Space Battleship Yamato 2199

[Hartzilla2007]

adv1701 wrote:

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That's Harlocks bird sitting on Lysis' shoulder. Maybe he'll show up and this time he'll be Kodai's brother

Well at least one of the characters in 2199 does resemble one that was scraped after the original idea so its possible.

[Ithekro]

The ten minute preview for Episode 11 is up today.

http://youtu.be/PvbeQSvWCdI


A nice Galimas-Cometine action before we get to potental backstory about first contact between Earth and Gamilas.

Also I never thought I'd heard the disco verion of the Comet Empire theme played again in a TV show.

[Hartzilla2007]

Ithekro wrote:

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Also I never thought I'd heard the disco verion of the Comet Empire theme played again in a TV show.

I find it ironic its playing while their basically getting slaughtered.

I thought the person or group who's theme song is playing in battles usually mops the floor with the other guy not the other way around.

[Ithekro]

I am not expecting to hear the other "best" theme song in this series, but they might surprise me. "Dessler Attacks"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_c-dPc1HIc

Though is battle in Episode 11 does make the relationship between Gamilas and Gatlantis very interesting.

[Cutter John]

Ithekro wrote:

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The ten minute preview for Episode 11 is up today.

http://youtu.be/PvbeQSvWCdI


A nice Galimas-Cometine action before we get to potental backstory about first contact between Earth and Gamilas.

Also I never thought I'd heard the disco verion of the Comet Empire theme played again in a TV show.

Thanks for the link. That was amazing! I really hope the show does well enough to support a second series.

You know despite the whole planet bombing thing, I find myself quite admiring the Gamilas.

[Ithekro]

Ever since the middle of the second season I've at least had respect for the Gamilas, particularly Dessler. By New Voyages and Final Yamato, you can actually cheer for them.

This new version has made them much more personable than they were in the original series. Back then they were just a little better than the average 70's era cartoon villians. Only once we got a reason for their attacking Earth did our perception of Gamilas change. But not enough to really feel sorry for them. Only Dessler's troubles with Gatlantis later in the second series made us care about them at all.

By the time we had a table top game to run these ships around, I was generally playing Gamilas...if only because they were the underdog in the game system that required special handling to defeat the larger and much better equipped Earth and Cometine fleets. That or swarm them with vast numbers of little destroyers.

Yamto 2199 changes that a bit. These ships are not small anymore. I intend to try to run a version of the battle we saw in this preview at the next gaming convention. Just to see it the newly redesigned ships are balanced enough against what will be the slightly redesigned Comet Empire ships.

The only thing that really worries me of late is the general lack of discussion on this show. Maybe it is because of the slow releases, or that it isn't on TV, but in general it is hard to find anyplace that has decent amounts of conversation on this show...in English at least. Not many bloggers are reviewing it (that I can find) and few message boards have much in the way of discussion (or perhaps analysis) on this show. Maybe when it comes to TV in probably 2014 (in Japan) there will be discussion from the masses that get their anime from Chunchyroll or subgroups (even though the show is already subbed into English on the Blu-Discs...but those are expensive).

[Cutter John]

^
Oops. I was going to post a link to Animesuki.com, but it looks like you already post there.

Well heres hoping theres more buzz about the show in Japan. They're the audience who really matters.

[bullethead]

Ithekro wrote:

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The only thing that really worries me of late is the general lack of discussion on this show. Maybe it is because of the slow releases, or that it isn't on TV, but in general it is hard to find anyplace that has decent amounts of conversation on this show...in English at least. Not many bloggers are reviewing it (that I can find) and few message boards have much in the way of discussion (or perhaps analysis) on this show. Maybe when it comes to TV in probably 2014 (in Japan) there will be discussion from the masses that get their anime from Chunchyroll or subgroups (even though the show is already subbed into English on the Blu-Discs...but those are expensive).

I think it's pretty much a combination of the weird release schedule, the fact that it's not on a legal streaming site, the fact that most anime viewers these days in the US have little to no knowledge of Starblazers or Yamato, and the fact that the show feels really unremarkable. It's good, there's no doubt about it, but there's no real sense that the writers and directors are going above and beyond because it's a remake.

[Noname Given]

bullethead wrote:

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It's good, there's no doubt about it, but there's no real sense that the writers and directors are going above and beyond because it's a remake.

I guess we'll agree to disagree; because (IMO); I do feel they are in fact going above and beyond as it were; and that's one reson this remake is so good. Over the years they've done many piss-poor remakes of 1970ies and 1980ies era anime 9look at the various re-takes on MS Gundam over the last decade, that tried to re-tell the original plot with a 'fresh' angle - and how bad most of those turned out.

I think they've done a stellar job of keeping the story major plot elements, and characters intact; while at the same time modernizing the original story and seamlessly adding some new elements (and characters) as well.

That's not easy to do.

As for why there isn't a lot of talk or interest here in the West per se. let's face it:

1) if you're under 40; chances are (even if you are an anime fan casual or otherwise); you don't, or barely know of Space Battleship Yamato - and even back in the heyday (mid to late 1980ies to 1990ies when there were a lot of weekend clubs and conventions showing actual anime direct from Japan) - Yamato was an 'older' series.

2) With the internet, and the fact there are still one or two companies bringing anime over - a lot of fans don't want to deal with series until it's released here in some form; so until Yamato 2199 gets a legitimate release (unlikely honestly with the film rights still held - which is probably why neither the 2009 'Yamato Rebirth' nor the 2010 live action film saw a dubbed or even subbed release); or subbed copies get spread via torrents, you won't see anyone but die-hards (like myself and others) who are willing to pay for the region-free subbed Blu-Rays really talking about it.

If I thought there was a chance of seeing this relatively soon from a western distributor on Blu-Ray - either subbed or dubbed - I would be shelling out $106 (with shipping) per disc; and if I didn't think they were also doing an amazing job (so far) in re-telling and updating the original Yamato storyline; I wouldn't be spending the cash either. YMMV.

[Ithekro]

I don't think there is any film rights dispute anymore. Voyager Entertainment was reportedly reabsorbed into its parent Japanese company a few months ago. There is still no word what that means for Star Blazers, but it is likely it is held by the Japanese that own Yamato. (You can still get Voyager Entertainment's old Star Blazers products, but who knows how long that will last).

The Japanese will be releasing BD versions of the old movies starting next year. No English subtitles. They have already released a BD box set for the first series of Yamato (no English subtitles).

Yamato 2199 is coming out about one chapter every three months on BD, but with English subtitles.

Filmation (I think that was their name) has the rights to Yamato Resurrection presently and will be releasing it in North America at some point (dubbed or subbed is unknown to me at this point).

The Live Action film is reportedly undubbed due to a contract with the star of the film not wanting his roll dubbed over (the film was basically made as a vehicle for him). It is unclear about the subbing route at present. I think there is an English sub already for the Australian market.

It is not clear if a company has the rights to make a "Star Blazers" movie anymore. There have always been tales of a Star Blazers live action script to be sold to Disney, but that's about as far as any of that has gone. I know people were talking about it. I know there was a script or several maybe. What I don't know is if anyone actually has the rights to even consider making such a film.

And though I do want to see the Yamato III version of Space Battleship Arizona in action, I don't particularly like the idea of using the sunken (broken and partly scrapped) USS Arizona as the American version's hero ship. Unless they renamed it "Argo" almost immediately. Though some people think it would be funny to see the Memorial used as the new bridge.

[bullethead]

Ithekro wrote:

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Filmation (I think that was their name) has the rights to Yamato Resurrection presently and will be releasing it in North America at some point (dubbed or subbed is unknown to me at this point).

It's Funimation, but yeah, no one knows if they're gonna dub it or release a sub only set (although IIRC most Funi DVDs/BDs have dubs).

It is not clear if a company has the rights to make a "Star Blazers" movie anymore. There have always been tales of a Star Blazers live action script to be sold to Disney, but that's about as far as any of that has gone. I know people were talking about it. I know there was a script or several maybe. What I don't know is if anyone actually has the rights to even consider making such a film.

I heard the rights got sorted out or someone was trying to direct it, but I can't find a link to confirm.

[lennier1]

bullethead wrote:

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It's Funimation, but yeah, no one knows if they're gonna dub it or release a sub only set (although IIRC most Funi DVDs/BDs have dubs).

As long as they don't pull a Tokyopop (Remember Initial D?) I don't see a problem with that. Those of us who want a subtitled version already have the original as an option anyway.

[bullethead]

lennier1 wrote:

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As long as they don't pull a Tokyopop (Remember Initial D?) I don't see a problem with that. Those of us who want a subtitled version already have the original as an option anyway.

I really don't know what that means. I assume it has to do with Stu Levy's bad translation of the opening credits.

[Kai "the spy"]

Ithekro wrote:

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The Live Action film is reportedly undubbed due to a contract with the star of the film not wanting his roll dubbed over (the film was basically made as a vehicle for him). It is unclear about the subbing route at present. I think there is an English sub already for the Australian market.

There is an official German release of the movie, complete with German dub, so I'd recheck that contract report again.

[Ithekro]

Some of my news is old and outdated it would seem.