Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series featuring an eponymous spacecraft. It is also known to English-speaking audiences as Space Cruiser Yamato; an English-dubbed and heavily edited version of the series was broadcast on North American and Australian television as Star Blazers. The first two seasons of this version were broadcast in Greece in 1981-82 as Διαστημόπλοιο Αργώ. An Italian-language version was also broadcast under the name Star Blazers in Italy, and a Portuguese-language version was successfully shown in Brazil under the title Patrulha Estelar and Viaje a la Ultima Galaxia or Astronave Intrepido in Spain and Latin America. It is a seminal series in the history of anime, marking a turn towards more complex serious works and influencing works such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion; Hideaki Anno has ranked Yamato his favorite anime and credited it with sparking his interest in anime. Yamato was the first anime series or movie to win the Seiun Award, a feat not repeated until the 1985 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

The year is 2199. The human race has been crushed in their war with the Gamilos, driven into underground cities by the invader's assault. Scientists estimate they have only a year left. The young officers Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima receive a mysterious capsule from a ship that made an emergency landing on Mars and return with it to Earth. It contains humanity's last hope: the planet Iscandar on the other side of the Magellan Galaxy has the technology to defeat the Gamilos and restore the planet. The space battleship Yamato is entrusted with this task, but they have only one year before humanity ends.

In the 25th century, a spaceship carrying 300 people leaves the earth in search of a new world in the solar system, but an unexpected accident occurs. They crash into a black hole which is connected to another universe. The people on the ship are cast adrift in an emergency capsule to a planet called Ismo. The story begins 12 years after they have reached Ismo. Ismo is a star of the Onam System, which corresponds to the Solar System in our universe. It is the only planet left in the Onam System. The Death Star called Yomi is a comet which regularly approaches the Onam System.

Three years have passed since the battle with the White Comet Empire. President Dessler, who has been searching for a new mother star to save the dying Gamilas people, finds a star that meets the conditions in a section of the Milky Way galaxy. But it was within the territory of a mighty interstellar nation. The territorial dispute that broke out in the galaxy inevitably involves the Earth, which has a security treaty with Gamilas. The magic of the time fault, which brought military and economic advantages to the earth, has disappeared in exchange for their own lives. Susumu Kodai sets out on a training voyage with the new crew in preparation for an upcoming emergency. Without knowing that someone who is aiming for himself is in the middle. Yamato is about to embark on a new journey in an era of unprecedented anxiety. On the way, an unimaginable new enemy awaits ...

Directed by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the present day and uses flashbacks to tell the story of the crew of the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato. The film was never released in the United States, where reviewers who have seen it have compared the military epic to "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan."

This story starts in the year 3199, when a mighty enemy attacks the Milky Way from a neighboring galaxy. The enemy engages the combined forces of the Milky Way, an Alliance of many stellar nations, and defeats them one after another. The remaining Milky Way Alliance forces are reduced to just six fleets. After the Alliance headquarters is destroyed, and when the collapse of the central Milky Way Alliance is imminent, the Great Yamato Zero surprises everyone and embarks on a mission to assist the Milky Way Alliance in one last great battle.

In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.

In 2209, a mysterious "Grand Reverse" invades Earth's capital, defying defenses. The former Yamato crew reunites on a secret order, embarking on a perilous journey as an unknown invader threatens humanity's fate.