Space Battleship Yamato 2199

[Ithekro]

Well save that they had said they intended to air Yamato 2199 in 2013.

This remake is also not even close to being a rerun of the 1974 show. There is just too much different to consider that. I've heard this called the best remake ever as it improves on the original rather than dumbs it down to make it flashy like so many Hollywood remakes.

What it does have is a big name, and high sales from the theaters and BD sales. Essentally they are going about it in reverse of normal. Instead of TV, BD, Movie, they are going Movie, BD, TV.

If they maintain their current release pattern, the last "film" will come out around the same time the last episodes are suppose to air (depending on when in April they start). Maybe they will release Chapter 7 sooner? Maybe they will delay the episode releases until the "film" is out? We don't know yet.

We know that by the time the show starts airing on TV they will have 18 episodes done. By the current pattern they will have Chapter 6 done before they reach those episodes in August. The question is if they will have Chapter 7 done by September rather than October. Again depending on when in April they start (traditionally the first week or two, but some stations start later than others).

[firehawk12]

Was it always planned for TV? My impression is that they went with this release schedule half because they probably couldn't keep the pace of a weekly schedule (we already had a casualty from last season where they couldn't keep up and had to air two recaps in place of new episodes). But I have no idea.

As for being a good remake... I've only watched the Yamato anime movies, so I can't really speak to the quality of the show as a remake... but the anime-isms (namely the nurse character) must be part of the appeal. It's the equivalent of Mari in the new Eva movies!

[Noname Given]

Ithekro wrote:

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This remake is also not even close to being a rerun of the 1974 show. There is just too much different to consider that. I've heard this called the best remake ever as it improves on the original rather than dumbs it down to make it flashy...

^^^
That pretty much sums up my take on Yamato 2199; and it's honestly why I enjoy it so much (while still being a fan of the original 1973 version too.)

[Ithekro]

Heavy improvements to the mecha are one draw. Massive space battles were a draw before, but improving on it makes it rather impressive. The Battle of Pluto was exciting in the new version. While the original also had feeling to it, it was not exciting as a battle. Yamato's weapons are similar to how they were before, but the effects make them appear even more impressive. Add to this what was shown in the Chapter 4 preview of the Gamilas Fleet vs. the Comet Empire Fleets, and you get what is basically mecha fanservice. Glorious mecha fanservice.

The deeper story for the Gamilas is another. Before they were kind of generic enemies that were not quite evil, but you generally didn't care what happened to them. (At least not until the second season when we started to care about Dessler). Now they have families, dreams, goals, and personalities the audiance can relate too. One can actually feel sorry for Schultz and his men. We didn't feel sorry for them in the original. They were the bumbling underlings originally. Now they are just unlucky to have to face Yamato first without any real knowledge about it. They were clever, but just not prepared to deal with something like that. Dessler comes off as a good leader from the start. Some of his generals seem alright. Dommel gets to show off his tactical leadership in battle the first time we see him. We are waiting to see how they do the Galman Wulf sub commander, who was one of the cooler characters of the Yamato III series.

Adding more women helps as well as there was always the complaint of Yuki being the only woman on a ship full of men and doing pretty much every non-combat job on the ships, from food planning, to away mission specialist, to radar operator, to nurse, to ship's activities planner, and laundry. She did practically every job on that ship at least once. Now they've spread some of her larger tasks up (radar operator, analysis, nurse, fighter pilot (live action film)).

While the Nurse (Makoto) certainly has fanservice appeal, it seems to be Yamamoto that is getting the most attention after Yuki. Yuria and Niimi seem to be getting stories as well in the next two Chapters, with Makoto still being mostly just the nurse that cares about how others feel.

The story this time around is faster paced and things seems to have moved on faster while still telling the same amount of story, while adding even more to it. That would sound impossible until you think that the original was sort of slow paced for the first half of the series with several redundant episodes that basically told a similar tale a second time, or there was a lot of narration about the story so far, or the place they were going (some of which is now quite wrong since space exporation has come a long ways since 1974). With a lot of that either cut out, or the explainations handed over to the characters, the pacing is faster with less redundancy.

Since episode 7, the story has drifted farther away from the original stories. They were about the same for the first six episodes, with some differences, but seven was were things really started to change. Sure they are still going to the same place for the same reason, but how they go about it and what happens along the way are changing. You might find a new episode's plot to be similar to one of the older plots, but things are becoming more and more different. We have had one story that is nothing like any previous plot, and one that is only marginally similar to two or three other plots while being a completely different story (using an element of an other story with an element of another story, and then making a new plot that has those elements within it).

Take episode 10 for example: There are elements of three stories from before in there.
A. A captured Gamilon pilot (first time humans have seen the Gamilas in person).
B. Trapped in a Space Graveyard
C. Trapped in a region of space with one Gamilas ship that shows them the way out (though that was not on purpose in the original)
These elements are combined and altered so that only the elements are similar to the original series. You have Yamato get trapped in a weird dimentional pocket that is a ship's graveyard, with one Gamilas ship that can help them escape. To foster confidence with the humans, a lone pilot is sent to do face to face meeting (first human contact with a Gamilas citizen). Those are the use of those elements, but the story is not like any of the three episodes those elements were from originally.

So it is the same...but also very different. And it works.

[Cutter John]

Not much I can add to Ithekro's comment. I pretty much agree with everything. Its basically the same story updated for 21st century sensibilities. Even though I confess I'm not too fond of the men getting spiffy uniforms while most of the women get stuck with those yellow thong bodysuit things. Ah well, just something we have to tolerate in the name of fan service I suppose.

I love that instead of redesigning everything they've basically updated the ships and uniforms just enough so that they don't look dated and silly by modern standards. I wonder if they're going to redo the old bee people episode?

I confess that since anime switched to cg coloring, I've hated the tendency for shows to have a wierd soft focus, blurry look. Not here. Everything is perfectly clear, and it seems like they've gone out of their way to make it look like old school cel animation.

If it weren't for the whole "Destroying Earth with meteor bombs" thing, I could find the Gamilas quite admirable. Allowing conquered people to become citizens and even officers in the empire seems a lot like the old Roman Empire.

Good to hear the shows doing well. Makes the odds better that we'll get a second series. Hell they're already making references.

[firehawk12]

Is there a split in the franchise somewhere?

The last animated movies point to a "Next Generation" for the ship, but obviously those plans were shelved with the remake...

[bullethead]

firehawk12 wrote:

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Is there a split in the franchise somewhere?

The last animated movies point to a "Next Generation" for the ship, but obviously those plans were shelved with the remake...

IIRC, the movie franchise wound up concluding the story of the original Yamato franchise, so that was all tapped out before they decided to reboot the franchise.

Cutter John wrote:

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Not much I can add to Ithekro's comment. I pretty much agree with everything. Its basically the same story updated for 21st century sensibilities. Even though I confess I'm not too fond of the men getting spiffy uniforms while most of the women get stuck with those yellow thong bodysuit things. Ah well, just something we have to tolerate in the name of fan service I suppose.

What's really funny is that the Yamato uniforms kinda look lamer than the ones everyone wore before they got on the ship. But I am so thankful they have more than three uniform colors and crew divisions. I wish Star Trek could take a page out of Yamato's book there.

I confess that since anime switched to cg coloring, I've hated the tendency for shows to have a wierd soft focus, blurry look. Not here. Everything is perfectly clear, and it seems like they've gone out of their way to make it look like old school cel animation.

I think the soft focus might have been due to the digital tape masters those shows used for broadcast/DVD releases, as seen with the TNG and some anime remasters (including Cowboy Bebop). Low quality tape usually makes everything look like shit.

[Hartzilla2007]

bullethead wrote:

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But I am so thankful they have more than three uniform colors and crew divisions. I wish Star Trek could take a page out of Yamato's book there.

They did when they used the TWOK uniforms.

[firehawk12]

I don't know if it's a spoiler, but it's fair to say that the last movie essentially gets rid of the old crew and introduces an entirely new cast and sets up a new villain anyway. But I figure that's probably not going anywhere since people seem to be buying this at a decent rate.

[Ithekro]

From my understanding there were three projects setup in the late 00s. A Sequel movie trilogy. A live action movie, and a remake of the original series.

Supposedly the remake was suppose to air first, but it got technical and more detailed than whoever though the idea up originally thought. The sequel film (Yamato Resurrection) came out first in 2009 (It had been in development hell since the early 90s). This film takes place about 17 years after "Final Yamato" and has mostly a new crew. There is reportedly a "Part Two" in production.

Then the Live Action movie came out in 2010. No suggestion of a sequel to that was ever announced, nor does one seem likely.

Then in 2012 and 2013, the remake of the first series comes out. Yamato 2199 is doing fairly well so far.

And yes they will visit the Bee Planet again in Chapter 5, but the story is going to be a whole lot different. Something about ancient civilizations and subspace portals or warp gates from the tiny paragraph on the episodes.

[therealsb63]

Ithekro wrote:

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From my understanding there were three projects setup in the late 00s. A Sequel movie trilogy. A live action movie, and a remake of the original series.

Supposedly the remake was suppose to air first, but it got technical and more detailed than whoever though the idea up originally thought. The sequel film (Yamato Resurrection) came out first in 2009 (It had been in development hell since the early 90s). This film takes place about 17 years after "Final Yamato" and has mostly a new crew. There is reportedly a "Part Two" in production.

Then the Live Action movie came out in 2010. No suggestion of a sequel to that was ever announced, nor does one seem likely.

Then in 2012 and 2013, the remake of the first series comes out. Yamato 2199 is doing fairly well so far.

And yes they will visit the Bee Planet again in Chapter 5, but the story is going to be a whole lot different. Something about ancient civilizations and subspace portals or warp gates from the tiny paragraph on the episodes.

Ithekro, whatever happened to that live action movie? I've never seen anything about it being released on disc here in the US, though I've read there's copies available in other countries...?

[firehawk12]

Assuming its not a rights issue, I wonder if anyone is even interested in releasing it here?

Seems like if it's not Martial Arts or by a well known Asian director, no one touches Asian films.

[Ithekro]

Best guess is no American company was interested enough. Or maybe there was some other issue, but most of it was probably money rather than legal issues with rights holders since that doesn't seem to be an issue even if there is talk of a Star Blazers live action film from time to time.

I know that there are English subtitles from Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Reportedly the main actor's contract did say something about his voice not being dubbed over, but I guess the Spanish and Germans don't care about that. Perhaps it is an English only thing.

I know the Japanese BD will work on an American BD player, but doesn't have English subtitles for the live action movie.

[zakkrusz]

Well there's always the unscrupulous method to locate it too. It is floating around out there, English subbed.

[Set Harth]

therealsb63 wrote:

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Ithekro, whatever happened to that live action movie? I've never seen anything about it being released on disc here in the US, though I've read there's copies available in other countries...?

A passable all-regions version of the DVD from Sarawak Media Corp. was being sold by an outfit called "LOTO-SURPLUS" on Amazon.