Space Battleship Yamato III

Space Battleship Yamato III (also released as Star Blazers: The Bolar Wars) is a Japanese military science fiction anime from Academy Productions. It follows Be Forever Yamato and was created by Yoshinobu Nishizaki and Leiji Matsumoto. The series ran on Yomiuri TV from October 11, 1980, to March 28, 1981. Some of its story elements were later adapted into the 2024 remake Be Forever Yamato: Rebel 3199, though that film primarily adapts the 1980 Be Forever Yamato film rather than this series.

The story begins when a stray proton missile, fired during a conflict between the Galman Empire and the Bolar Federation, strikes the Sun. This accelerates nuclear fusion to dangerous levels. The Yamato and its crew are given less than a year to find a new world for humanity. Along the way, they become entangled in the Galman-Bolar war.

The Galmans are revealed to be the ancestral race of the Gamilas. After the Dark Nebula Empire destroyed the planet Gamilas, Desler and his surviving forces searched for their ancient homeland. They found Galman under the rule of the cruel, grey-skinned Bolars, liberated it, and sparked a galaxy-wide war.

The Yamato eventually catches up with Desler, who regrets that Earth has been pulled into the fighting. He sends a team of Gamilas-Galman scientists to try to restore the Sun, but their effort fails. During the mission, the Yamato rescues Ruda, the exiled queen of the hidden planet Shalbart.

Both the Galman and Bolar empires fear her influence, and peace-seeking factions within each side worship her. Both governments want her dead. This strains the fragile alliance between Earth and the Galmans, and the Bolars declare outright war on Earth.

Earth is saved when the Yamato brings Ruda to Shalbart. She gives the Earthlings a device called the Hydro-Cosmogen Gun, which can restore the Sun’s natural fusion balance. Even then, the mission succeeds only after several of the Yamato’s crew make ultimate sacrifices.