Starblazers (the American dub of Yamato) broke me as a kid. Every other cartoon I watched was the worst definition of episodic: EVERYTHING went back to normal by the next episode. Nothing changed, and nothing the characters did seemed to matter in the universe.
Starblazers had a continuing storyline and that countdown at the end of the episode, the 'Hurry, Star Force, the Earth only has XX days left!' scared the hell out of me and excited me at the same time. It was a revelation to the mind and imagination of Young Me.
Later, Robotech would come along, even more of a soap opera with an overarcing plot, but I saw Starblazers first, and therefore, it is first in my heart.
trailer 1
text: Three months to the destruction of Earth
Kodai: Gentlemen! I am Susumu Koda, captain of the Yamato!
Narrator: A mysterious alien fleet!
Narrator: The Yamato rises up once again to confront the threat of Earth's destruction!
Miyuki: Father, plase save the Earth.
Narrator: Space Battleship Yamato, the Rebirth!
Kodai: Wave Motion Cannon, fire!
text: A six-shooter wave motion cannon is fired!
text: Reborn on December 12th
trailer 2
text: AD 2020. A black hole approaches... The greatest threat that Earth has ever faced looms ever closer!
text: Three months to the destruction of Earth!
text: Yamato, the Rebirth
Kodai: Gentlemen! I am Susumu Koda, captain of the Yamato!
Narrator: A cosmic demon that devours everything in its path!
text: A massive colony fleet of 600 million protected by the Yamato
Narrator: A mysterious alien fleet attacks humanity, which is fleeing Earth!
alien: The Alliance will never prosper unless the Earth is destroyed!
Narrator: The countdown to Earth's destruction begins right now!
Narrator: Will the Yamato be able to keep her safe?
text: The Yamato, Humanity's Last Hope
Miyuki: Dr. Sado! Hurry! Get aboard the colony ship!
Sado: I'm not going.
Analyzer: I'm staying, too.
Sado: Miyuki, Kodai fought because he had someone he loved waiting for him.
Miyuki: Father, plase save the Earth.
Narrator: A unimaginable threat bears down on the Earth! An giant mobile fortress 3km long takes aim on the Yamato, which is
ready to fight to the death!
Kodai: Will we lose the Earth now, after keeping her safe so many times?
Narrator: They do it all for the ones they love! Space Battleship Yamato, the Rebirth!
Kodai: Wave Motion Cannon, fire!
text: A six-shooter wave motion cannon is fired!
text: Reborn on December 12th
Sado: Buy a ticket in advance, and get a special gift!
Analyzer: I'm gonna buy one, too!
@Magnavox: Which, you know, shouldn't surprise anyone, because Irresponsible Captain Tylor is, in part, a parody of Star Blazers. (Also, you know, the whole 1974-comes-before-1993 thing.)
How about a really good Robotech reboot, but without the cheese and mega-boobs of that piece of crap Shadows things - talk about stealing a plot from B%!
Whooo! When Anime was still an exercise on Japanese Nationalism ( I didn't know I'd miss the days, to be honest) wasn't about Moe, and had lazers and pew pew in Space!
@tetracycloide: That vexes you, but the idea of raising an utterly destroyed WW2 battleship from the bottom of where the sea used to be, and turning it into a super-spaceship-of-doom doesn't?
How about the space fighters with wings, that bank in vacuum?
-Kle.
@Pessimipposaurus: They did and got rid of any and all references to the Spaceship being the Yamato. It was also more heavily butchered than Sailor Moon if you can believe that.
@Pessimipposaurus: An equally wacky/tasteless thing is, if memory serves (it may not) is that at least one of the possible American versions had the ship in question being the Yorktown.
@Pessimipposaurus: To be fair - as an American who lost family in that war (though not specifically to the Yamato - and no I never met 'em) - if I had to choose a sunken ship to retrofit for ass kickin' space shenanigans - she's the one.
@avconsumer2: Perhaps the thought of a Space Battleship Bismark never crossed your mind? She's invincible, so long as you don't shoot her in the rudder.
@Klebert L. Hall: In the best Jedi Voice: "This isn't the Yamato you are looking at." Heh. But yeah, a good friend is closely related to American Generals who merged (via marriage between a daughter with a son of ...) with the family of Japanese Generals, who fought one another in the war.
They kind of shrug their shoulders and say "we kicked one another's ass, America won, c'est la vie."
So this is a new feature film?? Sweet. Any idea if this will get a Western release, preferably with dubing. Im not a philistine and I do like subtitles but when watching Seven Swords it was hard as hell to read the subtitles and real soak in all the visuals at the same time. This looks like a visual treat so thats why I ask! Not because im Stooopid!
@CoffinDodger (If the typos crap. Blame my keyboard): While I insist on subtitles on all live action foreign films, I'm a little more flexible with anime. There have even been a few cases when I felt that the western voices are superior to the Japanese (not many, but a few).
@atrus123: The voice overs for Night/Day Watch were brilliant. But unfortunatly I had Akira on video years ago and the voiceover rocked. I bought the 2 disc black box edition and the voiceover was like listening to 90210 punk biker style!! The script WAS closer to its original source but spoilt by bad acting and hammy one liners that were not needed!
@atrus123: You will be surprised but often the directors themselves find the US voice actors superior.
The US has a tendency to get much better actors involved both from in the VO industry, and from Hollywood.
also a lot of Anime that tends to get wider release over here was written with a more western perspective that Japanese VO actors cant relate to, the most fitting example of this being Cowboy Bebop, where the Japanese VO is bordering godawful.
@Jim Topoleski: Theres some very good voice talent out there. But on larger releases in the western world..sometimes they do get it wrong. The remake of Appleseed had horrific voiceover and so was ex-machina. Awesome soundtrack and animation but the voice acting sucked balls.
@Jim Topoleski: Cowboy Bebop was the exact example I was thinking of when I mentioned the superior English track. In Japanese, Faye sounds whiny and weak. Spike sounds emotionless. It's awful. They sound better in English and manage to add a lot to the characters.
@Jim Topoleski: Bebop was a great English dub, but IMO, most English dubs are godawful, particularly the Miyazaki movies and almost anything re-dubbed by Funimation.
@atrus123: spike is empty. he is a dead man trying to find out if he is still alive. not a cool guy with a sad story, period. faye is not whiny and weak. watch more anime an you'll get the tone of faye. you have to understand tones in japanese are not the same tones in english. whiny in japanese is serena sukino, not faye. i remember watching the extras where the faye voices in eng and jap were explaining the character. the american actor was just bobbling about how hot she was and that was it. she had no dept in the analysis of the character.
cowbe's dub is ok but in no way better than the japanese. epic misjudgement. american voices dont work better than any jap actor. watching Evangelion in english is a kick in the balls. No other description will fit the mold. Just the range of tones and keys that each character has in japanese is never matched by american actors. english dubs always have one kind of voice for a character. then that voice can be a scream or a wisper. It can be crying or laughing. but the ring and tone are always the same. Louder or quieter.
one ok/good dub would be anything that was done with GITS. but that must be cause exempt from batou and togusa there is hardly any sentiment or expresion in anything any character says on that series/movie.
in the end japanese movies should come to america with subtitles. i hate hearing people say things like "i cant watch the action while reading". First you dont need that much time to read each text line. second you dont need to focus on the text to read it. or focus out of the action that much. if you have problems with any of these things i suggest you practice reading a little more.
@namanintx: Really? I can only think of one really questionable dubbed Miyazaki film. The rest have been as good as or superior to the Japanese voice actors.
@Jim Topoleski: the reality is that even tho sinichiro watanabe wanted other voices (20 anime points to you for knowing that) the end product is better in jap than in english. if he felt so strong about it, he was the director and could have had a say in it. he didn't and for that i thank him. spike, jet, faye and ed have the perfect voices in the japanese version (did you really preferred the english ed?). But my point was more toward the general dub.
i did admit that cowbe's dub was ok but apparently to you something ok is good enough to say all of it is good. Initial D, awful. sakura wars, awfull. exelsaga, (trying to keep it varied), awfull. Detective Con. . . oh wait, this is a really bad one, sorry. "CASE CLOSED" (?!), very bad. Even tho in this case it is TMS's fault, cause they push western companies to westernized characters and dialogues. i know this cause i have seen the dub made in spanish too. and i could keep going with really bad dubs. it is undeniable that the childish way anime is dubbed has had a big impact on the popularity of anime in america and its perception.
also i wouldn't think of s.watanabe thinking i was an idiot. i dunno what he would think, you dont know either. but you would on the other hand think i am an idiot. so next time just say it and dont try to back up your insults or "idea" (was there any?) by name dropping someone that kinda has the same opinion you do.
@Fuji-kun: Thanks for the lesson, but I still think you're wrong. Still, I can see that you care a great deal about this, so I won't try and argue with you. Still, in my defense, back in the day, I saw a lot of anime, read books, been to the cons, etc. That said, I haven't seen much in the past five years. Anime sort of fizzled out for me with a few rare exceptions.
09/02/09
Starblazers had a continuing storyline and that countdown at the end of the episode, the 'Hurry, Star Force, the Earth only has XX days left!' scared the hell out of me and excited me at the same time. It was a revelation to the mind and imagination of Young Me.
Later, Robotech would come along, even more of a soap opera with an overarcing plot, but I saw Starblazers first, and therefore, it is first in my heart.
09/02/09
trailer 1
text: Three months to the destruction of Earth
Kodai: Gentlemen! I am Susumu Koda, captain of the Yamato!
Narrator: A mysterious alien fleet!
Narrator: The Yamato rises up once again to confront the threat of Earth's destruction!
Miyuki: Father, plase save the Earth.
Narrator: Space Battleship Yamato, the Rebirth!
Kodai: Wave Motion Cannon, fire!
text: A six-shooter wave motion cannon is fired!
text: Reborn on December 12th
trailer 2
text: AD 2020. A black hole approaches... The greatest threat that Earth has ever faced looms ever closer!
text: Three months to the destruction of Earth!
text: Yamato, the Rebirth
Kodai: Gentlemen! I am Susumu Koda, captain of the Yamato!
Narrator: A cosmic demon that devours everything in its path!
text: A massive colony fleet of 600 million protected by the Yamato
Narrator: A mysterious alien fleet attacks humanity, which is fleeing Earth!
alien: The Alliance will never prosper unless the Earth is destroyed!
Narrator: The countdown to Earth's destruction begins right now!
Narrator: Will the Yamato be able to keep her safe?
text: The Yamato, Humanity's Last Hope
Miyuki: Dr. Sado! Hurry! Get aboard the colony ship!
Sado: I'm not going.
Analyzer: I'm staying, too.
Sado: Miyuki, Kodai fought because he had someone he loved waiting for him.
Miyuki: Father, plase save the Earth.
Narrator: A unimaginable threat bears down on the Earth! An giant mobile fortress 3km long takes aim on the Yamato, which is
ready to fight to the death!
Kodai: Will we lose the Earth now, after keeping her safe so many times?
Narrator: They do it all for the ones they love! Space Battleship Yamato, the Rebirth!
Kodai: Wave Motion Cannon, fire!
text: A six-shooter wave motion cannon is fired!
text: Reborn on December 12th
Sado: Buy a ticket in advance, and get a special gift!
Analyzer: I'm gonna buy one, too!
09/02/09
09/02/09
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09/02/09
09/02/09
This looks like the Soyokaze from the Irresponsible Captain Tyler.
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09/02/09
I personally, can't wait.
09/02/09
09/03/09
How about the space fighters with wings, that bank in vacuum?
-Kle.
09/02/09
It's strange considering that the Space Yamato's actually built from the original Yamato from WWII built to sink American ships...
09/02/09
09/02/09
Also, they totally stole the plotline to make Babylon 5: Crusade.
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/03/09
Mostly, we don't care about things like that here. Japan fought us, we fought them, it's all good.
-Kle.
09/03/09
"They did and got rid of any and all references to the Spaceship being the Yamato."
Well, except for it obviously being the Yamato, all you have to do is look at it.
-Kle.
09/03/09
Meh. Bismark's overrated.
So is the Yamato, but at least it was freakishly huge.
-Kle.
09/03/09
They kind of shrug their shoulders and say "we kicked one another's ass, America won, c'est la vie."
09/03/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
The US has a tendency to get much better actors involved both from in the VO industry, and from Hollywood.
also a lot of Anime that tends to get wider release over here was written with a more western perspective that Japanese VO actors cant relate to, the most fitting example of this being Cowboy Bebop, where the Japanese VO is bordering godawful.
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
Give me subtitled any day.
09/02/09
cowbe's dub is ok but in no way better than the japanese. epic misjudgement. american voices dont work better than any jap actor. watching Evangelion in english is a kick in the balls. No other description will fit the mold. Just the range of tones and keys that each character has in japanese is never matched by american actors. english dubs always have one kind of voice for a character. then that voice can be a scream or a wisper. It can be crying or laughing. but the ring and tone are always the same. Louder or quieter.
one ok/good dub would be anything that was done with GITS. but that must be cause exempt from batou and togusa there is hardly any sentiment or expresion in anything any character says on that series/movie.
in the end japanese movies should come to america with subtitles. i hate hearing people say things like "i cant watch the action while reading". First you dont need that much time to read each text line. second you dont need to focus on the text to read it. or focus out of the action that much. if you have problems with any of these things i suggest you practice reading a little more.
09/02/09
09/02/09
He HATED the Japanese voice actors. Absolutely loathed them and has said as such in numerous interviews.
09/02/09
i did admit that cowbe's dub was ok but apparently to you something ok is good enough to say all of it is good. Initial D, awful. sakura wars, awfull. exelsaga, (trying to keep it varied), awfull. Detective Con. . . oh wait, this is a really bad one, sorry. "CASE CLOSED" (?!), very bad. Even tho in this case it is TMS's fault, cause they push western companies to westernized characters and dialogues. i know this cause i have seen the dub made in spanish too. and i could keep going with really bad dubs. it is undeniable that the childish way anime is dubbed has had a big impact on the popularity of anime in america and its perception.
also i wouldn't think of s.watanabe thinking i was an idiot. i dunno what he would think, you dont know either. but you would on the other hand think i am an idiot. so next time just say it and dont try to back up your insults or "idea" (was there any?) by name dropping someone that kinda has the same opinion you do.
09/03/09
06/09/09
06/08/09
Have the Hot Chick strap herself to the bulkhead!
Throw the Big-Ass Switch!"
Grodd, I lurve cheezy submarine Skiffy!!