Space Battleship Yamato

[timothy]

any idea when it will hit the states?

 

[137th Gebirg]

Well, I finally got it on DVD from Amazon - region-free w/ English subs. It was listed as "Space Battleship: Yamato - The Final Battle", not to be confused with another title by that same name selling on eBay right now which is simply a repackaged "Final Yamato" from the 80's. Subtitling was reasonably well done and you could pretty much understand what was going on. The "Kanon Cannon" in the opening battle made me chuckle a little. It's a Malaysian transfer, so some things may be a little wonky. Overall, I really liked it. Definitely a worthy addition to the Yamato family of films. Loved what they did with the Gamilons in this one - made them purely alien w/ bio-mech vessels and weapons. Lots of homages to the original anime. The ending was a little WTF, however. Probably getting into spoiler-land here so...

Spoiler: Yamato

• Analyzer/IQ-9 makes several appearances, the first as a little pocket computer PDA-like thing that Kodai carries around with him. Later on, he plugs it into his plane and Analyzer pops out to help the humans in a critical scene towards the end on Gamilon. For those familiar with the original anime, you will notice that they got the original voice talent to reprise the roll. Very distinctive and recognizable.
• The little capsule from Iscandar that Kodai finds in the beginning is a miniature replica of a larger capsule in which Starsha's sister (can't remember her name) comes to Earth in the original anime.
• Desslock/Desslar makes an "appearance" but he and all other Gamilons are "one" in the same, a uni-hive-mind, much like the Borg. I can't be sure about this one, but the voice talent for Desslar sounds like the original anime as well. They appear in crystalline form and can possess humans in order to communicate.
• This is where it gets very WTF. Towards the end, Iscandar and Gamilon are not two different worlds tidally locked with each other in the same orbit, as in the anime. In this, they are two halves of the same world. To muddy the waters, Gamilons and Iscandarians are all a part of the same hive-mind. After discovering that their planet is doomed, the Iscandarians decided to embrace their fate, wanting to allow the planet to be destroyed and ascend...or something. The Gamilons "imprisoned" them (as much as one can imprison a non-corporeal being) and set their sites on Earth, trying to "Gamiliform" it with their planet bombs.
• This is where I REALLY lose track - apparently there is no Cosmo-DNA. No radiation-fixing device. It was actually a "lie" concocted by Captain Okita (Avatar) to give "hope" to the people of Earth and a reason to send Yamato on this mission, which was originally built to be an evacuation vehicle. Kodai seems to have some bizarre resistance to the effects of the radiation, that Starsha (or the embodiment of the "people" of Iscandar) tells him about in the end, almost like the humans had the ability to cure Earth all along simply through Kodai's existence. Starsha says that she will use the last of her powers to see to it that Earth is cured, although I can't tell if Kodai had anything to do with it or not.
• The tail-end of the movie is more like the end of the second anime movie, "Arrivaderci, Yamato", where Kodai blows up the Yamato (by firing a plugged wave motion gun) next to the Gamilon super-weapon. This scene is preceded by people going into the Gamilon power core back on their planet, blowing it up like they did in the Comet Empire anime, complete with the Space Marines. The whole ending, as many others have said here in the past, is VERY Japanese, full of dramatic histrionics and selfless sacrifice for the greater good. Western audiences will likely find this to be very but still tolerable when taken in cultural context. Anyways, I'm not sure how Kodai not affected by the radiation helps Earth, as he clearly doesn't make it in the end, although Yuki does, with her and Kodai's son, who may himself have the anti-radiation "gene" and may be the explanation for the cure on Earth. Honestly, I really can't be certain, and perhaps someone with a fluency in Japanese may have a better idea of what happened here and could elaborate.
• The music is fantastic, using much of the original score, but the off-key strained wailing of Steven Tyler in the end credits seemed a bit out of place for me.
• Yuki manages to get *some* of her clothes blown off of her. Still PG, though.
• Yamato manages to get its 3rd Bridge destroyed, in the proper Yamato tradition.

Overall 4 out of 5 stars from me. Definitely watchable.

 

[JD]

Just wanted to let everyone know that Hulu has added the original Starblazers to their lineup.

 

[timothy]

very cool thanks for that added that to my favorites.
when do you think they'll add the comet empire?

 

[JD]

Don't know. I don't know if they have any kind of regular release dates for older stuff like SB.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I think the question was asked a while ago - why did the Gamilon skin tone change early in Season 1 from (white) human flesh tone to blue? Well, while I don't know the answer, I found something that might hold the answer. I'm hoping there's either someone here who knows Japanese or knows someone who does. I scanned this page from the official SBY Fact Files from Japan, and it seems to address this issue directly, but I don't know how to translate. Anyone want to take this on? Here's the image:

 

[Set Harth]

Spoiler: Yamato

Where Desslok/Dessler is concerned, it seemed as if they were "trying to have their cake and eat it too", for lack of a better phrase, and I don't mean that in a bad way. In the character's second appearance, he is asked "...or should I say Gamilas?" and responds "The answer is both yes and no." This seems to be in the same vein as the phrase "Alpha and Omega" from his first appearance when possessing Saito. It has been remarked that the quasi-humanoid form which he assumes in his second appearance ( when not morphing crystalline extrusions ) bears some physical resemblance to the character from the anime, and this seems accurate based on visual comparison. I get kind of a Foundation's Edge vibe from the Gamilas in this film. By "yes and no" I think the film attempts to establish Dessler as a part of the Gamilas hive mind but at the same time a semi-independent personality. In GITS terms, maybe you could call him the hub or nucleus of the rhizome.

Kodai seems to have some bizarre resistance to the effects of the radiation, that Starsha (or the embodiment of the "people" of Iscandar) tells him about in the end, almost like the humans had the ability to cure Earth all along simply through Kodai's existence. Starsha says that she will use the last of her powers to see to it that Earth is cured, although I can't tell if Kodai had anything to do with it or not.

Anyways, I'm not sure how Kodai not affected by the radiation helps Earth, as he clearly doesn't make it in the end, although Yuki does, with her and Kodai's son, who may himself have the anti-radiation "gene" and may be the explanation for the cure on Earth. Honestly, I really can't be certain, and perhaps someone with a fluency in Japanese may have a better idea of what happened here and could elaborate.

I'm going by the English subtitles only, but the impression I got was that Yuki was the "cure", in that even though the "Iscandar"/Starsha entity was no longer actively possessing her, some vestige of it was still within her, and would act to cleanse Earth when she returned to the surface. This was why she had to leave the ship. I don't see any evidence of an anti-radiation gene or Kodai having anything directly to do with the cleansing. The significance of Kodai not being affected by the radiation in the beginning of the film had to do with the implied properties of the capsule, which gave Okita and the EDF the idea that there might possibly be radiation-nullifying technology on Iscandar.