Star Blazers, AKA Space Cruiser Yamato, has been long considered one of the three "holy grails" of American anime fandom. Along with Speed Racer and Robotech, Star Blazers created the American anime industry. Sure, "Astroboy" and "Battle of the Planets" came before it, but "Astroboy" had long since gone out of syndication by the time Star Blazers came around, and "Battle of the Planets" was so horribly hacked and edited that it was virtually unrecognizable from the Japanese source. And though Robotech was (and is still) more popular, would Carl Macek have even thought of buying three sci-fi anime titles and keep the ongoing storylines had not Star Blazers led the way?

This document will attempt to be an introduction for the new fan to this wonderful, groundbreaking anime, and re-introduce old fans who used to race home from school every day so as to not miss a minute, but perhaps haven't seen it in twenty years. There are a few spoilers, however, so if you want to get into this series unspoiled, hit the back button now.

A. Not really, though his contribution was so large that it's easy to make that mistake. Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki brought in Matsumoto-sensei, as he is called, when Nishizaki's then-floundering science fiction project (which had gone through various incarnations and titles like "Operation Asteroid Ship") was stalled in pre-production. Nishizaki wasn't happy with any of the proposals that more well-known talent of the time were giving him, so he contracted a young, up-and-coming manga artist named Leiji Matsumoto to do some of the art designs. Matsumoto ended up nixing most of the designs he saw and began turning in not only art, but mecha and character designs as well. Before long, he was asked to become involved with every facet of the production, including the story. He personally drew about half of the storyboards for the first series, and wrote much of the storyline. Then when he was done with the anime in the daytime, he would go home and spend all night drawing the manga version.

A. The same thing that happened to Star Trek. Ratings. Yamato had gained a fairly dedicated audience when it was initially aired in 1974, but it was going up against the two top ratings getters of the time. So the original 52-episode story, which was to have included several "Star Trek"-like "exploring strange new worlds" episodes during the return trip from Iscandar, was cut to 36 episodes. Then it was cut again to the now-familiar 26-episode format. The compression of the storyline left very few filler episodes. The original story arc is so tight that it would make many Babylon 5 fans drool.

 A. Yup. In the original 52 and 36 episode story arcs, the Star Force would have gotten help in the form of a pirate ship from earth, under the command of the notorious and mysterious Captain Harlock, who had been making trouble for the Gamilons for the last year. When the Star Force was to have reached Iscandar, it was going to have been revealed that Harlock was in fact Derek Wildstar's presumed-dead brother Alex. When the series was cut back to 26 episodes, Alex's fate was changed.

 Q. If Yamato was such a commercial flop, why were two other TV series and five movies made? Why would the producers waste their money on a title that was obviously a money drain?

A. Two words - Star Wars. Like in the United States, Star Wars caused a sci-fi explosion in Japan. Japanese producers began frantically looking for their own homegrown product to cash in on the boom before it went bust. Nishizaki, realizing he was sitting on a potential gold mine, blew the dust off of the Yamato prints and compiled the first TV series into a 2 1/2 hour movie. Many plotlines were dropped, quite a bit of characterization was absent, and the overall feel of the movie is quite disjointed. However, it did phenomenally in Japanese theaters and revived the title. So, like it's American counterpart, Star Trek, Yamato was given a shot in the arm by the popularity of Star Wars. The TV series was re-aired, and a sequel was commissioned.

A. Technically yes. The movie Arrivederci Yamato (AKA "Farewell Yamato") was the first sequel to the original Yamato series/movie. This movie concerned a threat to Earth in the form of the White Comet Empire, and the heroic sacrifices that the Yamato crew made to save mankind. Sound familiar? Well... it is and it isn't. Nishizaki wanted to end Yamato completely, so Arrivederchi climaxed with most of the Star Force dead, and Wildstar ramming the Yamato into Zordar's dreadnought, destroying the Yamato and himself in the process. The movie was a smash, and ironically, instead of ending the franchise then and there it actually continued it. A second TV series was commissioned, which expanded on the story initially presented in the movie, with one major change. The TV series spared the Yamato, Wildstar, Desslok, and many of the other characters that died. The two endings show the differing and rapidly diverging views of Nishizaki and Matsumoto. Nishizaki believed strongly in heroically sacrificing oneself for the greater good, while Matsumoto has always been a firm believer in the survival instinct of humanity, and stressed that you must never lose hope. No where is this more apparent than in the two endings of the Comet Empire storyline.

 Q. So when was it brought over to America?

A. Soon after the Comet Empire series finished. Again, Star Wars and its sequels had created a sci-fi boom, and American producers were looking towards Japan to quickly get sci fi "kiddie" fare onto TV. It was cheaper to import already-produced animation and dub it than to produce a completely new product from the ground up, not to mention the fact that sci-fi as mainstream entertainment was still relatively new. I can imagine that no one knew if this "fad" would die out, or would continue to progress while new animation was made. Possibly because of this uncertainty in the market, Weschester Films bought the American rights to Yamato, just as Sandy Frank had with Gatchaman the previous year. Additionally, Weschester farmed the translation and dubbing out to a company called Claster/Sunwagon.

A. It depends on your definition of "hacked up." If you feel that anime should only be seen in its purest form, then this isn't the way you want to watch Yamato, and I would recommend the subtitled movies. But put yourself in Weschester's position. There were no VCR's in 1979, and back then all animation was kiddie fare. And all kiddie fare had to be sanitized and free of violence. The fact that, given this atmosphere, so much of Yamato survived the transition at all is pretty darn amazing, especially when you look at Star Blazers' immediate predecessor - Battle of the Planets.

A. Surprisingly little. Obviously most of the names were changed. However, many names were fairly similar to their original. Desslar-soto became Leader Desslok, Queen Stasha had an "r" added to her name to make it "Starsha," and Sanada became Sandor. In probably the most well-done name change, it was made clear that the Star Force's ship was not initially named the "Argo." It was stressed, quite heavily in fact, that this was the Yamato rebuilt, it just happened to be renamed. Lastly, Claster, perhaps translating the scripts a bit too literally, had thought that there was too much emphasis on the ship and not enough on the crew, so wherever the name "Yamato" was used, they would use "Star Force," to try and reemphasize the characters. However, later translations revealed that "Yamato" was used in much the same way as "Enterprise," in Star Trek - to refer to both the crew and the ship collectively. A slight mess-up on Claster's part, but still, "Star Force" does sound cool, especially when you're 11 years old.

Violence was covered up, mostly personal violence. If a Star Force crew member was shown killing an enemy face-to-face, they would either re-use earlier animation to change the sequence to one less personal, or the enemy would become a robot, or they would just cut the sequence entirely.

Desslok's nasty habit of shooting his unsuccessful lackeys in the back was glossed over. And finally, Knox didn't get out right behind Wildstar.

If you want a detailed analysis of what was cut from Star Blazers, I'd recommend Walter Amos' excellent article The Star Blazers You Didn't See.

 Q. I don't know about this. I mean, dubbed, cut and edited isn't the way I usually like to watch anime.

A. I understand, but again, keep in mind the times that Star Blazers was produced in. Star Blazers is a far cry from being as cut to bits as Battle of the Planets or Robotech is. You can watch the subbed Yamato movies right after watching the first two seasons and, aside from the names, everything makes sense. The story and characters survived intact. This so-called "kiddie" TV show had such a sophisticated and mature storyline, presented in an intelligent fashion, that it gained a cult following among older audiences in High School and college. They would get together regularly to talk about the show and exchange audiotapes recorded off of the 5" TV speaker. These groups were the forerunners of today's anime clubs.

A. Here is another area where Star Blazers truly shines. Claster hired top-notch acting talent from the New York area. They auditioned actors and actresses from all over the New York acting community, and the casting was absolutely brilliant. Compare Kei Tomiyama (Kodai) with his American counterpart, Ken Meserol (Wildstar). The similarity in their voices is spooky! In fact, when I saw my first subbed Yamato movie, if I didn't know better I'd have said that most of the main characters were the American cast speaking fluent Japanese! And where the voices weren't spot-on, many feel the American cast actually improved on the Japanese one. Desslar had the standard anime-bad-guy-deep-voice. Desslok, on the other hand, has the coolest villain voice anywhere. Yuki has the typical high-pitched anime female voice. Nova's voice is quite deeper, and much sexier (I admit it, Nova was my first crush when I was 11. Gotta love the form-fitting spandex uniform!).

A. Well, the dubbing was a non-union job, but it wasn't any kind of shady back-alley deal. They all knew what they were doing (and none of them were on strike, as far as I know). But they weren't credited simply because it wasn't a union job. I don't know all the intricacies of the Actor's Guild, but it does make a certain amount of sense. As far as Desslok dying of AIDS, I'm sure that Eddie Allen, who was the voice of Desslok, would find that quite funny.

A. That's mostly due to the work of Amy Howard, the voice of Nova. She stumbled across one of the many Star Blazers web pages when she first got an Internet connection, got in contact with the owner of the site and his friends (:ego break: myself included!) and introduced herself. She sounds as if she just walked out of the studio yesterday, and could dub Nova again at the drop of a hat. She is one extremely cool lady, so if you should happen to be at a con that she's one of the guests at, by all means introduce yourself. Since that time about two years ago, she's found Ken Meserol, Tom Tweedy (Venture), and confirmed Eddie Allen.

A. In season 3 Mark Venture was Speed Racer. Yamato 3 was produced in Japan quite a bit of time after the first two seasons were dubbed and aired in America. When Weschester bought the third season, they had lost track of the original voice cast. They had to get the third season on the air fast, and didn't have the time to spend looking for Amy, Ken, Tom, Eddie, and the rest. They hired veteran voice actor Peter Fernandez and his crew, who are most famous for Speed Racer. So if Venture sounds like Speed, and Nova sounds like Trixie, it's because they are.

Unfortunately, the amount of care in editing and dubbing that was present in the first two seasons was absent from the production of season 3. There are several blatant continuity goofs (the term "Star Force," for example, is almost entirely absent after the first few episodes). The acting is what you expect from the Speed Racer crew (which is fine for Speed Racer, but the original SB cast had upped the standards). The script is much less sophisticated and more "kiddiefied," and ironically, much of the more adult imagery was left intact (in fact, some of the later episodes feature the citizens of Planet Gardiana sporting full frontal nudity!). For these reasons, the third season was shown in very few cities, and for an extremely short time.

Weschester and Fernandez aren't to blame for the third season, though. Initially the outline called for a sweeping 52-episode epic with several amazing plot lines (the Space Battleship Arizona, for example, was to have several episodes dedicated just to them). However, the rift between Matsumoto and Nishizaki had grown, and Matsumoto was deep into producing the Harlock movie, "My Youth in Arcadia." For these reasons, he was only marginally involved in the production.

The Yamato 3 source material simply suffered from a lack of quality that the previous TV series and movies had set. And when Fernandez was hired to script and dub it, he was not given access to the original two seasons in anything but script form (VCR's as common household items were still quite a bit in the future). As a result, he had no idea of the style of acting that had been used. This fact makes most of the continuity and dubbing issues understandable. Given all this, it's not surprising that Star Blazers 3 turned out the way it did. This is not to say that it's a waste. It should be watched, if only to see Desslok as a good guy.

A. Well, you have to remember that the first season was produced on a shoestring budget and often times under the wire. In fact, it's been said that more than once the production team would finish an episode about a half hour before the voice cast was to report to the studio. This could be an urban legend, but it does illustrate the kind of schedule that they were running on.

Also remember that it was produced in 1974. Dispite this fact, at it's worst it's better than the worst quality Macross episodes (at least Captain Avatar's hat doesn't grow to outrageous proportions like Captain Global's!). And the second season took full advantage of a bigger budget, more realistic deadlines, and reusable cinematic-quality footage from Arrivederchi Yamato. Even today, the second season still looks pretty damn good.

A. Yamato 2520 was initially supposed to be a 13 episode OAV series produced entirely by Nishizaki and his staff. However, without Matsumoto's human touch, it suffered from "retread syndrome," and a lack of three-dimentional characters. Perhaps it could've been something if it had continued, but Nishizaki wisely pulled the plug after the third episode.

Rebirth was supposed to be Nishizaki's sequel to the official timeline, which had ended in "Final Yamato." The Yamato was to have been dug out of the ice after the last battle against Aquarius and rebuilt. Wildstar was to have been full Captain, Sandor (bald, apparently!) and Dr. Sane would have joined him, along with some new "Next Generation" type characters. And from what I've heard, Wildstar was going to die. However, Nishizaki was arrested on drug and weapons violations, and all rights to Yamato were granted to Matsumoto.

A. Not by a long shot. Matsumoto hasn't wasted any time. He plans on releasing a new Yamato production in 2001. Latest word is that it will be a retelling of "Quest for Iscandar," since the compilation movie was a sticking point between he and Nishizaki (Nishizaki liked the compilation, Matsumoto wanted to do an entirely new production, much like the GE999 movie or Macross:DYRL). There is a new Yamato Playstation game that follows the Iscandar storyline, which features new theatrical-quality animation to tell the story. I've seen some screenshots, and it looks amazing.

A. It should. Yashuhiro Imagawa, creator of Giant Robo, directed many of the Yamato episodes and movies.

A. That's Matsumoto playing fast and loose with continuity. If he feels that a certain character fits a certain situation, he uses them, no matter how badly it'll botch up any existing continuity. As for how deeply they're connected, that still remains to be seen. Many fans feel that Galaxy Express and Yamato aren't connected at all. Many feel that they are, and somehow the Star Force found themselves 600 years in the future. We'll just have to wait and see.

A. I thought you'd never ask. For all of the general series information, synopses, and all-around resources you need, the one and only place to go is the web page that Amy Howard stumbled across, The Wave Motion Web Page. 

For more in-depth information, maps, timelines, and all those "detail" questions, check out Space Webzine Yamato. 

Good ol' fashioned Gamilon wackiness your thing? Then be sure to visit the Hyper Desslok Homepage.

 Eager to see what Matsumoto's new Yamato production will look like? Check out BanDai's Yamato Playstation game page. Although it's in Japanese, the screen shots are awesome.

 Check out the Iscandar Project for invaluable fan resources, fanfic, etc.

Go to this page for information on the campaign to get Star Blazers back on TV.

You can also download episodes in Real Audio format from StudioNEXT. 

Finally, be sure to check out Leiji Matsumoto's on-line manga series.

Thanks to the University of Texas Anime FTP site for many of the images on this page.