This article originally appeared in MANGAZINE #36 (11/94) from Antarctic Press. Reprinted with permission.

The article which follows is, in short, a review of segments in the original Space Battleship Yamato TV series which were cut from the American dubbed version, Star Blazers. Before beginning a detailed exposition, however, I felt I should make a few prefatory remarks about this article's underlying intent. Many American Japanese animation fans tend to take a very "purist" approach and view any alteration whatsoever between an original Japanese version and a wide American release of a given anime show as an utter travesty and degradation of the original producer's intentions. This is not the view taken here, however. While there are unquestionably numerous examples of anime which have been so greatly hacked and re-edited as to be virtually unrecognizable compared to their Japanese originals, in my opinion, Star Blazers in no way falls into this category. The purist view often totally ignores realities of the American market. Most Americans will simply not accept numerous themes prevalent in anime, especially in a program aired in a time slot primarily aimed at children. As a result, programs with excessive violence, for example, or sexual themes would never be accepted for such broadcast. When Star Blazers first aired in the US in the very early eighties, there was no video or laser disc animation market; television was all there was and one had to live with its constraints.

Star Blazers was especially remarkable in that it was able to push these boundaries as far as it did. Before Star Blazers sequential storytelling was virtually unheard of in televised animation series; these episodes had to be seen in order for the story to make sense. A personal favorite anecdote of this series's departure from accepted animation norms comes from a friend whose mother happened to be nearby while he watched the show. He was watching the last episode of the first season, when Derek Wildstar is pleading for the life of his beloved Nova, seemingly dead in an act of self-sacrifice to save the ship. Wildstar begs "Please, God, make her wake up!" His mother looked around and asked, astonished, "Did they just say 'God' in a cartoon?!"

Star Blazers presented its viewers with many such otherwise unexpected dramatic surprises. Nonetheless, despite its many innovations as far as the American animation market was concerned, some segments from the original Japanese Yamato series still had to be cut or altered to accommodate American broadcast. Some of these were very minor points, possibly trimmed merely for time. Others may have showed violence too graphic for an afternoon audience composed of children. This review will focus on segments of some significant plot impact, and is intended only to provide information to the devoted Yamato/Star Blazers fan.

Probably the longest and most significant single segment cut from the series was the exposition from early in the first series about the history of the battleship Yamato in World War II. The battle in which the battleship is sunk is shown in some detail, in order to explain the ship's hull resting at the bottom of the sea now evaporated by Gamilon Planet Bombs. In one sense I was rather surprised at the extent of this cut, especially considering many American viewers might not be as familiar with the history of the Yamato and would probably benefit from the exposition. However a closer viewing of the segment may reveal some hidden themes which perhaps might have been thought objectionable. First, the commanders and crew of the ship are portrayed as very noble fighting men, and once the ship is sunk, its Captain ties himself to the ship's wheel and goes down with his ship. Sailors and pilots from both sides are seen sadly saluting the fall of such a noble enemy. It is possible that such a sympathetic portrayal of the enemy th US fought so hard against in the war might have been deemed objectionable.

Somewhat more disturbing are certain stylistic implications of this scene, especially when compared to events a bit later in the series. When the American fighter planes attack the Yamato, the background music used is exactly the same as that used during some of the Gamilon attacks on the converted space battleship later. The large squadrons of fighters dive and attack in precisely the same manner as do the Gamilon space fighters. Are we to infer that perhaps Gamilon is actually a metaphor for the United States? When one considers the end of the war, concluded with the American dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan just as Gamilon is dropping thousands of radioactive Planet Bombs over the whole Earth, such inference is further reinforced. Correct or not, such inference certainly would be mildly disturbing to say the least to some Americans who may have fought in the war. It is not the purpose of this article to raise a debate on the symbolism of Japanese militarism, however, so I'll leave further consideration of this point to the reader and proceed to another, wholly different and much simpler example of this series's editing.

During the ship's first space warp, early in the first series, we are treated to a bizarre view of some of the odd, semi-psychedelic effects of traveling faster than the speed of light. However at one point a brief glimpse of one of these effects was lost somewhere in transition. In addition to people's chairs floating around the bridge and the passage outside of dinosaurs and cavemen, apparently warping can also cause the clothing of some female crew members to momentarily vanish. Yes, in mid-warp, first Nova's outer uniform and then her undergarments momentarily fade away. Of course the reasons for the cutting of this scene are obvious; this is being broadcast to an audience of young children, primarily, and many parents would certainly object to gratuitous nudity, however fleeting.

I do find this an interesting commentary on the mores of our two societies, however. One presumes that much of the original Japanese viewing audience for the series was of a similar young age. Nonetheless such brief and, to be honest, fairly harmless scenes of nudity are deemed acceptable for that audience. In fairness, however, it also needs to be observed that although such scenes of female nudity are comparatively few and brief, no corresponding scenes of male nudity are presented whatsoever. Despite the many differences between Japanese and American society, it seems perhaps feelings on this point may be surprisingly similar.

Next we move from one American taboo, that of sex, to another, violence. Several scenes in the early part of the first series were clearly excised to meet with moral standards on this point as well. When are told that one of the tanks they are fighting is merely a robot drone, but this is plainly not the case as evidenced by the scream of the tank's Gamilon driver when Wildstar shoots him in the original. Similarly the driver of the other tank is taken out when Wildstar shoots him in the chest after finding his brother's gun, and not by a falling avalanche.

Similar results ensue later when the Star Force assaults the Gamilon base on Pluto and its Reflex Gun. Several soldiers on both sides are killed in the fight to destroy the Gun, although again one wouldn't know it from Star Blazers. The characters killed are nameless, rather like the Security "Ensign Expendables" in the old Star Trek. Although Star Blazers on the whole does a much better job at showing the effects of war, far better than any American made cartoon I can think of, for some reason it does seem to be the case that the death of single characters is still considered more traumatic than the death of many. Perhaps the saying "One dead man is a tragedy, a thousand dead men are a statistic" holds true for cartoons as well, at least on American television.

The next particularly intriguing scene for me wasn't so much cut as altered. Colonel Ganz's flagship is near to crashing into the Yamato as they fight in the asteroid ring on the edge of the Solar System. Both in Japanese and in English Col. Ganz's character comes off as something of a buffoon, one friend having referred to him and his aide Bane as "the Abbott and Costello of space." In Star Blazers, as his ship is about to crash, he terrifiedly exclaims "We're going to crash into them!", however this is not what he says in Japanese. In the original series what he exclaims is "Desslar Soto Banzai!", which roughly translated is "Long Live Leader Desslok!" So in actuality it seems Ganz knew he had lost the battle and was prepared to die for his Emperor, much in the Japanese kamikaze fashion. Although this in no way changes the outcome of the battle, it does provide a surprising small insight into Ganz's character; although somewhat incompetent he is fiercely loyal to his leader and his nation. In this case I personally fail to see why this line had to be changed. The change doesn't add much and if anything detracts somewhat from what might have been an even more poignant moment in the drama of the series.

The next rather significant change comes in the episode when the Star Force finally captures a live Gamilon space fighter pilot. As Dr. Sane is examining him, Wildstar breaks into the room. Star Blazers presents this confrontation as leading to the flashback of the death of Wildstar's parents by a Planet Bomb, after which he tries to engage the Gamilon in a fist fight. The original series proceeds somewhat differently, however, as in fact Wildstar is carrying a knife with which he plans to kill the Gamilon in revenge for his family. Certainly seeing our main hero acting in such a violent and murderous way, especially against an unarmed opponent, would be disconcerting to almost any audience, especially children.

Even more surprising is the reaction of the Gamilon pilot after Wildstar is restrained and the knife released. The Gamilon immediately grabs it, holds it to his own throat and, like Ganz, shouts "Deslar Sohtoh Banzai!" It certainly seems as if Leader Desslok inspires a great deal of loyalty in his subordinates, so willing are they to kill themselves for him! It is then at this point that Wildstar wrestles the knife from him, and angrily engages him with his fists, leaving both men hurt and a bit tearful.

Later, we once again observe a mild bit of perversity with regard to Nova's undergarments with IQ-9's growing obsession with her. While Nova models her best dress for some of the appreciative men of the ship in anticipation of meeting Queen Starsha, IQ-9 zips past and flips the dress up. Such mild "panty shots" are fairly common in a lot of Japanese animation and will be familiar to any long time fans of the genre, but again, such mildly naughty fare might not quite be suitable for younger American audiences.

Perhaps the most grotesque scene cut from Star Blazers was that of the production of the "Royal Bee Jelly" by a race of intelligent insect-people on a planet the Star Force passes. In Star Blazers we do see a group of bee people being used as slave labor to work the machines which make this "favorite food of Leader Desslok", but we are not told that in fact the Jelly is itself produced from the bodies of prisoner bee people fed into the machine the others are working! While certainly reinforcing the callousness of the Gamilons, it certainly isn't surprising that the screams from this insectoid abattoir were eliminated. By comparison a fairly small change later in the same episode we see that the Queen Bee eliminates the elderly leader of the insect insurrection not by merely ordering her guards to take care of him, but rather by pointing the huge laser cannon she was supposed to use on a Gamilon tanker ship directly at him and blasting him.

As the Star Force approaches the halfway point of its mission, it is confronted by a huge Gamilon base on the planet Balan. This base had been commanded by General Volgar, but was placed under the command of General Lysis in order to ensure the Star Force's defeat. Of course Volgar, whose personality matches his English name, is mortified by this and in an amusing scene cut from the Star Blazers, gets royally drunk and trashes his very tastelessly decorated quarters. In the process he threatens a guard and his two "concubines", who were also cut from th e English version. Oddly, in an earlier episode Leader Desslok is shown to have similar winsome Gamilon females at his feet, yet these were left in. Perhaps, as Mel Brooks observed, "it's good to be the King."

Another example of the desire to censor the loss of expendable characters can be seen when the Star Force encounters a Gamilon space fortress, which emits a vibration-inducing field designed to shake the ship to pieces. This plan is first discovered when a Star Force plane is destroyed in the field. In Star Blazers we are told the pilot was the ship's scientist Sandor, who of course "got out just in time". In reality the expendable pilot wasn't so lucky.

General Lysis and Volgar meet their fate after the great battle in the Rainbow Galaxy. Once more, out of the seemingly incessant desire to sacrifice himself for Desslok, Lysis decides after losing the battle to fly his ship right up alongside the bottom of the Yamato and blow his ship up, rather than merely placing a bomb against their hull and escaping, as was the case in Star Blazers. This episode is remarkable though in that, while this aspect above was censored, this episode both in its English and Japanese versions dramatically reflects the tragedy of war by showing a moving funeral scene for the many Star Force soldiers killed in the battle.

(Editor's note: In Star Blazers, however, the segment actually showing the Star Force coffins floating out into space was cut out.)

The final significant cut I noticed in the first series occurred when the Star Force is drawn to planet Gamilon. Despite a brutal beating, the Star Force manages to fight back and destroy much of the Gamilon civilization. Upon seeing this, Desslok goes simply mad and orders a renewed attack using all remaining Gamilon forces. His aide General Krypt protests that if they keep fighting all of Gamilon may be destroyed, whereupon in the original series Desslok simply shoots him and orders the attack. In Star Blazers this final act of madness was toned down, with Desslok ignoring Krypt and saying that Krypt's defeatist attitude is what has kept them from winning.

Upon reviewing the series for this article, I was surprised to discover that the vast majority of cuts and changes of the type discussed above seemed confined to the first series. There were only a few incidents really worth mentioning in the second series, and none which I could detect in the third. What this may reflect about changing attitudes as the original series was produced or as the English series was edited I am not sure, but below I'll discuss the scenes of interest in the second series in which we fight the Comet Empire.

The first and most amusing scene is a very brief shot near the beginning of the second series, when the Star Force has left Earth and the battleship Andromeda has been dispatched to stop them. The Andromeda is first detected by our protagonists, not on radar, but by the pilot Conroy viewing out of a small window. The amusing detail which was cut, however, was that this window was not in his quarters nor an observation deck, but is in fact a small viewport above a urinal stall in the men's bathroom!

In a touching counterpoint to the Gamilon interrogation scene in the first series, a similar scene transpires with a captured Comet Empire pilot this time. Disturbingly, despite being "good guys" even the Earth forces can employ some brutal interrogation techniques, as seen by the suffering of the captured pilot. The physical torture aspect of this scene was excised from Star Blazers, suggesting that this complex device on the pilot's head was merely a sophisticated lie detector perhaps. Despite this cruelty, though, it is clear Wildstar has learned something from his previous experience, because he orders the pilot released and turned over to Dr. Sane.

[Editor's Note: Also not shown in Star Blazers is Leader Desslok's shooting of General Garrat, his underling who failed to defeat the Star Force with his "Star-Fly" swarms. In Star Blazers, Desslok merely tells Garrat that "you're dismissed from my command!" In the Japanese, gunfire is heard, and Garrat falls to the floor. As we get to the Third Season, we see more and more of this intolerance of failure on Desslok's part. Perhaps this is why so many of his generals kill themselves rather than return to him in defeat.]

[Editor's Note: In addition to this, Sgt. Knox's personal conflict with Comet Empire General Scorch ends up in a hand-to-hand fight and shoot-out in which Knox manages to send a pistol blast right through Scorch's chest at point-blank range. All we get to see in Star Blazers is Knox pursuing Scorch in a tank.]

The final scenes altered takes place toward the very end of the series, as the Star Force is fighting within the Comet Empire itself. As has been seen before in this series and others like it, once again to defeat a great enemy the ultimate sacrifice is required of several crew members. In order to defeat the Comet Empire, Sergeant Knox plants several bombs in the enemy energy core and stays behind to detonate them. When Wildstar and Sandor return to the ship in the English version we hear Dash say "Knox got out just behind you", a fairly transparent falsehood to even the most unobservant viewers. Also, in getting back, Wildstar flies out along with Conroy in Conroy's plane. Although they barely manage to scrape back into the Argo's hangar, in the original series Conroy perishes from his wounds just before the plane comes to a crashing halt. In the English version, this detail is omitted as well. Of course it deserves to be noted that in the third series the Japanese found an equally artificial way to get around this loss, by introducing the pilot captain's twin brother! (Editor's note: We later come to know this brother in English as Cory Conroy. The Star Blazers scripting does not indicate whether he is indeed the old Conroy's brother, or simply Conroy himself since technically American fans are not aware that the original Conroy has died.)

At this same time, an odd alteration was made to some of the villains' actions as well. As the Comet Empire lay in ruins and Prince Zordar prepares to escape in his giant Dreadnaught, he decides, perhaps rather wisely, to leave his treacherous "daughter" Princess Invidia (in actuality she is his mistress, another plot point substantially altered in the English version), as well as Generals Dire and Gorce, behind. (Editor's note: Thus, in Star Blazers, we have Zordar saying, "But come on, I can still use you for minor tasks..."). This is another change which is somewhat hard to rationalize -- being a villain we can hardly be expected to greatly increase our sympathy for Zordar by his saving his traitorous underlings.

Remarkably, the third series is almost intact as far as significant edits are concerned. I was quite amazed and pleasantly surprised to see a key disturbing scene near the beginning of the series left intact. A huge Galman Empire proton missile streaks through the Solar System off course, and in passing destroys a small passenger liner killing many civilians. This scene serves as an important part of the motivation of several characters during this part of the series, so it was good to see that it was left intact in the translated version.

Only one significant plot deviation occurs during the third series, and its explanation is quite simple. During the series we learn that Desslok has built a new empire after concluding his last fight with the Star Force at the end of the second series. In a significant flashback explaining the events which led to his building this new empire, we are shown a scene in which the Star Force and Desslok together fought a huge black space fortress in a great battle over Iscandar. Desslok rams his command carrier through the energy-absorbing hull of this fortress to permit the Yamato to fire its Wave Motion Gun through his ship and into the fortress. Wildstar is reluctant to cause the death of his new ally, but Starsha saves them by sacrificing her planet to defeat the enemy. In the English adaptation we are told via the narration that this enemy was a remnant of the Comet Empire, but in fact it was the first appearance of an altogether new enemy, the Black Sun (Nebula) Empire. The clip shown in the flashback is taken from the TV Movie "Yamato the New Journey", which is discussed elsewhere in this issue. Again, this is a minor point easily understood since the New Journey had never been presented in English and it is difficult to make references to a film the American audience had never seen.

Well, I hope this discussion will enhance the interested Yamato fan's understanding of the series, as well as help new and old fans alike appreciate overall what an excellent translation Star Blazers really is, when the small amount these changes represent is compared to the much greater totality of the series. To all the fans of Star Blazers out there, a hearty "Kampai!" toast in Dr. Sane's highly suspect "spring water" (yes, you thought I'd forget to mention that wonderful "water", as it is called in the English version, on which the ship's doctor manages to be soused most of the time, didn't you?)

[NOTE: References are made to other articles not found here on the WWW site, they are left in to keep the article in its original form.]

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