Totes with you there. I'm a fan of all all things Gundam, but my bias is certainly towards the real robot styles of the UC series and its thematic cousins, versus the fantastical iterations where basically the only thing that can defeat a Gundam is another Gundam. That said, most more recent incarnations have been overall enjoyable. And As a Plamo veteran, Build Fighters has been awesome. Mark
Yamato 2199 (and thus 2202) seem more geared for real ships, even if Yamato is very strong, she does take damage normally, and they spend time to repair her normally.
Syd Mead also did the concept work for Yamato 2520 as well as the 17th Yamato herself, the Seiren battleship, carrier and cruiser, which I never personally liked. Ships from Yamato: Resurrection followed in this same line of wavy minimalist design aesthetics, which I personally found somewhat boring, boxey and uninspired, IMO, including and especially the Blue Noah flagship, "Super Andromeda", Dreadnaught-class battleships, Amare-class settlement ships and almost all the alien vessels. Ick. Mead may have done well with Gundam designs, but I think he really should have stayed away from Yamato and certainly shouldn't be emulated therein.
Crimony, I totally forgot about 2520 and Mead, and I've got his artbook on my shelf! I han've watched 2520 either, but by all accounts I'm not missing much. And IMO no, while he had a wild take on what a Gundam should look like, it was too wild for most people and his work on that series was not too memorable (to be fair, he DID originally want a more traditional look but it seems that director Tomino had other ideas). His style, while unique, hasn't had much of an impact in Japan. Mark
The 2220 version of the Blue Noah is alright, the 2520 version isn't so much. But that might be because I prefer more traditional looking turrets. The predecessor to the 2520 Yamato looked alright, as it looked like a heavily modernized Yamato, rather that the mixed ship the heroes had. Yamato 2520 has the start of an interesting story, but never gets on the rails. It does show off a cool fight in the last episode (3, I think). 300 years after Kodai's ship, all the forward the main cannons in concert can do as much damage as a wave motion gun. The new hybrid-wave motion guns thing does even more damage across a large area than most wave motion guns (though I think Andromeda's style could do something similar). A problem the series had was that the crew seemed a bit too weird and were definitely unprofessional (aside from the captain of course), since they were just teens and civilians for the most part that grew up on an enemy held planet durng a rough cease fire period. While Okita's crew could get weird at times, there were still professionals and knew their jobs.
It's been so long since I've watched 2520, but if I recall, it had the feel of a pilot show that never got picked up for production. I got the impression that it was an incomplete story. Or maybe the VHS tapes that I got at the convention back in the early 90s didn't have everything. I can't really remember clearly. Sadly, I don't really find it worthy to watch again to refresh my memory. I was also quite disappointed with Resurrection. I actually found it quite politically biased in a 21st century context (Iraq war, man-made global warming represented by an artificial black hole, etc.) which kept taking me out of the story. Thank goodness 2199 exists now and 2202 on the way by people who "get it". Truly a masterpiece. I could never get tired of watching it and I've already watched it through 3 times and I got a lot more out of Ark of Stars on the second viewing.
Show will start to come out February 25th of 2017. In theaters first, then on Blu-ray not to long after. If they follow the Yamato 2199 pattern, the show will appear on Japanese TV starting sometime in 2018. I think they mentioned they'd would attempt to do better in terms of their Star Blazers 2202 releases as oppose to how botched the Star Blazers 2199 releases were (they only got four chapters out of six out)..
You're talking about StarBlazers.com? They haven't updated their website in over two years. Do we know if they're even still in business to do 2202?
They are owned by the company that make Yamato 2202, and they did mention that they failed on that front and hope to do better this time around. Notice that the title for Yamato 2202 has a little "Star Blazers" over the "2202" in their new font. It isn't like they forgot about Star Blazers being a thing they can sell, I think they just started way too late last time around. Though I do hope they don't removed the English subtitles on the Blu-ray just so they can force that market, and drop the ball later. I'm perfectly willing (and actual inclined) to order the Blu-rays at first release if they have subtitles for this show. No other show, just this one. Mainly because I need information for what I do at gaming conventions, since I run some old Star Blazers Fleet Battle System table top games still out in California a few times a year and have been incorporating changes to the rules and ships based on Yamato 2199 since they showed us the Battle of Pluto in 2012.
Have they said that the Japanese Blu-Rays of Yamato 2202 WON'T be region free or have English Subtitles encoded for their release ? (I too am hoping they'll continue in the same format for SBY 2202 as well. If the don't have the English subtitles, I'd skip purchasing them this time around. I LOVE the series, but I do want to be able to understand the story they're telling and see how the changed/updated it. I'd hate to go with the Voyager releases and then see them not bother finishing to release the full set like what happened with 2199. I went with the Japanese releases on that one for two reasons: 1) I got them the same week they were released in Japan 2) There was no chance I'd see the 'Starblazers' names substituted for the SBY names and no chance I was getting a different version of the story. ^^ I know that didn't happen with what was released from Voyager for 2199 - but I wouldn't have put it past them TRYING something like that. )
They've not said much yet about the new blu-rays. It took a while before that information came out last time, but so far they've had English subtitles on everything. The Blu-ray for Chapter 1 of Yamato 2202 should be available March 24, 2017. For 7,800 yen. But it does not give specifics on languages
According to a translation of the character information on Yamato2202.net Kodai is captain of the destroyer Yuunagi as part of the 38th Frontier Defense Task Force, which is a joint Earth-Gamilas group. So three years after the war ends, Earth and Gamilas are doing joint fleet operation in the Milky Way. Probably to defend against Gatlantis which is an enemy to both parties. Gamilas still has numbers, despite how many ships Yamato blew up over Balun (upwards of 7,000 ships) while Earth has the Iscandarian wave motion technology for wave motion guns. Earth's fleet will be small (very small) but powerful compared to the Gamilas fleet which should have at least some amount of numbers, and relatively decent armor and weapons. Gatlantis is shown to have numbers, stolen technology, and less powerful weaponry to Gamilas...but make up for it with number of gun per hull verse Gamilas ships. A typical Gamilas destroyer has two turrets and a mass of missile tubes. A similar sized Gatlantis destroyer has eight smaller turrets and two quantum torpedo tubes.
Which makes it weird that Earth is tossing the whole no wave motion guns part of the treaty that makes this possible out the door.
I guess that their joint engagement of the Gatlantis force just outside the Large Magellanic Cloud changed some of the Gamilas minds on the matter, since their mutual enemy has the magnaflame gun. Starsha will not be happy, but Gamilas commanders stationed in the area might be better off knowing that the Earth ships have a ready made counter for the Gatlantis. Or they just don't move the wave motion gun equipped fleet out there and are keeping it a secret from the Gamilas until Space Battleship Andromeda is ready, as Yamato, it would seem, is being retired.
Another thing of note: They are releasing a BD box set for Yamato 2199 in January. It is still rather pricy at something like $275 to $370 USD (depending on seller on Amazon.co.jp) but that is still cheaper than getting the series one BD at a time from Japan.
An aside, but worth bringing up to the only people on this forum who'd care. Picked up this gem of a model whilst rifling through the Akihabara flea market in Tokyo this past weekend. Wasn't looking for it, but when I saw her I just had to grab it. Dynamite price for it too, and a mighty big piece at 15 inches. She's a BEAUTY! Mark
^^^ Is that the condition is was in when you picked it up, or did you have to do any restoration? (Looks nice.)
I had considered getting this one when I first saw it but then the Soul of Popynica version came out with a lot more bells and whistles (literally). I do like how this one looks, although that odd flange around the bow over the WMG always seemed a little off to me. Other than that, great find - it is a beautiful model!