While the creative minds at West Cape Corporation continued building Final Yamato, word of its development worked its way beyond the borders of the official fan club. Be Forever got its first TV broadcast, and new voices were heard from distant Osaka that would later shake and shape the world of anime.
After the final episode of Yamato III aired in early April, Exec Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki found himself in an uncommon situation. For the first time since early 1978, he had no new anime in production. As echoes of his massive success story continued to ripple outward, conversations began about where the ship would go next.
It may be impossible to construct a complete timeline of Yamato history since previously unknown artifacts can emerge without warning, and sometimes in waves. This happened in early 2025 with a motherlode that was big enough to get its own page. It is presented here in chronological order.
After a banner year like 1980, it could only be expected that Yamato activity would decline, and it certainly did. In this time period, the second half of Yamato III was accompanied by a slew of publishing and two new albums, as the appearance of a new competitor inspired Yoshinobu Nishizaki to take action…
As we look back over the entire sweep of 1980, December was the lightest month with the least amount of activity. That wasn’t the case for Yoshinobu Nishizaki, since the cutdown of Yamato III made the future less certain. But the present was still a great place to be if you were a fan. Here’s how this rollercoaster year came to a close…
After Yamato III‘s first month on the air, Be Forever was still rippling through the publishing world and all seemed well in camp. At least on the surface. Underneath, things were less secure. What was going on, and why was the home office suddenly changing its name?
You have to push pretty hard to top the premiere of a new TV series, but the publishing community did its best with the last big wave of Be Forever books as Yamato III moved toward center stage. Here’s how it all played out…
As Be Forever Yamato closed its premiere run in Japanese theaters, spinoff media became more concentrated as the first dedicated books appeared, and magazines became the first source of information for what was coming next: a third TV series! Here’s what September 1980 had to offer fans who couldn’t get enough.
The enormous momentum that built up in July burst wide open on the first two days of August with the hotly-anticipated premiere of Be Forever Yamato. Familiar patterns reappeared as fans emerged to make themselves part of the spectacle and merch poured out to welcome them. Here’s the full rundown of this amazing month.
This was the last round before the premiere of Be Forever Yamato in theaters, and thus became the single busiest month in all of Yamato history until the remake era began. To this day, no anime film has been promoted as heavily, and it’s hard to imagine one reaching these heights ever again. [2 pages]
As Toei Studio’s animation staff labored through their final month on Be Forever Yamato, the publicity machine ramped up with major media coverage and the first live events of the summer. On the other side of the planet, Star Blazers was winning hearts and creating a groundswell of its own. Here’s a full view of this exciting month.
The runup to summer 1980 was deceptively quiet on the surface, but momentum was building like a freight train underneath as Be Forever moved into the second half of production. It culminated in a press conference that sounded the starting gun on the biggest promo campaign in anime history.
The new decade dawned with the making of a new Yamato adventure that would be just one part of Academy Studio’s busiest year of them all. While the production team got started, a steady flow of media kept fans at bay. But…for how long? Here we examine the state of Yamato world for the first quarter of 1980.
This brings us to the halfway point between The New Voyage and Be Forever. With Space Carrier Blue Noah off and running, the next new Academy TV series was announced, accompanied by another rush of riches that closed out a very eventful year and gave way to an even bigger one.
As summer merged into fall, the world of Yamato was only getting bigger in the wake of The New Voyage, and Office Academy studio was only getting busier. The American premiere of Star Blazers and the Japanese premiere of Blue Noah were just part of the picture. Here’s everything that happened in these productive months.
July 1979 delivered a big one-two punch with both of the feature films returning to theaters and The New Voyage premiering on TV. It was no accident that these things reinforced each other, making this the third straight summer of Yamato fever.
This stretch of time can be described as a gap, since it marked the period between the Yamato 2 finale and the broadcast premiere of The New Voyage. Such gaps are replete throughout Yamato history, but as we all know they are often rich in news, media, and merch.
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.
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…
The month following the incredible box office success of Farewell to Yamato was both a victory lap and the beginning of a marathon. As new media coverage and publishing rolled out to feed a grateful public, production began on Yamato 2 and a major step was taken on the road to Star Blazers.
This was the month when all the suspense finally broke. Farewell to Yamato destroyed all previous box office records for anime films (including that of Yamato itself) with a fresh, uncompromised, top-notch production. It was a moment no one could have foreseen four years earlier.
The final month before the Farewell to Yamato premiere was a steady climb of excitement and anticipation as film production plowed through its final stages and publicity ratcheted up to maximum. Here’s what a full-blown case of Yamato Fever looked like…
As 1978 approached its midpoint, Yamato fever was heating up. The publicity campaign was just starting to ramp up, but production was running at full speed as the premiere date loomed ever closer. Here’s everything that brought us to the end of June, a period that included major announcements and the birth of anime journalism.
The new year brought new products, the birth of the official fan club, continued media attention, and a trickle of news about Yamato Part 2 that only vaguely hinted at the rush of preproduction activity behind the scenes. Here is an extensive record for the busy first quarter of 1978.
If we were to name this specific stretch of Yamato history, the appropriate word would probably be “Afterglow.” The feature film was still burning up the box office after three months, media coverage was still very active, and important new things arrived to firmly plant Yamato‘s flag into the soil of the future.
The explosion of diverse media coverage continued well after the August premiere of the Yamato movie brought anime into Japan’s mainstream entertainment culture. October 1977 felt like a collective breath of air after the avalanche of September, but the next wave was coming.
