Star Blazers 2199 1.02

Toward a Sea of Stars

The Gamilas attempt to destroy the battleship that Susume Kodai found in the previous episode. He and Daisuke Shima, his co-pilot, watch as a number enemy ships do their best to damage or destroy the ancient battleship. The battleship fights back, knocking out the largest of the enemy ships. The rest are destroyed by Earth's Defense Forces. The battle is not without human casualties as is later revealed in this episode.

Commander Okita announces the details of the Yamato Plan. He shows the crew the message that was recovered from the alien ship that crashed on Mars. It is from Starsha of Iscandar. She talks of her two sisters, Yurisha and Sasha, who were sent to Earth with vital information. Iscandar wants to help Earth in it's war with the Gamilas. Yurisha and Sasha, between them, brought the information necessary to build an interstellar engine. Sasha died when her ship crashed on Mars. Yurisha's fate isn't revealed but it is hinted at later in the episode. The plan is for the Yamato to travel 168,000 light years to Iscandar where the technology exists to cleanse the Earth.

The original section chiefs for the mission were killed in the attack at the beginning of the episode. Yuki Mori, the chief operations officer, announces the new section chiefs to the assembled crew.

Engine Room - Hikozaemon Tokugawa
Technology - Shiro Sanada (also 2nd in command)
Tactics - Susumu Kodai

Navigation - Daisuke Shima

Commander Okita announces that they leave for Iscandar the next morning. The crew has less than 24 hours to say goodbye to their loved ones and board the Yamato. Kodai tries to turn down the job of chief tactical officer but he changes his mind after Okita explains to him that he wasn't the first choice for the job. Originally Okita wanted his brother, who was killed in the first episode.

Rioting breaks out after the announcement of the Yamato Plan but the ship still takes off for Iscandar. A planet bomb launched by the Gamilas from Pluto arrives just as the Yamato is making final preparations to depart. The battleship destroys the planet bomb and leaves Earth.

Is Yuki's real name Yurisha? Is she from Iscandar? Is she the sister of Starsha? I think so.

This episode really helped to flesh out some of the things that were first seen in the previous episode. If possible the first two episodes should probably be watched as one.

Yurisha - sister of Starsha, sent to Earth with the plans for the Dimensional Wave Motion Engine

Sasha - sister of Starsha, died on Mars, buried by Kodai and Shima in episode 1, brought the key component for the Wave Motion Engine

The story seems to be moving a little slowly. It doesn't feel like much has happened in the first 2 of 26 episodes. At least the Yamato has finally left Earth. I don't love it yet but I'm intrigued by this remake of a show that I originally watched more than 35 years ago.