Yamato 2199 Ep 3 Floating Continent Battle (Edit to add Pluto Battle clip links)

[Logan Darklighter]

I just saw the first two eps fansubbed.

No idea if the translation is accurate, but Captain Okita's reply to the Gamilas demand for surrender nearly killed me.

"Tell them, NUTS!"

That's pretty much dead-on accurate. And very nearly exactly what he said in the original 1974 version. I believe Star Blazers had him say "Idiots!"
In fact it may be a specific military in-joke/reference to one Brigadier General McAuliffe.
Near the end of WWII, at the Battle of The Bulge, the Germans surrounded Bastogne. Then held by elements of the 101st Airborne and other attached units. McAuliffe was in charge, and the Germans sent a formal party under flag of truce to deliver an ultimatum.
This is from Delivered From Evil, The Saga of World War II by Robert Leckie:

"The note was brought to the office command the battle in Bastogne,
Brig. Gen Anthony McAuliffe. It was read by his chief of staff, Lt.
Col. Ned D. Moore.

"What does it say, Ned?" McAuliffe asked.

"They want you to surrender."

"Aw, nuts!" McAuliffe exclaimed. Annoyed, he tried to think of a
suitably defiant and derisive reply until Lt. Col. Harry Kinnard
remarked, "That first crack you made would be hard to beat."

"What was that?"

"Nuts."

Seizing a pen, McAuliffe wrote:

To the German Commander.

NUTS!


The American Commander

My favorite bit referencing this incident is portrayed in the movie "Patton" with George C Scott. Patton is leading troops in to help break the siege at Bastogne and a subordinate comes up to him as they're traveling down the road -

Colonel Gaston Bell: General McAuliffe refused a German surrender demand. You know what he said?

Patton: What?

Colonel Gaston Bell: "Nuts!"

Patton: [laughing] Keep them moving, colonel. A man that eloquent has to be saved!

Obviously Captain Okita appreciates the classics.