by the fans for the fans

Anyone still keeping up with Star Blazers/Space Battleship Yamato too?

About a year or so ago I asked at rt.com about Star Blazers and got interested in it again and when I saw the Yamato LAM video it looks awesome and by chance I only found 2 dvds of Series one part 1 & 2.

There is a website that sells Star Blazers complete sets at bargin prices here:

www.starblazers.com

That site still sells dvds for those like me who missed out on the store releases.I can't believe that these dvd sets was released back in 2001 and I just discovered Star Blazers again after 30 years.I know I am getting that complete set with my tax return.

If it was not for Star Blazers (And Voltron) I may not have been led to Robotech and still stuck on old Dick Tracy and Bugs Bunny cartoons.

While on the subject,is anyone familiar with the Japanese Yamato? because I heard some strange things like IQ 9 was a "chester"

Either way,Star Blazers RULES! (Even tho the english theme song sounds like Gilligan's Island theme song)

Oh, boy...

Ancient history for me.

When I was a young kid, I watched Star Blazers, even though I was really too young to understand it, I did love the look of the Yamato, or, as it was known in Star Blazers, the Argo.

Now I see these newer productions like the LAM and the recent animated feature, and I'm starting to get that old feeling again.

I'm becoming a fan of this show, again!

I have no idea if the new movie's any good, but I have to admit that watching the Yamato launch out of the ice here puts huge grin on my face.

Gubaba wrote:

I have no idea if the new movie's any good, but I have to admit that watching the Yamato launch out of the ice here puts huge grin on my face.

I have to admit that looks to be beautifully animated. However (yea, I know, I know) I cannot for the life of me NOT think of Spock in Wrath of Khan 'He's intelligent, but inexperienced. His patterns indicate 2-dimensional thinking'. Any enemy that doesn't have mush for brains would deploy fighters to attack the Yamato along its ventral, where it has no defensive armament. Its why I dislike the use of designs like the Ikazuchi from Mospeada/Robotech as cruisers. No one in their right mind is going to build something to throw into a battle-line where 3-dimensional thinking is required, like outer space, and NOT have armament spread throughout to cover all arcs.

Brooklyn Red Leg wrote:

Gubaba wrote:

I have no idea if the new movie's any good, but I have to admit that watching the Yamato launch out of the ice here puts huge grin on my face.

I have to admit that looks to be beautifully animated. However (yea, I know, I know) I cannot for the life of me NOT think of Spock in Wrath of Khan 'He's intelligent, but inexperienced. His patterns indicate 2-dimensional thinking'. Any enemy that doesn't have mush for brains would deploy fighters to attack the Yamato along its ventral, where it has no defensive armament. Its why I dislike the use of designs like the Ikazuchi from Mospeada/Robotech as cruisers. No one in their right mind is going to build something to throw into a battle-line where 3-dimensional thinking is required, like outer space, and NOT have armament spread throughout to cover all arcs.

Well (as I'm sure you know), the entire concept of refitting a WWII battleship for space combat is utterly ridiculous, isn't it?

But I think that's what I love about a lot of the Leiji Matsumoto stuff. It's all very abstract and dreamlike in a way...it makes no practical sense whatsoever, but there's a poetic truth behind all of the silliness that makes it somehow plausible on a deeper level, or in a symbolic way. Beautiful stories, beautiful designs...who cares about realism?

Oh yeah!
Since one (maybe more) are becoming fans of Star Blazers/SB Yamato then I recommend going to the site and buy the dvd set there instead of a dvd store.I just realized I could have bought the entier Series 1 for $89 and I already bought 2 individual dvds at Fry's for $20 And now I ready to spit cotton.

Gubaba
Some odd reason I could not see that image or vid you put up.And I was thinking the same thing not long ago about why use a old 1944 warship,Maybe he wanted to symbolize something like "it was meant for distruction,now its meant for peace and mankind" notion to use the Yamato.

Speaking of Yamato,if anyone is familiar with the old 90's computer game Star Craft the Terran Battlecruisers main nuclear blast shot was named "Yamato blaster" or something like that.

Pizza the Hutt wrote:

Oh yeah!
Since one (maybe more) are becoming fans of Star Blazers/SB Yamato then I recommend going to the site and buy the dvd set there instead of a dvd store.I just realized I could have bought the entier Series 1 for $89 and I already bought 2 individual dvds at Fry's for $20 And now I ready to spit cotton.

Yeah, getting the box sets is the way to go...MY problem is that I bought all the sets on VHS long ago...I'd like to upgrade to DVD, but I've heard the transfers of the movies are just awful. I've been thinking about getting the Japanese DVDs (used, of course) and slapping a subtitle patch on them...

Pizza the Hutt wrote:

Some odd reason I could not see that image or vid you put up.

Go to Youtube. It's youtube.com, then a slash, then: watch?v=RjdVE_GJR9E

Pizza the Hutt wrote:

And I was thinking the same thing not long ago about why use a old 1944 warship,Maybe he wanted to symbolize something like "it was meant for distruction,now its meant for peace and mankind" notion to use the Yamato.

I'd like to think that's the case, but I actually think the truth is a little darker than that. It's a very nationalistic show, and extreme right-wingers in Japan just love it. So I think that, really, it's a show about Japan getting another chance to fight WWII, but this time they're the good guys, and they win.

It's similar to the spate of Vietnam War movies we in the US got in the '80s (the most popular of course being Rambo) where we got to re-fight the war and win.

By the way...I mentioned this on Macross World, but I think it's worth mentioning here as well: has anyone checked out the official Star Blazers site ? Talk about a comprehensive site! Scholarly articles about the history the show, detailed analysis of the difference between Yamato and Star Blazers, TONS of information about both Japanese and US merchandise (hell, they've even translated some of the Yamato manga and put it up for viewing), synopses of the Yamato novelizations, news about upcoming Yamato movies, even a long account of the failed Yamato 2520 series. It's a truly great resource for any interested in Star Blazers and Yamato.

Why couldn't Robotech.com be that comprehensive?

Gubaba wrote:

Why couldn't Robotech.com be that comprehensive?

Because its Steve & Tommy Yune we're talking about. Robotech.com is just a mediocre site that does one thing: sell Toynami merchandise. Thats basically the long and the short of it. There were fansites of Robotech back in the 90s that were more complete than the 'official' is now.

Brooklyn Red Leg wrote:

Gubaba wrote:

Why couldn't Robotech.com be that comprehensive?

Because its Steve & Tommy Yune we're talking about. Robotech.com is just a mediocre site that does one thing: sell Toynami merchandise. Thats basically the long and the short of it. There were fansites of Robotech back in the 90s that were more complete than the 'official' is now.

It's a real shame, isn't it? I think it'd be great if I could go to RT.com to find out about not just whatever color Beta Fighter they're coming out with, but production details about the originals shows AND Robotech, interviews with staff and cast, both Japanese and American, news about things like Macross Chronicle or the Mospeada line-art book.

Voyager Entertainment hasn't given Star Blazers or Yamato their due as far as DVDs go (there's still no in-Japanese-with-subs edition of any of the the three TV series, and all their releases are badly in need of remastering), but they do a magnificent job of keeping the website updated with the latest news AND "archeological digs" into the show's past; even the Japanese site is not as comprehensive.

RT.com could likewise be the hub for EVERYTHING connected to Robotech. As it stands, though, you've got a half-assed exploration of Robotech, and any talk about the three original series (beyond cursory summaries and acknowledgements that, well, they exist...and can be bought from the RT.com store) is relegated to the forums, where the majority of the posters get their info wrong.

I think it would ease a lot of the tensions between Macross and Robotech fans, and it would also make everything a whole lot clearer, so we wouldn't have to deal with people coming in and saying things like, "I just saw Macross Plus, and I don't understand...does it happen BEFORE the Masters Saga or AFTER?"

So yeah...bravo to Voyager Entertainment! Your DVDs suck, but your website is great!

Brooklyn Red leg

Because its Steve & Tommy Yune,unfair moderators and groups like d.O.l. we're talking about. Robotech.com is just a mediocre site that does a few things: sell Toynami merchandise,make false promises of more Robotech and make unfair judgements on banning people like Waters7,Sorral and me and others too. Thats basically the long and the short of it.

Fixed

Gubaba
I guess I was a bit off on the notion of why Yamato was used for the Argo.And if you are on the fence about the dvds I like the quality in the ones I recently got and it sounds good on my 5.1 surround but it isnt widescreen so I need to "zoom" my hd to "full" screen.At $40 for 2 dvds it better be good quality.And I seen japanese Yamato without subs on Ebay region 2 but it was used for $300 complete with a model Yamato.But if you got an easy $20+ to spend and find a dvd at a electronics store then maybe you can see if you like the quality.

Laters
Pete