From the January 1979 issue of Kodansha’s manga magazine Mimi comes this six-page exploration of the Yamato 2 production office at Academy Studio, filled with insider details and step-by-step instructions for how anime is made.
The spring months of 1979 saw the epic conclusion of Yamato 2 and the first word about the next adventure. A continuing flood of media still gave everyone plenty to talk about. Here we see everything that happened in March and April. [2 pages]
As Yamato 2 moved into its post-Telezart phase with four very compelling episodes, development continued on The New Voyage, media coverage intensified, and new books kept the world expanding. Pile on more model kits, an unusual LP, and more, and it added up to a very rich month.
At the dawn of 1979, Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s Office Academy studio was on the highest trajectory ever seen in the TV anime industry. He took Office Academy into expansion mode, organized around merchandising and new anime productions. The first of these began in January, a little thing we now call The New Voyage.
The announcement of Farewell to Yamato for the summer of 1978 galvanized a whole new media culture into existence. When Academy opened its new production studio in September to make Yamato 2, reporters were there, ready to give everyone a chance to see where the magic happened.
As 1978 drew to a close, Yamato fever showed no signs of abating. Farewell would soon be back for revival screenings, Yamato 2 approached its halfway point on TV, and new merch continued to appear, especially on the music side. It all made December a month to remember.
Though Farewell to Yamato was no longer in theaters in November 1978, it continued to dominate the discourse, both in media and merchandising. But it was no longer the entire story, as demonstrated by the increasingly divergent episodes of Yamato 2 on TV. Here’s everything the month had to offer…
Imagine that it’s July 1977, two months after Star Wars exploded into the world. Now, without buying a movie ticket, you’ll get to watch an expanded version play out over 26 episodes on TV. That mind-blowing scenario was pretty much what fans were getting when Yamato 2 took to the airwaves. And you bet it sparked a lot of activity…
One of the things that made Space Battleship Yamato unique was a fan base so dedicated that they obtained copies of production materials to share in fanzines. It is thanks to them that a presentation like this one is now possible: a complete scene-by-scene examination of a single TV episode. [4 pages]
With the approach of Yamato 2202 and the explosion of new design work that will accompany it, we revisit the original designs from 1978 for comparison. This collection reviews the characters of Gatlantis, the Comet Empire.
With the approach of Yamato 2202 and the explosion of new design work that will accompany it, we revisit the original designs from 1978 for comparison. This collection reviews the mecha of Gatlantis, the Comet Empire.
A complete overview of Series 2 via the galleries created as bonus features for the Comet Empire DVD series released by Voyager Entertainment in 2002. All the characters, ships, weapons, locations, maps, and more!
The making of Yamato 2 in 1978-79 was a very different experience than the seat-of-the-pants production of the first series, but it was no less interesting or challenging. This series of articles explores that process from beginning to end, starting with an overview to provides context.
When Yamato 2 got underway in the spring of ’78, Academy needed its own studio for the first time in three years. In this part, Pre-Production begins with the setup of a brand new workspace and the veteran staff gathers to bring Yamato 2 to life! All this and voice actors, too!
The staff speaks! The Yamato fan club interviews Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Director Noboru Ishiguro, and several others in October 1978. Ishiguro admits to fans in February 1979 that he doesn’t know how the series will end, and other key personnel discuss their relationship with the saga from its beginning.
The last major coverage of Yamato 2 in the Fan Club Magazine came a year after it began, with issue 12 in October 1979. The occasion was inspired by the making of a compilation TV special. Five members of the Academy Studio staff sat down to discuss it and revisit some of their production memories.
In this 1992 interview, Director Noboru Ishiguro shares his thoughts and memories about working on Space Battleship Yamato 2, including some of the new techniques he developed to take the series to a new level. Accompanied by vintage coverage from Roadshow Magazine.
Kazutaka Miyatake designed mecha for some of the greatest anime on Earth. This interview with Miyatake was published in the liner notes of Bandai’s Yamato 2 LD box set in 1992. Though he did not work directly on the series, he was the primary mecha designer on Farewell to Yamato, and all of his work was preserved for Yamato 2.
Yamato 2‘s greatest asset was its enormous inheritance from Farewell to Yamato. But the series was still a very demanding production with all sorts of new elements to be created–or in some cases, transformed. See how it was done in this exploration of the series’ character and mecha design.
In 1978 and ’79, few anime titles were hotter than Yamato 2, and the entertainment magazine Roadshow kept up with the series for six consecutive issues. Their unique coverage examined the developing story with the same editorial style as anything in the live-action world.
OUT was a magazine by fans for fans. This article perfectly represents that approach; the transcript of a round-table discussion at a Yamato fan club meeting. At the time, Yamato 2 was just past the halfway point of its first broadcast and with each new episode enlarging the context of the saga, there was plenty to discuss.
When Yamato 2 appeared, it divided the fans into two camps; those who considered it an alternate version of the greatest movie ever made, and those who considered it an inferior version of the greatest movie ever made. When this issue was published, Yamato 2‘s fate was still up in the air and opinions were flying furiously.
This issue was published in April, 1979 to coincide with the conclusion of Yamato 2. The ratings were so impressive that Yoshinobu Nishizaki had already given the green light to The New Voyage. Without missing a beat, this issue jumped right from one to the other.
