April 1: Roadshow, May issue
With the final episode of Yamato 2 less than a week away, the 5th installment of Roadshow‘s Yamato Newspaper had a lot to cover. It rushed through the events of episodes broadcast in February and early March, said what they could (given press lead time) about what happened after that, and gave some space to Yoshinobu Nishizaki for his response to the “tax evasion” story that got out in February.
Read it all here
April 1: Terebiland, May issue
The big finale! True to Tokuma Shoten’s deep connection with Yamato, Terebiland knocked it out of the park with their last Yamato 2 article, a 7-pager to commemorate the showdown with the Comet Empire.
See the pages here
April 1: Complete Collection of Records, reprint edition
The pinnacle of Yamato book publishing (up to this point) was the 3-volume Complete Collection of Records, known colloquially as the “silver set,” released by Office Academy in June 1978. It was the ultimate reference work on Series 1, and the astronomical price tag (about $300) left no doubt about its heft.
Fans who didn’t have pockets deep enough could breathe a sigh of relief when most of the material was republished in less expensive softcover versions on this day. It was a simple solution to divide up the photo-story, model sheets, and script pages into independent volumes, drop the extra pages and high-end trimmings, and make them available to the saner masses. They retailed for about $45, $20, and $13 respectively.
Below: foldout flyer from Office Academy that included a blurb for the forthcoming “Hot Blood” novelization.
Read more about the Complete Collection of Records here
April 1: Farewell to Yamato Deluxe Edition
As it turned out, the Complete Collection reprint was a booster for Office Academy’s next hardcover book, a 336-page equivalent for Farewell. The format was smaller, but it contained the most comprehensive photo story ever published (only the movie itself was more complete), a treasure trove of production designs, and a complete record of the story drafts from which the final product evolved. (Read them all here.)
Also included was the last of Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s essays on the film, which can be read here.
Read more about this impressive book here.
April 3: Bouken Oh [Adventure King], May issue
Bouken Oh unleashed yet another unique Yamato image on the cover of this issue that was never seen again. And if you look directly below it, you’ll get the first glimpse of the next thing that would shake up the anime world.
As soon as you opened the cover, you were greeted with a new ad from Bandai, promoting the ten Mecha Collection model kits that had been released so far.
As a followup to last issue, this one came with a terrific bonus item, a 30″ X 14″ foldout poster devoted to the mecha of the Comet Empire.
Chapter 11 of Leiji Matsumoto’s Yamato Part 2 manga spanned 16 pages in which the confrontation with Andromeda was settled and the Cosmo Tiger squadron arrived shortly before enemy contact brought us to a cliffhanger.
April 5-8: Voice Voice Voice Festival
Aoni Production, a talent agency that handled a huge number of anime voice actors, held a 10th anniversary variety show in August 1978. It proved popular enough for a return engagement over four days in April. No fewer than 39 beloved actors participated, including Yamato alumni Kei Tomiyama (Kodai), Yoko Asagami (Yuki), Osamu Kobayashi (Zordar), Mari Okamoto (Teresa), and Akira Kamiya (Kato).
Songs and skits were on the roster, some of which put the actors in the shoes of their best known characters. Kodai, Yuki, Zordar, and Teresa all had things to say in a Yamato sketch, everyone participated in a crossover “symphonic drama,” and Leiji Matsumoto himself turned up to address the audience. The entire show was released on a double LP set by Columbia two months later.
A set of three “autographed bromide cards” published after the event.
The cards featured on-stage photos of the actors for Zordar, Kodai, and Yuki with printed autographs.
April 7: Yamato 2 Episode 26
Be Forever, Yamato!
Shrugging off Yamato‘s final attack, Emperor Zordar turns his ultimate weapon against Earth and blasts away in a mad fury. The Comet Empire seems to have won. But there is one force left, stronger than all the anger and hatred in the universe…
Finally, fans who had been wondering for months if the TV series would end differently than the movie got their answer. They actually got more than they bargained for; Leiji Matsumoto had been vocal about his opposition to the main characters dying in self-sacrifice as they do in Farewell. First, because of the uncomfortable comparison to kamikaze pilots in WWII. But also because of his personal philosophy that young people must live on no matter what. In other words, “Life finds a way.”
The finale of Yamato 2 demonstrated exactly what he meant with “live on no matter what” being repeated throughout the episode and Kodai practically apologizing to the audience at the very end for even considering ending his life. Teresa even underscores it by saying, “going home in defeat takes more courage than going home in victory,” which nicely parallels Okita’s advice to Mamoru Kodai in the very first episode of Series 1.
Of course, the biggest upshot of ending Series 2 with Matsumoto’s philosophy was that it opened the door for more Yamato. So everybody wins.
Read our commentary for this episode here
April 9: Middle 1st Age, May issue
Hot on the heels of Yamato 2‘s finale, Obunsha’s student digest magazine for 7th graders became the first source of an article on the next adventure. How did they pull this off without even knowing what it would be called? They took two nuggets of information (it would be broadcast on July 21 (later revised to 31) and revisit Starsha & Mamoru on Iscandar) and ran with them, giving readers a 7-page recap of the first Yamato series as a primer.
See the pages here
April 11: Middle 3rd Age, May issue
Obunsha’s student digest magazine for 9th graders caught up with someone we hadn’t heard from in a while: Leiji Matsumoto. In what must have been a very brief respite between his numerous anime and manga assignments, he sat down with a reporter on March 21 to talk about his first break in the manga world, the birth of the “Matsumoto girl” image, and what he wanted to do next. Also in this issue: results of the “Best Ten” reader poll for voice actors.
Read the 4-page interview and see the poll here
April 15: Farewell to Yamato Animation Cel Collection 2
The first Cel Collection book (published by Shonen Pictorial Co. in December ’78) was an innovative set of 12 replica cels with an scene printed onto an acetate overlay against a thick cardboard background. Eight more were featured in this followup volume, along with an extensive mecha catalog and encyclopedic coverage of the first two Yamato movies.
Of special note was a foldout poster with a 1979 calendar on one side and an exclusive Yamato cutaway painting on the other.
April 15: TV Anime Complete Works 3
This paperback series by anime director/historian Taku Sugiyama, published by Akimoto Shobo, was the first attempt by anyone to create a chronological document of every anime TV series right from the start. (See his first two volumes in Report 13 here.)
His third volume covered every series from Dog of Flanders (1975) to Ann of Green Gables (1979), a period that included Yamato 2.
April 20-24: The New Voyage preproduction
The script had been sorted out by this time, and the design phase was well underway. Chronological records of this phase have not been published, but we have a little to go on thanks to Leiji Matsumoto. Because he was in the habit of dating his character designs, we know that he created the above version of Commander Deda on April 20…
…and a certain little girl on April 24. He also developed a new costume for Yuki around this time, but that drawing was not dated.
April 25: Fan Club Magazine #9
Without missing a beat, this issue jumped right from the conclusion of Yamato 2 to Nishizaki’s official announcement of the next story, a “telefeature” to be broadcast July 21. The title was not given, but he accurately summarized the story we would come to know as The New Voyage. He also mentioned that the first two movies would be re-released in the same month. Also included were fan comments on the end of Yamato 2, a brief description of Voice Voice Voice, and more.
Read translated articles here
This was the issue that included Nishizaki’s message to fans regarding the “tax evasion” accusation leveled by the press in February. It was issued as an insert leaflet containing the same text found in Roadshow magazine at the beginning of the month. After this, nothing further was said about it.
April 30: Cosmoship Yamato manga vol. 2
The most enduring version of Leiji Matsumoto’s “Part 2” manga made its publishing debut on this day, the paperback edition containing his first eight chapters with much better printing than in Bouken Oh. On the other hand, this was also the version where all secondary colors were converted to greyscale.
There would be enough material for a third volume (most of which hadn’t been drawn yet), which was published almost a year later.
Also spotted in April
Newspaper article
The exact newspaper and the exact date are unknown, but this article made for a perfect index point between the end of Yamato 2 and the beginning of the next phase. Here’s what it says…
Yamato to “launch” for the third time time!
Fuji TV will broadcast a new work in July
The Space Battleship Yamato, which was supposed to have disappeared forever beyond the universe, will be resurrected again.
The first Yamato movie was broadcast last summer and the latest TV broadcast ended within the last week. This summer, the majestic figure will appear again in front of boy and girl fans alike on TV and in theaters. Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki reveals the “inside story” of the immortal Yamato as follows…
The “final part” will be shown in theaters next summer. The finale of the 26-episode Yamato 2 TV series (broadcast April 7th) earned a 27.7% viewer rating (according to Nielsen), showing that the popularity of the show has not yet waned.
Yamato was first broadcast by Yomirui TV in October 1974. It always earned 20-30% of the total viewer ratings [in reruns], and was a hit with everyone from children to young adults. In August 1977, Yamato was released as a theatrical movie, and its sequel Farewell to Yamato was screened the following year.
The movies were also a big hit, with the first one earning 1 billion yen and the second earning 2.14 billion yen. In addition, Yamato 2, which was broadcast as a series from October 1978, averaged 23%. The popularity of the series did not decline.
Yamato, which was supposed to have been crushed in a spectacular defeat, is coming back. This is not good news for some fans, but it will be interesting to see in what form Yamato will reappear.
Fuji TV will be the first to make such a move. The station will broadcast Yamato‘s new telefeature, The New Voyage, on July 21.
The story begins as a sequel to Yamato 2, which was broadcast by Nippon TV. There is no rest for Yamato and its crew, who contributed to peace on Earth. In the universe 570,000 light-years away, the Uralian Empire is on the rampage, and soon plans to invade Earth.
This Yamato is a subject of curiosity. In other words, Yamato‘s inevitable return will occur on TV, and the aim is to create Yamato Revival: the Final Chapter for release in movie theaters in August of next year [1980]. It has also been decided that the first and second films, which were well-received, will be re-released in Toei theaters on July 14, so Yamato will now earn “three times” more money.
The reason Yamato is being revived after it was supposed to have been crushed by the giant battleship of the White Comet is explained by Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki:
“Yamato was going to stop after Part 2, but since there were fans who still wanted to see it, I felt it was my duty as the creator to make it. Now I really feel that Yamato belongs to them and not to me. Yamato was originally a fun space opera based on the theme of love. Rather than asking why Yamato is being revived, I want to go back to the basics and make it an enjoyable work.”
Fans, as well as the movie industry and TV stations, have been spreading the word about Yamato to help make it popular. The film industry and TV stations also felt that it would be a shame to let Yamato die while it was still so popular. It seems that Producer Nishizaki was forced to “revive” Yamato in response to these requests.
Playboy, May issue
Bet you didn’t expect to see THIS. Like its American counterpart, the Japanese edition of Playboy always kept an eye on pop culture, and that’s what qualified them to answer a question from a reader…
Q: I am a fan of Yoko Asagami, the voice actress for Yuki Mori in Space Battleship Yamato. Please tell us more about her (and of course, include a picture).
(Shinichi Tsuchiya, High School Senior, age 18 / Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture)
A: Hi, we posted her real face as you requested. She looks very young, like a high school student. However, she was born on July 10, 1952, which makes her 26 years old. You never know how old a woman is.
She has loved anime since she was a child. When she grew up, she really wanted to be an anime actor. After graduating from Kamakura High School, she became a student of Ryo Kurosawa’s “Afreco Class” and entered the world of afreco she had longed for. She has been the voice of Yuki Mori since “Part 1” started on NTV in 1974. She says, “When I spoke in my natural voice, I was told that I had a ‘childlike sexiness’ and passed the audition.”
Currently, in addition to NTV’s Yamato, she works for Nippon Broadcasting and makes regular appearances on the radio program Youth Boulevard. She has also done voice-over work for foreign actors, including Pamela Franklin, Patty Duke, Sandra Dee, and others. She is single, 156cm, 45kg, B81/W58/H86. She wears white underwear (or so she says). She has astigmatism and wears contact lenses. (That’s why her eyes are so sexy.) Her nickname is Astor (!)
Her favorite things are Jack Daniels with soda, stir-fried liver, french bread, chatting with good friends, and the sound of piano. Her ideal man is blood type O, hairy chest, 175cm tall, athletic, fair skinned, looks good in suits, and is about 10 years older than her (neither you nor I fit the bill).
She has a record titled Good Morning Sea coming out on March 25 (Columbia). If you’re a fan, buy it.
Iscandar Vol. 8 doujinshi
Few Yamato fanzines made it past their first couple issues, but Iscandar from Cosmo Battleship Yamato Connection was a happy exception, ultimately running all the way through the original production years. This 38-page issue contained prodigious commentary, fan art fanfic, and even a short parody manga.
See it from cover to cover here
Bandai Space Panorama set 1: Earth Defense Force
With ten Mecha Collection mini-models in the lineup, Bandai’s next move was to find ways to repackage them. The “Space Panorama” concept did just that, bundling five kits in a single box with cardboard backdrops and mounting arms to create your own space scenes.
The first set contained Yamato, Andromeda, an EDF Battleship, and a Cosmo Tiger squaring off against a single, hapless Baruze carrier.
Bandai Space Panorama set 2: White Comet Army
The second set balanced the scales with five enemy ships: Comet Empire destroyer, Naska’s carrier, Goland’s missile ship, Dessler’s battleship, and Zordar’s Super Giant Battleship.
These were successful enough to spawn three more Space Panorama sets, which would be released in August after five more Mecha Collection models could be added to the mix. All five sets were reissued exactly thirty years later in 2009.
Record collection
Despite their relative absence in these reports, do not doubt that at any given moment in 1979 you could find Yamato songs on some new collection from Nippon Columbia or another label. You don’t often see them here because their release dates are elusive, but these two definitely arrived in April 1979.
Terebi Manga Action Deluxe (left) contained the Yamato theme and The Scarlet Scarf from Series 1, along with songs from Arrow Emblem Grand Prix, Star of the Giants, Gatchaman, and others.
Terebi Manga All-Star Roundup (right) contained the Yamato theme and Teresa Forever from Series 2, combined with songs from Captain Future, Gatchaman, Toei’s live-action Spider-Man, Galaxy Express, Treasure Island, and more.
1979 was a “record year” for these collections, so they’ll be ganged up when we reach the end of it.
April 1979 context
Mobile Suit Gundam debuts, April 7
In one of the most symbolic handoffs of all time, the final episode of Yamato 2 was broadcast on the same day as the premiere episode of Mobile Suit Gundam. (Gundam was actually on earlier in the evening, but it’s a better story without that particular detail.) Like Yamato, Gundam had to fight and lose a ratings battle before it grew beyond all expectations, but April 7 1979 became forever known as an inflection point as Gundam slowly built upon Yamato‘s foundation to become the most successful anime franchise of all time.
In case you’re wondering about other connections between Gundam and Yamato, some of them are explored here:
This manga (published in English by Denpa in June 2022) belongs on the shelves of Gundam fans, Yamato fans, and general anime fans alike. It’s a satirical biography of how Gundam was made, with a lot of comedy overlaid onto reality by artist Hideki Owada. You’ll find Yamato references throughout the story, including the apocryphal scene above.
Don’t wait another moment; click here to order your copy today!
Anime magazines published in April
Quarterly Fantoche Vol. 2 (Fantoche Editorial Office), Animage Vol. 11 (Tokuma Shoten), OUT June issue (Minori Shobo).
OUT was an early adopter of the Gundam phenomenon, kicking off what would be a very successful partnership over the next few years. Learn more about Fantoche at the end of Report 17 here.
What’s Next
As spring gives way to summer, Academy Studio announces its next slate of projects, media coverage shifts in anticipation for The New Voyage, more books and model kits arrive, live events bring fans together, and the anime world gets ever larger!
Click here for Vintage Report 20, covering May and June 1979!