English Dub Review: Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 “The 11th Planet Rescue Mission”

To the rescue!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The 11th Planet is under attack by the Gatlantians, and it’s up to the Yamato to save those stranded. The ship does just that and puts up a good fight against their new adversaries, but then the Gatlantians eighth fleet shows up and essentially Death Star’s the Yamato and covers it with molten rock. Will the Earthlings survive? We’ll have to find out next week!

Our Take

This show is really starting to cook! The opening sequence with the 11th planet was about as powerful of a scene as this franchise has ever done, clearly showing influences from Terminator and other instances of machines destroying us, and giving us an exciting as hell escape mission that featured an enthralling conclusion and crazy cliffhanger.

That’s not to say that the episode wasn’t without its faults. For starters, when this show employs montages I get a real headache, particularly during the rescue scenes because I would have enjoyed seeing how the hostages would’ve received us instead of just getting a slideshow for the rescue. A real dick move, but I guess we had to sacrifice in some places to get the really awesome intergalactic space battles which were definitely gravy this week.