When the movie started, it was like an animated version of Independence Day: a massive, MASSIVE assault on Earth by the Dark Galaxy Empire, cities in flames, ships pouring out fighters and troops. Then they give mankind an ultimatum, surrender or we blow up Earth with an antimatter bomb. Yamato barely manages to make it off Earth, but Yuki is left behind. Very good start up, very tense. But...then it kind of burns out and eventually falls flat. Remember the daughter of Starsha and Jason Kodai's brother? Yeah, well, we finally meet her, all grown up (Iscandarans reach their teens in a year, apparently), and they even introduce a very interesting subplot where she's clearly in love with Kodai and vice versa but he's also unsure of how to handle the affair and she's jealous of Yuki who isn't even there...and then she dies by the end of the movie, and so does Alex. And WOW did Alex die in a shockingly brief and irrational way. He basically sets off a suicide bomb, tells everyone he's going to set it off and in the same breath he does, and it does literally nothing. Oops. Yuki has an interesting story introduced, being trapped on Earth and steadily falling in love with a Dark Galaxy Empire soldier while still in love with Jason...and it goes nowhere, and then he dies. Oops. Then we're introduced to the Dark Galaxy Empire in a way so convoluted and mind-twisting it's almost incomprehensible. Oops.
In fact that could almost be the title of the movie, "Oops Yamato." The story isn't bad, or the basic framework isn't anyway. In a lot of ways it's like Arreviderci Yamato in that it sets up a story that should have been an entire season with like 10-15 episodes at minimum but then tries to tie it all up.two hours. The difference being, in that case they realized it and just turned the movie's plot into a whole season, but here they didn't. Oops.
If they had at least three episodes to show Yuki's conflicted feelings, a similar number to show Jason and his niece and how they were falling in love and out of love and then in again, and God almighty if they had given some real set up and closure to the villains (besides the blink and you'll miss it scene in Yamato: The New Voyages) then it would have worked. But as it is, Be Forever Yamato is a huge meh. It's not bad, but it's not entertaining either, it starts great and then flames out really fast until it becomes a pile of soot.
And considering the theme of Earth about to explode, that's a hugely ironic ending.
In fact that could almost be the title of the movie, "Oops Yamato." The story isn't bad, or the basic framework isn't anyway. In a lot of ways it's like Arreviderci Yamato in that it sets up a story that should have been an entire season with like 10-15 episodes at minimum but then tries to tie it all up.two hours. The difference being, in that case they realized it and just turned the movie's plot into a whole season, but here they didn't. Oops.
If they had at least three episodes to show Yuki's conflicted feelings, a similar number to show Jason and his niece and how they were falling in love and out of love and then in again, and God almighty if they had given some real set up and closure to the villains (besides the blink and you'll miss it scene in Yamato: The New Voyages) then it would have worked. But as it is, Be Forever Yamato is a huge meh. It's not bad, but it's not entertaining either, it starts great and then flames out really fast until it becomes a pile of soot.
And considering the theme of Earth about to explode, that's a hugely ironic ending.