I’m watching the old Japanese anime series, Starblazers. It was shown in Japan and North America during the 1970’s, and it has gained a cult following. On watching the episodes, my first reaction is that, at least in the beginning of the series, we are told what was happening, instead being shown what was happening. The cardinal rule is to show, not tell. This weakened the series quite a bit, but perhaps this was because the animation studio at that time had budget limitations.
There were many references to the Second World War, which was traumatic to the Japanese. The evil Gamilons, who were bombarding the Earth with radioactive comets, were Americans in disguise. There was, in fact, one scene showing Yamato being attacked during the last days of WWII, and the sequences of American fighters attacking the vessel were exactly the same as later sequences of the Gamilons attacking the space vessel. This was later edited in the English-language versions, for obvious reasons. That said, in the first episode, when the Captain was asked to surrender, he had his communications operator give the answer, “Idiots”. This was, of course, a reference to the answer allegedly given by the American commander, MacAuliffe, during the Battle of the Bulge – when asked to surrender, as the story goes, he said, “nuts”. There is some dispute as to whether this really happened, but this was a clear parallel to the scene in Starblazers.
There were also precedants to many SF concepts. Starblazers had a holographic room, for entertainment purposes, which predated the Star Trek: Next Gen version by over a decade; there were also instantaneous manufacture of vehicles, again, predating the replicators in Star Trek: Next Gen. And, of course, space fighters, which have become a staple of military SF (and probably has been since the Battle of Midway).
This is not the first Japanese anime I’ve seen – I was also a fan of Battle of the Planets and Robotech, but both series could not compare to Starblazers. Battle of the Planets had neither a continual story line nor character development, and, while Robotech did have that, its story line was disjointed over the three seperate story lines, none of which had any real connection to the other.
Anyway, I’m enjoying my Starblazers this holiday season, and I may keep you posted, if any of you are interested in starting a thread.
There were many references to the Second World War, which was traumatic to the Japanese. The evil Gamilons, who were bombarding the Earth with radioactive comets, were Americans in disguise. There was, in fact, one scene showing Yamato being attacked during the last days of WWII, and the sequences of American fighters attacking the vessel were exactly the same as later sequences of the Gamilons attacking the space vessel. This was later edited in the English-language versions, for obvious reasons. That said, in the first episode, when the Captain was asked to surrender, he had his communications operator give the answer, “Idiots”. This was, of course, a reference to the answer allegedly given by the American commander, MacAuliffe, during the Battle of the Bulge – when asked to surrender, as the story goes, he said, “nuts”. There is some dispute as to whether this really happened, but this was a clear parallel to the scene in Starblazers.
There were also precedants to many SF concepts. Starblazers had a holographic room, for entertainment purposes, which predated the Star Trek: Next Gen version by over a decade; there were also instantaneous manufacture of vehicles, again, predating the replicators in Star Trek: Next Gen. And, of course, space fighters, which have become a staple of military SF (and probably has been since the Battle of Midway).
This is not the first Japanese anime I’ve seen – I was also a fan of Battle of the Planets and Robotech, but both series could not compare to Starblazers. Battle of the Planets had neither a continual story line nor character development, and, while Robotech did have that, its story line was disjointed over the three seperate story lines, none of which had any real connection to the other.
Anyway, I’m enjoying my Starblazers this holiday season, and I may keep you posted, if any of you are interested in starting a thread.
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