When the crew of the Yamato battled the Dark Nebula Empire, saving Desslar and the remnants of Gammilon, while losing Iscandar and Starsha, they opened an entire new can of worms that led to this conflict. The Dark Nebula Empire invades earth, kills Mamoru and captures Yuki. All that's left is for the Yamato to take the saving of earth on the shoulders of her crew again. A fine movie.
3 Reviews
With enemies like this Dark Nebula Empire, Yamato better be around forever!
afnaste6 December 2003
Definetely, without a doubt, Be Forever has the best beginning of any Yamato movie or series! The Dark Empire's invasionary force is truly awesome and formidable, and Earth's solar system gets its biggest asskicking in the shortest time ever. Some of the Empire's attack vehicles resemble mecha from the War of the Worlds, book AND movie. Empire sky-troopers are incredibly sadistic in their first attack on Earth. The Dark Empire wants revenge on Yamato and Earth for their defeat in the previous/third movie Yamato New Voyage. We see Alex Wildstar again and...another member of the Wildstar family. There is a scene at the Empire's homeworld that is aweing and surreal, I had to rewind and watch it twice initially. The sap factor was heavy in Be Forever even for a Yamato storyline. The last explosion is the biggest explosion ever in Yamato.
Great Beginning, Underwhelming End
jameshemphil25 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
When the movie started, it was like an animated version of Independence Day: a massive, MASSIVE assault on Earth by the Dark Galaxy Empire, cities in flames, ships pouring out fighters and troops. Then they give mankind an ultimatum, surrender or we blow up Earth with an antimatter bomb. Yamato barely manages to make it off Earth, but Yuki is left behind. Very good start up, very tense. But...then it kind of burns out and eventually falls flat. Remember the daughter of Starsha and Jason Kodai's brother? Yeah, well, we finally meet her, all grown up (Iscandarans reach their teens in a year, apparently), and they even introduce a very interesting subplot where she's clearly in love with Kodai and vice versa but he's also unsure of how to handle the affair and she's jealous of Yuki who isn't even there...and then she dies by the end of the movie, and so does Alex. And WOW did Alex die in a shockingly brief and irrational way. He basically sets off a suicide bomb, tells everyone he's going to set it off and in the same breath he does, and it does literally nothing. Oops. Yuki has an interesting story introduced, being trapped on Earth and steadily falling in love with a Dark Galaxy Empire soldier while still in love with Jason...and it goes nowhere, and then he dies. Oops. Then we're introduced to the Dark Galaxy Empire in a way so convoluted and mind-twisting it's almost incomprehensible. Oops.
In fact that could almost be the title of the movie, "Oops Yamato." The story isn't bad, or the basic framework isn't anyway. In a lot of ways it's like Arreviderci Yamato in that it sets up a story that should have been an entire season with like 10-15 episodes at minimum but then tries to tie it all up.two hours. The difference being, in that case they realized it and just turned the movie's plot into a whole season, but here they didn't. Oops.
If they had at least three episodes to show Yuki's conflicted feelings, a similar number to show Jason and his niece and how they were falling in love and out of love and then in again, and God almighty if they had given some real set up and closure to the villains (besides the blink and you'll miss it scene in Yamato: The New Voyages) then it would have worked. But as it is, Be Forever Yamato is a huge meh. It's not bad, but it's not entertaining either, it starts great and then flames out really fast until it becomes a pile of soot.
And considering the theme of Earth about to explode, that's a hugely ironic ending.
In fact that could almost be the title of the movie, "Oops Yamato." The story isn't bad, or the basic framework isn't anyway. In a lot of ways it's like Arreviderci Yamato in that it sets up a story that should have been an entire season with like 10-15 episodes at minimum but then tries to tie it all up.two hours. The difference being, in that case they realized it and just turned the movie's plot into a whole season, but here they didn't. Oops.
If they had at least three episodes to show Yuki's conflicted feelings, a similar number to show Jason and his niece and how they were falling in love and out of love and then in again, and God almighty if they had given some real set up and closure to the villains (besides the blink and you'll miss it scene in Yamato: The New Voyages) then it would have worked. But as it is, Be Forever Yamato is a huge meh. It's not bad, but it's not entertaining either, it starts great and then flames out really fast until it becomes a pile of soot.
And considering the theme of Earth about to explode, that's a hugely ironic ending.
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