Space Battleship Yamato c.1974 : Episode 2, Flashback Scene

Episode 2 originally had a 3-minute World War II flashback sequence depicting the sinking of the Imperial Japanese Navy Battleship Yamato. It was completely excised from Star Blazers and the lost time was filled by replaying the last few minutes of the previous episode, where Wildstar and Venture crash their recon ship and discover the Yamato ruins. This sequence ends with a shot of the ruined superstructure, while the narrator waxes poetic about the ship: “At one time, the Yamato was a great battleship. It fought nobly until the end. While rust and decay have taken away her once-sleek beauty, the legend remains bright, a legend of bravery and sacrifice. Now, just as the ancient ship appears again, the legend will come alive again. A legend and a ship that will save Earth!”

This little bit of background was not a true replacement for the WWII sequence, but was still helpful to young American viewers nonetheless. Unfortunately, this preamble (which opened with a beautiful scene of the sun rising over the burnt Earth) is not found in the Voyager DVDs, most likely due to the repetition of material which would be especially noticeable if the episodes were watched back-to-back.

https://ourstarblazers.com/vault/385/

Three years before the sci-fi boom led by Star Wars, Space Battleship Yamato sent a salvaged warship through space to save Earth from alien attack. Like Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, the Yamato was named for a real ship. This flashback from the episode “The Opening Gun! Space Battleship Yamato Starts!” animates its very real demise in 1945: bombed and burning, sinking with 3,000 crew members while Japanese soldiers pay their respects. A voice-over says the Yamato’s origin as a warship, born to fight, is a tragedy.

So the director, the prominent manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, was horrified to learn this sequence had aired with a military march. He fought to change the music, insisting, “Young people will not go along with this!” and “If the broadcast station hears this, the program is over.” War was still a delicate subject in Japan, where anti-military protests had filled the previous decade. Using real wartime iconography in a sci-fi setting to tell a very human story required a careful balance — easily tipped by a militaristic soundtrack. He won the fight, changed the cue, and Yamato went on to become one of the most influential anime of all time, both in Japan and in the U.S., where it was localized as Star Blazers.

However, this sequence didn’t make it into the U.S. adaptation in any form. But neither did more overtly antiwar sequences. At one point, the protagonist weeps for his enemies while surrounded by dead allies, wondering if violence was necessary. Star Blazers created audio to keep the dead alive and the hero firm in his beliefs. The U.S. — subject of Japan’s anti-military protests — had its own delicate balance to maintain.

https://www.vulture.com/article/most-influential-best-scenes-animation-history.html