The first round of the Yamato 50th Anniversary Exhibition was a smash success in Tokyo, and reopened in Osaka from July 19 to August 3. As before, cameras were given all-area access, so fans shared what they saw generously online. Presented here is a photo walk-through of the event space and surrounding points of interest.
“Mamor” is a Japanese word meaning “protect.” It’s where Mamoru Kodai gets his name, and it’s the title of a monthly magazine about military matters from Fusosha Publishing. It enters the Yamato record books because of a unique article all about rank; not just IRL, but also in pop culture such as anime and movies.
In part 1, Hikawa discussed the birth of Yamato fandom in Japan. Here, he recounts the media he absorbed as a child, the impact it had on subsequent generations, and the birth of fan clubs that laid the groundwork for everything we see today.
“Miroku” is a Japanese blogger and Yamato fan who works in America as a business consultant. This unique convergence provided the basis to ask what lessons Yamato has for people in the business world. A detailed investigation in this blog series digs into the series and delivers advice just about everyone can use.
It’s hard to imagine a more comprehensive, more inspired, more lovingly curated presentation than what fans in Tokyo got to see from March 15 to 31. Presented here is a simulated walkthrough of the entire exhibition, made possible by the many fans who shared their photos on social media.
From the pages of Spectator magazine, August 2024: O.G. superfan Ryusuke Hikawa discusses the birth of Yamato fandom in Japan with an unprecedented level of detail, including his visits to the production studio during Series 1 and what he did with the treasures he was given there.
Starting in 2008, an annual year-in-review was written to look back at the ever-expanding world of Space Battleship Yamato; music, publishing, products, public events, and more. These articles map out the living-legend status of the original saga to confirm that Yamato is alive and well. Year 2024 added January 2025!
Published December 2024 on Phile Web: an extensive interview with the sound engineers who revived and remixed the classic 1977 Symphonic Suite album for Yamato‘s 50th anniversary. What did it take to make a revered masterpiece sound even better? Find out here.
This was more than just a name change. It involved a frozen food company, a buddhist organization, a shady lawyer, a former prime minister, accounting malpractice, and a near-catastrophic level of personal loyalty. How did those things lead to the founding of West Cape Corporation? Find out here.
Just before the release of REBEL 3199 Chapter 1 in July 2024, Mono magazine No. 942 (published by World Photo Press) became the first to carry a Yamato cover story for the big event. And what a story it was; 44 pages of features covering Yamato both old and new.
The 50th anniversary of Space Battleship Yamato‘s original TV broadcast was overwhelming. Live events, news flashes, social media posts, and more brought fans together from all parts of the globe to observe a day of love and celebration. It was enough to warrant its own report, so let’s dive in!
Space Battleship Yamato has had an influence on real things actually happening in space exploration, and thanks to an ongoing NHK series titled Project X ~ Challengers we learned of a Yamato connection to the real-life Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission operated by JAXA from 2003-2010.
The flow of time made it inevitable; sooner or later, a member of the Yamato generation would eventually rise to the height of political power. That has now happened the appointment of Shigeru Ishiba as Japan’s prime minister. What fan cred does he bring to the table? Let’s find out.
30 years of peace are abruptly ended when an exploration ship accidentally awakens an enemy bent on the destruction of organic life. Earth is cut off from the rest of the galaxy when this enemy attacks. Their only savior is the rebuilt Yamato and her reformed crew, the Star Force! Read about this exciting fan project here!
The story of the legal battle over Yamato‘s authorship is a sketchy one with many details still unknown more than 20 years later. But fleeting glimpses of it can still be found in the sparse media record of the time. This magazine article offers one such glimpse, shared here with the kind permission of its writer.
After Leiji Matsumoto’s passing in February 2023, his wife and daughter addressed his countless bereaved fans in Japan and around the world, announcing that in due time a public event would be held to give everyone an opportunity to grieve together. On June 3, they did so in grand style.
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine, Vol. 16 (April 2023): Writer Harutoshi Fukui and Scriptwriter Hideki Oka break the long silence to update fans on the status of Be Forever Yamato REBEL 3199 and hint at the intrigue to come.
From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine, Vol. 15 (October 2022): 2202 and 2205 scriptwriter Hideki Oka looks back at the progressive year 1980 and recounts his impressions as a fan in the “target generation” who closely watched Yamato in real time.
This collection of music-based conversations includes a look back at Yamato music history with Akira Miyagawa from Showa 40 Man magazine (February 2023), and the feelings of talented musicians who performed with him in twin concerts, interviewed in Sarasate magazine (May 2023).
Throughout its long history, Yamato has been the subject of repeated analysis with one textbook after another examining the phenomenon. They are all tempting targets for translation, but this one stands out for the depth of its exploration.
Writer/Researcher Rikao Yanagita has been publishing books and delivering lectures for decades, bringing a scientific perspective to what we see in anime and manga. Presented here are various essays that shine a scientific spotlight on what we see in Space Battleship Yamato.
Few people give us gifts we can carry for the rest of our lives, even fewer from across oceans on the other side of a language barrier. Leiji Matsumoto was indisputably one of them. Collected here are memories and news stories that exploded across Japanese media (and elsewhere) upon the news of his loss.
In February 2020 a new story was announced with the working title of Space Battleship Yamato Next: Star Blazers Lambda. It launched as a manga series and ran for just over two years. Here, we round up everything attached to the project including the entire story, author interviews, design documents, and more.
From issue 14 of the Star Blazers/Yamato Fan Club magazine (April 2022): very rare interviews with Sasha’s voice actor Keiko Han and singer Mitsuko Horie. Both cite their Yamato experience as a career-changer, and both recount remarkably similar moments from the recording booth.
The official Yamato fan club set very high standards throughout its run from 1977 all the way to 1991. So what happened next? A new group stepped in to pick up the slack, and they lasted another ten years. This is their story.
As we look toward the future of the “reboot universe,” we naturally wonder how vintage stories will be adapted. Surprisingly, significant parts of them already have been. Here, Anton Mei Brandt digs deep for fragments of Yamato lore that have found their way to the screen, sometimes barely noticed.
In 2013, a train station in the city of Kure, where the Battleship Yamato was built, adopted the Space Battleship Yamato theme as its jingle to announce arriving trains. A reporter for the AERAdot website investigated how this was decided, giving us a look into local and musical history.
From the Magmix website comes this short profile on Yamato Exec Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, described as a skilled maverick who brought change to the anime industry and carved out his reputation as the self-styled “Dessler of Akasaka” (an upscale business district in Tokyo).
In September 2021, a novel titled Space Battleship Yamato Dawn Chapter, Aquarius Algorithm began an effort to fill the 17-year gap between Final Yamato and Resurrection. There was plenty to learn about it if you knew where to look online, and it is all collected here in one place.
Isao Sasaki’s voice was the first anyone ever heard when they met Space Battleship Yamato, and he still belts out that theme song as no one else can. Two days before his first-ever livestream concert, a pair of interviews with Sasaki appeared online, and as usual he had plenty of stories to tell.
