1977 - THE WAR IN SPACE, Toho's dumb but inoffensive space opera

Obviously made to get a piece of the Star Wars action, this Toho outer space spectacle borrows (steals?)  a lot from it's 1963 science fiction film Atragon about a super submarine which can fly and  fought an evil undersea kingdom called the "Mu."  In the film the super spaceship  looks a lot like the Atragon complete with the power drill head.  This ship is called the Gohten.

 As creatures from the planet Venus invade Earth and blow up lots of cities, which are lots of stock shots from other Toho films.  The Gohten goes into battle.  So we're off with some fairly decent model and animation effects as both sides blast away at each other.

 

As far as the personal stories go there is a love triangle which resolves itself when one of the group conveniently does the heroic self sacrifice thing.  In fact it's safe to say that a lot of people sacrifice themselves during this big intergalactic war. 

Yes there are a few things lifted from Star Wars particularly the plucky female lead who somehow loses her uniform and runs around in a tight short outfit.  There is also a Chewbacca like hairy creature who the crew of the Gohten have to do battle with.  The whole thing is derivative but kind of inoffensive. 

 

 Written by Shuichi Nagahara and Ryuzo Nakanishi.  The running time is 91 minutes relatively painless minutes.