The Mike Toole Show

The Melancholy of Yoshinobu Nishizaki

Thirty years ago, I was four years old, going on five. In the fall of 1980, I saw this totally awesome cartoon called Space Battleship Yamato.

Lots of people are talking about Yamato these days, because it's been an eventful couple of years for the Yutaka Izubuchi. You know, it's really kind of a shame that the driving force behind Yamato, its producer and co-creator who worked hard to stoke the hype and get this new wave of productions started, is dead.

I won't dwell on the guy's unusual demise - enough has been said about that. Instead, I want to talk about the stuff Triton of the Sea, were being developed. It turns out that the copyrights for the TV cartoons were properly filed - but in Nishizaki's name, not Tezuka's. In fact, Mushi flatlined during the production of Wansa-kun - so not only is Nishizaki credited as the screenwriter for the show's second half, the entire production of Triton is credited not to Mushi, but to a new company founded by Nishizaki, Anime Staff Room.

Over the years, Nishizaki has coyly insisted that he had made a mistake, and misfiled the copyrights because he wasn't familiar with the paperwork. ers of the producer would point to the fact that his odd gaffe allowed Mushi stalwarts like Thundersub and beamed pretty much all over the world, though it enjoyed much more exposure in Canada than in the US. This show, which has languished in obscurity for a very long time, is starting to get easier to find thanks to the efforts of a crew of Arabic fans, who are patiently using Japanese DVD footage to restore it in a variety of languages. Go figure!

Not everything this guy touched turned to gold or gold-plated comedy, though. Ever heard of Maeterlinck's Bluebird ? Nishizaki and Office Academy produced it in 1980, but it was one of those "got aired in and Italy, but not really anywhere else" shows. It wasn't a huge hit like Yamato or a solid performer like Blue Noah, so after a few more years monkeying with the profitable Yamato machine (artist Leiji Matsumoto, who many cite as the true driving inspiration behind the original work, had long since departed to make his fortune telling stories about trains in space instead), Yoshinobu Nishizaki geared up for his most ambitious project yet - a trilogy of animated films that would feature the industry's top talent and blow audiences away! Yamato savant Eiichi Yamamoto returned to direct (with 3 other guys-- hmmm), three different guys wrote the script, and an army of animators was marshaled by co-producer Loudness in the closing credits!), on-screen titles for EVERYTHING from alien weapons to repair boats, and some of the most stunningly gorgeous anime made in the entire decade. The movie isn't good-- it's boring despite its impressive pedigree, and about two hours too long-- but in retrospect, I'm still glad it got made. I want to live in a world where a magnificent freakshow like Odin got made, a film that couldn't have happened without its tireless executive producer.

Nishizaki continued to break ground as the 80s became the 90s - he helped pave the way both for Toshiyuki Kubooka. But you could see the cracks forming immediately, as Nishizaki's company was forced to release an "episode 0" video with a few clips and documentaries to help fund the rest of the first episode. Yamato 2520, on the wings of its crude, bizarre story and indifference from Japanese fans, would limp through three episodes before being unceremoniously canceled. You can't get it on DVD.

That really could've been the last hurrah for Yoshinobu Nishizaki, but in 1997, he did something usually reserved for true big entertainment moguls like Galaxy Express characters into the Yamato narrative. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

And what of Nishizaki's latest new company, Engaio? (Oh, Japan AV? That company went out of business, of course. Long story.) What about Yamato: Resurrection? Two years later, there's still no hint of a US release. I get asked about the Yamato live-action film almost every day, but there's no theatrical or DVD release of that one on the horizon, either. This greatly puzzles me, simply because these are high quality productions that would do well here in North America. The Yamato film, in particular, really impressed me with its high-toned visuals - even with a bare-bones subtitled theatrical campaign, this is a movie with the potential to wow American audiences used to Hollywood blockbusters. More than anything else, I feel like this is where Yoshinobu Nishizaki's absence is most keenly felt. He died a year ago this month, on the verge of seeing the live-action Yamato make splashdown, and while his adopted son, Shoji, has done a good job as custodian of the franchise - I have to it, I really wish the premiere of Yamato 2199 didn't clash with Voyager Entertainment can get this sorted out, because I'm really itching to go off to outer space once again. How about you?