The opening day stage greeting for Chapter 2 "Red Sun's Sortie" of "Yamato Forever REBEL 3199," the latest installment in the remake series of the popular anime "Space Battleship Yamato," was held at Shinjuku Piccadilly on November 22nd, with appearances by general director Fukui Harutoshi, director Yamato Naomichi, and screenwriter Oka Hideki. "3199" consists of seven chapters, with Chapter 3 "Ultramarine Asteroid" set to premiere on April 11th, 2025. A grown-up Sasha appears in the trailer for Chapter 3, and Fukui commented, "What does that mean? I don't intend to reveal anything about it," before hinting, "Once you know the reason, you'll understand! Nothing strange is happening. Maybe I've said too much now..." Regarding Sasha, Oka said, "She is 1 year and 11 months old, and her birthday is the day Iscandar was destroyed in 2205," while Fukui said, "She has had fluffy fur since she was born. She took on a human form when she was about six months old, so she is actually about 2 and a half years old."
In Chapter 2, the secret relationship between the antagonist Desarium and the Earth was also revealed. There are still many mysteries, but Fukui said, "In the original work, they are fake people from the future, but this time I feel like it's real. There are movies where things that look human but are not human appear. This structure makes you wonder what it means to be human. They may seem foreign, but the things this person does and says are also inside us. Paradoxically, as we lose our humanity, there may be something we have lost. It is written in a way that can be read as a double or triple structure."
The stage greeting was hosted by Nakamura Eriko, who plays Kiryu Mikage.
The first Space Battleship Yamato anime series was broadcast in 1974, and other works have since been produced, including Space Battleship Yamato 2, Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, Warriors of Love, and Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection. A remake of the first film, Space Battleship Yamato 2199, was screened in theaters and aired on TV from 2012 to 2014, and a sequel to 2199, 2202, was released in theaters and aired on TV from 2017 to 2019. The two-part series, 2205, was released in theaters in 2021 and 2022. Fukui will serve as general director of 3199, and will also be in charge of series composition and scriptwriting. Fukui was in charge of series composition and scriptwriting for the remake series Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love and Space Battleship Yamato 2205: A New Voyage, and will also serve as general director for the latest film.
