Patrulha Estelar Yamato

Space Battleship Yamato #1-3

by Leiji Matsumoto

O ano é 2199, a Terra está sofrendo com as invasões e ataques do Império Gamilas, que força a humanidade a se refugiar em uma metrópole subterrânea, devido às armas de radiação. Mas a situação está rapidamente se deteriorando e dentro de um ano o planeta inteiro se tornará inabitável. Em meio a isso, uma mensagem misteriosa vinda dos confins do universo é captada pela base de Marte, contendo o método para a produção do “motor de ondas” e instruções que usassem essa tecnologia de viagem espacial para ir até o planeta Iskandar, onde conseguiriam um dispositivo que eliminaria por completo toda a radiação dos gamilanos. Para essa missão é escolhido um antigo couraçado utilizado na guerra de 250 anos atrás, o Yamato. E assim, o Couraçado Espacial Yamato parte em rumo a uma galáxia distante para trazer à Terra, dentro de um ano, a única e última esperança da humanidade! Reviva as emoções do maior clássico de ópera espacial criado no Japão, exibido nas TVs brasileiras na década de 1980, agora em um mangá de volume único na edição Prime.

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Japan, Classics

648 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

From the Wikipedia page:

Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士) is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato. His style is characterized by tragic heroes; tall, slender, fragile-looking heroines with strong wills and in some cases, god-like powers; and a love of analog gauges and dials in his spacecraft.

Reviews

[Anna Quilter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Classic style Space opera/battle Manga.
Three stories combined make it seem a little disjointed..but there's some interesting ideas and thoughts on a Future Earth.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book Space Battleship Yamato: The Classic Collection is a letdown. I cannot recommend it except as a completer selection for the serious collector.

Space Battleship Yamato was my introduction to what was then called Japanamation. Now called Anime. I rarely got to see more than one or two episodes at a time. I knew I was seeing something new. The idea of a cartoon made for another culture, and being shared with an American audience was very interesting. It had a very complex plot and developed characters, as well as some I would come to know as fixed character types. This at a time when the worst of Hanna Barbara and their just to sell merchandise cartoons were almost all Saturday morning television had to offer.

I later tried to buy one of the earliest CD copies, only to find it would not play on my computer. I have and enjoy the live action CD, for all its crude production values. Bottom line, I am a fan of the story and through Space Battleship Yamato, I have become an aficionado of anime.

The art tends to be exciting, imaginative and all of the value of the book. The story, actual parts of two felt rushed, disjoined and incomplete.

The initial plot is about an Earth so polluted by alien attackers, The Gamlians. Their technology is so superior that in a space battle, outnumbered 5 to one by Earth Star destroyers that the initial battle of the book is not even close. The last of Earth’s space forces are swept away.

With apparent total control the enemy sit about doing not much of much until the Earth force recovers plans for a new Battleship. Plans arrive from somewhere and are an entirely new in technology. A page or two later Earth launches the salvaged hull of the long-ago sunk WWI battleship, Yamato. Its mostly familiar form now beweaponed with stuff that is a match for the baddies. Using never before seen or tested propulsion system and main weapons Earth suddenly has a fearsome, to the enemy, threat.

So, the story lurches on. Several possible narratives start and end abruptly. Crew members sort of form relationships. Meantime we have unusual sound effect ( Yamato goes zu zu zu as at cruising speed and a nearby passing space battleship goes fwash, and one of the weapons goes Fauim! lots of numbers and possibly consistent techno babble and the good guys do good.

And as others have noted, the book ends without and ending.

[Jim Reddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects all of Leiji Matsumoto’s Space Battleship Yamato (known as Starblazers in the US) manga adaptations together. It’s an exciting space opera with beautiful artwork.

In the year 2199 Earth has been attacked by planet Gamilas and mankind has moved underground. Earth’s only hope of survival is the Space Battleship Yamato, a ship equipped with advanced weapons and a faster than light drive. Its mission is to travel to Iscandar, obtain a device that can heal the Earth, and return before the Earth’s destruction.

The collection can be divided into three parts:

Part One:
Chapters 1 - 7 (243 pages): These chapters adapt the first TV series, The Quest for Iscandar.

We follow Captain Okita, Susumu Kodai, Yuki Mori, Doctor Sado, the robot Analyzer, and the rest of the Yamato crew as they fight the Gamilons every step of the way.

The story moves at breakneck speed and doesn’t follow the series exactly. It suffers a little from having events compressed or rushed at times. Since things move so quickly we don’t get to know the main characters as well as in the television series. But it’s their adversaries Supreme Leader Desslar and General Gomel who get a bit of a short shrift. Their motivations and conflict with the heroes are a little more fleshed out in the series. I still enjoyed reading the story though and I found it interesting to compare the manga to the series.

Some of the figure work starts out a little rough, possibly because Matsumoto was working on the manga at the same time as the series, but he soon gets into a groove. The figure work becomes smoother and the shots of dials and spaceships which he’s famous for become more and more detailed.

Part Two:
Chapters 8 - 20 (369 pages): These chapters adapt the beginning of the second storyline, The Comet Empire.

As a new threat approaches Earth, the Yamato is decommissioned and scheduled to be scrapped.

Matsumoto shines here. He takes his time telling the story and the artwork is gorgeous. The level of detail goes up and Matsumoto makes much more use of wider panels, full page panels, and double page spreads. They really help give the feeling of being in an enormous command center or in the sea of space. It’s all very cinematic.

Unfortunately this story is left unfinished as Matsumoto became too busy with his Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 manga.

One misprint I found: My copy has the chapter title pages for chapter 8 and chapter 15 switched.

Part Three:
Eternal Story of Jura (35 pages): A side-story that takes place some time during the mission to Iscandar. It was originally published between the first and second series adaptations.

As much as I like this collection, I feel that there is something missing, and I don’t mean the never completed Comet Empire chapters. This collection would have benefited from an essay by translator Zack Davisson or another knowledgeable person giving some history and background information about this manga and Leiji Matsumoto’s career. At the very least they could have included a paragraph explaining to readers why the Comet Empire storyline is left unfinished, but I feel an essay would have been best.

Watching Starblazers is what got me into anime and manga, and the series is my favorite anime of all time. Although the Comet Empire story is incomplete, as a fan it’s nice to have all of Matsumoto’s Yamato work under one cover.

[Kris —— · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first manga!!! I was confused by the reading of it from right to left and from ‘the back’ to the front, but got the hang of it around 30 pages in. Really liked the full-page space(ship) drawings and Dr. Sado with his sake.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's clear that this is a pre-Captain Harlock work, but that makes it particularly interesting to watch Matsumoto develop his space opera style over these three volumes (in the omnibus). The only major issue is that it doesn't really end.

Full review eventually appearing on ANN.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in the late seventies, I happened across a little japanese cartoon called "Star Blazers." This show had a massive effect on me as it was 1.) obviously not entirely aimed at children (yeah, I could tell Dr. Sato and his "spring water" didn't exactly make sense.) and b.) it was a new sci-fi show during the summer of the original Star Wars. Over the years, my admiration of the show has never waned, through availability seemed to come and go. There was a live action version that got released on video in the States a few years ago and a remake/reboot of the series under the name "Star Blazers 2199" and "Star Blazers 2202" is being issued. Now, an omnibus of the original Leiji Matsumoto manga adaption has come out.
The story is the same - Earth is at war with an alien race called Gamilas. The Earth, devestated by planet bombs and radiation, has only a year left when a message comes from a far off planet, Iscandar. The Queen of Iscandar, Starsha, offers the humans hope in the form of the Cosmo Cleaner, which will get rid of the radiation and bring the Earth back to life. So the humans rebuild an old ocean battleship, the Yamato, as a starship equipped with a wave motion engine to make the long trip to Iscandar and back in a year.
This collection is divided into three parts - the original "Quest for Iscandar" storyline, the followup series, the White Comet Empire (in which the reunited crew of the Yamato sallies forth to combat a new threat to Earth and finally the Farewell to Jura story, a short story which gives Gamilas leader Dessler some more compelling motivation.
This book was cool, partially because this was something I never thought I'd be able to read in an english translation!! The art at times is crude on the first part, nothing at all like later Matsumoto works. This is due to Matsumoto working on the anime series during the day and drawing the manga himself at night. This gives the story a little bit of a rushed feeling. For instance, the episode of the show where the Yamato crew each get one last phone call to earth before they leave the solar system is missing. The manga format also allowed for more story elements that didn't make it into the show to appear in the manga. This is exhibited in the appearance of "Captain Harlock," a shadowy space pirate who helps the crew of the Yamato. This is different than the later Captain Harlock; Originally this would be revealed to be Susumu Kodai's older brother who survived the Battle of Pluto in the beginning. But this didn't happen on the anime so we get a taste of what might have been. An interesting aside - Matsumoto liked the idea of Harlock so much that he eventually got his own series and anime with a different backstory and setting.
The White Comet Empire story is more traditional Matsumoto, with lots of gears and dials all over the page. Again the story feels cut off, almost right when the story gets going and only given a slight conclusion in the Jura storyline.
This book was a lot of fun, both from a fan standpoint but also from historical one. Star Blazers was, for many people, our first introduction to anime. The classic characters of Susumu Kodai, Yuki Mori and Captain Okita are as iconic as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Captain Kirk. I really enjoyed this book, coming off as it were, the classic Captain Harlock reprints. I hope they do more Yamato; there's definitely other a

[Addison · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of really beautiful art. But the story and characters are painfully shallow and contrived.

[Alexander Engel-Hodgkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4/5

I had a tough time deciding if I should give this three stars or four overall. I decided on three because the story abruptly ends just when it was beginning to show a lot more nuance and intrigue after a rushed first volume. As I understand it, this manga is an adaptation of the anime TV show that was running concurrently, but was eventually dropped because the anime required additional attention. Thus, the manga ends on a cliffhanger that has never been resolved on the page for about fifty years as of this writing. If one wanted the full story, they would have to watch the anime. Which I might do if I ever find it and acquire the time and motivation to sit through it.

But alas. Sadly my gripes with this manga don't end there. I found the pacing to be all over the place, especially with the first volume, which appears to be trying to adapt an entire 26-episode season into a 200-page tankobon. Nothing is allowed to breathe and the characters come off as shallow cutouts with miniscule snippets of personality sewn on. The second volume took its time to build up to a showdown we never got, but Vol. 2 gets points for trying.

I'm also very mixed on Leiji Matsumoto's art. His character designs are extremely loose and often disproportionate. They sometimes look like they were drawn by a child. Go Nagai's Devilman had that same problem with overly simplistic character designs, published around the same time. I guess that was just the go-to style of the day. However, like Nagai's work, Matsumoto clearly focused a lot more time on backgrounds and technology--his renderings of space, planets, dashboards, spaceships, and use of negative space are masterful. In both cases, the mangaka's artwork often contrasted itself, looking like portions of their manga were drawn by two completely different people where the characters and everything else are concerned. It's a bit jarring, but at least that means that Devilman and Space Battleship Yamato were not without their amazing visuals.

I'm curious about Captain Harlock, but apparently that's unfinished, too, and an even bigger investment with three omnibus collections! Gaaahhh. Did Matsumoto ever finish anything?!

[Harley Gesford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the Far future Space Pirates and Space Marine aspects of it. You can see the echoes of what the original Gundam would be.
However this translation was rough. Plot and dialogue seemed to drop and the ending was just cut it seemed. There is no ending. It is left on a cliffhanger. However I still love Matsumoto and look forward to reading Captain Harlock down the road.

[Ozan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yamato... I have a really deep love from the bottom of my heart for Yamato Anime and Manga.

I have a chance to read the Classic Yamato manga lately. And it was a very nostalgic experince as a man who watched the anime of Yamato when he was a elemantery school kid in early 90s.

I am a soldier's boy who grew up in Military Lodgings until i was 13. When i was 9 or something, at one of these Military Lodgings, there was a Unripe Almond Tree, which the children including me called, The Yamato. We climbed on it, 4 boys and 1 girl and played Yamato most of the time when we were outside in Military Lodgings, playing. We would eat the unripe almonds on the branches of The Yamato on summer, it was our space battleship Yamato. We all loved the Anime Space Battleship Yamato, so much.

Those were really fun times which will never come back... I wonder if The Yamato is still alive, i hope they didn't cut it down. I would like to climb on it one last time and scream ''Yamato !!!'' ...one last time, before i die.

I remember from one episode that Captain Okita once talked out loud to himself on the deck and explained to the young crew memeber, Susumu ''as you get old, you start to think out loud'' and that do happen ! , my father is 65, now and he started to think out loud... He Time to time says things without expecting any answer... And That Reminds me Okita all the time.

Watching Yamato at an earlly age was a really Special Voyage. Now, reading the story for the first time in the manga form triggered all kinds of nostalginc emotions in me...

[Cody Billings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only recommend this book for the hardcores interested in an essential part of manga history and the work of co-creator Leiji Matsumoto. If you've never experienced the original story of Space Battleship Yamato, this is not the way to do it.
(That answer would be to watch Yamato 2199 or track down the original series)

In theory this book sounds awesome - Leiji Matsumoto's vision of Space Battleship Yamato in manga form, however the problem I have recommending this is that this book is a collection of 3 different stories with the first collection summing up the entire original series in just about 200 pages. The second and third collections included are for the sequel series and a bonus side story chapter for the original series. So altogether you've got a quick generalized recap of a few major points of the original series, a slower paced incomplete sequel story with lots of beautiful page spreads of battleships and computer panels, and the bonus ghost story chapter.

Gripes about content aside his, this book is still worth checking out for the Leiji Matsumoto art and historical significance alone.

[ISMOTU · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Leiji Matsumoto's earlier works, Space Battleship Yamato contains themes of dissatisfaction, stagnation, rebellion, and hints of mechanical bodies, that get explored more in depth in Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999. That's not to say this book is not without its own merits. The art style is instantly recognizable as Matsumoto and I love every page. Massive full page and double page spreads of ships floating through the sea of stars, jet black rooms lit only by a multitude of gauges, dials, and other complex computer read-outs, these are staples of a Matsumoto story and they are on full display here. There's a small error in my copy where the colour cover pages for chapter 8 and chapter 15 (from the original tankobon volumes 2 and 3) are switched but the stories themselves are in the proper order. I just can't get enough of these classic space opera manga series by a true master.

[Seth Isenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first foray into Matsumoto's work, and I was very impressed. First off, Seven Seas does a great job with their Classic Collection- excellent presentation, only second to Vertical in how they publish classic manga with new translation. Speaking of translation, Zack Davisson's work is excellent, as always. Great turns of phrase to carry over the intent, and he's able to convey the technical sci-fi mumbo jumbo jargon perfectly.

I thought the story was inventive, the ship designs excellent, and some of the characters well fleshed-out. Only a few weaknesses overall- most of the characters were two-dimensional, including some main characters, and the story not only glosses over the climax of the story, but also remains unfinished.

Most surprising to me (but probably not to longtime fans of Matsumoto) is that my favorite mecha anime, SDF Macross, totally lifted Yamato's setup! What Macross did with it after was different (and mostly an improvement).

Recommened.

[K.J. Cartmell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collectible for Star Blazers fans, to see the original artwork from acclaimed Japanese artist Leiji Mastumoto. Like many fans, I discovered Star Blazers as a child in the late 70s, waiting for the next Star Wars movie to come out. The story is as tragic as Battlestar Gallactica's and more serious than Buck Rogers. There is much here about heroism and bravery. In the manga, the Comet Empire storyline is incomplete, and the Iscandar quest is abbreviated. Thus, I did not give this 5 stars. Thankfully, we still have the anime!

[Michael Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being adapted by co-creator Leiji Matsumoto, the manga of Space Battleship Yamato has some serious pacing issues and is missing some major story events. It is interesting to read some moments that were not part of the original series, but this adaptation does not work on its own. However, it does contain many spectacular images of the Yamato as well as other space craft which is reason alone for my higher rating.

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the year 2199, and the Earth is dying. For a change, it’s not directly the fault of the Earthling humans. Invaders from the planet Gamilas have been bombarding Earth with radioactive bombs, poisoning the atmosphere. A message from a far off world, Iscandar, arrives. Their leader Starsha will provide Earth with a device to cleanse the radiation–if the Earthlings can somehow get to Iscandar to pick it up. Using an engine design that came with the message, the Earthlings retrofit a sunken battleship, the Yamato, into a spaceworthy craft and launch it. But there is only one year left before the damage to Earth becomes irreversible! Hurry, Yamato!

This 1974 animated series was dubbed into English as Star Blazers, which introduced a lot of proto-anime fans to the concept of cartoons with continuing plotlines. What did not come over at the time was the tie-in manga by director and character/mecha designer Leiji Matsumoto. It’s a condensed version of the story that omits many of the minor subplots and characters. (For example, Yuki Mori/Nova Forrester is the only female character on the Yamato/Argo with a substantial role in the anime, but there are other women on board for a while. In the manga, the other women are cut entirely.)

Good: Leiji Matsumoto was a heck of an artist, with a strong lineup of assistants. There are many well-drawn sequences of the Yamato and alien spacecraft in space, giving a strong sense of wonder. The camaraderie of soldiers and sailors at war is emphasized, as well as the honor of worthy enemies like Dessler/Desslock.

The ailing Captain Okita/Avatar mentoring rash young officer Susumu Kodai/Derek Wildstar to become a worthy leader is a classic subplot.

Less Good: The condensation means many plot points are skimmed. For example, we see the Gamilas/Gamilon base on Pluto preparing to fight the Yamato with their new secret weapon. Cut to a week later when Lord Dessler wonders why the Pluto base hasn’t reported in lately.

The comic relief of the ship’s doctor (actually a veterinarian who invited himself aboard) being a raging alcoholic gets old very fast. And then there’s Analyzer/IQ-9. It’s mentioned that this robot’s brain was designed with much more human emotions (including lust) and capability for learning than it looks, but the outer casing was deliberately made more “robotic” and old-fashioned looking to avoid freaking the humans out. Its attitude towards Yuki is honestly kind of creepy.

This volume includes all of the first storyline of the anime, and gets about halfway through the Comet Empire storyline. (A year after the Yamato returns, the recovered Earth has already moved on and isn’t interested in an odd giant rock headed their way, so the old crew has to hijack the decommissioned Yamato and go out to investigate. There’s some bad comedy relief with an inept rookie radar officer.)

There’s a chapter with this manga’s version of Captain Harlock, who may be Susumu’s presumed-dead older brother. It doesn’t lead anywhere.

Also in this collection is “Eternal Story of Jura”, a side story to the first Yamato plotline. We learn that Lord Desslar has a daughter named Jura, who is the product of his dalliance with a woman from a race of “sirens” with powerful psychic abilities. Unfortunately, his loyalty to Gamilas supersedes any personal connections, and now Jura is alone…

Content note: Quite a bit of death in battle, alcohol abuse, some sexual creepiness. Teenagers on up should be able to handle it.

Recommended to fans of the anime or its adaptation, or just fans of Matsumoto in general. Those who are new to the franchise will be better served by watching the cartoon.

[Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think modern readers will enjoy this more for spotting it's influence in later manga and anime as we have moved far along from this kind of story telling. Here we meet a proto-Harlock and can see many elements that would eventually make it into Macross.

Typical of the time, the story is quite melodramatic, with very few calm moments.

I'm undecided on how I view the treatment of the Gamilans. On one hand, they are treated as honorable enemies and opponents, but on the other we don't get a fleshed out story explanation for why they chose to invade Earth. We know that they need to terra-form the Earth by bombing it because they live in a radioactive environment (presumably having had nuclear wars on their own world) and can't invade the neighbouring Iscandar because the Iscandarians have the Cosmo Cleaner technology, but given the astronomy presented there is no way that Earth should be their first choice of planet to move to.

In fact, most of use of the time and distance in the book is headache inducing. Sometimes the solar system and even the galaxy seems like just the local neighbourhood but sometimes the same distances are treated as being incredibly far.

The biggest issue with this book is where they decided to cut it. We have the full Iscandar storyline but then are introduced to the Comet Empire where the book ends abruptly. If I didn't know there was still more to come I would have been very annoyed.

[Ruz El · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally, after years of hearing about this I finally got to read it. It was simply okay. I give it full props for it's main story idea of a lone Battleship taking off across the cosmos, humanities only hope. The art is great and the characters are fun for the most part. The plot though is a bit of a mess, them main story takes up less than the first third, then it wanders for awhile before getting good again and then it just ends with no conclusion.

I have no idea if this story continues in Captain Harlock or elsewhere. All I know is this one, without any notes to put it into context or explain why it just ends makes for an unsatisfactory read. Which is a shame since everything else about it is quality.

[Alan · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are a few reasons for this low a rating. But the biggest reason...

Ending the three volume set midway-through a story. That's it folks. Do not waste your money on this three volume collection because right in the middle of the Comet Empire story-it ends. I get ending a series in any medium if sales warrant it, but as I recall the book description there was no warning that the story wasn't complete.

There are other factors. Arguably the English dubbed anime holds up better than the artwork and story telling here. There are some nice points showing Kodai is maturing, and preaching about a society getting too complacent, but that doesn't matter because those issues are not resolved.

[Alex Johnston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way this enormous volume divides neatly into two stories, one about a ragtag group of soldiers on a secret mission to save the human race, the second about that same ragtag group, disillusioned and angry about their lowered priority in society after the war is won and humanity is saved - it's excellent. I'm going to have to track down the second volume of the classic collection because this shit rocks. Feels very original Gundam in the way it combines old school cartoon visuals and plots with more serious and adult military themes. (I suppose Gundam was probably influenced by this rather than the other way around).

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hefty volume! There seems to be a lot of repeated imagery of ships in space against a black starry background. The character designs will be recognizable to Matsumoto fans, as they're re-used in all his other works! The story's decently stirring, about hope and fighting endlessly against the odds, but it's nothing new, and not deeply explored. I get the feeling there may have been chapters skipped over in this collection.

[Nikky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay so here's how it is. The illustrations are pretty awesome, but after a while they all kind of blur together. Turns out you can only draw so many cool stylized spaceships before they get a little repetitive. The "plot" (I use this loosely) is mostly just an excuse for more ship drawings.

It's a cool little peak into where modern Sci-Fi manga ended up going, but I'm not sure it really has staying power.

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yamato é basicamente tudo o que se espera de uma space opera clássica. Muitas batalhas entre naves espaciais, ação e artes deslumbrantes dos maquinários, planetas e demais tecnologias. Mas achei que a história simplesmente pulou um desenvolvimento linear em alguns momentos, além das piadinhas sexistas que envelheceram extremamente mal.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun read, but it comes across more like a highlight reel. However, having seen the first two films of this saga, I know that there were highlights left out. It's a nice companion for fans but not much more.

[Sicofonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A manga with a status of classic that I think will never disappoint. I used to watch the anime back in the early 80s and it's only now I got a chance of reading the comic. If only for bringing back memories of a long time past, it was a worth read.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall the book was good and although the art for individual characters isn't very good, I believe it was an artistic choice to give more emphasis on the space ships and environment.

[Jonathan Jeckell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second anime I watched, one of my favorites, and was very formative.

[I. S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the true classics. It’s kind of amazing how much actually happens off “screen” though!

[Victor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The first volume by itself, while reasonably basic and straightforward, is easily 4.5 stars, but the art isn't worth the overfocus the later two volumes afford it.

[ALI · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 stars rounded down … sorry.