Space Battleship Yamato
1974
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Complex '70s series still has allure for mature tweens. Read Common Sense Media's Star Blazers review, age rating, and parents guide.
- Gordon Ramsey, Tom Tweedy, Kenneth Meseroll
- Emily Ashby
Overall, the series is rough on the edges, with many minor flaws such as character inconsistencies and scientific factual blunders, not to mention the gross inefficiency of using a seagoing battleship design for a space cruiser. However, the core of it is pure genius and I'm held in rapt admiration of it.
- Space Battleship Yamato was retooled for Western audiences in the wake of Star Wars, and was among the first anime kids of that era ever saw.
- Top 25 Best Anime Series of All Time
By Jim Vejvoda
Posted: May 11, 2020 7:10 pm
Star Blazers is available on DVD if you hunt around, and you can find clips on YouTube. The original Japanese series, Space Battleship Yamato, was remade and modernized in 2012 as Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199, which is available to stream on Amazon Prime and Funimation.
Star Blazers, the English-language adaptation of the seminal Japanese anime Space Battleship Yamato, was -- along with Astro Boy, Battle of the Planets, and Speed Racer -- likely among the first anime many Western audiences of the 1970s to mid-1980s ever saw. Star Blazers was an Americanized adaptation, with character names and even the series’ signature battleship changed for stateside viewers. It was an epic, melodramatic saga of sacrifice, courage, and love all in the service of saving a dying Earth from alien invaders.
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Star Blazers was a serialized show full of spaceship battles, evil empires, and cosmic adventures that appealed to those Generation X kids in the West growing up on Star Wars and Star Trek movies (back when there was only the original Trek series on TV). Space Battleship Yamato originally ran from 1974-75 before spawning sequel movies and subsequent seasons in the wake of the global phenomenon of Star Wars in 1977. Adapted for U.S. television as Star Blazers -- including a catchy opening theme song that recapped the series’ premise -- the show ran in syndication from 1979-1984.
The crew's trials and tribulations, loves and losses -- the series was unafraid to kill off characters -- added depth and heart to a show deemed “a good kids’ property.” All of which made Star Blazers an engrossing treat for young U.S. viewers hungry for more star-warring and star-trekking in-between film releases. While Star Blazers is more in line with the ship-centric, jargon-filled Star Trek than the more mystical-minded Star Wars, fans of both beloved franchises should find much to enjoy about this pulpy sci-fi series, as well as the groundbreaking original anime. Enjoy the journey!
Consider Star Blazers if you enjoyed...
•Star Trek: Discovery
•Interstellar
•Battlestar Galactica (2004)
•Robotech
Jun 20, 2023 · Star Blazers. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning director Chris McQuarrie explains why no one wanted to adapt Star Blazers to live-action.
- Senior News Writer
Feb 28, 2022 · Star Blazers 2199 is an essential slice of space opera and easily approachable to franchise newcomers, so why isn't it finding its audience?
Star Blazers: With Eddie Allen, Michael Bertolini, Amy Howard Wilson, Lydia Leeds. 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.
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Sep 20, 2015 · Read Star Blazers reviews from parents on Common Sense Media. Become a member to write your own review.
