Star Blazers is the name of the US release of Space Battleship Yamato. It’s a show that I remember fondly mainly for the space battles, which were important for me as an eight year old boy. I guess I missed out on most of heavier elements of the story, but I clearly remember the wave motion cannon and the Black Tiger fighter plane squadron.
The US was in a very different place then in terms of dealing with foreign media, because they bowldlerized it to heck and back. They even changed the name of the show to avoid the whole WWII reference.
Which is a far cry today, where there’s fan outcry if they get the subtitles wrong. To be fair, a lot of fans are getting the high definition broadcasts with high quality translations over the grey market two days after broadcast in Japan. It’s understandable if they’re a bit snippy when the DVD they’ve legally purchased contains a lower definition picture and subtitles that are outright wrong. I guess I should slash soapbox here but it’s just the way it is.
But back to StarBlazers, or rather Space Battleship Yamato. Today, I found this.
I just want to see it.
I guess I’m a sucker for a crossing the desert depths of space in search of the promised land space vaccuum macguffin story