Overview - Space Battleship Yamato

Overview

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series featuring an eponymous spacecraft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato; an English-dubbed and heavily edited version of the series was broadcast on North American and Australian television as Star Blazers. The first two seasons of this version were broadcast in Greece in 1981-82 as Διαστημόπλοιο Αργώ. An Italian-language version was also broadcast under the name Star Blazers in Italy, and a Portuguese-language version was successfully shown in Brazil under the title Patrulha Estelar and Viaje a la Ultima Galaxia or Astronave Intrepido in Spain and Latin America. It is a seminal series in the history of anime, marking a turn towards more complex serious works and influencing works such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion; Hideaki Anno has ranked Yamato his favorite anime and credited it with sparking his interest in anime. Yamato was the first anime series or movie to win the Seiun Award, a feat not repeated until the 1985 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Seasons

• Name: Specials

  Episode: 15

  Date first aired: 1977-08-06

• Name: Star Blazers: The Quest For Iscandar

  Episode: 26

  In the year 2199, the space battleship Yamato embarks on a voyage to the planet Iscandar, to retrieve a device that will rejuvenate a war-ravaged Earth.

  Date first aired: 1974-10-06

• Name: Star Blazers: The Comet Empire

  Episode: 26

  Space Battleship Yamato II is a 1978 sequel to the original Space Battleship Yamato science fiction anime series. The story is set in the year 2201. The White Comet Empire, a new and even greater threat than the Gamilas, attacks Earth after crew of the Yamato investigates an SOS signal from the mysterious Teresa of planet Telezart. At the same time Desler, leader of the Gamilas Empire, also seeks revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Yamato.

  Date first aired: 1978-10-14

• Name: Star Blazers: The Bolar Wars

  Episode: 25

  Space Battleship Yamato III is the third TV season of the Space Battleship Yamato franchise, produced in Japan in 1980. The story begins at an undisclosed date, but was traditionally believed to have taken place in the year 2205 due to statements made in several of the publications devoted to Yamato III. However, the sequel film, Final Yamato, explicitly took place in late 2203, so after the film was released, the date of Yamato III was assumed to be early 2203.

  Date first aired: 1980-10-11