Yamato explosion announcement!!
The Final Chapter is different from the past!
The shocking last sequence of Yamato The Final Chapter was heard from Mr. Nishizaki’s own mouth!! The last moment of Yamato! The culmination of love between Kodai and Yuki!
Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori, who grew up by the hand of Okita…are bound together with body and soul…Yuki becomes a woman.
It is enough for the upcoming Yamato to be a story about love, adventure, and romance, and although this has become widely known, I don’t want you to think we’re simply adjusting the conventional pattern.
At the January 1983 press conference, Nishizaki reveals
concept art for the love scene. See it in the
Final Yamato art gallery here.
I want to clearly state from my own mouth that The Final Chapter is the last of Yamato.
I will make this part clear when Yamato explodes in the end. I can’t say for certain what the result will be for the story. But it really is the end, and I can say that the feeling of regret many people have about parting with Yamato will be clearly stated in the last scene.
Another problem is the culmination of the love between Kodai and Yuki. There is a part when Okita says his last line to Kodai and Yuki, “You still have a future.” To speak of what sort of future that’s going to be, Kodai and Yuki love each other and become one in body and soul, to make a child. Truly loving each other and making each other happy is another kind of battle.
Although Kodai and Yuki have previously had hugging scenes, now they have a scene as two people who communicate a spiritual love through both body and soul. I have thought about how to wonderfully express the beauty of the culmination for these two after ten years, and I’m confident in the way it will be depicted. These two will be clearly depicted with more than an embrace in The Final Chapter.
Too many people have died in Yamato up to now. Although I think it’s inevitable that some would be killed, there is also a part that says death creates drama. There’s another part that says Yamato shouldn’t always be saved by a woman. I’ve narrowed down these two points as much as possible in The Final Chapter, and have them saving the Earth on their own in the end.
Finally, the only essential dramatic elements are that Daisuke Shima dies and Yamato explodes at the end. Furthermore, the boy and girl named Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori become adults by the hand of Okita, and Yuki becomes a woman with Kodai. I would not make this last sequence if I didn’t truly feel it in my gut.
To the fans who will witness the last moment of Yamato as the culmination of ten years, it is my wish that you synchronize with Kodai and Yuki’s zest for life.
Text on left side above:
(Confidential) Designs released in a single sweep!!
On the occasion of the press conference Producer Nishizaki held on January 18, he released in one sweep the costume and mecha designs, created by the staff based on his own ideas, saying that it was past time to keep them secret. While they created a great quantity of mecha designs, in the end they had to cut a lot of them for reasons related to scale.
The unsinkable Space Battleship Yamato does not return in the end!!
Text in red box:
News of the final cruise!
To commemorate the spring premiere of Space Battleship Yamato The Final Chapter, a major Yamato event is being prepared for the luxury passenger liner New Utopia. Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Leiji Matsumoto, and the singers and voice actors who appear in The Final Chapter will be on board to provide a rich variety of entertainment.
Schedule: First voyage March 29 – 31. Second voyage March 41 – April 2. Third voyage April 2 – 4. (Each voyage will run 3 days and 2 nights, leaving in the evening and returning in the morning.) The embarkation point is Harumi, Tokyo. (A doctor will accompany the voyage.)
Content:
① A special screening of The Final Chapter and one other film, Space Battleship Yamato, Farewell to Yamato, or Be Forever Yamato.
② Personal meetings and autograph sessions with singers and voice actors who appear in The Final Chapter.
③ A live vocal performance contest (participants will be given an original record).
④ A stamp rally on the ship. [Translator’s note: a “stamp rally” is essentially a scavenger hunt to get stamps on a card in order to win a prize.]
Contact the Yamato agent at Nippon Express Airlines.
Shima dies, Kodai grows up, and Yuki becomes a woman!!
Text in red box:
Flap your wings in the world!! Junko Yagami
For the scene in which Kodai and Yuki consummate their love, Junko Yagami’s Love Supreme flows at the end of The Final Chapter. At the moment, Ms. Yagami is recording a new album in America. Before her visit to the United States, she participated in a press conference on January 6.
After the movie is over, Ms. Yagami will continue singing the song on stage, since it was not made specifically about Yamato.
Ms. Junko Yagami’s comment:
“I’ve wanted to try a film soundtrack for a long time, and I felt that animation was really suitable for me. The songs I make have too large a scale to be suitable for a conventional movie. But in animation, an image can expand freely. I like musicals, and I wrote this music while remembering the love scene between Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in A Star is Born.”
By the way, people in the know are contributing to her recording in America, such as acclaimed producer Brooke Arthur and a top-notch writer, and since it is said that “it’s not a record if TOTO is not involved,” members of TOTO participate as studio musicians for an album that will be sold worldwide.
Don’t overlook it in the theater!!
The highlights of Yamato The Final Chapter!!
Kazunori Tanahashi
Assistant director
Very few of the staff members have been engaged in every Yamato since the first TV series. Mr. Tanahashi is one of them, and we asked him to tell us the highlights of The Final Chapter from the production side.
• In terms of spectacle and making full use of special effects, Aquarius is going to be interesting. How to depict Aquarius – it wouldn’t be interesting to just draw it on the fly, so we played with a variety of special effects and tested them extensively. Aquarius has various looks. It can look terrifying and also exquisitely beautiful, and has a feeling as if the planet is alive.
How to show the rings of Aquarius is also a difficult spot, and though the concept is called a ring of ice, it disappears when the planet does a warp. It could look like it folds up, or disappears from the sides or drifts away or glitters when it turns. We’ve been doing a lot of tests.
• As far as the story goes, we got very greedy, wanting to put this, that, and the other thing into it. Still, we kept on track and are making it in a way that will put real power into the final production.
• There’s good interplay in the part where Shima dies. And the last interaction between Kodai and Okita is good, too. Sado and Okita have a good scene. It is a mature story, but it’s also casual and has some parts that will make you cry.
• The decisive battle scene on Uruk is like a fine-arts picture and the music is also very impressive.
• Because it is art, and there is movement to different places in space. There are dark places and bright places, and it varies with red, blue, and green space. It eliminates the singular feeling we’ve had up to now. It can also be said that we’ve scrupulously protected the standard Yamato colors and fine work is being done with the art and color design.
• Looking back over the last ten years, at Farewell, Be Forever, and the various episodes, there was confusion over it at first. But as you look through each one, I think it can be considered the story of a single ship, Yamato itself. Although there were episodes where the characters’ personalities changed, Yamato itself hasn’t changed very much. I think it’s suitable for The Final Chapter to have Yamato explode.
• What I personally like in Yamato and what I find the most appealing are Yamato‘s launch scenes. Although the locations change and the filmmaking methods are different, it’s like Yamato is launching anew every time you look at it.
• The music this time is good, too. The words to the insert song for Kodai and Yuki “becoming one in body and soul” are also very good. The scene goes together very well with the music and isn’t at all questionable. I think it will look good for a long time.
Headline at upper right:
The overall picture of the Imperial Army! What secret is still there?
The End
Return to the Final Yamato Time Machine
Special thanks to Neil Nadelman for translation support.