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New Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Anime's Cast Revealed

The official website for the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 television anime series and film revealed the project's main cast on Friday. The new project is based on the classic 1974-1975 space opera anime series.

Takayuki Sugō will play Jūzō Okita, the captain of the titular battleship in the original. Daisuke Ono will be Susumu Kodai, the main character in the original, while Kenichi Suzumura will play Kodai's best friend Daisuke Shima. Houko Kuwashima will be the heroine Yuki Mori.

The website also announced a "launch ceremony" event with the main cast and staff in Tokyo on February 18. According to the event announcement, Ryusuke Hikawa, a freelance author and well-known figure in Yamato fandom, is the project's "official writer." The website's mechanic page was updated with images of the battleship. In the story, the Yamato spaceship is built from the remains of the World War II battleship of the same name to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats.

Yutaka Izubuchi (RahXephon), the 53-year-old animator who worked on mechanical designs and science-fiction concepts on some of the earlier projects in the franchise, is serving as chief director. Yoshinobu Nishizaki, the late producer of the franchise, is credited with the original story. Nobuteru Yuki (Escaflowne, Record of Lodoss War) is designing the characters, and the anime studios XEBEC and AIC are producing the anime. Mechanical designer Makoto Kobayashi (Giant Robo, Last Exile, Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection) revealed at Anime Expo in July that he is working on a Yamato remake for next year.

The first two episodes in the new television series will have preview screenings in 10 theaters in Japan on April 7.

[Via Moe Ota-News Sokuhō]

Image © Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Production Committee

Update: More information added.