Once again, we have an episode that is easy to explore and talk about, because it was more spectacle than anything else. That doesn’t mean there isn’t meat to this spectacle though. The small amount of political drama on the Gamilas side and the heart on the Yamato side added something special to it all. Episode 18 of Yamato 2199 is easily split in two halves. The first half is grounded by the feeling of “well he make it back to the Yamato on time” suspense with an added dash “holy hell, get out of there.” The second half is where all the spectacle happens. You know why, right? Our Yamato emerges and does bad ass and awesome things. Just awesome. The full weight of the Yamato’s journey wasn’t felt for me until this episode where we see our crew defy the odds and fulfil their goals in unprecedented ways.
You know what this is. A spoiler warning. I am running out of things to say for these.
Yamato Side
The first half is mostly Yamato things. Before the Yamato wanted to commit to going through the jump gate that leads to the Gamilas base Balun, which is the name that I kept forgetting for episodes and episodes on end as you may have noticed, the plan is to send in a scout first. Shinohara, the long haired pretty boy is chosen for this task. In three hours, he is supposed to travel through the gate, scout the area, then find the Yamato’s route to the galactic cluster on a stolen Gamilas fighter. Kind of crazy, don’t you think? Before he even leaves, Akira tells him that it’s a scout’s job to return. So, you know what happens, right? No, he doesn’t die. Shinohara jumps through the gate, traverses through it, and makes his way through Balun. Do you know what else is there? Over ten thousand Gamilas ships. After finding the route and dodging Gamilas fighters, Shinohara returns injured with his job fulfilled. He was lucky. Despite the injuries from his unprecedented deed, he’s going to wake up and be ok.
The second half is where all the bad ass action takes place. The Yamato jumps in to Balun completely knowing what threat they face. You know what? Okita and the Yamato crew don’t care. They go straight through all ships with guns blazing. There is no possibly way for them to take on every single ship, but they take out all sorts of immediate threats and have their shielding take care out the damage from laser fire until they take some serious damage. Typical anime smoke screen effect though. The Yamato looked like it crashed on Balun base at first, but it re-emerges, fires its Wave Motion Cannon at Balun’s false core without hitting any enemy ship, and uses the wave motion beam to push them into a jump gate at the other side. Mission Accomplished for this episode. That wave motion cannon fire had one of the biggest YES moments from me that this show has ever gotten from me. So happy. The Yamato and its crew are the perpetual honey badger of outer space!
Gamilas Side
The Gamilas Side is surprisingly short this week. In the first half, the only reason why there were over ten thousand ships around Balun was because General Zoelilik wanted a fleet review. That’s it. I know that I had marching band review in my high school days which revolved around clean uniforms, shined up shoes, and being held at attention for forty-five minutes. I can’t imagine what that would be like for space ships. Maybe some on the Gamilas side of life were happy about the surprise Yamato Interruption. Anyway, during the battle and the Yamato’s possible destruction, Desler appears on screen again. He was saved from assassination because of dimensional submarine! Best thing ever! Desler reveals that it was Zoelillik’s plot in the first place. Zoelillik shoots the screen and tries to come up with an excuse for his actions, General Goer mans up and shots the guy, and then the Yamato appears to shoot its Wave Motion Cannon, which Goer commanded every ship to evacuate the area immediately. This one small yes moment leading to the biggest yes moment ever. I LOVED IT.
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I don’t really have anything to say here besides what I already said with my first paragraph. I’m just glad it wasn’t just pure spectacle. Everything was filled with some heartwarming moments, some tense moments, and some political movements that developed the Gamilas’ empires inner politics further on. That’s it. See you next Friday.
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This post is a part of the Yamato 2199 blog tour between me and DerekL. If you want to get involved: please click this link here, read what it says, watch the show with us, and post before noon on Fridays. Simple enough right?
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