Space Battleship Yamato 2199 – Episode 22: Out of the frying pan

This episode was what I expected last week’s episode to be. A mostly calm cool down episode dedicated more to character development and some fun moments here and there instead of spectacle. That being said, a lot of the developments from last episode made its way into this episode. All the stakes and political intrigue were ramped up and had some layers added by having our Yamato crew get used to a major reveal. You wanna know what the reveal is? Gamilas and Iscander, the Yamato’s designation, are twin planets. That’s a big deal, don’t you think? Also, Melda Ditz is back onboard the ship. All is good in this episode, except for Yuki’s capture, until the very last second of this episode. Let’s talk about this episode in more detail. It’s good to be back after a week off.

I revealed some spoilers in the first paragraph, but this is where the spoiler warning tag goes

-Yamato and Rebel Gamilas Groups

This is where I start comparing Yamato 2199 to Star Trek again? Why? This episode starts with a Captain’s Log. Besides all the space ship stuff and the uniforms, there is nothing more Star Trek like then a Captain’s Log. Still, this wasn’t just a reference or something. In this case, it was to montage the events of what happened after last week’s episode with Captain Okita as the narrator. It seems like the rebel Gamilas forces and the Yamato are not going to fire at each other, but they aren’t going to completely get along with each other either. This makes perfect sense to me, because there is still a lot of baggage between the two groups to fully get along at the moment. This is how Melda Ditz makes her way onto the Yamato again. She is serving as the Liaison between the two groups, which shows that there might be hope for Gamilas and Earth to get along in the future.

The rest of the episode on the Yamato are centered around Melda getting used to life on the ship, the crew getting over the idea that the place they are traveling to and the enemies they have been fighting are from twin planets, and Kodai grieving over Yuki’s capture again. Those last two items get covered in a short amount of time but are still extremely powerful in execution. Damn, this show has some strong feelings going on in this episode. Let’s move onto some fun. When we first see Melda on the ship, she wants a fighter on her own. She gets it, but it’s that repaired stolen Gamilas fighter that eventually gets painted red. Then we get the best girl squad stuff. You know, Akira, Yurisha, and Melda eating ice cream. This is where all the cuteness shows up. Melda eating a sundae for the first time and all that blushing from how delicious it is. Maybe I have a bit of a crush on Melda….

Gamilas Side

I love this series’ callbacks. Despite the fact that Schultz has been dead for a while, he is still around in some ways? Why? Because his grand daughter is serving as an attendant for our captured Yuki on the Gamilas Capital of Belarus. Yuki may have revealed that she isn’t from Iscandar during her interrogation, but It seems like Desler doesn’t care. Being his smart self, he is using the fact that Yuki looks like she is from iscander to his advantage during his political speeches. Yuki doesn’t know that Desler knows about her origins yet, so I wonder when that will come into play. Finally, our episode ends with Desler talking to somebody about a special project that isn’t complete yet. Yeah, pretty sure that this is the weapon that fires the laser beam at the end of this episode. I guess will find out next week.

Final Thoughts

As I said before, I really this episode. It had everything in it. Laughter, intensity, madness, romance, and even some quick space stuff. You know, the Yamato jumping places using its wave motion engine. A lot of the things that were covered in this episode are going to have a large amount of leeway leading into this show’s last episodes. Can’t wait to get there. See you all next Friday.

(All images are screen captures from Crunchyroll

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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?