The runup to summer 1980 was deceptively quiet on the surface, but momentum was building like a freight train underneath as Be Forever moved into the second half of production. It culminated in a press conference that sounded the starting … Continue reading →
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Vintage Report 26: June 1980
As Toei Studio’s animation staff labored through their final month on Be Forever Yamato, the publicity machine ramped up with major media coverage and the first live events…
Vintage Report 28: August 1980
The enormous momentum that built up in July burst wide open on the first two days of August with the hotly-anticipated premiere of Be Forever Yamato. Familiar patterns…
Vintage Report 27: July 1980
This was the last round before the premiere of Be Forever Yamato in theaters, and thus became the single busiest month in all of Yamato history until the…
Vintage Report 30: October 1980
You have to push pretty hard to top the premiere of a new TV series, but the publishing community did its best with the last big wave of…
Vintage Report 29: September 1980
As Be Forever Yamato closed its premiere run in Japanese theaters, spinoff media became more concentrated as the first dedicated books appeared, and magazines became the first source…
Vintage Report 24: January-March 1980
The new decade dawned with the making of a new Yamato adventure that would be just one part of Academy Studio’s busiest year of them all. While the…
Vintage Report 19, March/April 1979
The spring months of 1979 saw the first slowdown in Yamato activity since the previous summer, which was inevitable given that the intervening period was the busiest in…
Vintage Report 20, May/June 1979
This stretch of time can be described as a gap, since it marked the period between the Yamato 2 finale and the broadcast premiere of The New Voyage.…
Vintage Report 2: 1975
The simplest description of Yamato‘s arc in 1974 would be “a herculean rise leading to a sudden fall.” An enormous amount of effort to get the thing off…
Vintage Report 3: 1976
Of all the original production years, 1976 was definitely the leanest. Total “above-the-surface” activity was less than what occurs during a typical month in the remake years. As…
Vintage Report 6: September 1977
As summer gave way to fall, Yamato‘s fortunes just kept on climbing. The initial theatrical engagements ended just before September started, but far more theaters were picking the…
Vintage Report 11: July 1978
The final month before the Farewell to Yamato premiere was a steady climb of excitement and anticipation as film production plowed through its final stages and publicity ratcheted…
Vintage Report 16: December 1978
Stop the presses moment: in the course of writing these vintage reports, new discoveries inevitably pop up that belonged in previous reports. Sometimes they warrant special attention, and…
Vintage Report 7: Fall 1977
The events and artifacts in this account took place several decades ago, but the actual research in putting them all in order inevitably leads to new discoveries. As…
Vintage Report 15: November 1978
Though Farewell to Yamato was no longer in theaters in November 1978, it continued to dominate the discourse, both in media and merchandising. But it was no longer…
Vintage Report 12: August 1978
This was the month when all the suspense finally broke. Farewell to Yamato destroyed all previous box office records for anime films (including that of Yamato itself) with…
Vintage Report 5: August 1977
The whole world changed for the better in August 1977, and that is not an exaggeration. With the August 8 premiere of Space Battleship Yamato, the entire anime…
Vintage Report 13: September 1978
The month following the incredible box office success of Farewell to Yamato was both a victory lap and the beginning of a marathon. As new media coverage and…
Vintage Report 1: 1973-74
As Yamato Resurrection approached in 2009, this website took on a new dimension when the Yamato saga returned to real time and there was news to report every…
Vintage Report 18: February 1979
As Yamato 2 moved into its post-Telezart phase with four very compelling episodes, development continued on The New Voyage, media coverage intensified, and new books kept the world…
Vintage Report 14: October 1978
To understand how significant this month was, here’s a metaphor. Imagine that it’s July 1977, two months after Star Wars exploded into the world. Now, without buying a…
Vintage Report 17: January 1979
At the dawn of 1979, Yoshinobu Nishizaki’s Office Academy studio was on the highest trajectory ever seen in the TV anime industry, which at the time was just…
Vintage Report 9: 1978, Part 1
As the new year began, the Yamato movie was still raking in box office profits after an incredible five months. After a slowdown in December, the New Year’s…
Vintage Report 23: November/December 1979
The fan community didn’t know it yet, but the end of 1979 tipped them just past the halfway point between The New Voyage and the next big adventure,…
Vintage Report 21: July/August 1979
For a two-month period that didn’t actually see a large amount of activity, this was a huge moment for Yamato fans. July in particular delivered a big one-two…
Vintage Report 4: 1977, Part 1
It is no exaggeration to state that the period covered in this report was the most pivotal time in all of Yamato history. The movie that would change…
Vintage Report 10: 1978, Part 2
As 1978 approached its midpoint, Yamato fever was heating up. The publicity campaign was just starting to ramp up, but production was running at full speed as the…
Vintage Report 8: November/December 1977
If we were to name this specific stretch of Yamato history, the appropriate word would probably be “Afterglow.” The feature film was still burning up the box office…
Vintage Report 22: September/October 1979
As summer merged into fall, the world of Yamato was only getting bigger in the wake of The New Voyage, and Office Academy studio was only getting busier.…
april may update
Japanese animation, anime, cartoons, manga, 1960-1990, Tezuka, Miyazaki, Ishinomori, Matsumoto, Yamato, Gatchaman, Star Blazers, Captain Harlock
Monthly Report for April
I added a new page for Edogawa ku Added the following to the Akihabara and Kanda page: Akihabara Gachapon Kaikan gee! store M's Mandarake...
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Name: Hand Maid MayFormat: DVDRelease Date: July 2000Age Rating: 13+Themes: robots, AI, time travel, romance, fanserviceLanguage Watched: English dubbedLength: 11 episodes at 25 minutes each. Basic…
Space Battleship Yamato 2205 Report 25
Summer doldrums (or whatever) caused activity to drop in the month of July, but the hits were still solid, especially an unexpected announcement that pulled an exceedingly rare…
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The Frontline Report [7/25/21]
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Yaoi New Titles - April, May, June 2007
I got the info of yaoi new titles. April 25: Demian Shoukougun #5 by Mamiya Oki April 25: Genwaku Kodou #15 by Michiru Kada & Rieko Yoshiha...
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There’s a lot of Yuri news this week, which is good – and amazing, given our present circumstances. Japan is suspending shipping by air to the USA, among…
Light Novels Releasing This Week April 19-25, 2021
Here are the light novels releasing this week, April 19th to the 25th, 2021.
Gunpla Pre-orders and New Releases for April-May 2023
Have you seen Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island yet? YAS’s brand new reimagining of Gundam’s worst episode is now available to stream on Crunchyroll as of April…
TSUTAYA Weekly Manga Sales Ranking: April 29 – May 5, 2024
There have been some changes to the reporting style here on the Blog. Please refer to the post here for further information. All of the data you find…
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Gunpla Pre-orders and New Releases for April-May 2021
How do you feel about an American Gundam movie? This April, we learned that Netflix is footing the bill for a live-action film set in the Universal Century.…
Light Novels Releasing This Week April 26-May 2, 2021
Image from How to Melt the Ice Queen’s Heart Volume 1 Here are all the light novels releasing in English this week, April 26th to May 2nd, 2021.…
Gunpla Pre-orders and New Releases for April-May 2022
Did you see there’s going to be a new Gunpla factory? Anime News Network reported that the new Bandai Hobby Center factory will open in 2024 and help…
Vintage manga Twitch stream!
Happy new year, friends! This Sunday (Jan 21, 2024), I'll be doing a chill stream where I'll flip through some vintage manga with y'all and ...
Vintage Yamato doujinshi archive
The importance of doujinshi (fanzines) in the early years of Space Battleship Yamato cannot be underestimated. Thanks to a handful of fans who visited the Office Academy animation…
Toward the Terra (1980)
Toward the Terra (1980) I tend to really enjoy stories that feature big concepts – especially imaginings of the future, and Toward the Terra features both of those…
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From the Star Blazers/Yamato Premium Fan Club magazine, Vol. 15 (October 2022): mecha designers Arashi Ishizau and Mika Akitaka look back at the progressive year 1980 and share…