THE BIG 3 ANTICIPATED MOVIES
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Space Battleship Yamato The Final Chapter
SCENARIO MINI PURSUIT
Captain disqualified! Susumu Kodai
The beginning of the story of The Final Chapter was introduced in the October issue, but this month the main thing is a mini pursuit of what happens next by talking with Producer Nishizaki.
MARCH ’83 RELEASE!!
Is Yamato my older brother, my father, or is it my friend…?
Art by Shinya Takahashi
Yamato is attacked by Dengil hyper-radiation missiles and
returns to Earth. Yuki pushes people aside and runs into the
ship. She finds Susumu lying near his helmet. “No, not dead!!”
Yuki shakes Susumu, but he doesn’t wake up. Yuki suddenly
grabs his gun and tries to shoot herself.
Yuki is asked to submit Susumu’s letter of resignation
Yuki tried to dissuade him from resigning and stop the letter in the first draft…
INTERVIEW WITH PRODUCER YOSHINOBU NISHIZAKI
Animage: In this issue, it looks like Susumu dies on Yamato, but it’s not true. Please introduce readers to the scene…
Nishizaki: Two incidents are depicted; the crew plunges into a crisis in one scene for the sake of a few Dengil people, and Yamato itself faces the danger of Dengil’s hyper-radiation missiles. In other words, as a captain Susumu is too much of a humanist, and expressing it disqualifies him as a commanding officer. Afterward, he keenly realizes his responsibility as the captain of a ship. He makes up his mind to leave Yamato and entrusts his resignation to Yuki.
Animage: Susumu isn’t dead, but goes into a state of suspended animation.
Nishizaki: Of course. If the hero was going to die, I wouldn’t talk about it. (Laughs) So the first time he decides to leave Yamato, Susumu realizes what a major presence Yamato is for him, and notices how much he loved it. You might consider this the scene from which the real drama of Final Yamato progresses. It ends when Susumu voluntarily leaves his beloved Yamato.
Animage: Is the song Me and Yamato with lyrics by Yu Aku (see the November issue) used in this scene?
Nishizaki: Yes, when Susumu decides to resign he says his last goodbye to Yamato on the first bridge, and it flows with Isao Sasaki’s song.
Animage: In a previous scene, does Yuki receive Susumu’s letter of resignation?
Nishizaki: Yes…actually, in the first draft of the script, there was a scene where Yuki said, “You only have Yamato” and stopped him from resigning, which gave him a restart.
Animage: Was it cut?
Nishizaki: In the end, if everything was left in it would be too long. I cut it reluctantly. However, I prepared another scene to foreshadow the decision for Kodai and Yuki to live together as a couple. It’s in the second half, but they both get on the Cosmo Zero in a battle scene against the fleet of Lugal Jr.
Animage: Susumu recovers because of Yuki’s words – that’s what the audience wants to see.
Nishizaki: I wanted to put that in too, but it couldn’t be helped.
Animage: What happens after Susumu leaves Yamato?
Nishizaki: He recognizes his deep relationship with Yamato, and that he can’t do without it, so he wants to start over with Yamato once again. Even being just a simple soldier would be good, and he wants to return to Yamato. And when he boards the ship again, he meets captain Juuzo Okita, who has been miraculously revived.
(Interviewed October 14 in Akasaka, Tokyo)
Susumu says his last goodbye to Yamato. The insert song Me and Yamato flows in the background
For Susumu, Yamato is a father and a friend, that’s how it is expressed in the lyrics.
Yu Aku
lyricist
Susumu Kodai is not a special human being with something that only he can do, he’s a young man who is a desirable type in a universal sense. And so, these sorts of people he would encounter, the people who would make him the man he is – as a friend, as a father, as a brother, that role for Kodai ends up being taken by Yamato in place of a person. That’s what I was trying to have the listener take away from this.
Therefore, in Me and Yamato, I used the refrain, is Yamato my older brother, my father, or is Yamato my friend? I proposed a scene to Mr. Nishizaki that would use this song. Susumu unceremoniously decides to withdraw from Yamato. But because there should be a certain amount of contemplation in him, I thought it would be good to add a song to the scene in which he says goodbye to Yamato.
YOUNG STAFF MINI-INTRODUCTION
I want to create a good work!!
Hideki Takayama
effects director
Hideki Takayama (28) is in charge of special effects and on-screen integration in Yamato. He got his start as an assistant director for Akinori Orai and Yoshinori Kanada at Number One Productions (the forerunner of the current Number One). His previous work includes Captain Future, centering on storyboarding for Toei Animation. He was involved in both Farewell to Yamato and Be Forever, and he has great ambitions for this third film.
“I want to make new battle scenes that change the use of effects for things like laser beams. The quality and schedule are intense, but I want to create a good work.”
[Translator’s coda: Akinori Orai served as the series director of Endless Road SSX; see his other credits here.Hideki Takayama went on to a prolific career which included working as a unit director on Yamato Resurrection; see his other credits here.]
Susumu is again drawn into the vortex of battle
The enemy is the mobile fortress mothership of Lugal Jr.
Susumu Kodai for me
YUTAKA IZUBUCHI
Eh, I don’t have any particular feelings about Susumu Kodai or other characters. But if you were to describe him in a word, I think he is good as a flawed human being. No, I think it’s because of that you can buy him as a main character. He has grown and developed, but “Kodai” is not worthy of the leading role. As this campus youth drama unfolded aboard the ship (seriously…), the clumsy, reckless version of him from the first series is very “like” him. The Kodai from the second series is very much a goody-goody. The more you play that, the more seams start to show in the character, which I don’t like. However, at this point, you can’t play this like an old-style high school drama (much as there’s a part of me that would like to), and perhaps that’s how he’s gradually developed into a flawed Kodai-kun lately.
Editor’s note: The Final Chapter is Mr. Izubuchi’s first feature film, and he is involved with Yamato as a mecha designer.
illustration by Geki Katsumata
Anime Micro News: A gathering of 600 people including Yu Aku, Hiroshi Miyagawa, and Leiji Matsumoto
A lively event was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Space Battleship Yamato and to encourage Yoshinobu Nishizaki
captions:
LEFT: Nishizaki gives a speech with Nobuo Hara, Sharps and Flats, and the Yamato Symphonic Orchestra playing in the background.
RIGHT: A firm handshake with Leiji Matsumoto.
Yamato sparked the current anime boom. Demonstrating just how great its influence was, a grand party titled “Space Battleship Yamato 10th Anniversary: A Party to Encourage Yoshinobu Nishizaki,” was held on October 22nd at the Heian Hall of Hotel Okura in Toranomon, Tokyo.
Attendees included organizers President Shigeru Okada of Toei and President Yasuyoshi Tokuma of Tokuma Shoten (publisher of this magazine), along with Senator Shintaro Ishihara, lyricist Yu Aku, actor Hiroki Matsukata, singer Akihiro Miwa, film critic Kazuko Komori, SF writer Aritsune Toyota, composers Hiroshi Miyagawa and Kentaro Haneda, singers Tomoko Kuwae and Junko Yagami, Tranzam, Isao Sasaki and Miyuki Ueda, voice actor Kei Tomiyama, animators Kazuhiko Udagawa, Shinya Takahashi, Toyoo Ashida, Kenzo Koizumi, artist Tsuji Tadanao, and others, including Nishizaki’s own first love and a school friend said to be the model for Yuki, along with media representatives, totaling about 600 people.
Incidentally, the name of this gathering was “The Yoshinobu Nishizaki Encouragement Meeting.” Why an “Encouragement Meeting” now? Listen to the greeting from the organizer, President Tokuma:
“Nishizaki-kun achieved a miraculous success with Yamato. That sudden success led to a brief period of arrogance, conceit, and complacency (Note: Academy, the production company behind Yamato, subsequently went bankrupt). However, he overcame that challenge and is making a comeback with next year’s Final Chapter. Please encourage Nishizaki-kun, who has established anime culture, and say, ‘Keep up the good work’.”
In response, Producer Nishizaki, clad in a black tuxedo and bowtie, said, “I feel happy to have been able to make this film available to the world. I’m also pleased to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented people, including Toshio Masuda, Leiji Matsumoto, and the animators. However, looking back over the past ten years, there are many things I regret. In particular, the first Yamato film, released in 1977. After it was a hit, I mistakenly assumed that the work was solely my own, to do with as I pleased. I imagine this appeared unsightly to everyone. As the saying goes, a decade marks a turning point. After completing the Final Chapter for release next year, I too wish to embrace a new decade.”
Whether this party, which was meant to be a step toward the success of The Final Chapter, bears fruit will ultimately depend on next year’s work itself.
Special thanks to Neil Nadelman for translation support.