Re:tro Re:view - Space Battleship Yamato!

Space Battleship Yamato (2010) is a live action anime adaptation that ranks as some of the best sci fi action movies.  In the 70’s, the anime craze was lit by the cartoon, Star Blazers, which ran from 1979 to 1984.  I would come home from school eager to watch the next episode of Star Blazers with pilot Derek Wildstar and Captain Avatar of the starship Argo.  I love the theme song which gave the premise of the show, “We’re off to outer space/we’re leaving Mother Earth/To save the human race/Our Star Blazers!”  The Americanization by Claster Television was difficult to watch, but what came through was the animation from anime great Leijji Matsumoto which was produced in 1974 to 1975 with a number of series, OVAs, and anime films, the latest is Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (2014).  This was a live action film in 2010.  I found it in the home video section of an electronics store and had to look at it countless times to see if it was not a repackaging of an anime film.  

Let’s begin, the movie is one of the best visualizations of anime, especially the battle scenes.  There is an extreme closeup of an eye and breathing as a battle races across the eye, one of the most artistic shots. This is resolves to the pilot, Yuki Mori (Meisa Kuroki) who was Nova, the radar operator in Star Blazers.  Her upgrade to fighter pilot is something to applaud, Star Wars is still lagging behind in having a main character fighter pilot.  The fighters were called Type-O Cosmo Zero fighters. The battle is intense and Captain Jyuzo Okita (Tsutomu Yamazaki) has the fighter group pull away for cannon assault. It is the year 2199 and the battle is taking place outside of the orbit of Mars.  I’ve seen many anime live action shows and the special effects have finally caught up here, maybe needs a CG polish by ILM or WETA, but this is some incredible visualization. The Japanese movie has the touches of anime, but is different in telling stories of characters independent of any kind of authority. 

Okita orders the shock cannons of his battleship to be used as the Gamilas ships close in.  The crew is shocked as the Gamilas ships absorb the cannon fire.  They return fire and destroy the fleet.  There is one brilliant shot of a rip in the hull that drags a screaming crew member into space!  Okita realizes they are defeated and gets a message from the Yukikaze, Captain Mamoru Kodai (Shin’ichi Tsutsumi), says he will cover their escape with his destroyer.  Okita tries to argue, but the Yukikaze is destroyed and the battleship can barely escape the trailing blasts of the Gamilas.  This shifts to a narrator talking about the universe, we get some space scapes, until it resolves on the yellow globe of Earth.  The narrator relates that the Gamilas appeared five years ago around Mars and began striking the Earth with meteorite bombs.  We see this happen with the battleship returning to Earth.  The narrator explains that humanity has gone underground to escape the radiation. 

Young Susumu Kodai (Takuya Kimura) is getting his radiation suit ready.  He punches one of the refugees for bringing up his brother.  Then, leaves the ragged survivors, and the underground Cape Bonomisaki.  On the hells cape surface, there is the ruined remains of the Yamato, half-buried.  He has the happy robot detector, Analyzer, scan for rare metals.  An object crashes down, Kodai revives without his suit on, bloody and staggering over to see a communications capsule that crashed down.  He collapses as a ship is overhead.  This is changed from an Iskandar ship and Mars in the anime.  Shiro Sanada (Toshiro Yanagiba) shows the capsule to Captain Okita and it’s schematics.  Techs try to restrain Kodai from entering the room.  He is angry at Captain Okita for sacrificing his brother to escape.  Kodai taunts the captain as Yuki Mori appears in her yellow flight suit.  He moves to hit the captain, but is knocked out by Yuki!  A woman punching out our hero!, this is too cool.  

Dr. Sado (Reiko Takashima) apologizes that Kodai slipped away from her.  Captain Okita reports to Heikuro Todo (Isao Hashizume), the commander of the Earth Defense Force, about the loss to the Gamilas.  Okita wants one ship to save humanity, we get the refitting of the Yamato as a space worthy craft, this was four years before we saw the Helicarriers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Todo announces to the world about the capsule and that a message has come from the Large Magellanic Cloud, from the planet Iskandar.  They have a device to wipe out the radiation and have given the technology to make the journey.  He shows a vision of the green Earth and Kodai watches with the other refugees.  Todo calls for volunteers and Kodai is there, re-enlisting to the surprise of Dr. Sado who examines him, he has his own flight jacket.  Yuko runs up to him, then there is an alarm, so Kodai scrambles to the bridge while he has his ace led the Black Tiger Squadron.  

Kodai is on the bridge, Captain Okita orders the ship to launch, and it is Daisuke Shima (Naoto Ogata), the navigator who takes the ship up.  Hikozaemon Taokugawa (Toshiyuki Ikeuchi), the chief engineer activates the wave motion engine.  The rocks shatter in front of the Yamato bridge, the ancient battleship rises, it is awesome to see a warship used as the last hope for humanity. The mission to Iskandar rests on the hope of Queen Starsha, who has a different form than the ethereal beauty of the anime and they are opposed by the Gamilas led by Lord Desslar who has a crystalline form instead of the blue-faced alien humanoid of the anime.  Of course, Kodai and Yuki eventually get closer once his past is revealed.  He, of course, is key to saving the Earth.  Analyzer is Kodai’s comic companion, but takes robot form at the end of the movie.  I would have loved the asteroid belt projected around the Yamato to protect it from enemy fire which was in the anime, but not in the film.  Running throughout the film is the cost of war, in terms of lives, and the refugees from the conflict.  Space Battleship Yamato is a brilliant adaptation of the anime and a strong sci fi movie! 

Four Wave Motion Guns out of Five!

#SpaceBattleshipYamato, #StarBlazers, #LeijiMatsumoto, #ShinichiTsutsumi, #MeisaKuroki