An alien race known as the Gamilas has launched a nuclear attack upon earth and after five years of increased radiation the human race has been forced to go underground in order to survive. Realizing that their spaceships are no match against the Gamilas, the Japanese send their new battleship (the Yamato) off on a desperate mission to the planet Islandar to find an anti-radiation device to save the earth. Now, from what I understand this film was based upon a popular anime series and as a result there was quite a bit of storyline to pull from. Because of this massive quantity of information, the film was hard-pressed to cover all of the details necessary and character development was especially limited. This was made even more difficult due to the large amount of combat scenes. On the other hand, the special effects were quite good and kept the film humming at a fast pace. In short, although it might help to have read the books or viewed the anime films first, it isn't a requirement and as such it's a pretty good science-fiction film in its own right.
Review of Space Battleship Yamato
