Space Battleship Yamato opened in Japan yesterday. The scuttlebutt is that the live-action movie is a hit at the boxoffice, in fact, it's number one! Although I have a busy schedule while in Tokyo next week, I will squeeze in a viewing of the film during an evening. Talk about being at the right place at the right time!
It is based on the widely-popular anime series of the mid-1970s/early-1980s. Some critics have panned the movie and some purists of the anime series are peeved over some character changes. Still, the movie is doing well.
The plot:
The year is 2199, and the Earth has been under radioactive siege from extraterrestrials known as the Gamilas for five years. The Earth's surviving population has moved underground to escape the bombardment, but the contamination is slowly penetrating to reach them. The last space battleship of the exhausted Earth Defense Forces, Yamato, sets out on a journey to Iscandar, a planet located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, to acquire a device that can heal the ravaged Earth before it is too late.
The movie was directed by Takashi Yamazaki and it stars Koyuki, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi and Meisa Kuroki.
Space Battleship Yamato was released by Toho Co., Ltd.
Written By: Ken Hulsey Sources: Youtube / Wikipedia / Avery Guerra
If you are a huge Ultraman geek like I am, than the new trailer for "Ultraman Zero The Movie: Super Deciding Fight! The Belial Galactic Empire" will be right up your ally.
Looks like the folks over at Tsuburaya Productions have pulled out all the stops for this one with some amazing CGI work combined with the traditional 'man in the suit' effects made popular by the studios founding father, Eiji Tsuburaya.
There is some "Pirates of the Caribbean" themed stuff in there that I don't understand, but overall the film looks like the kind of giant monster, or in this case, superhero, free-for-all that we all yearn for.
Her is the skinny on the film from Wikipedia:
Ultraman Zero The Movie: Super Deciding Fight! The Belial Galactic Empire is an upcoming Japanese film in the Ultra Series to celebrate the franchise's 45th anniversary. It serves as a sequel to Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie. The film will be directed by Yuichi Abe. The lead character Run (who serves as Ultraman Zero's human form) will be portrayed by Yu Koyanagi, the son of Bro. Tom of the Bubblegum Brothers. Other characters include Run's brother Nao, portrayed by Tatsuomi Hamada and Run's love interest Princess Emerana of Planet Esmeralda, portrayed by actress Tao Tsuchiya. The film will also feature a new version of Ultraman Belial called Galactic Emperor Kaiser Belia.
Along his journey in the film, Ultraman Zero will come across several allies collectively known as "Ultimate Force Zero" (ウルティメイトフォースゼロ, Urutimeito Fōsu Zero). One is Glenfire (グレンファイヤー, Gurenfaiyā), a free spirited warrior with a soul of burning magma from the Planet of Flames (炎の星, Honō no Hoshi). He wields the Fire Stick (ファイヤースティック, Faiyā Sutikku) as well as control over fire itself. Glenfire was originally the captain of the Pirates of Flames (炎の海賊, Honō no Kaizoku) traveling through space with the Avant-garde (アバンギャルド号, Uchūsen Abangyarudo Gō). The other is Mirror Knight (ミラーナイト, Mirā Naito), a being from the 2-D Planet of Mirrors (鏡の星, Kagami no Hoshi) who was originally charged with the duty to protect Planet Esmeralda from the attacks of Kaiser Belial. In addition to several mirror-based powers, he also performs the Mirror Knife (ミラーナイフ, Mirā Naifu) finisher attack. In addition to these living allies, Ultraman Zero meets the Jean-bird (ジャンバード, Janbādo), a spaceship with artificial intelligence from Planet Esmeralda that is passed down through the planet's royal family. It can transform into a humanoid robot that Nao can control called the Jean-bot (ジャンボット, Janbotto) by shouting "Jean Fight!" (ジャンファイト！, Jan Faito!). Jean-bot is armed with the Jean Blade (ジャンブレード, Jan Burēdo) on his right arm and the giant Battle Ax (バトルアックス, Batoru Akkusu). He can also execute the Beam Emerald (ビームエメラルド, Bīmu Emerarudo) finisher attack.
Kaiser Belial also gains two commanders to work under him in the film to control his empire: Iaron (アイアロン, Aiaron), who takes pride in his steel body, and Darkgone (ダークゴーネ, Dākugōne). All of them have control over robots called Legionoids (レギオノイド, Regionoido). The Legionoids come in an Alpha-type which is geared with a red drill for land combat and a Beta-type geared with a large bazooka for space combat.
All of the new characters in the film are based on the protagonists and antagonists of the Tsuburaya Productions television programs: Fireman, Mirrorman, and Jumborg Ace.
Since that info comes from Wikipedia, I can't say for sure if it is 100% accurate, but it sure sounds cool!
As was the case for most of the most recent entries into the "Ultraman" series, there is no word on any American release plans, either theatrically or domestically , for this one, so you should start looking for the Chinese DVD release at your favorite Anime shop beginning next summer.
