It could have made it worse sure, but Japanese goodies has always been tough to get over here in a timely fashion.
Of course, I now expect an American remake announced any day now.
Space Battleship Arizona!
I always thought if we did it we should have the three biggest battleships in history:Yamato,Arizona,and Bismarck and have them together as a fleet.
Star Blazers is what got me into anime full time as unlike American "cartoons" pretty much the whole crew of the Yamato died,hell they blew the ship up at the end-that kind of thing would leave most American comic fans going :confused
BTW for those who don't follow anime here's a heads up on the story..
Galaxy Express 999 and the Harlock series are all set in pretty much the same universe-just they take place years later,earth...hasn't done so well to put it mildly.
A few years ago Leiji Matsumoto did a new GE 999 manga and at one point you see the Arcadia and Yamato parked side by side (if I remember they built another one after the first got blown up) so that will give you an idea on how long reaching these series are.
Macross AKA Robotec is another long running series that helped make me an anime fanatic :thumbsup