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Hideaki Anno Leads Space Battleship Yamato Anime 50th Anniversary Project
posted on by Anita Tai
Studio Khara announced on Saturday that Hideaki Anno will be planning and producing a 50th anniversary project for Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato space opera anime franchise. The project will include several book publications, as well as a screening event on October 6, which would mark 50 years exactly after the first episode of the anime aired in 1974. An exhibition is also planned across Japan.
The planned book publications include: an artbook from manga creator Michio Murakawa, a book of design artwork from mechanical designer Junichirō Tamamori, a 50th anniversary commemoration edition Space Battleship Yamato 1974 Complete Works book, and publications of manga. Studio Khara will be the one to publish the latter two projects.
The Neon Genesis Evangelion creator has frequently cited the series as inspiring his interest in anime and planned the opening sequence to the Star Blazers 2199 series. Anno stated in a comment about the project that he has been a fan of the franchise for 49 years, since his second year in middle school. He added that he didn't think he would be the same person he is today without the franchise. He reminisced about how he missed the first episode when it was first broadcast, but how he watched the second through final episode, sacrificing even watching Great Mazinger and running home after cram school to do so.
The original anime follows the voyages of the World War II battleship Yamato after it is resurrected as a space-faring ship to fend off alien threats to Earth. The first television series premiered in October of 1974. The first animated film then opened in 1977 and earned 2.1 billion yen (about US$23 million) at the box office. The anime franchise later garnered a record instantaneous television rating of 50% in 1978.
Yamato yo Towa ni: Rebel 3199 (Be Forever Yamato: Rebel 3199), the next project in the Space Battleship Yamato remakes, will premiere as seven films, beginning with the first film "Kuro no Shinryaku" (Dark Invasion) on July 19.
Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 is a remake of the original 1974 Space Battleship Yamato series created by Leiji Matsumoto and Yoshinobu Nishizaki. It first premiered in Japan as a series of seven movies shown theatrically in Japan from 2012 to 2013, before premiering on Japanese television in April 2013. The Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199: Hoshi-Meguru Hakobune anime film then opened in Japan in 2014.
Sources: Studio Khara, PR Times Japan, Comic Natalie
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