unknown, and it was to be revealed towards the end of the story that the Rajendorians, along with the rest of the life on their home planet, had died over a hundred years ago. The first rough draft of Yamato came towards the end of summer 1973, where the Yamato (named as such by Nishizaki) was a regular spaceship, that used a large rock as a shell, and the story was notably darker. Heavier emphasis was placed on the character's flaws, who were overall more misanthropic, and only one of them would survive until the end of the series. The production of Yamato in its conceptual stage was overseen by Eiichi Yamamoto, until 1974, when he had to leave to work on a documentary film. As a replacement, Toshio Masuda, who had worked on Tora! Tora! Tora!, was considered, but had to decline as he had other projects of his own to focus own, though he would become involved in the production of the 1977 film. The role was given to Leiji Matsumoto, who had at an earlier stage declined an offer, due to his desire to have complete creative control. Matsumoto overhauled the story, designing the titular ship after the IJN Yamato, its crew, and the Wave Motion Gun, which came from Sexaroid, an erotic comedy manga written by Matsumoto in 1968. In the earliest stages of production, Space Battleship Yamato was planned to be 52 episodes in length, before reducing this to 39, and ultimately, 26. The bulk of the cut content centered around Gamilas, who had more characters, and more complex motivations and goals. Additionally, in this earlier stage, the Yamato's battles were more closely tied to events in World War II – for example, the battle near Neptune in the first episode represented Germany circumventing the Maginot Line. The first draft for Space Battleship Yamato was completed on May 21, 1974. In August, a ten minute pilot episode was created, with at least nine copies being sent to the relevant organisations, and, after the pilot's success, pre-production of the anime began, with the first episode airing in October that year. The original series contained 26 episodes, following the Yamatos voyage out of the Milky Way and back again. A continuing story, it featured the declining health of Yamatos Captain Okita (Avatar in the Star Blazers dub), and the transformation of the brash young orphan Susumu Kodai