The Bolar Wars: Extended
All About the New Star Blazers Webcomic
By Tim Eldred, July 2009
But there's another, longer-held dream that goes all the way back to the early 1980s, and it comes with an admission: I've always had a soft spot for Yamato III: The Bolar Wars. From the first time I saw it back in 1984 or so, I found it very easy to get swept up in its promise; a gigantic story with multiple factions and huge potential. Yet, it seems to have been constantly undersupported and underappreciated, even in its homeland.
It's well known by now (or should be) that the series met with disappointing ratings on Japanese television and got cut in half by the network; a 50-episode epic was chopped down to 25--not exactly strangled in the crib, but certainly subjected to a premature demise. The second I learned about that, I thought someone ought to investigate the unused material and revive it in some fashion. Maybe in comics form.
Well, guess what? As with the previous project, that someone turned out to be me. And starting with the next update of this website (October 1, 2009), a brand new webcomic will make its debut: The Bolar Wars: Extended!
Jump forward to 1994: my partners and I at Studio Go! landed the plum assignment of producing all-new Star Blazers comic books for Voyager Entertainment's Argo Press. I believed that if it lasted long enough, The Bolar Wars revival would be a part of it. This too was not to happen, since our run on the series abruptly ended just as our adaptation of Be Forever was getting off the ground.
But time and circumstances have finally come around to make it a possibility again, and now I'm seizing the opportunity with both hands. It's time at last for The Bolar Wars to continue.
The story was initially proposed prior to the development of Be Forever Yamato. Development documents from the post-New Voyage timeframe show the title "Yamato Part III," and Nishizaki himself explained in Office Academy's New Voyage book that his concept was to center the next feature film around the sun crisis. Leiji Matsumoto advocated instead that the movie should have a tighter focus on the characters and such a large-scale scenario could be better served in an extended TV series. Nishizaki heartily agreed, and Be Forever Yamato (as we know it) got underway.
Exact dates are elusive, but the lead time for Series 3 would certainly have required that it go into development immediately after writers were freed up from their duties on Be Forever, which would have been February of 1980. Fortunately (especially for the purposes of this new webcomic), a great deal of the material they developed was later published for general consumption. Taken as a whole, the original story was epic in scope, enriched by many new characters, battle scenarios, and planetary adventures.
Those who purchased Voyager Entertainment's DVD box set of The Bolar Wars know something about this material already; the Yamato III Roman Album devoted several pages to the "unseen episodes," which were translated for the booklet that accompanied the set. (If you bought the individual DVDs rather than the set, you can obtain the booklet by emailing us at the "Contact" link atop this page.)
The bulk of the character development was to occur in the latter half, along with a renewal of hostilities between Dessler and Yamato's crew. Both Galman and Bolar forces were to become obstacles against finding a second Earth and the stakes would be raised enormously when the solar system itself came under attack. Additional story notes appeared in other books, all of which has been consolidated to serve as a backbone for our webcomic revival. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Back to 1980.
The damage to the plot was just the beginning; Yoshinobu Nishizaki had to reform his entire company (almost certainly because of a seismic shift in financing), so the name Office Academy disappeared and was quickly replaced by West Cape Corporation. This occurred sometime in November, while Be Forever merchandising was still flowing hot and heavy. The trouble rippled outward to Yamato III's various licensors, who likewise had to scale back their own plans.
The TV series was well into production by this time, so the first impact on the story wasn't felt until episode 9, which aired on December 6 of 1980. The scene has actually become somewhat notorious: after fighting the Galmans at Planet Barnard, Kodai decides things are getting too dangerous to keep the female crewmembers on board, and he sends them all home along with space pioneer Tomoko Yagami. The original plot had no such turn of events. In fact, the pregnant Tomoko was to remain on board for the duration of the voyage, develop a romance with Sanada [Sandor] and deliver her baby at the end of the series. With that possibility now off the table, she and all the nurses were dismissed seemingly without a second thought.
Captain Dan Hammer was another casualty, a character who would have returned later with a significant role to play. Instead, he met his end in episode 10. The next eight shows remained mainly intact, getting the crew to Planet Galman for their reunion with Dessler. The failure of the fix-the-sun operation in episode 18 was roughly the mid-point in the original scenario, with escalating events that would carry us to new heights from there. Instead, the trip to Planet Phantom became a shortcut to the finale.
The concept of a living planet was first hatched in The New Voyage, but held back until a better opportunity came up. This was the time for it, leading to the discovery of Ruda [Princess Mariposa]. Her role was also meant to be much larger, instigating a love triangle with Domon [Jason] and Ageha [Flash] but there simply wasn't enough time left for this.
The finale was essentially told as planned, though highly compressed and missing a lot of setup--like a solar system battle of Comet Empire proportions. All of this and more will be seen in the coming months as The Bolar Wars: Extended rolls out in webcomic form.
What unites us is the fact that Yamato and Star Blazers are in our bloodstreams. We just can't help ourselves--some portion of our brains is constantly churning through facts and minutiae. And we each seem to have a specialty. With Carol, it's Gamilons. With Derek it's the EDF. With me it's the need to pack as much as possible into a good story. Between us, I think we'll get the job done. (You may remember Carol for this article she wrote about Yamato doujinshi.)
If you're a regular reader of this website, you might have some questions at this point, so I'll try to anticipate them...
Will we start our story at the beginning of the TV series?
No. Thanks to our translated Anime Comics, we don't have to. If you want a refresher course, they will always be there. The new material will pick up from episode 18, and the Anime Comics go on from there to the end of the TV series. (Because we believe in completeness.)
Will we do precisely what the original writers intended?
We'll try. The latter episodes never got to the script stage, so all we have to go on is concept notes and our own powers of deduction. Fortunately, the notes are pretty extensive and we've honed our powers to razor sharpness. There are numerous places where we had to bridge gaps on our own, and sometimes the logistics play out a little differently. But we'll adhere to the spirit as best we know how. Keep in mind that we're obliged to tell it as a Star Blazers story, so the rules are slightly different.
Will we adapt EVERYTHING from the concept notes?
No. There were several single-episode plots that focused on a specific character or one-time event. These work OK in a weekly TV series, but not so well in a webcomic where you have to wait 60 days between chapters. Our intention is to keep everything moving forward all the time rather than put the mission on 'pause.' Putting it bluntly, the webcomic will be a filler-free zone.
What about the original ideas that won't make it into the webcomic?
There are several of those, and they're all described here.
Does this mean an end to the articles?
Not entirely. The time and energy demands of producing a regular webcomic are heavy, but there should still be some left over for news and historical tidbits. There won't be time to dig deep into major topics, but those have pretty much been covered over the last two years.
If you've got other questions, please send them to us via the 'Contact' link at the top of this page. I said it over and over again during the production of Star Blazers Rebirth: the best part of the whole project was reading and responding to your messages. That's an experience I hope to repeat on The Bolar Wars: Extended.
So we'll see you here for Chapter 1 on October 1st in which the search for a second Earth resumes...and Desslok has plenty to say about it!
