For over 30 years the Anime series, Space Battleship Yamato,better known in the US as Starblazers has excited fans worldwide. Today though new DVD releases, the science fiction odyssey is attracting a new generation of fans.The man who started the foundation of the series was Yoshinobu Nishizaki;in October 1963, he established Office Academy Inc and became active as a producer of stage and drama, and after about 200 productions, he decided to produce an original musical. In 1970, after an 18-month tour of Europe, Nishizaki made contract with Mr. Osamu Tezuka and he became Tezuka's manager, part of Nishizaki's job was to promote Tezuka's works for television. In July 1972, while working as President of Office Academy (which at that time dealt with trademarks and their second usage), he produced two anime programs for Television; "Yamanezumi Rokk Chakku" (Mountain Mouse Rocky Chuck) and "Wansa-kun" (Little Wansa), a pet character of Sanwa Bank. On these programs, he oversaw both music and animation. Nishizaki first conceived the idea for Space battle ship Yamato in 1973 but the series underwent heavy changes. Nshizaki's Original story was intended to be an outer-space variation on Lord of the Flies, the project at first titled "Asteroid Ship" and had a multinational teenage crew journeying through space in a hollowed-out asteroid in search of the planet Iscandar. There was to be much discord among the crew; many of them acted purely out of self-interest and personal gain. The enemy aliens were originally called Rajendora.

When Leiji Matsumoto came into the project and took position as director of the project, many of the original concepts were thrown out. It was his art direction, ship designs and unique art style that really made the series an outstanding accomplishment.

The first season Uchuu Senchen Yamato, began airing in Japan in 1974.The second Theatrical movie "Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato: Soldiers of Love."followed to bring an end to the story of the Yamato.

As the popularity and ratings of the first series grew through reruns on Japanese TV,

Nishizaki & Matsumoto produced Yamato 2 (aka The Comet Empire") and was released in 1977; ignoring the movie and presenting a different plot against the movie's enemy without killing off the Yamato or its main characters.The theatrical movies Yamato: The New Voyage and Be Forever Yamato came next as prequels to the third series, Yamato 3 aka "The Bolar Wars." and the final theatrical movie was respectivly named Final Yamato.

After being arrested for illegal possession of firearms in 1999, Nishizaki released a statement insisting that he is the true author of Yamato. Matsumoto sued Nishizaki demanding he publish an apology, and Nishizaki also counter-sued Matsumoto. The author rights to Yamato itself belongs to Tohoku Shinsha in Akasaka,Tokyo. Matsumoto stated "I think even one frame of Yamato could not exist without me,". "The judgement is an injustice and I will appeal to the High Court. "

In March 25 2002, Tokyo District Court Ruled that Nishizaki legally owned the Yamato copyrights. The two parties eventually settled, and Nishizaki began work on a new movie titled Yamato Rebirth (set after the original series), while Matsumoto planned a new Yamato series. However, additional legal conflicts since then have stalled them both.With the conditions Matsumoto cannot use the name Yamato or the plot or characters from the original and Nishizaki cannot use the conceptual art, character or ship designs of the original.By violation of the Firearms and Swords Control Law, a prison sentence was decided and Mr. Nishizaki is under penal servitude now.

Its sad to see that two creators of such a remarkable work turn on each other. With all the new space oprea animes out there Space Battleship Yamato will remain the classic it is today.