Japanese animators have never had a shortage of space-themed cartoons and one of their many wonderful offerings over the years was Starblazers. Consisting of a re-edited version of the popular Japanese series Space Battleship Yamato, this Americanized version combined ambitious battle sequences and complex characters to introduce Western audiences to the genre of Japanese anime.

The year is 2199 and the earth’s surface is no longer inhabitable, the result of a bombardment of nuclear weapons from the planet’s main enemy, the residents of the distant world of Gamilon. Protecting what remained of Earth from the Gamilons and their evil leader Desslock were the brave members of Star Force. When the team received a message from Queen Starsha, leader of the planet Iscandar, she offered to help with the Earth’s dire situation by providing a machine that would rid the planet of the deadly contamination. There was only one catch – the team had only one year to pick up the machine at Iscandar and get back to their home or all hope for a recovery would be lost.

To help meet this objective, the Queen provided plans to help the earthlings build a mighty “Wave Motion Engine” that would allow them to make the lengthy journey. The underground-dwelling earthlings attached the engine to a rebuilt WWII Japanese battleship, the Yamoto, and transformed it into a formidable spacecraft (its name was eventually changed to “Argo”.) Manning the spacecraft were Captain Avatar, first officer Derek Wildstar, operations officer Mark venture, medical officer, Dr. Sane and radar expert, Nova, who was in love with Wildstar. A cyborg mechanic named Sandor kept all systems running smoothly and the robot, IQ-9 provided the obligatory comic relief.

Debuting on American television in 1979 (five years after the Japanese version,) Starblazers ran for an impressive 78 episodes before going off the air in 1984. A live-action feature film based on the series was considered in the mid-90s by the Walt Disney Company, but eventually shelved indefinitely. Fans of this early American introduction into Japanese anime remain hopeful, however, that they will one day see the heroes of Star Force get their big-screen opportunity. Until then, the entire series is available on DVD.