And here we are again! Following the crew of the Yamato on their grand quest to save Mother Earth! But first, they take a little detour…
Speaking of detours, I know my reviews have leapt about a little bit… But there’s a lot going on with the show. It’s not just a shoot-em-up. This week I try a little harder to stick with the plot.
One last detour on my part. Why looking for other things Yamato related this morning, I came across this fan made trailer for 2199.
Detours finished, let’s hit the jump and dive into this week’s episode!
As the episode begins… we get another glimpse of the hierarchical, classist, racist nature of Gamilas society…
Meanwhile, Yamato‘s crew are examining the androids soldiers they captured last episode… And speculating on whether their enemies are a society of androids, or if the androids are merely tools. They’ve never made it overtly clear, but it seems they’ve never actually encountered the Gamilas in the flesh before.
Even though it will cost them time… It’s decided to attack the base on Pluto that is the source of the planet bombs that are devastating Earth. But they will not use destroy the planet with the Wave Motion Gun – instead Yamato‘s fighter squadron will lead the assault.
In the original (1974) series, they made a land assault. Here the new (2012) series is clearly taking its cue from Star Wars (1977) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). Together, these two changed SF battles together. If you weren’t a kid back then, you can’t even imagine how so very cool it was to see all those dogfights, we’d never quite seen the like before. OK, we had seem them in gun camera films (black & white & grainy) or the odd WWII movie (so very obviously models)… But modern (for the time) SFX changed everything.
Yuki was quite cold to Kodai in the beginning… But she’s starting to warm to him after his heroics on Enceladus. And she’s not happy to see him speaking to Yamamoto, the female accountant fighter pilot who was the real hero of Enceladus.
In a scene that would make Gerry Anderson and Rube Goldberg happy – Yamato launches her fighter squadron. In the anime the scene goes by pretty quickly… The video above comes courtesy of a superfan who rendered the whole thing in 3D CGI and gives us a closer look at the hanger and the process.
As the fighters stealthily approach Pluto – Yamato comes under attack from thoroughly ridiculous and over-the-top Reflecting Satellite Cannon used to launch the planet bombs. As a side note, I wish I could find some good screencaps of this system in the 1974 original… They looked really, really cheesy. The remake really shines here. Look at the first picture and the reflection of the stars, great attention to detail.
For some reason, they can’t detect the reflecting satellites… and are confused as to the origin of the attacks. To dodge them, they risk landing on (in?) Pluto’s frozen oceans.
But that doesn’t help them… They’re attacked again, and heavily damaged, Yamato slips beneath the waves (?). Cliffhanger – fade to black.
Yamato 2199 group watch:
Other Participants:
– Mechanical Anime Reviews: Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Episode 5 – Where do they put those fighters?
About:
You can see the all the postings in this series by visiting the Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 Group Watch category page. If you want to participate, this post has all the information you need.
Thanks for dropping by! Be sure and leave a comment with your thoughts!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Reblogged this on Apprentice Mages Lounge. and commented:
The first of an important two-parter. Still laying down groundwork for things that won’t be important for many episodes yet. But that’s part of what makes 2199, any series really, so very good. There’s a lot going on, more than what’s right in front of you.
I wish the reblog system worked a little better… but it is what it is.
LikeLike