Commentary:"Be Forever Yamato: Rebel 3199" A story of resistance: a mirror reflecting society?

The latest film in the remake series of the popular anime "Space Battleship Yamato" is "Be Forever Yamato: Rebel 3199". It is made up of seven chapters, the first of which, "Black Invasion", was released in July last year, the second, "Red Sun's Sortie", in November of the same year, and the third, "Ultramarine Asteroid", will be released on April 11th this year. "3199" is a reinterpretation of the third anime film, "Be Forever Yamato", which was released in 1980. If you watch up to the second chapter, you will see that the story unfolds differently from the original, but there are still many mysteries. "3199" is said to be a "story of resistance", but...

◇Is Desarium an emissary of goodwill?

The remake series began with "2199," which is set in the year 2199, followed by "2202" and "2205." "3199" does not begin in 3199, but in 2207, two years after "2205." Two years have passed since the incident in which the Garmillas home planet and the planet Iscandar were destroyed, and a mysterious giant object called the Grand Reverse suddenly appears in the solar system.

In the first chapter, the Grand Reverse descends on Earth's new capital. Dezarium, the enemy Yamato encountered two years ago, invades Earth, but in the second chapter, the battle in the new capital comes to an end. Dezarium's Holy President Skuldart tells the story of 1,000 years of history, saying, "We are you." It becomes clear that Dezarium has been searching for the "fragment of Iscandar" to change the future of the Earth, which is heading towards destruction.

The title "3199" seems to mean 1000 years later, but the mystery remains. Desariam is not an enemy, but acts like a benevolent messenger who has appeared to change the unfortunate history. He says plausible things, but the truth is not clear. He is at the mercy of various information and it becomes difficult to know what is the truth. It also seems to depict the problems facing humanity.

◇More surprises!

"3199" is a work that reflects society like a mirror. In an interview, Harutoshi Fukui, the general director, said, "The earthquake, COVID-19, the tension of not knowing when we might be drawn into a war, the emergence of AI, how do we secure our humanity? These are things that Japanese people have faced in recent years, and they are directly reflected in this work." "We also experienced the fear of peer pressure. We had such unpleasant experiences during the war that we should have been more careful, but it has become clear that the essence of human beings has not changed in recent years. To put it bluntly, were we really this easy to control?"

Fukui also said, "There are even more surprises waiting after that. Once you have experienced the jack-in-the-box, it is no longer a jack-in-the-box, so we will open it from the beginning and show you. From there, something incredible will happen, and you may be left wondering, "Can the jack-in-the-box open even from that point onwards?"" It seems that there are even more surprising developments to come.

In the third chapter, partisans, mainly former Yamato fleet crew members, plan a large-scale rebellion to expose the true identity of Desarium to the public, and it is interesting to see how they will "resist". Future developments will be interesting to watch.