Many years from now
When you leave school and learn to work
Remember when you became a parent
This melody of misery and sorrow
Let the lukewarm sun shine once more
Peaceful and gentle breeze again
The sound of the future that I looked for
Because you are a child who lives in happiness

It is literal prose without any rhyme or melody. In addition (1) I wanted to incorporate Yabu’s line from the story, “When you’re at rock bottom, it means something great is waiting to happen” and (2) the prelude should feel like “light spreading out into darkness” to synchronize with the ending. (For an example, I mentioned the prelude of the insert song Mirror of the Moon from 2202.)

These two points are all that I requested from both craftsmen regarding the theme song. This is how the song was created. I’m sure you’ll be impressed with the quality of the music, including the vocalist Ayaka Hirahara.

(Find a translated version of the end song Love is Still Light here)

On the other hand, this prose…I’ll just offer the excuse that it’s not my main job. I’m including it here only for its documentary value. After reading it, all Akira-sensei said was, “It’s heavy. I’d like to give the listeners a little more of a souvenir.”

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Chapter 1 program book

October 8, 2021

The book for Chapter 1 was a real beaut, and another hot-ticket item that rapidly sold out in theater gift shops.

See it from cover to cover here.

The book included an interview with the writers; read it here.

Introduction by Harutoshi Fukui:

The year is 2205. With a new generation of young people on board, a new Yamato begins its journey.

Only a Gentle Song

At last, now that we bring you a new Yamato story, more than two years have passed since the conclusion of 2202. We had planned to bring it forward at least six months ago, but somehow it ended up like this. It would be fine if I could say to myself, “That’s how much work I put into it.” But the biggest reason for the delay is the Corona pandemic.

2205 was going to be released after Age of Yamato, so if that was delayed, then this would be, too. I’ve experienced many cases where a release schedule was postponed because the film was not ready by the deadline (sorry), but I never thought we would be unable to release a completed film.

I can’t help but feel once again that we are living in an astonishing time. As of this writing (mid-August), the number of people infected with the New Corona virus in Japan is still unknown. No one can be sure that the film will be released on time, and on the other hand, the incessant rain continues to fall, causing damage to many parts of Japan.

What is the meaning of re-telling the story of Yamato in a time like this? No, it is precisely in times like these that the story needs to be told. Yamato is a story about the value of facing reality and continuing to hold onto your ideals. I wrote a lot about this in the program books for 2202.

This will be an ear worm for fans, but the original story for this work was The New Voyage. It arrived in the heat of the climax of the original series, a sequel to the Yamato 2 TV series. That was a reworking of Farewell to Yamato with a changed ending. You could say that in modern terms, it’s a story from a different timeline than the original, one that is fundamentally outside the original series.

I wonder if there is a spirit of criticism toward the mature economy. When I was asked to write a sequel while working on 2202, that was the first thing that troubled me. But the story itself came together instantly. Since 2202 ended the way it did, the path that Kodai and the other main members of the team would follow, and what the humans of Earth would have to face next, was decided naturally. If we incorporated the plot of The New Voyage as its bones, both the plot and story were almost 80% complete. The question was how to determine the theme.

interior painting by the great Naoyuki Katoh

In the first film and Farewell, the original Yamato gave a summary and proposal for postwar Japan. There is no longer any reason for Yamato to continue as an image of the battleship Yamato, the symbol of the Great War. Even the air flowing through The New Voyage and later series is calm.

The war is over. The confusion and deprivation of the post-war period is now a thing of the past, and Japan has become a peaceful and prosperous country. You are lucky to have been born in such a time, and you should cherish that luck and inherit peace and prosperity. No matter how many events filled the screen, such as Garmillas being blown up or Earth being occupied, I feel that such a voice was always flowing underneath.

(Well, that gentleness could have been mistaken as sluggishness, and a certain Mobile Suit, which was full of tingling sensations, could have taken away all the customers.)

This is exactly the kind of message that could only come from Japan in the 1980s, when people thought that this peace and prosperity would last forever. Speaking as someone who has learned over the past thirty years that this was only a dream, it is difficult to pass it off with a bitter smile.

The lyrics of the theme song Yamato! The New Voyage include the following:

Fear and sorrow have left my heart / Only a gentle song was flowing

The world today is full of fear and sorrow, isn’t it? The world in the story reflects that, but it doesn’t fit. If this part didn’t flow, it would not be a new journey. As a last ditch effort, I came up with the conversation between Serizawa and Burrel. Just a few years ago, they were enemies, but now they are on the same ship. There’s a lot going on, but isn’t that enough for now?

The two mature men are talking quietly to each other on board Yamato, which is about to be launched. when I came up with the idea for this situation, the theme of Yamato starting from 2205 suddenly came into my mind. We are clearly living in a different future than what was expected when the original Yamato was created. Peace is a fleeting respite between hardship and difficulty.

It is not something that lasts forever, and it’s easy to lose, no matter how careful we are. That’s why we should sing this song. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, so let’s sing a gentle song, at least for this moment. In this way, I repositioned the theme song as a “prayer.” When I looked over the story I was planning to tell again, the horizon that Yamato should aim for began to appear in the haze.

Chapter 2 program book

February 4, 2022

The program for Chapter 2 was a glorious 40-pager, jam-packed with all the goodies we’ve come to expect. See the whole thing from cover to cover here.

Read an interview with Writer Harutoshi Fukui and Director Kenji Yasuda here.

Of particular significance was the introduction by Harutoshi Fukui, which picks up from and travels down a heavy road…

The truth about Iscandar is now being told. Then, Dessler will…?

Does the Yamato remake invoke the dream of the original?

I wrote in the previous program book that the original Yamato series after The New Voyage has no theme.

No, Be Forever, Yamato III, and Final Yamato were trying to derive their theme from the first series. Especially in Yamato III. There were signs that they were hastily trying to spin an answer to the dichotomy of “a ship loaded with weapons but carrying an anti-war thesis.” Whether or not this was due to the production being discontinued, the tea was muddied by the development of the climax. Two new characters were killed who didn’t seem to need killing, and the voice that was supposed to reach us fizzled out in the void near the sun. Well, I can only hope that a different fate awaits Domon and the others in the remake series.

When I was approached to produce a sequel to 2202, I had a hard time at first deciding how to set the theme for a remake. I would like to think about it again here.

For those of you who know the original, was there really no theme in Yamato after The New Voyage? Immersed in the atmosphere of the early 80’s, when people innocently believed that peace and prosperity would last forever, it spoke from on high to us young people, saying, “You’ve got to do it!” Was it nothing more than a film steeped in expediency and commercialism?

Because I wrote this, I wish I could say the answer is no. They were films that didn’t say very much. Nevertheless, there is a common aspect in Yamato after The New Voyage. I’m sure all of you fans are well aware of this. The words suddenly turn serious and speak eloquently, even if they disrupt the overall balance: “Don’t settle for the status quo, aim for an ideal world.” This is an unrestrained and powerful message.

It is the same message that can be heard in the song by Akira Fuse at the end of Be Forever. And on planet Shalbart, which achieved perfect peace in Yamato III. Or the words of the Queen of Aquarius in Final Yamato; humans must continue to suffer in order to progress, “love” is a trial given to all things by the universe, and so on.

It’s hard to swallow after living through 30 years of continuous trials. It is a message that, even when wrapped up in nostalgia, overflows with euphoria. But when reworded, it seems to have more weight in today’s world. “The present is not everything. There is room for people to reach greater heights.”

Centerpiece painting by the great Naoyuki Katoh

The future that we can see from 2022 is not a bright one. All kinds of data show that if people continue to live as they do now, there will be no survival after a hundred years. The only way to sustain the world is for mankind itself to change. That’s the story of 2202, isn’t it? Is that still true in 2022?

It’s a time when jokes are no longer jokes. We are no longer young people drifting in the eternal moratorium of postwar Japan. We are now facing the unprecedented dangers of the 21st century. We are adults destined to fight a battle to continue this blood and wisdom for a hundred years to come. We are in the midst of a whirlwind where every move can make a difference in the fate of humans and the planet.

Since the dawn of time, we have been making progress to fight off pain and sorrow. We are destined to continue walking toward an ideal world. Part of a continuum called humanity. In these harsh times, we pray to live. We are a helpless but strong species that cannot help but express our wishes in fiction.

People and society cannot survive unless they change. In this age we feel that this is undeniably true. The story is spun in a time when the middle-aged and the elderly, have no place to go. A story about the pursuit of an ideal world. I can’t help but ask whether it’s worth aiming for in the first place. Prayers and wishes resonate more urgently at a time when everyone is hurting. Ever since the former theme song Yamato! The New Voyage was embedded in 2205, such words began to solidify in my mind as an innocent hymn to peace reinterpreted as a prayer.

It is an updated version of the theme inherent in the original Yamato from The New Voyage onward. This could be the height to which the remake series should aspire. Based on this belief, our staff produced 2205. And now, we are planning to take you even further.

To live is to keep changing. Starsha and Kodai both say this. There are some things that are absolutely non-negotiable, and if you are asked to give them up, resist with all your might. This leads to the next work, 3199, and it seems the resistance for people to remain people has already begun. Regardless of what it looks like, let me just tell you that next time it will be a long one.

We will not betray the expectations of those of you who have continued to entrust your wishes to the fiction called Yamato. The entire staff will do its utmost to make this a success. Please give us some time to bring it to you. The newborn Sasha still needs her sleep.

Yamato 2205 Complete Works

August 1, 2022

And finally, an ART BOOK. Those who have been Yamato fans since the early days know just how valuable these things are, always preserving art and info found nowhere else. This one is a real beauty, 176 pages featuring a huge collection of character and mecha designs in both color and black & white. The rear portion contains the complete text of Harutoshi Fukui’s proposal for the series, which includes a few nods toward 3199. Read a translation here.

Order your copy of 2205 Complete Works from Amazon.co.jp here or CD Japan here.

Calendars

Published exclusively by Yamato Crew, there were two 2205 calendars for the year 2022; one for the first half and the other for the second half. They both delivered exquisite large-scale (17″ x 12″) background images from the anime production.