Quarantine Control #160: Lopped from a Blazing Civilization

DC Staff | April 27, 2023 | Animation, Features, Reviews, Television | No Comments

The news cycle progresses at a fever pitch these days. The phenomenon started during the earliest days of the Donald Trump presidency, and has barely let up since his departure from the White House. Yet even by those standards, this has been a wild week. Between Tucker Carlson being let go from Fox News, Montana voting to essentially censure their first transgender member, the increasing potential of a showdown over raising the debt ceiling, and President Biden officially running for reelection, it can be tough to keep track of everything. It can make you want to crawl into bed and sleep for days, as unfeasible as that is. We, truly, need Quarantine Control from all this.

Geoffrey Barnes

Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202 (2017)
Source: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 26

A somewhat-irrational thought drifted through my head following the passing of manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto in February. The entertainment world lost a visionary, one of the main men — if not the main man — responsible for creating series like Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock, and Space Battleship Yamato. Matsumoto was also a man who believed that the manga and anime worlds would lose themselves if they appealed too heavily to the otaku audience, according to an interview translation. There are undoubtedly other visionaries who feel the same way without outright saying it, but his guts will be missed.

This is the time, in my view, to partake in more of his works in original forms or in iterations faithfully remade by teams that understood what made the original versions so worthwhile. It was time for me to tackle Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2202, now that it’s been about two years since I’ve watched predecessor 2199.

Yamato 2202 is a faithful remake of the second Space Battleship Yamato series from the 1970s which, as the title implies, takes place three years after the original ended. The Earth’s forces that were primarily spearheaded by the Yamato, a rebuilt version of the same ship Japan used in World War II, reached a compromise for a peaceful resolution following a conflict with the alien Gamillas empire. But this series’ existence shows how the respite was brief, thanks to the desire from humans to double down on making more powerful weapons in the face of further potential threats, and the subsequent attack of another alien race known as the Gatlantis from the White Comet Empire. The crew of the Yamato, led by Susumu Kodai, has to try and work another miracle and discover the mysterious force pulling them into space, whether human governments approve of the mission or not.

Yamato 2022 follows in the footsteps of 2199 in being a remake that inherits the twists and overall hard-ish sci-fi vibe of the original series, albeit with modern animation, technology, and directorial techniques. The character drama and sci-fi action, inherited from the original, complement each other. The well-paced quest focusing on the exploits of the Yamato crew and others among the Gamillas and Gatlantis races across their home planets and the galaxy is rife with great writing and character development. Even if 2202 doesn’t quite capture the uniqueness and feeling of discovery from 2199 thanks to the former’s status as a follow-up, with several similar twists being a bit more predictable this time around, it’s still an incredible tale.

It’s a stunning achievement that the character development is so strong considering the sheer number of faces the series balances across its 26 episodes. Most of the focus is on the humans, but an ample amount of character development is saved for the alien races and their unique political situations. It helps, in fairness, to remember all the character development and names from 2199, with the majority of the Yamato’s crew returning from that series. The character and plot development was perfect for the length allocated to telling the story, and each contrivance happens for clear and worthwhile reasons.

Yamato 2202 is a great series that I only had a few minor problems with. The CG use for the ships, droids, and occasional mechs doesn’t mesh entirely well with the 2D-animated characters and backdrops. It’s nowhere near bad enough to pose as a full distraction from the action occurring, but 2D-animated content would have worked better even though, I understand, that would have been considerably more difficult and time consuming. I also wish there were more music tracks, as many are reused from 2199’s already-tiny soundtrack.

I shouldn’t have needed the reminder that other creators can helm their own original sci-fi works or recreations of the genre’s best examples, because these types of fears are often misplaced. But a part of me will hold onto that cynical mindset for dear life. Both Yamato 2199 and 2022 are worth seeing for anyone interested in sci-fi anime thanks to the exemplary character development and storytelling in both, and I sincerely hope that Crunchyroll/Funimation (Funiroll?) license the short Space Battleship Yamato 2205 series one of these days. It’s been on home video in Japan for over 13 months as of this writing, after all.

Angela Moseley

I’ve been watching anime on HiDIVE, and while I respect the service as a competitor to Crunchyroll, its user interface is just terrible. Sometimes shows appear in the “continue watching” section. Sometimes they don’t. There doesn’t seem to be a watch history. The fast-forward feature is painfully slow compared to other streaming services. You cannot skip forward or backwards by 30 seconds. For some reason HiDIVE is available on the Xbox One, but not PlayStation– a huge oversight. As for the actual anime, HiDIVE uses yellow subtitles without black outlines. Some people swear by them, but they’re so hard to see against colorful shows, especially ones that heavily use yellow. I’m currently watching the English dub of the Urusei Yatsura reboot for this very reason. All in all, the anime selection is the only saving grace with HiDIVE.

With that introduction rant out of the way, I’m actually here to talk about a podcast this week.

Fall of Civilizations (2019)
Source: YouTube, any podcatcher
Episodes: 17 (as of this writing)

Fall of Civilizations is a channel I stumbled upon while searching for documentaries on YouTube. The first video I found was “The Songhai Empire – Africa’s Age of Gold.” It was a well-researched, well-written, and respectful documentary chronicling the rise and fall of this West African empire over the course of two hours. To be honest, it was a welcome break from ancient civilization documentaries that usually cover Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe. In other words, a nice acknowledgment that great civilizations existed outside the heavily covered western world. Their downfalls were just as important as their inceptions. I was impressed with the channel and subscribed.

As I dug into new and old episodes, I learned the newest episodes are audio-only with video episodes releasing months later. The video version includes location footage, maps, and ancient texts. Since the freshest content was audio-only, it made sense to just switch to a podcast app instead of relying on YouTube alone. Granted, the video episodes help bring the series to life, as one’s imagination can only go so far with ancient cultures. Those wanting their immediate history fix can listen to the podcast, meanwhile those who prefer video can simply wait a few months. It’s not like this podcast is breaking news or covering the latest shows or movies.

Fall of Civilizations is the creation of Paul M.M. Cooper and his production team. Cooper does his research, and his background as an archivist, journalist and editor bring a lot to the table. The podcast is crowdfunded with his Patreon boosting more 3000 members. Even with the money to hire help, it takes roughly one to three months to produce a podcast episode, which is unsurprising given the amount of research needed– not to mention video editing. It’s heartwarming to see such a high quality product being funded by patrons, rather than corporate interests. Sure, it takes months to release an episode, rather than weeks, but quality is worth waiting for.

Fall of Civilizations is themed around not just chronicling a civilization, but more specifically how that civilization met its demise. The subject matters are diverse and range from the very first topic, Roman Britain, all the way to the Aztecs, with various African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Asian empires along the way. Each episode starts with a historian or notable figure stumbling upon or searching for the ruins of said civilization. Usually these historians are relegated to history themselves, just to show how far back time stretches. For example, a 17th century figure finding the ruins from a civilization already hundreds of years old. From there, how the civilization came to be is explained through their own founding myths and a more realistic scenario. Poems, letters, and contemporary historical accounts from those writing about the civilization help flesh out what life was or may have been like for them. Notably, many of these documents come from notable figures such as rulers, generals, or again, historians of the time. An actor will read said documents which helps to bring these words to life.

Cooper also pushes back hard on racism surrounding the rise and fall of many non-European civilizations. In the colonial age many these attitudes were never challenged and many of them still survive to this day. As an example, many scholars at the time and today believed the inhabitants of Easter Island destroyed their forests and arable land to build the famous Moa statues found on the island. When in truth, the island inhabitants were thriving until contact with said colonial powers decimated their populations because of disease, a plundering of resources, and outright slavery. Other example include civilizations in Africa and the Americas where Europeans simply couldn’t believe other cultures could build huge monuments on their own. In their eyes, the people were uncivilized savages. This is instead of taking the time to understand that there isn’t just one single way to build and manage a society.

The running theme in Fall of Civilizations is how hubris and short-sightedness leads a powerful society to its downfall. In the case of many empires, a crisis of succession sees heirs fighting over what they believe is rightfully theirs. Other times, a king or emperor failed to groom a successor before they passed on and interested parties try to fill the power vacuum. If the kingdoms aren’t weakened by civil war, a rival country usually gets involved. In some cases outright destruction from a hostile power occurs (see Rome’s destruction of Carthage). Sometimes that hostile power comes from colonial powers that see nothing wrong with genocide as the cost of business and exploration. Other factors include sudden climate change and a failure to adapt. The through line is that all empires and civilizations collapse, and often times a new civilization rises to take its place. No society is immune this fact of life.

If you enjoy history, especially civilizations not normally covered, this podcast series might be worth a listen. If you prefer video, Cooper has that covered as well. The Songhai, Vijayanagara, Bagan, Inca, and Easter Island episodes are really great starting places.

Joseph Daniels

Ahead of next week’s release of season two of Star Wars: Visions, I’d like to briefly make mention of my favourite episode from season one, one which I wish would be expanded upon in the future, but which I’m fairly certain won’t ever actually happen. One can dream, right? (Plus, there are rabbits!)

Star Wars: Visions
Episode: Lop & Ochō
Original Airdate: September 22, 2021
Source: Disney+
Rabbits?: Lop (a Lepi); a few more background Lepi characters right at the start

I think what drew me the most to this tale in the Visions anthology series was the setting and the choice of main character. Not only does this episode take place on a world clearly modeled after a classic Asian aesthetic like you would see in anime, it stars a well animated non-human character that you can’t help but want to see more of. It also has a nice found family feel to the story, where Lop is adopted into her family but is also force sensitive and is thus able to inherit the family’s lightsaber. Well, that and she doesn’t throw her lot in with the Empire, whereas their father’s biological daughter, Ochō, does.

On a planet being subjugated by the Empire for their natural resources, Lop lives with her adoptive family, but all is not well on the planet Tau. Lop’s father, Yasaburō, attacks the occupying Empire, causing a fracture between him and his daughter Ochō. Having grown up on Tau, Yasaburō is deeply upset by how his home has been treated by the Empire, who is polluting the world and stripping it of all of its resources. Ochō has never known life before the Empire’s occupation and has fallen deeply for their propaganda, putting her at odds with her father. Poor Lop is stuck in the middle. Given her time as a slave, she doesn’t want to side with the Empire of course, but she also wants her family to be like it was when she was first taken in by them, one whole and complete, loving unit.

Immediately after Yasaburō’s attack, Ochō abandons the family entirely, gives herself over completely to the Empire, and cuts her hair off as a symbolic gesture. This upsets both Lop and Yasaburō, the latter of which tries to get Ochō to come home again, but Ochō takes his good eye in a duel, leaving him blinded. Lop, having inherited the family’s lightsaber hours earlier, fights Ochō and wins, causing Ochō to flee. The episode ends with the family fractured apart.

Given the episode’s 22 minute length, it really does feel like the pilot episode of an anime, although it also feels like there are two episodes worth of plot here. It’s still a pretty strong showing, and I would love to see a season or more of this produced by the same studio and released to Disney+. Also, call me greedy, but I would love to see a 26 episode season rather than a 13 episode season, even though the latter is the standard episode length these days. That said, there are certainly many episodes of Visions deserving of follow-ups, even if they don’t play out like obvious pilot episodes like this one does.

This Week’s Short Film:
Little Doctor (2019; uploaded 2021)

It’s hardly original to proclaim that the world blows given the stream of bad news we tend to receive on a nearly-constant basis. But it justifies the need to continue the Quarantine Control series, because everyone who isn’t actively making people’s lives worse deserves a break from all of it. Until next week.

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