I was ecstatic when I discovered the series was being re-made in the form of Space Battleship Yamato 2199. With contemporary, more detailed character designs, smoother animation, gorgeous CGI fight scenes, everything seemed to be in place for an show that takes all of the good things about its foundation series and makes it better.
For the most part in the first half of the series, this was true. But once the series had approached and reached its climax, I realized the show had short-changed many of the plot and character arcs that looked so interesting at the start of the series; almost as if the writers took the easy route and created moral compromises that were simpler for the audience to resolve and understand.
Story (6/10): Yamato 2199 (or Star Blazers 2199 as it's called on the DVD releases from Voyager Entertainment) follows the same basic plot as its predecessor. However, several subplots are added that give the series much more depth and nuance than its predecessor. A botched attempt to deal with the invasion of the Gammilas is established, developed, and comes full-front about half-way through the show, relationships and conflict are established among members of the Gamilas staff (who now have distinct personalities), and Dessler is planning some sort of conspiracy he hasn't seemed to make any of his staff aware of. I have to go out and say that this series does an EXCEPTIONAL job of developing these plots bit by bit, giving them just enough time in each episode to give new info about them without giving away anything. This series kept me hooked week-to-week thanks to how much promising plot material was surely going to be explored late in the series.
In addition, an plot thread following main heroine, Yuki, implies she's actually an Iscandarian Princess.
Very intriguing stuff. But . . . Well . . . On the plus side, the series does bother resolving these plot threads. It just does so in a very unsatisfactory manner.
Project Izumo's plan is dealt with in the course of just one episode (No. 16) and derails the sympathy and morality of the plan and one of its key members in the process. The intrigue of the Gamilas staff is dealt with when one, obviously evil member goes rogue, and no dissent and political backstabs are ever heard from again. Dessler's 'conspiracy' turns out to be one of the most fool-hardy, and gratuitous turns since Prince Schiezel and Dewey Novak. And Yuki . . . don't get me started . . . But they resolved the arc in the worst way possible, simultaneously insulting their audience for thinking their conclusion on what she was was right.
As opposed to leaving opportunities for audience interpretation and debates over whether certain actions or right or wrong, the series insists on telling us who the guys we're supposed to feel bad for our, and who we're supposed to despise. It's an uninteresting, linear way to conclude these arcs when it would have been much more effective to leave some ambiguity as to who is right.
There is an arc I can't really go into detail on without spoiling the resolution, but it's yet another unnecessary turn that would've made more of an impact if they had gone with a simple solution. Sometimes, it feels like the series just goes out of its way to make sure every questionable moral decision is either justified or downright wrong.
There is only one episode completely segregated from the main plot, and its a story featuring the red robot, Analyzer, who is (thankfully), nowhere near as annoying in this show. The plot could've been deep, but like much of the series, it was far too heavy-handed, and without reasonable rhetorical discussion to be worthwhile. Honestly, the backstory in the episode that was basically created for the sole purpose of providing paralells would have been a better way to spend an episode than what they decided.
To its credit, though, the last few episodes of the show are okay. They wrap up the series well, and the deux ex machina ending of the orignal now has some explanation here. It wraps the series up well for the most part, but a crippling lack of explanation of a key background element where a huge leap in logic is made is never explained.
Art (9/10): Yamato 2199 excels in the presentation department, particularly in its visuals. The traditional animation is smooth, each body movement serving a purpose in illustrating character. The updated character designs are much nicer and distinct looking than the ones in the classic show, and help give personality to the Yamato crew, as well as the Gamilas characters. There are a couple of off-model episodes (such as 11 and 12 when Xebec first took over animation duties from AIC), but otherwise, it's definitely solid.
The CGI, meanwhile, is drop-dead gorgeous. Fights are rendered with far more sophisticaed animation than most TV computer generation. The models of the ships are extremely accurate to the ones used in the old show, with some additional designs and alterations to add distinctiveness. Explosions and particle effects are powerful and breath-taking to the point I eagerly anticipated each fight scene even more than I did in the old show.
Sound (8/10): The scoring for the show is done by Akira Miyagawa, son of the composer of the original series. As a result, the majority of the tunes are snazzy remixes of the father's exceptional work, so it sounds very polished. It gives the series a retro feel that meshes with the setting very well, as well as the themes of sentimentality. A couple of the tunes haven't aged well, and sound a bit too old, but the tunes work well for the most part. The opening is a remix of the old one, and is just as grand in scale as it has always been.
The thing that stands out the most about this series' sound, however, is the choice in ending themes. They're changed up every four episodes, and they each compliment the arc stories/themes exceptionally well. The first one, in particular, by Aira Yuhki, has become one of my favorite ending themes of all time.
Character (6/10): Much like the resolutions to the plots, some of the character arcs are rather disappointing. You know it's bad when I believe the Yuki from the old series had more character than the one in this remake. In the first four episodes, Yuki is established as awkwardly polite with people she doesn't know, but abrasive towards the enthusiastic attitude some of her comrades have towards war. She's respectful to her superiors but feel people are too quick to assume war is the only option. Thus, her relationship with Kodai is tense, lessened when she realizes he's more human then he appears. After episode 5, though, the writers decided they didn't like the direction they decided to take her character, so they stopped her development. Suddenly, she turns into THE most generic main heroine I have seen in any anime I've watched up until now. The writers never decided what new character traits to give her, so they never gave her a personality to fill in the void. As a result, the prominence she gets is very irritating and distracts from a much more colorful supporting cast.
Dessler is the second big disappointment. Set up as an enigmatic ruler with his own goals who, nevertheless, is surprisingly kind an lenient with conquered species, turns out to be not nearly as complex as he's seem. Worse, he could've easily enacted his plan because of how loyal his staff and people were to him, so his plot wasn't even practical in the least. I can't go into much more detail than that, but there is virtually no foreshadowing for it, and very little explanation as to why he'd go to such great lengths.
Other than that, though, the characters are pretty strong. Okita is as likeable an captain as he was in the original series, Kodai is more strong and confident in himself, making his inevitable rise to Captain more understandable, and his relationship with Shima is more genuine since the latter has a more vivid, friendly, enthusiastic personality.
There are many, many more characters who I could talk about, but most of them are pretty solid. There's the witty scientist, Niimi, radio announcer Yuria, cocky gunman Nanbu, old engineer Tokugawa, there are a plethora of colorful personalites that sadly, only have the time to be somewhat revealed during the course of series time. However, each of them get enough development that you feel like you know them, and ultimately, you grow to care about them. In addition, there are a number of female characters added here (a quality severely lacking from the previous series), who all stand out in their own way. Pilot Akira Yamamoto, in particular, is an excellent character, and was teased as a possible romantic interest for Kodai, only for Yuki to take center stage with no explanation. Had she been the main heroine, this series would gain back points in its favor.
The one other significant character who was interesting until, unfortunately, he wasn't, is the slimy security chief, Shinya Itou. He has an interesting dynamic with Niimi and oozes with so much evil, he's actually rather charming. Unfortunately, he goes insane half-way through when his plan starts failing, and boringly loses his composure (again, way too easy to tell who the bad guys are). He actually somewhat redeems himself later on, but it's not quite enough to sell me on the character.
Then there's the Gamilas General Domel, who steals the show whenever he's on screen. He's easily in my top three for most favorite character in the series thanks to how straight he's played as a principled, sympathetic character who's, nevertheless, bound to Gamilas due to his code of honor.
Enjoyment (7/10): For all of the execution issues this series has (particularly when it comes to climaxes and resolutions), I enjoyed Space Battleship Yamato 2199 through and through. Sure, the first half was a lot better than the second, but the supporting cast and some of the main characters remained colorful, the visuals were top-notch, and the music was great. And even if the ideas were poorly-handled, the new concepts were great potential ways to improve on the original series. And, some of the new ideas, do work pretty well. The aforementioned fair treatment of races the Gammilas encounter? That was really cool, and it made the now justified pale-skinned Schultz a more compelling character. Even if a lot of the nuance is lost, there's still depth to much of what happened, and being a fan of the original series, all of the fanservice for super fans of the original series was great and helped me enjoy the cast even more than I would've otherwise.
Overall (7/10): It's littered with character flaws, and anti-climaxes, but I can still earnestly recommend this series. It does have a good supporting cast, solid visuals, and a good main character. Sure, it fails to realize a good bit of its potential nearly as much as it should, but fans of the original series and newcomers will still enjoy this series, issues and all.
