Farewell to Yamato, screened in 4K for the first time in 46 years
by Yoshinori Nozawa (See the original article here)
Farewell to Yamato, Soldiers of Love was released as a 4K remaster version in Shochiku theaters on January 5, 2024. The original end captions are the same as when the film was released in 1978. The message to fans displayed in the last scene is, “Yamato will never appear again.” This caption was replaced for revival screenings in later years.
The 4K remaster version has been restored to its original 1978 release. The caption of the original version can also be seen on the Blu-ray from Bandai Visual, which is currently on sale. By the way, the original caption is also seen in the anime comics released by Akita Shoten three years after the movie.
Until the video market matured, the era of reliving anime works through such books continued.
The production period of Farewell and its response
Nowadays, Farewell is known as a blockbuster hit film with a distribution revenue of 2.1 billion yen. Let’s look through various sources to see how it unfolded at the time.
On December 1, 1977, a Space Battleship Yamato radio drama with the original cast was broadcast on All Night Nippon. On May 24 of the following year, a production presentation [press conference] for Farewell to Yamato was held at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. This was less than half a year after the Space Battleship Yamato radio drama was broadcast. The plot and the staff had already been decided.
The early August 1978 issue of Kinejun was released to coincide with the premiere of Farewell. In this issue, there were two separate interviews with Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto. The interview with Mr. Matsumoto was conducted on June 23. There are few sources in which Mr. Matsumoto made statements regarding the production of Farewell. However, he mentions it briefly in the article. He said that it was a mistake to have Captain Okita die in the previous film, and that he was opposed to it. But even after his death, Okita still played an important role in Farewell…
On the other hand, Nishizaki said something interesting in his interview. In response to the question, “What will be the final runtime?” Nishizaki answered, “I’m thinking of finishing it as a 2-hour 45-minute film and cutting it down to 2 hours 20 minutes.” (The actual running time of the completed film is 2 hours and 31 minutes.) Unlike a live-action film, an animation film is made after a long process of drawing, animation, painting, and filming. But, he said, “I think it’s better to make a long film and then cut it down by editing.”
The article does not state when this statement was made, but the interview with Matsumoto was conducted in late June, which would seem to be almost the same time from the editorial schedule’s point of view. The film was made deliberately and cut later, and this is probably the true nature of the “phantom scenes” that many people say they saw when the film was first shown, but are missing from the current video version.
Read the Kinejun articles here:
Nishizaki interview
Matsumoto interview
Movie overview
The production cost of the film was 400 million yen. This is a statement by the producer, Mr. Nishizaki, and is primary information, so there can be no doubt about it. At the time of this interview with Kinejun, he said, “We don’t have much time before the film is released on August 5.”
The production period at the studio (onsite) was 5 months. This is the testimony of Tomonori Kogawa, who was the character design & animation director.
Kogawa: “I never went home. I slept under my desk, and worked as soon as I woke up…I felt like I couldn’t handle the amount of work I had to do in five months.”
The aforementioned Farewell issue of Kinejun magazine included a script, but only up to the point where Yamato removes the white comet’s gas cloud and the city empire is revealed. The magazine often said, “The rest of the story will be published in another issue,” but there are few cases in which there was no followup (this time, it was concluded two issues later). At any rate, the crew of Yamato and the public on Earth were happy that the main body of the enemy had been defeated, but it was known before the release of the film that a further threat was looming. (Teresa could have told us in advance, “There is an artificial empire in the white gas cloud”…)
On August 4, the night before the release of Farewell, Space Battleship Yamato was broadcast for the first time on Fuji TV. It was partially recut with footage from the TV series in which Starsha and Mamoru Kodai are still alive, surprising those who had seen it at the time of its release.
Farewell was released the next day, August 5. It was a two-month long run. The use of Kenji Sawada’s theme song also contributed greatly to creating a buzz.
The production cost was 400 million yen, with 60,000 pieces of art and 2,300 total shots. More than 150 paint colors were used, and 1,200 people were involved in the production. The production period was 9 months (according to Mr. Kogawa’s testimony, the actual anime production period was 5 months). The number of audience members was 4 million, the box-office revenue was 4.3 billion yen, and 500,000 tickets were sold in advance. Note that box-office revenue and distribution revenue are counted differently.
The contents of the mooks were similar to each other. Movie TV Magazine (far right) had its own unique style and is very interesting.
Related books released in a rush
Several publishers released books in conjunction with the movie.
Tokuma Shoten’s Roman Album was the first to go on sale, Shueisha released two Farewell to Yamato Roadshow specials, and Kodansha released Movie TV Magazine Farewell to Yamato special in the same format. The second Roadshow special was released after the film’s premiere and was full of spoilers, including the entire script with the ending.
Shonen Gahosha released two Farewell to Yamato anime Cel Collections as an extra issue of Weekly Shonen King. The first volume was mainly about people, and the second volume was mainly about mecha, so there was no overlap in content. Shonen Gahosha continued to publish the same type of book for several years, with Farewell as the pioneer of this style. They were just “cel pictures” printed on transparent celluloid. Were the fans at the time happy with something like this?
As someone who was born in the Reiwa era, I can’t even imagine it. These fake cel pictures were also used in the appendix of some anime mooks.
After this, Sunrise’s theatrical versions of the Gundam trilogy and Ideon were also added to the lineup.
Is the 4K remaster version the same version as when it was first released?
Is the 4K version of Farewell released in January 2024 the same version that was shown in 1978? It is the same as the Blu-ray version that has been distributed until now. The last message to the fans at the end is the same as when it was shown for the first time, so you can say it’s the same as back then. For the time being, the version with the caption changed for the summer 1979 Yamato Festival is also available.
Animator Shigeo Matoba, who drew the scene of Yamato emerging from the sea (which was also used in the opening of Yamato 2) said, “I had a hard time crawling out of retake hell because of the intricate drawing requirements.” The images are still wonderful even today.
The fact that the storyboards were bound and included as a bonus is a great accomplishment.
It has been a long time since fans have seen the film in theaters, and it has become a source of great controversy.
“I’m sure I saw it that way in the theater.”
“No, you must be remembering it wrong.”
However, in the end, it seems that many scenes that were supposed to have existed when the film was first shown in theaters were not restored. Were there no materials left? We can see them in Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s storyboards, though.
Incidentally, in the special issue of Kinejun mentioned above, a scene is shown in which Kodai is asking Hijikata, who is lying in bed, to assume the captaincy of the ship. This is one of the scenes that cannot be seen in the video version of the film, but the still is underdeveloped.
This is why I reviewed Farewell in its 45th year. Out of ten people who watch it, 15 of them have doubts.
“How did the super giant battleship fit inside the city empire?” In fact, a cross-sectional view of this was published in a book. But where did it come from? The glittering city section is not a residential area, but a facade. Were the people of the Comet Empire living inside the super battleship from the beginning…? (That’s how I see it.)
Huh… Is the lower part empty?
The hemisphere of the city empire is almost hollow. It takes a long time for the ship to get out.
Anyway, when I watched this film again, I realized that it was made as the final work of Yamato. I think it’s amazing how everyone stands out as characters. Kato and Yamamoto of the Black Tiger unit didn’t have much of a presence in the first film, but became very reliable guys. Sanada is given an important position in the film, and the relationship of Dessler and Kodai gets a twist. It is no exaggeration to say that this laid the foundation for subsequent Yamato films.
As voice actor Takeshi Aono said in an interview later in his career, “Sanada’s character became important from Farewell, and the intimacy of this work had an impact on the later series.”
In addition, Osamu Kobayashi, who gave a great performance as General Domel in the previous film, was upgraded to the role of the enemy leader, but he still maintains that, “Although Zordar the Great is driven by a desire to dominate the universe, he is not a diabolical villain. I played the character who never loses his humanity and is somehow likeable.” Kobayashi is unforgettable as a voice actor, staying with Yamato over its long voyage.
In later Yamato works, the characters were designed by Kenzo Koizumi and Kazuhiko Udagawa, and came together with Shinya Takahashi’s touch. But Farewell is unique in that it is a full-length work in which the tone of Tomonori Kogawa’s character design is used throughout. The picture I use as my icon was drawn by Mr. Kogawa, the main staff member of this work.
It was almost drawn almost 10 years ago, however… so this is what Yuki looks like when drawn by the same character designer 36 years after the release of Farewell.