From fde02a10015fcd42661d4d707c33aea71b6babc1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: dakkar Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:36:03 +0000 Subject: review: yamato --- src/anime/review/yamato/.gitignore | 2 + src/anime/review/yamato/document.en.rest.txt | 107 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ src/anime/review/yamato/du2html.xsl | 1 + 3 files changed, 110 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/anime/review/yamato/.gitignore create mode 100644 src/anime/review/yamato/document.en.rest.txt create mode 120000 src/anime/review/yamato/du2html.xsl (limited to 'src') diff --git a/src/anime/review/yamato/.gitignore b/src/anime/review/yamato/.gitignore new file mode 100644 index 0000000..08d33d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/yamato/.gitignore @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +/document.en.du.xml +/document.it.du.xml diff --git a/src/anime/review/yamato/document.en.rest.txt b/src/anime/review/yamato/document.en.rest.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..857c3a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/yamato/document.en.rest.txt @@ -0,0 +1,107 @@ +========================= + Space Battleship Yamato +========================= +:CreationDate: 2014-03-19 12:03:57 +:Id: anime/review/yamato +:tags: - anime + - review +:rating: 4 +:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/space-battleship-yamato + +It's the year 2199. Orbital kinetic strikes with radioactive meteors +have rendered the surface of Earth uninhabitable; humanity has +retreated underground, but they only have one year left to live. A +message capsule from a distant planet promises a way to remove the +radioactivity and allow people to walk again on the surface. Using +the designs contained in the capsule, a faster-than-light starship is +built, using the WWII battleship Yamato as the basis. The ship and its +crew departs for a long voyage, to the planet Iscandar and back, +battling against the Gamilas empire and its ruler, Desslar. + +It's also the year 1974, and MATSUMOTO Reiji (松本 零士) has just +taken the reins of the project that will become Uchū Senkan Yamato (宇 +宙戦艦ヤマト), initially devised by NISHIZAKI Yoshinobu (西﨑 義展). +Matsumoto brought a very characteristic style, both to the art and to +the story, and it's quite probably that without him, Nishizaki's +project would not have had the impact that Yamato had. Using a +centuries-old sea battleship to house a starship seems a very +far-fetched idea, but you have to remember what the historical Yamato +was: the biggest, most powerful battleship built during WWII, that +should have given the Japanese navy a decisive edge in the Pacific +against the USA. Although it essentially failed to deliver on its +promises, and was sunk on April 7th, 1945, the ship still symbolises +Japan's heroism and fighting spirit. + +The story of the crew under Captain Okita, with fighter pilots Kodai, +Shima, Sanada, marine Saito, nurse Mori, doctor Sado, engineer +Tokugawa; of Desler and Starsha; their adventures and personalities, +have left a deep impression on Japan's culture, even outside the ranks +of anime enthusiasts: it's not everyday that bronze statues of +animated characters get erected, but in the town of `Tsuruga +`_ there are +`almost 30 such statues +`_, representing +characters and scenes from Yamato, but also Galaxy Express 999 and +Captain Harlock. Yes, because after fusing the hero's journey with +space opera and military ambitions, Matsumoto kept producing +influential works featuring strong, courageous characters saving the +world against insurmountable odds. Practically everybody in Japan +knows Matsumoto and his stories: there have been sequels and +re-tellings for the past forty years, and even if not all of them have +been equally successful, the popularity of Matsumoto's works never +waned. + +Yamato, in particular, has seen many adventures in films and series: +after the first 26 episodes in 1974-75, the crew embarked in a suicide +mission against the Comet Empire in "Farewell to Space Battleship +Yamato" (1978). That story was ret-conned as an alternative timeline +after fans expressed outrage at the death of the crew, so the story +was reworked in a second TV season. It was followed by two more +movies, "Yamato: The New Voyage" (1979) and "Be Forever Yamato" +(1980), a third series, and the "Final Yamato" movie (1983). + +The live-action movie was released in 2010, written by Nishizaki and +directed by YAMAZAKI Takashi (山崎 貴), it reworks the basic story of +the '74 series, mixing in some ideas from the first movie and the +second series, with significant changes to the nature of the Gamilas +people and to the device used to cleanse the Earth. The acting is very +Japanese, with displays of emotion that look over-the-top compared to +Hollywood's standard fare, but then, the entire story is over-the-top, +a single ship outgunned and outnumbered, on a voyage with no +certainties, to save the entire planet: we can appreciate that +subtlety is really not called for, here. YAMAZAKI Tsutomu (山崎 努) +delivers a sombre and wise Okita, and KIMURA Takuya (木村 拓哉, member +of the pop group SMAP, also voice of Howl in Ghibli's "Howl's Moving +Castle") is appropriately cocky and conflicted as Kodai. I was a bit +disappointed in the music: the classic Yamato score is never heard in +its entirety, only in fragments, and the ending theme ("Love Lives" +written by Aerosmiths' Stephen Tyler) feels incongruous. + +Women have always been under-represented in Matsumoto's creations, +each story has essentially just one or two women: Yamato had Mori and +Starsha, Galaxy Express had Maetel and Prometheum, Harlock had +Emeraldas. Furthermore, they tend to be willowy and ethereal, with +extremely slim bodies and very un-Japanese long blond hair. This film +adds a few more women to the cast (Mori Yuki was the only visible +woman on the original Yamato), and makes them more important to the +story: Mori is now a fighter pilot, Doctor Sado is a woman, and there +are a few women on the bridge and throughout the ship. They're still +not as important as the men, and even Mori ends up moulded to the +lover/mother stereotype, but at least they feel a bit less "token" +than in the original work. + +At this point, someone might ask why I have not mentioned Star +Blazers, which is the title under which many outside Japan know the +adventures of the Yamato. The reason is that Star Blazers is a rather +different story, which just happens to use most of the visuals from +Yamato. Like Robotech (which re-uses pieces of Macross, Southern +Cross, and Mospeada), it's not a translation but a mostly separate +product. If your only exposure to the Yamato and its crew is via the +Argo, you owe it to yourself to watch at least some of the originals: +they may not have aged very well, but they're still much better than +the botched US rewrite. + +In conclusion, while the canonical Yamato remains the one in +Matsumoto's animated works, this film provides a good alternative take +on its adventures, and can serve as an appetiser before (re)visiting +those more extensive works. diff --git a/src/anime/review/yamato/du2html.xsl b/src/anime/review/yamato/du2html.xsl new file mode 120000 index 0000000..371d03d --- /dev/null +++ b/src/anime/review/yamato/du2html.xsl @@ -0,0 +1 @@ +../../../../templates/du2html-review.xsl \ No newline at end of file -- cgit v1.2.3