SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 (2012), Theatrical Feature and Animated Series!

Read all about it — an animated remake of the original 1974 series — and see the official teaser trailer!
http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2011/11/s...9-2012-new.html

This looks a helluva lot better than that live-action remake from a year or two ago.

I'm hoping that it will be — by the look of it, it's entirely faithful to the original, visually, at the very least.

SCOOP: This past weekend in Tokyo, the 1,000-seat Yomiuri Hall in Tokyo was packed for a special YAMATO: 2199 Launch Party, featuring the staff & cast, as well as a special screening of the first episode, while in the lobby, a 3'45" promo video for the upcoming release was playing — and you can watch it now, here: SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 Promotion Video!

Here are more details on the upcoming DVD & BD Release of Volume 1:
SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 (2012): Coming to Japanese BD & DVD on May 25th!

More character designs:
SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 (2012) 1st Look: Kato, Starsha, Dessler, Domel & More!

BREAKING NEWS: The upcoming Japanese Blu-ray release of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 will feature English Subtitles!

This post has been edited by August Ragone on Mar 15 2012, 03:11 PM

MAJOR SPOILER WARNING: If you don't like Spoilers, then this link is definitely not for you — don't look! Here is the first 10 minutes of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 Episode 1: "The Messenger From Iscandar" featuring the Battle of Pluto, as streamed on the Bandai Channel (Japan only). The video is a little choppy, as it was ripped by an enterprising fan and converted from streaming video to an .rar file. Still, it's the best we can see before the official Japanese theatrical release on April 7, 2012 (where the DVD and BDs will be sold, one per customer) or the public DVD/BD release on May 25, 2012. View at your own risk...

http://augustragone.blogspot.com/2012/04/s...-2199-2012.html

This post has been edited by August Ragone on Apr 1 2012, 02:03 PM

Japanese flyer for the second feature "Desperate Struggle in the Solar System" (containing Episodes 3-6) opening on June 30th in Japan.

Here's the trailer:
http://youtu.be/or09dSlxltM

August, I don't get the reference to "episodes." If these are theatrical features then when were they episodes? Did they run on TV first or get released as OAVs first? Or are they based on the TV episodes? Are they being released in chapters, serial-style? I'm confused.

Thanks.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Jun 11 2012, 03:07 PM

All pertinent questions are answered in the links I provided, as well as at www.starblazers.com. Unfortunately, time does not allow me the luxury of replying at length at the moment. I hope you all will forgive me.

This post has been edited by August Ragone on Jun 14 2012, 06:48 PM

So, let me get this straight: this series was made for TV, but then nobody wanted to run it, right? Why not? They run tons of unbelievably crappy-looking anime TV series every year on TV in Japan, yet no one wanted to run a hot property like this? I'm clearly missing something here.

This post has been edited by Brian Camp on Jun 17 2012, 08:05 AM

Sorry, I may have actually included that info in my feature story for the all-Japanese issue of "Famous Monsters" #262 (on sale now)... Okay, here's the deal: Since the Japanese economy and the state of anime are both on a downturn, the old model of releasing anime had to be rethought. The old model was to produce and broadcast a television series, then issue the series on periodic home video formats, and then after all was said and done, there would be a theatrical film or a series of them.

This is no longer working or providing to be profitable.

The Bandai Group decided to do go to a reverse strategy with GUNDAM UNICORN; first release the episodes as a series of periodic feature films to a limited number of cinemas. These would be followed a month later by a home video release. Once all was said and done, the series would begin television broadcast.

Because this new strategy proved to be successful, the same was done with YAMATO: 2199 (which was in various stages of pre-production for four years before it was greenlit). But, with YAMATO: 2199, they've been more aggressive with marketing, public appearances, online teasers, mass media, etc. In fact, they've breeched the Otaku Zone, by getting major press coverage in a score of mainstream Japanese magazines (such as "Oriental Business"), which have nothing to do with film or anime.

Additionally, they've also promoted limited-edition, theater-exclusive versions of the Blu-ray and DVD — which include extras not available in the mass-market editions that follow a month after each theatrical release, such as complete Storyboard Booklets, etc. During the opening weekend of the first film, all Blu-ray copies of Vol. 1 were sold out in three major theaters, and the others cinemas followed over the course of the next week. This was better than expected.

This new marketing strategy is proving extremely successful for YAMATO: 2199, and is also cracking a demographic that previous recent productions (YAMATO RESURRECTION in 2009 and Takashi Yamazaki's live action movie in 2010) were unable to — the under 30 demo — which was the stigma that YAMATO had around it's neck. It seems that all of the elements that went into making and promoting 2199 have chased away that Albatross.

So, YAMATO: 2199 is a hit television series which has not even aired on television... yet.

(That will happen in 2013.)

This post has been edited by August Ragone on Jun 22 2012, 01:58 PM

Has anyone heard any talk about this being released in the US? I just can't afford to spring for $90 a disc...

I just bought SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO RESURRECTION (2009) at HQ Video in NYC for $9, thinking it was this film. (The title was in Japanese only. )