Harutoshi Fukui Is the Bridge Between Yamato and Gundam
Crossovers between Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam, two of Japan's foundational sci-fi franchises, don't happen often. This one runs through a single name. Harutoshi Fukui, chief director and series writer of REBEL 3199, also wrote the story for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, and according to Japanese anime news site Anime Anime, that connection is what made the collaboration happen.
The visual itself was drawn by Kia Asamiya (creator of Silent Möbius), who handles image drawings for REBEL 3199. It pairs the space battleship with the life-size Unicorn Gundam statue that stands in Odaiba, Tokyo's waterfront entertainment district.
Chapter 6 also puts the two machines in the same frame: the film opens with the Yamato appearing in the skies over Tokyo in 2026, and one scene in the movie shows the ship flying directly over the Odaiba statue.
A Time-Slipped Yamato Over 2026 Tokyo
Chapter 6, Aoi Meikyū (roughly "Blue Labyrinth"), opened in Japanese theaters on June 26, 2026. Its premise is a hard left turn for the series. After crossing a node in space-time, the Yamato arrives not in the future but in 2026 Tokyo, an Earth from long before the war with Gamilas, unmarked by planet bombs. If the ship sets course for Gamilas now, it could change everything that follows. That temptation, the same "history alteration" the enemy Dezarium is pursuing, opens up in front of young crew member Ryūsuke Domon (voiced by Tasuku Hatanaka).
The stakes are stark: erase the war and humanity's Dezarium-corrupted future, and the Yamato and her crew may vanish along with them. Peace, though, would remain. As the red-eyed Sasha looks on, the Yamato itself turns black.
To mark the chapter's theatrical run, Bandai Namco Filmworks has released the film's opening footage on its official YouTube channel, showing the Yamato in flight over Tokyo.
Where REBEL 3199 Sits in the Yamato Saga
REBEL 3199 is the latest entry in the remake continuity that began with Space Battleship Yamato 2199. It reworks Be Forever Yamato, the franchise's third theatrical film from 1980, into a seven-chapter, 26-episode saga with new interpretations. The title itself poses the first question: what does "3199," a thousand years on, actually mean? Animation production is handled by Satelight (Macross Delta, Symphogear), with Nobuteru Yūki on character designs and Naomichi Yamato directing under Fukui.
The human drama is escalating alongside the mystery. Yuki Mori (Houko Kuwashima) has been captured by enemy officer Alphon, while Susumu Kodai (Daisuke Ono) can't escape his own guilt, and Sasha (Megumi Han), the orphaned daughter of Starsha, is set to play a major part in what comes next.
Looking Ahead
The seventh and final chapter, Nijiiro no Rinne (roughly "Rainbow-Colored Cycle of Rebirth"), opens in Japanese theaters on October 30, 2026. Internationally, Crunchyroll has carried the remake saga as Star Blazers: Space Battleship Yamato 3199, with episode batches arriving after their Japanese theatrical windows. The Japanese coverage doesn't say when Chapter 6's episodes will reach streaming, so for now the time-slipped Tokyo sequence, Unicorn Gundam flyover included, remains a theaters-only sight in Japan.