Star Blazers - The Quest for Iscandar - The Complete Series I Collection (Episodes 1- 26) (1974) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought these disks with some trepidation. I was about ten years old when Star Blazers seared across my conciousness. I loved the show deeply at that time. I finally decided to go ahead and splurge on the DVD's, nervous that I was wasting my money on a half-remembered show that would no longer be impressive to a 30-year old.
I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong.
Sure, the animation is crude. You can actually see marks and debris on the glass plates used for the animation. Sure, some parts are cheesy. Sure, some of the violence was mitigated for the American version. Sure the science varies from wonderfully accurate to ludicrous. But this is still an amazing series -- one of the best pieces of sci-fi to ever reach the small screen. I watched the last ten episodes in one night.
In brief, this DVD covers the first season of the Americanized version of the classic Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato (itself an expansion of a movie). Earth is under attack by the mysterious Gamilons, who are bombarding the planet with lethal radiation bombs. The planet has one year of life left. But a call from a distant planet in the Magellanic Clouds promises a cure to the radiation and provides them with new technology to make the journey. The star blazers board the resurrected battleship Yamato (rechristened Argo for the American version) and make a desperate trip to save the human race.
I guess the reason this had such appeal to me as a kid and I still love it is that it never talks down. The characters develop over 26 episodes into fully realized characters. Complex plotlines (Wildstar's loss of his family, Avatar's sickeness, Wildstar's and Nova's budding romance) develop gently. Characters have a realistic chance of being killed (many die). It turns out the Gamilons have reason of their own for invading Earth -- they're not just evil monsters. And the finale - a desperate battle in the Magellanic Clouds, the arrival at Iscandar, the return to Earth -- is stunning.
This series combines action with drama. One particularly good episode shows the crew bidding their last farewells to Earth as they leave the solar system. Another simply details their homesickness. These episodes exists side by side with a 3-part battle at Pluto, a massive confrontation halfway along the journey and two awesome battles at the conclusion of the journey.
The DVD's come with plenty of interesting extras -- a history of Gamilon, a tour of the Argo, etc. But that's gravy.
If you've never seen Star Blazers before, you might want to rent the series or buy one disk before making a big financial commitment. If, like me, you have vague but happy memories of the show, go ahead and splurge. You won't be sorry.

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The original Sci-Fi adventure series that created a generation of anime fans-and still stands at the head of the pack-is finally available on DVD! The star blazers series 1 DVD collection contains the entire 26-episode series on 6 DVDs, each in its own package and loaded with bonuses, from deleted scenes to music tracks to brand new image galleries. Relive all the drama and excitement as the star force launches for the first time in the space battleship Argo on their epic 148,000 light year quest for Iscandar! Standing against them is Desslock and the might of the Gamilon Empire... and the fate of Earth hangs in the balance!

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Meteos Review

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(More customer reviews)This game is very hard to describe when trying to make it sound as good as it is. Many people might say it's Tetris like, which it is to a SMALL extent, but it's far more. The basics of the game is trying to line up 3 falling blocks of the same color---when you do, they fly up into the sky and blast enemies. There is a little bit of a story line, but mainly, you are just trying to line up those blocks! The fun comes in that there are many different playing field to do this with, and each is a little different---different gravity, different strategies that work best, different kinds of blocks. And wildly different music---I am not someone that usually is that into music in video games, but this music is GREAT---it ranges from a country twang to a outer space sound to almost classical, and it really gets you into a groove. The other cool thing is that any block you manage to shoot into space gets added to your store of blocks, which you use to unlock more planets, and to unlock special kinds of blocks that do things like clear the board. You can play multi-player against the computer, but I so longed to try this in real multi-player mode I actually broke down and bought a second DS. I think I'm going to buy a second copy of the game, too, so I can use all the multi-player options (with one copy, you can play a limited version two player) This is the kind of game that makes you want to keep playing just a little more, to try to get a new planet, to try to make a new goal, just to see what the next area sounds and looks like...a TERRIFIC game!

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In Meteos you're the last line of defense, in a bad case of planetary overload. As blocks drop down on the lower screen, you must use the DS's stylus to match up blocks of the same color. Once you have enough blocks connected, they'll shoot back up into the sky to form planets on the upper screen.

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