1st film gets paid digital release on same day; teaser video streamed

The staff of the Uchū Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshi-tachi (Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love or Star Blazers 2202: Warriors of Love) anime sequel project revealed during a livestream presentation on Monday that the series will be a seven-part theatrical anime project. The first film will premiere on February 25, 2017 and will screen in a two-week limited engagement in 15 theaters in Japan. The film's limited edition Blu-ray Disc will go on sale on the same day at the theaters that are screening the film.

The first film is also getting a simultaneous digital release on February 25 on Amazon Video, Tsutaya TV, Hikari TV, PlayStation Video, bonobo, and Rakuten Showtime for a fee. The film will then be available to rent digitally starting on March 11.

The first film will then ship on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on March 24.

The staff also revealed a teaser video for the series during the presentation.

Daisuke Ono and Houko Kuwashima appeared on stage during the event and revealed that they will reprise their roles from the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime as Susumu Kodai in and Yuki Mori, respectively.

Nobuyoshi Habara (Fafner and Fafner EXODUS director, episode director and storyboard writer for Star Blazers 2199) is directing the new anime, and Harutoshi Fukui (Mobile Suit Gundam UC original novel writer, screenplay for Harlock: Space Pirate) is writing and overseeing the scripts. The late Yoshinobu Nishizaki is credited with the original work, and his son Shoji Nishizaki (Star Blazers 2199 planning, producer for Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection) is the executive producer.

Additionally, Makoto Kobayashi is serving as assistant director, and Junichiro Tamamori and Yasushi Ishizu are the mechanical designers. Nobuteru Yuki is the character designer, and Akira Miyagawa is composing the music.

Shoji Nishizaki revealed in the official Yamato Kōkai Nikki: Yamato Crew Premium Fun Club Magazine fan club magazine last August that a second season of the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 anime was in development. The Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series is a remake of the original 1974 Space Battleship Yamato series created by Leiji Matsumoto and Yoshinobu Nishizaki. The series first premiered in Japan as a series of seven movies shown theatrically in Japan from 2012 to 2013, each containing four episodes' worth of runtime (except for the first movie, which only shows the first and second episode). The series then began airing on Japanese television in April 2013. A compilation film of the series opened in Japan in October 2014 with the title Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199: Tsuioku no Kōkai (Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Voyage of Remembrance), and a new film that continues the story opened in Japan in December 2014, with the title Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199: Hoshi-Meguru Hakobune (Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Star-Voyaging Ark).

The original Space Battleship Yamato anime was adapted for American television in 1979 as Star Blazers.