Ranked #245

Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199

First off Starblazers, as I knew it as a kid was a major eye opener as a kid.
I was instantly addicted to the original series... Collected the VHS, art books, and eventually the DVD's. Including the story series that did not air in the USA...

I saw the live action movie and was impressed with the visual effects, not so much the story changes or changes to the Gamilions.

Now I have been watching the site of the artist who did the new remake. AND I was INSTANTLY in love with the works.

And now I have gotten to see it, with HD quality, and I LOVE every frame, every moment, and the changes are insanely well liked.

Without revealing too much, the story has changed a little, more to the side of more complexity. There is more going on in hidden momments that look to be building to a grand arch bigger then the original series touched, while keeping to the original story.

The details of the ships is just staggeringly BEAUTIFUL!
The changes there were all to the better.....
The character story and plot is just beautiful. Not sure about the changes to IQ9, but see how he is changed might be more realistic. The fact the Cat is not on the ship is ... well ... missed good humor.

I want the BLUE RAY the moment it becomes available!!!!!

Suggest:
http://lighthousezen.seesaa.net/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BGu9HESMuI read more

Review up to OVA 10.

This is the remake of the first anime space opera, made back in 1974. Since I have already made a review for the original version, I will only mention the differences and how they compare.

PROPER MINDSET
First of all, I am not against remakes if they are at least two decades apart and if they have something new to offer without taking out the magic of the original. In this case there were four decades since the first version but this anime was made at the same time the live action movie was out. Why did they make two versions so close to each other? Weird. Not that the movie was bad in any way but it sure changed a lot of elements to the point it felt like a different story altogether. This anime on the other hand kept things almost the same and only tempered with minor details and aesthetics, so it manages not to annoy any fans of the original.

THE STAFF
- The animation is a collaboration of two studios, AIC and Xebec. They are notorious for their bad production values and below average shows, yet in this case we have a very weird exception where they did a splendid job. It looks brilliant! This was such a surprise for me.
- The direction is done by Izubuchi Yutaka, who was an assistant to dozens of famous sci-fi titles over the years, including the third season of the older Yamato. His only previous directing work as in Rahxephon, which had an amazing concept but was otherwise completely boring and badly presented. I was expecting a lousy job but again I was amazed to find it he actually did pretty well this time. I guess it was studio Bones at fault and not his talent at fault.

PRODUCTION VALUES
The first thing everybody will notice is how the faces are not Leiji-like. It can sort of disappoint some retro fans but to be honest most new viewers would simply hate that style. Also, Ozma was completely Leiji-styled and we all saw what a waste of time that was, so leave the style to be modern. I got used to it after only half an hour.

Character faces aside, everything else is left the same in terms of artwork; ship, uniforms, robots all look the same. They have also been upgraded to include ten times more details instead of leaving all minor characters like blobs in the background. It also corrected the color mistakes the older version had. Remember how they forgot to draw the aliens with blue skin in the first episodes?

Aesthetics aside, it looks plain gorgeous in everything from environments, to explosions, to smooth animation. This is how perfection is supposed to look like. It really matters when you have ten times more time and budget to make an episode, than just one week and a few pennies.

The soundtrack is basically an upgrade of the original, still ballads with more flavors in musical BGM. Unless you expect new songs in a remake, you will love the new more dynamic versions of the classic themes.

SCRIPT
Ok, sure, it’s the age-old classic story of an alien invasion. The Earth people create a super spaceship and go to beat the aliens and find a way to rebuild their planet. As simple as it sounds, it has a lot more things to it, from taking the time to flesh out all the major characters, as well as to expand into other themes, such as patriotism, honor, and propaganda. Those themes were present in the original as well but definitely were undermined in favor of space exploration and rather dull dialogues. So although the main plot is as basic as it sounds, each episode usually branches out to include various interesting side stories of human drama. Also, you now feel that there are far more planets with civilizations out there, from colonized human planets, to systems the aliens conquered.

This of course can work negatively, since in the older version it was jusy Earth and Gamilas the only planets which could support human life. Now we are just a backwater planet, and a minor conquest instead of a vital area that will help the aliens to survive by migrating from their dying planet. In a similar way, there are many areas on the planet which don’t feel like they are under immediate threat by the aliens, as they all were in the older version. I mean there were families which were discussing the heirs of their busyness and the global bombings felt like minor set backs to them instead of horrifying mass extinction of life. So the scope of the story has spread to include far more planets, which is good, but at the same time degraded a lot the importance of the main two warring factions. The results of the war just don’t feel like they will signal the death of a whole race; the losing side can just migrate to a different planet for all we care.

But aside from this minor degrading, everything else is pure gold and no episodes were useless so far.

CAST
While everybody still has the same roles as before, they feel far more fleshed out here, with more elaborate backdrops and characterization. A major plus is how you now feel that several secondary characters are important to the plot as well, besides the main five. Especially when it comes to the female characters, you now get a handful of dynamic women in various key positions, such as pilots, announcers, and enemy representatives. The older version was also supposed to have had many women on board the ship but from a point on they removed them completely and replaced them with genderless blobs, so they will save time in drawing. All you were left were a couple women in the roles of platonic girlfriends and deus ex machinas. So once again, a major improvement was done.

What may seem a bit off though is ho cute all the girls are. Not oversexualized and indecent or anything but surely they are all so perky, with skin tight uniforms and innocent looks. Ok, all Leiji omen were treated as such too, but they ere few and major. Over here every girl is like it popped out of a non-erotic dating sim. Nothing particularly bad but it feels like fish out of water in a grim setting where entire solar systems are enslaved and planets are wiped out. Just saying.

LEGACY
As far as remakes go, this is amongst the best I have seen in my whole life. Although it doesn’t feel as grim and serious as the older version, it does a much better job in improving visuals, story complexity, and character depth. It is rather saddening to see how unnoticed it is by the fandom, as everybody was deifying complete trash shows like Sword Art Online, and didn’t give a damn for a much superior show such as this. Proves once again how we are full of tasteless retards. We haven’t had a good space opera for over a decade and it easily ranks as one of the better anime that were made in recent years.

I just hope they are not going to remake the later seasons or movies. They were just inferior rehashes of the first season and any improvements they had over the first season have already been present in the remake. They have absolutely nothing to offer besides weird weaponry and Desler changing moods like he doesn’t know what he wants. Maybe the Black Nebula part would be fine to remake but everything else is completely passable.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 9/10
General Artwork 2/2 (looks great)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 2/2 (detailed)
Animation 2/2 (overall very good)
Visual Effects 2/2 (overall very good)

SOUND SECTION: 9/10
Voice Acting 3/3 (fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 4/4 (great)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 7/10
Premise 1/2 (typical)
Pacing 2/2 (fine)
Complexity 2/2 (many good side stories)
Plausibility 1/2 (so-so)
Conclusion 1/2 (I suspect cheesy)

CHARACTER SECTION: 6/10
Presence 1/2 (generic)
Personality 2/2 (rather cheesy but well founded)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 1/2 (overblown but it’s there)
Catharsis 1/2 (overblown but it’s there)

VALUE SECTION: 8/10
Historical Value 3/3 (all-known)
Rewatchability 2/3 (high if you like its style)
Memorability 3/4 (a very well made remake)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 7/10
Art 1/1 (looks splendid)
Sound 1/2 (great songs)
Story 2/3 (feels generic but plays out nicely)
Characters 3/4 (they are generic but play their parts nicely)

VERDICT: 7.5/10 read more

I watched the first episode, and I saw the whole of the old series as well years ago (it is among my favorite science fiction animes, alongside MACROSS) and I say this, after this first episode, I brand it AWESOME!

Charcters, Art, Sound, Plot, Action...just what such a story, the real motor drive to the modern anime production and culture, deserves, and YES! They deliver.

Unlike it was said in a prior review, AIC delivered in the past some of the BEST, most original and thought provoking Science Fiction animes with plots and complexity sometimes beyond the regular audience, but with this AIC is back to the element they managed best in the past, Science Fiction, and Xebec does have a good score artwise, and it shows in the art displayed so far.

The movie was good but the alterations were not to the best, but this time yes, the adaptation/alterations plotwise do make the story less cliche, more complex and enjoyable, and I sure hope they carry on. I will watch more and after I will place a new review, but so far I am cheering for AIC / Xebec Team and for this remake, that can prove to be well deserving of being placed among the anime classics! read more