STAR BLAZERS

Here is another cartoon that made the anime story of the 70s, we are talking about Star Blazers (original Japanese title Uchuu Senkan Yamato) the series created by Leiji Matsumoto (the same as Captain Harlock) and produced in 1974 by the Office Adcademy, for a total of 26 episodes that were broadcast in Italy in 1980.
The story begins with Captain Avatar mourning the ancient splendor of the earth. Once it was blue with rivers of water, silver lakes and endless seas, now there is only an arid desert left, radioactivity has destroyed everything.In the year 2199 the planet earth was on its way to extinction because in the middle of the 21st century, Gamilon, a planet far from our solar system, declared war on the earth. These evil space predators known for their cruelty in all galaxies bombed the earth with their deadly weapons. The atmosphere became unbreathable and the earthlings were able to survive, only by building underground cities far below the surface. There was no defense against these bombs and the nations of earth united to fight Gamilon, but all of the Earth's space fleets were defeated. Gamilon asked humanity to surrender, but the Grounders refused, then the bombs started falling again. Thus a new danger was born, the deadly radioactivity covered the whole planet and penetrated the soil, making even the underground cities unsafe, which day after day were about to be contaminated. Now all is lost and in a year life on earth will have disappeared. Now a last and desperate battle is being fought between the Terrans and Gamilonesi. The decisive clash is close to Pluto and the earth is left with only one mother ship commanded by Captain Avatar, which being the last defense will have to resist at all costs. Captain Avatar's spaceship fights with courage and valor, shooting down numerous Gamilon warplanes, however she was hit and forced to retire. To cover the escape of the spaceship we think the commander Alex Wildstar, who however bravely sacrifices his life along with that of his crew, after a violent battle with Gamilon's troops. During the battle they see a plane crashing to Mars where a space station on Earth is located. On Mars we find the cadets Derek Wildstar (Alex's younger brother and protagonist of the series) and Mark Venture who go to check the aircraft. The boys realize that the plane does not belong to either the terrestrials or Gamilon's troops and inside they find the body of a beautiful blonde-haired girl, who holds a strange device in her hand. Back on earth they meet the Captain Avatar who communicates the loss of his brother to Wildstar, but the boy will not forgive the captain for Alex's sacrifice, despite the impossibility of avoiding his death. Derek and Mark take the device found on Mars to the laboratory to have it analyzed and meanwhile they get to know Nova, a beautiful nurse, the bizarre doctor Sein and the genius robot EQ9, who will become their inseparable travel companions. The device contains a very precious message that was sent by Queen Starsha of the planet Iscandar inviting Earthmen to build a motor for a moving wave spaceship, capable of reaching their planet 148.000 light years away from the solar system within a year, to receive the precious DNA cosmos capable of restoring the earth to its former glory and thus eliminating radioactivity. Captain Avatar immediately gives the order to design the moving wave engine and to build the new spaceship, recovering an ancient Japanese warship of the 21st century: the Yamato. Aboard the spaceship Yamato, Captain Avatar recruits the best men on earth, including cadets Derek Wildstar, Mark Venture, Nova and EQ9. In order to save the earth, they will have to accomplish the difficult mission of reaching the planet Iscandar and returning to earth within a year and for this they will need brave and valiant men, capable of facing the Gamilon troops of the supreme emperor Deslok. The astronauts of the Yamato (which will be renamed Argo) will therefore be called "The warriors of the stars" (Star Blazers in the English translation) and thanks to their super spaceship equipped with a powerful moving wave cannon and the Black Tigers fighters, led by Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture, will put Gamilon's space army in serious trouble. To bridge the distance of 148.000 light years, the Argo has to resort to hyperspace leaps thanks to the moving wave engine. This engine is able to take them to another dimension and make them reappear in an area of ​​space, very far from the starting point. Unfortunately they will not be able to make more than one leap at a time and to do this they will have to choose a specific place in space, which will calculate their on-board computer. From here is the beginning of the odyssey of the Star Blazers who will face a thousand dangers and difficulties, to overcome the Gamilon army located in many planets of the galaxy. They will land in fantastic and unknown worlds, with extraterrestrial populations and galactic battles. The genius robot EQ9, very precious in many situations, and the odd doctor Sein, always struggling with his strange experiments, will soften the drama of the scenes.

Star Blazers and all names, images and trademarks are copyright 1974 Leiji Matsumoto and Office Adcademy and those entitled and are used here for cognitive and informative purposes.