Rating: 
Summary: Great Anime - Super Storyline - Great Color !
Review: .
This is it, people, the Starblazers Series One set. It's the "Quest for Iscandar" storyline and its just as fun to watch now as it was when you were a kid.Starblazers was a very popular series when shown in the United States in the 1970's. It's very colorfully drawn and importantly, it has a good story to tell. Basically, the story is this - Earth is attacked and only has one year until it will be destroyed unless the Star Force can fly to a distant planet (Iscandar) and retrieve the machine necessary to removing deadly radiation. Its just the kind of stuff you want to worry about when you're a kid watching cartoons, right? That's the wonderful thing about anime. It doesn't write "down" to its audience. It's as much adult entertainment as it is for the kids. And this is a special series, because it also has the coolest opening title song ever - its impossible to get out of your head - and I know you're looking for the lyrics so here you go - sing along with the DVDs. We're off to outer space, we're leaving Mother Earth
To save the human race. Our Star Blazers.
Searching for a distant star, heading off to Iscandar
Leaving all we love behind, who knows what dangers we'll find?
We must be strong and brave, our home we've got to save.
If we don't, in just one year, Mother Earth will disappear
Fighting with the Gamalons, we won't stop until we've won
Then we'll return, and when we arrive
The Earth will survive with our Star Blazers. I highly recommend this set. Its a must have for any Anime fan. Regards,
turtlex
Rating:
Summary: Great Anime - Super Storyline - Great Color !
Review: .
This is it, people, the Starblazers Series One set. It's the "Quest for Iscandar" storyline and its just as fun to watch now as it was when you were a kid. Starblazers was a very popular series when shown in the United States in the 1970's. It's very colorfully drawn and importantly, it has a good story to tell. Basically, the story is this - Earth is attacked and only has one year until it will be destroyed unless the Star Force can fly to a distant planet (Iscandar) and retrieve the machine necessary to removing deadly radiation. Its just the kind of stuff you want to worry about when you're a kid watching cartoons, right? That's the wonderful thing about anime. It doesn't write "down" to its audience. It's as much adult entertainment as it is for the kids. And this is a special series, because it also has the coolest opening title song ever - its impossible to get out of your head - and I know you're looking for the lyrics so here you go - sing along with the DVDs. We're off to outer space, we're leaving Mother Earth
To save the human race. Our Star Blazers.
Searching for a distant star, heading off to Iscandar
Leaving all we love behind, who knows what dangers we'll find?
We must be strong and brave, our home we've got to save.
If we don't, in just one year, Mother Earth will disappear
Fighting with the Gamalons, we won't stop until we've won
Then we'll return, and when we arrive
The Earth will survive with our Star Blazers. I highly recommend this set. Its a must have for any Anime fan. Regards,
turtlex
Rating:
Summary: Finally a clear Yamato/Argo
Review: 10 years ago, I bought the VHS versions of StarBlazers and was very disappointed by the lousy quality of the picture and sound.
With the DVD version, you have a crystal sharp picture. The sound, well you can only do so much with the sound, but for a 70's Anime series it's not bad.
If you spent the afternoons when you were a kid cheering for Wildstar, Nova, Venture, and Captain Avatar, this is a MUST HAVE. If your kids have never seen this, it's high time they were introduced to some real adventure from the land of the rising sun.
The special extras are great. I especially suggest check out disc 2's original trailer and scenes that never showed on US tv.
While the price may seem a bit steep, you will NOT be upset with the product.
And to my old friend Kenny, who gave me a copy of Be Forever Yamato almost 20 years ago, thank you. It is now joined be this wonderful series.
Rating:
Summary: Still stunning
Review: I bought these disks with some trepidation. I was about ten years old when Star Blazers seared across my conciousness. I loved the show deeply at that time. I finally decided to go ahead and splurge on the DVD's, nervous that I was wasting my money on a half-remembered show that would no longer be impressive to a 30-year old. I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong. Sure, the animation is crude. You can actually see marks and debris on the glass plates used for the animation. Sure, some parts are cheesy. Sure, some of the violence was mitigated for the American version. Sure the science varies from wonderfully accurate to ludicrous. But this is still an amazing series -- one of the best pieces of sci-fi to ever reach the small screen. I watched the last ten episodes in one night. In brief, this DVD covers the first season of the Americanized version of the classic Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato (itself an expansion of a movie). Earth is under attack by the mysterious Gamilons, who are bombarding the planet with lethal radiation bombs. The planet has one year of life left. But a call from a distant planet in the Magellanic Clouds promises a cure to the radiation and provides them with new technology to make the journey. The star blazers board the resurrected battleship Yamato (rechristened Argo for the American version) and make a desperate trip to save the human race. I guess the reason this had such appeal to me as a kid and I still love it is that it never talks down. The characters develop over 26 episodes into fully realized characters. Complex plotlines (Wildstar's loss of his family, Avatar's sickeness, Wildstar's and Nova's budding romance) develop gently. Characters have a realistic chance of being killed (many die). It turns out the Gamilons have reason of their own for invading Earth -- they're not just evil monsters. And the finale - a desperate battle in the Magellanic Clouds, the arrival at Iscandar, the return to Earth -- is stunning. This series combines action with drama. One particularly good episode shows the crew bidding their last farewells to Earth as they leave the solar system. Another simply details their homesickness. These episodes exists side by side with a 3-part battle at Pluto, a massive confrontation halfway along the journey and two awesome battles at the conclusion of the journey. The DVD's come with plenty of interesting extras -- a history of Gamilon, a tour of the Argo, etc. But that's gravy. If you've never seen Star Blazers before, you might want to rent the series or buy one disk before making a big financial commitment. If, like me, you have vague but happy memories of the show, go ahead and splurge. You won't be sorry.
Rating:
Summary: everything a kid could ever want
Review: I remember watching this in elementary school and being absolutely enthralled by the story. Today's anime (Ninja Scroll, etc.) may look "glossier," but nothing can beat the emotional impact of Star Blazers. The characters are exceptionally well developed: Leader Desslock is both cruel and comical, Captain Avatar is wise, Derek Wildstar is adventurous and headstrong and who could forget beautiful Queen Starsha's devotion?
There are so many memorable scenes: the farewell parade on Earth, Iscandar's dazzling landscape, Derek and Nova at the end. It's a feast for the heart and mind. Not many real life Hollywood films come close to capturing bravery, suffering and human spirit as this has.
I'm 30 years old and still love it! Worth every penny.
Rating: 
Summary: We're Off to Outer Space!
Review: I was tempted to give this a five star review, but that was probably just nostalgia. I grew up watching Star Blazers. It was my first exposure to anime (not that I knew what anime was back then).
Watching it again for the first time in nearly twenty years, I found myself still enjoying the story. It's human drama and an epic war story that spans the stars.
So why not a higher rating. Simplicity. These days, I do know what anime is, and I've had opportunity to see the original Space Battleship Yamato that this was translated from.
The deleted scenes are restored as extras on the discs. But the original japanese dialogue is not, and in some places the translation was kiddie-fied to make it more saturday morning friendly here in the U.S.
Still a great series, and a must if you're a fan of Leiji Matsumoto's epic form of storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Star Blazers
Review: I watch Star Blazers on TV in 1970's. I like the song & the story now it's on DVD. I'm going to get Series 2 on DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Make Mine Manga!
Review: If you were being packed off to school on innumerable mornings in the late 70s/early 80s, chances are you woke up extra early some mornings to the rousing tones of the "Star Blazers" theme: "We're off to outer space,
Leaving Mother Earth,
To save the human race
Our Star Blazers!" The half-hour cartoons which ensued were nothing short of miraculous to kids weaned on Looney Tunes: furiously intense little snippets of a small band of heroes in a tricked-out World War Two battleship in a desperate struggle against evil aliens. This was no "G.I. Joe," folks---the stakes were high, and people got hurt. The captain of the Argo spent much of the trip battling radiation poisoning, the heroes were invariably placed in precarious situations and occasionally were lost. While the Star Force won most of the battles, these victories were dearly bought; many episodes ended with the ship limping along leaving enormous smoke trails in its wake. Now "Star Blazers" has finally arrived on DVD. I started watching the first episode, and wound up sitting in front of the TV oblivious to everything around me until I watched all 6 DVDs (about 12 hrs in all). Despite a transfer showing no improvement over the muddy images which danced across my 13" color screen all those years ago, this series STILL has the power to hook the unwary. In addition to the 26 first series episodes, the DVD edition also includes a ton of nifty special features providing a wealth of background information. My particular favorite is the interactive mission map detailing the Argo's entire journey to Iscandar and back with episode-specific summaries of key events. I've seen a lot of Japanese manga since "Star Blazers" first bombarded my eyeballs, but slick production and hard-boiled storylines pale in comparison to the ominous warning at the end of each episode: "Hurry, Star Force! Earth has only 256 days left!" Buy this set. Consider it Cosmo-DNA for the soul.
Rating:
Summary: My first soap opera
Review: If you were hooked on the Argo's journey through space to the Planet Iscandar as I was as a child, this box set is for you. Every single episode of the first season is here - six DVDs worth of nostalgia for your viewing pleasure. Special features include 360* renderings of the Argo, bios of the Argo crew and the Gamilons, a map of the Starfleet's journey through space, and lots more. My only criticism is that the navigation on the main menus is somewhat counterintuitive. But after the first DVD or so, you get used to it.
Rating:
Summary: The Classic Returns
Review: Let's first get this out of the way. *ahem* This is NOT the best DVD set ever made. Well, that being said, I can finally get tot he good stuff. "Star Blazers" was one of the greatest(if not "the greatest") anime of all time. Sure, it doesn't reach up to "Mobile Suit Gundam" level, but what "Star Blazers" lacks, it more than makes up for. There isn't anything I can say about this title that hasn't been stated before. It is revolutionary in all aspects. Calling this "space opera" wouldn't do it justice. "Star Blazers" (or rather "Space Battleship Yamoto" as it was called before the 70's dub) brings all the aspects of a "human" story together. You want love? It's here!
You want drama? You got it!
You want excitement? Look no further!
You want heart-wrenching-excitement-and-character-devolpment-beyond-the-naked-eye-can-see?.......okay I'll stop, but you get the idea! Of course this series is from 70's so the animation seems dated. But for those of you who CLAIM to know anything about anime, you should know that "state-of-the-art" animation is not always the best thing (after all, look at "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" or "Blue Submarine No. 6"), in the end, it's the story that outshines everything else. So, if you are an otaku, old or new, buy this and you can die a happy man/woman knowing that you have watched a significant landmark in anime. "Star Blazers" I salute you!
-RW
| 
