News
New Yamato 2199 Anime Is Also a TV Series
posted on by Egan Loo
The official Yamato Crew membership website confirmed on Saturday that the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime project is a television series in addition to the previously revealed film. (Membership is required to view the page.) The April 7 film is actually the first two episodes of the new television series, combined into one theatrical preview screening about 50 minutes long. It will play in 10 theaters throughout Japan. More details will be provided on the anime's official website.
There has not been a Yamato television anime series since Uchū Senkan Yamato 3 (Star Blazers: The Bolar Wars) 30 years ago.
The basic story of Yamato 2199 is the same as the first Yamato anime set in 2199, but Yutaka Izubuchi (RahXephon), the 52-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 Yūki (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.
Shōji Nishizaki, the adopted son of Yoshinobu Nishizaki, hinted at his father's memorial service last December that he has begun production on new Yamato works including a television series and another film.
Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto's Yamato space opera anime franchise began with the first Space Battleship Yamato television series in 1974. The titular spaceship Yamato is built from the remains of the World War II battleship of the same name to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Over the next 35 years, the television anime spawned two television sequels, two video projects, and six films including 2009's Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection. The anime was dubbed and partly rewritten in English as Star Blazers. A live-action film remake of the original Space Battleship Yamato anime opened in Japan last December.
Image © Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Production Committee
Update: More background information added.
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