Space Battleship Yamato‘s reboot series continues its long, winding trek from intermittent Japanese theatrical releases to eventual international streaming. These four episodes comprise “Blue Labyrinth”, the penultimate chapter of REBEL 3199‘s seven-part release strategy. Coming to Crunchyroll only two weeks after its theatrical run, patient fans have only around four months to endure until its long-awaited conclusion.
Episode 19 begins the moment the previous release ended, with the iconic visual of the Yamato hovering over the streets and buildings of modern-day Tokyo. This is an Earth with a natural climate and its original ecosystem, not one reconstituted by Iscandarian technology following the Gamilas-ordered holocaust that incinerated the surface. Yamato’s crew is taken aback by this unexpected occurrence, while also wistful about the lost past they can now witness firsthand.
Analysis of heavenly body positions seems to confirm that Kodai and crew truly have travelled 181 years into the past, and this opens up a whole existential and moral can of worms. How should they proceed, considering any action they take may irreversibly alter the future? Current Yamato captain Osamu Yamanami insists that they have no right to mess with causality, while abrasive ensign Ryusuke Domon passionately argues that if they pilot the Yamato to twin planets Iscandar and Gamilias in this time period, they can prevent the bombardment of Earth and the deaths of so many human beings in the future.
Domon’s argument is compelling from an immediately humanitarian viewpoint, and many of the younger crewmembers sympathize enough to stage a mutiny. This isn’t the first time this has happened in the remake show, but unfortunately we’re never given enough time to really explore the fascinating potential ramifications of Domon’s actions because the wider plot gets in the way. Within the space of a couple of episodes, the mutiny is over, and everything’s seemingly forgiven – though not before some extremely creepy events that cause us to question everything we’ve witnessed so far.
Teenage character Sasha, the half human/half-Iscandarian daughter of Susumu Kodai’s elder brother and princess Stasha (both deceased), has been little more than a cypher up until this point. We learn she’s a Dezarium spy, not that this is a huge surprise, though she is conflicted. I don’t understand why the mutineers agree, without much complaint, to all wear the glowing red command medals that Sasha so conveniently supplies them with. Honestly, Sasha may as well have danced around the bridge shouting “surrender your brains to Mother, pathetic fleshy humans” at the top of her voice, and she wouldn’t have been much more suspicious.
The resulting contamination/inversion of the Wave Motion Engine somehow causes changes in the Dezarium Cosmo Reverse system in 2207 Earth, threatening to unleash a previously-unknown function that could wipe the brains of every single human on the planet, making them ripe for re-programming. That’s one way to win people to your cause, I suppose. This does suggest a massive (deliberate?) plot hole, though. Why should anything that the Yamato did 181 years in the past affect the present of 2207? Unless this has all been an elaborate hoax, and the Yamato isn’t truly in 2026 after all…
This season is partly based on the original Space Battleship Yamato movie Be Forever Yamato, and in that, the Dark Nebula Empire enemies attempt to fool the Yamato’s crew into believing their home world is a future version of Earth. This is eventually revealed to be a hoax. I’ve long wondered if REBEL 3199 intended to follow the same trajectory, or merely reference it and do something different. The jury is still out on what is truly going on here, as previous evidence of time travel seems to vindicate the Dezarium’s claims to be from Future Earth, but more and more subsequent evidence keeps pointing to the contrary.
Last time, we discovered that central AI Mother periodically rewrites her subjects’ minds, and therefore the memories of every Dezarium cannot be trusted. They may steadfastly believe they are future Earthlings, whereas only Mother may know the truth. Not even her highest-ranking Dezarium leaders, like Skaldart, seem to understand the true purpose of the Cosmo Reverse and Mother’s intentions with it. It now appears that she intends to ascend to another plane of existence, but somehow needs the entire collective will of humanity to support her in this. As I’ve mentioned before, this kind of vague mumbo-jumbo is one of the few aspects of the Yamato remake I dislike, as it lends itself to messy, unfocused storytelling and a reliance on plot contrivance.
However, the Yamato crew also meets with the 2026 ancestors of one of the crew, and he doesn’t seem to be in on the ruse, if there is one. Are the citizens of this version of Earth nothing but brainwashed Dezarium? What would be the purpose of such an elaborate setup? Nothing about the potential of this being a fake Earth seems to add up. We’re now 22 episodes into a 26-episode season, and the truth behind the plot is yet to be revealed. I’m concerned the conclusion may be rushed and unsatisfactory, given so many plot points are still unaddressed.
Yuki Mori is still hanging around with Major Alphon, who becomes more and more human-like with each moment that passes. He’s now convinced some of his fellow Dezarium to remove their command medals, bringing them to the rebels’ side. I don’t think Yuki will ever fall for him, but they share an implicit trust in one another. I like that Yuki’s finally able to interact with someone other than Alphon when she visits the former Yamato nurse, widow of Sauro Kato, and mother of Tsubasa, Makoto. She’s such a strong character, fiercely proud of her husband’s legacy, refusing to compromise her morals even in the face of confrontation. I cheered when she spurned the creepy, entitled teacher dude.
After chapter 5’s almost constant action, most of chapter 6 is dedicated to plot progression, exploration of the season’s central mysteries, and some strong moral dilemmas. It’s as compelling as ever, though much lighter on shooty spaceship battles than usual. The tension begins to climb in the concluding episode 22, promising an explosive climax to come in the next chapter. We’re left with another intriguing cliffhanger, as Sasha finds something she thought she’d long since lost. I feel my comment “never trust a death if you don’t see the body” in my review of episodes 11-14 has been thoroughly vindicated…
