LD Game Special Part 2: The Weakest Space Battleship Yamato in History - The 1985 Yamato Winter Era

The masterpiece "Space Battleship Yamato" shines brilliantly in the history of Japanese anime. Its ambitious attempt to feature a space battleship as the protagonist and depict a youth ensemble drama on the battlefield created a legion of enthusiastic anime fans. Needless to say, Yamato is supposed to be an invincible space battleship, but the LD version, which was the only digital game at the time, shows it being defeated in the weakest way in history, overturning that common knowledge.
This time, I will chronicle the 1985 winter era of Space Battleship Yamato through the LD game. (Please be aware that this contains spoilers 🙇)

❶ Struggling even to launch? The weakest Yamato in history

1985 was the year I was in the 6th grade of elementary school, and it was the year I first went to an arcade around the end of the year. As an enthusiastic Yamato fan, I never tired of watching the opening of the "LD Game Version Space Battleship Yamato" I saw there. I was captivated by the heroic theme playing from the cockpit-style large cabinet.

As I featured last time, LD games are video games that use LaserDiscs for video display. In 1983, when they were developed, their selling point was that they could display images and videos on a scale incomparable to other video games.
The videos used for LD games were broadly divided into three types: live-action footage, computer CG, and anime footage, with each type mixed in. However, because the display capabilities of video games at the time were low, when combined with the clear images of an LD, a sense of incongruity was inevitable. For that reason, the type that eventually became mainstream was the one using anime footage.
Although LD games declined in a very short period, this "Space Battleship Yamato" is a work from the final period of LD games, released around the same time as the hit work "Time Gal" which became synonymous with LD games. It might be easier to understand if I say it was released around the same time as the Famicom's Super Mario. Please refer to my previous post for information on early LD games.

The star of 1985 anime was "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam," and I am part of the generation directly hit by Gunpla. However, being behind the times even then, I was obsessed with Yamato. Since the first broadcast of "Space Battleship Yamato" was in 1974, the year after I was born, it already felt like a nostalgic anime. The Final Chapter was released in theaters in 1983, and I was so moved that I cried my eyes out at the movie theater, to the point where my mother, who accompanied me, made fun of me. The LD game version two years later was based on this Final Chapter, but it was also true that it felt a bit late.

However, the launch scene, which could be called the climax of Yamato, had a luxurious specification with three types prepared: "Farewell," "Be Forever," and "Final Chapter." Also, the composition, which covered all the famous scenes of the Final Chapter, made it a game that any Yamato fan would definitely want to play. In an era when there were few video rental stores, it was a difficult time to watch the footage of your favorite work again.
But even at a 50-yen arcade, the play fee was 100 yen! For me, with a monthly allowance of 500 yen, that felt like over 10,000 yen today. Even so, this game had a charm that made me want to insert a 100-yen coin.

I made up my mind and inserted a coin! With the determination to 'Save the Earth!' and climbing into the large cabinet, my excitement reached its peak along with the loud opening theme. Just sitting in the cockpit makes you feel like you are on the bridge of the Space Battleship Yamato.

However, the launch scene is chosen randomly, and if you get the least cool 'Be Forever' asteroid belt scene, you feel cheated right from the start. Still, I pulled myself together and started the game, determined to face the Dingil Empire.

👨‍✈️ 'Shima, watch out for obstacles!'

As if to say that's easy, I moved the lever, and then... please watch the fate of my Yamato🤣

My bad friend FM7, who was watching from behind, was holding his stomach and laughing.

😹 "Game over without firing a single main cannon shot? Yamato is so weak."

LD games are known for their 'one-hit death' rule. Games like 'Time Gal' and 'Dragon's Lair' turned this around, creating a unique way to enjoy the game by 'enjoying the death scenes.' However, while there were tons of gamers who aimed to see Reika-chan's bikini suit tear in Time Gal, nobody wanted to see the Yamato split in two and sink in the middle of the ocean.

Needless to say, the Yamato is an invincible space battleship, but in the LD game version, you end up seeing the Yamato being blown to smithereens more than you can handle. Because of that, a huge amount of funds was required, and I gave up on clearing it immediately. However, there was 'another way' to clear LD games.

Anime-based LD games, in extreme terms, can be considered to have achieved their goal if you can see all the anime images. For that reason, I burned the cute exploits of Reika-chan from Time Gal into my mind by peeking from behind like a beggar. However, unlike 'Time Gal' or 'Ninja Hayate,' which had upright cabinet versions, the 'LD version Space Battleship Yamato' was only available in the cockpit type where you climb in from the side, just like 'After Burner.' (At least in my area😅)

Furthermore, the enthusiastic Yamato fans who were stacking up 100-yen coins would'This isn't Yamato!'and get angry and throw a fit. Because of the cabinet's design, you can't peek from behind, so it takes a lot of courage to peek from the side. For that reason, I asked FM7, the doctor's son who had a bit of money,

😟 "Please clear Space Battleship Yamato for me."

But he replied,

😜 "No way, Yamato is old-fashioned now. If it were Gundam or Dougram, I would have played it to death."

and was flatly refused. But I'm not the type to give up over something like this; will my Yamato be able to save the Earth?

Since it's a special occasion, I've summarized the death scenes from the LD game version of Yamato in 2 minutes. Please take a look if you'd like.

I saw someone fully clear the LD game version of Yamato in the re-released "Taito LD Game Collection." It has such amazing quality that I bought it too, but I still haven't been able to clear it 😭

❷ Can you save the Earth? The shocking final chapter

So, the person I begged for help was my anime mentor. My mentor was a university student, the son of the teacher at the art class I attended, and about 10 years older than me. In terms of generation, he was close to Kazuhiko Shimamoto, who is currently serializing Aoi Honoo, and he was someone who could be called the origin of otaku.
My mentor wasn't a "fake Yamato fan" like me; he was a hardcore first-generation Yamato fan who watched the original series in real-time during his adolescence. Needless to say, it was because of my mentor's influence that I became a Yamato fan.

😉 "Mentor, a Space Battleship Yamato game has been released, but..."

🫡 "What! Leave Yamato to me."

It unfolded exactly as I had expected, and I was able to sneakily watch my mentor play from the side. As expected, my mentor was also deeply moved by the launch scene, and being a true enthusiast,

🤩 "Oh! Goro Naya is properly playing Captain Okita."

He said, looking very satisfied. Once the launch scene ends, you can freely choose to play from four stages: "Pluto Airspace," "Space Void," "Aquarius," and "Fortress Uruk." The game is structured so that you proceed to the final battle after clearing all of these.

In "Pluto Airspace," Lugal II, also known as the Idiot Lord, strikes his signature smug pose along with his famous line, "Destroy them with the Hyper Radiation Missile!"

The "Space Void" stage is based on the scene where the Cosmo Zero scouts the enemy fleet in the latter half of the Battle of Pluto. The basic pattern for Yamato is to get beaten up by a large fleet and then turn the tables with a single Wave Motion Gun shot. This time, the Wave Motion Gun is under repair and cannot be used, so you have to counterattack with Wave Motion Cartridge shells, but if you fail, something terrible happens.
The difficulty level around here is also no joke, and my mentor...

😖"I thought something like this might happen - doesn't Sanada-san show up and say that?"

I grumbled.

In "Aquarius," the stage is the battle above Aquarius. Here, Sanada-san finally appears in the firing scene for the "Anti-Hyper Radiation Missile Bow Beam Cannon." For the hardcore fans, it includes the firing scene of the "chimney missile," which wasn't used in the actual "Final Chapter" film. It was likely newly drawn for the game, and my mentor was moved by it.

The scene where they make a forced landing on the enemy fortress is the most exciting part of the Final Chapter. My excitement reached its peak with Captain Okita's line, "Leak energy from the wave motion gun muzzle, forced landing!" When I shouted Kodai's line, "Landing!", my mentor chimed in with Shima's response, "Alright."

In "Fortress Uruk," they finally make a forced landing on the enemy fortress! It's truly Yamato's specialty. The synchronization between the LD footage and the game screen in this scene is, I think, one of the best moments in LD gaming. After this, in the scene where the Cosmo Tiger squadron sorties, the FM synthesis version of "FIGHT Cosmo Tiger II," which was also used in the movie, plays, and this intro is so cool. Perhaps it was handled by Taito's god of composition, OGR, also known as Hisayoshi Ogura. His name is in the credits. The original song is also amazing, so please listen to it. It brings back the scene where Shima, while mortally wounded during battle, opens the hangar gate.

Next is the assault scene with the Cosmo Tiger. Since it uses the Thunder Storm system as-is, you can enjoy an incredibly intense aerial battle. Most of the scenes from this point on use new footage rather than recycled material from the movies, which makes them quite rare. Even my mentor gave it his seal of approval, saying, 'I've never seen these images before, and the animation quality is consistent, so it's quite impressive.'

Finally, we infiltrate the enemy's heart! From here on, our own Susumu Kodai enters 'Dragon's Lair' mode and suffers through numerous tragedies. Falling into the abyss, stepping on landmines—it's quite miserable. Kodai-kun is going to die! 🤣 The climax is a one-on-one duel with an enemy soldier. What will the result be?

After overcoming numerous hardships, the Yamato finally reaches the final battle. Will the iconic scene where Captain Okita stays behind on the Yamato alone and pulls the trigger of the Wave Motion Gun to decide the fate of Earth be recreated? Please enjoy the shocking ending, everyone.By the way, my mentor told me that the final scene uses footage from 'Be Forever Yamato.' He said he knew immediately because the anchor mark is drawn on the bow.

I was so moved by the final movie that I actually cried, so I just couldn't accept this ending. After getting beaten up so much, I never expected a development where the Yamato would return home in the end.

😡 'What the heck is 'Yamato, launch toward Earth!'! Give me my money back! (I didn't pay for it, though 😅)'

I thought my mentor would be even more furious, but...

😑 'It's fine as it is. There's no point in getting angry about Yamato's consistency every single time.'

He was quite calm about it. On the way home that day, my mentor talked about his memories of the former 'Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato: Warriors of Love'.

Since it's a special occasion, I've also put together a one-minute compilation of Kodai-kun getting defeated. Please take a look if you'd like.

3. The Conflict over 'Warriors of Love' and the Yamato Winter Era

Released as a theatrical film in 1978, at the height of the Yamato boom, 'Warriors of Love' was reportedly originally planned as the final chapter of Yamato. Even watching it now, it is a work that vividly conveys the passion of the Yamato story heading toward its conclusion. In the middle of the story, Dessler, the nemesis from the previous work, stands in the way as the vanguard of the White Comet Empire, and my mentor recalled that he sensed a tragic ending during the scene where Dessler and the heroine, Yuki Mori, die in this battle. He said, 'With the loss of these two, the story of Yamato can no longer hold together.' He said all the female fans were covering their eyes.

In the final battle against the Comet Empire, they enter the enemy ship's firing port. It becomes a standard trope to destroy the center of the city, but rather than being on the edge of my seat like in the Final Chapter, a fierce sense of tragedy took precedence. It was a shocking story where the main crew members died one after another, and it is said that the movie theater was wrapped in a strange atmosphere at this point.
I think this is a common sentiment among anime fans, butcharacters from works you have watched for a long time are special existences, like idols, to fans.It is not hard to imagine that the shock of the heroes of the Yamato, who had returned alive from a 296,000 light-year journey in the previous work, disappearing was tremendous.

After paying a great sacrifice, they finally won the battle against the Comet Empire! ...Just as I thought that, the super-giant battleship appeared. It is the appearance of the strongest boss character in anime history.The sense of despair was overwhelming, and I can assert that there is no scenario that surpasses this development even today.

And in the scene where Susumu Kodai makes a suicide attack on the Comet Empire while holding Yuki,

"This is our wedding ceremony."

It is said that in the scene where he says this, only the sound of the audience sobbing could be heard throughout the movie theater. Although this ending had both pros and cons, there is no doubt that it was a famous scene that completely overturned the common sense of conventional anime films and elevated it to the same level as a regular blockbuster movie. It was the moment Space Battleship Yamato truly became a legendary anime.
My mentor said he was honored to have been there.

However, in the TV broadcast version, "Space Battleship Yamato 2," this ending was completely overturned; the Yamato and all the main crew members survived, and after that, Yamato would go on to have a long-running series. Because the emotional impact of "The Warriors of Love" was so great, many anime fans felt "betrayed" by this change, and it is said that numerous controversies erupted. Pure anime fans showed a strong rejection of the production side, which had been forced to make a sequel for business reasons. Even among my mentor's anime friends,

"For me, 'Yamato' is over. I will never watch it again."

It seems many people declared this. Sometimes arguments would escalate at drinking parties and turn into fistfights... The anime fans of the early days were that passionate.
After agonizing over it as a true Yamato fan, my mentor chose the path of"swallowing all the contradictions and supporting it."However, the Yamato series continued to have noticeable inconsistencies in settings and lost its way, and it was completely overtaken as the leading anime by "Mobile Suit Gundam," which began airing in 1979.

My mentor also highly evaluated "Mobile Suit Gundam," but it was painful for him when his anime fan friends described "Yamato as an old-fashioned anime full of contradictions." According to my mentor,

"Gundam was born precisely because Yamato existed."

was his catchphrase.

In the end, "Space Battleship Yamato" was supposed to conclude with the 1983 Final Chapter, but they went so far as to bring Captain Okita back, even going back on the original's famous line,"Earth... everything, everything is so nostalgic,"to do it. My mentor said he was teased mercilessly about this by Gundam-fan friends he went to see it with. However, my mentor countered by saying, "Yamato has its own unique charm."
I remember my mentor calling this period the "Yamato Winter Era."It would take a little more time for "Space Battleship Yamato" to be re-evaluated.

As I mentioned before, I got into Yamato starting with the "Final Chapter" and worked my way backward through the various works, so I didn't find it that strange, thinking,"This is just how the Yamato series is."I was in elementary school, after all. However, I learned for the first time that the teenage Yamato fans who were following it in real-time had such conflicts.Even so, seeing my mentor continue to hold such deep affection for Yamato had a huge influence on me as a senior otaku.

❹ The Terror of Early Anime Fans

My mentor was a person who could be called a first-generation anime otaku, having become a genuine anime fan with the original 1974 "Space Battleship Yamato." Fans in the early days were crazy in every field, and it seems anime fans were no exception.

The biggest difference from later anime fans was that you couldn't easily record the footage. Since it was before video decks became widespread, you had to watch it live to see the anime, andyou had to burn every bit of it into your brain.It seems my mentor never lost the habit of going to the bathroom before watching anime until the very end.

If you're wondering what people did before video decks became widespread... they recorded just the audio onto cassette tapes. I believe I became an apprentice to my mentor around the time of the rebroadcast of 'Legendary Giant Ideon' in 1982, and I remember being scolded severely for making a noise while recording the audio.
It is said that many anime fans would bring boomboxes to the theatrical release of 'Be Forever Yamato'. I heard that it was standard practice for anime fans at the time to go home and replay the tapes to reminisce about each scene.(Note: Since this is a story I heard from my mentor, I don't know the true history of anime fandom. Please understand. 🙇)

Also, since games had not yet developed at that time, the forefront of otaku culture was the era of anime. In an age without the internet, magazines were the only way for otaku to acquire knowledge. My mentor bought up every anime magazine published at the time and read them from cover to cover. I was captivated by my mentor, who would showcase his deep knowledge of anime works in his room, which looked like a haunted house.

Because of his wealth of knowledge, my mentor became a respected figure among his anime friends, and he is said to have been a capable leader as the president of the 'Anime Research Society' at the art university he attended. At the time, every otaku community had such a learned elder who was trying to shape the otaku culture of a new era.
This scene is vividly depicted in Kazuhiko Shimamoto's 'Blue Blazes'. Perhaps scenes like the 'Daigaku Art University' that served as the setting were unfolding all over the country. Among them, there were those who, like Mr. Shimamoto, went on to become professionals, and I believe there are also many veteran anime fans who became amateur scholars and continue to share information to this day.That passion became the foundation for the further development of the otaku culture that Japan is proud of, leading to the present day.

❺ Yamato, forever with my mentor...

At the end of 1995, when 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' began airing, my mother told me that my mentor had been hospitalized when I returned home from university in Nagoya. I rushed to the hospital, stunned by the sight of my mentor, who had become completely emaciated. Even so, when I showed him the Animage I had bought, he said happily,

"See, I told you Hideaki Anno would definitely change the era."

He answered with a smile. 'Gunbuster' and 'Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water' were my mentor's top recommendations, and he once spoke to me passionately about how much both of these works were influenced by Yamato.

"Mentor, please explain Eva to me too."

When I asked him,

"No... I won't be able to see it through to the end."

My mentor had realized his own time was coming to an end.

“But as an anime fan, I haven't left anything behind...”

My mentor muttered that, looking lonely. I couldn't help but shout at him.

“Don't say such stupid things! I will never forget the anime knowledge you taught me for as long as I live!”

“...Thank you.”

That was the last conversation I had with my mentor. After graduating from art school, he worked at an anime studio, but due to a chronic illness, he couldn't keep up with the physical demands and continued to recuperate at home. It seems he published fanzines and newsletters during his college days and even participated in the early days of Comiket, but after his health declined, he spent most of his time confined to his home.

Before the internet became widespread, it was a difficult era for professionals, let alone amateurs, to share information or interact with others. And as he became housebound, his connection with like-minded friends was severed, which I believe wore him down mentally even more.

In this day and age, I can't help but think that my mentor would have continued to share information as an anime fan on platforms like Note or Twitter until the very end, and would have passed away surrounded by many fellow anime fan followers...

I hesitated until the very end about whether to include this final episode about my mentor. I struggled with the conflict of whether it was blasphemous to use someone's death as content.
However, I have passed the age of 50, and more of my old friends have begun to depart. I have come to feel that writing down the trajectories of the lives these people led has become my duty.
In posting about “Space Battleship Yamato” this time,I strongly felt that the knowledge my mentor instilled in me is still alive within me.And above all, I am happy that I was able to inherit the charm of “anime” from my mentor.

While I am wandering through the labyrinths of Note or Twitter, when I discover a follower who is obsessed with their “oshi” in a crazy way, I can't help but remember my mentor and feel happy.Their attitude of thoroughly pursuing the content they love is something I respect as a fellow otaku, and I believe that the path I am aiming for lies there as well.

My posts on note have been largely driven by gratitude toward the creators who made the works that led me to who I am today. However, I also believe we must not forget the people who passionately loved those works. To me, the fellow enthusiasts I have met on note and Twitter are like party members adventuring through the same scenario.
I intend to continue writing the stories of such nameless heroes.Once again, I would like to express my gratitude for being blessed with so many wonderful companions, and to everyone who read this to the end. Finally, I dedicate this post to my great mentor, Mr. Kiichi.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Cyborg MSX