15 Dark And Crazy Differences Between Star Blazer (1979) And Japanese Battleship Yamato  - Explained

For a lot of American children in 1979, Star Blazers did not feel like a normal cartoon. Many animated shows of the period followed a relatively simple structure. The heroes stopped the villain, everyone celebrated, and the following episode began with life mostly returned to normal. Star Blazers was different. Earth was dying. Radioactive planet bombs launched by the Gamilons had poisoned the surface and forced the surviving population underground. Humanity had approximately one year left before extinction. Its only hope was a desperate journey across the galaxy to the planet Iscandar, where a device called the Cosmo DNA could supposedly restore Earth. If the crew failed, the human race would disappear. Even by today’s standards, that was a remarkably dark premise for a syndicated children’s cartoon.