In my opinion, there has been something really missing from the shelves of English-speaking anime fans: a good documentary feature on the subject. Sure, many Western distributors add short interviews with the Japanese staff as extras on their DVD releases. Sometimes, there's even a full "making of" feature (the excellent "The Making of Spirited Away" feature by Nippon TV, included on the American DVD release, comes to mind). But I want more than that. I want a feature that will take an aspect of the anime phenomenon and examine it to the smallest detail, from background through contents down to legacy.

I always knew that this kind of feature would come around someday. I just never imagined it would come from Voyager Entertainment.

Voyager is an American anime company that is built on a single franchise -- Space Battleship Yamato. Telling the story of the Japanese WWII battleship rebuilt into a starship in the year 2199 and saving Earth from countless hostile alien invasions, the Yamato television series (spanning three seasons and accompanied by five theatrical movies) ignited the space-opera craze in Japanese animation from the mid-70s to the early 80s. Dubbed and edited into Star Blazers for Western television syndication, it (along with Robotech) is responsible for introducing many Gen-X youngsters to the world of anime.

Unfortunately, the Voyager DVD releases of the three television seasons were very disappointing -- containing only the English-dubbed and edited Star Blazers version of the show, and coming with extras that felt more like a glorified fan website than serious bonus materials. The DVD releases of movies were handled somewhat better, containing the original Japanese dub (with English subtitles) and a wealth of extras which included trailers, alternate scenes and overviews of the franchise's history. Still, these overviews were presented in tiny, hard-to-read on-screen text, and the video/audio sound qualities of these releases left a lot to be desired.

So the announcement of a documentary about the franchise, to be produced by Voyager, left me somewhat skeptical. After the very disappointing handling of the series and movie releases, I suspected it to be nothing more than an attempt to milk a few more bucks from the fans.

I'm glad to have been proven wrong.

Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend was directed by Tim Eldred, a longtime fan of everything Yamato-related who was also in charge of the background material (in both in the extras department and the booklets added to the boxes) in the Voyager DVD releases of the series and movies. In the documentary he re-arranges, re-packages and largely expands on the same material, transforming it into an entertaining and informative 105-minute story of how the franchise went from a ratings disaster upon its initial broadcast to a cult phenomenon, going from there to becoming massively popular, opening the door to many anime fans outside Japan in the process.

The documentary combines slide-show-style images from concept art and promotional material with footage from the show and the movies, illustrating the franchise's story. It's narrated by Ken Meseroll (who provided the voice of Alex Wildstar's character in the Star Blazers dub). Also included within the feature are "interviews" with Japanese staff members -- translated from statements made by them over the years, also narrated (in English). There's very little live footage included, and most of it provides glimpses into gatherings of Japanese fans (the long lines to the theatres are particularly memorable) and some comments by the cast of the English dub.

Some may be disappointed with the lack of "live" or "current" interviews with the staff (the comments quoted from staff members are taken from materials produced alongside the series and movies in the franchise, and are several years old), but Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend is not intended to be a nostalgic ride with the franchise's staff looking back at its work. It is a look into the creative process behind the franchise, as it occurred in real-time.

And it is a fascinating look. Watching how things move from early concepts into the final product, and how it was being constantly re-imagined each new movie or TV-season was produced is a real treat, but the documentary doesn't stop there. It also places the franchise within a bigger context, with its examination of the fan reaction (from conventions to fanzines) and the franchise's impact on the entire anime industry, which grew along with it.

The feature does have a few weaknesses. One is the somewhat-rushed conclusion, which conveniently ignores some of the unpleasant aspects that accompany the Yamato franchise today -- notably the bitter, ongoing legal battle between the two leading men behind it, Yoshinnobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto. This omission wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't for the "and they lived happily ever after" impression the feature's ending delivers.

A bigger problem is the narration. Meseroll does a decent (if somewhat dry) job narrating the franchise's chronology, but several other narrators, employed as the different "interviewees", seem to have taken their job a little lightly, and their voices do not fit within the serious tone of the feature.

The disc contains a modest extras section. It includes the opening and ending titles for each season of the series, in both the original Japanese broadcast and the Star Blazers incarnation. Another bonus feature is a set of commercials for the toy-line produced in Japan to capitalize on the success of the franchise. Both features are nice, but I doubt they'll hold anyone's interest beyond a single viewing.

The real treat, however, is the third bonus feature -- the original 8-minute Yamato pilot, produced in order to sell the show's concept. This short movie is another fascinating piece in the story of how the franchise came to be, and serves as a very worthy addition to the material presented in the feature.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the feature is the incredibly good picture and sound quality of the original Japanese materials edited into it. This quality goes far beyond that of any actual Yamato-related release by Voyager. I hope they plan on re-releasing at least some of the TV-seasons and movies in the franchise and give the same sort of remastering. As the feature demonstrates, they're certainly capable of it.

Until then, Space Battleship Yamato: The Making of an Anime Legend is absolutely a must for any fan of the franchise, and a very worthy addition to the DVD shelf of anime fans who are into the history of the field.