Final Yamato wasn’t a dream
A story of watching it at the theater; the final scene is a little too mature for children
Published April 19 by Magmix. See the original article here
There are several versions of the theatrical anime Space Battleship Yamato: The Final Chapter [Final Yamato]. As of 2025, the version available on video streaming services has been changed in many ways from the original theatrical release. This includes the famous final scene.
Vivid childhood memories…was it just a dream?
Amazon Prime, FOD, and U-NEXT have been streaming theatrical releases of the original Yamato series since April 4, 2025. A man who watched one of them, Final Yamato, felt something was off, saying, “It’s different from what I saw a long time ago.” He said, “I remember there being a great love scene at the end, but it wasn’t there.”
This man (a company employee in his 50s) said that he saw Final Yamato with his family at the cinema when he was a child, and that it had been 42 years since he last watched it.
“I had forgotten many details (until I watched it again), but I remembered the main story, the swirling pink barrier, and Yamato sinking. Also, at the end, there was a long love scene between Kodai and Yuki, and as a child, I remember feeling like I was watching something I shouldn’t be seeing.” (Male office worker in his 50s)
That’s why, when watching it this time, he said there was “some kind of tension” toward the end. And when the scene actually happened, it was so brief that it was like, “Wait, was it that short?” Since it was a memory from over 40 years ago, he thought that maybe it felt long because he had “forbidden feelings.”
However, the love scene was actually longer. Final Yamato was released in theaters on March 19, 1983. The original theatrical release did indeed include a “long” love scene between the protagonist Susumu Kodai and the heroine Yuki Mori.
There is also a version of this film called the “70mm version.” This was released in select theaters in November of the same year, and featured higher quality picture and audio.
As of April 2025, the version available on video streaming services is based on this 70mm version, and compared to the original theatrical release, scenes have been added and dialogue has been changed, with the love scene cut out; only a still image remains.
So when was the love scene cut? In our research, we found that the earliest testimony was that it was “cut on the second day of the original theatrical release.” There is also information online that says it was “cut sometime during the original theatrical release period,” so there is some variation. It is unlikely that the film would be replaced nationwide from the second day onward, so we can assume that the scene in question was gradually removed from the theaters where it arrived. There has also been information online that suggests that the love scene also existed in the 70mm version, but this could not be confirmed.
Note that the DVD and Blu-ray versions currently in circulation in 2025 contain this love scene in a separate section from the main feature, so it is possible to view the scene itself. Although it is not explicitly depicted, it may be a bit awkward to watch it with the family. The love scene that the man saw was probably present in this first theatrical release version, so we can say that we were witnessing a valuable piece of history.
Click here to explore the differences between Final Yamato‘s two editions