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Space Battleship Yamato

In addition, Wildstar/Kodai's brother's death is cast completely differently in the two versions. In Star Blazers, he sacrifices himself to protect Avatar's retreat. In Space Battleship Yamato, he refuses to retreat because he'd rather die taking as many enemy as he can down with him.

Yikes. I like the Star Blazers version better.
 
The subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences in the original (assuming the subtitles are accurate) and the U.S. version are interesting. Like this exchange between Wildstar (Kodai) and Venture (Shima) just after they crash their interceptor in Episode 1:

Kodai: Hey Shima, you alright?

Shima: Why don't you worry about yourself?

Kodai: What a pity, even if it's just one unit, I wanted to gun it down myself!

----

Wildstar: Are you alright Venture?

Venture: Yeah, I think so. What about you?

Wildstar: What lousy luck. If this bucket of bolts had just held together another minute...
-----
Shima's not too interested in Kodai's concern is he? Plus, Kodai's regret over not downing the spy plane is a bit sharper than Wildstar's.

In addition, Wildstar/Kodai's brother's death is cast completely differently in the two versions. In Star Blazers, he sacrifices himself to protect Avatar's retreat. In Space Battleship Yamato, he refuses to retreat because he'd rather die taking as many enemy as he can down with him.

Also, in the Japanese vesion, Deslok DOES NOT have an effeminate male voice. And I forgot about the ship's doctor (as someone stated upthread); who in the Japanese version is downright alcoholic - always has a sake bottle; yet, in 'StarBlazers'; he drinking either 'tea' or 'spring water' all the time. ;)
 
I am so happy they playing starblazers on sci fi. I am going to let my dvr build up on it and then watch the series in a marthon. Now are they also going to air the comet empire? or the dreddedbolo wars? and then they could play the movies.
 
Also, in the Japanese vesion, Deslok DOES NOT have an effeminate male voice. And I forgot about the ship's doctor (as someone stated upthread); who in the Japanese version is downright alcoholic - always has a sake bottle; yet, in 'StarBlazers'; he drinking either 'tea' or 'spring water' all the time. ;)

I'm just as amused that in SBY, Dr. Sado is a veterinarian, which better explains his porcine hijinks (and underscores the survivors' desperate situation). Moreover, Analyzer/IQ-9's readouts contain a little joke referencing his abilities that is changed in the US dub.

iq9.png


Of course, IQ-9 is also a perv:

iq92.jpg
 
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Well, that was a short lived run. I see that while "StarBlazers" is still listed as airing on the SyFy channel website through May - the next two episopdes dissappeared from my DEVR queue; and in looking at the usual (and new) Anime block two hour slot for next thursday on my Direct TV guide - both 'Chrono Crusade' and "Star Blazers' are gone, and replaced with the SciFi 'original movie' from 2005 called "Chupicabra" (and Chrono Crusade still had at least two episodes to comoplete it's run too - I found it a fun little premise and story; but then, I ain't religous. ;))

IMO - Not unexpec6ed given how poor the source transfers for Star Blazers were; but that said, I wish it would have at least gotten to my favorite early episodes with the Gamalon Satellite Reflector Gun on Pluto.

Ah well.
 
Wait. That's it?!?

I do admit the transfers were pretty awful in some places.
If this is was the end at least it was nice seeing Starblazers on the air once again.
 
It's been a long time since I've seen Star Blazers (and I may have the details wrong), but I've always had a question...

Queen Starsha sends the plans for the Wave Motion Engine to Earth so they can get the Cosmo DNA machine which will repair the planet, which they only have a year to do.

Why didn't she simply send the plans for the Cosmo DNA?


Now that is a good question.:confused:

I think Star Trek Starfleet starships need to be equipped with the WMG wave-motion gun, because the phaser banks and photon/quantum torpedoes have limited destructive abilities.:vulcan: Just think how different Nemesis would have been if the 1701-E had a WMG.;)

IIRC from the original 1974 series, just having the Cosmo DNA plans did them no good, as they had to get to Iscandar to pick up the parts to build it - that is assuming they were made of some advanced material that Earth, in its weekend state resulting from Gamilon's planet bombs, was unable to build on its own. Starsha did send plans for the Wave Motion Engine and Gun that were eventually built into Yamato for the long trip out there.

Also very much looking forward to an American release.
 
And I thought Gamilons were blue-skinned. What's with the pink-skinned Gamilons in episode 2? Was that something they rethought later in the production, or are we seeing a color-correction error in the video restoration?

Interestingly, they were both. In one episode, there is one scene specifically showing Desslock walking down a long palace hallway lined on both sides by his generals, where both he AND his generals mysteriously turn blue as he's walking. I am the proud owner of the Yamato Fact Files, a periodical out of Japan much akin to the Star Trek Fact Files that came out of England about 5-10 years ago, and there is one page that seems to specifically discuss that scene of the skin-color-changing Gamilons. Sadly, I don't know a word of Japanese (other than "Yamato" itself in the Romani-flavor of the language), so I couldn't tell you what it says, but there apparently IS an in-universe explanation for this.

If anyone here is fluent in Japanese, I would be happy to scan it in and post it on PhotoBucket for a translation.

And for the love of All That Does Not Suck - NO HOLLYWOOD VERSION!!! :mad:
 
I just checked the cable listings and Star Blazers isn't being shown tomorrow.

It'll return on May 12th with The Reflex Gun Parts 1 and 2.
 
Any word on the home video release on the Space Battleship Yamato movie released last December?
 
I have a question about the DVD releases of this series that are available on Netflix. Do they have the same jerky image problems that this TV version has? Because I'm finding it rather hard to watch, and if the DVDs have better image quality, I'd rather just rent them.
 
I have a question about the DVD releases of this series that are available on Netflix. Do they have the same jerky image problems that this TV version has? Because I'm finding it rather hard to watch, and if the DVDs have better image quality, I'd rather just rent them.

I have watched a few episodes on VHS, the image quality is pretty poor and I think the DVD's come from the same source material.
 
I just checked the cable listings and Star Blazers isn't being shown tomorrow.

It'll return on May 12th with The Reflex Gun Parts 1 and 2.

Yep - either it was a glitch (becase for the last week up to THursday morning they had the movie: Chupacabra: Dark Seas listed in the time spot (10 PM - 12 AM PST - the time usually taken by Chrono Crusade and Star Blazers) fo Thursday 5/5/11); but on Thursday morning, I saw my DVR had Star Blazers set to record again, and it was there again for the following week; so again, either it was a database glitch; or SyFy was considering pulling it; but changed their minds (IMO a good thing it that was indeed the case.)

Also, I noticed the video transfer quality was a bit improved this week for both Star Blazers episodes.

As for the funnty thing about the episodes themselves; I laughed wjhen they did thje mention of on of the Gamelon Space Tanks as a 'robot drone' while te other was manned.

And why did they do that? Becase there's a shot of WildStar jumping on the tank opening the top hatch and firing a number of shot into the Tank - so we're it manned, the character would have actually killed somethiong (as Kodai did in the original Yamato episode ;).)

Again, it's interesting the lengths they go to to keep death to a minimum in the Star Blazers version; and avoid having the main charcters killing anything up close.
 
I have a question about the DVD releases of this series that are available on Netflix. Do they have the same jerky image problems that this TV version has? Because I'm finding it rather hard to watch, and if the DVDs have better image quality, I'd rather just rent them.

I think to remember reading about that. As far as I know it had to do with the very low budget SBY had during its first series, and also because of the tight schedule. After it gained its massive fan following, the animation was improved for the following movies and series.

There's a series of well-done articles on the SBY franchise on SciFi Japan. In the first of these articles, there's mention of the tight schedule of the animation department.

SciFi Japan said:
As the October 6 premiere drew ever closer, the animation staff worked harder than they ever thought possible. The first episode was taking far longer to make than anyone thought, the cel count was rising beyond all expectations, and the sheer amount of labor kept everyone in the studio for days on end. Tempers flared and nerve endings frayed. One key staff member vomited blood and had to be hospitalized for an ulcer. The first show was finished the day before broadcast, putting the next several episodes on a similarly precarious schedule.

Here are the links to the five articles:

SciFi Japan | SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, Part 1: the Anime Classic that Nearly Wasn't

SciFi Japan | SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, Part 2: From Valley to Peak

SciFi Japan | SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, Part 3: Arrivederci Dark Ages, Hello Global Village

SciFi Japan | SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, Part 4: We're Off to Outer Space

SciFi Japan | SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, Part 5: The New Voyages (Plural)
 
I think to remember reading about that. As far as I know it had to do with the very low budget SBY had during its first series, and also because of the tight schedule. After it gained its massive fan following, the animation was improved for the following movies and series.

No, what I'm talking about has nothing to do with the original animation. Remember, I grew up with animation of that vintage, so if it were simply an animation issue, I'd know it and wouldn't have a problem with it. What's bothering me is clearly an artifact of a far more recent digital transfer. Every time there's a fast movement, the image stutters, jumping backward fractionally before moving forward again. It's not an effect that would've happened with traditional animation technology; it's some sort of sampling or frame-rate glitch in a subsequent video transfer. Noname Given and Lynn Minmay were talking about the bad transfer in earlier posts on April 29 and May 1, respectively, so I'm not the only one noticing it.

EDIT: This week's episodes didn't seem to have the stutter in them, further proving that it's not a problem with the original animation.
 
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^ I didn't notice anything like that in the fansubs I've seen, so chances are it's the "Star Blazers" tapes. It's definitely not a problem with the animation.
 
Interestingly, they were both. In one episode, there is one scene specifically showing Desslock walking down a long palace hallway lined on both sides by his generals, where both he AND his generals mysteriously turn blue as he's walking. I am the proud owner of the Yamato Fact Files, a periodical out of Japan much akin to the Star Trek Fact Files that came out of England about 5-10 years ago, and there is one page that seems to specifically discuss that scene of the skin-color-changing Gamilons. Sadly, I don't know a word of Japanese (other than "Yamato" itself in the Romani-flavor of the language), so I couldn't tell you what it says, but there apparently IS an in-universe explanation for this.

I've heard two conflicting stories about this: That it was simply an animation error, and that the animators decided after the first ten eps or so that the Gamilons (or Gamirasu, depending on which subtitled version you have) simply looked too much like humans, and they wanted to give them a more alien-like quality. Who knows what the real answer is.

I've recently gotten into a kick of ordering the original Japanese versions of my favorite childhood shows, since now that I'm 38 years old, the edited and redubbed versions I enjoyed at 13 are absolute rubbish now. I have Space Battleship Yamato (Starblazers), Gatchaman (Battle of the Planets), Macross, Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada (Robotech), GoLion and Dairugger (Voltron). I was forced to buy the Speed Racer DVDs because the original Mach GoGoGo DVDs are out of print and weren't Region 1 anyway, but if the Japanese version had been available I would have bought that over SR. Unfortunately for Yamato, the English subtitles suck because they're a literal translation of the Japanese. Surprisingly, GoLion has the best subtitles (and the best packaging, IMHO), which is ironic because GoLion is largely forgotten in Japan while Voltron became hugely popular over here.
 
^Adult Swim ended up editing Voltron! They cut out the princess losing her bikini top, I heard. If it aired in the 80s, it can air on Adult Swim now!
 
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