Abelt Desler and the leadership of the Great Garmillas Empire celebrate the founding of the empire with an attack on Yamato led by the disgraced Walke Shultz.
Summary[]
The Entertainment Begins[]
Across the Garmillas capital city of Baleras, massive crowds gather around the royal palace to listen as Abelt Desler, standing on a high balcony and with his holographic image projected for all to see, finishes a speech praising the loyalty of his citizens and the glory of the Great Garmillas Empire. As he concludes, the crowd--including a Zaltzi child, Hilde Shultz--roar in approval. Desler withdraws to the palace, where he thanks Propaganda Minister Miezela Celestella for writing his speech and prepares for the evening's entertainment.
Desler addresses his subjects.
Seated in the palace throne room, Leader Desler receives his ministers, military commanders, and other elites of the empire. Vice Leader Redof Hiss congratulates Desler on a millennium of imperial history and more than a century under Desler's leadership, and the building of an empire that now stretches across galaxies. Minister of Defense Welte Talan speaks of the empire's openness to the contributions of conquered peoples, but Inspector General Herm Zoellik boasts the invincibility of Desler and his military forces. Before an argument between Zoellik and Supreme Fleet Command Gul Dietz about the continuing threat from "barbarian invaders" can go further, Chief Staff Officer Ghader Talan assures Desler and his guests that he has dispatched a general who will deal with the problem shortly. At that point, Desler announces that live video of an impending battle will be presented to them: a trap has been set, and they will be able to watch with pleasure as an alien enemy enters it. Major General Gremdt Goer sends a transmission to Desler proudly reporting that everything has been prepared.
Far away, aboard the Garmillas ship Le Chevalier, Colonel Walke Shultz watches a holographic recording of his daughter Hilde with longing and sadness. He is interrupted with news that a resupply vessel from General Goer has arrived with new orders and a new weapon, the Desler Torpedo. The spirits of Shultz and his Zaltzi crew are lifted, knowing that they can now be redeemed for their earlier defeat and return home.
Yamato Among the Stars[]
The Earth battleship Yamato is now a true starship, crossing interstellar space and making its way through the Sirius system, more than eight light years from home. Before Yamato makes its next warp, Yuria Misaki signs off from her latest YRA Radio Yamato broadcast and chats somewhat reluctantly with Toru Hoshina. They come upon a door at the end of a quiet corridor, and he tells Misaki about a rumor of a beautiful female ghost lurking behind the door; Misaki reacts cheerfully by claiming to see ghosts all the time.
On the bridge, Admiral Juzo Okita notes that their next warp will take them completely out of visual range of Earth, and asks chief science officer Shiro Sanada to call up an image on the main viewer from the ship's VLBI telescope. The bridge crew looks with awe upon Earth as it was more than eight years ago, a blue and white world as yet unharmed by the devastation of Garmillas planet bombs. Okita reminds them that this is the reason they are out here. Daisuke Shima takes Yamato to warp, and the ship successfully jumps twelve light years ahead, to the red dwarf Gliese 581.
Okita receives a checkup.
Doctor Sakezo Sado and nurse Makoto Harada complete their examination of the admiral in his quarters, noting that the warp has had no ill effects but urging him to be cautious. Lieutenant Kaoru Niimi enters and waits for Sado and Harada to leave before requesting permission to investigate a habitable planet orbiting Gliese. Okita flatly turns down the request, telling her that there is no time. She passionately argues that humanity needs every possible option, but Okita reminds her that Earth's previous plan to settle a new planet had been cancelled. Before Niimi can continue, Yamato shudders from an impact.
The admiral returns to the bridge as Shima rights Yamato, but some electronics have been temporarily incapacitated. The ship has encountered the edge of a solar storm emanating from Gliese, but with energy levels several hundred million times beyond predicted norms. The science officer concludes that the phenomenon must be artificial. Yamato crawls ahead, searching for a weak point in the plasma that will allow them to pass.
Between the Creature and the Star[]
Desler's assembled dignitaries delight in watching Yamato fall into the trap. After Desler proposes an ironic toast to their human "friends" (and after swiftly disposing of an obnoxiously drunk party guest), Colonel Shultz makes the next move. Le Chevalier launches the Desler Torpedo. Lieutenant Susumu Kodai waits for the admiral's order. Precious seconds go by as Okita quietly struggles against a wave of pain, but he recovers just in time and the Desler Torpedo is intercepted and destroyed. A black cloud of energetic gas bursts from the explosion, feeds on the surrounding plasma field and grows larger, and moves ravenously toward Yamato. Neither Shultz nor the audience in the palace understand what they are watching. Minister Celestella explains that it is a gas-based organism that consumes any and all matter it encounters. "I threw a cat into the rat trap," Desler adds.
Okita orders the ship to flee through the only existing weak point in the solar storm--toward the star itself. Temperatures rise to perilous levels, and the crew don environment suits. Suddenly, Okita clutches his chest and collapses at his station. Sado and Harada race to the bridge and tend to Okita, reluctantly following the admiral's lead and pretending that his condition is nothing more than stress from overwork. Yamato maintains course until the gaseous life form becomes distracted from its prey by the more tempting massive quantities of energetic plasma flowing along the star's surface, and as it feeds, the gas itself is destroyed.
Ganz, loyal to the end.
Shultz listens mutely as an enraged General Goer berates Shultz and his Zaltzi crew for allowing the organism to be killed. Goer's rant turns racist and even more threatening, and then abruptly stops. The colonel looks in surprise and gratitude at his friend and second in command, Guelf Ganz, for shutting off the transmission. He takes Le Chevalier toward Gliese for one last assault on Yamato, which now finds itself trapped between the Garmillas vessel and a massive solar prominence. With no ability to maneuver around the flare, Okita orders Kodai to target the flare with the ship's wave motion gun. The beam blasts a temporary passage through the flare, and Yamato's momentum carries it safely to the other side. Le Chevalier attempts to follow, but the passage closes around the ship and melts it.
Conclusion[]
In the palace throne room, Goer's hologram stands pleading before Leader Desler, attempting to cast all blame upon Shultz. Desler cuts off Goer's transmission, notes how enjoyable the evening's "game" has been, gives posthumous promotions to Shultz and his crew, and bestows full Garmillan citizenship on their family members. On his way out, he pauses to ask Celestella the name of the Earth ship and promises to keep it in mind. Once Desler leaves, Minister Talan comments to Celestella that the weapon Yamato used to break through the solar flare resembles a prototype currently under development. Talan's younger brother overhears and asks if it is true, but Celestella dismisses his concern.
Yamato resumes its journey, and life aboard the ship grows calm once again.
Analysis[]
- Juzo Okita's illness was a subject of discussion between him and Admiral Ryu Hijikata before Yamato's departure from Earth ("Toward a Sea of Stars"). His health begins to worsen in this episode.
- Based on Welte Talan's comments, it is likely that the empire's prototype weapon is powered by wave motion energy, like Yamato's wave motion gun. This may indicate that Garmillas has a relationship of its own with Iscandar, the world that gave wave motion technology to Earth. It may also suggest that wave motion energy is an inevitable step in the progress of technologically advanced civilizations. If this is the case, then Garmillas is on the verge of taking that next step.
Questions[]
- Where did Desler send Dotem Goehin, the drunken party guest?
- What is the source of Hoshina's ghost story? (answer)
Noteworthy Dialogue[]
- Yuria Misaki delivers a final message on YRA Radio Yamato before Yamato warps to Gliese 581:
- Misaki: When you wish upon a star, if your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme, when you wish upon a star as dreamers do. Like a bolt out of the blue, fate will come, and see you through.
- Desler comments on the people of the Garmillas Empire, after a speech praising them:
- Desler: People are foolish and submissive creatures. And more than anything, they bore me. (See the following section for translation note.)
- Herm Zoellik lavishes unreserved praise upon Abelt Desler:
- Zoellik: Truly a mighty deed! Truly the act of a god. No enemy can withstand the might of His Lordship and the Great Garmillas armies! Garmillas is invincible! We will never be defeated!
- As Toru Hoshina and Yuria Misaki chat, Misaki suggests that she possesses psychic abilities:
- Hoshina: Hey, did you know . . . There's a door up here that never opens. And supposedly, a ghost is there. The ghost of a beautiful woman. It just suddenly appears--
- Misaki: I saw that all the time on Earth. I see those things.
- Hoshina: You do?
Behind the Scenes[]
- Desler's public address marks the first time that viewers hear the character speak in the Garmillas language.
- Official English captions translate Desler's comment to Celestella as "Humans are foolish and submissive creatures." Although one of the Japanese words he uses in dialogue--人間, ningen--technically translates as "human," the practical meaning of the word is closer to the English word "people" and not a reference to the human species. Throughout the series, Garmillas characters routinely refer to the species as "Terron" instead of "human."
Cast[]
(Alphabetized by family name)[1]
- Yousuke Akimoto as Redof Hiss
- Yutaka Aoyama as Welte Talan
- Shigeru Chiba as Sakezo Sado
- Yuuki Chiba as Kenjiro Ota
- Minori Chihara as Miezela Celestella
- Cho as Guelf Ganz and Analyzer
- Masashi Hirose as Gremdt Goer
- Aya Hisakawa as Kaoru Niimi
- Katsunosuke Hori as Gul Dietz
- Masato Kokubun as Yoshikazu Aihara
- Houko Kuwashima as Yuki Mori
- Ayano Miura as Hilde Shultz
- Junpei Morita as Hydom Gimleh
- Koutarou Nakamura as Ghader Talan and Dotem Goehin
- Houchu Ohtsuka as Shiro Sanada
- Daisuke Ono as Susumu Kodai
- Rina Satou as Makoto Harada
- Yu Shimaka as Walke Shultz
- Takayuki Sugo as Juzo Okita
- Kenichi Suzumura as Daisuke Shima
- Motoki Takagi as Toru Hoshina
- Aya Uchida as Yuria Misaki
- Norio Wakamoto as Herm Zoellik
- Kouichi Yamadera as Abelt Desler
References[]