Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (2014, Xebec, 111mins) on 10/23/2015.

While fleeing from an attack from an unkonwn enemy during Yamato's voyage from Iscandar back to Earth, Yamato warps into the vicinity of an unknown area of space with no stars but one single planet called Aquarius where apparently anything is possible and everyone perceives everything aesthetically differently. Yamato's recon team gets stuck on the planet and have to figure a way out of the planet's illusion.

9/10 – Yamato 2199 is the best thing to happen to the Yamato franchise and is the major reason why I'm into it. I started my Yamato journey with it and what better way to end but with this movie. Unless another one comes out in the future. This movie is interesting in which it combines some part of the White Comet arc with some sort of reference to the Aquarius planet from Final Yamato. Although it's a bit of a long movie, it's a really good one at that. I hope I get to live 184 more years.

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection (2009, Enagio, 1hr 15mins.) on 10/15/2015.

A couple of years after the planet Aquarius incident, Earth is now threatened by a comet-like black hole. Seeing no way around it, Earthlings decides to move to an Earth-like moon, orbiting an Earth-like planet. On their way there, their colony ships are ambushed by an alien alliance and it's up to Yamato to assure a safe migration for the people of Earth.

7.5/10 - This movie was good and I enjoyed seeing Kodai as an actual captain. It was also interesting to see a new generation of Yamato crew members in their new uniforms. The only thing that bothered me about this movie was how Yuki's role was handled. She only shows up briefly as she dies with her cargo ship in an odd animation. And although Kodai spends most of this movie believing she's alive he doesn't react much when he finally learns she's gone for sure. With Yuki's passing, comes Maho, her replacement character in the Yamato ship. Think of Sasha from Be Forever Yamato. But unlike Sasha, I actually enjoyed Maho and *SPOILER* I was upset when she passed away at the end.

Finished watching Be Forever Yamato

Finished watching Be Forever Yamato (1980, Academy Productions, Group TAC, 1hr 25mins.) on 10/3/2015.

Be Forever Yamato picks up from the first encounter with the Black Nebula Empire. Having been defeated by the Yamato last, the Empire sends to Earth a massive fortress that doubles as a bomb capable of destroying half the planet. From the fortress an army of robots and Black Nebula aliens came out to completely devastate the city they landed on. The Yamato comes to find that the only way to stop the bomb is to destroy its remote control from its place of origin.

7/10 – First thing I noticed was the dramatic art and animation quality improvement from the previous Yamato movies I've been watching. Looked great. The only thing that bothered me the most was this new character, Sasha. Daughter of Starsha and Mamoru, Sasha is half-Iscandarian and half-Japanese, apparently allowing her to grow from a baby into an adult within the span of one year. I felt like she didn’t contribute anything to the story. Like she was just a temporary replacement for Yuki's job in the ship. Also, the fact that she falls in love with Kodai was very… strange for me. Both because she's his niece and she's technically still one year old. Weird, man. Other than that, the movie was pretty decent.

Finished watching Arrivederci Yamato and Yamato 2

Finished watching Arrivederci Yamato (1hr 31min, Academy Productions, Group TAC, 1978) and Yamato 2 (26epi., Academy Productions, Group TAC, 1978) on 9/25/2015.

Earth is faced with a new threat two years after the fall of the Gamilas Empire. For Yamato the White Comet Empire is their most fearsome opponent yet. But that isn’t the only thing Yamato has to worry about, Lord Desler isn’t quite finished with the business he has the Yamato. But the answer to their problems lies with Teresa, the only being on planet Telezart.

Arriverdeci - 7.5/10

Yamato 2 - 4/10

Arriverdeci Yamato was in Japanese theaters shortly before Yamato 2, the 26-episode anime adaptation aired on TV. Yeah, I don't know. Usually it's the other way around, but whatever. Anyways, that is the order I watched them in. Which made watching Yamato 2 significantly boring. Not only that, but the story and art quality were even worse. I even fell asleep during most episodes. I would've been better off just watching the movie, which by the way was pretty good, a bit lengthy and that scene right at the start with the comet dragged out for way too long. Also, now I know where the ending for the 2010 live-action movie comes from.

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato

Finished watching Space Battleship Yamato (2010, Robot Communications, 1hr 18mins) on 8/18/2015.

The year is 2199. Earth is faced with a major crisis. After being bombarded by the extraterrestrial Gamilas Empire with radio active meteors for years, Earth has started looking more like Mars, forcing humans to live underground. But they won’t give up without a fight as they revive battleship Yamato as a space battleship to fight against the threat and make their way to planet Iscandar where a technology was promised to cleanse planet Earth of the radiation.

7.5/10 – One thing with Leiji's franchises is that their content isn't consistent between each installment. This movie is no different. Well, to be fair the inconsistencies aren't that big of a deal. For example, in this movie, doctor Sado is played by a woman. A pleasant surprise considering the series tends to be a bit of a sausage fest. Their excuse being that all the female crew members have been put to sleep until the end of the voyage, except for Mori Yuki. Gotta have that love interest somehow, right? *coughkodaiyamamotocough* Just sayin', man! Also, Mori Yuki is now a Black Tiger squadron ace pilot instead of originally a radar operator & ship nurse. They also gave her a nice, heavy pair of metaphorical balls. I'm very much behind this. What bugged me a little is that they didn't make her blonde. I get it, Japanese people don't have the blonde gene (I think), but I would've appreciated at least a wig... or something... idk. The ending of the movie however was new to me. Not what happened in the original series. But what about the Gamilas? And Lord Desler? I was excited to see them on the screen... nope. Nothing. All you get are what I think are Gamilas androids. Or at least I don't want to accept that they're Gamilas. I'm not sure. The movie didn't really explain. Heck, there supposedly was even a large ship the Yamato destroyed, but they didn't even show it. But getting back to the Gamilans, the only actual person I saw was a Desler made of water... or something. Kinda looked like him. But it was hard to tell since he was so transparent. Okay, how about Iscandar's Starsha, huh? Gosh, I don't really know how to explain this, but I guess now I realize Gamilans are these weird, floaty crystal things, and Starsha (also being a Gamilan, apparently) goes inside Yuki Mori so as to speak through her. The movie was still interesting, despite all these odd, new changes, and the production quality was good.