This 50-Year-Old Sci-Fi Series Is 1 of the Most Important Anime of All Time (2024)

When it comes to iconic and popular anime genres, space opera fiction isn't the most common anymore. It's easy to forget that sci-fi anime gave rise to some of the biggest brands in the industry, including mecha classics such as Mobile Suit Gundam. Before that legendary series came about, however, anime as a whole was defined by one brand that's still incredibly important and popular to this day.

Space Battleship Yamato was released 50 years ago in 1974, and it's since been a major part of Japanese popular culture. Advancing anime storytelling, Space Battleship Yamato paved the way for countless other brands to do the same. Likewise, the anime was also instrumental in bringing the industry to Western audiences, making the brand much more important than many realize.

This Space Opera Anime Is Still a Pop Culture Gem

Japan Still Loves Space Battleship Yamato

Space Battleship Yamato focuses on a future in which the Earth has become irradiated due to the machinations of the alien Gamilas. Seeking to convert the planet to be sustainable for the species' biological needs, the Gamilas leader Lord Dessler cares little about the fate of humanity. This continued bombing sends the remainder of humanity underground, with little hope of reaching or contacting its space fleet. Thankfully, mysterious blueprints from the planet Iscandar show the humans how to build a faster-than-light craft to find a device in space that can cleanse the Earth before the radiation kills humanity. Building a spacecraft from the remains of the historical battleship Yamato, the humans create the Space Battleship Yamato and take the fight to the Gamilas.

Created by Yoshinobu Nishizaki and directed by Leiji Matsumoto, Space Battleship Yamato launched alongside a concurrent manga series. The series wasn't exactly popular at first, with low ratings resulting in the planned number of episodes getting halved. Thankfully, this rebounded with the theatrical release of the 1977 Space Battleship Yamato movie, which served as a sort of compilation of the anime's story. From there, the show had countless sequel seasons and anime movies, with 2012 beginning the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime movie remake sub-series. The latest of these is Be Forever Yamato: Rebel 3199, which is a sequel to Star Blazers 2205 and now set to release theatrically in Japan. There was even a live-action movie remake in 2010, not to mention various appearances and adaptations in the video game medium.

Space Battleship Yamato continues to be one of the most iconic anime in Japan for several reasons. For one, the Yamato craft itself is very important within Japanese history, so the series has an element of Japanese pride to it. Likewise, it was one of the best series in an era inundated with space opera anime, namely due to the fact that it wasn't episodic. Space Battleship Yamato pushed anime storytelling forward and helped develop a medium where each episode was important to the overall plot. The 26-episode length was ultimately much better than a longer sci-fi series such as Galaxy Express 999. Various toys, merchandise and similar pop culture elements of Yamato remain a fixture in Japan, with entire generations having grown up with their own version of the story. Likewise, the series set the tone for other anime like it, some of which are even bigger successes.

Space Battleship Yamato Inspired Several Other Anime

Gundam and More Took Inspiration From the Series

As noted, Space Battleship Yamato helped advance anime storytelling, in large part thanks to its more mature themes. The series really delved into the horrors of war, with characters dying and having their deaths recognized by the survivors. In this way, however, they were still shown in a very heroic manner, with their sacrifices honored and never shown to be in vain. Even staunch enemies become allies after a while, as is the case with the initially villainous Dessler. The serialized storytelling helped make the series for more than just small children, and there were actually several female fans who were interested due to the strong dramatic and character writing.

Space Battleship Yamato can be seen as a pioneer in many of the trends in space opera anime, mecha anime and science fiction anime as a whole. One of the biggest brands inspired by Space Battleship Yamato was the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, which took the concepts introduced by Yamato and ran with them. The series pioneered the "Real Robot" subgenre of mecha anime, which was far more realistic and grounded compared to the cartoonish Super Robot anime that came beforehand. There were actual consequences in Gundam, namely due to the characters being at war, just like the humans and the Gamilas in Space Battleship Yamato. These elements also influenced another major mecha property, Macross. That series' story even continued by having the enemy Zentradi ally with humanity, emulating Dessler's eventual turn.

Mecha anime as a whole were definitely influenced by the drama and turmoil seen in Yamato, and the psychological Neon Genesis Evangelion was no exception. In turn, this series went on to imprint itself upon a generation of other anime, mecha or otherwise, with dark psychological developments and genre deconstructions becoming the norm in the late 1990s. Not only was Revolutionary Girl Utena essentially the Magical Girl equivalent to Evangelion, later shows such as Serial Experiments Lain were also made in the same psychological vein. In a sense, this can all be traced back to Space Battleship Yamato and the concepts that it popularized in the medium. Even amid the global popularity of somewhat less narratively sophisticated shonen anime, the impact of this more meaningful fare can't be denied.

Star Blazers Paved the Way for Global Anime Fandom

Yamato’s English Dub Was One of the Most Important Anime Adaptations

While it might be known as one name in Japan, Space Battleship Yamato has a different name in the US. Released in 1979, Star Blazers localized and dubbed the story of the first three Space Battleship Yamato anime into one show with over 70 episodes total. Beyond name changes and the Gamilas being known as the Gamilon, the overall story was actually maintained from the Japanese scripts. This made the show incredibly important on several levels, namely for what it brought to the Western market. For one, the series wasn't merely episodic and had to be watched consecutively to enjoy the whole story. When combined with the overall darker and more serious tone, it was far different from what kids in the US were used to from their animated shows.

Star Blazers is still regarded as a classic to many, and it's actually seen as largely being just as good as the original Japanese version. This legacy has seen the "Star Blazers" subtitle added to later Space Battleship Yamato adaptations, namely whenever they're released in English. The success of Star Blazers allowed anime in general to gain a foothold in the U.S. One series in particular took a somewhat similar approach to localization. The original Robotech anime combined footage from the first Macross series with two otherwise unrelated anime, resulting in a story that was similar to the original Japanese version while also being its own patchwork thing. While some things were changed, that show retained the overall serious nature of the source material, making these elements more mainstream in the West. Since then, Robotech has been a franchise unto itself, being both intrinsically tied to yet still separate from the broader Macross anime brand.

The following decade finally saw anime begin to take over in the West, especially with broadcasting banners such as Toonami. New Mobile Report Gundam Wing made the Gundam franchise a huge hit beyond Japan, and it was soon joined by Mobile Fighter G Gundam and other anime properties that were unrelated to the mecha anime genre. These included the Magical Girl series, Sailor Moon, and the still incredibly popular Dragon Ball Z. These shows all localized as much as they could without too much censorship, and it's all been part of a stepping tone to the current anime domination of today. Once again, this wouldn't have been possible without Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato making audiences fall in love with more sophisticated anime storytelling, and with the space opera franchise now turning 50 years old, the fruits of its legacy are clearer than ever.

Space Battleship Yamato

Action

Adventure

Animation

In the year 2199, the space battleship Yamato embarks on a voyage to the planet Iscandar, to retrieve a device that will rejuvenate a war-ravaged Earth.

Release Date

October 6, 1974

Creator(s)

Leiji Matsumoto , Yoshinobu Nishizaki , Eiichi Yamamoto

Cast

Gordon Ramsey , Z. Charles Bolton , Amy Howard Wilson , Corinne Orr , Tom Sweedy , Peter Fernandez , Phil Parsons , Frank Pita

Main Genre

Action

Seasons

1

Studio

Writers

Eiichi Yamamoto , Keisuke Fujikawa , Maru Tamura

Network

YTV

Franchise(s)

Space Battleship Yamato

Directors

Leiji Matsumoto

Character(s)

Juzo Okita , Susumu Kodai , Daisuke Shima , Yuki Mori , Shiro Sanada , Hikozaemon Tokugawa , Analyzer , Kenjiro Ota , Mamoru Kodai , Shima's Mother , Starsha (voice) , Heikuro Todo , Sukeharu Yabu , Saburo Kato , Yasuo Nanbu , Beemera Queen , General Domel , Akiko Kodai , Yoshikazu Aihara