Space Battleship Yamato III (1980–1981) User Reviews

Huge Drop in Quality

[richard-raymer-1 · 6/10 · 21 August 2020]

(This review is for Star Blazers: The Bolar Wars (English version))

Being a huge Star Blazers fan (I was one of the many kids that ran home after elementary school in the late 70's and early 80's so I could watch series 1 (the Quest for Iscandar) and 2 (the Comet Empire)), but I never got to see season 3 (The Bolar Wars). Then in the early 90's I traveling from comic shop to comic shop buying all 26 of the VHS tapes for series 1 and 2, and then buying the DVD sets of 1 and 2 when they were finally released.

So finally after all these years I watched series 3, and all I can say is what a huge drop in quality. The biggest letdown was the story, it was really bad, with way to many elements recycled from the first two series. The new character Jason Jetter is in my opinion the worst character in the Star Blazers universe. Plus, not being able to get the original voice actors to reprise their roles, and having new voice actors was a big distraction. At least the first two series are the masterpieces that they are, so this egg can be forgotten.

Underrated chapter of the saga

[Takeshi666 · 8/10 · 15 February 2012]

Space Battleship Yamato III gets frequently overlooked in favour of it's predecessors - I believe a major contributor to this may be the fact that it's English-dubbed version, Bolar Wars, was released years later after Star Blazers and sporting an entirely new voice cast and a slipshod translation which didn't win it any favours.

The original version is, in my opinion, not merely as good as the previous two series but *better*. While the basic premise is pretty much the same, earth is in danger, Yamato heads out to get help...but that's where the similarities end. This time around, earth is in the same predicament as Gamilus was in the first series, and most of the series, Yamato (with several other unnamed ships which are implied to be upon the same task) seeks for another planet for humanity to migrate to. Somewhere deep in space, Desslok is engaging in a war against another superpower, the Bolar Federation, and soon Musumu Kodai and his friends are in the middle of this armed conflict. While Yamato spends much of the first half in battle, the story takes a turn into something far more interesting when Desslok discovers that Yamato is now involved in his campaign, and the story does not let go until the end.

Why does Yamato III rate better than it's predecessors in my opinion? It falls victim far less frequently the kind of stupidity series 1, 2 and especially New Voyage and Be Forever suffered from; namely characters foolishly getting themselves killed or acting just downright stupid for no reason and getting *others* killed instead (looking at you, Mamoru and Starsha).

If you enjoyed Yamato and Yamato II, you're going to enjoy Yamato III as well.