Background and Trivia |
- Toho submitted the movie to the US copyright office on August 9th, 1989 with the registration number of PA0000435902. The film was submitted under its international title, The War in Space, and its Romaji title, Wakusei Daisenso.
- Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka and special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano saw Star Wars in Japan in 1977, ahead of its Japanese release in 1978. Tanaka's first impression was that he wanted to make a film like it, and before Star Wars hit the Japanese market. As a result, The War in Space quickly entered production. The first draft was submitted on September 13th of 1977, and the final draft was submitted on October 12th of that year, leaving two months until the film was supposed to be released in theaters. This account is recalled by Nakano when being interviewed for a special feature on Toho's DVD release of the film.
- Was originally titled Battle in Outer Space 2 and planned as a direct sequel to Battle in Outer Space (1959). The name was changed to something that would more closely resemble Star Wars. This detail is cited in Age of the Gods (self-published), although it's unknown on the timing for this. By September 13th, 1977, when the first draft was submitted, the movie was already known by 惑星大戦争 (Wakusei Daisenso - Great Planet War). It's possible that it had the Battle in Outer Space 2 title as the first thought for the project when producer Tomoyuki Tanaka saw Star Wars, which would have been after May 25th, 1977, when it opened in the US. It's also possible that this concept existed before Tanaka saw Star Wars and, looking to capitilize on George Lucas' movie, fast tracked the idea and it was heavily adapted into something else.
- Hachiro Jinguji, 神宮寺八郎, was credited with the original outline. This was a pseudonym, though, for the writers, producers and directors who worked on the movie. The name came from the commander of the Gotengo from Atragon (1963), played by Jun Tazaki, and the credit can be found in the first draft of the script submitted on September 13th, 1977.
- Voice actor Osamu Saka dubbed Doctor Schmidt into Japanese. Similarly, voice actor Michihiro Ikemizu dubbed Jimmy into Japanese.
- Venus was selected as the location of the climax by special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano. The reason being that a planet with an atmosphere was desired, wanting to have a lot of explosions occur during the final battle. After doing research, Nakano felt that Venus would be appropriate for a location where explosions could easily occur, which ultimatly led to it being the chosen planet. This fact was recalled by Nakano himself for an interview found on Toho's DVD release of the film.
- The movie's theatrical pamphlet proclaims the production as a "super scale entertainment film" and touts that it had a ¥500,000,000 budget. The latter is a bit abnormal in its inclusion, as Toho's pamphlets rarely include details on the budget.
- Was seen by roughly a million people during its theatrical release in Japan. This information is found in Age of the Gods (self-published).
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