Yamato: Resurrection 720p - (2009 Lang: Japanese, Sub:English)

A Nutshell Review: Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection:



I think I'm a kid again in deciding to watch the Space Cruiser Yamato take to outer space in new missions from where it last left off some many, many years ago. Of late the interest in this Japanese Star Trek equivalent was piqued due to the fact that there will be a live action film due end of this year, starring Takuya Kimura as Kodai and Meisa Kuroki as Yuki. One cannot let a good space ship down of course, and until then, we have to make do with this continuing film of the space opera, which I liken to be something like Star Trek's The Next Generation.

Set in the Year 2220, Earth gets threatened by a black hole heading into the Milky Way and swallowing everything in its path, so the humans have decided to prevent an extinction, and to ditch the planet since a new surrogate one has been found in another star system. Civilian shuttle arks have been built for the mass emigration, but two waves have been attacked at the mid way mark and lives lost when an alien conspiracy is abound to want to ensure mankind is destroyed. So if you happen to be the former Science Officer aboard the Yamato, and now the Secretary of Science for Earth, you're inclined to get one of your ex-colleagues who's now a top notch maverick and hands-on Captain in his own right, Kodai (Koichi Yamadera), to lead the next mission. Kodai of course has his own agenda to want to do this, as his wife Yuki is assumed to have perished in the earlier mission, and daughter Miyuki (Ayumi Fujimura) is pinning the blame on Dad.

And what good is an awesome captain if he's not given the best possible ship in the fleet? The Yamato gets rebuilt (hence the title) because of the philosophy of never letting a good ship be forgotten and die off. After all, the Starship Enterprise has had its many variations and improvements over the years, and this new Yamato comes with an improved weapons system updated to face its current threat, such as a full complement of fighters and bombers on board, and a new transwave motion gun that can fire up to 6 charges before a recharge is required (and thus leaving the ship vulnerable). The ship can take plenty, and I mean plenty of damage, and long range warp drive also looks good on screen. I guarantee goosebumps when the Yamato gets launched into its first mission escorting civilian vessels to get to Planet Amare's moon, accompanied by its theme song for dramatic impact.

Like Star Trek TNG, this film provides that base introduction to the ship's new crew under the guidance of a new captain, though some of the old crew like Doctor Sado and the red robot Analyzer still feature in bit roles but outside of the battleship. It takes a while for the new crew to gel, each being a specialist in their field, and some have duo vocations. The story plays on the fact that the Yamato (just like the Enterprise) is a morale-boosting ship, and truly for fans, it's likely you'll feel that way as it takes on its multiple threats in its mission, one being the battle against the confrontational aliens bent on stopping the emigration programme, and another being caught in political intrigue as the Planet Amare, a member of the Star Union led by the war-like SUS, gets issued with a threat for it being friendly to a non-Union planet. And not to forget that black hole approach toward Planet Earth, which gives rise to a quick last minute reflection on environmental damage and the human failure to appreciate what Mother Earth has given us, and our continued exploitation and raping of the planet.

Being an animated film, it had the surprising feeling that it's quite pro-war. Disagreements get solved using force, and the Yamato being an essential part of the war-effort when driving away aggressors, in line with the adage that to maintain the peace it must be prepared for war and willing to dish out massive damage to enemies not willing to give the human race a fighting chance for survival. But before you go into a frenzy, do note that there's a large military influence in the source material, so there. The battle sequences are some of the best, almost resembling a Star Wars on Steroids, with planes and cannons going into overdrive, filling the screen in a sensory assault. While the design of the Yamato is largely unchanged, the alien ship designs are something to gawk at as well.

For those who cannot wait for the live action film, then perhaps this animated one will be able to whet your appetite for the time being, and prepare the groundwork for the next generation Yamato crew to take over with new adventures.

Space Battleship Yamato: Resurrection (宇宙戦艦ヤマト 復活篇 Uchū Senkan Yamato: Fukkatsu Hen) is a 2009 Japanese animated science fiction action film, and the first part of a planned series of films which are the latest addition to the Space Battleship Yamato saga. Resurrection is set in the year 2220, 21 years after the first Yamato story and 17 years after the story of the last film, Final Yamato. A wandering black hole is approaching the Solar system, and will surely destroy all life on Earth. The decision has been made to evacuate Earth's entire population. The planet to which Earth's population is being moved is called Amare, ruled by Queen Iriya, some 27,000 light years away in the Sairam star system. When the film opens, that task is already under way. The Yamato had been destroyed in 2203.

The film opens as the Earth Flagship "Blue Noah" leads the first Emigration Fleet to Amare. Suddenly, thousands of unidentified ships appear and open fire. The Earth fleet's (EDF) warships counterattack, but are quickly overwhelmed. Blue Noah is damaged critically. On one of the failing support ships, Captain Yuki Mori Kodai, wife of the protagonist Susumu Kodai, orders her ship to do an emergency warp, but for some reason, she vanishes mysteriously after the warp.

Thirty-eight-year-old Susumu Kodai, having quit the EDF sometime after Final Yamato, becomes captain of the cargo vessel "Yuki". He picks up the distress signal from the crippled Blue Noah and quickly arrives at the wreck with a boarding party. Without warning, three ships of the enemy fleet arrive. With Kodai at the helm, Blue Noah has just enough power to cover a small distance and fire one shot. Kodai's precise timing and maneuvering destroys all three ships.

Later, at the Headquarters of the EDF, Commander Sanada discusses with Kodai about the approaching black hole. Kodai also learns that his wife became lost in the battle. Sanada wants Kodai to lead the Third Emigration Fleet, saying he should follow his wife's example of volunteering.

Kodai returns home, and is met by his bitter daughter, Miyuki, who blames him for the supposed death of his wife. The two barely speak, and before Kodai can attempt to talk with her, he is called back to HQ with news about the second fleet being destroyed by three different fleets, not including the enemy fleet earlier. This means Earth now has four enemies. Kodai accepts command of the Third Emigration Fleet without hesitation, and Sanada reveals his ship: the "Yamato" itself, newly rebuilt in the Aquarius ice asteroid. After arriving at its drydock and taking his seat in the captain's chair, he makes a solemn vow to find his wife, refusing to believe she is dead. On the other side of the galaxy, the leader of the enemy fleets and the fleet that attacked the Blue Noah is revealed to be the SUS. Metzler, the leader of the SUS, deceived the others that Earth is an invader, and they are barbarians. However, one leader—Gouri, admiral of a fleet belonging to the planet Ethos—is unsure.

The Yamato takes off and joins the fleet, taking its place at the front as Flagship. In the planning room, the crew lays out the mission. The plan is to slingshot around a small black hole, BH199, and boost the arks and warships into high warp, propelling them to Amare much faster than usual. There is no other option, as there are enemy ships lurking around them and the previous fleets were destroyed at this area. Gouri watches the first group of arks slingshot and warp, and then, still unsure, orders an attack. Soon, all the fleets open fire in a frantic battle, damaging warships in each side.

However, when Gouri witnesses the Yamato putting herself in harm's way to defend an ark, Gouri concludes that he has been lied to. He orders his fleets to cease firing and retreat, since the action of the Yamato is "not how barbarians act". He contacts Kodai and tells him that they were misled, twisted to do the bidding of the SUS. Seeing that the EDF fleet fought honorably, Gouri allows them to go in peace. It had some repercussions—he is later threatened by Barlsman, a SUS leader. However, Gouri holds his ground.

The third EDF fleet successfully arrives at Amare, much to the joy of HQ and the citizens of Earth. However, not all is well. SUS launches an attack on Amare, dropping bombs on its cities. Gouri, in an attempt to reclaim his honor and save Amare, rams his vessel into the SUS flagship, destroying it and killing him in the process. Yamato is ordered by General Pascal not to interfere, as it would make Amare-SUS relations worse. Kodai, remembering that his wife always fought injustice, is inspired and informs the Queen Iriya of Amare of his intention to declare war on the SUS. The Yamato launches and blows the SUS bombers away easily. The Queen is brought to tears and thanks Kodai and his crew for their bravery. General Pascal is also inspired, and joins the EDF fleet for one final battle: an assault on the nearby SUS space fortress. If it is destroyed, then the SUS will lose control over everything.

Earth and Amare fleets warp in, and are plunged into battle. Once again, the EDF fleet takes heavy damage, and the Amare fleet is completely wiped out. During the long battle, the Yamato's First Officer sacrifices himself and disables the defensive energy shield around the fortress by ramming it with the Shinano, Yamato's auxiliary ship. The Yamato prepares its Wave Motion Gun for the first time, and with five powerful shots, destroys the fortress. Then, an immense ship emerges from the bowels of the destroyed fortress, unleashing one superweapon after another. It is only stopped when Kodai, realizing that the power source is the artificial sun behind it, uses the final available shot of the Wave Motion Gun on it, collapsing the sun and turning it into a black hole. The Yamato escapes, while the enemy ship—with all of the SUS leaders in it—is torn apart and sucked into it. Metzler escaped the destruction of the SUS space fortress, and appears to the Yamato crew and reveals himself and the people of the SUS as energy beings that can change form, being sent to this galaxy from another universe. He then disappears.

The Yamato warps back to Earth, and the energy being Metzler appears again. He reveals that the black hole headed for Earth is artificially created and controlled: it will serve as a portal to "steal" Earth and take its resources, since they cannot be found in his world. Kodai realizes that it must have a power source. The Wave Motion Gun automatically reconfigured to enable it to fire all six shots in one go, a risky decision that could destroy the ship, but the crew unanimously agree that saving Earth is more important. The Yamato dives into the black hole, and as it reaches the core, the Wave Motion Gun fires, destroying the artificial weapon in a gigantic implosion. The blast from the Wave Motion Gun had ruptured and damaged the Yamato bow and front section; the third bridge (where the ship's navigation room resides) also suffers serious damage and is exposed to space, killing Chief Navigator Maho Orihara, who was working in it, and her assistants; but the ship is still space-worthy and orbits Earth in triumph. Earth can now be repopulated and the arks can return home. Kodai also reconciles with his daughter in the end.

Nishizaki Yoshinobu's "Uchuu Senkan Yamato Fukkatsu Hen" is an ambitious yet ultimately disappointing entry into the "Uchuu Senkan Yamato" anime saga. While the impressive CGI and improved animation may be attractively eye-catching, it can't save the film from a confusing story with uninteresting characters and none of the heart that made the earlier "Yamato" movies work.

Producer Nishizaki and acclaimed manga artist Matsumoto Leiji's 1974 "Yamato" TV series set the golden standard for anime series with its emotionally poignant and melodramatic "space opera" story. Matsumoto's signature animation style incorporating complex and highly detailed mecha, ethereal characters and sophisticated design work influenced a generation of animators/artists and helped usher in a renaissance of Japanese Sci-Fi fantasy and space drama films and series during the 70s. This achievement is even more amazing as "Yamato" predates George Lucas' "Star Wars" by a good three years.

The 26-episode series was condensed into a 130-minute-long movie by combining elements from a few key episodes and debuted in 1978, successfully competing against "Star Wars": A New Hope's" in Japan.

The success of both the TV series and abridged movie spawned a second and third TV series (1978 and 1980 respectively) and also generated four sequel movies (Saraba Uchuu Senkan Yamato/Farewell Yamato; Uchuu Senkan Yamato Ataranaru Tabidachi/Yamato The New Voyage; Yamato To Towa Ni/Be Forever Yamato and Uchuu Senkan Yamato Kanketsu Hen/Final Yamato).

The dubbed version by Westchester/Claster, known as "Star Blazers" was considered by many one of the best adaptations of a Japanese anime series ever and is still fondly remembered by American fanboys who grew up at that time.

While Nishizaki attempted to try and re-capture the "lightening in a bottle" success of "Yamato" with other similar nautically themed projects, most notably "Odin - Kôshi Hobune Starlight" (1986) and "Uchu Kubo Blue Noah" AKA Thundersub (1979), they were met with lukewarm results. Even, the much hyped "Yamato 2520" which had the gimmick of using new ship designs by famed "Blade Runner" designer and futurist Syn Mead was as a failure.

Nishizaki's "Fukatsu Hen" (Resurrection) goes back to basics by making it a direct sequel to the fourth film "Final Yamato".

17 years after the events of "Final Yamato", Earth is threatened again with total destruction this time in the form of a "black hole" funnel of energy which is destroying everything in its path (similar to the "Comet Empire" saga). Earth's united defense force under the leadership of former Yamato science officer Sanada Shiro (Aono Takeshi) make plans to evacuate Earth's population to a distant world called Amal (arabic for Hope). However Amal and its sister planet belong to a coalition of Alien planets that are part of the SUS and the SUS refuses to allow the Earth refuges to colonize there and sends coalition forces to attack the first of Earth's convoys to Amal. Kodai/Mori Yuki (Yume Noriko)Captain of one of the escort battleships is "lost" in the battle while trying to escape in a warp maneuver. Captain Kodai Susumu (Yamadera Kôichi) is called back from deep space exploration and is tasked to lead Earth's next convoy to Amal. Sanada tells Kodai that he and his technicians have rebuilt the Yamato (last seen destroyed in remnants of the Aquarius water planet in the events of "Final Yamato"). The new Yamato is retrofitted with a new engine that bolsters the "Wave Motion" engine and also enables the Yamato to fire consecutive blasts of Wave Motion energy.

Captain Kodai takes command of the Yamato and brings aboard a new crew of young recruits including hotshot pilot/helmsman Kobayashi Atsushi (Namikawa Daisuke), Nagivation Specialist Orihara Maho (Yuzuki Ryōka), Artillery specialist Goda Minoru(Takase Akimitsu), Chief Medical Officer and Cosmo Tiger pilot Sasaki Miharu (Fuyuka Ōura) and twin Engineers Sho and So Tenma (Sakaguchi Daisuke ). Estranged daughter and nurse Kodai Miyuki (Fujimura Ayumi) refuses to join her father opting to stay on Earth with Dr. Sakezo Sado (Nagai Ichirô) and faithful companion Analyzer (Ogata Kenichi).

Together they guide Earth's second wave of refugees to Amal but can they withstand the onslaught of the SUS lead by Admiral Metzlar(Yanaka Hiroshi)and Commander-in-Chief Balzman (Iizuka Shōzō).

The story by Ishihara Shintarô (elder brother of actor/singer Ishihara Yujiro and former Governor of Tokyo)focuses a lot on socio-political issues relating to immigration, sovereign rights and also hints at the current situation in Iraq but fails to really capture the emotional power of the earlier Yamato films particularly the first film. The SUS are a generic enemy and lack any of the interesting aspects of the Gamalus/Gamilon Empire. Metzler and Balzman are boring villains and I long for the days in which the charismatic Dessler/Desslock made for a worthy and noble opponent.

Nishizaki's direction is competent but again lacks the thrill of early installment and he takes a "paint by numbers" approach at telling his story. There is little surprise and in fact the battle scenes are quite boring when compared to other films. Fanboys will be happy at seeing some neat references to other series.

The revised theme song by JPop band The Alfee is terrible and makes one long for the original Sasaki Isao version.

While some comparisons have been made to the "Star Trek" series, I think "Yamato Fukatsu Hen" shares more in common with the recent "Battlestar: Galactica" than anything else especially in that both films deal with humanities struggle to survive and endure amidst terrible circumstances and the threat of total annihilation by an alien empire. Of course, it's a "chicken and the egg" causality dilemma as one wonders who inspired who.

Die-hard fans may find "Fukatsu Hen" enjoyable on a purely nostalgic level but for others it is an anti-climatic and unsatisfying footnote to an otherwise epic saga. The film leaves room for possible sequel ("The Search For Yuki"?) but this fan would rather just rewatch the first two movies and TV series and just leave it at that.

Disappointing follow up to one of anime's most beloved series...