Star Blazers 2199 - Space Battleship Yamato

Now this is how to update a classic TV series. If you look closely at the 2005 Battlestar Galactica, you come to the realization of what doing a "reboot" truly means. It means the creator of the new series had absolutely no respect for the original material. He liked so little of it that he threw out the baby with the bath water. Nothing was worth saving except for the barest essentials - character names and the tiniest shred of the premise. The characters themselves were completely unrecognizable. JJ Abrams' Star Trek movies are the same way. Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is the opposite. It's a remake, not a reboot. The difference is they wanted to fix or modernize a few things, but by and large had great affection for the series and kept as much of it intact as they could.

I really wanted to watch the original Star Blazers, as the show was called in the US, but alas, the time slot wasn't cooperative as it conflicted with the school day and consumer VCRs were expensive and rare in 1979, so I couldn't timeshift it. Many years later, I finally had recordings of the show, but couldn't really get more than a few episodes into it before losing interest. Still, I did eventually see the English dub of the Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato movie and enjoyed that. The live action SBY movie from 2010 again left me cold and I don't think I even finished that. If I did, it was so unmemorable that I've forgotten even watching it through to the end. To me, this remake is the best version yet, good enough for me to binge-watch the whole series in a matter of days.

If you like SCI-FI, this is it for you. But not only space battles and lasers.

This series gives such a great attention to details, and explains pretty much everything (that is how I like a SCI-FI, create new tech while creating the backstories explaining them). I often had to pause to look at things like the very detailed engine or shield monitors, and had to back up to listen back to important information given.

The main vessel of the series, the Yamato, is also very well explored and used, with plenty of different technologies used, from huge cannons to classical WW2-era artillery shells.

The characters are also very well developed in here. Most of them are multi-dimensional and serve their own roles somewhere. This is actually an excellent space opera, and was really drawn into all of the inner stories, even love stories.

The enemies are also very well depicted, and get their fair share of screen time, and are also multidimensional. You get to understand them, and even understand them well, their behavior, and why their are doing what they are doing.

The english voice acting was also up-there, beautiful and well talented voices, fitting the characters.

All in all, this is a 10 for me, up there with neon genesis evangelion series. Looking forward the 2022 part! Thank for that new personal classic.

I enjoyed this military science fiction anime series from Japan, it is based on a remake of the 1970's space opera by the same name which itself is based on a manga series, it could be said to be the Star Wars of Japan and the series which inspired other renowned anime. It's also credited in introducing complex thoughts and mature plots in the Japanese anime industry.

The highlight of the series is the story, a tale of aliens attacking Earth and bringing the human kind to extinction, the last hope for the humans is a journey across the Galaxy's, to a friendly alien race who promises a chances for survival. Although the plot itself is simple, it's actually rich with deep conundrum and conflicting solutions. The Journey is full of space battles, drama, inner conflicts on what's right and what's wrong. Another highlight is the vast yet different characterizations, each with their own colorful personalities.

While I found the character animations good, the space battles and the ship itself were average for me, I am not a CGI fan and these were CGI heavy. The sound effects and music on the other hand were good.

I would recommend the series to a those who enjoy Space Operas

If you're a fan of the original Starblazers, you owe it to yourself to watch this series in its subtitled glory. It may not entirely have the same voice-acting nostalgia you grew up with, but characters you know and love are still there.

The character designs are not exactly the same either, but it borrows aspects of the original art style so that the characters are recognizable. Everything looks and feels fresh, crisp, and new. But the beauty of this re-make is they've kept all the things that make Starblazers/Space Battle Cruiser Yamato the same...the sound effects from the original series are still intact, as well as re-recorded versions of the classic music. C.G. is added to good effect for the actual ship, without sticking out like a sore thumb (*cough*evangelion*cough*).

I just started watching and I'm instantly hooked. ^_^ Anyhow, this review, work in progress, since I just started watching. And I have to get to sleep soon. So, to be continued...

Like the other reviewer said, this is better than the original. It's an appropriate update of the old "classic" anime that had been imported from Japan in the mid late 1970s.

The old show was a little hard to take at times because of all of the dialogue mis steps the English cast took or uttered, and the animation was typical "get it done fast" off shore anime that often had problems with perspectives and budget restraints regarding the number of drawings that could be used.

Thankfully CGI has freed the budget to allow animators to concentrate on the characters and letting the computers render the various machines, vehicles and devices, making for an incredibly good viewing experience.

It had, at one time in my life, been an ambition to take animation that I grew up with that had good stories but poor animation, and bring up the level of quality with improved techniques. "Space Battleship Yamato" (or "Starblazers") was on that list. And I'm glad someone else had the same idea and ran with it.

All the classic characters are there, including a few new ones adding to the story mix. And most of all the characters themselves are less exaggerated than the previous show.

It's still marginally hokey (a flying space battleship, which has some ultra-right political roots in Japan), but it's still an enjoyable watch all the same. If you've seen the original, grew up with it, have a fondness for it, then you should at least try to watch this show's first episode to see what you think.

Enjoy.