The official website for the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime film opened with the first teaser trailer. The teaser confirms that Nobuteru Yuki (Escaflowne, Record of Lodoss War) is designing the characters, and that the anime studios XEBEC and AIC are producing the film.
The basic story of the new film is the same as the first Yamato anime set in 2199, but Yutaka Izubuchi (RahXephon), the 52-year-old animator who worked on mechanical designs and science-fiction concepts on some of the earlier projects in the franchise, is directing. Yoshinobu Nishizaki, the late producer of the franchise, is credited with the original story. Mechanical designer Makoto Kobayashi (Giant Robo, Last Exile, Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection) revealed at Anime Expo in July that he is working on a Yamato remake for next year.
Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto’s Yamato space opera anime franchise began with the first Space Battleship Yamato television series in 1974. The titular spaceship Yamato is built from the remains of the World War II battleship of the same name to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Over the next 35 years, the television anime spawned two television sequels, two video projects, and six films including 2009’s Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection. The anime was dubbed and partly rewritten in English as Star Blazers. A live-action film remake of the original Space Battleship Yamato anime opened in Japan last December.
Space Battleship Yamato 2199 will open in Japan on April 7.
Info Animenewsnetwork