After visiting StarBlazers.com last night, here are a few more info on the mecha to appear in the upcoming Space Battleship Yamato 2199.
To begin with, the anime itself, in contrast to the original 1974 anime, will feature three ship classes to take part in the Battle of Pluto event. While it will feature the ship classes of Okita's flaghsip (to be called Kirishima in Yamato 2199) and Mamoru Kodai's Destroyer ship Yukikaze, it will add a new ship class in the event with one of its ship units given the name "Murasame". The Murasame itself possesses the colors of the Yukikaze itself, and is identified as a cruiser with its unit number reading 707. In addition, Yamato 2199 will feature a change in ship unit numbers for Okita's flagship and the Yukikaze; although fans of the original SBY would remember Okia's ship as the 225 (from model kits designations) or as simply "Okita's Battleship", the ship itself will be identified in the new anime with a "555" marking on its hull with the Yukikaze bearing a "117" marking as opposed to the "17" marking from the original SBY.
As for Gamilus mecha, the three variations of the Gamilus Destroyer model featured in the original SBY are also given new names (but note that the designs had been slightly modified for this new anime): "Dest(o)ria-Class Heavy Cruiser" refers to the Standard-Type Gamilus Destroyer (or Exterminator-Class Destroyer), "Kelkapia-Class High Speed Battle Cruiser" refers to the Gamilus Hig Speed Cruiser (or Eliminator-Class Strike Cruiser), and "Kripitera-Class Destroyer" refers to the Gamilus Missile Destroyer (or Eradicator-Class Missile Destroyer). Additionally, StarBlazers.com indicated that Issue 7 of Newtype Ace announced another new ship class to debut in Yamato 2199, the Hyzerad-Class Battleship. As for the Battleship commanded by Colonel Shultz in the original SBY (once identified as a "Conqueror-Class Battleship" or "S-Type Battleship"), it will be designated in Yamato 2199 as a Gaiderol-Class Battleship. The Gamilus High Speed Carrier (or Vindictive-Class Carrier) is now known as the Polmeria-Class Atmospheric Attack Carrier.
As for the Yamato itself, the new anime will portray it as a separate entity from the WWII battleship with the same name as a opposed to being a reconstruct of it. However, the ship's construction site in Yamato 2199, according to the anime's director Yutaka Izubichi, will appear identical to the WWII Yamato. I'm guessing this story change about the spaceship's nature maybe for the sake of historical reference accuracy since there are no remains of the WWII battleship Yamato in the ocean where it sank in real life, even though Space Battleship Yamato is only fiction. And now thinking about the Yamato being a seperate entity from that WWII ship in the new anime, it sounds like Yamato 2199 is indeed making a nod to Eiichi Yamamoto's draft work on the original SBY series except that the Yamato will still resemble its WWII predesscor, unlike in the case of Yamamoto's drafting (which illustrated space battleship Yamato itself without resemblance to that historical ship). Plus, Yamato 2199 bumbped up the ship's crew size to 999 people.
That's all the new info you need to know about what to expect from Space Battleship Yamato 2199
5:56 PM Canada EST
