Review of Star Blazers Series 1 Part 2

Introduction

The planet Earth is relentlessly being bombed from outer space by a race called the Gamilons. Radiation levels are far to high on the planets surface and so survivors of the bombing must live underground. Only when the radiation starts to penetrate the subterranean cities is Space cruiser Argo launched on a 148,000 light year quest to find the planet Iscandar and return to Earth in time with the technology that will neutralise the contamination.
Not only are the crew up against overwhelming odds when confronting the Gamilon fleet, but they also have to deal with the enemy within and deep space itself.

Originally produced in Japan in 1976 under the title "Space Battleship Yamato",and dubbed and edited for the U.S market in 1979, Star Blazers has grown from strength to strength spawning many sequels and an ever increasing fan base. And to be honest its not hard to see why this classic sci-fi series has garnered so much support through the years. With sophisticated script translations read by talented voice actors who kept the characterisation consistent and interesting, and dealing with issues that the average cartoon show would shy away from, Star Blazers became a show that could appeal to adults as well as the kids.

Unfortunately a few concessions had to be made when translating the series for a U.S audience. Any graphic violence was trimmed or toned down and any Asian references that the western viewer may be unfamiliar with was trimmed or changed. This of course caused some episodes to have inconsistencies or weird dialogue where anything deemed unacceptable was translated differently in the dub or subtly glossed over.
Before reviewing this disk I had never heard of Star Blazers although the Ship (the Argo) seemed familiar for some reason. I’m not even sure if it was actually ever shown in the UK which if it wasn’t was a real shame. I know that I among many others loved the ‘Battle of the Planets’ and I’m sure this would of gone down just as well. Star Blazers still remains a great show and although being a bit creaky and worse for ware around the edges, it still has enough content to interest the average sci-fi fan.

Episodes include:
1-06. While searching for energy-focusing titanite crystals on Titan, the Star Blazers discover a ship that has crashed and frozen in the ice. They discover it is Wildstar’s brother’s ship and that he must come to terms with his brothers death.
This episode has been slightly altered in that some violence has been covered up for American audiences. While being chased by two Gamilon patrol tanks which a voice over says are drones, Wildstar manages to disable one by opening the lid and shooting into the tank presumably destroying the computers inside. However it’s quite obvious that the voice-over has been added to reduce the effect of violence as it just doesn’t make sense. The drivers have already been shown and its obvious that Wildstar is shooting into the tank to kill the driver. Also another shooting attempt by Wildstar is altered so that the Gamilon soldier is buried by an ice fall rather than a hit by his gun.

1-07. The Reflex Gun, part I .The Star Blazers are attacked by the Gamilon`s most deadly weapon, the Reflex Gun. This planetary gun (ION cannon anyone?) is devastating and can fire around objects with the help of reflector satellites.

1-08. The Reflex Gun, part II. The Star Blazers infiltrate the Gamilon base on Pluto and destroy the Reflex Gun but the Gamilon fleet escapes into space. With the base destroyed planet bombs no longer fall on Earth giving a temporary respite to the underground survivors.

1-09. The Asteroid Ring. A last ditch effort is made by the Gamilon’s to defeat the Star force after their base on Pluto has been destroyed. The Argo hides in the asteroid belt to make repairs and to devise a means of camouflaging the ship with rocks. Being hidden from the Gamilons gains them enough time to devise a clever counter attack that will destroy the Gamilon fleet. For now anyway.

Video

Picture quality throughout remains, to be fair, quite bad due to the limitations of the source material. Lets face it cheaply made, foreign material from the 70’s is always facing an uphill struggle on DVD as it shows every flaw.
The video is very soft making the whole thing seem rather blurry revealing no clean edges on the animation. A good deal of grain pervades the picture throughout the episodes and the colours seem dark and subdued. Dirt and dust levels are high throughout the episodes although compression artefacts were never a problem. As with most of these made for TV, Japanese anime series, the animation is really quite rough with many static shots and animation that uses the least number of frames that can be used to get a sense of movement. If you’ve seen and enjoyed any of these excellent series including the dreaded Pokemon than you will feel right at home with this style of animation.

Audio

Audio wise we have a very compressed sounding mono track that does the job with no frills. Dialogue is always clear and understandable while the music has very limited dynamic range which can sometimes sound a bit shrill or a little harsh.
The intro music is great though and guaranteed to have you singing along. The audio is the dubbed English version, by the way and so includes altered dialogue more fitting for the American market.

Features

Extras include a short piece of footage that gives the background on the ‘Space battleship Yamato’ (the Argo in the American Star Blazers version) and how it was sunk in 1944 but remained sleeping there until it was needed and refitted to be a space battleship.
Also included is a trailer for part III of Star Blazers, more of a taster rather than a trailer, a web link to the Starblazers site and a crew roster list which gives the background and information of the characters.

Conclusion

Despite everything going against this DVD I rather quite liked it. If your willing to forgive the audio/visual side of things than you will find a decent storyline with some great characters. It’s not exactly taxing on the old brain but still there are some really nice ideas here and once you get into it the ropy animation really doesn’t matter any more. Definitely for fans of the series or people interested in the beginnings of the anime phenomenon.