The Be Forever Yamato Down Low

In terms of continuity, this one does follow The New Voyage. The weird thing is it doesn’t feel like it at first. The New Voyage was a major set up film that introduces a villain group, the Black Nebula Empire. There was also the brother of Susumu, Mamoru, working at HQ after returning home with no mention of where his daughter went. The New Voyage also introduced new crew members for the Yamato and none of them are present. Also, the Yamato was locked in storage so it was like Yamato 2 where every crew member worked different jobs which is weird after encountering another villain group. It was so strange because nothing clicked at first.  

It took me about fifteen minutes to think about why this film did it. I also feel like since the film was released a year after The New Voyage was on TV, maybe not everything in writing was cooked yet when Be Forever Yamato was in production. I have no data about this at all, so it’s only a conjecture. The other thing I could tell myself is “shut up and watch the space ship movie” which is probably a much better response to all of this. I mean, that complaint doesn’t ruin the film at all. The film itself is still a great film and you are about to read a lot more about it.

General Plot of Be Forever Yamato

Compared to the last three films, Be Forever starts out so much more frantically. The Dark Nebula empire from The New Voyage is here to attack Earth. Every single thing Earth does to attempt to defend itself has failed. Nothing the Earth fleet fires penetrates the Dark Nebula’s ships hauls at all. A giant bomb is planted on Earth built out of the same metal to destroy all life on Earth if the Dark Nebula empire pushes a single button from galaxies away. The only answer is, as you would expect, the Yamato. It’s like the Enterprise problem because the Enterprise is always the only ship in range. Except the Yamato is actually a special ship. 

With a damaged Earth, the Yamato crew unites once again to save humanity. Mostly. Yuki Mori gets left behind and is captured by the Dark Nebula empire. Also, there are more new crew members for the ship and a new captain is put into place. All for Yamato to head to  the heart of the Dark Nebula Empire to stop the destruction of the Earth. So there is a double plot. One with the Yamato crew flying through space and fighting the Dark Nebula Empire and another with Yuki Mori being captured and eventually joining the rebellion on Earth. Plus, there are more turns in this film that I never expected and the Earth winning because of love.  

Putting People in the Worse Situations

The Space Battleship Yamato franchise is no stranger to a lot of things. Threats in space, characters having their very essence and souls ripped out, or Yamato placed in do or die situations they barely succeed in. None of those are newcomers to this film either because they are in it. It’s just that Be Forever Yamato comes from it at a different angle by actually separating Yuki and Susumu Kodai and placing another person in Yuki’s usual spot that looks like her. You may have seen me mentioning her in the first paragraph. It’s Sasha who despite being a year old looks 18.

So basically, Susumu’s niece is taking Yuki’s spot and it’s complicated. There is some magical space baby stuff here because Sasha is half human and half Iscandarian. There is also the separation between Yuki and Susumu because they haven’t been separated ever. This is an experience which makes the heart grow ever fonder because they do have some deep love for each other that they can’t express due to constantly being in conflict. The Space Battleship Yamato is thrown into a darker galaxy because they are the dark nebula empire after all. When the radar is down, the crew barely makes it through space because they literally can’t see anything. 

Then there is the entire plot twist itself which makes pressure even harder. The Dark Nebula Empire put a lot of work into making the entire Space Battleship Yamato journey feel completely useless. This is supposedly the Earth 200 years in the future and the Yamato is apparently doomed to die…again. Even famous earth art was replicated to make the illusion more realistic. Before the crew knew the trick, most of them went into space once again to fight against fate even if it was hopeless because that is what the Yamato crew does. One could say doing the impossible is a part of the Yamato crew member job description. 

Distance, Love, and Galaxies 

This film was very emotional as people were pushed to their limits. How long can Yuki hold onto her love of Susumu Kodai when she is told he is dead? Will she fall for her capturer Alphon instead. At the same time, there is Susumu who constantly confuses his niece Sasha for Yuki. Will that break him? The answer is no. No matter how far they were, Yuki and Susumu love each other and somehow managed to take down the bomb on Earth from both ends at the same time despite the time and space between them. It’s great. 

This film also introduced the concept of the galaxies within galaxies. Beforehand, Gamalin and the comet empire were in a galaxy nearby. A half of a year of jumping and boom, there. Now the Yamato can do high speed  jumps that last longer. Something which opens up the distance and strangeness of space even more. Now, enemies from human space are going to come from strange galaxies that the earth doesn’t understand. I love how heavy and weird that franchise can get with a good emotional core. That’s just everything it needs. 

Bringing it together

Visually, Be Forever Yamato was incredible. It didn’t take the short cuts the other films did. The Yamato hasn’t looked as good as it did in this film so far. The attack on the Earth looks great and every space battle was incredibly well done. I love the weirder sci fi elements that were put into play too. What makes it more interesting is that combination of galaxies and max level of drama in the most amazing moments. Heck, even the character animation was so much more on point to get the feeling and tension in every scene. I really do have no notes. 

I don’t have to say how much more I loved this film right? It’s exceptional and just amazingly put together. When I first watched it, I was still confused about all the strange choices it made, but those complaints fell to the wayside as the stakes became bigger and meant more. The writing was still absolutely solid on all levels. If you’ve seen the other films up to this point, just jump into it, this is probably my third favorite anime franchise and this film cemented that to me. That is an important thing because it is really hard to make something my favorite.