Daniel Sullivan

For many us Gen-Xers, Star Blazers in 1979 was the first exposure to anime. I'm old enough to have watched Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and Kimba the White Lion, but I was too young to distinguish them as being of a different national origin than the cartoons we consumed after school. Then came Star Blazers. Star Blazers was a 1979 English language adaptation of the 1974 Uchū Senkan Yamato, or Space Battleship Yamato. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen on television, and hewed closely to the original story. Unfortunately, it also changed the names of the characters to western names and while it acknowledged that the Yamato was the Japanese battleship from WWII, it is rechristened as "Argo" in honor of the mission (this was due to WWII still being a sensitive topic in the seventies). The show was toned down for younger American audiences as well, though you still had characters die. None of this was a deal-breaker, but it was unfortunate. Star Blazers Space Battleship Yamato 2199 corrects that, providing an English language dub of the show without adapting other elements. There is no rechristening of the ship and all of the characters retain their original names. Also, the new series visual effects benefit from being thirty six years newer. Animation is more sophisticated, the space battles are truly gorgeous to watch and the attention to detail is amazing. Also, Yuki Mori/Nova is no longer the only woman aboard the ship, and Analyzer no longer gropes her. The story is updated, but if you watched the original series, it will be familiar, as it hews to the original plot and makes no major plot changes from the original, at least not as far as I can see (I haven't watched the original in many years). If you, like me, grew up watching this show, and if you enjoy sci-fi military space opera, then you owe it to yourself to watch this show! I highly recommend it!

A worthy sequel. I found the story engaging, the action to be very entertaining and well done, and the performances were excellent across the board. Without giving any spoilers, I enjoyed the fan service elements for those of us who remember the Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman comics and the old TV show. The movie posed quite a few moral dilemmas, both explicit and implicit, and handled them well overall. There was a point where it felt like the whole thing was getting away from itself, but that never happened. Also, the third act did not suffer the downfall of the first film's third act, and that of Man of Steel's third act - two indestructible beings pounding it out for fifteen minutes. The third act in the sequel was still over the top and pushed the limits of disbelief suspension (it's a comic book film - it's supposed to be), and there is a major fight scene in the third act, but it was more of a prelude to the third act's climax, not the third act itself. If you liked the first film, you'll like this one. I do highly recommend!

I remember fondly watching this show when it came in (I think) 1979 until its end. An English language adaptation of Space Battleship Yamato, it was the first anime I recalled watching consciously (I watched Speed Racer, Marine Boy, and Kimba, but I was too young when I saw them to recognize them as being anime as opposed to just cool cartoons). While some of the writing was toned down or retuned for American audiences (sake was called spring water from Japan), the ship was rechristened "Argo" in honor of their voyage, and the characters were given western names (Okita, Kodai, and Yuki are Avatar, Wildstar and Nova for example), the adaptation was mostly faithful (far more so than the DIC Sailor Moon) and seeing a battleship in space was just beyond cool! The writing had a lot more depth than anything I recalled watching up to that point, and the artwork was superb. I had the pleasure of meeting the Nova voice actress, Amy Howard Wilson, at a convention a few years back, and she had nothing but positive things to say about the experience of doing voicework for the show. If you have the opportunity to watch this show, take it! You won't be sorry!

This was an excellent show that just never got a chance. I loved the focus on cutting edge medical tech and on the balance of the human and technical factors. Also, while there is some interpersonal drama, there isn't any of the 'who's sleeping with whom' elements. It's only one season and doesn't end on a cliffhanger, so watch and enjoy.