Starblazers

Synopsis of Saturday Morning Show

Starblazers was one of the many Japanese cartoons that were re-edited and dubbed into English for American audiences. Based on the series Space Battleship Yamato, Starblazers told the story of earth’s Star Force, who protected the planet from the invading armies of the distant world Gamilon, led by the evil Desslok.

By the year 2199, the Gamilons' radiation bombs had left the earth uninhabitable and sent the population underground. Star Force received a message from Queen Starsha, benevolent ruler of the planet Iscandar, who offered the Star Force a machine capable of dissipating the deadly radiation. The only catch was that they had to get to Iscandar and back in one year, or earth would be left forever desolate.

The Queen also gave the earthlings plans for a new "Wave Motion Engine," capable of powering the interstellar flight to Iscandar. Underground, the forces of earth rebuilt a World War II Japanese battleship known as the Yamato, redesigning it as a highly-armed spacecraft.

The crew of the Yamato, redubbed the Argo, consisted of Captain Avatar ("Admiral Okita" in the original series), his right hand man Derek Wildstar ("Sosumu Kodai"), chief of operations Mark Venture ("Daisuke Shima"), ship’s medical officer Dr. Sane ("Dr. Sado"), and radar operator Nova ("Yuki Moro"), who was also Wildstar’s girlfriend. Comic relief was provided by robot companion IQ-9, and the ship was kept in one piece by the cyborg mechanic Sandor.

Starblazers quickly found a niche among Japanimation fans in America. The intricate character relationships and impressive battle sequences easily satisfied fans of the original Space Battleship Yamato.

In the 1980's, Starblazers premiered new episodes that were taken from the third Japanese season of Space Battleship Yamato, but this relaunch was aborted fairly early on.