Space Battleship Yamato 23
Uchuu Senkan Yamato Episode 23
宇宙戦艦ヤマト Ep. 23 (TV, Anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

A fully repaired Yamato has reached the Magellanic Cloud and receives a communication from Starsha. She tells them to come to the 8th planet of the star system. The crew gets a big lift in moral from this; Susumu and Yuki even pose for a picture together. However, the beacon signal to the planet is lost and Daisuke realizes that there are two planets in the 8th orbital slot, meaning they are twin planets, but then one of the planets disappears from their screen. An incoming missile attack from the remaining planet causes Yamato some minor damage, but the cloud of debris around the ship causes all kinds of navigational problems. Retrieving some of the debris reveals that the attackers are from Gamilus, thus it is very possible that they’ve come to Gamilus instead of Iscandar.

Meanwhile on Iscandar, Starsha contacts Desler to demand to know why he’s blocking her communications to Yamato. She tells him that she’s going to give them the equipment to clean Earth and he tells her he’s going to destroy Yamato. Since both Iscandar and Gamilus are dying planets, the Gamilus people have decided not to accept their fate as the people of Iscandar apparently have. Starsha manages to make contact with Yamato again. She tells them that she cannot help them and that they’ll have to defeat Gamilus a final time.

On Gamilus, Supreme Leader Desler rallies his troops, explaining the ultimate trap for Yamato. He then sets things in motion. Large magnetic beam emitters from Gamilus zero in on the metallic debris could around Yamato and draw it to the planet’s surface. By the time the beams cut off, Yamato‘s inertia carries it through one of the giant holes in the surface of the planet to the subterranean part of Gamilus, where an acid sea and plenty of acid rain are (unbeknownst to the crew). They are relaxing in this sea when Analyzer discovers the danger. They launch but lose the 3rd bridge of the ship due to corrosion. A massive rain of bombs begins to fall to end Yamato once and for all.

Thoughts/Review:

I could understand Starsha’s making the humans come to her planet to retrieve the technology to clean their planet; she’s making them prove their worth. However, she could have told them in her communique once they reached her star system, “Oh by the way. There are two planets in the 8th planet orbit and one of them is Gamilus so be careful.” But did she do this? Oh no. That would apparently be too much information and we can’t have that. Too much information is bad, as the wiki-gods on Wikipedia know.

As I expected, Yamato was magically repaired and fully functional by the time they reached the Magellanic Cloud. I guess that Gamilus didn’t harass them from their last battle until they reached the end of the line, allowing for these magical repairs.

The other storyline is of Captain Okita’s illness, which pretty much had him out the who episode. Susumu still isn’t a good captain but since Yuki can’t be captain, I guess “Captain Kodai” will have to do.

Well, there are three more episodes. I figure the final confrontation with Gamilus will be the next episode, Iscandar will be after that, and then the triumphant return to Earth to wrap things up. We’ll see if I’m right.