- Disamb.
- Old Series
- Remake
The Andromeda (AAA-0001-2202), later Andromeda Kai (ZZZ-0001 YF-2203), was a United Nations Cosmo Navy Advanced Ability Armament space battleship launched in December 2202 as the first ship of the Andromeda-class of warships. Commanded by Captain Osamu Yamanami, the ship became a technologically superior rival to the older Yamato. Andromeda took severe damage at the Battle of Saturn, but was rebuilt and rejoined the ongoing Gatlantis Campaign in a strike against the heart of the Gatlantis Empire.
History[]
Entering Service[]
Andromeda after firing its dispersal wave motion gun at Gatlantis forces.
Andromeda first engaged in combat during the 8th Floating Continent Recapture Operation, a joint operation between the UN Cosmo Navy and the Imperial Garmillas Astro Fleet to recapture territory from Gatlantis forces. After conventional forces began to suffer heavy losses, the joint command called in Andromeda to counterattack. "Plan A" was activated, and surviving UNCN and Garmillan ships were ordered to stand aside as Andromeda entered the site of battle and fired its dual wave motion gun. The beam blasted directly through an orbiting moon and continued into the atmosphere of its parent planet, where it broke into a dispersal pattern that obliterated all but one of the Gatlantis vessels and the remains of the conquered floating continent. The battle appeared to have been won, but at the cost of revealing that the Earth Federation had broken its treaty with Iscandar to never develop wave motion weapons.
Andromeda attempted to intercept the last surviving Gatlantean ship as it powered up and began an attack run against Earth, but it could not catch the ship before it warped away, leaving it to eventually be destroyed by the space battleship Yamato.[1]
On the night of December 8, 2202, days after the battle and hours after the celebratory launch of four other vessels of its class, Andromeda's hull was illuminated for a slow flyover of the Earth Federation capital city.[7]
Pursuing Yamato[]
Yamato and Andromeda collide.
Some time later, Andromeda participated in a fleet fire exercise at the Lagrangian point near Jupiter[8] along with four other ships of its class and fourteen Dreadnought-class Vanguard Starship. Andromeda received word that Yamato's former crew had gone rogue and embarked on a mission without orders, and left the exercise formation to pursue the older battleship alone. After finding Yamato in an asteroid field, Captain Yamanami ordered Yamato to return to Earth, and its commanding officer refused. Yamanami ordered Andromeda to open fire, but Yamato was able to deflect most of Andromeda's intense weapons volley. The two warships moved into point blank range with wave motion shields activated and continued on a collision course until Andromeda's bow directly hit its opponent's. The shields safely but violently absorbed the impact until the ships nudged each other aside and began to scrape along their port sides. Yamato escaped once it was clear, but Yamanami declined to take Andromeda in pursuit. The chase was officially terminated moments later when Earth Federation Defense Force Commander Heikuro Todo informed the captains that Yamato's mission had been retroactively authorized.[9]
The Battle of Saturn[]
The wounded Andromeda is saved as Apollo Norm falls behind.
Andromeda joined other ships of its class and hundreds of UNCN vessels in combat against a massive Gatlantis fleet at the Battle of Saturn in early May 2202. After beating back the invading fleet, Andromeda and the remaining Cosmo Navy ships collectively fired their wave motion guns at the Ark of Destruction, Gatlantis' planet-sized mobile battle fortress, but inflicted only superficial damage. The enemy counter-attack ripped through Andromeda's bow section and weakened its engines. Only an accidental collision with Apollo Norm and a rocket boost from the other ship that ultimately led to its own end saved Andromeda from being captured by the Ark's gravitational pull.[10][11]
Andromeda reborn and sacrificed[]
Making its way to the secret warship factory set up inside a time fault on Earth on May 11,[12] Andromeda was repaired and heavily modified to operate almost entirely under the control of a new artificial intelligence system and a single human crew member as captain. It was originally planned to be fully autonomous, but Captain Yamanami feared that full automatization would reduce Andromeda's effectiveness. The ship was equipped with a large number of high-mobility nozzles to give it greater mobility, forcing its only crew member to wear a reinforced spacesuit to endure the G forces. Additionally, the twin wave motion gun muzzles were updated to a quadruple spread design using the same energy jet splitter rectifier plate as the Dreadnought-class. With automated Dreadnought-classes mounted to the port and starboard sides for even greater speed and maneuverability, a hull painted to match the blue and red colors of Yamato, and a new registry number, Captain Yamanami took Andromeda Kai back into battle as the flagship of the new AI-operated Andromeda Fleet YF 2203.[13][14][15]
Andromeda leading the assault against the Ark of Destruction.
In the vicinity of Mars, Andromeda and its fleet re-engaged the Gatlantean invasion force. A single Eater I fired at Andromeda sliced the top off the battleship's bridge tower, exposing the main bridge to space but not slowing the ship or harming Yamanami, who was protected by an armored spacesuit. Andromeda and the surviving fleet penetrated the outer defenses of the Ark of Destruction and fired their wave motion guns directly at the central citadel controlling it, and later fired again at the Ark's gravitational core alongside the experimental warship Ginga. Near the end of the battle, it fired its rocket anchors into Yamato and towed it away from the destruction of a planetoid inside the Ark. Andromeda had overtaxed its capacity, and internal explosions tore it apart section by section until it plunged into a cloud bank and was consumed by one final blast. The bridge crew of Yamato feared that Andromeda's captain had been lost, until a fighter rose from the clouds toward space, with a battered and bloodied but living Yamanami clinging to its cockpit canopy.[4]
Gallery[]
Behind the scenes[]
In the initial proposal for Space Battleship Yamato 2202 by Harutoshi Fukui a new character called Kondo was scheduled to appear as Andromeda's captain. However, screenwriter Hideki Oka suggested it would be better to deepen existing characters instead of creating new ones, and since Yamanami would eventually become captain of the Yamato, he felt it would be good to foreshadow this by making him captain of Andromeda.[16]
In the original script, Andromeda Kai did not exist. In this version, Andromeda returned to the front after completing repairs at the time fault in the 20th episode, fighting alongside Ginga and the Burrell fleet, and in the 21st episode, it faced off against the Comet City Empire and was severely damaged. After the crew members left the ship, Yamanami stayed behind and discovered Yamato. He would lead the Andromeda alone in an effort to save the battleship.[17]
While the official setting confirms that Andromeda Kai is simply a renovated version of the Andromeda, deputy director Makoto Kobayashi stated on his twitter that the battleship was a prototype ship that received the name "Andromeda" after the original had ben scrapped.[18] Kobayashi claimed that the setting had been changed by someone, later identified as a staff member of Space Battleship Yamato 2199, without his knowledge when the official website for Star Blazers 2202 was updated to include an entry on the Andromeda Kai.[19] However, during on-screen the debut of the Andromeda Kai, Yamanami treats it as if it was the original Andromeda.[15]
A note written by Kobayashi in the Document Andromeda 2202 DX confirms this isn't an official setting.[8]
Notes[]
- The "ZZZ" in Andromeda Kai's designation stands for "Zero-Zero-Zero".[20]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "AD 2202 - Revive, Space Battleship Yamato"
- ↑ Trajectory of YAMATO official 2024 calendar
- ↑ Andromeda DX book
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Escape from the Nightmare!"
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 Yamato 2202 mecha files
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Andromeda class taken from Hachette Collections Japan magazine
- ↑ "Tension – Reach the Embassy on the Moon"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Document Andromeda 2202 DX
- ↑ "Clash! Yamato vs. Andromeda"
- ↑ "Battle off the Coast of Saturn - Gather the Wave Motion Gun Fleet!"
- ↑ "Yamato in Crisis - The Devil's Alternative Once More"
- ↑ Trajectory of YAMATO 2024 official calendar
- ↑ Andromeda class taken from Hachette Collection Magazine Japan
- ↑ Official Space Battleship Yamato 2202 website data on the rebuilt Andromeda
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Gatlantis, the Cursed Children"
- ↑ Chapter 3 “Pure Love Edition” Nobuyoshi Habara x Harutoshi Fukui x Hideki Oka Discussion
- ↑ Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Complete Works Scenario Edition pp. 166, 171, 174-175
- ↑ Andromeda Yamanami Special blog post including archived tweets by Makoto Kobayashi
- ↑ Yamatodays.com post including archived tweets by Makoto Kobayashi
- ↑ Space Battleship Yamato 2202 Warriors of Love Chapter 6 Theater Pamphlet p .16
Japanese language information[]
アンドロメダ Andoromeda