Space Battleship Yamato III (宇宙戦艦ヤマトIII Uchū Senkan Yamato Surī) is the third TV season of the Space Battleship Yamato franchise, produced in Japan in 1980. The story begins at an undisclosed date, but was traditionally believed to have taken place in the year 2205 due to statements made in several of the publications devoted to Yamato III (such as its 'Roman Album'. However, the sequel film, Final Yamato, explicitly took place in late 2203, so after the film was released, the date of Yamato III was assumed to be early 2203.

In the late 2100s, the planet Gamilon, a world far beyond Earth's solar system, declares an invasion of Earth. The nations of Earth fight as one against the Gamilons, but one by one, Earth's fleets are defeated. When the nations of Earth refuse to surrender, Gamilon begins bombarding Earth with planet bombs, radioactive missiles that look like meteors, which gradually spread deadly radiation all over Earth, forcing what's left of humanity to retreat to underground cities. Queen Starsha of planet Iscandar contacts Earth and promises to provide Cosmo-DNA that can remove the radioactivity and restore Earth to beautiful life. She provides plans to an engine that will allow a brave, young group of technicians to journey more than a hundred thousand light-years to Iscandar, obtain the Cosmo-DNA, and return to Earth within one Earth year. In 2199, an ancient seagoing vessel is fitted with the awesome engine and launched toward Iscandar. Along the way, the intrepid crew must fight the ...

In the year 2199, a starship must make a dangerous voyage to the distant planet Iscandar and back to save Earth from an alien invasion. Star Blazers is an American animated television series adaptation of the Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato I (1974), II (1978) and III (1980) (宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato). Star Blazers was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. Significantly, it was the first popular English-translated anime that had an overarching plot and storyline (story arc) that required the episodes to be shown in order. It dealt with somewhat more mature themes than other productions aimed at the same target audience at the time. As a result, it paved the way for future arc-based, plot-driven anime translations.