Space Battleship Yamato 2199

[Darksider]

Well given that Yamato is basically WWII in space with the U.S. as the bad guys instead of the good guys, that's hardly surprising.

[phongn]

Well given that Yamato is basically WWII in space with the U.S. as the bad guys instead of the good guys, that's hardly surprising.

SPACE CORSAIRS.

Though, there is a pretty big scene where it's shown that: Spoiler

It's Japan Earth that fires first in this war - a repudiation of the original creator's nationalism?

[Nephtys]

Episode 20. Those carriers are made of tinfoil if two Cosmo Falcons can down one with four missiles and a machine gun strafing run, while Yamato takes dozens of fighter-bomber missiles, a dozen torpedoes, a a bunch of red pew pew hits, etc.

Also, Domel's flagship sure gets shitty if it isn't hit exactly in the prow. Thank goodness for it's ridiculous 'plan B' mode.

The battle-carrier's 'transform' mode is hilarious. Of course, put the double-lined turrets UNDER the flattop, and just have it rotate like a lazy susan!

[Dass.Kapital]

Episode 20. Those carriers are made of tinfoil if two Cosmo Falcons can down one with four missiles and a machine gun strafing run, while Yamato takes dozens of fighter-bomber missiles, a dozen torpedoes, a a bunch of red pew pew hits, etc.

Also, Domel's flagship sure gets shitty if it isn't hit exactly in the prow. Thank goodness for it's ridiculous 'plan B' mode.

The battle-carrier's 'transform' mode is hilarious. Of course, put the double-lined turrets UNDER the flattop, and just have it rotate like a lazy susan!

Well...there is the statement that all the ships are old, possibly obsolete things. Ships that they could scratch together and 'bulk up' with inexperienced (And possibly 'inferior non Gamilons') crew.

So...old ships...Carriers (Which seem to be little more than great big open spaces) That one takes a couple of missile through the side then two right down the wide open hangar deck. Then the falcon gets a free run and pretty much shoots the bridge to pieces. As for the 'Lasy Susan/battle carrier. It's one ship which might have been a prototype which never went into full scale production? (I don't think we ever see that sort of 'flip top' before or after?)

Lots of reasons for a couple of fighters being able to lay waste to said ship. Heck, if Captain Drama hands HADN'T gotten so over confidant and sucked into a direct shooting match with the Yamato he could simply have won by shooty plain 'pew pewing' the Yamato to death.

[Parallax]

I agree. Domel (AKA Admiral DramaHands) and his inner circle explicitly state during the fleet inspection scene that they have been royally screwed over in terms of both crew and ships. Crap ships and crews that are either ancient or extremely green. The only saving grace Domel is given is that he calls in favours and gets his hands on the prototype flagship with it's magic teleporter ray (and flippy deck guns).

The entire thing with the single fighters against capital ships was, as was the rest of the episode, a direct analogy with WWII, of course. And then it was definitely a matter of tiny aircraft being of direct threat to basically anything that floated.

As for Domel's last battle, he flat out states that the only reason he lost was his over confidence and there's no reason to not believe his self assessment. Before he went all gung-ho and charged in, the Yamato was kicking several types of crap kicked out of it. It should be stated, however, that the nebula/space storm/great cloud of plot device really helped as well - the Yamato crew used it to best advantage while their enemies seemed to sort of shrug off it's characteristics for the most part.


In semi related stuff, I'm currently watching the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross ... and now I'm sincerely wishing it'd get the 2199 treatment, so it can be cured of hopelessly outdated animation and some really freaking weird (and lame) story elements.

[jollyreaper]

I still have a lot of warm nostalgia for Macross, originally encountered as Robotech, but yeah, some of it did not age well. Frontier was a bit of hit and miss for me, really liking and disliking it by turns.

I do wonder how Yamato would look if the male crew were given the Hawkeye Initiative makeover. The plugsuits remain pretty much the only thing you can criticize the show for. I mean yes, over-the-top space battles and powerful emotions and otaku wank fodder are all part of the formula but it would still be nice if the female crew could dress like crew instead of sexy crew. Even though the women in Macross wore skirts, they weren't sexualized.

Looking forward to watching these new episodes.

[Parallax]

With Macross, I find that the shorter the story is then the better it is.
SDF Macross was long(ish) and started the whole thing off. It got a lot right and it's fair share of things wrong.
Macross 7 was really long and was really unbelievably crap. It was painful to watch, except for certain scenes such as Max and Millia kicking ass in one battle.
The shorter stories such as Macross Plus and Macross Zero were, however, fantastic.
Macross Frontier went back to the SDF Macross formula and ended up with similar results; some of it was great, other parts were rubbish.


Your Hawkeye Initiative comment now has the image of the Captain in a plug suit stuck in my head. I hope you experience much pain this day, you bastard.

[jollyreaper]

The captain? No, he wouldn't be in a plug suit. He's obviously a bear and would be dressing like a leather daddy. The young officers would be twinked out slaveboy cubs in fetish gear.

O.o

Why did you do this to me, brain? Fuck my mind!

[lord Martiya]

I found many similarities between <i>Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199</i> and the historical <i>Yamato</i>'s last mission: it's a last desperate mission with the mightiest and second-to-last remaining battleship, a guy named Itou opposes it reasoning it's wasteful, and when they're in sight of their destination they get attacked with an overwhelming carrier strike launched by someone who had already given them a lot of problems. The difference is that Domel's carrier strike ultimately fails.

[Mr. G]

Well given that Yamato is basically WWII in space with the U.S. as the bad guys instead of the good guys, that's hardly surprising.

That should be interesting, I might try watching this show, I am not expecting Legend of the Galactic Heroes, though.

[Nari]

Just caught up with the more recent episodes (up to 22) while in Japan for work, Natch. And perhaps stocking up on some Yamato & Macross model kits

Does anyone else hear threads of Das Boot's theme song whenever the subtly named UX01 "Dimensional submarine" shows up? Or at least when there's some reflective music rather than when it pops up and down in the action. It seems like the first few notes on the string instrument (Violin, Chello?) are the same although there's little similarity once it gets going.

[Parallax]

Finally got my hands on episode 23.
Gamillon has the worst planetary defences I've ever seen but seeing the Yamato do what it does there was, once again, full of awesome and general kick ass-ery. Captain Beard takes a leaf from Admiral Adama when it comes to dealing with the enemies main base, which is an ... interesting choice.
Iscandar dresses continue to make excessive use of hollywood tape.
Desler once again demonstrates why he's in charge of such a bunch of back stabbing sons of bitches. Namely, that he has so many secret devices and plans at hand that no one knows what the hell he's going to pull out next. That and he actually uses common sense in that when his plucky foes come for the dramatic show down, he simply leaves, though his plan to wipe out the Yamato seemed a little ... excessive.

Captain Underling: Staying here is dangerous! (as 60,000,000 tonnes of mass descends on the capital and the palace). Yep, he got the 'understating the freaking obvious' award.

Desler, however, soon is portrayed as being a nut job when he betrays people completely loyal to him and lays out his new plan for his empire.

[Vendetta]

Well given that Yamato is basically WWII in space with the U.S. as the bad guys instead of the good guys, that's hardly surprising.

That should be interesting, I might try watching this show, I am not expecting Legend of the Galactic Heroes, though.

No, Yamato is far more influential than that....

[Parallax]

Episode 24 AKA The Crew Goes Swimming Because We Haven't Met Our Fanservice Quota.

An episode that features no combat at all, so don't watch this one expecting pew pew action. Still, there are some nice character moments and the Yamato is adjusted in ways that are not explicitly explained but heavily implied. Hope they don't have to have a big battle on their way back home in the two full episodes left, keeping in mind no one found the main bad guy's body...

The message from someone in the past was rather well done, helped a lot by the fantastic sound track*. I'm glad they've changed this particular plot element from the original series - originally it just shattered the suspension of disbelieve with the necessary coincidences. Iscandar's future looks bleak, considering the reveal of it's current population. It's tech levels look rather impressive though.


* I'm thinking that the Yamato theme is easily in the top three TV soundtracks ever. Possibly in the #1 spot, in a tight tussle with the Doctor Who one.

[Borgholio]

You want fanservice?



From the original series. Go to 8:35.

[Nephtys]

Just saw 23 and 24.
Spoiler

Garmillas really does have the world's worst planetary defense. The giant Imperial Guard doomfleet that blew up Altera I suppose just decided not to come home, but just to drop their boss off, and get blown up with Second Baleras?

Not sure why it's necessary to ram the palace with Yamato. Or why suddenly everyone's cool with Kodai taking a single plane to rescue Yuki, but alright. I guess Yurisha put crazy in everyone's systems.

Dessler's ability to both name things after himself and to never half-ass anything is rather entertaining. I like the horror pretty much every one of his ministers expresses as he's doing anything to take out the Yamato. It wasn't really made too clear why it's so important that he sinks that ship, but I assume it's something to do with his philosophical disagreement with Starsha? How long has he been in charge, and how long has the Garmillan empire been a thing?

Why is everyone on Iscandar dead anyway?

Ep24 gave a much better ending to Mamoru Kodai than I hear the original series did. A muuuuch better idea than having him run off and marry a space-queen.

[Parallax]

I'm assuming they rammed the palace so they could easily insert the rescue party in there, instead of using a shuttle ... or something. Have we actually seen any shuttles? Or just low personnel capacity fighters?
Or maybe Okita really enjoyed the feeling of ramming through that Gammilon ship a couple of minutes before hand and wanted to recapture the moment.

For those wondering about the Ministers reactions, this is an example:
http://nubles.files.wordpress.com/2013/ ... _17647.png

[Parallax]

Just finished episode 25.

As absolutely everyone expected, a bad guy returned.

But not before we see the Dimensional Submarine and it's Captain Awesome one more time, smiting traitors down with style.
The Yamato gets boarded and has a fight on it's hands. Yet a fighting tactic not seen since near the start of the series returns to save the day.

One more episode to go and one main character lies near death. And it's not Captain Beard.

And god dammit, Yamato 2199, stop making me actually like Desler in his magnificent bastardry!

[Parallax]

Episode 26 is done. putting an end to this story.

First of all, as might be apparent, I really loved this series. The beautiful animation, a huge nostalgia factor, great characterisation, solid plot, and a kick ass space ship kicking ass. I haven't felt this wrapped up in an animated series for a really long time - I think it was Macross Plus but Yamato 2199 is far better. Oh, let's not forget the excellent sound track.

This last episode has no space combat but still seems very rushed. The most obvious rush job is the wedding from apparently nowhere (not who you're probably thinking of), Iscandar technology is powered by a weird source, the expected death happens. Lots of character moments packed in and it probably could have been spread over two episodes and been better for it.

The change to Iscandar technology closes the fates of two characters from the series, in what must be admitted, in better ways than the original series, as their ends both do a lot of good for the crew and the overall mission. Still, the ending is bitter sweet (the Doctor and his reactions serves as a good gauge for this).

[Darksider]

So is there any indication they're going to continue this and reboot the Comet Empire season as well?

[Parallax]

2199 was incredibly profitable, by what accounts I've seen. I believe there will be a follow up movie, at least.

[Zaune]

Anyone know if this is out on DVD in Europe yet?

[phongn]

Episode 24 AKA The Crew Goes Swimming Because We Haven't Met Our Fanservice Quota.

At least the guys are all wearing speedos, so it's equal-opportunity fanservice!

[lord Martiya]

So is there any indication they're going to continue this and reboot the Comet Empire season as well?

Aside for Domel smiting one of their fleets in his first appearance?

[Darth Yoshi]

That was, without a doubt, a fun ride while it lasted. Definitely a bittersweet ending, but one that still leaves me satisfied.
Spoiler

It actually took me a few minutes to place the submarine's newest recruit. Guy seems remarkably enthusiastic, considering his demeanor while still on the Yamato.

So, am I reading too much into the shot of Starsha touching her stomach, or is she pregnant with Mamoru's kid?