Star Blazers
The Earth then receives unexpected help from Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar, who offers a device called "Cosmo DNA" which will remove the radiation.The series revolves around the Argo, now commanded by Deputy Captain Derek Wildstar, working with the Earth Defense Force to face Zordar.[5] Star Blazers initial broadcasts received high ratings, and subsequent rebroadcasts contributed to build anime fandom in northern California.Even in its edited American form Star Blazers retains practically all of its uniquely Japanese characteristics in terms of content, plot, character development, and philosophy.[7] Principal changes in the transformation to Star Blazers included westernization of character names, reduction of personal violence, toning down of offensive language and alcohol use (references to sake were changed to "spring water", and the Doctor's perpetually drunken state was portrayed as merely good humor), removal of sexual fan service, and reduction of references to World War II (though the sunken battleship ruins were still identified as the battleship Yamato in dialogue).The most significant reference removed—and the longest single edit in the series—was a section from episode two depicting the Battleship Yamato's final battle during World War II, including imagery of the captain tied to the helm as he went down with his ship.Many fans regard Star Blazers as more "adult" than other cartoons shown in the United States at the time, as personal tragedy, funeral scenes for fallen comrades, and the extinction faced by humanity were left intact.The very Japanese theme of "the honorable enemy" was also a tremendously important aspect of character development; in particular, the major villain of the first series, Desslok, during the second and third seasons, as well as in the later movies.The series began release in North America on limited-edition DVDs and Blu-rays via Voyager Entertainment USA and Bandai Visual on February 27, 2014, under the title Star Blazers 2199 in Japanese language with English Subtitles (created by Bang Zoom!The strong Japanese popularity of this remake, directed by Yutaka Izubuchi, has led to the production of an all-new animated feature film (set within the year 2199, during the return voyage to Earth), wherein our heroes encounter an advance fleet of the Comet Empire.[11][12] A Space Battleship Yamato live-action movie was released in Japan on December 1, 2010, produced by Toshiaki Nakazawa and Kazuya Hamana.By October 2013, Deadline reported that McQuarrie was also attached as director of the film and as co-producer as well alongside Josh C. Kline, David Ellison and Dana Goldberg, with Shouji Nizhizaki and Paul Schwake as executive producers for Skydance.The English language editions were printed in Japan and distributed by Books Nippan of Los Angeles, the American branch of Nippon Shuppan Hanbai.[22][23] From March 1995 to May 1997, Voyager Entertainment (under the Argo Press imprint) published 12 issues of Star Blazers: The Magazine of Space Battleship Yamato before publication was halted due to poor sales.Short on supplies, Argo heads toward the center of the galaxy in an attempt to learn more about the mysterious black hole and a rash of attacks on Earth's colonies.[26] DVDs of the three television seasons were released in 2002 by Voyager Entertainment, entitled The Quest for Iscandar, The Comet Empire and The Bolar Wars.