Back in the 1980s, growing up in Quebec meant getting Saturday and Sunday morning cartoons from around the world, dubbed into French, this usually done in France, and imported to our television screens. One of the more elusive ones of that period was Space Battleship Yamato. It didn’t necessarily play regularly or as much as the others, but it was around and for a Star Wars kid, it was AWESOME!
This series started airing in Japan in 1974 and aired until partway through 1975. It wasn’t all that long lasting, but it eventually led to a reboot, a film and manga adaptation. The original series was directed by Leiji Matsumoto, a manga artist, and directed by Yoshinobu Nishizaki. This led to some serious manga influences on the storylines and on the looks of the series. The series itself is considered quite influential and its power can still be felt in many cartoons, anime, and other sources of entertainment.
Set in 2199, this film follows an international crew on a space ship called the Yamato, a ship based on a WWII ship of the same name. The crew is sent to space after an attack that leads the planet to be radioactive and fast becoming unhabitable. At first, they do not have the tech to be able to achieve their mission of finding and retrieving a tool to remove the radiation from the planet. They soon find blueprints for what they need on Mars and the Yamato is born and sent to space. This is basically the plot seriously cut down and dumbed down.
The fun with this series was that is wasn’t what most Saturday Morning Cartoons were about. In a time period where more cartoons were about ponies, potatoes, princesses, army men, and a bunch of small creatures from around the world, this was a space epic, this was THE cartoon for those craving more adventure and willing to have story arcs that took long then one episode to resolve. It may not have run long, but with all the dubbings around the world and the reruns, it played a bunch and reached a ton of kids who were looking for something different.
The impact of the original series led to so much more in terms of content with a film, a reboot, and a comic series as mentioned above, but also follow-up series and even a live action film in 2010. The timeline here is a bit of a mess with each series taking place over different years but not necessarily coming out in order of those years. There are some useful guides on how to watch all of these and honestly, it’s a lot. The original series is one worth rewatching anytime though.
