If there’s no image floating in space, it’s not a good animation image. That’s my personal argument for the Queen of Aquarius.
Kasahara: It’s a human-looking god that naturally occurred on Aquarius. But Aquarius fears Earth. Even though Evil came of it, Aquarius was originally a blessing for the Earth. A terror, but also a blessing. A mismatched feeling of both God and human being. Fear and utopia are mutually exclusive. It would be wrong for someone to bring it there.
Masuda: Utopia is out of balance. Earth people go to the place of their ultimate origin to live in utopia. The picture would be of a floating continent.
Hideaki: It seems like an island that was unexpected…
Shirato: The feeling is that there would be no Yamato if not for an intense evil.
The theme of building the future by eliminating advanced modern civilization and returning to the primitive
Masuda: The orbit of Aquarius is hastened by the collision, but whether it collides with Earth or passes by and sheds water, how does Evil exist amidst that?
Kasahara: Earth people try to escape the crisis, but Evil blocks their escape. They want to leave in order to avoid the extinction of mankind, but they are forced to remain on Earth. Flooding Earth with the water of Aquarius would destroy humanity, then Evil would be able to emigrate there.
Masuda: Doesn’t Evil use all its influence on Aquarius?
Kasahara: Before the theory of the galactic collision came out, the concept was for Evil to take control of Aquarius and hasten it toward an intersection. So the idea of using Aquarius as a tool has faded.
Shirato: The queen can control it to some degree and communicates with Kodai and others, but the powerful enemy appears just as they were about to do something together, and the queen is killed. So the orbit returns to its course. That could be how the queen floats in space and suggests an idea.
Kasahara: I think it goes off-track if we put native people and God on Aquarius. When the galactic collision happens and Dessler falls, God or some human-like beings from a planet have the power to control the planet. Evil takes it by force and restrains the queen’s family. Since Evil does not have the power to subjugate Earth on their own, they’ll try to use something like an atomic bomb. It becomes difficult and complicated to give Aquarius a personality.
Nishizaki: They conquer Aquarius, bring it under control, and put it on track for Earth. The humans on Earth try to escape, but Evil wants to exterminate them. In other words, Aquarius and the powerful enemy become one. The explosion of tritium could be what changes the trajectory of Aquarius. The part about Aquarius’ mystique or its utopian nature isn’t solved yet.
Kasahara: As Mr. Masuda said, while Aquarius is a great blessing for humans, it is also the source of fear at the same time. Seeing it from Earth, the native people who live there would be targets of fear. Even if it is all due to a natural phenomenon. And then they would become characters you feel sorry for, a wonderful people who were destroyed by the enemy.
Nishizaki: We should attach a satellite to it. Although it’s an idea we used in the old Octopus Star map, the place they live is set apart from the main body of Aquarius. Then it won’t seem like people live in Aquarius.
Kasahara: But since it’s been orbiting with Aquarius for 4 billion years, the satellite would also be an object of fear. It’s still a difficult setting for a utopia.
Hideaki: If they were born earlier than humans, they could have had a utopian society at that time. They could also have controlled the orbit and made course corrections so as not to harm planets with life.
Kasahara: That’s not just some technical detail to work out. You could say it’s the theme of the entire story. In other words, the thing I was talking about in the previous brainstorming was to remove modern civilization and return to the natural origin. The theme is about building the future from there. Aquarius should be the symbol of that, but it has become an object of fear.
Not to break the build toward the climax? but what do you think the theme of this story is? I wonder if it’s necessary to make Aquarius into a utopia. Aquarius is intended to symbolize the process of life or the pristine beauty of nature.
Masuda: Is the problem that we’re trying to give it a personality? In that case, the natural phenomenon of the water may be enough on its own. It will be associated with the fight between Earth and the enemy, who were once humans.
Shirato: What would the princess do?
Nishizaki: She would float in outer space. I guess it’s impossible to give Aquarius a personality as a utopia.
Eiichi: It’s impossible to make it interesting without cluttering up the story. It’s difficult to present a planet that brings disaster to Earth as a good one. But as for the scale of Aquarius, it can either be a single planet or a solar system.
Nishizaki: A double-planet style may be the limit. I wouldn’t want it to be more than twice the diameter of Earth. It wouldn’t look good if it was too big.
Kasahara: It was Aquarius that first provided water. It brought rain, and then various animals were born. If the flood of Noah was a natural phenomenon necessary for perpetuating life on Earth, then a modern Earth civilization wouldn’t necessarily make it an object of blind fear. For example, it’s good for the rice fields when all the gates of a dam are opened to flood them.
However, because Planet Vulcan comes and opens the floodgates, the concept is that it will be hit by a flood more severe than anything in the past. If we do that, the personality is established there. If the orbit was advanced by the galactic collision, Earth would not be ready. The place where Evil resides could be endangered by the collision, and they could target Earth for emigration.
They could follow the orbit of Aquarius, too. Then, if they take control of Aquarius, which previously gave Earth the benefit of water, it will surround the Earth with water. If we do that, then we can give the queen’s family a personality. Love and beauty also has a terrible face. Love isn’t just something sweet, it’s very painful, and if we show that terrible aspect, maybe we essentially shouldn’t make utopia the theme.
The explosion of Yamato changes the orbit of Aquarius. There is no better kamikaze spirit.
Nishizaki: The queen may have supernatural powers to some extent. The religious tone becomes stronger if God is used. The direction changes if a woman is deified and worshiped in prayer.
Kasahara: Making her a mysterious woman would be good. Curiously, it ends up seeming stranger if we apply reason to this and make her human. I think going the godlike route is better. However, it would be weird if there’s a weak point where the ultrasound waves malfunction and we see a naked man. (Laughs)
Nishizaki: That’s right. Let’s go in the direction of the queen being different from the people who live there.
Kasahara: The mystery of the queen is that the residents of Aquarius lived very rich lives. And then the queen can teach Susumu Kodai that there are worse things.
Eiichi: We have the A-bomb. Although atomic energy can be a blessing, it depends on how it is used. Evil takes control of it. How does Yamato solve it? Planet Vulcan is in a state where it can no longer be saved.
Kasahara: Maybe we should show planet Vulcan from time to time.
Nishizaki: If we portray Great Vulcan in its time of conquest as only men and Aquarius as only women, that could be a lovely setup.
Kasahara: Sex couldn’t be carried out only by a woman.
Nishizaki: The method of birth could change a bit. It would be good even to be born from an egg, to put it bluntly.
Kasahara: Or multiple eggs could be side by side and the sperm is applied from above.
Eiichi: Didn’t we all used to live in water? Human beings evolved from fish.
Nishizaki: When we did Triton of the Sea a while ago, mermaids were children, and they grew feet when they reached a certain age.
Kasahara: What if it’s a neural function, without the separation of man and woman?
Eiichi: Fish have such a thing, when there is only one mail in a group of females. When you remove it, one of the females changes into a male. It’s a rather unique thing that on Earth life has divided into male and female.
Kasahara: We could make it a mono-human.
Nishizaki: But there may be a sense of incongruity.
Hideaki: Offspring can only increase from a woman.
Nishizaki: We should make them all women. The males do the conquering, while Earth has both sexes.
Masuda: It is only a raiding party that occupies Aquarius. If the Vulcan planet is not attached, it wouldn’t become a place of activity for Yamato.
Kasahara: According to Mr. Toyota’s opinion, the water that comes to Earth also went to Planet Vulcan, and Vulcan has weak point that is vulnerable to tritium, so it explodes.
Masuda: The storm troopers occupy Aquarius and take control of it, but the command could come from the Planet Vulcan. If so, Yamato would have to beat them first. But then they couldn’t go to rescue the queen.
Nishizaki: I’d like to make the end of the archenemy something huge. Maybe we’ll blow up the enemy’s aircraft carrier. The explosion of Vulcan doesn’t change the orbit, so they could get the idea to change the orbit with tritium.
Kasahara: If the base of Evil is on Planet Vulcan and it gets blown up, it would be pretty cruel. Not all the humans living on Vulcan would be bad. So we’ll need a shot maybe of an aircraft carrier flying away from the barren world of Vulcan, and then maybe follow that line from there?
Masuda: Is Earth defeated because it’s in bad shape?
Nishizaki: It is damaged in the Vulcan attack, and the only two people left at the end are Kodai and Yuki. Do that and there’s not much of a dream there.
Kasahara: I can’t agree, since it’s not about Earth people becoming extinct. That would be too big a blow to kids’ dreams. The foundation of Yamato is always about goodness and protecting the Earth, so we shouldn’t talk about the fall of the human race.
Nishizaki: However, for my part, it can be planet Vulcan or anything else, but rather than the orbit of a planet changing from a natural explosion, I want it to be intentional.
Masuda: Then why don’t you have Yamato explode? We wanted to give it a gallant death.
Kasahara: That’s a good idea. The explosion of Yamato could change the orbit of Aquarius. There’s no kamikaze spirit better than that. Earth is saved by a suicidal explosion. That would be a grand story, wouldn’t it? It’s absolutely right for a dramatic film. That would be great.
Nishizaki: Just a moment. We could change the crew in another five years, so it’s not necessarily true that Yamato will never rise again. So it’s not like we have to smash all of the assets.
Masuda: Didn’t you say you wanted it to end this time by having it go POOF! in space?
Shirato: Why don’t you make a new Yamato? Or make it Battleship Musashi.
Eiichi: You can go and make another one after this, it doesn’t really matter, but you have got to sell this work as, “this is really the end of Yamato.” You can’t say it’s the end of Yamato time after time.
Nishizaki: It’s not time after time. I’m only doing it once.
Kasahara: Mr. Nishizaki said it would end with Kodai and Yuki having sex. This could have a great impact precisely because Yamato is destroyed.
Vulcan carrier ship or Aquarius, which do we feature most?
Nishizaki: Would it be good to defeat a big aircraft carrier in Yamato? There are two methods for saving the Earth. One is to change the orbit by an explosion of tritium or Yamato. Another is by rescuing the woman from imprisonment, so she could change it with her ultrasonic waves or supernatural powers. We could put the control device up on a pillar.
Kasahara: Why not combine them? Although the queen has supernatural power, there would have to be something to trigger it. An atomic bomb would be good, but that wouldn’t work. The suicidal explosion of Yamato could trigger it.
Eiichi: So the orbit would change and there’s no flood, and they all live happily ever after without even a hint of excitement. They’ve saved the day, but it’s too late for them. It takes on water and BAM–explodes.
Kasahara: Though the queen could control the orbit, she couldn’t change the water which has already flowed. Only Yamato can do that. So how about Aquarius passes really close to Earth and the queen changes the orbit while Yamato stops the water?
Nishizaki: The final image should be of romanticism, not dispersing across the sky.
Masuda: Isn’t that romantic?
Nishizaki: No, I’ve got a picture in mind for the end. It’s the figure of Yamato quietly sinking into a lake.
Kasahara: So Yamato wouldn’t necessarily blow apart by suicide.
Nishizaki: The flow of the water changes in the aftermath of the explosion, and Yamato could be damaged and sink. We could compromise to that extent.
Masuda: What if it approaches to within the Roche limit of Earth?
Nishizaki: Mr. Toyota has pictured that. If the water approaches to within the Roche limit, the area of gravitational interference, it would turn into rain and wrap entirely around the Earth. There is a layer of atmosphere and a large mass of water. The water would turn into a layer of ice and form a shell around the atmosphere.
Hideaki: Suppose two planets collide. The smaller one would burst on approach due to the mass. It would rupture and begin to orbit, just like Saturn’s rings. The limit of this distance is called the Roche limit.
BREAK
Nishizaki: I just spoke with Mr. Toyota on the phone, and the distance is 1,000km from Earth.
Shirato: It’s pretty close.
Masuda: About the distance from Tokyo to Shimonoseki.
Nishizaki: It’s not within the atmosphere. Around the area satellites orbit in.
Kasahara: Then the Earth would be in total darkness. Sunlight would be blocked out. Has it been decided to leave Planet Vulcan to the end?
Nishizaki: As Aquarius is getting closer, Yamato would give it a thorough pounding. There is a base on Vulcan, but the main military unit of Vulcan attacks Earth from Aquarius. Yamato strikes Vulcan in the meantime.
The Galman Empire falls as a result of the galactic collision, and Yamato rushes there after receiving an SOS. Then they learn about the passage of the galaxy. Aquarius advances toward Earth at the same time, and they also learn that Evil has taken over Aquarius in a plot to attack Earth. Earth sends out Yamato after learning of the approach of Aquarius.
Kasahara: Mr. Masuda is asking where to put the base of Evil. It could be on Vulcan, on an aircraft carrier, or in an occupation position on Aquarius. We need to think about which one to feature.
Masuda: They come together and take over Aquarius because Vulcan is barren, but if those on Aquarius are strictly an occupation force, there are probably people on the sidelines coming in from behind.
Nishizaki: I think it’s a matter of having the same strategy.
Kasahara: If there is a headquarters on Aquarius, for example, when the Germans were occupying Paris, the French were seen as enemies by the allies. In the same way, the queen and the people living there would be seen as an evil group by the Earth. If we do that, then where would the headquarters be? It could be on planet Vulcan or a big aircraft carrier. Besides, it’s difficult to make it utopia if it gets taken over. Residents could only live at ease in the occupied capital city of the Queen of Aquarius.
Making the evil lead character a younger twin of Dessler?
Nishizaki: That’s right. They would be taken advantage of, as a female race. Only the queen’s control center would be under control. As for the headquarters, I think we’ll make it a completely mechanized satellite city.
Masuda: The radicals of Vulcan?
Nishizaki: Not radicals, the main part. A big satellite city with tens of thousands of people. They abandoned their planet because it was barren, and anyway it was ruined by the water of Aquarius, and I’m thinking it’s a city that all the immigrant nations could join. So rather than landing on Aquarius, it’s enough to control the place where the Queen of Aquarius rules from.
Kasahara: That’s right. There’s no real merit in always reserving planet Vulcan. Since the goal is Earth, there is no need to tie them up with the rule of Aquarius. As we’ve said, they only need to suppress the queen’s weak point.
Nishizaki: I don’t want to give the Queen of Aquarius any weapons, since then it would stop being a utopia. Looking at it simply, there are several floating islands on the surface, and one of them is utopia. The power source to control the water would be at the heart. We could surround them with satellites if there are more than one. I think Mr. Toyota’s theory is that it’s a floating continent or something.
Kasahara: Even in the smallest conversations between Planet Vulcan and the queen, I’ll have them carry out their control of the queen as gentlemanly as possible. That kind of evil is better, though their attack on the Earth people will be thorough.
Nishizaki: They’re evil, but also courteous and rich in intellect.
Kasahara: Since they don’t trouble her home planet, their method of taking control would probably be persuasive. The queen’s weak point would be suppressed with a clank.
Nishizaki: We’ll do something with that. Let’s make it a floating continent if it’s good for the story. It would be a good picture for it to look like an island. The feeling that it’s a satellite would make for a nice image, make it mysterious. Whichever we go with, it’d be a blue minor. In musical terms, it would be a world in a minor tone. The question of star quality is the logic Mr. Toyota brings to it.
Kasahara: Whether the control center is on the main world or the satellite should be decided on a visual basis.
Nishizaki: Then this builds the design. The enemy’s big aircraft carrier would be too big land on the deck of the floating continent.
Eiichi: Though the story ends with Yamato changing the orbit of Aquarius, there should be a battle where it defeats the headquarters and has a catharsis. In that case, wouldn’t it kill all the people on board? Are there immigrant babies on board?
Nishizaki: No, only men. They left behind the inhabitants of Planet Vulcan and got away. The inhabitants were drowned, and only the elite were saved. Only distinguished and refined young men.
Eiichi: Then if they’re all male, they can’t reproduce even if they emigrate to Earth.
Nishizaki: Then they would take women of Aquarius. Therefore, I’d like the people of Aquarius to be only women.
Kasahara: Ah. The queen would notice that around the middle of the story.
Nishizaki: It’s better to hide the fact from the audience that these are former Earthmen devising an attack on Earth. I’d like to have a structure where the mystery gradually unravels.
Kasahara: It’s also better to reveal that they want to take the women of Aquarius later on, if possible.
Nishizaki: In that case, I’d also like to draw out the idea that the enemy could be Dessler’s military.
Kasahara: What kind of touch could we give the chief evil character to make him seem like Dessler? He might look like Dessler. Could he be Dessler’s identical twin?
Nishizaki: I thought about that. A younger brother. But then we come to a deadlock, because they wouldn’t have come from Earth. If it were assumed that the Germanic tribes were the ancestors of the Galman race, it would be useless to call them aliens.
Hideaki: It would be useless if they were aliens. Even if a human of Earth origin and a human of Dessler origin married, they couldn’t have children.
Nishizaki: However, we could consider it, since Starsha and Mamoru married and had a child.
The evil is a human of maximum intelligence who believes only an elite race has the right to life.
Kasahara: I want to clarify the nature of the Vulcan empire. First, the image of the leader; I don’t think he should just look like Dessler. He should have some sort of evil logic. Merely wanted to emigrate to Earth feels weak. I’d like the leader to have a little more coherent philosophy.
Eiichi: It is Nazism. It says that only an elite race has the right to survive.
Kasahara: The heart of Aquarius is human beings whose intelligence has reached the maximum. They’ve scientifically systematized every human psychology, organism, group, and organization, and they believe happiness comes from enlightenment.
Masuda: In the second movie, Farewell to Yamato, the aggressor thoroughly considered everything in space to be his “possession.”
Kasahara: Or hated it. He sees that Earth developed culture and lives at ease after escaping disaster, and he hates it.
Nishizaki: A case of noble hatred. In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo is a person about as intelligent as Kodai, and the story is that he wanders around the depths of the world with a noble hatred for the elite. Although the idea of surviving people of a Germanic tribe may be sufficient for this powerful enemy, there would be a remarkable man on Vulcan, and I want him to be someone with superior leadership and scientific power. Whether it’s like charisma, I don’t know.
Eiichi: What sort of thing is this noble hatred you’re talking about? Is it the jealousy of the so-called mother we came from, which transforms into hatred?
Kasahara: Hatred of the Earth is a plain and popular meaning. Not so much a noble hatred. Perhaps it’s the paradox that, of all the morals, hatred is the most sublime. Nothing can progress from love. It’s also conceivable that civilization is born from the hatred of war. But rather than ideological characterization, a more specific character is better.
Nishizaki: Dessler generalized people by Nazism, but he thought of invading Earth because of the life span of his own world.
Eiichi: Dessler was himself a Nazi. The superiority of the Germanic peoples was at his foundation, the belief that all things must be beautiful. But Dessler wouldn’t leave women and children behind. I think I’m fifty-fifty on that point. Maybe the character as he is now wouldn’t abandon them.
Kasahara: This time the setup will come from the natural phenomenae that surround us. We say that the periodic deluge of Aquarius is part of the mystery of space. Possibly the people of Vulcan are the same as humans from Earth, and they live in fear that it will come back. This is an existence with more reality than Dessler’s. We hope the other person is good, but fear what will happen if they have only malice.