This man, on many drugs, with wave-motion gun.
Congratulate me already. I have successfully diverted funds from the Counter-ESPY “Istanbul Affair” fund to finance the all-new, all-different “Yoshinobu Nishizaki Museum.” It will be opening in 200X in Mitaka-ku, right across the street in fact from the much better known Ghibli Museum, AKA The Miyazaki Museum.
The main attraction will be a 1/1 scale model of the prison cell that Nishizaki, the co-creator of Space Cruiser Yamato, spent seven years in for sitting on a Scarface-sized cache of guns and drugs.
But really, what would Heidi do if radiation bombs were raining down upon the Earth? Suck up food and eat. Some people - Nishizaki-samma for example - are willing sacrifice their lives for the love of all mankind. But what would Heidi if we were Up Against It? Make cheese?
The only thing is, Toei Doga has forbidden us to use any
images, or indeed any mention, of Uchu Senkan Yamato within the Nishizaki Museum itself. So it’s
going to be devoted mostly to Blue Noah and Photon Ship Odin. BUT we managed to get permission from Columbia to use the song
"Have a Nice Dream, Bitches" from the Final Yamato BGM, so it will be playing on
a loop whenever you pass by, hell or high water.
I'm there.
I am so MOTHER FUCKING there. I will cut my belly open to show my disregard for Miyazaki,that fucking commie!
I mean, OK, Future Boy Conan rocked, and his work on the early Lupin III stuff is solid, but man, when the space aliens are showing up to fuck your planet, do you want "let's all be friends and eat yogurt" or do you want "in your FACE space muthafuckas and here's some for your PLANET TOO!"
Don't ever, EVER forget that while the first TV broadcast of Yamato stank like fish sausage (ratings-wise), it went on to become a franchise that RULED JAPAN from 1978 to 1982...Final Yamato came out in 1983, a year late, and was such a non-event that..well..party over.
Think: Bandai owes it's modern success with Gundam to Yamato. Nishizaki showed that you didn't *have* to stop merchandising a show/movie once it was over. There were new Arrivederci Yamato model kits coming out even as Be Forever Yamato was doing its two month moneymaker showing...
Did Miyazaki ever trick up a cruise ship to look like a freakin' BATTLESHIP? Huh? I rest my case!
Posted by: Steve Harrison | October 18, 2005 at 11:31 AM
I like most Japanese things with the word "final" in them...Final Wars, Final Fight, and, of course, Final Yamato. Still the longest animated movie EVER, and you call it a non-event…
Not so for one Japanese girl I used to know. Like most people here, she was a huge fan, believed the hype, and lined up to see Final Yamato on opening day. That guy sitting next to her at the Korakuen Cineplex Oden would be her dad, who brought his darling daughter to see the latest big-ass event movie and maybe enjoyed the spectacle himself a bit.
I guess it all went wrong around hour three when Kodai started humping Yuki. Talk about “surprise endings.” She said it was really, really embarrassing for both of them, and it was a long train ride home. I imagine Nishizaki laughing his ass off in the projection booth during the film’s run, glaring down at the panic below, rolling up 10000 yen notes into little tubes, and licking them shut.
Earlier, this same person was actually kissed goodnight by Sonny Chiba during a strange incident at a slumber party, but that’s a story for another time.
Last I heard, she moved to America to become a child psychologist specializing in abuse cases.
And that’s one to grow on.
Posted by: Patrick3 | October 19, 2005 at 08:59 AM
Well, I don't want to bore anyone with my deconstruction of why Final Yamato was..less then it could have been, I base my 'non-event' comment on how quickly, how..urrr..final..the merchandising became.
One model kit (three, if you count the 'repaint instructions' for the Cosmo Zero and Cosmo Tiger II fighters), no toys (Nomura having died by 1983, and Bandai/Popy still sitting on Yamato III branded stuff)..Nippon Columbia *did* kick out a buttload of LPS, there were 4 'image songs', music spread out between the Columbia discs and the Animage/Tokuma Shoten stuff, and a handful of mooks...
But nowhere *near* the level of stuff done during the glory days of 1980 and Be Forever Yamato...
There has to be an interesting story behind the reason Final Yamato was a year late. I think there's a clue in the Tokuma Shoten music sub-licensing...oh, to have the money to send you to play 'mass comi' detective...but your agent status probably doesn't leave much time for such flighty activities.. :)
Posted by: Steve Harrison | October 19, 2005 at 03:59 PM