Customer Reviews

Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar - The Complete Series One Collection (Episodes 1- 26)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought these disks with some trepidation. I was about ten years old when Star Blazers seared across my conciousness. I loved the show deeply at that time. I finally decided to go ahead and splurge on the DVD's, nervous that I was wasting my money on a half-remembered show that would no longer be impressive to a 30-year old.

I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong.

Sure, the animation is crude. You can actually see marks and debris on the glass plates used for the animation. Sure, some parts are cheesy. Sure, some of the violence was mitigated for the American version. Sure the science varies from wonderfully accurate to ludicrous. But this is still an amazing series -- one of the best pieces of sci-fi to ever reach the small screen. I watched the last ten episodes in one night.

In brief, this DVD covers the first season of the Americanized version of the classic Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato (itself an expansion of a movie). Earth is under attack by the mysterious Gamilons, who are bombarding the planet with lethal radiation bombs. The planet has one year of life left. But a call from a distant planet in the Magellanic Clouds promises a cure to the radiation and provides them with new technology to make the journey. The star blazers board the resurrected battleship Yamato (rechristened Argo for the American version) and make a desperate trip to save the human race.

I guess the reason this had such appeal to me as a kid and I still love it is that it never talks down. The characters develop over 26 episodes into fully realized characters. Complex plotlines (Wildstar's loss of his family, Avatar's sickeness, Wildstar's and Nova's budding romance) develop gently. Characters have a realistic chance of being killed (many die). It turns out the Gamilons have reason of their own for invading Earth -- they're not just evil monsters. And the finale - a desperate battle in the Magellanic Clouds, the arrival at Iscandar, the return to Earth -- is stunning.

This series combines action with drama. One particularly good episode shows the crew bidding their last farewells to Earth as they leave the solar system. Another simply details their homesickness. These episodes exists side by side with a 3-part battle at Pluto, a massive confrontation halfway along the journey and two awesome battles at the conclusion of the journey.

The DVD's come with plenty of interesting extras -- a history of Gamilon, a tour of the Argo, etc. But that's gravy.

If you've never seen Star Blazers before, you might want to rent the series or buy one disk before making a big financial commitment. If, like me, you have vague but happy memories of the show, go ahead and splurge. You won't be sorry.

If you were being packed off to school on innumerable mornings in the late 70s/early 80s, chances are you woke up extra early some mornings to the rousing tones of the "Star Blazers" theme:

"We're off to outer space,
Leaving Mother Earth,
To save the human race
Our Star Blazers!"

The half-hour cartoons which ensued were nothing short of miraculous to kids weaned on Looney Tunes: furiously intense little snippets of a small band of heroes in a tricked-out World War Two battleship in a desperate struggle against evil aliens.

This was no "G.I. Joe," folks---the stakes were high, and people got hurt. The captain of the Argo spent much of the trip battling radiation poisoning, the heroes were invariably placed in precarious situations and occasionally were lost. While the Star Force won most of the battles, these victories were dearly bought; many episodes ended with the ship limping along leaving enormous smoke trails in its wake.

Now "Star Blazers" has finally arrived on DVD.

I started watching the first episode, and wound up sitting in front of the TV oblivious to everything around me until I watched all 6 DVDs (about 12 hrs in all). Despite a transfer showing no improvement over the muddy images which danced across my 13" color screen all those years ago, this series STILL has the power to hook the unwary.

In addition to the 26 first series episodes, the DVD edition also includes a ton of nifty special features providing a wealth of background information. My particular favorite is the interactive mission map detailing the Argo's entire journey to Iscandar and back with episode-specific summaries of key events.

I've seen a lot of Japanese manga since "Star Blazers" first bombarded my eyeballs, but slick production and hard-boiled storylines pale in comparison to the ominous warning at the end of each episode: "Hurry, Star Force! Earth has only 256 days left!"

Buy this set. Consider it Cosmo-DNA for the soul.

Star Blazers, ah the memories of rushing home from school in the early 80's to catch the next adventure of the Star Force's journey to Iscandar. Knowing the opening and closing themes word for word and even being able to recite the narrator's form intro at the start of every episode (In the year 2199, Earth is under severe attack from the mysterious planet Gamilon...)

So why only the 3 star review? Voyager Entertainment Inc.'s (VEI) horrible handing of the series they unfortunately have the rights to... When they initially acquired the rights from Kidmark they cleaned up the picture and made it more watchable. That was a good thing, for 1994... But for a 2001 DVD release it's unacceptable... Especially for what they charge.

In 1995 I collected VEI's VHS release of this series in the 13 individual volumes (2 eps per volume). What I didn't like about them (I'll use volume 1 as an example) was that they would use the opening theme, show episode 1, then it would just roll into episode 2, and then the ending theme. Back then VEI also offered a more economical 6 volume box set. In doing so some of the opening recaps were cut as they would string 5 episodes together almost like a movie. Example; volume 1 of the box set would go; opening theme, episode 1,2,3,4,5, ending theme. This six volume VHS box set is important in this review because it is THIS very set that VEI "shoveled" onto DVD. Yes, they used the old VHS box set masters for this DVD release. There was actually more on the individually sold 2-episode volumes that they released 12 years ago on VHS! Now, on the DVD it seems like you can choose an individual episode and watch it that way (with opening and ending themes). Nope, if you choose episode 1 it will automatically go to episode 2 without opening and ending themes. The going theme for VEI (other than VHS masters shovelware) seems to be treating each VOLUME (whether it has 2 episodes or 5) as one whole smashed together episode. Now? Each disc is treated the same way, as one episode. Very sloppy and very disappointing.

I would've also liked to have seen the commercial bumpers and the "Stay tuned for scenes to the next Star Blazers!" in Derek Wildstar's voice. Not vital but goes with the nostalgia that makes this series so special to us fans. They did this for Robotech and the Transformers. Why not Star Blazers?

The extras are nice but be aware that a lot of the last names for a lot of the characters were made up years after the show was off the air. Names like "Nova Forrester, Dashell Jordan, Abraham Avatar." These characters among others never had last names in the series as we saw it on TV years ago. It was just "Nova, Dash, Captain Avatar, Eager, Conroy, etc." I'm not bashing the invented names but just be aware that they were made up by fans that did a comic for VEI back in 1995-96. On the deleted scene of the sinking of the original battleship Yamato, the scene that was used here is from the Space Battleship Yamato movie and NOT the TV series which was a longer scene.

I see a lot of reviews saying they would've prefered to have the original Japanese episodes on here as well. I couldn't agree more... But the fact is, VEI only owns the rights to Star Blazers NOT the original Japanese TV series. They have the rights to distribute the Yamato films but not the TV series. The other problem is that Star Blazers was heavily edited for time and violence. The episodes would not be compatible for a dual language track. Our best bet for seeing Yamato TV with English subtitles other than illegal bootlegs is for a domestic anime company like AnimEigo or ADV to get the licensing rights. And for Star Blazers to get the proper remastering it deserves? A good anime company would have to buy it from VEI. Unfortunately I just don't see that happening. They've had the rights for 14 years now and still can't get it right.

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This is it, people, the Starblazers Series One set. It's the "Quest for Iscandar" storyline and its just as fun to watch now as it was when you were a kid.

Starblazers was a very popular series when shown in the United States in the 1970's. It's very colorfully drawn and importantly, it has a good story to tell.

Basically, the story is this - Earth is attacked and only has one year until it will be destroyed unless the Star Force can fly to a distant planet (Iscandar) and retrieve the machine necessary to removing deadly radiation.

Its just the kind of stuff you want to worry about when you're a kid watching cartoons, right? That's the wonderful thing about anime. It doesn't write "down" to its audience. It's as much adult entertainment as it is for the kids.

And this is a special series, because it also has the coolest opening title song ever - its impossible to get out of your head - and I know you're looking for the lyrics so here you go - sing along with the DVDs.

We're off to outer space, we're leaving Mother Earth
To save the human race. Our Star Blazers.
Searching for a distant star, heading off to Iscandar
Leaving all we love behind, who knows what dangers we'll find?
We must be strong and brave, our home we've got to save.
If we don't, in just one year, Mother Earth will disappear
Fighting with the Gamalons, we won't stop until we've won
Then we'll return, and when we arrive
The Earth will survive with our Star Blazers.

I highly recommend this set. Its a must have for any Anime fan.

Regards,
turtlex

I was tempted to give this a five star review, but that was probably just nostalgia. I grew up watching Star Blazers. It was my first exposure to anime (not that I knew what anime was back then).
Watching it again for the first time in nearly twenty years, I found myself still enjoying the story. It's human drama and an epic war story that spans the stars.
So why not a higher rating. Simplicity. These days, I do know what anime is, and I've had opportunity to see the original Space Battleship Yamato that this was translated from.
The deleted scenes are restored as extras on the discs. But the original japanese dialogue is not, and in some places the translation was kiddie-fied to make it more saturday morning friendly here in the U.S.
Still a great series, and a must if you're a fan of Leiji Matsumoto's epic form of storytelling.

When "Star Blazers" first made it's way onto American television, I am proud to say that I was there to enjoy it during its first run. Every day after school it was a religious part of my routine to tune in the adventures of the Argo and the Star Force (along with "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "Get Smart", "Battle of the Planets", and other shows in the afternoon sci-fi kid's programming out of Boston).

Star Blazers was an experiment. The idea of having an animated kid's series kind of like a soap opera (with a continuing story arc spread out over many episodes), was entirely new at the time. No one else had tried it. No one knew if it would work. Happily, "Star Blazers" was a smash, and an unquestionable success.

Every episode would end with the Star Force either victorious over the new Gamelon commander and his evil plot, or with the Argo teetering on the verge of destruction until the next episode.

One facet of the program I really liked was the running tally of "days remaining" before the Earth was no longer habitable. It gave the show some added weight, and each delay or threat the Star Force encountered became that much more deadly, more serious. As a youngster, I too worried like the announcer, "Will the Star Force be able to reach Iscandar, and get the CosmoDNA in time? And what of the long journey back to Earth? Hurry, Star Force! There are only two-hundred and twenty-four days left [or whatever]!"

The DVD set is nicely packaged, as others here have mentioned. The special features are good, especially the history of Earth and the Gamalons. Although the art (especially the opening credits), seems to be a bit muddy at times, overall the transfers are decent. I did think the menus were a bit clunky, but they serve. One thing that annoyed me was that the episodes are designed to play back-to-back continuously without the credits sequences. You have to select each episode individually to watch it complete with the opening and closings. Between that and the clunky menus, I had to detract one star from my rating.

Certainly one of the more serious animated programs I can remember, where they killed people off and blew up bad guys all over the place. The music was at different turns gloomy, scary, thrilling, stirring, and poignant. And the weapon of choice was, of course, the Wave Motion Gun! This was the wild card, the doomsday device, the last resort, last-ditch weapon that would always bust the Gamalons when everything else failed (just about every episode).

After screening the set, the story and art are still awesome, albeit perhaps not quite the same as when I watched it as a wide-eyed kid back in the day. Compared to "Escaflone" or "Princess Mononoke", the artwork is kinda primative. Of course, "Star Blazers" was made well before the advent of computer animation, so for a daily kid's show, it was pretty darn good considering the time constraints (as well as the huge amount of details on the ships), that the animators had to deal with. And the announcer? Boy, he sure does remind me of Gary Owens, that guy who played the radio announcer on "Laugh-in"! Still, a great, great treasure in my DVD collection, along with a disc or two of "Battle of the Planets".

Bottom line; you need to buy this set if you even *pretend* to be into anime. It was a landmark in the world animation, let alone anime. Like "Speed Racer" and "Kimba: the White Lion" before it, "Star Blazers" helped usher in the flood of "Japanimation" (remember that old term?), we all loved as kids, and are enjoying even now as adults.

You need these discs like Earth needed the CosmoDNA after being hit with Gamalon planet bombs. Get it, and you won't regret it.

Let's first get this out of the way. *ahem* This is NOT the best DVD set ever made. Well, that being said, I can finally get tot he good stuff. "Star Blazers" was one of the greatest(if not "the greatest") anime of all time. Sure, it doesn't reach up to "Mobile Suit Gundam" level, but what "Star Blazers" lacks, it more than makes up for.

There isn't anything I can say about this title that hasn't been stated before. It is revolutionary in all aspects. Calling this "space opera" wouldn't do it justice.

"Star Blazers" (or rather "Space Battleship Yamoto" as it was called before the 70's dub) brings all the aspects of a "human" story together.

You want love? It's here!
You want drama? You got it!
You want excitement? Look no further!
You want heart-wrenching-excitement-and-character-devolpment-beyond-the-naked-eye-can-see?.......okay I'll stop, but you get the idea!

Of course this series is from 70's so the animation seems dated. But for those of you who CLAIM to know anything about anime, you should know that "state-of-the-art" animation is not always the best thing (after all, look at "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" or "Blue Submarine No. 6"), in the end, it's the story that outshines everything else.

So, if you are an otaku, old or new, buy this and you can die a happy man/woman knowing that you have watched a significant landmark in anime.

"Star Blazers" I salute you!

-RW

Okay, people, stop griping about the small stuff. I mean, come on - how many people "hate" Star Trek because the Klingons changed foreheads? It's a cartoon, it's made up, we're called on to suspend our disbelief watching anything, so have a little mercy and forgive a couple mistakes. If you have so much pride or so little self-esteem that you need to point out a couple production flaws or the transfer rate, well, then your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

Okay, that being said...

I've always been hooked by a great story. Epic masterpieces are hard to find, especially on TV, and I was hooked by Starblazers immediately. Of course, at first you get into the Wave Motion Gun blasting things to bits and all the battles with Desslok and the Gamilons. I watched it in the mornings when I was a kid, and the last episode was on the first day of school. We were one of the first families to get a VCR, and I begged my mom to tape the last episode for me. You can imagine the suspense - a whole school day in (I think) 2nd grade waiting to see if they would save the earth with the Cosmo-DNA, and what happens but my mom taped the wrong channel. AAAAGGH! I had to wait a year for it to recycle and you better believe I saw it then.

(spoiler alert - this paragraph) I rewatched the series once I received it (now in my 30's) and realized how genius it really was. It has everything that good epic stories have to have - great character development, a death of a major character, struggles that really mean something, connections to anyone in the audience - you name it, Starblazers has it. I related to Wildstar - some things in his actions and his family are awfully familiar. I can relate to his struggles with not having anyone, and that makes it all the more special when Nova likes him for who he is. The episode where he doesn't have anyone to talk to at home really hits me; it's also probably when Nova realizes he's more than just a flashy guns-blazing type. Then you get episodes where the unlikely characters are the hero - IQ-9 protecting Nova on the "Bees" episode, Royster (I think that was his name - Sandor's helper) with the Wave Motion Gun idea for firing themselves out of the tube thing, and Nova being willing to give herself to save the ship (and earth) by activating the Cosmo-DNA, to name a few. That whole scene is as brilliant an example of writing as I've ever encountered, including any literature, TV, movies, etc. Sandor is forced to watch helplessly, and Wildstar has already tried to be the hero and can do nothing more; Nova does what she has to do and willingly gives herself for the crew and the earth. Stealing a little from the Bible, there's brilliant ending where Avatar sees earth "one more time" as he wished (Moses seeing the promised land but not going in), and, the sacrifice having proven successful, Nova comes out of her coma. It's such a great way to end the series.

I showed Starblazers to a couple friends who had never seen it; one stayed up all night and watched the whole series, and the other finished it over the course of a week, only because he didn't want to lose his job! He would come home from work and take over the TV. This is a man in his late 20s at the time. Five stars, no question. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing along. Buy it.

This first series, The Quest for Iscandar, is the pick of the litter. The other two series are good, although some of the dilemnas are partially recycled. Leader Desslok makes this series interesting as does Captain Avatar. The Star Force prevails mainly due to the inept bunglings of the commanders under Desslok. Desslok is not all evil though, which comes out at the end of the Comet Empire series. Captain Avatar is an example of a great leader and there are many lessons to be learned from this whole series about teamwork, leadership and dealing with adversity. I recommend it to you.

10 years ago, I bought the VHS versions of StarBlazers and was very disappointed by the lousy quality of the picture and sound.
With the DVD version, you have a crystal sharp picture. The sound, well you can only do so much with the sound, but for a 70's Anime series it's not bad.
If you spent the afternoons when you were a kid cheering for Wildstar, Nova, Venture, and Captain Avatar, this is a MUST HAVE. If your kids have never seen this, it's high time they were introduced to some real adventure from the land of the rising sun.
The special extras are great. I especially suggest check out disc 2's original trailer and scenes that never showed on US tv.
While the price may seem a bit steep, you will NOT be upset with the product.
And to my old friend Kenny, who gave me a copy of Be Forever Yamato almost 20 years ago, thank you. It is now joined be this wonderful series.