StarBlazers & Yamato, Galaxy Express999

Tom Hanks's new movie Polar express looks nice to see now.  It reminds me of the old Japanese animation Galaxy Express 999 (= Ginga Tetsudo 999). Reiji Matumoto created this old animation. And this animation received much influence from "Night On The Milky Way Train" by Kenji Miyazawa. I wrote about him before.  I like him very much.

Anyway, the most famous Reiji Matsumoto animation is Star Blazer (=Uchu senkan Yamato). This animation made a big boom in the 70s in Japan, many people cired at the scene where Yuki dies. ( not sure what is her name is in foreign coutnries). I think the theme song of Yamato is one of best 3 animation theme which Japanese like very much.  I was a little bit surprised to know the U.S used the same sound.

Here it is Japanese version. Uchu senkan Yamato
And here is English version StarBlazer
Anyway at my job, we serve ring tone in our contents,  many Yamato fans requested to us and what they wanted was not the main theme, but this type of minor BGM, like this and this.

By the way, I will make a post about animation singers in the future. Because Only a few singers sing most of Japanese animation themes. One of them is Isao Sasaki besides Uchu Senkan Yamato, he sang Gallaxy Express 999 movie version. UFO robo Grendizer. etc,. etc,. Ah! an interesting story is in France, UFO robo Grandizer( Goldorak ) was so popular, much more than Gundam. In 1999, for the France Asian Movie festival they made a poster of it with "Big Grandrizer". I heard Grendizer made 100% viewer rate! Can you believe it?

Comments

Kaname

[MaryAnn Lee]

I loved the show and watched it all the time when I was a kid. Now I want to introduce it to my sons b/c I think they will really like it. I moved to Canada when I was ten and don't remember too much of the detail but the theme song brought back memories.

[abraxis]

Yah, I remember Star Blazers too.

They had Seasons 1 (Iskandar) and 2 (Comet Empire) complete with references to God and original BGM intact. Try doing THAT today!

The American seiyuu were pretty good voice actors (try listening to a US dub of recent anime; bad bad bad!). They made the characters their own, especially Desslok (Desslar) and Venture (Shima).

Who woulda thunk that Venture was from Brooklyn? =)

[robert]

That is pretty Amazing. Yamato and 999 have had a HUGE impact on a generation of anime addicts. I remember watching Speed Racer, Kimba and Gigantor as a kid..and Ultraman (bad vinyl mask days)I wanted to be be Ultraman. I think I still have that on the objectives part of my resume. I remember Starblazers, it was so dark in comparison to other happy, stupid cartoons. I liked it because the characters were so developed ( do kids really think that? apparently). AH.. Seiyuu. That is a fascinating topic. I think one of my all time favorites is Megumi Hayashibara. She has done an extensive amount of work. Even though alot of people do not even know who she is. It's funny. Anonymous and pervasive. The people we hear everyday, yet never know by face. I want to be a voice actor!..and Ultraman! :)