Space Battleship Yamato 2 12
Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2 Episode 12
宇宙戦艦ヤマト2 Ep. 12 (TV, Anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The assault carrier transforms to battle mode from carrier mode to finish off Yamato, but they have become infested with the Space Firefly bacteria. As such, their weapons do not fire, allowing Yamato‘s big guns to find their target. The captain of the assault carrier retreats which surprises that Yamato crew until the realize that the Space Fireflies are all around. Yamato also tries to get out of the cloud of Space Fireflies, but they are surrounded. Meanwhile, the captain reports his failure to Desler, who gets shot as a reward, leading Comet Empire liaison Mil to make a report back on this.

After hearing Mil’s report, Sabera attempts to have the Emperor pull in the reigns on Desler. The Emperor refuses, but Sabera isn’t taking no for an answer and she has the support of the military heads. Meanwhile, Yamato finds a tube-shaped asteroid, which Kato and Analyzer check out and pronounce to be safe. Susumu sees it as a perfect dry dock to cleans the ship of the Space Fireflies. He sends crew outside to accomplish this, including Saito and his space cavalier troops.

Desler receives the report that Yamato has entered the asteroid, which means they’ve entered his trap. He activates the trap, which causes a magnetic field from which Yamato cannot escape, even with both primary and secondary engines active. One of the new engineers has an idea about using the Wave Motion Gun to allow them to escape and Sanada sees this as a brilliant plan. As Yamato prepares to fire, they detect Desler’s fleet with Desler giving them a farewell message.

Desler too is preparing to fire when Mil tells him that he has orders to stop what he’s doing and retreat. Desler ignores Mil, but Sabera wants to speak with him. He basically tells Sabera to get lost and continues with his attack preparations. He and Yamato fire at the same time, and while the asteroid is destroyed, the Yamato comes out unscathed. Desler is angry with the interference from Mil and orders a retreat, the sight of which surprises the Yamato crew. Sanada has a reward for his rookie team member and Yamato now has Teresart in visual range.

Thoughts/Review:

So, we have a suspicious looking, tube-shaped asteroid. Susumu gets a tiny bit of credit for at least having a scout ship check out this suspicious tube, but that’s it. They couldn’t detect the technology buried just below the surface of the asteroid and they don’t find the shape of this asteroid suspicious at all. Nope, just a nice place to hide despite knowing that the trap-laying Desler is out there. These guys are as smart as Saito sometimes.

Speaking of Saito, good to see that he and his troops had something constructive to do, but he’s still as dumb as a stump.

I guess the internal political bickering is what will ultimately let Yamato win, kinda like it did this episode. It may be dumb, but at least I can understand this. Sabera doesn’t like it that Desler, a foreigner and a loser when it comes to dealing with Yamato and humans, gets a free reign from the Emperor.

While I’m thinking about it, its clear that the cleaning crew somehow got back to the ship, but how did that happen anyway? Also, if the main and secondary engines combines couldn’t move Yamato from the magnetic hold, how did the Wave Motion Gun’s recoil get them free?

So, now that Yamato has apparently almost reached its destination, I guess we shift to the 2nd phase of the series.