When I was shopping for Halloween stuff I was at Goodwill, and saw a DVD of the first 6 episodes of
“Star Blazers.” Star Blazers! Of course I had to buy it.
I was watching it this morning… there is some seriously nationalistic imagery in this cartoon. In Star Blazers, Earth has been under constant assault from another world, Gamilon, which is full of violent barbarians. The Gamilon have used atomic weapons on Earth… they have demanded the unconditional surrender of Earth. Earth has sworn to fight to the last man. Just as humanity is about to lose, they decide to resurrect an old battleship- significantly, the Battleship Yamato, which I believe was the largest in the Japanese Imperial Fleet in WWII, and named after a famous general. “Star Blazers” was originally called “Space Battleship Yamato” in Japan…
So, like, damn. The future is basically “what would have happened to Japan if they (we) never surrendered.” Apparently Japan would have been reduced to rubble, and then aliens would have given the Imperial Army a secret weapon which would have taken a year to work. Yeah.
Not quite as scary as
Godzilla vs King Ghidora, where the people from the future are from a earth that is an utopia because Japan has bought the world.
Now all I need is
Captain Harlock. I love that guy.
For more info check out
All Things Yamato.
- Voyage to Iscandar (series, aka “Star Blazers”)
- Saraba Yamato (movie)
- Yamato II (white comet) (series)
- Yamato: New Journey/Voyage (movie?)
- Be Forever Yamato (movie?)
- Yamato III (series)
- Final Yamato (series?)
- Yamato 2520