Me too! I think the issue is the rights (back in the 1970ies) for U.S. Distribution were sold to Voyager Entertainment in perpetuity; and as long as VE pays the licensing fee every period (5 years/10 years, whatever); they have control over what is released in the U.S. Obviously, they've maintained the rights - and I will bet you they raised an issue with the English-subtitled SBY2199 BR Discs (yes, made and distributed primarily in Japan, but not blocked from being sold to U.S. fans like me) cutting into their U.S. sales - to the point they themselves didn't see a profit in completing distribution of their own versions of the discs. So, for SBY2202 Bandai agreed not to include English language subtitles on their japanese produced SBY2202 BR discs. [It also may be that VE and Bandai are working together to get a large budget (well larger then the Live-Action SBY film made and released in Japan back in 2010) U.S version of SBY/Starblazers made; and Bandai wants to keep relations with VE on good footing. Either way it's annoying that (unlike 2199) - if I want a legitimate version with a way to fully follow/understand the retold story in my native tongue; I may have to wait years, or worse may never see it in that form.
The eventual fan subs have happened. In English. Both Episodes 1 and 2 are available online if you can find them.
And now the wait for more information on Chapter Two (coming to more theaters near the end of June, and BD at the end of July....and to fansubs....eventually, probably by September).
I've seen two episodes. It looks fantastic. I don't really like that they used the early Earth warships though.
They're pawns in the order of battle. Likely leftovers from the pre-Yamato generation that weren't wiped out by the Gamilons prior to the truce. Relegated to low-intensity border patrol and courier missions and, in times of imminent emergency, put on the front lines to swarm, distract and irritate the enemy while the bigger ships warm up their WMG's. What I'd do if I were in the UNCF admiralty.
In the three years since Yamato returned to Earth, Earth has rebuilt a bit. The Earth fleet is all newly built, but they were holding to the "No Wave Motion Guns" treaty with Iscandar at first. So they used the existing designs, and upgraded them with wave motion engines, shock cannons, and updated missiles and torpedoes. Upgraded to this level, with low level shielding (not enough space for a larger shield generator), these ships are equal or in some cases better than their Gamilas counterparts. The Kongo type at least has larger weapons than most Gamilas warships. The one thing they still haven't done is show off these ship's bow cannons. While they are not wave motion guns, they are very powerful shock cannons. I was expected Kodai to fire into the enemy battleship with the bow cannon at point blank range, but they didn't. Possibly because they don't want to confuse people who would automatically think it is a wave motion gun because it comes from the bow, and drains a bunch of power to fire it. However, I guess a year prior to the start of the episodes, Earth decide to start building a fleet of Wave Motion Gun ships again. Yamato was to be rebuilt (she'd been a living museum ship with the Cosmo Reverse System inside for the previous two years), and Andromeda to be constructed. Earth got some advanced tech station that we see in the promotional art and trailer, that helps in building the Earth's new vast fleet of ships. We won't know fully about it until this next Chapter comes out. The first ten minutes of Episode Three should come out on Saturday.
First ten minutes of episode Three with new OP sequence. Not sure exactly what is going on. What we would call Brumus is about to be attacked. Kodai gets a bunch of exposition on Telezart, Teresa, and that Gatlantis is nearby that location. Then a hidden secret, possibly a side effect of the Cosmo Reverse system, or perhaps a corruption of it by the Earth government to build ships?
Nope. Borrowed word and proper nouns are a thing for many cultures. While sometimes there is another way to say something, the common way is to just use the foreign words. That is one reason we use so many French, German, and Italian proper nouns in English. There was no point in changing them. We also use a few Japanese and Chinese proper nouns for things here and there casually. The Japanese use a lot of English engineering and computer language because those were introduced only in the last century or so. Up until the 1930s, the Japanese used English seakeeping commands on naval vessels because they had been taught by the Royal Navy how to operate steam warships.
Is that the Kure port in the beginning, or is it Brumus? Interesting how they have Gamilon kids there now, celebrating Christmas. They've really co-mingled their cultures in a very short amount of time - in only 3 years? I really wish I knew Japanese.
The place were they are celebrating Christmas with the Gamilas is what we'd call Brumus. The Japanese use to just call it Planet Eleven, but I am not sure what they are calling it now. They did put a label on it when they introduced it, but I can't read it. With their senior ranking Admiral (Hijikata/Gideon) on Brumus, you would hope there would be a Cosmo Navy or at least Gamilas warships in the area. It would seem to be a Gamilon terraforming project that is being handed over to Earth around Christmas time. There appear to be Aquarius ruins, or however they are spelling it, present on the planet. It is possible that might be the original source of the huge shipyard station they have on Earth that is churning out Dreadnoughts. The station....its is hard to tell if it is under water, or in a pocket dimension of subspace without knowing what they are saying. It does have to do with the Cosmo Reverse System given to Earth by Iscandar, so another technology perversion by Earth, much like the Wave Motion Technology being used to make Wave Motion Guns. It could just be underwater and Yamato is near the top being worked on, and the platform and observation stands were raised from if for the launching of the four Andomeda type ships in episode two?
Chapter Two releases in Japan today. we'll start getting more information about it over the next month or so. I've been getting the BD near the end of July, so I'll have a visual grasp on things by August. They have announced that Chapter Three will be in theaters starting October 14th with this poster: http://yamato2202.net/img/home/poster_chapter3.png Chapter 3 teaser:
I know none of us speak Japanese but has there been any explanation as to why Admiral Hijikata/Gideon is not in command of the Andromeda? Are they planning to do something similar to 'Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato', where the crew of the Yamato rescues Gideon from his damaged/disabled ship and he takes command of the Yamato; or will he eventually take command of the Andromeda at some point and lead the EDF forces against the Comet Empire at the Battle of Saturn?
Finally managed to locate the first part of this (2 episodes) subbed. This franchise reboot continues to impress, looking forward to the rest...but not the waiting.
I have watched the first two episodes and I am really pleased with they have done so far. Looking forward to more!
The Admiral is on Planet 11 (Brumas in Star Blazers). He seems to be in charge of the transfer of ownership of the planet from the Gamilas terraforming project to Earth control. Why the top Admiral is away from Earth, I don't know, though I imagine it might have something to do with Hijikata being a friend of Okita and thus perhaps being politically in disfavor with the current government that is producing wave motion gun equipped warships used some side effect of the Cosmo Reverse System (thereby using two Iscandarian technologies for the purpose of war and expansion...against the wishes of Starsha of Iscandar and Okita's treaty with Iscandar and Gamilas). My guess is Yamato will rescue him from Planet 11 and he's take up command of Yamato until they get back from Telezart, at which point the clear and present threat of Gatlantis will see him take command of the fleet from Andromeda. Yamato and Kodai being assigned to preform special tasks with the carriers since Yamato holds the fleet's only veteran pilots and the ones the instructed all the rest of their fighter pilots. The teaser for episode seven shows a absolutely huge number of Cometine heavy battleships, likely forming up to make some kind of planet killing beam. This is Legends of the Galactic Heroes type huge in terms of numbers. No idea that the Comet Empire had that many heavy ships. I don't even think Gamilas thought they had that many ships. Powerful ships at that. There are only two ways I can guess of to deal with that many ships, and both require the use of the wave motion gun. One is a direct attack at the closely packed fleet. The other is to blow up say a mini- star and let the collateral damage wipe out the enemy fleet. I am assuming the green star seen near Brumas is an artificial mini-star like the Gamilas had in the original series over Balun. That would make sense if "Planet 11" is still in our solar system, because there is no way Sol can heat a planet that far out enough for people to live in even Siberia level cold conditions. But a small artificial one would do the trick, and green is an uncommon star color. That is assuming that Yamato has to deal with this force of enemies by itself, rather than the new Earth fleet coming in with their massed wave motion guns to save the day.