Space Battleship Yamato 2199

[Connor MacLeod]

Boys, that isn't the attack on earth.

Which is probably why I should just sit down and watch it

[Stark]

That part isn't out yet, but it's pretty clearly not earth. The shots in first episode with the attack on earth look like regular asteroids. This is probably because of the different goals in each case; the Gamilas attack is probably in the small magellenic cloud where they have an ongoing war against more advanced people than earth.

[Connor MacLeod]

It'll probably take me over a year to get through the 3 seasons of the original sBY anyhow, so plenty of time for them to release more at the pace Ig o

[Stark]

Man every second you spend watching the old series is time you'll need get back. :v

The new show is coming out relatively fast, and the 5th movie (eps 15-17 I think) is out in a few weeks. Only it's actually good?

[Connor MacLeod]

Man every second you spend watching the old series is time you'll need get back. :v

Thats what you said about Zeta. Admit it you're just mad I'm stalling over Unicorn, aren't you? AREN'T YOU????

[Stark]

Actually what surprises me about the remake (since in many ways they even have the same episodes as the old show) is that they've added so much actual legitimate drama to it. There are proper scifi episodes, strong themes, compelling questions, etc, even though the basic framework of events is the same. Things like the battle at the Pluto base are massively improved, but its all clearly a great homage.

And look 2199 is even almost as good as Unicorn animation wise. :p

[Parallax]

It's amazing how 2199 does take everything that made the original series great, jettisoned the hopelessly outdated (or just lame) crap and then whacked in some extra characters ... and it's just plain better by a loooong shot. I'm now watching episode 12 and it's simply fun, entertaining space sci-fi.

And let's face it, the theme music is still some of the best ever made. By anyone.

[Stark]

I love all the 70s stuff that's there, like the hair and the zoot zoot lasers and the music. It helps that they are looking back and thus can be 'aware' of the finale or the other seasons from the get to, which really adds depth to their journey. The witch episode is one of my favorites.

[Darksider]

I wonder if they're going to keep the "Gamilon is dying and the bombs are terraformers" motivation for this series. The scenes we see of it don't make it look too nasty, and the Gamilon Empire has clearly conquered more than enough planets to transport their population. It seems like they're just attacking Earth to conquer another planet into their empire, in which case why are they using the planet bombs to turn it into an irradiated wasteland?

[Stark]

Gamilas is already a messed up place (and they appear to live in craters or underground caves). They forshadow Desler wanting to move the capital. I don't think they hold much else in the Milky Way proper, either.

[Darksider]

I actually got the sense that Dessler was talking about moving the capital to Iscandar, what with him mentioning something about "reunification."

I wonder how much territory the Gamilon empire controls in this version and the original. This version implies it's a galaxy-wide empire like the GE or the IoM, but in the original I never really got that impression.

[Stark]

Well we know that's not going to work. :v I love all the obvious stuff around that though, like the huge mural.

It's clearly not galaxy wide at all since the Milky Way front is a secondary front run by an idiot. I got the impression the war Domel was running in the small magellenic cloud was much more important and close-run. Habitable planets seem to be pretty rare, and we don't even know where th planet Zaltz is.

[Darksider]

I don't know man, if habitable planets are rare, then why are the Gamilons glassing a bunch of them?

[Stark]

How about you watch the show and get back to me? SDN standard 'make a bunch of shit up from trailers' isn't worth playing. You don't even need to get to ep 5 to answer your question.

[Parallax]

That witch episode (14) was rather trippy in places but tied up by the end. Good examination of characters.

[Stark]

How about the full-on foreshadowing of known future events, like Domel's Iscandarian partner and the Comet empire? The show will make 100x more sense than the original 'oh yeah now there's THIS galaxy-wide threat nobody noticed before' show.

[Scottish Ninja]

They've also kept in mind that basically everyone watching it knows the truth about Iscandar and the Gamilons too, which is good.

This is interesting because I never actually got into SBY before so I actually don't know anything beyond what I've seen in the episodes so far. It's obvious that the relationship between Iscandar and Gamilas is way closer than the Yamato crew expects, both politically and geographically, so I'm now on tenterhooks waiting to see how they're going to develop these ideas.

I've also been impressed at how much I like pretty much all the Gamilas characters so far. Dessler especially, how he falls short of being the typical arrogant vindictive madman, like when he dumps that douche through the floor and says something to the effect of "Gamilas has no use for men like that", and I think it's later in that episode when he promotes Schultz's family to full-status citizens after his ship is destroyed by the solar flare. Despite the underlying sense of cruelty he seems to have, he's also got a lot of respect.

I like the other guys too, Domel and Ditz, and I liked the bit at the end of the last episode where what's-her-name was so distraught over the death of the one who was doing all the mindfuckery.

Melda Ditz is good too; she shaped a lot of a vibe of underlying tension between the sort of old-guard Prussian officer corps that she, and others, like her father represent, with all of their values, against Dessler's more political, Nazi regime influence, represented partially by some of his toadies like Goer (which, to be fair, is limited, as I noted above). So I'll be keeping an eye on any cracks that start to appear between those influences, especially as has been hinted at so by Ditz commenting to Domel that his daughter hasn't told him what happened yet, although he knows her ship was destroyed; his reaction when he hears that she was aboard Yamato and that Goer destroyed her ship to get at Yamato is going to be a lot of fun.

The only downside to the show is that the women wear plug suits for basically no reason but fanservice.

i like the fanservice >.>

[Stark]

I've never seen SBY either (well I saw the live action movie lol) but I know the broad strokes. It is pretty good that they've turned the Gamilas from what were apparently bumbling idiots into actual characters, especially how they're dropping hints left and right about all kinds of stuff and giving a much stronger context to events than I imagine the old show had. When the crew talk about how they shouldn't run into so many Gamilon ships now they're out of the galaxy, because odds are they're from inside the Milky Way, was great. Apparently they basically invented the second class Gamilon stuff too, which has really added to the perception of how edit society works.

[Stark]

Also in space, 70s porn music allows you to do a pugachev in your space me262.



Show has literally everything.

[Flagg]

Don't knock 70's porn music. Bow chika bow bow.

[jollyreaper]

Caught up to episode 14.

This is a pretty impressive show. Granted, it's deliberately, gloriously space opera and the genre brings enough cheese with it to pass for the American diet. But that's what you're coming for, right? If you want hard SF anime in space, PLANETES is right up your alley.

Visually, it's just stunning. 2D and CGI are integrated beautifully without any jarring discontinuity. The mechanical designs are elaborately-conceived and competently executed. Fluid movement, lavish detail, everything pops. Why do the ships line up and fight on a level plane, as if on an ocean surface so they can exchange broadsides? Because it's pretty. Quit thinking and enjoy gorgeous, flaming death.

I'm familiar with the broad outlines of the original show but never saw it. I'm not sure how drastically this modern retelling varies from the old, which parts are new. But the ability to actually foreshadow and lay things out instead of "oh yeah, we forgot to mention but," it's so nice to get things straight the second time through.

I'm wondering how much they've changed the Gamilas backstory for the new version. The DNA scan on the visiting pilot checks out as identical to human and there seem to be many, many worlds of very human "aliens" to conquer. Don't know if the fluff explains this with convergent evolution, ancient astronauts, or something else. If they're going to get into that, it won't be until the later episodes.

I wonder how much effort they're putting into keeping track of damage continuity. I was pleased to see severe hull damage carried over from previous episodes. I wonder about all the injured crew we saw during the Pluto fight. There's no spacedock to put in to, no shore hospital to send the injured to while taking on fresh replacements. They might just go into this at some point. The basis of the Alter episode was laid out several episodes back and was very well-done.

I do have to agree with the criticism of the plug-suits. It's pretty embarrassing. Sure, a tight-fitting uniform might show off a crewmember's physique and be considered flattering and perhaps a compression suit would be a plausibly sexier alternative to a pressure suit but c'mon, we're not looking at Kodai's crotch bulge, why are we seeing Yuki's labia? (You know the ladder scene I'm talking about.) Yeah, I know, fan service but come on! When a scene begins with the camera focused on a female character's ass and pauses for a moment before panning up to her head...

Looking forward to the balance of the series. Any word on whether they're looking to do the second season?

[Stark]

They've already set up the second season bad guys (ie the 'Gatlantians'). It'll depend on reception I guess. I've bought MY Cosmo Navy box. :b

[Parallax]

I've now seen up to episode 18.
And this series just keeps getting better.
Spoiler

The Yamato mutiny made a lot of sense and you know why the characters did what they did.

The Battle at Balun, wherein the Yamato opens up huge cans of whup-ass on a ten thousand strong fleet is just simply glorious to watch. The enemy got caught completely with their pants down and got completely massacred accordingly. "Ten thousand enemy ships? Fuck you, this is the Yamato!"

I like the espionage angle being added to the Gammilon story, it does add a lot to the plot. Desler is a cunning S.O.B. and he doesn't put up with traitors.

[Parallax]

Thanks to YouTube, here's the battle from episode 18 (unsubbed)



For those that wish a summary of what happens: Spoiler

Desler is apparently assassinated so Admiral MuttonChops here gathers up the fleet around the planet Balen. He mourns Desler's death and makes a move to send the fleet back to Gammelon so he can be the new supreme ruler. The Yamato really wants to get to Balen as a structure at it's core is vital to get to Iscandar. Slight issue of 10,000+ enemy ships being in the way - but being the plucky little ship that could, the Yamato crew warp into the middle of the fleet and make a run at Balen.
MuttonChops decides that he can take losses so tries to crush the Yamato through sheer weight of numbers (why some ships collide) and the Yamato is apparently shot down in Balen's atmosphere. Desler appears on MuttonChop's screeen and basically spells out that it was a ploy to root out traitors and MuttonChops is now in the Royally Fucked Over Club. Captain Gormless, in a bid to gain Desler's favour, shoots MuttonChops in the back and takes command of the fleet.
At which point the Yamato comes back out of the atmosphere, having taken care of business in Balen's core. Captain Gormless tries to blow it up again but fails miserably, at which point the Yamato does a 180 and fires the Wave Motion Gun at the fleet. And misses. Captain Gormless laughs and gloats a bit before he realises that the Yamato is aiming at the planet, not the fleet.
At which point he basically craps himself and they all die.

[Dass.Kapital]

Spoiler

The slightly foreshadowed use of the 'Wave Motion Gun' as an engine to push the Yamato backwards through said portal.

Also, I don't think the Yamato had 'business' with the center of the giant construct. Just that flying almost literally through said center was the quickest way from one end of the system to the other.