The Usual Yamato Meta Talk 

The last post was the big franchise goodbye to the Yamato franchise. The year was 1983 and it was time to end it all. For the longest time, it was concluded. Then enter this film coming out  in December of 2009. That means 26 years of real time waiting for this, but only 17 in the franchise itself. Looking up how this film was received, it’s amazing how Resurrection was a flop. It was #7 in the box office on debut and then just sank lower after the fact. This film could have started a whole new crew and further Yamato adventures, but it was not fated to be

Instead, Yamato 2199 took off four years later and was an absolute reboot to the Yamato franchise with more modern sensibilities. I mean, I’ve written about 2199 and 2202 already and I really like them. Still, I wouldn’t have been upset in an alternate universe where Resurrection was the spawning point of new Yamato media. As a result of what actually happened in our reality, Resurrection turned out to be a weird red headed step child. Almost no one talks about it. That’s what makes this installment so interesting to me.

The Earth is Doomed Again 

That year is 2220 and the Earth is soon to be done for again. A traveling black hole is on its way to Earth and humanity needs to immigrate to another planet. The Earth immigration fleets are constantly under attack by one fleet or another with barely anyone surviving. The interesting thing is that the first immigration fleets were attacked by fleets from different species. With that, enter Susumu Kodai returning to Earth after three years of living in space. His daughter Miyuki blames him specifically for his wife, Yuki Mori, going missing.

Right at the get go, there are so many interesting and complicated things going on. Kodai is leading a new crew of youngsters on a journey to save humanity, I mean, the guy is only 35 so he’s not an old man like Okita was. At the same time, Kodai has enough experience to help a new crew become the best ever. There is also the space immigration plot because of the doom of the Earth. Space politics is also a major thing because of the Intergalactic Alliance that rips itself apart. The leading party, the SUS, became too tyrannical and the other members rebelled. Kodai and the new Yamato are in the middle of everything in intergalactic politics. I find that all fascinating.

I like the changes in the guard from the original crew. The science officer on the Yamato, Sanada, is now leading the Earth’s forces. It was nice to see Shima’s younger brother leading the Earth fleets. Tasuke Tokugawa is back to lead engineering on the Yamato again. So the main focus of the show is once again Susumu Kodai looking and hoping that Yuki Mori will be somewhere out in the galaxy. Miyuki, Kodai’s young girl, is being taught medicine by Dr. Sado and Analyzer. So it does mean Kodai gets the main screen time as usual, but it’s great to see that 17 years meant people actually succeeded and did different things. 

Kodai couldn’t let go

I don’t know what to do about reboots making the father figure a dead beat that ran away from a child and responsibilities. Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection did it years before The Force Awakens by a small amount of years. In all seriousness, this is that big idea behind this film. In Final Yamato, Okita and everyone else told Kodai and Yuki to have a child and live a normal life before going off to die. He did have a kid and probably stayed on Earth for a while. Still Kodai ended up running away because he can’t live a normal life. He’s too much of a space fiend who must save the galaxy or else. 

How does Resurrection deal with this? By having Kodai choose both his family and saving humankind on the new and improved Yamato. It feels like a lazy choice, but it’s a realistic compromise. Especially when everything aligns for that to happen. Kodai is a great captain and knows the best ways to get more out of his young crew to get the best results, in that way, he saved humanity. Along the way, Kodai got his daughter Miyuki to understand his point of view and how he loves people in his own way. This adult Kidair has grown a bit. Good, because he needs to grow.

Never give up, never surrender: The Younger Crew

If there is a main point for Kodai besides gaining everything I mentioned, it’s teaching the new crew how to be the Yamato crew. You know, the crew that always did the impossible by being so bold. At the same time, there was the right time to take action and not just fight just to fight and cause so many intergalactic incidents without probable cause. The Yamato is a representative of humankind as they are the first ship of humans that most people are ever going to see. So Kodai had to lead people in that direction.

Most of the young crew of the new Yamato are very energetic and quick to make decisions. Orihara, one of the newer female crew members, is a genius at searching and finding things in space to increase the Yamato’s chances of survival. That’s all we know about her and that she is just a good competent officer. Dr. Mihara the doctor is also a wonderful pilot who can kick everyone’s asses if she tried in piloting. The very second she was introduced, I knew I would like to see her do some amazing things on screen because she is so talented.

It’s the new male cast that needs to know what to do when things get difficult. The new engineers Sho and So Tenma are egotistical people who say they built the Yamato. Still, they don’t know how to fix things when it’s time to use actual tools for maintenance. Also, the new bridge crew members Minoru, Kobayashi, Nakanishi, Kamijo, and Kinoshita need actual experience and guidance because they constantly try to take actions on their own which could cause devastating circumstances because all they want to do is attack blindly. It’s good that all of them have such great leaders to make them the officers they should be.

Conclusions and what could have been.

Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection is absolutely gorgeous. The art is great and such an advancement from what was in Final in a well done and natural way. They are still the same character designs and spaceship designs style wise from a new edge from 2009. The battle scenes are epic and remind me of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Something that makes sense considering that this show heavily involved gigantic fleets. In which there is a balance with the Yamato being awesome with its new technology. I mean, it’s an awesome ship. 

I really enjoyed this film quite a bit. It’s an absolute solid piece of storytelling. Even if it wasn’t a set up movie for future adventures it’s so well paced and has pathos. There were so many places for the series to go with just the new intergalactic politics alone. Let alone what Kodai can teach his still inexperienced crew and the search for Yuki somewhere out there in space. Great new cast and great story with just a good potential for more. Once again, I’m sorry that it didn’t hit the audience it was meant for. There was something really special here.