Space Battleship Yamato II - Star Blazers - Comet Empire (Season 2) 480p - (1978 (1981 USA) Lang: English)

Excellent prelude to newer stargazing sagas!

With the exception of bell-bottoms on their uniforms, Star Blazers is one of the greatest, most eclectic stargazing sagas of all time. In an era when animation depicting technological advances was still in its infantile stages (late 1970s), the producers of Star Blazers have done such an excellent job of keeping the viewer fixed on the characters, dialogue, story plots, and vivid battles scenes. I remember watching the series when I was 10 years old, and I am still watching videos today. I would love to see a remake of the series, with clean, crisper episodes; in reality, if the episodes are ever shown again on prime time, little changes need to be made to the original series. It is just that good.

Space Battleship Yamato II (Japanese: 宇宙戦艦ヤマト2 Hepburn: Uchū Senkan Yamato Tsū?) is a 1978 sequel to the original Space Battleship Yamato science fiction anime series. The story is set in the year 2201. The White Comet Empire, a new and even greater threat than the Gamilas, attacks Earth after crew of the Yamato investigates an SOS signal from the mysterious Teresa of planet Telezart. At the same time Desler, leader of the Gamilas Empire, also seeks revenge for his defeat at the hands of the Yamato.

As the popularity of the Space Battleship Yamato franchise became clear (largely because of the outcry from fans who saw the movie), a second season of the television series was produced, retconning the movie to present a different plot in which the Yamato and its primary characters were not killed off. Expanding the story to 26 episodes, the second season featured additional plot lines, such as a love story between Teresa (Trelaina) and Yamato crew member Daisuke Shima (Mark Venture), and an antagonism between Kodai and Saito (Knox), leader of a group of space marines. This season is considered the best by many fans on account of the strategic space fleet battles, the imaginative spaceship designs created by Studio Nue, and the character development of Gamilas leader Desler.

Footage from Arrivederci Yamato was reused in the second season, particularly in the opening titles; the sequence of the Yamato launching from water was also reused in two of the subsequent movies. The English adaptation was known as Star Blazers: The Comet Empire.

I can still sing the theme song...."We're offfffffffff to outer spaaaaaaaace. We're leaving mother eaaaaaarth. To save the human raaaaaaaace........" My friends and I watched this show everyDAY before 7th grade and after that also. It came on right after Speed Racer and before Rodger Ramjet. We continually followed the plights of Mark Venture, Derek Wildstar, Nova, the Captain and all the others. I believe that I was actually very, very sad when the Captain died. It seemed that there was ALWAYS a reason to fire off the "wave-motion" gun in each episode.....but oh well. I loved the series....hope it comes back on cable!

I LOVED this show!