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Forum - View topicNEWS: 5th Yamato 2199 Anime Film's Extended Promo Streamed
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anemayfan
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I can't praise this series enough for how well they've handled this remake. So far, they have been able to capture the same feelings I had as a child watching StarBlazers, which I have credited as the starting point for my love of anime before I even knew what anime was. They've integrated new characters and their storylines without taking away from the original characters. I get excited with every new blue-ray release and at the same time dread the bill for importing it, but if it's a success commercially I'm hoping that an English dubbed version comes out because the masses definitely need to see this modernized series.
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walw6pK4Alo
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I wonder if the only people excited for this are those already in the sci-fi/mecha camp to begin with. It has a small number of people reporting on MAL to be watching, but any dumb new seasonal series will get multiples of that total number. Maybe that'll change when it begins to air? It's definitely not going to be a smash success in Western fandom, like to the point where it's cosplayed at every con or anything. Will this replace the 74 series when you tell someone to go watch Yamato? They might be getting the same story, but not the same experience.
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ValkyrieZeroZeroOne
 Posts: 434 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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The big audience with Yamato 2199 to date are likely to be the fans of the original, and those of us in the west who are Star Blazers fans. Those of us in their late thirties and older who watched the original on television, the majority probably wouldn't even use MAL (we're too busy with other parts of our lives, like jobs and raising families). I wouldn't necessarily consider this a reliable indicator of how it's going to fare on TV. With a prime time timeslot on TBS, it's certainly being given the maximum opportunity to succeed. By reputation alone, it will also at the very least draw the interest of the major western anime streamers like Funimation and Crunchyroll, and for all we know one of them has the rights already. Streaming will at least get people to check out the series for a few episodes, and the storytelling and character development should keep a good percentage of them watching. What you may not realise is that Space Battleship Yamato is pretty big business in Japan. They're currently re-releasing a thirty-album catalog of music known as the "Yamato Sound Archive", which contains all album releases (BGM, Vocal, Live Concerts) related to the original franchise that spanned three 26-episode TV series and five cinematic movie releases between 1974 and 1983. Amazon Japan doesn't get enough stock from suppliers to fill pre-orders for a lot of the releases. The single for the ED of Volume 4 was sold out on preorder at Amazon Japan, and they're right at this minute down to 9 in stock at CD Japan; The CD recording of a concert for 2199 is not in stock at either, and won't be available at Amazon Japan for another week. The 1974 TV series was released in multiple versions on Blu-Ray recently, and the second and third TV series' Blu-Ray releases have been announced. The five movies' Blu-Ray release have also been announced and will be released over the course of this year. Bandai have been releasing starship model kits pretty much consistently through much of that time through to the present day, and there have been premium toy releases of the most popular ships from the series that have lights, sound effects, and background music tracks built into them. And to top it all off, the opening theme is in the repetoire of military bands of both Japan and the US (check YouTube, you can find videos of a JMSDF band and a USMC band playing the theme). Similarly, Star Blazers has a pretty big following amongst Generation X'ers, some of whom (myself included) are importing the Blu-Rays from Japan because the series was such a profound part of our youth. The original Yamato series still rate as my favourite anime series of all time. I've heard of people talking about how they've passed this series onto their kids. Yamato 2199 has had Blu-Ray releases for each of its four volumes to date exceed 15,000 copies in their first week on the charts, and the last three of those were close to, if not exceeding 20,000 copies. Not up there with Gundam Age or Sword Art Online but respectable nonetheless, especially for a series that is still yet to commence a TV broadcast. That TV broadcast will almost certainly instigate a second wave of disc sales, as some people won't want to wait to find out what happens in the next episode. While it may well not wind up with the level of popularity some of the shows airing today have (many of which you have to wonder why they're so popular), it's doing more than enough business already to justify its continuation. There's already talk of a prequel OVA to cover some of the timeframe that has only been hinted at in the current series and the original, and the fans are already seeing the potential for Yamato II/The Comet Empire to be remade as well. It's successful enough to continue, and that's all we fans of the show hope for. Anything above that is a bonus - we're only too happy to open up new fans' eyes to a thoroughly enjoyable story that has been made even better.
It's a bit misleading to call it the same story. The overarching plot is the same, for sure, but there are significant changes under the hood. There are more characters on both sides, some of the component stories have been changed significantly or even replaced completely. They've cut the time spent focusing on some parts of the original story (for instance, spoiler[it took three episodes in the original for Yamato just to leave Earth; it was reduced to two in 2199. ]). They've added explanations for some of the wild ideas in the outer planets and given them logical reasons for their existence which weren't explained in the original; they've brought elements and characters from the two sequel series into this one to give them background or to factor them into the plot of this series, and they've brought changes in our level of knowledge of outer space into the storyline as well (for instance, spoiler[one of the stars they visit in close proximity to the solar system is one with planets known to be in the "Goldilocks Zone", where conditions are potentially right to support human life, like where liquid water can exist]. In short, they're aiming to keep it close to the original while at the same time improve the storytelling in a way that doesn't detract from the original. So far, as a huge fan of the original, I can say they have done that emphatically and continue to do that better as the series progresses. In answer to your question though, you have to consider a couple of things. (1) the original is very much showing its age, especially in the age of 1080p TVs and the availability of CG animation for the ships. The ships in 2199 look incredible, and the animation is consistently high quality, much easier to do with CG ships than it was with hand-drawn cels that were rushed through, more than likely week-to-week. Animation techniques have improved drastically in the last forty years too. (2) The stories in the original have flaws you can tolerate when you're between the ages of 8 and 12, but as an adult you do tend to pick holes in them. Plus, there are stories, and aliens in the original that by today's standards would be considered childish (spoiler[living organisms mind-controlled into looking like a misshapen dinosaur to attack the ship or humanoid bee people], inappropriate (read: spoiler[Analyser the ship's robot sexually harassing the sole woman aboard ship on a semi-regular basis]) or just unnecessary (covered in the same plot point mentioned as "childish"). When you add all those up, yeah, you'd tell someone to watch 2199. Then, after that, you'd tell them to go watch the original too because it's a classic and they'll still enjoy watching it, plus they'll be able to appreciate just how good a job they did with the remake. You don't often see remakes eclipse the original, but for mine, Yamato 2199 has done it at a level I've not personally seen anywhere. Ever. Makes me wonder what the remake of Sailor Moon is going to be like. |
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