Recreations published in the 2018 doujinshi “Yamato Syndrome 1977-83”
Space Battleship Yamato Resurfaces
The real finale! The Final Chapter will be released in 70mm next March
An LP featuring songs and dialogue will be released on the 21st, with a musical adaptation planned for next autumn.
Captions, top to bottom:
Space Battleship Yamato is set to make its final sortie.
Captain Okita Jūzō returns to command the Yamato.
The fate of Susumu Kodai and Yuki Mori’s love story is also a focal point.
“Ten years is a long time. I want to draw a line under Susumu Kodai’s journey to independence,” said producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki. (At West Cape in Akasaka, Tokyo)
Another Yamato Boom is coming!
The legendary Space Battleship Yamato is making a comeback. Next March, the 70mm film Yamato 10th Anniversary: Space Battleship Yamato, The Final Chapter (directed by Toshio Masuda) will be released nationwide, and a musical adaptation is planned for stage performances next fall. Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, the mastermind behind the “Yamato Boom,” plans to release an LP titled Space Battleship Yamato: Prelude to the Finale (Columbia) on the 21st, featuring songs and narration, followed by screenings of the first three films and concerts nationwide to build up a “Farewell mood,” suggesting another Yamato Boom is on the horizon.
◆ Yamato ETC
Three TV series (average viewership rating of 20%), three theatrical anime films with a combined box office of 4.6 billion yen, 10 million viewers, 50 types of character merchandise worth 40 billion yen, 15 LPs selling 2.5 million copies, and 15 singles selling 2 million copies.
Susumu Kodai’s departure, 10th anniversary scale-up
Despite being billed as the final installment each time, the series, which has continued thanks to the strong support of fans and commercialism, will finally come to an end with the upcoming “Final Chapter.” It will be exactly ten years since the project was launched in 1973. The young boys who first saw Space Battleship Yamato with shining eyes are now at the age where they are entering society.
“Just as students are ending their moratorium period and becoming members of a harsh society, the protagonist Susumu Kodai must also leave Yamato and Captain Okita to live with his lover Yuki Mori and become an adult,” says Producer Nishizaki, explaining the theme of this installment.
The talk of ‘Final Chapter’ is the resurrection of Juzo Okita, the former Yamato captain who fought against Dessler and died from space radiation sickness. Yamato itself will also undergo changes, such as the addition of observation posts on its turrets and new weaponry, while the drama will also be scaled up.
Based on the hypothesis that the water planet Aquarius created the oceans on Earth by pouring massive amounts of water onto it due to gravitational interference billions of years ago, Aquarius is now heading toward Earth from 3,000 light-years away due to a shock from a galaxy crossing, with only 27 days remaining. In addition to the threat of all continents being submerged, the Dengil civilization’s mechanized army, the strongest in the universe, is aiming to migrate to Earth aboard a city satellite. Facing this double crisis, Yamato bravely stands up to the challenge.
Against this backdrop of intense battles, the love between Kodai and Yuki, the unexpected mystery of Dengil’s founding, and the collapse of Dessler’s empire unfold in a dramatic storyline.
To make up for the two-year hiatus since Be Forever, the LP Prelude to the Final Chapter, which expresses the drama with music and narration, will be released on the 21st. It is unusual for such an LP to be released ten months before a movie’s premiere, but the content is also ambitious, incorporating the mysterious sound of a flute from the Yayoi period that was excavated from a 2,000-year-old ruin.
Additionally, a nationwide screening of the previous three works will be held, featuring character merchandise worth three billion yen, along with charity concerts by voice actors and singers to build anticipation. Producer Nishizaki stated, “I have challenged myself in TV, film, and music, but my ultimate goal is to adapt Yamato into a musical on stage.” He is currently working on writing lyrics for all the songs.
Haruki Kadokawa’s Harmagedon!
There is only one Genma Taisen. I am not the producer of Yamato.
Space Battleship Yamato is indeed returning. Despite Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki repeatedly declaring, “This is the end,” the series is making a grand comeback as a 70mm film and stage musical.
There is someone who has been mocking this ‘boy who cried wolf’ behavior. That person is none other than Haruki Kadokawa. According to a reporter who covered the production announcement of Genma Taisen, Kadokawa’s first foray into anime (on the 13th), when asked, “Since the original Genma [Demon King] is a long novel, will it become a series?” Kadokawa replied, “No, it’s just one work. I’m not the producer of Yamato,” which reportedly elicited laughter from the journalists in attendance.
Kadokawa, who is also being parodied in the best-selling Japanese dictionary Daigo Kai with the phrase “No blood comes out of his gums” changed to “No knowledge comes out of Haruki,” is quite the character. In response, according to a reporter who interviewed Nishizaki, Nishizaki also said, “As the creator of an original anime, I can’t afford to lose. The enemy will probably launch an offensive with TV commercials, but we’ll counter with a commercial where Yamato‘s Wave-Motion Gun blows Genma to pieces.” The showdown between these two monster producers promises to be quite interesting.
(Nomisk)