# Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage
**Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage** (*Uchū Senkan Yamato: Aratanaru Tabidachi*, 宇宙戦艦ヤマト 新たなる旅立ち) is a 1979 Japanese animated television movie in the [Space Battleship Yamato](https://www.edgepedia.org/space-battleship-yamato) franchise, broadcast on Fuji TV on July 31, 1979, in which the Yamato crew joins their former enemy Desslar to defend the planet Iscandar from the Dark Nebula Empire[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/) • [2](https://ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica8.pdf). It was the first Yamato telefeature, a made-for-TV film rather than a theatrical release or a series episode[3](https://yamato-music.yamatokaigi.com/yamato-newvoyage.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original broadcast | Fuji TV, Tuesday July 31, 1979, 7:30–9 pm[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/) |
| Format | 90-minute made-for-TV movie (telefeature); 95 minutes in the later theatrical version[2](https://ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica8.pdf) • [4](https://eiga.com/movie/34910/) |
| Position in saga | Third Yamato movie; sequel to Yamato 2 and prologue to Be Forever Yamato[5](https://yamato.fandom.com/wiki/Yamato%3A_The_New_Voyage) • [6](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica7.pdf) |
| Story | The Yamato crew and Desslar defend Iscandar from the Black Nebula Empire; Queen Starsha sends Mamoru Kodai and his infant daughter Sasha to safety aboard the Yamato[2](https://ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica8.pdf) |
| Key staff | General director Yoshinobu Nishizaki; chief director Takeshi Shirato; script Hideaki Yamamoto; mecha design Mitsuki Nakamura; music Hiroshi Miyagawa[7](https://www.animemorial.net/ja/293-%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E6%88%A6%E8%89%A6%E3%83%A4%E3%83%9E%E3%83%88-%E6%96%B0%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E6%97%85%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A1) • [8](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/562/) |
| Theatrical release | March 14, 1981, as a companion piece to Be Forever Yamato[4](https://eiga.com/movie/34910/) |
| Remake | Space Battleship Yamato 2205: The New Voyage, two theatrical films (2021–2022)[9](https://yamatopage.net/basiclist/yamato2205/y2205) |
## Spoilers
### Story and characters
The film picks up directly from the last scene of Yamato 2, after the war against the White Comet Empire[8](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/562/). Of the crew that fought that war, 18 survivors remain, and they are supplemented by new personnel, including graduates of the space warrior training school such as Tokugawa, Kitano, and Sakamoto[8](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/562/) • [3](https://yamato-music.yamatokaigi.com/yamato-newvoyage.html).
The enemy is the Black Nebula Empire, which invades Desslar's homeworld and gathers power for its war machine[2](https://ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica8.pdf) • [10](https://lookupvod.com/en/movie/51686-space-battleship-yamato-the-new-voyage). The Yamato crew teams up with their honorable former adversary Desslar to defend the planet Iscandar. In an act that costs both her own life and that of her world, Iscandar's ruler, Queen Starsha, puts Mamoru Kodai together with the couple's baby girl Sasha aboard the Yamato out of harm's way, doing so to rescue those dear to her and bring about the fortress's destruction.[2](https://ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica8.pdf) Because the film also closes out the storyline of the first series with the destruction of the twin planets and the final fate of Starsha, it was designed to serve two audiences at once: a sequel to Yamato 2 and a conclusion to Series 1[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/).
Character designs were updated for the film by animation director Kenzo Koizumi, who explained that Susumu Kodai had aged along with the story, with a lengthened nose and more rounded eyes, and that Yuki Mori was drawn as a grown woman[8](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/562/).
## Production background
The film was made at a moment when the franchise's audience had split into factions. Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978) had been a blockbuster whose ending many fans wanted to stand as the saga's conclusion, while the TV series Yamato 2 (October 1978 to April 1979) had retold the story with a different ending and brought in a large new audience. Producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki's response was to revive the spirit of the first series: The New Voyage was essentially the beginning of a new story, and its title implied a step forward[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/).
Work began in early 1979 while Yamato 2 was still in production. Hideaki Yamamoto completed a plot on January 17, 1979; early drafts by Aritsune Toyota and Toshio Masuda went through several names for the enemy, from the Galactic Crime League to the Dark Nebula Empire, before the staff settled on the Dark Nebula Empire. The consistent idea across drafts was that both Gamilas and Iscandar were threatened by a mysterious foe, sending Yamato off on a new mission to Iscandar[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/).
The production staff was largely made up of veterans, including storyboard artist Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, but with changes at the top: Takeshi Shirato, a Yamato veteran from the first series, took over as chief director from Noboru Ishiguro, and mecha design shifted from Studio Nue to Tsuji Tadanao and Mitsuki Nakamura[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/). In a July 1979 Animage interview, Shirato said he wanted to return to the tone of the first series and to anchor the film in the energetic style of Desslar as he appeared in the later part of Series 2; scriptwriter Hideaki Yamamoto said he wrote with an emphasis on Desslar, wanting viewers to see the human side of Desslar the soldier[8](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/562/).
## Release and later versions
The film was first broadcast on Fuji TV on July 31, 1979, from 7:30 to 9 pm[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/); the Japanese database Animemorial lists the broadcast slot as 19:30 to 21:24[7](https://www.animemorial.net/ja/293-%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E6%88%A6%E8%89%A6%E3%83%A4%E3%83%9E%E3%83%88-%E6%96%B0%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E6%97%85%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A1). According to director Noboru Ishiguro, production ran up to the deadline, with the last reel still in the developing lab while the first reel was being broadcast; animation mistakes in that print were fixed for the rerun[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/).
In 1981 the film received a theatrical release on March 14 as a companion piece to the feature [Be Forever Yamato](https://www.edgepedia.org/be-forever-yamato)[4](https://eiga.com/movie/34910/). A 1993 laserdisc released by Bandai included a set of 11 scenes that had been cut from the 1979 broadcast before they could be fully animated[1](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/).
## Legacy
The New Voyage was successful enough that 1980 saw the release of the theatrical film Be Forever Yamato[11](https://sarna.s3.amazonaws.com/media/magazines/mecha_press_09_ako_aerofighter.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIIJ6PG5CONXQE6OQ%2F20260204%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260204T155523Z&X-Amz-Expires=1200&X-Amz-Signature=e3140bf4fac39cabfb54f36bc4e3bed92ca75b4ec9000707be4c040e58f917f8&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host). In the West, the [Star Blazers](https://www.edgepedia.org/star-blazers) comic magazine adapted The New Voyage and part of Be Forever Yamato for the Star Blazers continuity[12](https://yamato.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Blazers).
The remake series that began with Space Battleship Yamato 2199 returned to the story with Space Battleship Yamato 2205: The New Voyage, a two-part theatrical work. The first part, -TAKE OFF-, opened in 36 theaters in Japan on October 8, 2021, and the second part, -STASHA-, followed on February 4, 2022; the remake incorporates elements of the 1979 telefeature and subsequent stories, set three years after Yamato 2202[9](https://yamatopage.net/basiclist/yamato2205/y2205) • [13](https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2021/6/14/space-battleship-yamato-2205-1st-part-teaser-trailer-foreshadows-a-new-galactic-war). The original film has remained in circulation on home video in Japan, including a Blu-ray edition with a listed running time of 95 minutes[14](https://www.neowing.co.jp/product/BCXA-2037).
## References
1. [All Things to All Fans: The Making of The New Voyage, CosmoDNA](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/561/)
2. [Animerica, Yamato feature (Star Blazers: The Comet Empire / The New Voyage)](https://ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica8.pdf)
3. [Yamato Music Archive: Space Battleship Yamato The New Voyage](https://yamato-music.yamatokaigi.com/yamato-newvoyage.html)
4. [宇宙戦艦ヤマト 新たなる旅立ち, eiga.com](https://eiga.com/movie/34910/)
5. [Yamato: The New Voyage, Space Battleship Yamato Wiki](https://yamato.fandom.com/wiki/Yamato%3A_The_New_Voyage)
6. [YAMATO (continued), Animerica](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault-images/jun22/Animerica7.pdf)
7. [宇宙戦艦ヤマト 新たなる旅立ち (1979年のテレビスペシャル), Animemorial](https://www.animemorial.net/ja/293-%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E6%88%A6%E8%89%A6%E3%83%A4%E3%83%9E%E3%83%88-%E6%96%B0%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8B%E6%97%85%E7%AB%8B%E3%81%A1)
8. [Staff Interviews, 1979, CosmoDNA](https://www.ourstarblazers.com/vault/562/)
9. [宇宙戦艦ヤマト2205 新たなる旅立ち, Yamato Page](https://yamatopage.net/basiclist/yamato2205/y2205)
10. [Where to watch Space Battleship Yamato: The New Voyage (1979), LookUpVOD](https://lookupvod.com/en/movie/51686-space-battleship-yamato-the-new-voyage)
11. [Space Cruiser Yamato, Mecha Press](https://sarna.s3.amazonaws.com/media/magazines/mecha_press_09_ako_aerofighter.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIIJ6PG5CONXQE6OQ%2F20260204%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20260204T155523Z&X-Amz-Expires=1200&X-Amz-Signature=e3140bf4fac39cabfb54f36bc4e3bed92ca75b4ec9000707be4c040e58f917f8&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host)
12. [Star Blazers, Space Battleship Yamato Wiki](https://yamato.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Blazers)
13. [Space Battleship Yamato 2205 1st Part Teaser Trailer, Crunchyroll News](https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2021/6/14/space-battleship-yamato-2205-1st-part-teaser-trailer-foreshadows-a-new-galactic-war)
14. [EMOTION BIG JACKET COLLECTION 宇宙戦艦ヤマト 新たなる旅立ち Blu-ray, Neowing](https://www.neowing.co.jp/product/BCXA-2037)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 1932 to 1998*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license