This article is about the mutiny on Beemela 4 in Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 2199. For its counterpart on Iscandar in the original series, see Mutiny on Iscandar.
The Mutiny on Beemela 4[3], also called the Coup d'état on Beemela 4,[4] was a revolt aboard the United Nations Cosmo Navy battleship Yamato by a U.N.F. faction supporting the Izumo Plan, a United Nations project that aimed at abandoning the Earth ravaged by the Great Garmillas War.
Prelude[]
Two planet bombs hitting the Earth
In the year 2191, the United Nations entered into a devastating conflict with the alien Greater Garmillan Empire. Since the First Battle of Mars, the Garmillas began a long-range bombing of the Earth through planet bombs, which released substantial amounts of radiation and, slowly but surely, reduced the entirety of the Earth's surface to a barren radioactive desert. Left without other options, the Earthlings hid in underground cities, but radiation began leaking through the surface and infecting even their most remote strongholds. The United Nations Joint Forces were almost entirely wiped out, and experts predicted the Earth would cease to support life by the last year of the 22nd millennium.[5][6][7]
In this dire situation, the U.N.F.'s Far-East District Military Affairs Bureau drafted the Izumo Plan,[8] a project aiming at abandoning the dying planet with a handful of survivors and setting out to the stars to find a new homeworld for the Earthling race. The project moved forward, and construction began on the Yamato, the vessel chosen to carry out the evacuation. However, in 2198, the Third Princess of planet Iscandar, Yurisha Iscandar, reached the Earth and entered into contact with the UN's leadership. She informed the Earthlings that a device on her world, the Cosmo Reverse System, could make the Earth return to its original, lush state. She gifted the UN with the plans for a dimensional wave-motion engine that would allow them to send a ship to Iscandar and retrieve the CRS. Project Izumo was scrapped in favor of the Far-East District Staff Office's Program Yamato, and work began to convert Yamato into a battleship capable of superluminal travel.[2]
Lieutenant J.G. Itou effectively took command of the Izumo Plan loyalists aboard Yamato
However, some elements within the United Nations Joint Forces did not fully accept the change in policy, including the director of the Far-East District Military Affairs Bureau, General Kotetsu Serizawa. Plans were made to hijack Yamato's planned course and reactivate Project Izumo. Serizawa had his men infiltrate Yamato, primarily its security department. Two of his staunchest supporters, Lieutenant Kaoru Niimi and Lieutenant Junior Grade Shinya Itou of the intelligence department became Yamato's information officer and head of security. Chief Executive Heikuro Todo of the Far-East District, noticed the movements of the Izumo plan loyalists, so he selected the young Warrant Officer Toru Hoshina to serve as his agent aboard Yamato. Hoshina's service record was falsified and he began serving as Itou's right-hand man in the security department.[2]
Niimi tries to talk Shima into joining her efforts
Yamato took off toward Iscandar on February 11, 2199.[7][9] During the journey, Niimi and Itou began influencing the crew to abandon the Yamato plan, most notably, Niimi began staging counseling sessions with the ship's crewmembers.[10] In April, the OMCS, the technology providing Yamato with food, broke down. To resupply, the ship planned a visit to Beemela 4, a world remarkably similar to the Earth in terms of atmosphere and biosphere. The Izumo plan faction agreed to use Beemela as the stage for their uprising. Around the same time, Niimi tried to bring Lieutenant Daisuke Shima, Yamato's chief navigator, to their side, by playing into his insecurities about being able to reach Iscandar in time, given the ship's growing delay on schedule. However, Shima was intercepted by Hoshina, and the two began to secretly work together to stop the coming mutiny.[11]
The mutiny[]
On April 30,[1] Yamato's deck crew found Admiral Okita, the battleship's commanding officer, collapsed on the floor of his cabin. It was determined that Okita had suffered from the excessive stress of a previous battle and had to remain bedridden for some time. With the captain out of the picture, the Izumo Plan faction decided to strike immediately.[2]
Shima and the security department taking over the bridge
As Yamato landed on Beemela 4 and sent out a resupply team to gather the necessary resources. Niimi met in private with her superior and acting commander, executive officer Shiro Sanada, to try and convince him to abandon the Yamato Plan, but he refused. He tried to order the security department to arrest Niimi for insubordination, but instead Itou and his men captured him. Immediately, the security department and other Izumo plan-aligned crewmembers stormed and took control of several key locations throughout the ship, including the first bridge, the pilots' room, the engine room, and the captain's cabin. Niimi made an announcement over the internal radio, claiming that Okita had transferred command over to Shima due to his illness rendering him unable to fulfill his duties. With the Yamato plan falling behind schedule, Shima announced that Yamato would abandon its journey to Iscandar and return home immediately. Operations Officer Yuki Mori, who was being held hostage together with the rest of the bridge crew, protested against the takeover and threatened to turn all mutineers in for treason once they got back to the Earth. In turn, Itou claimed Mori had been hiding her own identity as Yurisha Iscandar, using an Iscandarian message device he had found in her possession as proof. Demoralized, all bridge officers were escorted to another room to be detained.[2]
Hoshina betraying Itou
As these events unfolded, Hoshina, joined by the ship's chief medical officer, paid a visit to Captain Okita, claiming they had Itou's permission for a medical check on the Admiral. At the same time, Ensign Akira Yamamoto, who had managed to sneak outside of the pilot's room through Yamato's air vents, attacked the security officers holding the bridge crew hostage. After freeing her superiors, they rushed to one of the ship's hangars to contact the resupply team and warn them of the mutiny through a plane's radio. Meanwhile, on the bridge, Itou gave the order to execute Sanada and Okita, and seeing that the resupply team's Seagull was returning to the Yamato, he told Shima to close the hangar and leave them out. The acting captain refused, causing the head of security to point his gun against him. Having had enough of Itou's violence, Niimi tackled him, and he subsequently turned his weapon against her, but she managed to give Shima enough time to draw his own gun. Itou tried to shoot Niimi but missed thanks to Hoshina storming the bridge and injuring his hand. Okita soon followed the young Warrant Officer on the bridge, and reinstated his command over Yamato.[2]
Aftermath[]
Yamato's brig is hit during the Battle of the Rainbow Star Cluster
After the waters calmed down, Hoshina reported to Okita, revealing his loyalty to Todo and the scope of his mission against the Izumo Plan faction. All mutineers were arrested, with Niimi vuluntarily turning herself in after recieving medical care for the injury sustained while confronting Itou. She would later be brought out of jail during the Battle of the Rainbow Star Cluster to help analyze an enemy weapon. Itou and one of his supporters were the only two other muteeners to survive, as Yamato's brig was hit during the same battle, killing most of the detained crew members. The two hid on the ship for the following weeks, before being caught up in the Uprising on Prison Camp 17.[2][12][13] Serizawa's career wasn't greatly affected by his part in the mutiny, and he went on to serve as deputy commander of the United Nations Cosmo Force.[14]
The Stork was used to explore planet Shambleau
Mori, who had been suffering from amnesia and had thus forgotten all memories before 2198, believed Itou's accusations about her heritage, but they were later revealed to be false once the truth behind Yurisha's disappearence came to light.[15]
In August,[16] Yamato made use of the KI-8 Stork, an air boat that had been hidden aboard the ship by the Izumo Plan faction, and whose existance was only revealed after the mutiny ended.[17]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Day count at the end of "Point of No Return"
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 "A Choice for the Future"
- ↑ A Voyage to Remember Blu-ray booklet p.4
- ↑ Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Chapter 5 Blu ray booklet p.3
- ↑ "Messenger of Iscandar"
- ↑ "A World I Once Saw"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "The Era of Space Battleship Yamato: Choice of 2202"
- ↑ Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Voyage of Remembrance Blu Ray exclusive content: Earth organization commentary
- ↑ "Toward a Sea of Stars"
- ↑ "Farewell to the Solar System"
- ↑ "Point of No Return"
- ↑ "Under a Rainbow Sun"
- ↑ "Prison Planet 17"
- ↑ "AD 2202 - Revive, Space Battleship Yamato"
- ↑ "Out of the Forest of Memory"
- ↑ Mikage Kiryu states that the events of Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (outside of the prologue and epilogue) are set one months after Yamato's take off from Iscandar, as that event is stated to take place on July 27, 2199, it can be deduced that the movie takes place in August of the same year. See Yamato 2199 timeline inconsistencies for more details
- ↑ "Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark"
Japanese language information[]
- ビーメラ 4 の反乱 Bīmera 4 no hanran (mutiny on beemela 4)
- ビーメラ4でのクーデター Bīmera 4 de no kūdetā (coup d'état on beemela 4)