The name alone catches your eye: an entirely separate side-story to the Yamato saga with Dessler [Desslok] center stage. Unfortunately, it never got past the written word. Fortunately, that written record still exists. Here you can track the rise and fall of the Greatest Yamato Story Never Told.
As a pure concept, there was absolutely nothing wrong with 2520, but it turned out to be a sequel in the worst way. But we can examine it on its own merits and see what it had to offer. Would it have won our hearts if its full story had been told, or was it justifiably put out of its misery? Let’s see if we can find out. [2 pages]
This interview captures Leiji Matsumoto in buoyant spirits as he finds himself in an upwardly-mobile career swing after a comparatively quiet period in the late 80s and early 90s. He talks enthusiastically about his time on the first Yamato series and expands on his ideas for a new story.
A 25th anniversary Yamato LD series was reelased in 1998. They included a serialized essay by Matsumoto about his Yamato experiences. This contained the first announcement of his intention to create a new story and his ambitious plans for the next 25 years. The entire essay is presented here.
Despite his position at the time of copyright holder for Yamato, Matsumoto was unusually strident in this interview about the nature of his role on the first TV series and makes several claims not seen elsewhere. This interview captures an interesting snapshot-in-time when the situation was still in contention.
Long before the resurrection begain in 2009, Leiji Matsumoto made his own attempt to bring Yamato back to life as part of a grand plan to unify all of his creations. Its title Shin [New] Space Battleship Yamato, but the secondary English name did a better job of setting it apart: Space Battleship Great Yamato.
Unable to complete his ambitious plans for Great Yamato, Leiji Matsumoto immediately transformed it into a bigger project. What made Dai Yamato different is that it didn’t start out as a manga. It would go straight to animation…by way of your local pachinko parlor.
Translated from Matsumoto’s autobiography, The Far Place Where the Ring of Time is Linked. The book culminates with a chapter devoted to Space Battleship Yamato and his second most famous production, Galaxy Express 999. Here is the Yamato portion, which contains the explanation for the book’s unusual title.
Events of the Legacy Years, 1984-2007
As of 1984, the Yamato saga was now in the past tense, but the sheer momentum of the production years guaranteed a lively future of public events that kept the passion fed…
Events of the Legacy Years, 2008-2010
The resurrection of Yamato began in 2009, accompanied by a landslide of public events that brought back the spirit of the original production years. This record reviews them all, culminating with the 2010 live-action movie.
Events of the Legacy Years, 2011-present
Fully back in the public eye after the 2009 resurrection, Yamato achieved the status of living legend as the new films circled the globe and yet another new production loomed over the horizon. See the continuing record of public events here.
Ryusuke Hikawa wrote this column to examine the subtleties of anime. His topic in the April 1999 issue was a complex one indeed: the interplay of thoughts and images as delineated by a single frame of film. It gave him an opportunity to examine various aspects using the evolution of Yamato as an example.
A conversation with three people who took part in Yamato production: Sound Effects Producer Mitsuru Kashiwabara, Sound & Music Producer Mitsuhiro Koyama, and Assistant Producer Shinji Iwamoto. Translated from the 1996 Sound Fantasia CD liner notes.
The internet bursts at the seams with Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato content. If you’ve backed away in terror at the sheer magnitude of it all, this page is here to highlight some of the more noteworthy artifacts that have emerged on YouTube, either directly related to Yamato or inspired by it.
The six participants in this 1993 interview discussed their experiences from the early years and their work on the forthcoming Yamato 2520, which at the time was simply referred to as New Yamato. The fact that 2520 would not work out as planned makes this a particularly interesting read.
A once-in-a-lifetime round table discussion between three luminaries: director Leiji Matsumoto, composer Hiroshi Miyagawa, and auteur Hideaki Anno. Translated from the 1998 Railway of Fantasy concert program.
Yamato Mechanical Illustrations, published in 2011, contained this discussion between Tenjin and the editor of Yamato Fact File magazine. Their conversation explores some unique philosophical ground, mapped out by the responsibilities and pitfalls of visualizing SF anime’s most iconic spaceship.
In the spring of 1990, a small group of dedicated Japanese fans assembled at the official fan club headquarters to put their experiences on record. They kept the homefires burning, and some of them are still doing so today. Their discussion was published in the club magazine and is presented here.
Yamato Party is an event run by Masaru Enomoto, the unofficial leader of the fan community. Formerly known as the top Yamato collector in the entire country (until he sold off most of his acquisitions), he now pours his boundless passion and energy into this one event, and you feel it from the moment you step in.
Who are the Yamato fans of today, and what do they do to keep the flame lit? Meet some of them face to face and see what they had to offer their fellow fans at Yamato Party 2009…
In February 2010, Akihabara added another notch to its belt of positives when Space Battleship Yamato burst up from under the pavement to blast its mighty Wave-Motion Gun into the heavens. Or at least, that’s how it looked on February 13 and 14 when a very special gathering took place called Yamato Expo ’10.
In May 5 2011, an impromptu gathering was held for Yamato fans to raise donations for earthquake relief, featuring some special guests with veteran status. The place and the date were quickly chosen. Did many people come? Was the event a success? The answers are yes, very many and very successful. Here is an firsthand report.
An entire generation of Japanese artists and writers grew up on Yamato, and some daydreamed of one day remaking their favorite story for a new audience. One of those few who actually got to do it was Producer Hisaya Yabusaki, who oversaw the production of all the Yamato games for Sony Playstation.
As the parent company of the Yamato Playstation games, Bandai published this round-table discussion with five key members of the production staff, all of whom were on board for the entire Playstation lineup.
As a charter member of Studio Nue, Kazutaka Miyatake was one of just three artists who designed Yamato herself inside and out. When the time came to adapt the mecha into the Playstation environment, there was no one more qualified than Miyatake to do the job. He discusses his entire body of work here.
Keisuke Masunaga redefined the Leiji Matsumoto style for a new generation through various anime projects in the 1990s. This put him in an ideal position to bring the same magic to the Yamato Playstation games, as he describes in these highlights from a May, 2000 interview.
At the beginning of 2008, Exec Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki had re-entered public life and Bandai Visual was preparing a remastered DVD box and model kit spearheaded by lifetime fan Hideaki Anno. Things lined up perfectly for Anno and Nishizaki to appear together. They conducted two interviews that are presented here.
