English Dub Review: STAR BLAZERS: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 “Battle off the Coast of Saturn – Gather the Wave Motion Gun Fleet!”

BATTLE!

Overview (Spoilers Below)

We get some brief fall out from the previous weeks’ big story arcs. The Gatlanteans are headed to Earth and hit a blockade in the form of the United Earth/Gamilas forces who put up a strong defense lead by the Andromeda. Meanwhile, we learn that Dessler may have some ulterior motives in assuring the survival of his race and we might have a way to make the wave motion gun even better than it is.

Our Take

Yes, some of the story developments are fun, but the REAL meat and potatoes of this week’s episode are the epic space battles that go on for a near 10 minutes in the end. One of the more underappreciated aspects of Star Blazers is the art direction of the space battleships and the construction of the military formations that happen during the course of said battles. Everything to the “cocking” of the space ship guns to the intricate maneuvers of the flight formations. It’s Star Wars to the nth degree, I just hope most of the episodes over the next few episodes aren’t just filler in space for the Yamato to get to its final destination. If we get more like this, I’ll be fine.