Event Report: Space Battleship Yamato the Movie 4K remaster talk event
Date: Sunday, December 10, 2023
Venue: Shinjuku Piccadilly Screen 3
Speakers: Isao Sasaki, Akira Miyagawa
Moderator: Yasuma Matsui
See the original post here
Space Battleship Yamato will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its anime broadcast in 2024.
“I never imagined that I would be singing for 50 years,” Mr. Sasaki said. “Thanks to everyone’s support, I’ve been able to continue singing on this long journey.”
He prefaced his speech by saying that when he sings, he prepares by working hard to sing as close as possible to the way he did back then.
“Today is a talk event, so I don’t have to do any preparation. I’m just taking it easy,” he said, eliciting laughter.
Needless to say, Akira Miyagawa was very happy to be there. He is the eldest son of Hiroshi Miyagawa, who composed the theme song sung by Mr. Sasaki, and is in charge of music for the remake series that began with Yamato 2199. He reminisced with a smile.
“I really think my father should be here. I admired my father’s back and his music.”
When the series was first broadcast, it was called a TV manga, not an anime. The theme song, which begins with “Farewell Earth,” is a milestone in anime songs. The story goes that the score was sent to Mr. Sasaki just three days before the recording was to begin.
“In those days,” he said, “we didn’t have karaoke, so they just sent me the score. I learned it by playing it on the piano myself. It was a piece of paper, and it said, ‘Composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa, lyrics by Yuu Aku.’ I thought, ‘Wow!’ My first impression was that it was a strange song. I was told to hurry up and learn it, so I did my best to memorize it and went to the recording session. But in fact, the score that was sent to me had a flat that they forgot to put in. It was supposed to be in C minor, but it was written in C major.”
Mr. Miyagawa laughed when he said, “Singing it in major makes it sound like an Okinawan folk song.”
Still, Sasaki memorized the song as written and went to the recording location.
“I had a rough time. (Laughs) I was told I had one hour before the producer arrived. I practiced quickly in the studio, dabbling on the piano. I had to hurry up and practice while playing the notes and I finally memorized the music.”
He remembers that when he first heard the song he laughed it off with the impression that it was a “weird song.”
[Side note: if you’d like to hear just how weird it would have been in C Major, click here to listen to a fan play it that way.]The 4K remaster of Farewell to Yamato will be screened from January 5 next year. One of the representative songs of the film, the White Comet Theme, was performed on pipe organ by Miyagawa, who was a high school student at the time.
“It’s a salty memory for me,” said Miyagawa with a wry smile. “I had started playing in a band and was studying composition. My father asked me, ‘You can play organ, right?’ I said, ‘Yes, I can.’ Then, he said, ‘Well, play it.’ I participated in a recording session at Musashino Music College, but I had never touched a pipe organ. I had never played foot pedals, so I played the organ and the professor at the university played the pedals, so it was recorded as a duet.”
He also confided that his first pipe organ performance did not go so well, and that he had to record with tears of frustration. He added, “I had a hard time playing the pipe organ for the first time. I had fried rice (actually Chinese rice bowl) during the intermission and it tasted salty [from my tears].”
He also apologized to the audience. “I’m sorry if I’ve shattered everyone’s dreams…”
When the instrumental album Symphonic Suite Space Battleship Yamato was released, in which the Yamato BGM was rearranged for orchestra, it changed the image of anime music.
“My father must have been aware that this was his masterpiece,” Mr. Miyagawa said. “In fact, I still have the score! He was famous for not leaving scores behind!”
Mr. Sasaki, who could not hide his surprise, said, “The Symphonic Suite was created by him. He covered a wide range of genres, so he brought in motifs from various places.”
Mr. Miyagawa also praised the Symphonic Suite highly by saying, “It transcends boundaries in many ways. Between adults and children, between TV manga and anime, between classical and popular music, and between rock and pop. It also has a taste that reminds you of military songs, and there’s a side of modern rock that is extremely cool. It bridges the gap between various genres from various angles.”
In his closing remarks, Sasaki said, “Thank you for watching the film. I’ve been able to work hard for 50 years because you saw the film and heard the theme song. I don’t know if it’s going to be for another two or three years, but I will continue to sing as long as my voice is strong enough. Thank you for continuing to support Yamato!”
He ended the event with a smile and a big round of applause.
Why did Isao Sasaki think Space Battleship Yamato was a “strange song that I didn’t think was a good song”?
Excerpt from Edgeline
Mr. Sasaki said that when he first received the scores for the songs Space Battleship Yamato and The Scarlet Scarf, “They were so strange that I didn’t think they were good songs.”
That’s not surprising, since the first score he was given was actually in the wrong chord. When he went to the recording studio, he found that it was a completely different song, which made him nervous.
He said, “I had an hour before the producer arrived, so I learned it by playing a piano I couldn’t play (laugh).” This was the reason for the hardship.
At the time of release, he often went fishing in his spare time. Apparently, his father was worried about him. But he became very busy when the movie was released and was reported to have attracted 4 million viewers.
“The entertainment industry is amazing,” he said sincerely. “They didn’t pay much attention to those who were idle, but when there was something going on, they’d all come calling and all kinds of amazing things would happen.”
About the role of Saito, Sasaki said, “My impression was that he’s just fat and disheveled.” Apparently, he was suddenly given the role, and he was surprised to find that later that Saito became an impressive character.
Isao Sasaki: “I thought Space Battleship Yamato was a strange song.”
Akira Miyagawa: “It’s just like Matsuken Samba.”
Excerpt from Tokyo Headline
Sasaki explained how he was asked to sing the theme song.
“First, I sang the opening theme song for Casshan and it was well received, so six months later I was asked to do two or three more. In a hurry, I received a letter saying, ‘I want you to sing this one too.’ I was given two A4 sheets of paper, one for The Scarlet Scarf and the other for Space Battleship Yamato. It said the music was composed by Hiroshi Miyagawa and the lyrics were written by Yu Aku. I thought, ‘this is great,’ but I was very nervous.”
“In those days, they would send me the score. I would look at it and memorize it by following it on the piano. Then I would go to the studio, listen to the orchestra play it, and think, ‘This is an amazing piece of music’.”
However, he described a shocking moment. “With Yamato, the score was wrong. It was supposed to be in C minor, but it was indicated as C major, and I memorized it that way. When I went to the site and listened to the [recorded] orchestra, it didn’t match at all.”
Miyagawa said, “When you sing that song in major, the melody becomes like an Okinawan folk song.”
Sasaki also laughed and said, “I thought Miyagawa-sensei shouldn’t write such strange songs. When he was composing the song, he forgot to put in three flats, and I got into a lot of trouble. So when he asked me, ‘Did you think it was a good song?’ I didn’t think so.”
Akira Miyagawa, who was in the second year of junior high school when the song was first broadcast on TV, said, “I was definitely one of the first Yamato fans. When I went to school, I was one of only three people watching (Laughs). The competing program was strong. The TV in our first-floor living room was tuned to Girl of the Alps Heidi. I would lie upstairs in my father’s bedroom watching on the portable black-and-white TV.”
“Still, I was impressed. I was lying down at first, but as soon as Yamato appeared, I got up. I was fascinated, thinking, ‘What the heck is this?’ I just devoured it. The only others who watched were two people in the classroom next to mine. That’s how it was 50 years ago.”
However, in 1977, the movie version was released and became a big hit, triggering the first anime boom. The following year, Farewell to Yamato was released to an audience of more than 4 million.
“Yamato‘s winter period lasted only three years,” Miyagawa said. “When it became popular, it was a tremendous social phenomenon, and the atmosphere was such that it appeared on the social page instead of the entertainment section. Somewhere along the way, I thought to myself, ‘I want to be on this boat’.”
Sasaki said, “Even after the recording was over, it didn’t become popular for a while. In the summer, I used to go night fishing at Urayasu Beach. The week after I appeared in the newspaper and said, ‘Yamato is amazing,’ I became extremely busy. The entertainment industry is amazing. They didn’t pay much attention to those who were idle, but when there was something going on, they’d all come calling and all kinds of amazing things would happen.”
Miyagawa expressed his nostalgia for the frenzy of those days with a unique expression. “The lyric To Iscandar, Beyond the Universe was No. 1 on the Oricon chart. I’m proud of it, but I was like, ‘Is this okay? It’s just like Matsuken Samba II‘.” (Referring to another of his father’s hits.)
