Much like that other pillar of classic anime space sci-fi, Macross, the Space Battleship Yamato franchise experienced a frustrating journey to Western TV screens. The original 1974 series came to the US as Star Blazers in 1979, changing the names of characters and even the ship and making liberal story edits. Two more seasons and multiple movies followed, and eventually, a high-budget remake series was greenlit, beginning in 2012 with Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199. Unusually, the series premiered first in movie theaters as a series of seven films before later airing in episodic form. This release pattern contributed to a lack of simulcast streaming in other territories.

2199's terminally botched English language release by Voyager Entertainment scuppered any chance of widespread popularity among anime fans in the West, and it took years to eventually appear on streaming services, long past the point anyone cared to watch. This was criminal, because the Yamato remake series is, in my opinion, one of the best anime space opera ever made, with significant similarities to the beloved Battlestar Galactica remake.

The wildly successful (in Japan) 26-episode 2199 was followed by 2014 theatrical movie Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (as yet unreleased in English), 2017's seven-movie/26-episode sequel season 2202, 2021's two-movie/eight-episode 2205, and the newest entry in the series, 2024's 3199. Bizarrely, Crunchyroll began streaming 3199 prior to the essential-to-continuity 2205, meaning fans either had to wait for the slim chance that 2205 might become available, or suffer confusion and watch 3199 anyway. Thankfully, 2205 appeared on Crunchyroll recently, without fanfare.

Even with my familiarity with both prior seasons, 2205 required much memory-wracking. The Yamato remake series features a massive cast and a complex backstory – 2205 does little in the way of recapping, instead launching the viewer straight into intergalactic political intrigue as we witness Gamilas Supreme Commander Desler cunningly overthrow the despotic leaders of planet Galman, a world with a suspiciously similar climate to Gamilas. It even has an oppressed underclass of blue-skinned people, biologically identical to Gamilas citizens.

Desler is one of Yamato's most intriguing characters. He's the autocratic leader of a planet whose culture is unapologetically modeled after Nazi Germany; by his previous orders, entire planets were obliterated, but he's also paradoxically shown as a hater of war and conflict. He vacillates between level-headed, calm decision-making and reckless impulsivity. There are several instances during 2205 where the viewer can't help but cry, “Desler, no!” as if he were a naughty character in a kids' TV show, except Desler's usually armed with laser-beam weapons of mass destruction, making the worst possible decisions regarding their use. He's a hard character to get a read on, and that's probably deliberate on the part of the writers, although it makes him seem inconsistent at times.

2205 was originally split as two four-episode long movies, Part 1: Takeoff, and Part 2: Stasha. Takeoff is all setup, which isn't unusual for the Yamato remake series, but 2205 doesn't have the luxury of 26 episodes; it's less than a third in length. That means there's a huge disparity between the first and second halves, with Stasha an action and plot-heavy installment that crams a huge amount of development into its relatively short duration.

With the unenviable task of introducing a large number of new characters, Takeoff really drags, and 2205 as a whole isn't long enough for us to get to know them. 2205 adapts elements from 1979 Yamato film The New Voyage and 1980 film Be Forever Yamato, as well as characters from subsequent season Yamato III. The Yamato remake series follows the general plot shape of the original series and its movies, while remixing and reinterpreting events, making it hard to predict exactly what will happen, despite its remake identity.

Nominal lead Susumu Kodai barely has a role to play in Takeoff, with the focus instead dotting around the enormous cast. We catch up with the wispy Leiji Matsumoto-style ladies on Iscandar, various Gamilas folks (including the very Harlock-like submarine captain Wolf Frakken, one of my favorite characters), and former human traitor Yabu, now working as a cross-cultural ambassador of sorts, sharing engineering technology between Earth and Gamilas. Yamato's former crew has been split between the three ships in its fleet, and Kodai's longstanding love interest, Yuki Mori, is now the commander of her own ship, the Asuka.

Mori and Kodai's romance remains one of the show's weakest aspects, partly because they're both so useless at expressing their feelings. Kodai's been in love with her for six years by this point, but can barely even manage to speak to her. It's so frustrating. Mori, similarly, seems so extremely passive it's hard to root for their relationship. They acknowledge that they're a couple, but haven't spent time together in months. Mori's had her full memory back for ages now, so with that plot contrivance out of the way, it seems silly they're not properly together.

The consequences of the Yamato crew's actions at the end of 2022 weigh heavily on both Mori and Kodai – when they were rescued from the higher dimension they were trapped in, it was with the sacrifice of Earth's “Time Fault” (a super-cool concept that allowed Earth to mass-produce warships in an isolated time bubble where time moved faster inside than outside.) This led to enormous economic instability and worrisome implications for Earth's future safety. Kodai, who is heading out to aid Gamilas, also threatens to anger the Bolar Federation, potentially dragging a vulnerable Earth into another interstellar war. Kodai's pretty good at making a mess of things for everyone, even if honorable intentions drive his actions.

Both Yamato's heroes and villains are multi-layered characters who act according to multiple motivations, sometimes altruistic, sometimes selfish. Desler and Kodai are prime examples, both heroic in their own ways, but capable of awful decisions. The new character, Domon, is angsty and anger-filled, blaming Kodai for the death (hinted to be suicide) of his father, who lost his livelihood following the destruction of the time fault. He fakes his credentials to get posted onto the Yamato, though Kodai discovers this and deals with him in an interesting way. Domon grows a lot during both films, though he's initially irritating.

Yamato fans anxious to see the franchise's signature space battles are well served by 2205 – at least in Stasha, the second half. Enormous space-faring battleships blasting seven hells out of one another with luminous lasers and explosive missiles are always fun to watch, and Yamato's smooth CG battles are excellent. More kinetic than Legend of the Galactic Heroes (but sharing its naval theme) and less frenetic than Macross, Yamato strikes a good middle ground for exciting animated space warfare.

It wouldn't be a Yamato remake series without catastrophic planetary destruction, and the drama reaches fever pitch towards its end with massive status quo-wrecking twists. In this regard, Stasha is far more entertaining than Takeoff, but the whole thing needs to be watched in its entirety, especially to make sense of the subsequent 3199 series. Despite some startlingly effective storytelling beats, 2205 isn't the best of the remake series. But it's an integral part of the franchise nonetheless, and shouldn't be missed for fans keen to follow the Yamato's continuing voyages.