It may be impossible to construct a complete timeline of Yamato history in the Vintage Report series since previously unknown artifacts can emerge at any time, and sometimes in waves. This happened in early 2025 with a motherlode of magazines … Continue reading →
Feb 18, 2025 • Subscribe
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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 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 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 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 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 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 34: 1981, second quarter
After the final episode of Yamato III aired in early April, Exec Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki found himself in an uncommon situation. For the first time since early 1978,…
Vintage Report 33: 1981, first quarter
After a banner year like 1980, it could only be expected that Yamato activity would decline, and it certainly did. In this time period, the second half of…
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 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 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 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 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 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 31: November 1980
After Yamato III‘s first month on the air, Be Forever was still rippling through the publishing world and all seemed well in camp. At least on the surface.…
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…
Auto-tagged Be Forever Yamato
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…
Auto-tagged Be Forever Yamato
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…
Auto-tagged Be Forever Yamato
Vintage Report 32: December 1980
As we look back over the entire sweep of 1980, December was the lightest month with the least amount of activity. That wasn’t the case for Yoshinobu Nishizaki,…
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 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 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…
Auto-tagged Be Forever Yamato
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 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…
Auto-tagged Space Battleship Yamato
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…
Yamato 2 production site report, 1978
From the January 1979 issue of Kodansha’s manga magazine Mimi comes this six-page exploration of the Yamato 2 production office at Academy Studio, filled with insider details and…
Auto-tagged Space Battleship Yamato
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…
Auto-tagged Be Forever Yamato
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 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 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 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 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 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 25: April/May 1980
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…
Auto-tagged Be Forever Yamato
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.…
NC 1978
The 2011 anime series Tiger & Bunny takes place in NC 1977 to NC 1978. While this clearly isn’t our 1970s, there is no such place as Sternbild…
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The Mythology of 1981
Year 1: Boobs, The Wind, Baseball, Lederhosen, Eels, Monkeys, and Doves Year 2: Hotel Lobby Oysters, Condoms, Spinning Around and Around, 街・町, The Town and Its Uncertain Wall, A Short Piece on the Elephant that Crushes Heineken Cans Year…
Underskin extra
Author: Ariki EikoChapter: extraRead: cubari | batoto | download Here’s the extra that ends this manga. That’s all for Underskin. It was a different kind of…
Inside Academy Studio, 1978
One of the most significant differences between the making of Yamato Series 1 and Series 2 was public perception. In 1974/75, there was no anime journalism to speak…
1978: Anime's Greatest Year?
Japanese animation, anime, cartoons, manga, 1960-1990, Tezuka, Miyazaki, Ishinomori, Matsumoto, Yamato, Gatchaman, Star Blazers, Captain Harlock
Auto-tagged Lupin III
Kyoufu Densetsu - Kaiki! Frankenstein (1981)
Translation: purpleparrotking Timing/typesetting: MartyMcflies This...was quite the interesting project, and I feel like the editing ...
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…
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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 ...
Demon Gaze Extra
Demon Gaze is a dungeon crawler that was originally released on the Vita in 2013. A remaster dubbed Demon Gaze Extra was then released for the PS4 and…
Kanada and Tomonaga, 1978-1979
This article is an annex to this piece 1979 was no doubt a busy year in the anime industry, and especially so in the careers of Yoshinori Kanada…
Auto-tagged Cyborg 009, Cyborg 009
The Most Dangerous Game (1978)
A stylish noirish experience that offers many satisfying action moments and a chance for the male spectator to fleetingly savour an impossible fantasy of male desirability.
King Fang (1978 TV Special)
Taki’s father was a Sakhalin Husky, and his mother was a wolf who escaped from the circus. Severely injured as a puppy, Taki was taken in by a…
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The Killing Game (1978) review
Murakawa delivers a satisfying sequel.
School In The Crosshairs (1981) review
A heart-warming sci-fi flick that dazzles the spectator with its expressive and colourful effects.