"There is so much writing in English on Japanese cinema that can't be accepted at face value — not because the writers are careless, but because the differences in culture and language are just too intricate. When I see August Ragone's name on a piece of writing, it gives me permission to place my faith in it completely. Among Japanese fantasy film historians, he's the best working in English." —Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog

Friday, June 29, 2012

SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 (2012)
DVD & BD Volume 3 Coming November 22!

『宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199』Vol. 3 DVD/BD 11月22日発売!


Analyzer, Niimi and Sanada grace this jacket art by Nobuteru Yuuki!

UPDATED WITH NEW PHOTOS! With the second installment of the SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 saga, "Desperate Battle in the Heliosphere", opening in ten select theaters in Japan this weekend, Bandai Visual has announced the third volume of their home video release. Volume 3 will contain a total of four half-hour episodes, plus special features, clocking in at 130 minutes of content for ¥8,190 (Blu-ray Disc) and ¥7,190 (R2 DVD). The DVD will be presented in 16:9 Anamorphic, Dual Layer, and Dolby Digital Stereo. Conversely, the BD will be presented in AVCHD, BD50G, 1080p, 16:9 Anamorphic, and Linear PCM Stereo.


Evocative slipcase art by Yamato veteran, Naoyuki Kato!

Special Features are to include an Audio Commentary (details to be announced), an interview with singer Isao Sasaki, a "Director's Cut" of the "Yamato: 2199 Special 2", and a special insert booklet. Both the DVD and BD releases will feature beautiful jacket art by character designer Nobuteru Yuuki and a slipcase sleeve by Naoyuki Kato. While the DVD version will basically contain all of the special features of the BD, there's one very important exception: English Subtitles. Since the US and Japan are in the same Region Encoding for BD, this is yet another major incentive to snag the BDs from Bandai Visual. The theatrical version of Episodes 7-10, "The Endless Voyage", opens in Japan on October 13th.



Leaving our Solar System behind, the Yamato finally embarks on it's voyage into deep space. Meanwhile, with the Gamilas base on Pluto destroyed, Shultz relentlessly tracks them, while Dessler throws the Yamato into an even more deadly situation — will the Yamato survive? In addition, these new episodes will be expanding beyond the original 1974 story, so we can all look forward to this new interpretation of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO!



The episodes on Volume 3 will include:



Episode 7. BID FAREWELL TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM (太陽圏に別れを告げて): The Yamato proceeds to breech the boundary between the heliosphere and interstellar space, known as the "heliopause". Before they proceed, the crew is allowed, one at a time, to communicate with their family to bid their farewells. Despite this festive occasion, Kodai, who lost his family in the war with Gamilas, tastes nothing but ennui. However, one amongst them is not human...



Episode 8. WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR (星に願いを): At Balares, the Capital City of Gamilas, Leader Dessler decides to exercise his power in front of his ministers by unveiling his own plan to sink the Yamato. His strategy involves pitting the Yamato between the deadly solar flares of Gliese 581, and a vaporous creature of his own design, to crush her. Will this strategy seal the Yamato's fate!?



Episode 9. A CLOCKWORK PRISONER (時計仕掛けの虜囚): AU09 (aka Analyzer) is called into duty to extract information from Alter, a mechanical solider of Gamilas, which has been captured. Soon, the two machines begin to develop a relationship akin to a human friendship. But, when Alter begins to escapes, Security Chief Ito tries to destroy the mysterious Gamiloid... Can a machine truly have a soul?



Episode 10. THE COSMIC GRAVEYARD (大宇宙の墓場): The Yamato becomes trapped in a dimensional faultline, where they discover a vast graveyard of alien spacecraft. Meanwhile, a Gamilas ship, also trapped in the cosmic drift, seeks permission to communicate with the Yamato. They soon discover that in order to extricate themselves, they must cooperate, or both crews with perish...



You can pre-order your copy of SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 Volume 3, by clicking here to visit Amazon Japan (with English language support)! Stay tuned to this blog and the official Star Blazers website for more news and information on SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO: 2199 as they develop — and soon, we'll be off to outer space, on shiny discs of blue!

3 comments:

Daniel "Dax" Books said...

all ready pre ordered. I love how the writers are expanding the Yamato universe adding details here and there. My husband is curious if there is going to be an episode regarding the Bee People. Its one of our fave episodes.

August Ragone said...

Daniel,
Yes, I'm really loving what they've done up to this point, and what I've seen so far! Supervising Director Yutaka Izubuchi has said on record that they will be revisiting planet Beemera in this new version. But, he hinted that it will be much different.

Stay tuned...

Cheers,
August

Anonymous said...

It should be noted that the Blu-Ray releases for Space Battleship Yamato 2199 are completely region-free and thus are playable by Yamato/Star Blazers fans worldwide. As I don't see this getting released on Blu-Ray in the US for a number of years, if you can afford to buy the Japanese Blu-Rays, do so, it'll be money well spent (Amazon.jp has the best prices I've seen so far).