What is the corect order to watch the anime Yamato that you have talk about? And same with Lotgh (about the order if theres more than one adaptation), also, you know where can someone find the novels on english?? After reading a lot of your posts on both animes I'm really curious to know more about them :)
Hello, thank you for the Ask!
I’m so glad that you are curious about Yamato and LotGH! (◕ᴗ◕✿)
I. Legend of the Galactic Heroes
[ 銀河英雄伝説 Ginga Eiyū Densetsu ] by Yoshiki Tanaka [ 田中 芳樹 Tanaka Yoshiki ]
Novels: Originally published between 1982 – 1987. Volumes 1-8 of the 10 volume novel series are available in English, published by Viz Media through their Haikasoru imprint. The translations of the novels are by Daniel Huddleston (vol. 1-3, and 7), Tyran Grillo (vol. 4-6), and Matt Treyvaud (vol. 8). Presumably the 9th and 10th volumes will be translated and released in the coming year. They can be purchased at RightStuf Anime, Amazon, Barnes & Noble all carry them. Amazon also has a Kindle version available, and of course used copies for sale as well. The Gaiden (Side Stories) novels have not been translated and released in English yet.
Anime, recently released: LotGH: Die Neue These is the remake (maybe qualifies as reboot?) of original series and there are quite a few differences (so far) if you were to compare them episode by episode. It is streaming in Japanese with English subtitles on CrunchyRoll and Funimation. Funimation also has the English dub. I strongly recommend watching this first, it’s only 12 episodes (first season as it were). If you love it enough that you can’t wait for more, then dive into the original. The BD/DVD of Season 1 is available for pre-order on RightStuf and Funimation.
Anime OG Run: Three films, the main OVA series, and two OVA side story series. HIDIVE is streaming all of these in Japanese with English subtitles. HIDIVE organizes them together under “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” with Season One being the 110 episodes that comprise the main OVA series, and “Season Two” (also called LotGH: Gaiden) being the combination of the two OVA side story series with 52 episodes, and Movie 1, Movie 2, and Movie 3 are the films titled “LotGH: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars”, “LotGH: Overture to a New War”, and “LotGH: Golden Wings”. Worth noting that Golden Wings was released before Overture to a New War, HIDIVE has them ordered chronologically.
Note: on the chance anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the term, ‘OVA’ refers to ‘Original Video Animation’ (called OAV in the U.S.) and indicates that the series was direct-to-video, rather than a television series. In the early days of “Finally we’re getting officially licensed and translated anime in the U.S.!” (e.g. early 90s), most of the anime brought over during that time were OVAs. OVAs are generally higher quality and more adult than anime made for broadcast.
Good luck! You won’t go wrong just watching the entire main OVA series all the way through…all 110 episodes! BUT, the films and the Gaiden OVAs take place before and during the main OVA series.
Hardcore LotGH fans might recommend differently, but you could probably watch in the following order:
The first film—My Conquest is the Sea of Stars—is a prelude to the main OVA series. (Movie 1 on HIDIVE)
The third film—Overture to a New War—or—first two episodes of the main OVA series. This film is a remake of the first two episodes and connects with the first film. (Movie 2 on HIDIVE)
Episodes 1-54 of the main OVA series.
The second film—Golden Wings. (Movie 3 on HIDIVE)
Episodes 55-110 of the main OVA series.
Episodes 1-52 of the two Gaiden OVA series as ordered on HIDIVE (called Season Two).
HIDIVE has their “Season Two” ordered a little differently as the two separate OVA Gaiden series are comprised of short stories that cover the early military careers of Reinhard and Yang. They are not ordered by release date, nor ordered relative to which series they were apart of, basically, the ordering on HIDIVE jumps back and forth between the two Gaiden series. It’s weird, but it makes sense.
The first arc—Spiral Labyrinth—of the second Gaiden series comes first, listed as ep 1-14. Then the first arc—The Silver White Valley—from the first Gaiden series comes next, listed as episodes 15-18. After that, the three middle arcs from the second Gaiden series—The Mutineer, The Duelist, and The Retriever—are listed as episodes 19-30. Following is the second arc of the first Gaiden series—Dreams of Morning, Songs of Night—listed as episodes 31-34, and then the final (fourth) arc of the first Gaiden series—A Hundred Billion Stars, a Hundred Billion Lights—listed as episodes 35-46. Finally, the final (fifth) arc of the second Gaiden series—The Third Tiamat Battle—listed as episodes 47-48, and the third arc of the first Gaiden series—Dishonor/Disgrace—is listed as episodes 50-52.
As they are side stories, they take place at different times relative to the narrative of the main OVA series. Personally, I think they are better to watch after finishing the main OVA series, but others may disagree.
III. Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers
[ 宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato ] by Leiji Matsumoto [ 松本 零士 Matsumoto Reiji ] and Yoshinobu Nishizaki [ 西崎 義展 Nishizaki Yoshinobu ]
I know very little about the original series (1974-1975) other than the basic facts easily found on Wikipedia. I have seen a handful of episodes from the original series, both Japanese and the English dubbed Star Blazers. The true fans of this series can be found on Tumblr and they can answer about the watch order for the original better than I. I can tell you that there were three TV series total for original, so the first run and then two sequel series in the 80s. Then there are several movies and an OVA. There was also a live action movie which I’ve heard good things about but have not seen.
When I post on Tumblr about SBY, it’s about the remakes that began in 2012. These are streaming online and available on BD/DVD (more further below).
Where/how to watch original series:
Amazon Prime Video has Star Blazer season 1 (this is the English dub of the 1974-1975 series), and you can find all three seasons of the English dub on YouTube (I can’t vouch for the quality or completeness). The three TV series (English dub) can be purchased on DVD. They are collected in three sets: Star Blazers The Quest for Iscandar, Star Blazers Comet Empire, and Star Blazers The Bolar Wars. I have no clue about the movies or where/how to watch the original series in Japanese.
The remakes: There are three so far, a TV series called Space Battleship Yamato 2199, a film called Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark [ 星巡る方舟 Hoshi-meguru Hakobune ] and the chapter-film series Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love [ 愛の戦士たち Ai no Senshi-tachi ]. Funimation adds “Star Blazers” to the beginning of the titles for English-language recognition, while I use the shortest name possible when referring to them, so Yamato 2199 and Yamato 2202, and Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (aka Ark of the Stars).
Where/How to watch 2199 and 2202: Both of the Yamato 2199 and Yamato 2202 series are streaming on Funimation in Japanese with English subtitles, and as English dubs. Yamato 2199 can be purchased in as two BD/DVD sets from RightStuf, Funimation, Amazon, etc. The first set of Yamato 2202 is available for pre-order from the same. The blu-ray of Odyssey of the Celestial Ark film is available to purchase on Amazon, it is an import from Japan. If you are in the U.S. then your blu-ray player can play it (unlike DVDs, the U.S. and Japan are in the same region for BDs). The Japanese blu-ray also has English subtitles.
IV. Yamato 2199 and 2202 Watch Order
The titles are conveniently chronological. 2199 comes before 2202. So watch Yamato 2199 first, and then move onto Yamato 2202. The Odyssey of the Celestial Ark film takes place before the end of the 2199 TV series. You do not need to watch it before watching 2202. The film can be stand-alone (though it is clearly setting up for 2202) and act as the pilot episode to the 2202 series. That doesn’t mean that its story is superfluous, it’s quite good and I love how it is structured.
I hope this helps! Enjoy!
