Uchuu Senkan Yamato: Kanketsu-hen

This film was touted as the final instalment in the Yamato saga, a space opera franchise that began in 1974 and had completed ten years. At this point, the Yamato crew had gone through so many adventures in space on the edge of peril that this one comes out as a relatively above-average adventure for them. Bringing back a beloved but long-dead character through some contrived means, only for the said character to give it up for his crew, also sets the story and its drama back in terms of plot.

However, the film makes up for its problems by being one big space adventure, ... with the epic action and scale it deserves: glorious space vistas, fantastic planets and spacecraft, and fantastic action sequences, all backed up by incredible animation that still looks great today and grand orchestral music that captures the intense atmosphere of the scenes. Even if the plot is rather average, this film provides a wonderful spectacle to see.

In the end the film marks a grand finale to the original Yamato show; it would later undergo a remake in 2012. The film does the Yamato saga great credit and honor, and it’s an enjoyable watch for any fan of Yamato or space operas.