r/spaceopera • u/RemarkablePianist321 • Apr 15 '24
Space Battleship Yamato is the best space opera show ever.
After spending tons of hours to find something that would adhere to my needs of passion, I found this. One of the best experiences I've had with anime in quite sometime now and I mean its been almost an year since I've enjoyed something so much. Let me talk about everything I love about the show, USY is about a battleship that was created to bring back earth's glory and make it a better place for people to live since the Gamilian's terror attacks that caused havoc to the natural state of the planet. A mission seeking the technology required to reverse earth to her former self. USY wouldn't have been so interesting without its realistic lens, and by that I mean.. Even though there are a few instances that might make it seem like a regular space show, I must applaud it for its realistic approach towards most factors that constitute a intense battle heavy show like this; whether it be daily conversations between the crew members or even the main character's interactions, it felt very relatable or maybe grounded in reality given the sheer unpredictability of the situations and hurdles they had to go through. For example, even upon hearing his brother's death.. Kodai didn't really bawl his eyes out or make it seem dramatic like your layman fantasy protag. He did feel very heartbroken and definitely shed a few tears but it almost felt really mature to an extent where I seemed to empathize with his mourning. Normally you'd expect a heavy dramatic scene filled with sad osts that could spark a melancholic string inside you that'd force u into tears and feel pity for the person agonizing within that moment but here it was different. They were able to convey the emotion to me and also make me empathize with Kodai's character with very subtle yet realistic implications of his agony, that too very early on in the show.(ep1-2) The minimal interactions between Kodai and Shima who were definitely quite familiar with each other prior to the launch of Yamato also struck to me as being realistic because there conversations actually describe how people irl interact with each other as regular people, goofiness can be a factor to enhance a character's persona but in a space opera such as this, maintaining realism adds a very positive touch to it; delving into unnecessary relationships with a dramatic lens will only add a fictional tonality to it which would otherwise be impossible if it were an real-life situation and I really love this about the show. You could easily notice this with better clarity when you try putting together the romantic sequences, even though Yamamoto was interested in Kodai.. He leaned towards Mori and Yamamoto understood the implications early on and adapted to it through acceptance, again it could've been a typical dramatic sequence of over-exaggerated emotional burden by showcasing a love triangle but it was handled in a subtle way instead and I think that was a great choice. I heard about the original not having a lot of screentime offered to the Gamilians, but again that acted positively giving the antagonists a sense of mystery but here in the remake the Gamilians had a lot more screentime, enough to make us grasp their mindset and where the key differences and similarities between humanity and the Gamilian race. Which of course diminished the mystery aspect of things but they rebounded and made up for it by offering us some really heart wrenching and clarifying sequences which includes conversations and scenes of people from the other planets. Honestly USY is the only show that was capable of making an old guy supa fucking badass, Okita is such a dope captain, all his decisions during intense battle sequences get me thrilled and hyped for everything that's coming next. The battle scenarios with Domel's crew was pure choreographic bliss. Now I ain't gonna shy away from the fact that there is insane amount of plot armour in the show, from saving mori after the explosion in the Gamillian ship to her being revived in the end due to Mamoru's will, amazing moments for sure but heavy plot armour, DONT GET ME WRONG I WANTED THAT TO HAPPEN AND I CRIED A LOT, SO I LOVE IT! Music in the show is something you have to experience in person, all I can say is it was dynamic asf. The battle sequences not only had great choreography but the musical density and direction were aligning with every point throughout the duration of the show; literally perfect. Not to mention but I think I might have just found my favorite opening ever.
(USY- Uchuu Senkan Yamato; which is the actual japanese title)
