Recap: The Yamato crew, run ragged by constant harassment tactics by Domel, are ambushed by his entire fleet.

Gee’s Thoughts: 

Yet again, Yamato 2199 knocks it out of the park. A great combination of tension, intrigue, and good ol’ spaceship fisticuffs lead to an amazing episode of an already amazing anime. This episode followed two basic threads this time: The strain of the constant fighting and its effect on the Yamato crew, and the Yamato’s bare survival against Domel.

The tension in this episode was quite clear, though in retrospect, what happened this episode is really the culmination of a lot of minor things in the past episodes. You saw the occasional grumble and some shadowy deals going on in the background, but it’s this episode that starts to bring them to the forefront. Niimi along with the two security officers, Squinty and Smiley, seem to be planning something, and by the looks of it, they’re not planning a surprise birthday party. I always suspected that Yamato 2199, being a remake of the OG of the ‘lone ship against impossible odds’ archetype of narratives, would eventually have some kind of coup arc. No way you can have a dozens of people manning a ship without any breaks before some of them start wondering if they’d be better than the people currently in charge.

As for the Yamato’s lucky break from imminent destruction, there’s honestly less to write about, even if it was the more exciting part of the episode. With Okita back in command, the Yamato rushes Domel head on, knowing that the rest of his crew won’t be able to fire on the Yamato. It’s a ballsy suicidal strategy, and it probably would have worked if Domel hadn’t already repeatedly proven to be the Yamato’s strategic equal in just about every way. Luckily, deus ex machina kicks in due to the sudden assassination of Lord Dessler. Still, it provides a stark reminder for the viewers: The Yamato is good, but it’s not invincible. If they don’t start playing smarter, they will fail this mission.

That said, I’m honestly more worried by the preview of the next episode, where it appears my suspicion of a coup were on the mark. We’ll have to see how the Yamato crew deals with this, both the coup itself and its instigators.