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Space Battleship Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato), released in English speaking countries as Space Cruiser Yamato (also as Space Cruiser), is a 1977 Japanese anime film directed by Leiji Matsumoto. The film consists of various television episodes edited from the "Iscander" arc of the Space Battleship Yamato television series.

Dubbing History[]

The film was simultaneously sold for overseas distribution during production, with the film trimmed to 101 minutes (from 145 minutes) to increase profitability. The dub of the film predates the more famous Star Blazers adaptation of the Yamato series. Producer Bernard Tabakin hired director Gino Tanasescu (who would later go onto to direct such films as Red Serpent) to write the English script. Despite changing many character names (Susumu Kodai became Jason Kodai, Daisuke Shima became Bernard O'Toole, and Shiro Sanada became Stephenson), the script stayed relatively close to the original Japanese.

A group of nine actors were assembled to record their parts in October 1976, including veteran character actor Marvin Miller, who was best known as the voice of Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet. Space Cruiser Yamato was screened at the Cannes film festival in May of 1977 (3 months before its Japanese release) accompanied by an English promotional flyer and deals were made with several different distributors in the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, and France. The film, however, received a lukewarm reception from the critics during its short theatrical run, with many believing it to be simply a rip-off of Star Wars, despite predating it by 3 years.

The films dub would only be released on VHS in the United Kingdom twice, once in 1980 and again in 1986.

Cast[]

Image Character Seiyū Dub Actor[1][2]
Yamato-1b Jason Kodai Kei Tomiyama Rex Knowles
Yamato-1f Yuki Mori Yōko Asagami Marcy Goldman
Yamato-1d Shane O'Toole Shūsei Nakamura Paul Shively
Yamato-1a Captain Jūzō Okita Gorō Naya Marvin Miller
Yamato-1e Samuelson Takeshi Aono Jerry Harland
Yamato-1i Lord Dessler Masatō Ibu Larry Burrell
Yamato-1k General Hiss Keisuke Yamashita Jerry Harland
Yamato-1n General Domeru Osamu Kobayashi Dudley Coleman
Yamato-1r Starsha Iscandar Michiko Hirai Marcy Goldman
Yamato-1q Narrator Akira Kimura Marvin Miller

Additional / Unidentified Voices

  • Larry Burrell
  • Dudley Coleman
  • Jerry Harland
  • Rex Knowles
  • Marvin Miller
  • Paul Shively

Notes[]

  • Despite being advertised as Space Cruiser in most material, the on-screen titles refer to it as Space Cruiser Yamato.
  • Dessler's voice was modeled after Boris Karloff, ironically enough, Eddie Allen would do the same when voicing the character in the Star Blazers dub of the series.
  • The film would later be released on VHS by Voyager Entertainment in 1995, but this release was sub-only.

Video Releases[]

Distributor Year Format Region Country
Derann Film Services 1980 VHS PAL United Kingdom United Kingdom
Video Gems 1986

References[]

  1. Hiroshi Miyagawa ‎– Space Cruiser Yamato (Vinyl, LP) at Discogs. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
  2. Rex Knowles's Acting Resume. Retrieved June 17, 2018

External Links[]

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