Uchuu Senkan Yamato Episode 18
宇宙戦艦ヤマト Ep. 18 (TV, Anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With Yamato eight-days outside of the planet Balan (the mid-point of their journey), they discover a Gamilus base along their flight path. Sending a scout ship to investigate, the scout ship is destroyed as it approaches the military facility. An analysis of the destruction of the scout ship shows that it was literally taken apart. The source of this are magnetron waves, which are emanating from the Gamilus facility. Yuki asks if they can go around the base, but unfortunately, whenever Daisuke attempted to course correct, the base moved to remain in their path.

Captain Okita orders science officer Sanada to take the new, seamless fighter produced in the Yamato‘s production facility to destroy the base. Susumu offers to go along since he’s already lost two people and doesn’t want to lose more. The seamless fighter has no problems approaching the station, but when Susumu attacks one of the magnetron emitters, an armored shutter closes, preventing damage to the emitter. So, the two of them have to go inside through an emitter port and destroy the facility from within.

After tethering the fighter to the base, Susumu and Sanada enter through the emitter port. During the walk, Sanada talks of how he had known Susumu’s brother, Captain Kodai, and how that he felt somewhat responsible for Captain Kodai’s death at the Battle of Pluto since the Yukikaze wasn’t fully repaired when it set out for combat. Susumu dismisses this since he’s not only come to accept his brother’s death, but understands that the human’s had no chance to win the Battle of Pluto.

As the two continue to attempt to find the computer core, they discover some large robots of some kind in the corridors. During one of their moments where they are hiding to prevent discovery, Sanada tells of his older sister and how she and he were on an amusement park ride when he was a boy. An accident took the life of his sister on this ride and that moment has stuck with Sanada, leading him to where he is now.

When the pair finally make it to the core, the computer attempts to protect itself by snaring Sanada in a bundle of cables and knocking Susumu out. When Susumu comes to, Sanada tells him to get him out of the cables. Sanada has a little surprise though. The accident that took the life of his sister also removed both of Sanada’s legs and arms. As such, he’s been using artificial limbs and those have been booby trapped with bombs. He instructs Susumu on how to detach those limbs so that he will be free of the cabling but the limbs will still be stuck, after which, he will set off the explosives.

On Yamato, the effects of the magnetron waves are being felt with some of the metal paneling of the ship being ripped off as Susumu gets Sanada to the seamless fighter. However, Sanada has to stay just outside of the emitter port or he will not be able to send the signal to set off the bombs. Susumu reluctantly leaves him and moves to a safe distance. Sanada sets off the explosives, causing great damage to the inside of the installation. As Yamato prepares for an emergency warp, Susumu’s mission success communication stops them and he rescues Sanada, who’s still alive.

The failure of the weapon platform is witnessed by General Domel while on Yamato, Susumu’s injuries are treated and Sanada is given new artificial limbs. With the mission over, Susumu confesses that after he rescued Sanada, he felt that his brother might still be alive somewhere. Sanada says that as long as Susumu’s brother lives in Susumu’s heart, he’ll never truly be dead.

Thoughts/Review:

I guess we just discovered why one should wear a space suit when in a fighter in space…not that it would have mattered much, but just how is a pilot to survive if he has to eject for some reason without a spacesuit? Just curious. Well, at least Sanada and Susumu learned that lesson when they took the new fighter out.

Now, the other weird thing — if you can’t get around the Gamilus magnetron weapon-base, why keep advancing on it? That was a head scratcher to be sure, but I suppose it was the only way to add suspense to the episode. After all, much of the episode was filled with yakking about Susumu’s dead brother and Sanada’s dead sister. However, I know that was done to try to make Sanada’s possible sacrifice more tragic.

No Yuki stuff this week other than she was briefly seen a few times as eye-candy. Also, there was no followup to Captain Okita’s surgery last week, not even a mention. That’s unfortunate. Well, this was a Susumu (Kodai)/Sanada episode so I guess that’s to be expected but a line about his health would have been nice.