Even at the clueless age of nine, I was aware that the culture that produced Star Blazers was considerably different than my own United States. Looking back, I see where this cultural difference was responsible for making some of the character interactions a little strange, a little distant. Nowhere did I sense this more than in the relations between Kodai and Yuki.

You might know what I mean. Do you remember those moments where the two of them were together but not necessarily close? Moments when maybe you'd be wracking your brain trying to figure out why there wasn't some intimacy?

For some reason, I found this worse in Star Blazers than in the original Yamato episodes or in the films. My hunch is that it was Japanese emotional restraint trying to translate through to an American audience without much success.