This article or section is a stub. You can help Space Battleship Yamato Wiki by expanding it.
This article is based on writing previously posted to Wikipedia. You can improve it by adding more details and rephrasing content.
Mamoru Kodai (古代 守,Kodai Mamoru?): the older brother of Susumu Kodai and captain of Missile Ship 17, the Yukikaze, Mamoru sacrifices his life in the first episode to enable Okita's stricken flagship to escape the battlefield, insisting he could not face the souls of his dead comrades if he fled. In fact, it emerged his ship had crash-landed -- in one piece -- on Titan, and he had been captured alive by the Gamilus, but the ship in which he was a prisoner was stricken and crashed on Iscandar, where Queen Starsha healed him. He fell in love with his rescuer and decided to stay on Iscandar, fathering a daughter named Sasha. His Japanese given name means "to protect". He sacrificed his life in Be Forever, Yamato in order to save Heikuro Todo from execution.
The character of Mamoru Kodai was originally planned to have appeared midway through the series as a scarred space pirate under the guise of Captain Harlock. When the series' episode count was cut, these plans had to be scrapped and his storyline was quickly wrapped up with his appearance on Iscandar. However, this space pirate angle still remains in Leiji Matsumoto's Space Battleship Yamato manga. In the Leiji Matsumoto-produced Playstation 2 games, the games end with an injured Mamoru Kodai giving up command of the Yamato. When he removes his bandages he has Captain Harlock's scar, and Toshiro Oyama asks to go with Mamoru in the Yukikaze. This would seem to be setting them up to become Captain Harlock and Tochiro, perhaps in future games that never happened.
In Star Blazers the reason for Mamoru (Alex) giving Okita (Avatar) cover fire during the Battle of Pluto was different than the original dialogue. In the Star Blazers, the reasoning was that Okita's ship needed to survive because they have more men aboard.
Kanagawa, Japan, Earth[2]
