As Yamato 2 moved into its post-Telezart phase with four very compelling episodes, development continued on The New Voyage, media coverage intensified, and new books kept the world expanding. Pile on more model kits, an unusual LP, and more, and it added up to a very rich month.
February 1: 30th annual Sapporo Snow Festival
Talk about starting the month in style!
The gigantic Yamato snow sculpture in this photo was built at the Sapporo Snow Festival in the heart of Makomanai City in Hokkaido, a suburban garrison town of the Japan Self-Defense Force. The event was supported by local businesses and the TV bureau, and about ten large snow statues were made. Special emphasis was placed on film and television characters, and Yamato was second only to Star Wars in popularity.
The image of Yamato rising from the sea had an overall length of 24 meters and a height of about 14 meters. It was created by the Sapporo Fire Department under the guidance of SDF personnel, taking about 21 days and 350 trucks of snow. It was rigged with lights for the Wave-Motion Gun, the bridge, and the rear engine nozzle. Because the sculptors used the Bandai Image Model as reference, the bow was extremely large and gave a great impression of scale. A nearby stage had 4-meter snow sculptures of Kodai, Yuki and Captain Okita.
See more photos here.
This was actually the second time a Yamato statue was erected at the festival. The first was in 1975, as reported here.
February 1: Roadshow, March issue
The third installment of Yamato Newspaper devoted two pages to the Yamato 2 episodes broadcast in December, along with brief synopses of those spanning from mid-January to mid-February.
Read the article here
February 1: Terebiland, March issue
Yamato 2 earned a cover feature in this month’s Terebiland, a pictorial article on Yamato‘s battle with Dessler on the approach to Telezart. (The final showdown had not yet been broadcast.)
A bonus item found in this issue was a set of “Battle Menko,” a punch-out card game that helped you fill the endless hours between TV episodes.
February 1: Terebi Kun, March issue
Shogakukan raised the bar for Yamato 2 coverage with a five-page article that included an original painting AND a separate Yamato 2 poster book as a bonus item.
See it all here
February 3: Bouken Oh [Adventure King], March issue
Akita Shoten brought its own thunder with a color foldout and a host of unique advertising for different products.
Leiji Matsumoto’s 9th manga chapter appeared in this issue, continuing its very slow pace by taking 22 pages to get Yamato away from Earth and in the path of Andromeda.
See pages from this issue here
February 3: Yamato 2 Episode 17
Telezart – disperse into space!
Teresa takes a brave stand against Prince Zordar as the deadly White Comet approaches Telezart. Yamato‘s crew can only watch helplessly as two colossal forces meet in explosive fury!
Trivia note: this was the first episode to incorporate music from the Yamato “disco album” released just two months earlier. It would not be the last.
Read our commentary for this episode here
February 5: The New Voyage preproduction, story draft 2
Respected SF writer Aritsune Toyota, who had been part of the Yamato “brain trust” since the very beginning, turned in his first story draft for The New Voyage on this day. It followed the basic plot laid out in Hideaki Yamamoto’s version, but here we meet Youichi Maki of the sinister Galactic Crime League, whose vendetta against Kodai moves him to implicate Earth by destroying planet Gamilas. Everyone is caught up in the plot, including Starsha and Mamoru.
Read it here
February 9: Middle 1st Year Course, March issue
Gakken’s student digest magazine for 7th graders posed a weighty question: are you a Lupin fan, or are you a Kodai fan? Apparently eager to foment division among school kids, an article spent five pages contrasting Lupin III and Yamato 2 to help everyone develop bitter lifetime rivalries.
See the article here
February 9: Middle 2nd Year Course, March issue
Gakken’s student digest magazine for 8th graders stayed clear of the scorching Lupin vs. Yamato debate by offering brief profiles of eight popular TV anime series over nine pages.
See the article here
February 9: Middle 1st Age, March issue
Obunsha’s student digest magazine for 7th graders pushed their content a little deeper with an article titled Approaching the climax; what is Yamato’s fate? This eight page article examined the Yamato 2 story so far and made predictions on how the series could end differently from the movie.
Read the article here
February 9: Middle 2nd Age, March issue
Obunsha’s student digest magazine for 8th graders delivered the biggest Yamato article of the month, 16 pages that also took stock of Yamato 2‘s progress, offered the same predictions (a tipoff that it was probably the same writer), and continued with a look back at previous adventures.
Read the article here
February 10: Middle 3rd Age, March issue
Obunsha’s student digest magazine for 9th graders gave Yamato 2 only a brief look in this issue, but offered something that couldn’t be found in the other publications: a two-page essay from Kodai’s voice actor Kei Tomiyama. It was a message of encouragement to 9th graders dreading their high school entrance exams, a time of high tension indeed.
Read the articles here
February 10: Animage #9
The question of how the series would end was addressed in Animage as well, thanks to a short interview with Director Noboru Ishiguro. He talked about major events in the climax, but claimed that Kodai’s ultimate fate had not yet been decided. Depending on when the interview was conducted, it’s possible he was unaware that The New Voyage was in preproduction, but it’s more likely he was just keeping fans guessing.
Read the article here
Something else of note was an unusual ad, shown above right. It promotes Yamato Complete Collection, a special from Tokuma Shoten’s Terebiland magazine, which was published January 20. What made it unusual was the curious choice of promoting it entirely in English.
February 10: Yamato 2 Episode 18
The decisive battle! All ships, combat-ready!
As Yamato rushes back to the solar system, Admiral Hijikata musters the combined might of the Earth fleet to fortify the Saturn defense zone. Meanwhile, Dessler makes his bid for freedom as the war drums begin to sound!
Read our commentary on this episode here
February 14: The New Voyage preproduction, story draft 3
Aritsune Toyota turned in the third plot outline for The New Voyage today, in which invasion forces from Dark Nebula Uralia attempt to tow planet Gamilas to their home in the center of the galaxy. The wedding of Kodai and Yuki is interrupted by this crisis and Yamato launches to join in the chase after a runaway Iscandar. We’re almost to the finished story here, and for the first time, there is a baby.
Read it here
February 14: High 2nd Course, March issue
Gakken’s student digest magazine for 11th graders sent yet another reporter to Academy studio where the production of Yamato 2 would have been at a fever pitch on the Battle of Saturn episodes. When a physical copy of this one can be obtained, you can bet it will be presented here.
February 15: Farewell to Yamato manga, Vol. 3
The third and final volume of Akira Hio’s manga adaptation was published on this day by Asahi Sonorama, bringing the spectacular conclusion of the film to manga for the first and only time since Leiji Matsumoto’s version wouldn’t get that far. It’s also remarkably complete in its presentation, lavishing almost 200 pages on the last 40 minutes of screen time.
Read more about the Akira Hio manga here
February 15: Yamato 2, Terebi Kun special edition Vol. 1
As we’ve seen, Terebi Kun magazine was a great source of Yamato 2 coverage, so it should come as no surprise that they were also the first to publish a dedicated book on the series (the third volume in a line of special editions). Spanning 68 pages, it contained extensive stills from the first 12 episodes and several technical drawings not seen elsewhere. A second volume would follow in June.
As if that weren’t enough, the back cover ad broke news of its own, announcing the rollout of Bridgestone’s amazing Yamato bicycle.
February 15: Manific Vol. 3•4
The third issue of Manific magazine was an oddball for more than one reason. First off, it was sold as a “double issue” to cover two months (February and March), after which it would go bimonthly. Second, despite a Yamato 2 image on the cover, there was no cover story – just some stills on the inside front cover (shown above right). However, a single-page article could be found deeper within that summarized recent episodes.
Read the article here
By the way, if you’re an anime media historian and wonder why you never heard of Manific magazine, there is a very good reason for it. Which will be revealed in the next vintage report. So stay tuned.
February 17: Yamato 2 Episode 19
Yamato – collision in warp!
Returning to the solar system, Yamato discovers a secret Comet Empire missile base on Planet 11. The Earth Defense Fleet waits for them to arrive at Saturn to join the defensive line – but will they wait in vain?
Read our commentary for this episode here
February 19: Hurry, Star Force!
As shown in previous reports, the effort to get Yamato on TV in the English-speaking world got started in 1978, and this ad in Broadcasting magazine showed the effort paying off: the series was now booked on four networks with many more to come. Of course, Star Force would not be the final name of the show, but this was the first confirmation in print of the 52-episode length.
In other words, even though Yamato 2 still had seven episodes to go in Japan, they were all “pre-booked” for their rendezvous with America. Star Force production data is scant, but we know from dates on the Series 2 scripts that the final draft of Series 2 Episode 1 was created on May 14. From that, we can assume that work on Series 1 was well underway when this ad was published.
We also know that Yoshinobu Nishizaki himself was in America around this time, since he would make mention of it in a future memo to the fan club. Keep reading to find that memo below. (Its context may surprise you.)
February 20: Farewell to Yamato storybook, Vol. 1
This all-color, 40-page retelling of the movie was formatted with minimal text and color stills. Volume 1 ended with the encounter with Dessler. Volume 2 would follow in March.
Shogakukan utilized this format for many other children’s books based on movies and TV shows, including both anime and live-action. There were a total of 7 Yamato volumes up to and including The New Voyage.
February 24: Yamato 2 Episode 20
Yamato – a daring surprise attack!
Hijikata assigns Yamato with a critical mission against the approaching enemy: attack and destroy its fighter carrier group before the main body of the massive Comet Empire fleet arrives!
Read our commentary on this episode here
February 25: Newspaper articles
The smash success of Yamato meant Exec Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki had many good days back in the late 70s. This was not one of them. Twin reports in Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun revealed the downside of fame, when everyone knows your business and is eager to share it.
What did the newspapers have to share? Read the articles (and Nishizaki’s response) here.
February 25: Fan club magazine #8
This issue was a Yamato 2 extravaganza with mecha designs (including everyone’s first look at the Comet Empire’s Medaluza), synopses up to Episode 21, messages from readers, and a short round-table discussion between Director Noboru Ishiguro and a group of fans in which he claimed (again) not to know how Yamato 2 was going to end. Based on the content of the discussion, it probably took place in January.
Read it here
The back cover featured a color ad for the forthcoming Farewell to Yamato Deluxe Hardcover book from Office Academy, due out in April.
February 25: The New Voyage preproduction, story draft 4
Today, Toshio Masuda turned in the fourth story treatment for The New Voyage. It ran to twice the length of the others and was far more detailed, even offering new names. The enemy force, called Dark Nebula Volgazen, wanted Iscandar as fodder for its ongoing war against White Nebula Shalbart. The baby introduced in the previous outline was also given a name: Arisa.
Although many of Masuda’s ideas were too ambitious, others were solid enough to remain unchanged in the final film. Read them here.
February 28: The New Voyage preproduction, story draft 5
Hideaki Yamamoto began the story treatment process back in January, and wrapped it up when he produced the fifth draft as a response to Masuda’s version. This was the last draft before the script was written, but still contained a few unique points of its own. For example, what announcement from Yuki at the end of the story would have taken the rest of the saga in a different direction?
Find out here
Also spotted in February
3rd Year Elementary Student, March issue
The various student digest magazines presented at the top of this page were for middle schoolers, but they were also published for the younger set. This one from Shogakukan was for third graders, and even they weren’t immune to Yamato Fever.
Goland Missile Ship model kit
Bandai flooded the zone with the first eight Mecha Collection models in January, and they weren’t about to let anyone forget it in February. Three more kits came out that month, starting with the large-scale Goland ship shown above.
Mecha Collection No. 9: Dessler task force, Comet Empire Destroyer
Hot on its heels were the next two mini-kits: the often-overlooked destroyer…
Mecha Collection No. 10: Goland Missile Ship
…and the smaller version of Goland’s ship. That made it the first ship in the lineup to be released twice in the same month.
See a contemporary Bandai ad at the end of this page.
Yamato 2 mini cards
The Amada Printing Co. was still going great guns after Farewell to Yamato, and released another wave of their mini-cards in February 1979. This set devoted 120 cards to the TV series, which fit the standard Amada pocket book holders. (Click here to see previous sets.)
Glico products
The Glico candy/confectionary company was a major licensor for Farewell to Yamato, and stayed on board for Yamato 2 with one wave of products after another. Their new offerings for February included “license plates” (shown above) and various badges (pins).
See the entire Glico product line here
Space Battleship Yamato Theme song and BGM Collection
Tokuma Shoten, FL1001~2
After the “disco album” was released by Polydor in December ’78, fans wondered what else might arise from another label besides Nippon Columbia, and they got their answer just two months later. Released by the Tokuma Publishing Company, this unique album featured a grab-bag of songs and instrumentals on the middle-ground hybrid format of 8″ flexidiscs, a step up from children’s “phonosheets.”
Tokuma had struck gold with their monthly Animage magazine, establishing a strong relationship with Yamato from the first issue; strong enough to do an end-run around music publishing rights, apparently, since many of the tracks on this release were licensed from Nippon Columbia.
Disc 1 was given over to songs, which included three in karaoke form: From Yamato With Love, The Rival, and The Scarlet Scarf. The second disc was entirely new: 10 minutes per side of coveted BGM tracks from Series 1 and Farewell. Its acceptance was the first indicator that fans didn’t care if they were monaural recordings. All they wanted was the pure sound. Fortunately, Nippon Columbia was paying attention.
Wave-Motion Vol. 7 doujinshi
Meanwhile, in the thriving doujinshi world, Yamato Fan Club Wave-Motion published a loosely-organized 24-page issue of fan art, cartoons, trivia (what did Yamato‘s urinals look like?), comics, and commentary that can be seen from cover to cover here.
February context
Anime magazines published in February 1979: Animage Vol. 9 (Tokuma Shoten), Manific Vol. 3/4 (Rapport), OUT April issue (Minori Shobo)
What’s next
Yamato 2 rockets toward its white-hot conclusion and a new magazine arrives just in time to cover it. More books roll off the presses, The New Voyage is announced as production ramps up, and fandom catches its breath…but for how long? Click here to relive the climactic months of March & April 1979!
Contemporary model kit ad, Bandai