I feel like I've been thinking a lot lately about formative anime titles—those gateway shows and movies that got me and a generation of current fans hooked on the form back in the early and mid-80's. The U.S. version of Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato wasn't especially one of those titles for me (although I was vaguely aware of it as a kid), but as I got older, I came across more people for whom this was the show that got them into anime.
Well, the series got a reboot of, of sorts, for the big screen, making its debut in April as Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and it's got a trailer. More details after the jump.
The four-minute trailer is on the Amazon page for the May DVD and Blu-ray release of the film (the feature will be in theaters April 7th), featuring character designs by Nobuteru Y?ki (Xenosaga, Paradise Kiss). Here's the most comprehensive synopsis from Asian Media Wiki:
In the year 2194, mysterious beings, known as the Gamilons, suddenly appear from outer space. The Gamilons drops meteor bombs upon Earth and kill most of the inhabitants.
Five years later, in 2199, the Earth is still contaminated by radiation from the meteor bombs. Those that remain live underground.
Susumu Kodai (Takuya Kimura) is a former army pilot now retired. One day, while exploring the surface, he comes across a communication capsule from planet Iscandar, which resides 148,000 light years away from Earth. Susumu Kodai is able to ascertain that on Iscandar they have a substance to remove the radioactive material plaguing the surface of Earth.
In order to retrieve the substance from Iscandar, the Defense Force of Earth builds Space Battleship Yamato. Susume Kodai comes out of retirement and leads the crew that will man Space Battleship Yamato. With only one year left before the radiation drives Earth to complete extinction, Susume Kodai and his crew begins their great battle ...
You can see the four-minute trailer on its Amazon.co.jp page. Space Battleship Yamamoto will hit DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on May 25th. I can't be sure, but I think it'll be region-locked, so if you pick it up, you'll have to have a region-free player until an official domestic release is announced.
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