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Anime director Hideaki Anno announced after the 50th anniversary screening of Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato anime on Sunday that he and his Khara studio are producing a Yamato project with new anime footage. . Anno said Khara has received license approval from Yamato copyright holders Voyager Holdings and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation to produce new anime footage.
Anno said he could not reveal details about the project yet but emphasized that it is different from the remake projects being developed by the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime. However, Yutaka Izubuchi, director of the remake project and another guest on Sunday's show, are also working on a new project. Anno said the staff aims to begin production in 2025 for a theatrical release at a later date.
Anno, arguably most famous for co-creating Neon Genesis Evangelion and working on the Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider films, frequently cites Yamato as inspiring his interest in with anime. He previously planned the opening sequence of the series Space Battleship 2199. Anno said in a comment on the 50th anniversary project that he has been a fan of the series for 49 years, including from the second year of high school. He added that he doesn't think he would be the person he is today without the franchise. He reminisces about how he missed the first episode when it first aired, but he watched the second to last episode, even sacrificing watching Great Mazinger and running home after cram to do it.
The original anime follows the voyages of the battleship Yamato during World War II after it was revived as a spaceship to fight alien threats to Earth. The first television series debuted in October 1974. The first animated film debuted in 1977 and grossed 2.1 billion yen (about $23 million) at the box office. The anime franchise later achieved a record instantaneous television viewership rating of 50% in 1978.
Yamato yo Towa ni: Rebel 3199 (Be Forever Yamato: Rebel 3199), the current project in the remake of Space Battleship Yamato 2199, will open with seven films, starting with the first film”Kuro no Shinryaku” (Dark Invasion) last July.
Source: Film screening event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Space Battleship Yamato