I hunted up a Star Blazers site that had some history. It appears that Star Blazers was produced in Japan in 1976 and was the most popular anime production ever made. It was brought to the U.S. in 1979. I found a lot of things very interesting on the subject. When Star Blazers was first brought to America a significant number of things were deleted from the Japanese version because of the "sensibilities" of the American audience, especially since they figured kids would be the prime audience. The list of what was deleted to some extent reads like many of the issues current Battlestar fans have between TOS and the mini, mainly the sexuality and violence.
It seems to me there is a pretty good chance that Glen Larson was aware of the success and story of Star Blazers in Japan before Battlestar Galactica went into production. To some extent TOS would appear to be an Americanized (Cold War) toned down for family audiences live action version of the Japanese show. Not a duplicate but a product of inspiration.
With the original success in Japan and Battlestar Galactica a success in America two years later in 1978 it was a no brainer to dub it in English and release it in the U.S. in 1979.
If any of this is more than coincidence Moore may be intentionally or unintentionally moving Battlestar Galactica to its original roots in a darker, more violent and sexually charged anime universe.
For perspective: There apparantly are issues between Star Blazers "purist" and fans of the later incarnations. They also have an active "Continuation" effort going on in their universe also. Issues in their continuation universe include the same thing we read about here involving who has the rights, legal/criminal issues with the original producers, and arguments among the fans about the "real" Star Blazers. Apparantly their third series is treated like our BSG1980. Most fans wished it never happened!
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