When A Recap Movie Changes Everything

Is it a crazy thing to think about how some of the most legendary anime start at failures. Lupin III’s anime side was originally canceled until part 2 showed years later. So was Space Battleship Yamato. What was originally supposed to be 52 episodes was cut to 26 because it was canceled. I bet you would never expect this piece of history that started or was the cornerstone of the anime fandom in the United States as we know came from something that was canceled. Same Leiji Matsumoto’s work taking off too. Do you know how Space Battleship Yamato became a phenomenon in Japan and thus the world? This film. 

Looking up the history of this happening was interesting. This recap film was going to happen whether or not the original series was canceled. There is a bit of a timing because Star Wars: A New Hope came out and exploded across the world in 1977. This film was almost like Japan’s response to it. This is the kind of sci fi adventure Japan had to offer and Japanese audiences really showed up for it. I mean, it outdid A New Hope in the Japanese box office. It led to a sequel film coming out in 1978, which I will get up to soon, that proved it wasn’t just a fluke. It’s incredible and started a chain of movies and new tv seasons and eventually a new series all together.

Space Battleship Yamato’s Storyline

If you’ve read my Yamato 2199 post, you already know the Storyline. The year is 2199 and the Earth is dying. Space Aliens, the Gamalin empire are invading and sending irradiated asteroids to the Earth to wipe out humanity. The poison has caused humanity to live underground and in a little bit more than a year, even that won’t be enough. Humanity is almost dead, but there is hope. When Captain Okita was leading a failed skirmish against the Gamalin forces, a capsule lands on Mars that recruits Kodai and Shima pickup revealing a plan for a wave motion engine that can allow humanity to pick the Cosmo cleaner to help save the Earth and its people. 

Space Battleship Yamato is, of course, the journey of the Space Battleship Yamato’s crew’s journey to Iscander. Captain Okita is the chosen captain. Kodai starts the movie as a cadet and slowly grows over the course of the film. In the way of Yamato’s journey are the Gamalin empire. The charismatic leader Dessler puts all his effort to stop the journey. He puts more and more forces with their own leaders in the Yamato’s way. The Yamato must succeed against every challenge put in front of them or else the Earth and its people are doomed.

A Recap Film that changes the tone of the story

As you would expect from taking a 26 episode series and turning it into two and a half hours, there are going to be a lot of changes and cuts. Some of those cuts are space adventure with this crew seeing things they’ve never seen before in a Star Trek sort of way. Others are episodes of the crew just hanging out and talking to each other. It’s very condensed and we don’t know the cast of the whole of the ship more than when they became important. Somehow, that goes for important people like Okita and Kodai too. 

Though some of that can be some good things. Chief Science Officer Sanada being a literal deus ex machina person is not something that I enjoy. I really mean that because every moment that could cause tension around him doesn’t because his arms and legs are detachable because he’s a cyborg. Also, really glad that all the sexual assault Analyzer does like exposing Yuki’sr underwear or many other things are not in it. Those sorts of things are what lowered my opinion of the original series compared to 2199 too. 

Desperation and A Pointless War

I think making the ideas and themes around Yamato and putting them forefront in a bigger way makes the material stronger. I say that because it really feels like a more desperate gamble with humanity really was at the cusps of existence. If the Yamato’s wave motion engine failed, humanity was done for. If they couldn’t make the first faster than light jump, it would be over. If the Yamato was destroyed at any point in space, humanity was over. You can really feel the sense of desperation because this film really emphasizes those moments of how human kind is on its last legs. A simple thing of Yamato exploding in the middle of launch means they are doomed.

What pushes things further is how this is a story of two sides nearly as their doom. Gamilas is also at the end of its own rope which is why they wanted to clean up and colonize the Earth in their own way. But the two sides are too dedicated to their mission to go with they’re hearts and want to make the connection to save both of them. The Gamalin continually putting the Yamato in danger also led to their destruction in the end. Even at the expense of their own, hollow home planet, the Yamato had to be defeated for pride and nothing else. It’s such powerful stuff showing how the pride of nation and duty can lead to destruction when you have nothing else.

Visuals and Conclusions

Visually, you can tell this was a recap movie from taking footage and animation from the 1973 series and putting it in this film. So the quick cut of the bridge of the Yamato with no animation was used a lot. Same with the animation of the ships moving and working, but it’s years behind even the original Gundam which had its own production issues. But the Leiji Matsumoto character and space ship designs really carries so much of the film. Same with stellar space scenes when they are around, Just wish some of it could be given up a bit more but it’s a film, not a tv series.

This is a good movie. I do wish that more characters than Kodai and Okita got more characterization because a year passed by in two and a half hours. Dessler turned out alright, but Yuki Mori only interacted with Kodai by flirting with him. As a whole, the story and themes that came out of this film were really good. It’s such a treasure of a film because it is good and for groundbreaking historical reasons. Find and watch the film because it is good and also because it’s such an important film.