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Space Battleship Yamato 2199

Lynn Minmay said:
I ordered Volume 1 from Amazon Japan...and yes folks it comes with English subtitles. :)

http://www.amazon.co.jp/宇宙戦艦ヤマト-219...I57A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337914695&sr=8-1
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Good to know as I just got an e-mail from CD-Japan that my copy shipped (should be at my door in a few days); not cheap though as with shipping charges, etc. it's about $95.00 :eek: (but yeah, I don't 'splurge' on myself that often and I have fond memories on the original "Space Battleship Yamato" series - so I'm will to part with that amount of cash for a disc. I'll probably get the rest as they come out too.)

And unfortunately, with the way the series film rights are locked in the U.S. atm - I don't see this run being voice-dubbed or syndicated here anytime in the near future.
 
Got and watched the first Yamato 2199 Blu-Ray with English subtitles. LOVED IT! IMO I guess they finally have an English translator that really know Engklish as these read like the script was written in English overall 9which hasn't been my experience with Japanese done english subtitled stuff in the past - the subs were very well done.)

As for what they've donbe in retconning elements of the original Yamato story - loved that too. They really take some of the more questionable stuff in the original and give a valid reason for it; and I like the new characters they've added so far.

It also puts a new spin on Yuki based on some of these mentioned changes. I do wish I know Japanese sop I could get something out of the included audio commentary track done by the cast (no, surprisingly it doesn't have an English subtitle track ;).)

I'm hooked and have just ordered the second Yamato Blu-Ray (due for release on 7/27/12) and also will have an English subtitle track.

Really enjoying what they've done so far, and (for me anyway as this was what really got me into Anime) is really worth the cost and hassle of oridering from Japan directly.
 
I have been able to watch the first two episodes now as well.

The story is basically the same. Slightly more condensed at this point due to it being planned for 26 episodes rather than 39 (the original was planned for 39 and cut to 26 during production due to ratings....kind of like Star Trek).

The production staff says that after the second film things will be different. Already it looks like they are taking some ideas from the manga and cutting out some of the sillier or illogical elements of the story. The ship looks like an old battleship because they were using that as a cover to fool the Gamilons into not paying it any mind (under what looks like the wreck of Yamato). To cover the bottom of the ship, they now have missile tubes. Plus a higher chance of three dimentional combat were the ship pitches and rolls to bring the guns to bear.

The crew seems less generic. Everyone had a position prior to Yamato. Either Naval or Army Forces it seems. The uniforms have much more detail (ranks, units patches, and other things). The male to female population seems to be roughly 7 to 3 (three women for every seven men). And while the Army Women wear skirts, the Naval Women wear pants just like the men.

They even have included some things for what would have been the laters series..."Captain Gideon" (Hijikata) has a final talk with "Captain Avatar" (Okita) about going in Okita's place. Hijikata would have gone due to Okita's injuries, but Okita insists on finishing this mission. They have known each othe rlong enough that Kijikata knows he can't change his friend's mind. It is a touch like that that makes the future relationship between Hijikata and Yamato's crew feel more special. There were hints of it orignally, but this makes it better.
 
Good news for those of us in the U.S. ordering the Blu-Rays from Japan:

All subsequent Blu-Ray discs beyond the first will contain four (4) episodes per disc; and not just two (2), like the first one did. They will also maintain doing the English subtitle track on them as well.

(This will make the strain on my wallet a lot lighter in the long run.)
 
I'm personally waiting for the entire series run to be complete and get the whole boxed set. Granted, it will likely be a long wait but $100+ for a hand-full of episodes seems a bit steep.
 
Considering that the current Blu-ray versions have subtitles already I don't think the Japanese will feel there is a need for a destributor in North America (Region A is Region A be it in America or Japan) Especailly since American BD prices are about half to a third Japanese prices before shipping. Not sure if Voyager Entertainment could sell enough to make buying the rights worth it, not only for themselves, but also the Japanese distribution company (Bandai Visual)....though they would only need to spend some money on repackaging and probably translations for the title page and subtitles for the extras (which are not in English presently).

I have no idea if they would even be able to get this dubbed into English these days. and even if they did (which would have its own expense) what pattern to use? A "direct" translation....or use the 1979 Star Blazers localization pattern for naming things?


Though...with sales in the 20,000 range presently for BD and DVDs combined...They might see it as a hot property. It is one of the top selling anime this year if I read the numbers correctly. Not as high as say Fate/Zero or Nisemonogatari, but still up there.
That is pretty good especially since aside from Episode One...Yamato 2199 hasn't been on television yet...and won't be until after the theater runs finish next year.
 
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^^^ I never underestimate the popularity of Yamato in Japan. While it has a loyal cult following in the States (and I hear Italy goes completely batshit over it as well, along with Captain Harlock for some bizarre reason :shrug: ) it seems to be a more culturally significant phenomena back home. With the possible exception of the odd-man-out Yamato 2520, it's always enjoyed high ratings in popularity in Japan, across damn near all age groups. The pedigree of the titular vessel alone seems to strike a peculiar nationalistic chord - and understandably so.

I'm hoping that this popularity will almost mandate an overseas release. And I personally don't care if it's dubbed or not. Subbing is good enough for me, as long as I get my hands on it in the next year or so. :)
 
Ithekro said:
Considering that the current Blu-ray versions have subtitles already I don't think the Japanese will feel there is a need for a destributor in North America (Region A is Region A be it in America or Japan) Especailly since American BD prices are about half to a third Japanese prices before shipping. Not sure if Voyager Entertainment could sell enough to make buying the rights worth it, not only for themselves, but also the Japanese distribution company (Bandai Visual)....though they would only need to spend some money on repackaging and probably translations for the title page and subtitles for the extras (which are not in English presently).

I have no idea if they would even be able to get this dubbed into English these days. and even if they did (which would have its own expense) what pattern to use? A "direct" translation....or use the 1979 Star Blazers localization pattern for naming things?

Though...with sales in the 20,000 range presently for BD and DVDs combined...They might see it as a hot property. It is one of the top selling anime this year if I read the numbers correctly. Not as high as say Fate/Zero or Nisemonogatari, but still up there.
That is pretty good especially since aside from Episode One...Yamato 2199 hasn't been on television yet...and won't be until after the theater runs finish next year.
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Well, with Toonami's revival, a prospective American distributor can make an argument for a dub being a useful marketing tool to sell BDs here. The main problem is one of time - how long would it take to get all the legal stuff sorted so they could dub it before a corporate shakeup or internal politics kills Toonami again, and how long would it take after that to get the BDs on the street.

The good thing is that aside from the all Japanese crew (which kind of doesn't make sense given that this is pretty much Earth's best and only chance for survival, so you'd think the rest of the world would toss whatever they could into the project), there doesn't seem to be any overtly offensive nationalism in the show so far. That might change in later episodes (although I kind of doubt it).
 
I think they addressed the issue of a basically Japanese crew due to the condition the planet it in at this stage of the war. The surviving regions of the United Nations are more or less isolated from each other which would make training more difficult. It also might be that their best and brightest have already been killed in the war as the larger counties would have been targeted first.

It also might have been luck of the draw. Defense Command might be in Japanese hand by a matter of rotation. Or that was just where the first Iscandarian ship landed, so processing from Japan was the quickest solution.

The First Fleet was entirely made up of Japanese ships. Likely because the other fleets had been destroyed prior to this last engagement at Pluto. And the background notes seem to suggest these were older ships to begin with. Kirishima and the cruisers are supposedly built in the 2270s so they are 25 or so year old ships going up against an advanced alien aggressor.

That they managed to build this giant spaceship under what looked like the wreckage of an old battleship was done specifically to keep the Gamilas from knowing what Earth was doing. Which means the humans know the Gamilas have fairly good recon abilities.

And a part of the orignal officers canditates were killed a day or two before the ship was to launch. They had to rush to get replacements from the local pool...that being Japan. This is alway why you have several people getting heavy promotions at when they board Yamato. (Shima, Kodai, and Yuki are Ensigns at the start, and by the time Yamato launches they are full Lieutenants and section leaders. Nanbu gets a one grade promotion to Lt. jg and head of the gunnery staff.) Considering that Kodai's bother was suppose to be the Combat Chief and he was a Lt. Commander with his own commad...I image he was suppose to be the ship's orignal XO instead of Sanada.

But there are other survivors other than just Japan. Judging by amount of power provided, the Americans seem to have the largest remaining powergrid followed by Europe and the Japan.

One thing to note. The show's General Director, Yutaka Izubuchi, was involved with the mechanical art production on Yamato III. He designed the Space Battleship Arizona, which was specifically an American built ship in the series. It looks like a cross between Yamato and Andromeda in style and has more guns than both.
 
The new episode preview looks good.

The action part of the episode will be the second half.

The new Warp effects are interesting. Sort of a cross between the later Yamato movies, Star Trek, and Wing Commander (the time freeze part in the warp).

There are a few things I don't yet fully get due to this not being translated. Most are little things. Personal moments sort of stuff. But also the technical talk about the wave motion gun after the talk about the wave motion engine.

It is nice that the screen diagrams and even techincal manuals are in both Japanese and English.
 
Ithekro said:
One thing to note. The show's General Director, Yutaka Izubuchi, was involved with the mechanical art production on Yamato III. He designed the Space Battleship Arizona, which was specifically an American built ship in the series. It looks like a cross between Yamato and Andromeda in style and has more guns than both.
Click to expand...

For those interested...the Arizona (appears to have main gun armament of Andromeda, but AA armament of Yamato)
battleship_arizona.jpg


There were several other vessels of international origin from Yamato III.

There's the Bismarck (from Germany) - which oddly appears to have no weapons capabilities at all, save for a hand-full of forward-mounted torpedo launchers:
battleship_bismarck.jpg


...And the Prince of Wales (from the UK) - no AA, but 4 main guns, oriented differently:
battleship_princeofwales.jpg
 
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