Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi

Three years since the return of the legendary Space Battleship Yamato, Earth has begun rebuilding itself and has made peace with the Gamilans. However, this recovery comes at the cost of utilizing the forbidden Wave Motion technology.

Meanwhile, the notorious former crew members of the Yamato, who have each gone their separate ways, receive a psychic message from the mysterious Goddess Teresa. She urges them to return to their beloved ship and travel to the distant planet Terezart. They are promised a revolutionary power to combat the unprecedented threat of the relentless Gatlantis Empire, who are approaching Earth with all but innocent intentions.

Unable to resist her plea, the crew reassembles and sets sail on another perilous intergalactic voyage, one that will test their sheer courage and versatility in the face of an even greater foe.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kodai, Susumu Main

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Mori, Yuki Main

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Okita, Juuzou Supporting

Sugou, Takayuki Japanese

Desler, Aberdt Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi Japanese

Yamamoto, Akira Supporting

Tanaka, Rie Japanese

Sanada, Shirou Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Niimi, Kaoru Supporting

Hisakawa, Aya Japanese

Frakken, Wolf Supporting

Nakata, Jouji Japanese

Analyzer Supporting

Cho Japanese

Kiryuu, Mikage Supporting

Nakamura, Eriko Japanese

Habara, Nobuyoshi Director

Hoshino, Makoto Episode Director

Itoga, Shintarou Episode Director

Yano, Takanori Episode Director

Reviews

May 28, 2019

kokuborou

Recommended

Astounding message delievered from this show...Every inch and emotion in my body shivered through these 26 episodes. If you are gonna watch season 2 be prepared for a ride of joy, enjoyment, emotions and some brilliant moments.

Earth again faces a new crisis and our old crew from Yamato must once again embark on a journey in the distant universe to assure a future for Earth. Each encounter and fight holds a meaning and this season gives a lesson to its viewers about the mistakes that our characters did and shows us their path to clear them and make the right choices for their future.

The ... characters are what makes Yamato 2202 the best work of Matsumoto Leij. Each character has its own spotlight and each of them manages to stir up different emotions for its viewers. Sometimes you will hate them sometimes you will love them and sometimes you will encourage them. Another amazing thing is how well this season presents us the reasons of the enemy that Yamato faces with some strong and solid base behind their actions and choices.

One thing to mention is Desler's development from season 1 thourgh season 2. As you may know in the first season he was pictured as a cold-blooded dictator who sent most of his people to death to achieve victory. In season 2 they go inside his mind they present his reasons and choices, everything that made him do that and gives him a second chance, makes him a likeable character even more than the ones from the Yamato crew.
Desler isn't the only one who contributes to this season, each character manages to portray the main themes of this show . Their speeches, their monologue, their own story and past mistakes, all of them provide a warning and also a lesson for us viewers. Leji Matsumoto was a man who 40 years when he created the Yamato series he looked way ahead in the future and predicted how our society will become in the near future. And damn he nailed it ! Our modern society is almost identical as the one from the Yamato series.

The most amazing stuff from this show is how well the raw human nature is presented and explored, and how well the human mind is studied during a crisis situation and the decisions made by them. Our own greed for war, our capability for destruction but also our good side our creative mind , our undying will and that we cling in desperate times, our heart to hate but also love! Our possibilities and choices to create a Future for ourselves!
This is Yamato Space Battleship 2202 a study about humanity about their choices their love their capability to destroy or create a FUTURE! This is Leji's Matsumoto masterpiece from almost half a century ago! Just don't miss this...you will not regret it trust me!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by kokuborou (83)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jun 23, 2019

Akira_Zion_

Mixed Feelings

**Contains spoilers**

Yamato 2199 was great, but not perfect: though the pacing could be better, some plotlines led to nowhere, and Desler was way worse than his counterparts in all versions and remakes of the original anime (except his counterpart in the 2010 live-action), the character development and animation, alongside the spectacular soundtrack remade by Akira Miyagawa, the son of Hiroshi Miyagawa, the original composer of the OSTs, plot and dialog, made 2199 a great space opera and remake of the original.

As a result, 2202 was expected to be even greater, bigger, and better than 2199, given how great its precursor was and how amazing the ... original material is. However, it would be no easy task, 2202 had to remake two different - yet complementary materials, Farewell to Yamato and the TV series Yamato 2.

While Yamato 2 had to stretch the 2-hour long story of Farewell to Yamato into a 26 episode series (and make a new ending), it succeeded in many aspects and failed in others: the overall plot of the series was better and alongside the new OST and mecha, allowed Yamato 2 to feature many new facets unexplored that the original TV series and Farewell, such as villains subplots, good battle strategies, and the Yamato being unable to do anything in some situations. However, Yamato 2 failed to impact audiences with the same drama that Farewell had and some subplots were boring, e.g. Shima and Teresa's love story.

With that in mind, 2202 could easily take the strong points of the originals and 2199 to craft a good sequel and remake. However, 2202 fails at it; "Soldiers of Love", except for the battle at planet 11, the presence of the space fireflies, and some other minor points, almost fully ignores the majority of the strong points of Yamato 2. No villain subplots, no iconic mecha from the series (eg. Earth's aircraft carriers), none of the battle strategies, and none of the memorable character moments.

The new director Nobuyosh Haraba and scriptwriter Harutoshi Fukui chose something different: they would take the original plot of Farewell to Yamato and add their new elements to the mix. However, the idea backfired: Yamato 2202 turned out to be a mess.

Firstly, the insertion of the new philosophical element into the series isn't done in a smart matter. Indeed, some might argue that it represents Nishizaki's vision of love (vision of which bothered Leiji Matsumoto so much to the point where he reportedly refused to work on the final scenes of Farewell Yamato due to his own feelings on the subject), but what one truly observes is that it, practically speaking, only serves as a way to explain plot devices and to allow Zordar to make some nonsensical and monotonous dialogs. The blaring and unstoppable talking about "love" more alienates viewers than highlights the themes of the series.

When one talks about characters, the core aspect of the originals and 2199, the results are sad: almost none of them develop that much, characters that were much stronger and charismatic, such as Kodai and Kato, are incoherent to their previous counterparts of the remakes, Yuki and Akira now don't have half of their personalities, and Desler, which surprisingly gets a retcon of his version from 2199 and whose return is not explained at all, is boring.

New characters also don't get any better, Zordar is a philosopher with a terrible motivation, Sabera, and all Gatlantis officers are only plot devices, Teresa, Saito, Hijikata, Yamanami, as well as the whole Andromeda fleet (which were supposed to be a big thing in this season) are underused, and the Ginga shouldn't even exist in the first place. The only character that gets some decent development here is Kiman, who is unfortunately affected by the occasionally clucky dialog of the series.

As for the action, the use of CGI in the show is good, but not perfect: ships sometimes feel weightless and the Yamato doesn't get the same level of detail on its big scratches after every battle as it did in 2199. 2D animation, fortunately, is in the same standard as it was in the first season.

The mecha designs are a mixed bag: while some are good and detailed, adding a lot to the series, others have a debatable quality, such as the Earth's new aircraft carriers, the Ginga with its glass dome, and the Comet Empire's new "true form", which completely obliterated the original design (the same here applies to Zordar dreadnought, although this one might have happened due to budget reasons).

The direction of the action scenes is good, despite the overuse of the Wave Motion Gun (which caused a loss to its dramatic effect) the action here is one of the best things in 2202, however, given how there's little emotional attachment to being found between the viewer and the characters, especially new ones, some scenes are often very bland.

As for the drama, it is even more diluted than the one in Yamato 2. Characters here die for the sake of dying, Saito's, Kiman's and Higashikata's deaths don't have a fraction of their original deaths. And Kato had a death so mediocre it was comical.

The soundtrack is absolutely the best thing of the series, although Akira Miyagawa's style is somewhat different than the one from his father, being more bombastic and colorful, his additions are often amazing (cf. Tsubasa).

Overall, Yamato 2202 is a disappointment for a show that had everything to be great but turned out to be mediocre as a show and as a remake. If you want modern action scenes, go for it, but if you want a better sequel to the first season, I think both Farewell to Yamato and Yamato 2 are more worth your time and investment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Akira_Zion_ (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jun 1, 2019

solidbatman1

Not Recommended

As the credits finally began to roll for the last time of Yamato 2202 and Yamato Yori ai wo Komete played, I felt a sense of relief that this dreadful re-imagining of the 1978 Space Battleship Yamato II had reached its ill fated conclusion. I had gone into 2202 with incredibly high hopes after the spectacular Space Battleship Yamato 2199 introduced me to this wonderful universe. After completing 2199, I went back and watched nearly every single Yamato series and movie (season 3 is the sole exception here with no decent subtitles existing to my knowledge) I could get my hands on, eager to immerse ... myself into the trials and tribulations of the Yamato and her crew.

And then this series happened. Featuring a different director than 2199, and new character designs, Yamato 2202 failed spectacularly to capture any of the enjoyment and adoration I have for the rest of the franchise. The story is mostly made up of philosophical musings from the leader of the White Comet Empire revolving around the notion of love and humanity that never really develops into anything except a plot device to copy the ending of Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato and give it a new twist. Every time Zordar spoke, I found myself rolling my eyes at how shallow and silly the writing was. I am supportive of attempting to change the formula. After all, this is a re-imagining and not a full fledged remake of the original season 2. The execution, however, is conducted with all the skill and grace of a 12 year old writing a fan-fiction in their head during school as they day dream. The writing thinks it is far smarter and deeper than it actually is. Nothing ever quite comes together smoothly. Characters just die for the sake of dying while newly introduced characters are woefully underused despite being incredibly interesting and full of potential. Characters do not really develop much at all, save the space marines really. One character in particular is able to just magically figure things out and explain them to the audience because the show simply is unable to convey what is going on visually or through actual storytelling. In 2199, we would have been treated to scenes of characters researching and trying to understand things, allowing for explanations to the audience as they shared theories with one another and debated for an answer. In 2202, they just know things and that's that.

Visually, 2202 is a mixed bag. The space battles are wonderfully animated surpassing 2199 in the scale and quality and a magical plot device is able to keep Earth in the fight far longer than it had any right to be giving the viewer plenty of eye candy to watch during battles. Unfortunately, the character designs and direction during battles at times is jarring. Characters now look much less crisp than they did in 2199 instead with sketch lines and awkward looking faces due to oddly drawn mouths and noses. As for visual direction, there clearly was some sort of eye fetish going on. Many times in battles or even normal dialogue, the only thing we see is a characters eye/s as they stare in horror at something or just look at something in general. During one egregious part in the first episode, a large battle is taking place. As ships are destroyed, the camera keeps cutting back to Kodai over and over again as he makes the exact same determined, grit teeth, face for about 30 seconds. This sort of weird visual direction takes place multiple times during the show, with awkward, jarring cuts during dialogue and battle. At least the music is solid.

If you go into Yamato 2202 expecting nothing on the story or character development front, you are likely to find an enjoyable space action show. Otherwise, steer clear of this mangled mess of a re-imagining. As for me, I am just going to pretend that this was never made and rewatch the original season 2 and Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato film instead. That simple and basic writing of 1978 is somehow superior to the poor attempts of the 2202 team to re-imagine its namesake.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by solidbatman1 (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Space Battleship Yamato Anime Watch Guide

by TheCoolGuy82

16 Entries · 37 Restacks

[AEGC] Leijiverse Watch Order

by Watch-Guide

45 Entries · 19 Restacks

Action anime with adult cast

by nepria

35 Entries · 30 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for January

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for January Week 1: January 5 - 11 Anime Releases Black Bullet Blu-ray [2021 re-release] Conception Blu-ray [E...read more

Jan 5, 2021 2:08 PM by ImperfectBlue | Discuss (8 comments)

North American Anime & Manga Releases for November

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for November Week 1: November 5 - 11 Anime Releases Dragon Ball Z 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition Bl...read more

Nov 4, 2019 11:17 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (3 comments)

	Who dies in this season? I don't mind spoilers. Kirishiba - May 13, 2021	2 replies	by BiobulletM »» Aug 29, 12:52 PM
	Poll: Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi Episode 26 Discussion 9jaotaku - Apr 28, 2019	27 replies	by BiobulletM »» Aug 29, 12:49 PM
	Poll: Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi Episode 23 Discussion RafaelDeJongh - May 7, 2019	5 replies	by BiobulletM »» Aug 23, 1:50 PM
	Poll: Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi Episode 25 Discussion 9jaotaku - Apr 28, 2019	7 replies	by aburame_ernesto »» Nov 15, 2023 8:04 PM
	Poll: Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi Episode 24 Discussion RafaelDeJongh - May 7, 2019	6 replies	by aburame_ernesto »» Nov 15, 2023 7:07 PM