New Yamato, Development Memo 6

Dated May 9 2004, this was the stage in which all the major story beats were locked down in a complete series synopsis. There were still more details to come, but for all intents and purposes, this was the intended story of New Yamato. The exact authorship of this document is unclear, but it is most likely to be Yoshinobu Nishizaki himself. He was definitely the author of a three-page supplement at the end.

This mood-setting illustration by Makoto Kobayashi was done during the 1993 development of Yamato Resurrection, and could have had a strong influence on the opening scene described here.


Episode 1

• The sea of Aquarion [Aquarius]. A rusty red winch lowers a submersible. Susumu Kodai is on board. We dive deep into the sea of Aquarion. Before long, there is a reaction on the radar. A broken main gun battery is illuminated by the feeble light.

Kodai: Yamato

It is the figure of Yamato, sunk in a past battle.

• Goh Kamishiro (tentative) lives with his older brother, Sei Kamishiro.

Goh: I’m leaving.

Sei: Hey, light the incense.

Goh: Oh, right.

They join hands and pray at the altar of their parents.

Goh: Okay, I’m off. I’ll be going to the research institute later.

Sei: I may not go today.

Goh: What?

Sei: No…

Goh leaves for flight school with the feeling that he caught something in the words of the his brother.

• Goh’s best friend Masato waits for him at a bus stop. A lovely girl named Misaki passes by.

• Planet Dorau Mimil of the Balbard Empire appears in the Oort Cloud. General Baharuk Gau, Minister of Earth Control, tips his glass while looking at Earth.

Baharuk: That planet isn’t worth even one drop of this liquor. Begin the scorched Earth operation!

Yamato rises slowly on balloons of micro glass balls attached to its hull. Kodai and Sanada watch.

Sanada: Our Yamato

Overhead, wispy tendrils extend toward Earth like the wakes of ships.

Kodai:

Sanada senses trouble and returns to the moon immediately.

Sanada: Hope lies on the moon.

• The Balbard Empire begins their attack on earth. Countless warships appear and conquer the Earth in no time.

• During a flight exercise, Goh and Masato evade attack craft and somehow make it down to the ground. They each head to their homes. Goh returns home, but doesn’t see his older brother. He dashes outside with the memorial tablet from the altar. If Sei isn’t at home, he’ll be at the research institute.

• On the other hand, Masato returns home to find his mother about to flee.

Masato: Mother!

Mother: Masato!

At that moment, the house is blown apart by a beam from the sky. Masato cries bitterly.

• Goh reaches the military research institute, and finds it surrounded by aliens. As he waits for a chance to slip inside, the aliens line up and Sei comes walking out slowly between them.

Goh: Big brother Sei!

A Balbard officer notices and aims his gun at Goh. Sei notices and leaps past the officers, rushing over to Goh – and kicks him to the ground.

Goh: Sei…why are you doing this? You’re my brother.

Sei: From this moment, I have no need for words like brother or parent.

Sei stomps on the memorial tablet.

Goh: !

Sei commands a Balbard Empire officer to take Goh prisoner.

• The huge cage Ru Sak Gar is made to surround Earth.

• Kodai and Yuki communicate their goodbyes.

• Goh is loaded into a prison ship with with Masato. There, he meets Misaki and the future Yamato crew.

• Sei is welcomed into the Balbard Empire. Baharuk appears on a Monitor.

Baharuk: Sei, your information was accurate.

Sei: Thank you, your highness.

Baharuk: I intend to adopt your proposal. The first step is to destroy all Earth warships.

Sei: Do you mean Yamato, too?

Baharuk: Of course, all warships.

Yamato has been raised halfway out of the sea of Aquarius. Several combat ships of the Balbard Empire approach. There is no resistance. All the wreckage of Yamato is pulled up by a tractor beam.

• New Yamato lies underground on the far side of the moon. Sanada tries to launch, but its trial voyage has not been finished yet, so it takes time to start the engines. A combat ship approaches, but flies on without noticing them.

• Kodai takes a combat ship to try and get Yamato back, but he fights in vain and Yamato is carried away.

• Goh and Masato have been put on a transport ship as captives (heading toward Dorau Mimil). Masato notices Misaki is there, but Goh has no time for that now. What happened to his gentle older brother? And what will happen to Earth?

The ship shakes. Kodai attacks it with his combat ship.

Goh and the others are rescued as a result, but Kodai didn’t know they were on board.

Young people: We should fight back! No, we should escape!

Their voices cry out, but Kodai silences them with a single gunshot.

Kodai: I have to go. It’s not my concern what kind of danger you get yourselves into.

Kodai makes a shift (a Balbard Empire warp) toward Yamato.

• A place one light-year away from the earth. One of the stars moves. A huge system sandwiches it from above and below. It is the experimental supernova bomb Galdora. Most of Earth’s warships have been placed around it. They’re being treated as experimental ships to investigate the effects of the bomb.

• Kodai arrives at Yamato. He turns his ship over to Goh and the others who boarded it, and marches onto Yamato alone. He picks up the hat of Captain Okita on the bridge (Okita’s body is not there).

• But Galdora ignites, and a flash lights up space.

[Translator’s note: since there are obviously no stars at the distance of one light-year from the sun, it’s possible this was meant to be an artificial star, or one brought here by the Balbard forces. If so, this element may have influenced the manipulation of a star by the SUS in Yamato Resurrection]

Episode 2

• New Yamato launches from the moon. (On board is the minimum number of crew needed to operate it.)

• Sei is rebuked. He makes the excuse that New Yamato was a top secret of the Earth forces, and he didn’t know about it.

• New Yamato warps to we know not where.

• The Galdora operation. Earth’s warships are caught up in the supernova. At the last moment, Yamato fires its Wave-Motion Gun and shatters the shock wave of the explosion. But Yamato stops moving and the Wave-Motion Engine finally quits.

Kodai: Is that all? Is that all Yamato has?!

A combat ship of the military observation unit attacks. Yamato is helpless and will be destroyed. Suddenly, a Cosmo Zero intercepts the ship. It is Goh. He snuck onto Yamato alone and discovered the Cosmo Zero sealed in a hangar (since there may be problems with the design, another aircraft is acceptable).

[Translator’s note: as with the previous memo, this problem refers to the then-current rights dispute with Leiji Matsumoto.)

• A battle cruiser of the observation unit appears. The Cosmo Zero is helpless against it. Its main battery aims at Yamato, and a beam destroys it. Kodai is shaken on the bridge.

Kodai: All the way out here…there’s someone else! That’s impossible!

Another beam pierces through the battle cruiser. It is from New Yamato.

• Kodai and Sanada are reunited.

• Several other warships were saved by Yamato‘s Wave-Motion Gun. A few Earthlings are on board. Goh rescues them and an Earth fleet is formed.

• The flagship is Yamato. The captain is Kodai. Brigadier General Archie Worlas (tentative) was saved on one of the ships and is made fleet commander. Goh and most of the other crewmembers are young people.

• Old Yamato is severely damaged. It is said that Sanada may be able to repair it somehow. He will stay behind with a group of engineers who came out with New Yamato, and begin repairs on old Yamato. (They will salvage parts from the warships destroyed by the supernova bomb.)

• Information on the Balbard Empire side (including the satellite Dorau Mimil in the Oort Cloud) is seen by analyzing information in the ship Kodai flew out.

Episode 3

• Zaara fights at the front (her enemy is unclear. It could be the remaining Earth fleet, Bolar, or Gamilas). She turns over her hourglass.

Zaara: This is all that’s left for you.

And she destroys all the enemy warships before the sand in the hourglass finishes falling. Communication comes in from Baharuk.

Baharuk: We have a rat or two left. I want you to exterminate them.

• Sei makes a proposal to Baharuk.

Sei: Even if you call back Zaara of the Sand, they’re using outdated systems, such as a warp. When they try to warp Yamato, they’ll die.

Baharuk: What is your saying on Earth? Even when a lion hunts rabbits, he still does his best.

• The Yamato fleet comes together and makes a warp for Earth. As soon as they enter warp space, they are detected by the Balbard Empire.

Sei: Fire Warp Cannon!

The beam tears through warp space. Carrier Kaga (tentative) is hit, and the Yamato fleet drops out of warp.

• A black shadow appears before them (because they’re still one light-year from the sun, its light is weak) and they can only recognize the enemy by shooting off a flare. It is Zaara’s fleet. Her finger flips the hourglass.

Zaara: Cherish the time you have left.

The attack begins at once.

• A mirror torpedo (or is it half mirror material?) flies toward New Yamato, leaving a wake in space.

Episode 4

• Carrier Kaga moves into the path of the torpedo (it somehow managed to get out of warp space). Kaga is hit and destroyed. Through the smoke, Yamato‘s main guns fire on Zaara’s fleet. Aircraft take off from Kaga as it sinks (they will become New Yamato‘s Rouge Lynx squadron) and fire sub-space torpedoes. Half the Zaara fleet is lost.

Zaara: This is the first time anyone has used up the hourglass. But I’ll show you why I am called Zaara of the Sand!

• The main gun battery of Zaara’s ship fires. Rather than exploding, it disables the attractive force between atoms and turns them into sand. The armor of the warships doesn’t explode, but breaks up into sand grains.

The fleet takes evasive action. Only New Yamato turns its bow toward Zaara’s fleet. It takes many hits and its armor blows off as sand to vanish into space. Still, New Yamato fires its Wave-Motion Gun into Zaara’s fleet. Zaara’s fleet is defeated.

The Yamato fleet has won for now.

• If they try to warp again, clearly they will be attacked by the Warp Cannon. Even if they travel to Earth at sub-light velocity, it will take about a year. They will reach Dorau Mimil in the Oort Cloud in half a year.

But they must go, even at sub-light velocity in order to save Earth.

• Communication comes in from Sei.

Episode 5

• Sei laughs. No matter what they do, it will be a waste of time. Gene reconstruction of Earth’s people will be carried out to benefit the Balbard Empire.

Goh: Big brother Sei!

Sei: Goh. Stop being useless. This is my last advice to you as your older brother.

Goh: Unforgivable!

Goh builds up his anger at Sei.

• They must proceed hastily at sub-light speed before the human race goes extinct in one year. The speed of the fleet will be determined by its slowest ship. The slowest is a standard vessel called Space Defense Ship No. 36. Worlas wants to leave No. 36 behind, but Kodai objects.

• Go to Dorau Mimil in the Oort Cloud.

• Rather than a battle scene, the spotlight is on human relations on the ship. Goh’s relationship with Misaki, and others.

• Gulaga appears.

Episode 6

• The attack of Scorching Gulaga. Sporadic attacks attempt to stop the advance of the New Yamato fleet.

• Gulaga calls upon Blau, a lowly one-eyed underling on his ship.

Gulaga: I have ideal work for a dirty man like you.

Blau: I can do anything a Balbard soldier can do.

There is a rivalry between the two of them.

• Blau makes a sortie in a space submarine.

• Blau and Worlas take the measure of each other. Attacks are avoided by a narrow margin.

Episode 7

• The Yamato fleet is cornered by Blau’s attack. Considerable damage is done.

• Worlas and Blau fight with equal intellect. It becomes impossible for New Yamato to maneuver, and the space submarine appears before it. Worlas and Blau regard each other. Blau gives the order for a final attack.

But Blau is attacked from behind. The Gulaga fleet appears from behind and sinks the submarine.

Gulaga: I thought you’d like to go out as a military hero, Blau!

Blau: A man who thinks only of himself doesn’t see the big picture.

Blau musters the last of his strength and turns toward the Gulaga fleet. He sends a message to Worlas: “Escape.”

• Worlas wants to go and help Blau, but Kodai intervenes.

Kodai: That man is putting his own life on the line. Don’t waste it.

The Yamato fleet escapes sadly.

• A flash of light in space. It was the last of Blau.

Episode 8

• The Yamato fleet has escaped from enemy hands.

• Although the Gulaga fleet was damaged to some extent, it is still in good health.

• Various human relations on board Yamato.

• A revolt on the earth. Yuki’s pirate radio broadcasts encourage the rebel army.

• Gulaga pursues the Yamato fleet. They fight back and Gulaga retreats, leaving one lifeboat behind. New Yamato draws it on board. Gas immediately bursts out of it.

Episode 9

• Gas spreads through New Yamato. Someone will be sacrificed if they try to stop it. Contaminated air is released through the airlock, but more is still coming out of the lifeboat.

• It is not just gas, it is corrosive. Even if a partition is closed, it soon begins to corrode from the gas. The ship falls into chaos.

• Somebody must stop the gas-releasing system of the lifeboat. Goh descends into the hellish gas alone.

• He finally arrives at the lifeboat and succeeds in closing the valve of the gas-releasing system. But his hazmat suit begins to corrode and his throat starts burning. Consciousness drifts far away.

Episode 10

• A rescue force bursts through the outer wall and saves Goh.

• The status on Earth. The ringleader of the rebel army, Jun Shindo, was a good friend of Sei. They had both talked about their dreams together. But now they are divided into enemies.

• Goh lies unconsciousness in the medical room. Misaki and the others worry about him.

• The Gulaga fleet launches a fierce attack.

Episode 11

• The battle with the Gulaga fleet. Goh is unconscious from the gas. The fight has to go on without him.

• The Schwartz Tiger strike force closes in on Gulaga’s warship. But Earthmen who were taken captive in a previous battle are forced to stand on the deck of the ship.

The Shwartz Tigers cannot attack. Anti-aircraft fire destroys them one after another. Furthermore, the main batteries fire toward the Yamato fleet. The Yamato fleet can’t fight back because of the captives.

• The Gulaga warship aims a positron gun at Yamato.

• Goh flies in solo on a single aircraft. He lands on the deck of Gulaga’s ship and tries to rescue the prisoners, but rather than rescue they choose death. Goh tries to stop them, but is forcefully put back into his fighter (after all, they can’t all escape in it).

• The Gulaga warship’s positron gun fires.

Episode 12

• New Yamato‘s Wave-Motion Gun fires at the same time. The two energies clash. New Yamato emerges from the flash of light and smashes into Gulaga’s bow to sink it.

• The ship sinks tragically, but the fleet must move on, even past the corpses of their friends.

• Things develop on board the ship, such as the state of Earth.

Episode 13

• The Yamato fleet reaches the Oort Cloud. But instead of Dorau Mimil, Sei’s fleet waits there instead. A battle of brothers.

• Old Yamato reappears.

• Larue is taken captive.

• Sei is recalled and the fight ends.

Episode 14

• Kodai becomes the captain of old Yamato, and Mira Shingyouji is appointed as the captain of New Yamato.

Kodai: The job of the captain is to remember the casualties by number, not by name. Are you ready?

Mira: No, I’m not. I cannot be the captain.

Kodai: Congratulations on your appointment as captain. If you said you were ready, I would not have promoted you. The captain…must carve the souls of the casualties on his chest. You have to shoulder the pain even while you keep going.

• On Earth, Shindo the rebel leader is caught and brought before Sei. The man who fell to become a Balbard dog!

Sei: Dog? Not such a cute thing. It was Asura who betrayed humanity. And I want you to walk the road of Asura

• Shindo becomes Sei’s subordinate. (The rebel army only creates victims, so it makes little sense. Therefore, Sei requires information from Shindo to reduce the body count. Also, Shindo realizes that as Sei’s subordinate, he can monitor all of the people of Earth.)

※ Contrast Kodai, who remembers casualties by name, with Sei who processes them as numbers.

Episode 15

• Encounter with an emigrant ship that succeeded in escaping from Earth. Some people get off, others get on.

Episode 16

• A battle that likens Saturn’s rings to the sea. The cold strategy of Daudaroa of the Ice.

Episode 17

• Suspicion spreads from words spoken by Larue, and Goh is viewed with doubt.

Episode 18

• Encounter with an exiled disease ship. It carries Balbard people who transformed into monsters and could no longer return to the Balbard Empire. The ship was banished. Mortal combat with monsters.

Episode 19

• Jupiter mission of death.

• The precision attack of Daudaroa of the Ice finally brings the Yamato fleet to the brink of death. But Yamato is saved by internal opposition within the Balbard Empire.

Episode 20

• Misaki escapes with Larue.

• The shock of Misaki having been a person from the Balbard Empire runs through everyone. All the important information is known to her.

Episode 21

• Misaki is in anguish as she returns to the Balbard Empire.

• Yuki is caught.

Episode 22

• A gunboat lying hidden between Mars and Phobos aims at the Yamato fleet. New Yamato fires its Wave-Motion Gun and vaporizes Phobos. The gunboat absorbs the shock and fires a beam to directly hit New Yamato‘s Wave Gun muzzle. The damage extends to the Wave Engine.

Episode 23

• Sei contacts Yamato. They will dine in the area of Mars. They praise each others’ good luck in a lively night before the final battle.

Episode 24

• The fierce battle between the Yamato fleet and the Balbard fleet, including Sei’s own Yamato, takes place on the sea of Aquarius, Many people die.

• New Yamato smashes into the Balbard Yamato and breaks it in half to sink it.

• Sei wants to take Yuki Kodai and her daughter, who he brought in as captives, back to Kodai. But Gaara, having transformed at the last moment, takes them away to we know not where.

Episode 25

• After the battle, Earth is visible on the other side of the sea of Aquarius. Dorau Mimil appears over the edge, looking like a binary moon.

• Because Ru Sak Gar is constructed of materials from a different dimension, it cannot be destroyed by the Wave-Motion Gun. It can only be destroyed by the Waltheim Zeidt (Time Gun) of Dorau Mimil.

Yamato and new Yamato enter Dorau Mimil (the space inside is huge). Kodai is about to shoot the Wave-Motion Gun and urges surrender, but Baharuk refuses. A double-helix wave of Yamato and New Yamato destroys Dorau Mimil.

• Kodai obtains the Waltheim Zeidt as Galdora II is set up around the sun.

Episode 26

• Galdora II is destroyed by the Waltheim Zeidt.

• As a result, they cannot destroy Ru Sak Gar. Sanada applies the operating principle of the Waltheim Zeidt to the Wave-Motion Engine. By pouring in a large mass of neutrinos, it is said that they can destroy structural materials from another dimension. However, a large quantity of neutrinos is not available now. Just as they are about to give up, Kodai points into the distance. There is a bright star there. It is the light of the star that became the prey of Galdora in Episode 1. Its light is finally arriving at Earth after one year.

• The neutrinos created by supernova bomb Galdora will soon arrive at Earth. They can use this to destroy Ru Sak Gar and release Earth.

• Shindo commits suicide. Sei also tries to commit suicide, but Kodai stops him.

• Goh and Sei meet again. Kodai stands in the doorway of their home.









Development Memo 6 supplement

It has not yet been decided which episodes this material will go into

Proposal A

• 2 arcs. Time is taken up by numerous battles, so in this situation it should be expected that reaching Earth at sub-light velocity gets behind schedule. But if they go to warp, they will suffer great damage from the Warp Cannon. They should go into warp prepared to take damage or sacrifice one ship and use it to explore how long after rushing into warp the cannon will strike. Discussion follows.

• Captain Shiranami of Ship No. 36 performs full evacuation training. All hands get into life pods and eject. Then Shiranami notifies Yamato when the warp is carried out.

Kodai: Stop being an idiot, Shiranami.

Shiranami: There is no other way. I was born an idiot. Captain Kodai…I was glad to see Earth with my own eyes.

He warps with only himself and his first mate.

• Warp. A plunge into space. Warship No. 36 is crushed by the cannon. Shiranami holds family photos in his hands.

• Space radar detects the explosion of Ship No. 36. Heavy silence hangs over Yamato‘s bridge. But it becomes clear from this sacrifice that it is possible to warp for one minute. The distance crossed is several hundred thousand kilometers. They will somehow be able to arrive at Earth before the human race is lost. All the ships warp. In the space vacated by the fleet drifts a wine bottle Shiranami tossed overboard just before his warp.

Proposal B

(Close to the end)

• Larue is about to strike to the ragtag Yamato fleet in a fighter. Misaki is in command of a warship.

• A confrontation of Larue and Goh. There is no conversation, but each understands the other. Goh drops Larue. In the end, they have a short exchange over the radio.

Larue: It was fun…being a prisoner of war.

Goh: Why? Why this fight?

Larue: Who can say? Because this situation’s different, probably.

Goh: That’s all?!

• Misaki is shocked by the fight between Larue and Goh. Her ship is damaged and withdraws to Dorau Mimil, but runs aground in the entry port. The Port of Dorau Mimil cannot be closed. As a result, the Yamato fleet is able to invade Dorau Mimil.

• But they cannot invade immediately because Misaki’s ship is there, so it is decided to destroy her ship with the Wave-Motion Gun, with her inside. Kodai gives the order to fire.

Goh: Escape, Misaki!

Misaki: It’s all right with me. I prefer to die here.

Goh: No death is better than life!

Misaki: But…I betrayed you.

Goh: Even if both your hands are soaked with blood over betrayal, it’s still no use! You don’t get atonement from dying, you get it from living!

Misaki: I understand.

Misaki decides to escape. However, the preparations to fire the Wave-Motion Gun are already progressing. Time suspense over whether or not Misaki can get out before it fires.

• Misaki boards Yamato again afterward and tells Goh the position of the Waltheim Zeidt.

Proposal C

• Crewman A (tentative) falls down on a ship and his arm is caught in the structure. His friend is in danger. His arm is stuck and cannot move. Crewman A points his gun at his own arm and a shot rings out. A goes to help his friend. Of course, we won’t realistically depict what happens to his arm. Additionally, it would not be stated in words.

Proposal D

• Small one-man tanks invade the ship. No one can stand in the way of the tank’s charge through the passages. Because it was only assumed a battle inside the ship would be against foot soldiers, no heavy weapons were prepared.

• Goh shoves the nose of the fighter in the passage by force, or attaches a bomb to the underside of a tank at the risk of his own life.

※ My personal feeling is, if we cannot depict a rotating caterpillar [tank movement], I will withdraw this proposal.

Proposal E

(The strategy of Daudaroa)

• There is a huge gun. It is too large and difficult to fire at an angle. Of course, the Yamato fleet shifts out of its attack range, but gradually moves just into range as they attack Daudaroa.

Postscript 1:

In the second half, there are parts where we won’t know what happens unless the characters are motivated.

Postscript 2:

Because I remain totally undecided about the fleet configuration, some parts could be changed as a result of my decision.

The End

Continue to Development Memo 7

Special thanks to Neil Nadelman for translation support

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