Occasionally being partial to the Set Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers remake series is suffering. On the one hand, or no longer it is far a stunningly a hit change of the Seventies/80s authentic, one of basically the most shining new sci-fi anime in existence; on the diversified, the prolonged wait between releases is nothing short of painful. On legend of its queer theatrical-first liberate intention, every 26-episode season is launched into Eastern movie theatres in limited chunks of two to four episodes every six months. While we bought REBEL 3199‘s third chapter on April 11th, 2025, chapter four would possibly perchance presumably no longer grace our monitors till October 10th. I verbalize the verbalize proves its value when the worst criticism I beget is that I will’t like the total ingredient snappy ample. REBEL 3199 Chapter 3: Ultramarine Asteroid, comprising episodes seven to 10, most productive continues to cement this season’s claim to be the handiest Yamato since 2199, the remake’s first season.
Perchance rather more so than any outdated remake Yamato, REBEL 3199‘s legend is complex and multifaceted, with its huge cast shatter up across the cosmos. We conform to no longer most productive Kodai and crew on the Yamato on their most modern desperate fling, but loads of groups of characters aid on Earth who react to the like a flash sociological changes there with various degrees of militance, dismay, or acceptance. Claiming to be humanity’s digitally augmented put up-human descendants from a millennium within the prolonged flee, the creepy Dezarium strive to integrate themselves into 2207 human tradition.
Worthy esteem most human characters, the viewer is never always fully certain whether to take the Dezarium at their word concerning their origins. It surely appears to be like esteem person Dezarium imagine the legend they spout, but as this chapter ably illustrates, or no longer it is nearly very no longer going for them to expose their claims. A team of insurgents successfully assaults the Enormous Reverse, the Dezarium’s imposing immoral, and threatens to abolish Van Gogh’s neatly-known Starry Night time painting to pressure a time paradox. (The Dezarium presents presumably shaky evidence that the painting mild exists in their future.)
While I will’t presumably condone the flagrant destruction of such historically indispensable art, or no longer it is obvious what drives the characters to such lengths. The very existence of the Dezarium is some dim Sunless Mediate-esque stuff, with their capability to remotely switch our bodies, and their universal adoption of thoughts-synchronization devices that be obvious that they all adhere to their ruling AI hivemind’s needs. Is every human being destined to beget their thoughts wiped, to alter into nothing but spare terminals for Dezarium thoughts-downloads? Even when confronted with public publicity of this design, the slippery Dezarium chief Skaldart manages to twist it to his advantage. In a sadly relevant, new twist, he makes use of the politics of criticism, plus a false flag bombing incident, to shift the public’s ire towards the blue-skinned Gamilans in their midst, igniting a flashfire of racial tension.
The Dezarium is hardly a monolith of insidious unpleasant. As segment of their plans for social integration, eight hundred teenagers are sent to register at fundamental faculties within the metropolis surrounding the Enormous Reverse. Among them is Frulu, a sweet, if pretty clean-expressioned girl who befriends Tsubasa Kato, son of extinct Yamato nurse Makoto Kato and deceased officer Saburo Kato. Frulu stands on the college gates handing out those limited, spherical, red “comm medals,” informing the human teenagers that if they place on them, they’ll be ready to hear the pronounce of “Mom,” and they’ll under no conditions be lonely again. Perchance understandably, the diversified younger other folks are freaked out, and some bully her. When Tsubasa involves her rescue, she begins to design an ardour in him. That starts to humanize her robotic behaviour. The following softening of her schoolmates’ attitude to her then leads to ratings of them accepting the “reward” of the injurious preserve watch over devices…
I welcome REBEL 3199‘s subtle and intricate conception experiment in phrases of Tsubasa and Frulu. She appears to be like esteem every diversified child, other than her terrifyingly atmosphere friendly digital memorization of entire books and photocopier-esteem ingenious abilities. Her father appears to be like esteem he surely cares for his daughter, and they spend time appreciating the natural joys of planet Earth, impartial like paddling within the sea. She even learns to procedure from her heart esteem a human (let’s hope she does now not prove to be merely a humanoid design of soulless image-generation AI). I will’t encourage but deem that Mom’s arrangement for the Dezarium teenagers is cynically manipulative, while the teens themselves are but innocent pawns.
Faraway from Earth, the Yamato speeds towards the closest subspace gate to take a shortcut across the galaxy. Their intended destination is the “Spacetime Connection Level” on the galaxy’s center, the situation the place the Dezarium claim they won win entry to to 2207’s location and time. Unfortunately, the insist route would take them thru the in depth territory of the Bolar Federation, a urge at level to at battle with the United Galman-Gamilas civilization. Unfortunately, they’re doggedly pursued by Dezarium Captain Ranbel and his invisible Battleship Grodez. He’s accompanied by Alphon, who remotely controls a secondary physique on board, while his foremost physique is on Earth, the place he imprisons Yuki Mori.
As is par for the direction with the Yamato remake, the extended location battles between Yamato and its enemies are extraordinarily tense and thrilling, especially when paired with ultra-shiny location scenery esteem twin white dwarf stars surrounded by a spiral of discipline materials from collapsed gas giants, or a huge huge name surrounded by a sea of ultra-dense liquid-esteem plasma. With techniques consistently altering and fresh environmental issues in most cases springing up, no two Yamato battles are ever reasonably the identical. Yamato’s enemies are usually vivid and sneaky, though they frequently let pride or vain superiority win the simpler of them. The Yamato is the forever courageous underdog, with commanders ready to turn the tide of even basically the most hopeless battles. I esteem this more or less dramatic storytelling, no matter how ridiculous it gets, with huge planet-destroying neon location lasers and missiles firing in all instructions.
Surprisingly, nominal foremost protagonist Susumu Kodai barely appears to be like in these four episodes, place for a couple of scenes of him glowering darkly, and one failed strive to rescue his Iscandar-born niece, Sasha. Equally, his like ardour Yuki Mori takes a aid seat, her most productive role is to beget in thoughts assassinating Alphon while his thoughts is in diversified locations… in a roundabout way deciding now to now not abolish a one who can’t defend himself. That leaves us with the leisure of the dizzyingly huge cast to raise the legend, and it in actuality works. There is a foremost focal level on moody Domon and his tortured like-detest relationship with college friend Ageha. Am I basically the most productive one who finds Domon’s “adorable little flesh fang” distracting?
We hunch away off with the promise of extra political upheaval, because the Yamato heads towards Galman-Gamilas on the behest of all individuals’s favourite unpleasant boy chief, Desler. With tensions between Earth, Dezarium, Galman-Gamilas, and the Bolar Federation reaching a boiling level, it appears to be like no longer going that the Yamato’s fling to the galaxy’s center is able to win any more straightforward. What on Earth is occurring with that older model of Sasha? It be going to be a prolonged six months.
