Space Battleship Yamato 2 08
Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2 Episode 08
宇宙戦艦ヤマト2 Ep. 08 (TV, Anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Daisuke gives a briefing to the bridge crew on Yamato‘s course, which he has roughly calculated based on where the messages are coming from. Sanada points out the direction of the inbound comet and that puts Yamato on a collision course which troubles Susumu. Aihara receives a message from the mystery woman again, leading Daisuke to take over the communications station to Aihara’s annoyance. Daisuke can’t make return communication, but is able to achieve a better fix on the source of the transmission. His numbers are different than Aihara’s leading Daisuke to chastise Aihara for being wrong.

On Teresart (Telezart), Teresa monitors communications between Desler and Admiral Goland. Desler knows that Goland is planning to attack Yamato and advises restraint for now to muster a massive force to destroy Yamato. Goland reminds Desler that Desler lost against Yamato and even though Desler is in command of the Teresart sector, Goland takes his missile fleet from its defensive position in the sector and goes to engage Yamato.

Yamato goes into warp, which is a new experience for the space cavaliers. When the ship comes out of warp, they are caught in a current which is pulling them along. They also receive another broken message from the mystery woman which Sanada suspects is actually a lure to a trap. Daisuke doesn’t believe that and with Susumu’s blessing, maneuvers Yamato through the current. They soon arrive at the end of the current at a place known as Sargasso — a ship graveyard. This area of space has a strong gravity field and it takes all of Yamato‘s power to finally come to stop with Daisuke realizing he’s been tricked.

Goland sees that Yamato has entered his trap and orders his ships to get ready to fire missiles through dimension cracks and insure Yamato‘s demise. On Yamato, the space cavaliers are having a hard time dealing with events as there’s nothing for them to do. So, Sado-sensei takes them to the rec area, where he creates a holographic scene of a beach and babes. Soon, their clothing begins to rip and dissolve which amuses Saito. On the bridge of Yamato, their clothing is also ripping because in addition to the gravity issue, they are in a pocket of accelerated time.

Some missiles from Goland’s fleet begin entering the Sargasso, striking Yamato. Sanada tells Daisuke and Susumu that the point where the missiles are coming in is their escape window. A new message from the mystery woman, whom the crew now learns is named Teresa of Teresart, confirms their escape window. Exiting the Sargasso, Susumu orders the Yamato‘s main guns to clear a path through Goland’s fleet as Yamato escapes to safety.

Thoughts/Review:

We can add “launderer” to Yuki’s list of jobs on board Yamato. A woman’s work is never done. 😅

Watching this episode, it came to me that Daisuke is a little too eager speak with Teresa. Aihara is the communication officer so it was odd that Daisuke suddenly demanded to take over whenever Teresa sent a message. Don’t get me wrong, I remember Aihara being the loser in episode 19 of the first series, but he’s grown a lot since then.

The space cavaliers prove as worthless as ever. However, I have to believe that the writers wouldn’t have added an armed detachment of what are essentially army guys (I would say marines, but marines would be better prepared for duty on a board ship) if they didn’t have a plan to use them in some sort of ground combat or maybe even ship combat should Yamato be boarded again or if Yamato should need a boarding party for an enemy ship.

As to the episode itself, the writers seem to be aping the first Yamato too much. For starters, Teresa is now officially a clone of Starsha. I say “officially” because while the premise of her sending a message to Yamato and getting ship and crew on a mission is the same as before, she looks a lot like Starsha. That gives her the official label of “cone.”

Then there’s the fact that this episode is similar to the one in episode 15 of the original series — Yamato gets caught in a weird spacial anomaly trap, the enemy attacks, Yamato escapes with the out of the babe on the radio.

So while the episode isn’t bad, it isn’t that good either in light of the “been there, done that” feel of the story, the worthlessness of the space cavaliers, and the revelation that the mystery woman is truly nothing more than a Starsha clone.

Additional: I’ve no idea why I decided it would be funny to caption all the images with an “Asteroids” theme (mouse over the images to see what I mean). 😅 I blame lack of sleep…yeah, that’s the ticket. 😉