Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar - The Complete Series One Collection

I finally was able to find the original Star blazers entire series. I bought the remake which got me interested in finding the original that I remember watching as a kid. It's really cool. The transfer is like most cartoons from that era, a little blotchy, some spots but very watchable. Somethings are better in their original form that keeps the nostalgia for those of us who enjoyed when it first aired.

I bought these disks with some trepidation. I was about ten years old when Star Blazers seared across my conciousness. I loved the show deeply at that time. I finally decided to go ahead and splurge on the DVD's, nervous that I was wasting my money on a half-remembered show that would no longer be impressive to a 30-year old.I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong.Sure, the animation is crude. You can actually see marks and debris on the glass plates used for the animation. Sure, some parts are cheesy. Sure, some of the violence was mitigated for the American version. Sure the science varies from wonderfully accurate to ludicrous. But this is still an amazing series -- one of the best pieces of sci-fi to ever reach the small screen. I watched the last ten episodes in one night.In brief, this DVD covers the first season of the Americanized version of the classic Japanese anime series Space Battleship Yamato (itself an expansion of a movie). Earth is under attack by the mysterious Gamilons, who are bombarding the planet with lethal radiation bombs. The planet has one year of life left. But a call from a distant planet in the Magellanic Clouds promises a cure to the radiation and provides them with new technology to make the journey. The star blazers board the resurrected battleship Yamato (rechristened Argo for the American version) and make a desperate trip to save the human race.I guess the reason this had such appeal to me as a kid and I still love it is that it never talks down. The characters develop over 26 episodes into fully realized characters. Complex plotlines (Wildstar's loss of his family, Avatar's sickeness, Wildstar's and Nova's budding romance) develop gently. Characters have a realistic chance of being killed (many die). It turns out the Gamilons have reason of their own for invading Earth -- they're not just evil monsters. And the finale - a desperate battle in the Magellanic Clouds, the arrival at Iscandar, the return to Earth -- is stunning.This series combines action with drama. One particularly good episode shows the crew bidding their last farewells to Earth as they leave the solar system. Another simply details their homesickness. These episodes exists side by side with a 3-part battle at Pluto, a massive confrontation halfway along the journey and two awesome battles at the conclusion of the journey.The DVD's come with plenty of interesting extras -- a history of Gamilon, a tour of the Argo, etc. But that's gravy.If you've never seen Star Blazers before, you might want to rent the series or buy one disk before making a big financial commitment. If, like me, you have vague but happy memories of the show, go ahead and splurge. You won't be sorry.

As a youngster, watching these animated series was amazing! I thought I would never see these on television again, until now. I had to purchased them as soon as I saw them

Exactly what I remember from childhood. Can’t wait to watch all episodes.

Still love the show as a kid & today as adult. Some of the espouses was grainy but as kid I found it that was too.The graphic is not as high as today stranded but when this came out it was it was stated of art.It’s just enjoyable show… As a kid I thought I missed some shows and I only missed 2 episodes that help with the story line..For me I still love to watch show one after each other & pause when I need too so DVD is still my choice to watch series.Old fashioned that way.

If you were being packed off to school on innumerable mornings in the late 70s/early 80s, chances are you woke up extra early some mornings to the rousing tones of the "Star Blazers" theme:"We're off to outer space,Leaving Mother Earth,To save the human raceOur Star Blazers!"The half-hour cartoons which ensued were nothing short of miraculous to kids weaned on Looney Tunes: furiously intense little snippets of a small band of heroes in a tricked-out World War Two battleship in a desperate struggle against evil aliens.This was no "G.I. Joe," folks---the stakes were high, and people got hurt. The captain of the Argo spent much of the trip battling radiation poisoning, the heroes were invariably placed in precarious situations and occasionally were lost. While the Star Force won most of the battles, these victories were dearly bought; many episodes ended with the ship limping along leaving enormous smoke trails in its wake.Now "Star Blazers" has finally arrived on DVD.I started watching the first episode, and wound up sitting in front of the TV oblivious to everything around me until I watched all 6 DVDs (about 12 hrs in all). Despite a transfer showing no improvement over the muddy images which danced across my 13" color screen all those years ago, this series STILL has the power to hook the unwary.In addition to the 26 first series episodes, the DVD edition also includes a ton of nifty special features providing a wealth of background information. My particular favorite is the interactive mission map detailing the Argo's entire journey to Iscandar and back with episode-specific summaries of key events.I've seen a lot of Japanese manga since "Star Blazers" first bombarded my eyeballs, but slick production and hard-boiled storylines pale in comparison to the ominous warning at the end of each episode: "Hurry, Star Force! Earth has only 256 days left!"Buy this set. Consider it Cosmo-DNA for the soul.

I live in New York City. I couldn't wait this on either Channel 5, 9, or 11, I don't remember, after school. I decided to buy both the Quest for Iscandar & the Comet Empire from Amazon.