Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection achieves what many of the previous movies in the franchise failed to do, by just barely managing to squeeze a coherent and dramatic space opera epic into a single film. Whereas the likes of Farewell Yamato suffered from extremely truncated plotting despite being upwards of 2h30 long, Resurrection skillfully weaves many plot threads together into something that ultimately satisfies. Yes, the film could still perhaps have stood to be slightly longer in order to add a little more weight to certain key scenes (and honestly they probably had enough material here to produce a full 24 episode TV series if they had really wanted to), but I will readily accept a film which surges relentlessly forward, as this does, over one which crawls along at a snail's pace.
The story itself is classic Yamato, filled with heroism, sacrifice, and themes of duty, honor and earned respect. This time the sci-fi elements fall slightly more within the realms of reality than the lovably ludicrous premises of previous entries, though it probably goes without saying that this is still fairly cartoonish stuff. The imminent destruction of the Earth due to an encroaching black hole establishes the familiar atmosphere of impending doom for the franchise, but this time the humanoid threat is more complex, and the politics more developed, with an enemy faction made up of many races who are not necessarily comfortable alongside each other. This all provides the backdrop for scenes of valorous deeds and desperate gambits as the Yamato, under command of the now older and more authoritative Kodai, struggles to defend the vulnerable emigrant fleet carrying humanity to a new world. While the main plot is fully wrapped-up, there are some prominent side threads left hanging, presumably for a sequel which sadly never materialized.
Production-wise, Resurrection is superb, with top rate visuals and audio. The ships of course are now CG but they look impressively detailed and thankfully there is no simulated-low-framerate nonsense being employed in the rendering. The characters on the other hand are traditionally animated and move with the high degree of fluidity and expressiveness that you might find in something like Gundam Unicorn or another similarly lavish work. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the film's presentation though is its music - suitably epic reworkings of classic Yamato themes now sit alongside pieces from the classical repertoire, which are all beautifully matched to the scenes in which they appear; the frenetic third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata being used as the backdrop to a space dogfight is particularly electrifying.
Overall the biggest disappointment with this film is simply that, as previously mentioned, more weren't made. From what I can gather, sequels were planned but scrapped in favor of Yamato 2199, which released three years later. It's difficult to find solid info on this so I can't say for sure how that outcome was reached, but I might guess that its connection to the previous Yamato installments of the 70s and 80s made Resurrection seem inaccessible to younger audiences in a way that the full-on reboot of 2199 wasn't. While it's true that familiarity with these characters will make the film more impactful, I think this could be enjoyed as a standalone experience by anyone who craves a well-crafted space opera anime. Certainly, fans of Yamato should not make the same mistake I did by overlooking this for years, it's great.
