I wonder if Space Battleship Bismarck would have gone over any better?
The big swastika painted on her bow for aircraft recognition would prevent international distribution.

And she was puny, just a pocket battleship - especially compared to the Yamato and Musashi.
And the Japanese seemed to have cornered the market on giant robot/space battleship/general weirdness-in-space right now. Not that that's a bad thing - they do a darn good job at it. Live action Cowboy BeBop or Ghost In The Shell, anyone?