Ernacram

Since this is a recap movie, this review and the one I made about the full series will have some similarities. Story : 9/10 The plot is quite simple and any person with a functioning brain should be able to follow it. The Earth is being bombed by the Gamilas Empire, an alien humanoid civilization with superior technology, that aims to submit humanity and colonize the planet. The bombings have covered the surface of the Earth with toxic raditation and humans are forced to live in underground cities. Humanity is on the verge of extinction. To remove the radiations and to fight with the aliens on equalfooting, humanity turns a WW2 japanese battleship (the Yamato) into a poweful space battleship and sends it into space to obtain a radiation removing machine from Sarsha, an alien woman living on the planet Iskandar. The movie follows the Yamato's journey to Iskandar, and the many challenges faced by the crew as they travel through ennemy territory. As you can imagine, most of these challenges consist in fighting the aliens in space battles, or removing obstacles laid by them. The plot isn't particularily original since a war between an alien race and humans is a very common theme is SF and it is also very manichean : all of the Gamilas (except one) have mischievous and/or ugly faces, but it is well executed and easy to follow. This recap movie only shows the best parts of the series and a lot of the boring moments have been removed. However this does mean that the characters background and backstories are skipped, which makes it harder to attach to some of them who don't appear on the screen a lot. My main problem with the plot is that the plot writers chose the Yamato, a WW2 battleship that was the largest of its time and the symbol of japanese military supremacy, as the spaceship that has to save the earth. The part of the movie where it is explained how the Yamato was sunk by the US navy and airforce in 1945 stinks of japanese nationalism. The japanese fleet is shown as heroic and brave and they are outnumbered by far by the americans. When the ship sinks, you see japanese soldiers giving a military salute. Fortunately, this overly nationalistic atmosphere is only present in one scene, but I find it curious that the movie doesn't even mention the crimes commited by Japan and its army at that time, and chooses to portray it in a positive light instead. Art : 10/10 One of this movie's strong point. Although the animation and art style may have aged a bit, it's pretty easy to get used to it. The scenes where you see the Yamato move around in space, along with the music, are wonderful. The space battles are very pleasant to look at. The design of the enemy spaceships and buildings are very cool, too. The character design are well done and the characters are easy to identify without them wearing extravagant clothes or having weird hairstyles. Sound : 9/10 I don’t know anything about music so I can’t describe it very accurately. The soundtrack is excellent (one of my favourites) and sounds military, with drums and trumpets. The opening theme is very good and you will hear it often since a lot of tracks are variations of this theme. The voice acting is of good quality. Unfortunately, there are certain sound effects (mostly the laser fires) that have not aged well at all. Character : 8/10 This recap movie removed the god awful scenes where Analyzer, the robot, sexually assaults (almost not an exageration) the only woman in the crew, so that makes the character less annoying than in the original series. The crew members are very human and likeable, and somewhat realisitic. Most of the characters aren't too complex. You know what their motivations are (most of them share the same objective) and they are easy to understand, without them being one-dimensional. The "bad guys" however are too predictable. The leader of the Gamilas empire is your typical cartoonish bad guy that wants the whole universe under his boot, always has an evil plan (that fails, of course), makes bad decisions, kills his own subordinates for fun and does an evil laugh for no reason. His generals and subordinates are not very clever either, apart from one, Domel. Contrary to the rest of the bad guys, Domel is not ugly (he doesn't look evil, so to say), is somewhat clever, brave and also a man of honour who respects his ennemy. Enjoyment : 10/10 Space Battleship Yamato is known to have inspired many other anime, so watching it is a very interesting experience, along with the fact that most of it aged pretty well despite being a 70's anime. It is a must watch for every anime fan. If you have the time and the patience you should probably watch the full series, but you can also start by watching this movie as an introduction (as I did). It has the best aspects of the series, making it a good way to introduce you to it and a good way to rewatch it without having to go trough the boring episodes you can find in the middle of the series. The wonderful animation and music give it a really high re-watch value. Definitely a favourite of mine. It has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard and one of the best animation I have ever seen. Overall : 10/10

Patfine

Review written in English and French / Critique disponible en anglais et en français ~~~~~~ Space Battleship Yamato is one of the most important sagas in the history of anime. However, its success was not immediate, and it took several re-runs and especially the release of this film in theaters for it to truly become the cult icon we know today. This film is actually just a recap of the original 1974 series (and therefore a montage of sequences from the series). Its sole purpose is to offer the same story but condensed into just over two hours. For this review, I will focus not on thestory of the original series, which is great, but simply on whether the film fulfills its role as a summary. The movie begins quite well with a first quarter that takes its time (although it's obviously a bit rushed compared to the series, but it's reasonable) and the context is well set. As for the ending, the film also does well, retaining all the important aspects of the series to deliver a satisfying and memorable finale. In these two parts, the movie succeeds and manages to transpose the events of the show effectively. The problem lies in the second quarter of the movie. For some reason, almost all the subplots taking place in the solar system are included, but the film lacks time, so these scenes are rushed and often summarized by a narrator, leaving us with just a three-minute action scene for the spectacle. Not only does this not work in execution, but honestly, these are not very important scenes that could mostly have been cut to allow the film to develop more significant elements (or focus on just one of these subplots, like the one on Jupiter to introduce the Wave Motion Gun, and do it properly). Condensing 26 episodes into two hours means not dwelling on such things... but the film tries anyway. In this case, drastic choices need to be made, and unfortunately, I guess they didn't make the right ones in this segment, which penalizes the entire movie as it has to rush through important elements. In the end, we have a movie that struggles to exist on its own. Watching it, you feel like you're just watching a simple summary, and it doesn't do much to hide it. Due to certain choices made, the film fails to convince us that it could have been a standalone film. Yet, I don't think it was impossible to achieve, and that's my main criticism of the film. I think there was a better way to do it, even without making a completely new film like what was done with Galaxy Express 999. However, this film still has some merits, simply because 26 episodes can be long. For someone who has already seen the series and just wants to refresh their memory, it does the job perfectly. Similarly, for someone curious about the saga but lacking the patience to watch such an old anime in its entirety, it is also a reasonable alternative. Moreover, the film is far from being truly bad. You follow the story with pleasure, and the experience is not unpleasant at all. The music alone manages to carry the film and brings a real epic feel that saves the viewer's immersion despite the flaws I've mentioned. ~~~~~~ Space Battleship Yamato est l'une des sagas les plus importantes de l'histoire de la japanimation. Pour autant, son succès n'a pas été instantané et il a fallu attendre plusieurs rediffusions et surtout la sortie de ce film au cinéma pour qu'elle devienne vraiment l'icône culte que l'on connaît aujourd'hui. Ce film n'est en réalité qu'un récapitulatif de la série originale de 1974 (et donc un montage de séquences de la série). Son seul but est de proposer la même chose, mais sur un peu plus de deux heures seulement. Pour cette critique, je vais surtout juger non pas l'histoire de la série originale, qui est géniale, mais tout simplement la question de savoir si le film remplit bien son rôle de résumé. Le film commence plutôt bien avec un premier quart qui prend le temps qu'il faut (encore que c'est évidemment un peu rapide par rapport à la série, mais c'est raisonnable) et le contexte est bien mis en place. Pour ce qui est de la fin, là aussi le film s'en sort bien et garde tout ce qui est important de la série pour apporter un final aussi satisfaisant que mémorable. Au niveau de ces deux parties, le film s'en sort bien et parvient à transposer les événements de la série. Le problème se trouve plutôt au niveau du deuxième quart du film. Pour une raison que j'ignore, à peu près toutes les sous-intrigues se passant dans le système solaire sont incorporées, mais le film manque tellement de temps que fatalement ces passages sont expédiés et bien souvent résumés par un narrateur, ne nous laissant que la scène d'action de trois minutes pour le spectacle. Déjà dans l'exécution, cela ne fonctionne pas, mais surtout, honnêtement, ce sont des passages pas si importants qui pouvaient être coupés pour la plupart afin que le film gagne en rythme et puisse se permettre de développer des éléments bien plus importants (ou bien de se concentrer sur une seule de ces sous-intrigues, comme celle à Jupiter pour introduire le Wave Motion Gun, et de le faire vraiment proprement). En condensant 26 épisodes en deux heures, on ne peut pas s’attarder sur ce genre de choses, mais le film essaie quand même. Dans ce genre de cas, il faut faire des choix drastiques et malheureusement, selon moi, ils n'ont pas pris les bons sur ce segment, ce qui pénalise tout le film qui doit aller très vite sur des éléments importants. Au final, on se trouve avec un film qui peine à exister par lui-même. En le regardant, on sent qu’on regarde un simple résumé et il ne fait pas grand-chose pour le dissimuler. À cause de certains choix qui ont été faits, le film n'arrive pas à nous faire croire qu'il aurait pu être un véritable film fonctionnant par lui-même. Pourtant, je ne crois pas que c'était impossible à réaliser, c'est là mon reproche au film. Je pense qu’il y avait mieux à faire même sans parler de faire un film complètement nouveau comme avec Galaxy Express 999. Cependant, ce film a tout de même certains intérêts, tout simplement parce que 26 épisodes, ça peut être long. Pour quelqu’un qui a déjà vu la série et qui veut juste se rafraîchir la mémoire, il fera parfaitement l'affaire. De même, pour quelqu’un de curieux vis-à-vis de la saga mais n’ayant pas la patience de voir un aussi vieil anime en entier, il constitue également une alternative raisonnable. D'autant que le film est loin d'être réellement mauvais pour autant. On suit l'histoire avec plaisir et l'expérience n'est pas du tout désagréable. La musique parvient à elle seule à porter le film et à apporter un véritable souffle épique qui sauve l'immersion du spectateur malgré les maladresses que j'ai citées.