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In keeping with his promise that the dream will never die, Reiji Matsumoto, the man who is regarded as the conceptual father of the Space Cruiser Yamato legend, plans to bring Yamato fans a new film in 2001!
Originally, there were plans to produce a film called Yamato: Rebirth, which would continue the saga from the point where Final Yamato left off. The Yamato was to be raised from the ice fields left behind by planet Aquarius. However, as some fans may know, Matsumoto was never quite pleased with the way in which the Yamato saga had played out. And, the decision was made to, instead, bring us a new version of the mission to Iscandar. The prospect of re-producing the story of the first TV season, only with better and more modern animation effects, has been on the wish list of many Yamato fans even as early as two decades ago.
Great Yamato, as the new film is called, starts the Yamato saga over again from scratch. This time, we begin not in the year 2199, but in the year 3199. The story is to follow more closely the original Yamato manga comic novel in which Matsumoto has Mamoru Kodai (Alex Wildstar, Derek's older brother who was presumed to be dead) turn up as the phantom pirate captian, Harlock. This new project apparently and officially brings the Yamato universe and those of Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express, and Queen Millenia, into continuity (at least in the sense that these last three have been linked). The Captain Harlock saga, as readers may know, takes place roughly in the late 2900s, and, so, moving the date of the Yamato story up by 1000 years brings the timelines to within about 200 years of one another.
So, "What do the people look like?" you may ask. The character designs seem to be consistent with those seen in the initial designs for the original first TV season. That is to say, they resemble the style seen in Matsumoto's manga comics and also seen in the Space Pirate Captain Harlock films. Susumu Kodai's (Derek Wildstar's) hair is a bit bushier that we fans may remember, as is Admiral Okita's (Captain Avatar's) beard.
"And, what does the Yamato look like?" you ask. As you can see in the still above (scanned from the cover of the first new soundtrack album), the Yamato appears to be basically of the same design as in the original series... except that it features an additional main gun turret both in the fore and aft top-side sections, as well as turrets mounted on the bottom side (finally!). It seems that the third bridge is still retained, perhaps in order to serve its traditional function of drawing enemy fire away from more critical areas of the ship!
I do not have much additional information about the film. It seems, however, to be destined to happen. In Nippon Columbia's latest release of Yamato soundtrack albums, the first album is devoted to preliminary music for the Great Yamato film. We expect that a more formal soundtrack will follow.
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