Space Battleship Yamato 07
Uchuu Senkan Yamato Episode 07
宇宙戦艦ヤマト Ep. 07 (TV, Anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

At the Gamilon base on Pluto, Shultz and Gantz discuss current events. Shultz decides that they need to use tactics to take out Yamato. To this end, they need to use their fleet to drive Yamato to Pluto (combined with a missile barrage) where it will come in range of their Reflective Satellite Cannon. Meanwhile on the Yamato, a barrage of Meteor Bombs are seen heading for Earth. Susumu proposes that the Yamato destroy the Pluto base and Captain Okita agrees but with a caviot — they cannot use the Wave-Motion canon lest they destroy the indigenous life on Pluto.

Shultz is pleasantly surprised to see the Yamato make its way to Pluto on its own, but orders the fleet to attack just the same. Yamato‘s wing of fighters provides cover and Yamato takes out a large number of enemy ships with their main guns. The barrage of missiles enters, so Yamato turns to the side and releases anti-missile missiles as well as use their anti-aircraft laser cannons. Yamato takes one hit from a missile that makes it through the defenses. On Pluto, Shultz takes personal control of the Reflective Satellite Cannon and fires on the Yamato, hitting it in the side. Yamato is heavily damaged but manages to get anchored to one of Pluto’s moons.

Repair work begins immediately to fix the damaged areas of Yamato. Daisuke feels they are safe since they are on the far side of Pluto but Shultz has a surprise for the Yamato. Using the orbital satellites around Pluto, a target solution on Yamato is achieved and Shultz fires again. Yamato is hit again and loses its tethering to the moon. Daisuke manages to safely crash land the ship onto one of Pluto’s oceans (non-frozen) where it sits on the surface. The Gamilons have a new firing solution on Yamato and hit it again, causing it to sink. Shultz is ecstatic and orders a report sent to Supreme Leader Desler, who treats it as unimportant.

Thoughts/Review:

I like the logic of the tactics both in the last episode and this one. Clearly, the Pluto enemy base had to be taken out not only to give Earth some relief from the Meteor Bombs, but also to insure that an active enemy base isn’t behind the Yamato to still cause them problems. Of course the writers had to create a reason for Captain Okita to not use the Wave-Motion gun. Yeah, I’m sure there were just tons and tons of indigenous life forms living on Pluto. Then again, this Pluto has an ocean to sail on so… I wonder if this show was done now, would there still be a concern over potentially destroying Pluto (since Pluto is no longer an official planet).

This episode was weird in some regards. When the Gamilon fleet attacked Yamato, the fighter wing seemed to have little problem taken out these ships. Of course when Yamato opened up with her main guns, those easily took out many Gamilon ships with one shot. One wonders why Earth had such a hard time fighting them.

Also, while I praised the tactics of taking out the Pluto base, I guess the Yamato‘s sensors aren’t up to detecting a massive satellite network in orbit of Pluto. However, after the first shot using those satellites, I would have been trying to take out more of them, even if it were with the fighters.

Still, I cannot deny intrigue as I watch this classic anime title and so look forward to seeing where things are taken.