Kotetsu Serizawa

This article is about Kotetsu Serizawa from Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and its sequels, for his counterpart in Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, Space Battleship Yamato 2, and Space Battleship Yamato III, see Staff Officer

Kotetsu Serizawa
Native name	芹沢虎鉄 Serizawa Kotetsu
Born	June 5, 2144, Ibaraki, Japan, Earth
Species	Terran
Gender	Male
Allegiance	United Nations Project Izumo Faction Earth Federation
Service-Branch	Earth Federation Cosmo Force
Rank	Space General
Occupation	Far East District Director of military affairs (Until 2199) Deputy commander of the U.N.F. (from sometime between 2199 and 2202) Plenipotentiary Ambassador for Earth (from October 2205)
Portrayed by	Tessho Genda (Japanese) Doug Jackson (English)

"[...]Don’t be scared, fight! For Earth, and for the future of our children. We must not allow our civilization, or the human species, to go extinct. Survive. Regardless of the cost, no matter how bad things get!"

—Kotetsu Serizawa

Space General Kotetsu Serizawa (芹沢虎鉄, Serizawa Kotetsu) is a senior command officer in the United Nations Cosmo Force in the late twenty-second and early twenty-third centuries. He is the highest UNCF officer responsible for triggering the Great Garmillas War. Serizawa became the chief proponent of the Project Izumo to save human survivors from the devastation inflicted upon Earth by the war, and later the motivating force behind an illegal conspiracy to reactivate Izumo after its cancellation. Despite his failures and crimes, he continued to hold a position of high military power in the lead-up to the Gatlantis War. In October 2205 he took part in a peace delegation headed towards Garmillas and Iscandar as a plenipotentiary ambassador for the Earth Federation.

History

Early Life

Serizawa held the position of military director as early as 2191, soon after an advance force from the Great Garmillas Empire was detected near Pluto. As a first contact fleet from Earth closed in on the alien ships, Serizawa communicated with mission commander Admiral Juzo Okita and ordered him to immediately open fire. Despite General Serizawa's backing from Central Command, Okita refused

Announcing the start of war with the Garmillas.

the order on the grounds that the aliens' intentions and abilities were not yet known. The General stripped Okita of command and directly instructed Captain Daigo Shima aboard the Murasame to carry out the order. The Garmillan force responded in kind to the unprovoked attack and wiped out much of the fleet. Serizawa lied to the general public by describing the incident as an act of aggression on the part of the aliens, and with survivors under a gag order against revealing the truth, humanity's first contact with another civilization had turned into a state of war .

With the war becoming increasingly hopeless over the next several years, the leaders of the United Nations placed Serizawa in charge of Project Izumo, which would enable a small number of humans to escape the solar system and settle a new homeworld. Construction of an interstellar ship and other preparations were well underway when an unexpected messenger from the planet Iscandar arrived with a promise of new technology and a device to restore Earth's ruined environment. Officially, Serizawa supported the more daring Program Yamato that replaced Izumo, but he privately continued to see Izumo as the only realistic chance for survival. He created fake records and maneuvered loyal personnel and materials onto the space battleship Yamato to act when the time was right.

2199: Project Yamato

With Heikuro Todo during the launch of Yamato.

At the beginning of 2199, Serizawa's official position was Far East Sector military bureau director, in command of all United Nations forces in the district and one of the highest ranking individuals in the UNCF command structure. Stationed in UNCF headquarters, he frequently worked alongside chief civilian executive Heikuro Todo

More than a week after the departure of Yamato, Lieutenant Kaoru Niimi privately contacted Serizawa just before the battleship entered interstellar space and moved out of communications range. He authorized Niimi to proceed with the plan to resurrect Project Izumo. Niimi and her allies launched a mutiny almost three months later to end the ship's quest to reach Iscandar and begin human relocation to a newly surveyed planet. After the mutiny was put down, a junior security officer revealed that he had been placed onto Yamato by Todo out of suspicion that Serizawa and potential Izumo supporters were conspiring to undermine the mission. Serizawa was not present to greet Yamato when the ship returned to the solar system and resumed communication with Earth.

Rebuilding the Earth

The end of the Garmillas War came in the form of atreaty signed with Garmillas and Iscandar by Admiral Juzo Okita, commanding officer of Yamato, which among other things, banned the use of wave motion weaponry. The UNCF, however, broke this treaty, and went on with the construction of various WMG-equipped ships in the time between 2199 and 2202. Serizawa, now the deputy commander of the United Nations Forces, was one of the main supporters of this plan

2202: Gatlantis and Teresa

Battle of the Eighth Floating Continet

Serizawa at the Andromeda launch cerimony

By December 2202, General Serizawa began serving in the post of general headquarters commander. During a joint battle between Earth and Garmillan forces against the Gatlantis Empire, he and Todo observed from UNCF headquarters. After the Gatlantean forces unveiled an advanced warship that threatened to overwhelm the allied fleet, the General convinced Todo to send in the new Earth battleship Andromeda, armed with two wave motion guns that obliterate the enemy.

He attended the launch ceremony for four additional state-of-the-art warships several days later on december 8th, all of them, like Andromeda, equipped with wave motion weapons in clear violation of the treaty signed by Admiral Okita with Queen Starsha Iscandar. Serizawa quickly defended the existence of these ships to Garmillas ambassador Loren Burrell at the ceremony, claiming that Okita did not have the authority to negotiate on behalf of all of Earth.

Yamato's Revolt

Following the cerimony, the former crew of Yamato recieved a call for help from Teresa, a legendary goddess from the planet Terezart, the crew also came to know of the time fault, which had been used to rapidly expend Earth's war potential in the past three years.

For this reasons Todo, Serizawa and the HQ staff began surveiling the Yamato, in fear of a mutiny from the ship's crew; they soon found out that the cameras of the rapair dock had been tampered with and that the battleship was nowhere to be found, Todo suggested that Yamato had probably been moved to the underwater dock.

Serizawa discovers the cameras had been sabotaged

Despite an ultimatum by the commander, the Yamato crew menaged to take off, Serizawa thus ordered a military satellite to attack them, to no avail.

Serizawa's fear was that Yamato's mutiny could have inspired other uprising among military persone, a fear which came true when the Lunar Air Corps, mainly composed of former Yamato crewmen, defected to join up with the battleship.

Serizawa was present when Todo announced that Yamato's mutiny had been ratified by the President of the Earth Federation. Later when Yamato recieved a messenger from the 11th planet who revealed to them that the planet had been attackked by Gatlantis, the ship contacted the HQ to ask to lead a rescue mission there. Commander Todo however denied his permission, due to the UNCN inability to operate on the planet without Garmillan permission with Serizawa specifying that as soon as the politics were sorted out they would lead a relief mission themselves.

The Gatlantean Invasion

In early 2203 the Gatlantis Empire started to engage UNCF forces with hit and run attacks in the solar system. Todo and Serizawa attended a meeting with various Garmillan and Earth officials, where Serizawa revealed that Gatlantis was planning an invasion.

Serizawa and Todo attended a video conference with Barel, later they observed the Battle of Saturn from the Headquarters, and watched in horror as the Ark of Destruction ridded itself of the White Comet camouflage and rammed through Saturn itself.

Serizawa observes the Third Battle of Mars

Following the defeat at Saturn, Serizawa was contacted by Lt. Commander Shiro Sanada of Yamato, who revealed to him the betrayal of Yamato's air wing's leader Saburo Kato, who was ready to recieve whatever punishment the HQ deemed necessary, the General however refused to do anything, fearing the public may discover Kato's betrayal, which would deal a terrible blow to morale.

As the Gatlantean forces neared Mars he continued to uphold his certainty that the enemy's war potential couldn't be infinite, and that by using their WMGs the Earth forces had a chance at victory. After recieving a report from the allied Garmillas Serizawa addressed the UNCN forces.

He later stood in horror as he witnessed the gatlantean admiral Goenitz telling all earthling to surrender, as the Ark of Destruction loomed over the Earth.

The referendum

Half a year after the end of the Gatlantis-Earth War, Yamato resurfaced inside the time fault, aboard the ship, the believed dead pilot Akira Yamamoto. The flying ace explained that the ship didn't get destroyed at the end of the war, but rather was transported to the Higher Dimension were Teresa resides, with the ship's captain Susumu Kodai and the Operational Officer Yuki Mori still on board and now stuck there.

The meeting before the referendum

Following the event various member of the military had a meeting with the President, Todo and Serizawa, they revealed that in order to save Kodai and Mori the time fault would need to be sacrificed to make Yamato able to travel to the higher dimesion again and rescue the two officers.

Serizawa opposed the proposal, but a referendum was held so that the citizens of Earth could decide for themselves. He acted as the spokesman for his faction on the day of the referendum recalling how the time fault was the only thing that allowed Earth to be rebuilt following the Garmillas War.

Despite this he was touched by the idealism of Yamato's crew, and even told Lieutenant Commander Sanada of Yamatoa that he envyed them for their ability of casting away cold realism in favor of hope, and even went as far as voting to save Kodai and Mori.

In the end the referendum ended with the option to sacrifice of the Time Fault winning. Yamato thus entered the higher dimension and carried out the rescue operation on the 31st of December 2203, Serizawa witnessed the event, and started to cry tears of joy

2205: The peace mission and Dezarium

By the year 2205 Serizawa was named Deputy-commander of the UNCF, now officially known as the EFCF, and became part of the delegation known as the Peace Corps as a plenipotentiary ambassador for the Earth Federation with a view to the diplomatic trip towards Iscandar and Garmillas which would be carried out that year by Yamato and 65th Escort Fleet.

Serizawa addresses the cadets

In the time following the end of the Gatlantis War he was responsible in promoting a “reborn Earth as a peaceful nation".

Escort Fleet 65 takes off

Before the start of the diplomatic journey, Serizawa addressed the newly graduated cadets who were going to officially become part of the Escort fleet's crew. He talked about the Garmillas evacuation which was ognoing at the time and the escalating tension between the Empire and the Bolar Federation, he also stated that due to her tendency to value human life over military readiness, Yamato had become a symbol of peace for the Earth Federation.

Serizawa is surprised to learn Domon piloted Yamato

Later, as Yamato was taking off, he had a conversation with another member of the peace delegation, Ambassador Burrell, reinstating his firm belief that the current time of peace had to be protected. Following the take off he participated in a meeting with Captain Kodai of Yamato and was bewildered to find out that Kodai had let Ryusuke Domon, a young cadet who had faked his background information to sneak on board the battleship, pilot Yamato as it was taking off.

A choice for the future

Following the news of Garmillas's destruction from an unknown enemy the General attended a meeting with the personnel of 65th Escort Fleet and the other members of the delegation were they discussed wether or not the fleet should carry out a relief mission to save the surviving garmillan immigrants who had fled to Iscandar. As captain Kodai expressed his desire to help the refugees Serizawa asked him if his speech had stemmed from the knowledge the captain had acquired in the Higher Dimension, to which Kodai responded negatively. The General was saddened by the fact, stating that if Kodai remembered anything from the Higher Dimension he could've probably read the future; but since that wasn't the case nobody had any way of knowing what was to come. For this reason, leading a rescue mission to Iscandar, which would endanger the delgation's members and possibly lead Earth into a new conflict, was simply not an option.

Serizawa watches as Yamato warps to Iscandar

Following the meeting a group of cadets aboard Yamato initiated a revolt in order to escort the delegation members outside of the ship to then take control of her and lead a rescue mission themselves. Their attempts were quickly foiled by Yamato's security division and tactical officer Tetsuya Kitano. But despite this, captain Kodai ordered himself for Serizawa and the others to be escorted out, so that the entirity of the Escort Fleet could carry out the relief mission without endangering the big shots.

Serizawa later watched from a shuttle as the fleet entered the subspace gates toward Iscandar, stating that "Okita's children" and "his children's children" were finally taking a step forward.

Reorganization of the Yamato fleet

Following the 65th Escort Corps' return to the Earth after what became known as the Iscandar Incident, the situation changed dramatically. Despite his unspoken support for Yamato's action during the Incident, Serizawa personally recommended to reorganise the fleet and dismiss its commanders and crews. It remains unclear whether this move was done as a political purification to showcase the Earth Federation's stance on the event both at home and abroad, but as of 2207, the day that General Serizawa's true intentions are revealed draws closer.

Personality

Serizawa cries as Yamato returns from the higher dimension

Many of Serizawa's most important actions are driven by an aggressive nature and by a distrust of the unknown. These attitudes underlie his immediate and unprovoked attack on Garmillan vessels during first contact. They also drive his willingness to plot a mutiny in favor of the familiar Project Izumo against the Yamato mission and Queen Starsha's offer of unseen alien technology. Serizawa also desires political power. He is frustrated by the public praise given to Juzo Okita as a hero of the war with Garmillas, despite his own leadership and effort.

Despite this, all of Serizawa's actions are always carried out for the sake of Earth and the genuine desire to protect the planet and its citizens.

By the end of the Gatlantis War he becomes touched by Yamato's idealism, being geniounely interested in the possibility of saving Kodai and Mori from the Higher Dimension, and, despite not being able to fully agree with the sacrifice of the time fault, he shows a great deal of respect and and even envy for Sanada and the Yamato crew for being capable of casting away cold realism in favor of hope.

Despite mantaining his military man mentality he softens up to the point that in 2205, when he gets expelled from Yamato following the revolt aboard the ship, instead of being infuriated he holds hope in the actions of the battleship's crew.

Notes

• His name resembles that of Serizawa Kamo, the first commander of the Shinsengumi special police force that operated briefly during the final years of the Shogunate in the mid-nineteenth century.
• Serizawa's character is visually similar to the EDF Chief of Staff and his personality is similar to that of the EDF Staff Officer, from Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato, Space Battleship Yamato 2, and Space Battleship Yamato III.