Immortal Third Bridge
Space Battleship Yamato Research
by Anime Jun
I don’t know why, but space is noisy right now with trains and ships flying around.
Of course, it all started with the Space Battleship Yamato revival hit two years ago (1977). Thanks to this, the anime boom is back. TV anime compilations and new releases have been hitting movie theaters one after another, and TV specials on anime are booming. Even Toei released their first original feature anime (Taro the Dragon Boy) after a long time. (This is a direct descendant of the old animated feature film!)
Without it, the boom of various anime magazines, with OUT chief among them (!) would not have been possible. It can be said that the role of Yamato was more than significant as the spark that ignited this boom. Looking back on it, I think so again.
So why was it a hit? In fact, that part of the story has yet to be told. That is the theme of this article. Let’s trace the secret back to the first Space Battleship Yamato.
Yamato as a survival game
Take scale, for example.
Even though a spaceship is the main character, the story is set in outer space and returns to Earth after traveling 296,000 light-years. It was unheard of in Japanese anime. Furthermore, by applying this to the actual universe, they created a route map from the Great Magellanic Nebula to Earth. It may seem trivial, but this is actually of great significance. Combined with the time limit of one year, it is clear that Yamato has a very definite limitation.
As a survival game, Yamato has a more obvious game board than any other sci-fi combat anime. The pieces are Yamato and the Gamilas fleet. The viewer could participate in the battle as a game player. That was the main feature of Yamato.
Take the equipment, for example.
Even if you are not a Yamato fan, you must know that this is one of the main attractions. The mecha design owes a great deal to Leiji Matsumoto, of course, but even more than that, the thorough and elaborate depiction of Yamato is supported from the inside out.
The props are enjoyable enough just by looking at them: the interior of Yamato, its onboard aircraft, the enemy fleet, missiles, and Earth’s command center, Mars observation base, the planet Gamilas, Dessler’s palace, cosmoguns, and more. By scattering them throughout the entire story, Yamato‘s unique decorations also attracts fans. In other words, it is an important part of the complete image of the world of Yamato that allows the imagination to run wild.
Just one example, the Cosmo Zero is enough of a clue, flying through space and engaging with enemies. Just like the onboard weapons, this image flies through the world of Yamato. There is a treasure trove of these. Yamato also rediscovered the fascination of mecha and props, and has prepared the way for the current science fiction mecha boom.
Props, characters, scale…
Take the characters, for example.
Let’s take a look at some of the characters, who are still very popular today. What we need to pay attention to is not the well-known idol characters such as Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori, but the Gamilas army.
The Gamilas are a group of men and women headed by Dessler, including Hyss, Shulz, Gantz, Domel, Haidern, and many others. The composition is arranged according to rank and divided very precisely, corresponding to the “game nature” I mentioned earlier. However, Yamato fans might take offense if I say that these are nothing more than pawns. The characterization of Dessler and others is also well done.
But what comes after that is the most important part. In order to support Yamato as a “game,” the characters are very faithful to the roles they are assigned, even if they are not Leader Dessler. Even his strong personality does not place him above the fight against Yamato. The Yamato game doesn’t allow it.
Let’s take a look at the Yamato side.
Susumu Kodai and his team emerge in contrast with the Gamilas army. If you look at them seriously, Kodai and Yuki cannot be said to have won any acting awards, no matter how hard they try. The reason the audience liked Kodai, Yuki, and Captain Okita was because they were different from the characters who were merely pawns in a battle.
Captain Okita, for example, was not afraid to go into a battle he knew he was going to lose. Susumu Kodai made no shortage of youthful mistakes. Shaken by her love for Kodai, Yuki Mori was insecure as a Yamato crew member because of her weakness as a woman. In short, they are “human” in nature. This is what makes them stand out in the “game” of Yamato, and their popularity has grown to idol status.
Also, a feeling of melancholy comes from the fact that they are facing the hopelessness of the destruction of the Earth. In fact, they are just ordinary characters, but in the unique world of Yamato, they shine. Now, having looked at scale, equipment, and characters, let’s add them together. But Space Battleship Yamato is not the sum of only these things.
It is true that Yamato, which was told through 26 episodes, is a magnificent story with a structure suitable for a feature-length anime in theaters as well a TV anime. But that’s just the point. Yamato made fans go crazy because it is a “well-organized science fiction story” that has no end. You can’t talk about Yamato without mentioning that.
Yamato, launch!!
It’s a bit late to take it up now, since it has been talked about so much, but there is countless stock of “third bridges” (?) hidden away. In addition, Yamato itself has a super recovery ability. Explosions echoing in space makes one think that space is filled with air. Despite these and countless other contradictions, Yamato continues to fly and save the Earth.
Even if equipped with a Wave-Motion Gun, Yamato must defeat the countless ships of the Great Gamilas Empire and bring the Cosmo Cleaner back to Earth. If you think about it, this is clearly impossible. But this is a story with a happy ending. No matter what it takes, Yamato must return safely and save Earth. In this way, when both sides of the story were made forcibly compatible, the “third bridge” was caught in the distortion and disappeared in a sea of sulfuric acid.
Thus, Yamato was launched, and the desperate battle to the death in this game-like setting kept the eyes of fans glued to the screen.
Defying Pluto’s reflection satellite cannon, they cleared space mines with human hands, reversed the drill missile, and were undeterred by Domel’s self-destruction. Yamato repelled Dessler’s final attack and rushed to victory. There is no reason why this is not fun. That’s why the SF fans who dismissed it as “pre-SF” couldn’t win over the fans who thought Yamato was fun. That’s why.
I like science fiction, but I cannot call myself a science fiction maniac [otaku]. Pre-SF fans converged on Yamato. By becoming Yamato fans, they were able to compete with “SF” fans. This was the beginning of Yamato fandom. No matter what gets pointed out [as a contradiction], they’ll find a way to explain it. Yamato is about the fun of the story rather than the use science-fiction. Therefore, due to its lack of restraint, it should be called “anime” rather than SF.
The anime approach of letting the fun take the lead in the development of the story blossomed more fully in Future Boy Conan. Thoroughness in concepts and direction led to Mobile Suit Gundam. Still, in terms of scale and energy voltage, Yamato remains unrivaled by any other anime.
There are many claims to follow Farewell and The New Voyage. The fact that no other anime has surpassed Yamato in this respect is a testament to the lack of strength of other anime.
Space Battleship Yamato, Farewell to Yamato, and The New Voyage are just a few of the many works by Yamato staff. Triton of the Sea and Space Carrier Blue Noah, which will air this fall, show that their success is still going strong.
They, too, are chasing the glory of Yamato. What work will surpass Yamato? In any case, to do so, it must go beyond the evaluation of good and bad in order to face off against Yamato once again.
When Kodai-kun Warps
The truth about the unique presentation of Farewell to Yamato
Farewell to Yamato. The enthusiasm among fans of this anime was unprecedented in the history of Japanese cinema. While reporting on the event, I followed that black Cadillac on my second-hand bike since the premiere show at the Shibuya Pantheon the day before. Everyone spotted it.
One of the most memorable moments was at the premiere show. After the screening was over, excited boys and girls came out of each door. Mr. Nishizaki was standing at the exit of the theater. The children passed in front of him, clearly affected. Ten or twenty of them…then one boy asked Mr. Nishizaki to shake hands. After that, almost no child left without shaking hands with him.
I can understand why there is a long line at the entrance, but a long line at the exit is a rare occurrence. I don’t think this will happen again in the near future.
A little more than a year has passed since then, and Farewell is not talked about much among the fans any more. I wonder why, since the enthusiasm was so great, and it is a worrisome change. The biggest reason is that Farewell was made into a TV series as Yamato 2. Kodai and Yuki and most of the people who died in Farewell came back to life. In other words, the filmmakers themselves have rejected this film. Farewell has become a summer daydream for Yamato fans!
Nevertheless, this does not change the fact that the film is a masterpiece. On the contrary, the focus that made the film so impressive is another reason why fans have apparently turned away. In a nutshell, it was not only because of the seriousness of the content, but also because of its extremely uncompromising expression.
Everyone seems to have decided that if they stay away from the harshness, they win. And perhaps that’s a good thing. It is a film filled with dangerous temptations…
Yamato flies under the city empire, peeking out of a mysterious crater, spewing fire. The lifeboat carrying Shima sails away, leaving Kodai alone on Yamato with the dead Yuki by his side. Soon, the flood of voices that had seemed excessive up to that point dies down. The camera pans over to see the smiling faces of Yuki and Kodai as they come back to life. The scene continues with Yamato leaving for the far reaches of the universe.
The screen remains dark and silent, and then, after a pause, a small ray of light flashes across the center of the screen.
And then the caption, “It will never appear before you again…”
The credits roll, and Julie’s song is heard.
No matter how many times I think back on it, this was a series of shots that could not be described in any way as a work for children. And it was not just a series of skillful shots. The film shows how much the content was cultivated by the producer — I will venture to limit this to Mr. Nishizaki — to the very last minute.
More than two hours led up to this last scene. It starts to feel like something that happened in a dream. In other words, Kodai stepped into the other world while still alive, and then he left. Just like a warp! At that moment, this world is scattered like flowers. Only then can we see the true nature of this film. This is the reason Farewell must be called a masterpiece.
Now, this may be a bit of a stretch, but I would like to think once again about the scene where Yuki comes back to life. (?)
First, we see her lying on the co-pilot’s seat with her eyes closed. Next, Kodai’s face appears and he slowly turns toward her. There, she is sitting with her eyes wide open, smiling at him. The camera slowly pans around them, following Yamato‘s movement. Eventually, it slowly disappears into the far reaches of the universe…
So, first of all, did Yuki come back to life? There’s no basis for that conclusion, so maybe it’s Kodai’s delusion? A rational person would think so. But this is just another guess. So, is she a ghost like Okita and everyone else? No, she is not. If she was, they would have clearly shown her that way, as they did with Okita and others. So what on Earth happened to Yuki?
In a word, this was expressed using a cinematic technique called cutback. It is a kind of visual rhetoric, that is, an event in visual rhetoric. However, I have never seen such a purely rhetorical film, except for a few avant-garde films. This is a great thing.
With this one shot, we leap forward beyond a world dominated by subjective (rational) truths. (It was in this shot that Kodai stepped into the other world.) This is like the “square root of negative one,” a setting that is subjectively incomprehensible, similar to how the world of mathematical physics has expanded into the irrational world.
As the world of expression (movies) pushes its rhetoric to the extreme, we enter a world of imagination. For the rational mind, the world is a world of the possible. But for the transcendent mind, it is also a world of the impossible. This is getting quite complicated and I’m getting confused myself, but in short, the resurrection of Yuki brings us into the world of the imaginary.
Take her face, for example. The panning camera is not actually trying to show Yuki’s face. It is trying to reflect the emptiness of space that spreads out in front of Yuki (and Kodai). At that moment, we feel a sense of liberation. We can see without being confined to the reality of the screen. What we see is only a temporary appearance. The world of expression is like that.
Another point is Kodai’s action of going on a suicide mission. Many people have described Kodai as a “military boy” for this. However, this is clearly nothing more than a synthesis of pattern analysis and theme-based criticism. Kodai’s actions are extremely internal. When he rams into the super-dreadnought battleship, his inner nature intensifies to the extreme. Finally, he enters into a state of total ecstasy in death.
Yes, ecstasy. This is what Farewell is all about. It is ecstasy in the face of a universe that expands as a void of absolute nothingness. That is the suicide attack. Kodai is indeed a suicide attack boy.
But is Yamato a war movie in the first place? Of course, the fights go on endlessly. The setting is also based on the battle form of Nazis versus Allied forces. However, it is a form of war that reflects human consciousness on the ground as an inner game. Yamato is not a war movie, merely a borrowed setting.
A war movie is something like Mobile Suit Gundam. If Amuro dared to go on a suicide mission like Kodai, it would be a miserable attempt to fill the technological gap with his own body.
Anyway, this film can only be seen as bizarre from a common sense point of view. It is an attempt to express the filmmakers’ intentions without any room for compromise. It is very similar to the uncompromising infatuation that Kodai and Yuki and the other lovers of Yamato have with each other.
In fact, they are Mr. Nishizaki’s alter egos. Well, women are only symbolic beings at this point, so it is Kodai and Shima to be precise. They try to devote themselves entirely to their loved ones, but in reality they are so absorbed in themselves that they become “lonely souls.” That’s what I felt strongly when I saw The New Voyage. The shadow of loneliness increased more than ever. Mr. Nishizaki is trying to push the theme of Farewell further!
I don’t have time to go into detail, but that last scene [in The New Voyage] with Chiyoko Shimakura’s song is similar to Farewell. There was a moment when I thought it was just as heartbreaking and tears were surely going to be pushed out of my eyes.
Then there are those who laugh at Mamoru, saying, “What a stud!” He is a fine stud. He got away without fighting to make sure Starsha and Sasha would not be put in danger. This is the first rule for a stud. Children don’t understand! (Or something like that. Mamoru was pretty out of control in the script…)
Now, finally, what will happen in part III? Actually, I have no idea. This is because watching the telefeature made me realize that Mr. Nishizaki is an unyielding producer. (This is one of the greatest compliments I can give…)
These two pages constituted a “stealth ad” by Nippon Columbia for Yamato record albums. It took the form of a message exchange between a voice actor and Susumu Kodai.
RIGHT SIDE:
Dear Susumu Kodai of Space Battleship Yamato/The New Voyage
I enjoyed watching your TV broadcast the other day. Your heroic journey in search of justice and truth, and your encounter with your old enemy Dessler, was very touching. You are fighting, loving, and worrying in the far reaches of the universe. You have painted a vivid picture of my unfulfilled dream.
By the way, now that I’ve written about your achievements, I heard that a wonderful “drama record” will be released. The magnificent symphonic space music composed by Mr. Hiroshi Miyagawa will be used as a backdrop. Moving scenes will be reproduced one after the other. If I get a copy of this record, I will be able to see you again whenever I want, which fills my heart with excitement.
Please take good care of yourself, and I wish you continued success.
– Akira Kamiya
LEFT SIDE:
Dear Mr. Akira Kamiya of Youth Monologue
Thank you for your letter.
I have heard about your activities through the airwaves. When I think about it, you voice actors and I have a very strange relationship. You have voices but no faces, and we have faces but no voices. (But your face has become quite famous recently, hasn’t it?) Let’s continue to do our best together.
By the way, I heard that you have released your second LP. It is titled Youth Monologue with your exquisite storytelling. I listened to the 14 readings. The background music was beautiful Japanese melodies such as Yuyake koyake and Akatombo, which we all remember fondly,
I will be sure to bring it with me the next time Yamato launches.
Take care and goodbye,
– Susumu Kodai