6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.
Starring: Takuya Kimura, Meisa Kuroki, Toshirô Yanagiba, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Isao HashizumeAction | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 95% |
Adventure | 61% |
Foreign | 59% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It would have to be one heck of a franchise to best both Star Wars and Harry Potter at the box office, but that’s evidently precisely what various releases in the long running Space Battleship Yamato series have done through the years. Even some diehard anime fans are perhaps surprisingly uninformed or at least under informed about Space Battleship Yamato, despite the fact that the original anime is rightly or wrongly seen as a precursor to all sorts of later anime outings featuring mecha and/or science fiction elements. Space Battleship Yamato originally aired in the “Dark Ages” of the mid-seventies, but in a move that indeed presaged developments that would become de rigeur in the world of anime in subsequent years, the television version soon gave birth to a series of feature (animated) films, as well as a couple of follow up television entries. Despite this glut of offerings, American fans typically are only widely conversant with the heavily redacted and dubbed version of the original series which made it to syndicated broadcast form on this side of the pond as Space Cruiser Yamato. Some 35 years after the original anime started airing a live action version of the tale finally made it to Japanese cinemas and instantly became champ at the box office, trumping a Harry Potter outing as its 1977 predecessor had triumphed over Star Wars.
Space Battleship Yamato is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Giant Ape Media (distributed by anime giant FUNimation Entertainment) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This is a very crisp and sharp looking presentation, with generally well composited green screen and CGI elements that bring the film's outer space locations nicely to life. Blacks are beautifully solid, adding a lot of depth to the interstellar sequences. Quite a bit of the interior work on the Yamato has been skewed more than a bit toward the yellow side of the spectrum, but contrast remains strong and fine detail is quite commendable, especially in close-ups. Occasionally the CGI, and notably the exterior of the Yamato itself, look rather soft, at least in comparison to the bulk of the rest of the film. There are no traces of artificial sharpening or denoising in the image.
Space Battleship Yamato features Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes in the original Japanese as well as an English dub. As seems to be the case with these dual language offerings, the music and some effects seem to be slightly boosted in the English language version. Otherwise, both tracks offer a glut of surround activity as well as some nicely boisterous LFE in the battle sequences. The sounds of both the zinging spacecraft as well as various types of weaponry firing all provide ample opportunities for nice panning effects and percussive low frequency effects. Dialogue is presented very cleanly, and the entire track boasts excellent fidelity and dynamic range.
Space Battleship Yamato is an odd concatenation of an old time "popcorn" space opera with attempts at some more serious subtexts, including references to sacrifice, pollution and the duality of existence (and, no, that's not a typo), but it delivers its messages easily enough to overcome any potential stumbles. While the film suffers from taking itself way too seriously 100% of the time (despite some wisecracks given to Kodai), the story moves briskly enough to keep things moving and not invite too many sighs and musings about when the end title card is finally going to show up. Special effects are surprisingly good throughout the film, especially considering its relatively paltry budget. With strong technical merits and decent supplemental material, Space Battleship Yamato comes Recommended.
2014
2000
2009
The Remastered Collection
1978-1980
Collector's Edition
1998
2013
2012
2009
Limited Edition
1997
20th Anniversary Edition
1996
1998
2011
1986
IMAX
2013
2016
2013
2016
2013
2008
1977