Das Arkadien meiner Jugend

In my heart, I believe this to be a great movie, for its time. The 1982 animation was acceptable, but doesn't compare to Queen Emeraldas Or Harlock Saga.

Now, on with the praise. I have grown up with Captain Harlock, under the guise of Albator (which is the French name) up here in Canada, and though I didn't see much of the series back then, Harlock stayed in the back of my mind to this day.

I own Arcadia of My Youth, and love it. Its story is very straight forward, and easy to follow. Essentially, it is to fight for your dreams and survive to enjoy them, no matter the cost.

I find the characters to be believable, such as Maya (Harlock's only love, and the Voice of Free Arcadia), because of her fragile nature and her devotion to try to save Earth from its catastrophic fate. Emeraldas a free-spirited, space-trader and Harlock's old friend, who crosses Harlock's path after she crash lands on Earth attempting a difficult passage in space. Tochiro, Harlock's new friend, a master engineer and kind of the comic relief in this movie, but not to the point of distraction. And then there is Harlock, which I identify with, because of his strong, silent presence. He is willing to do everything in his power to help his friends, just so long as they try to help themselves as well. He lives by his own personal code of honor, which echoes my own..."upon my honor, to do my duty."

He turns his back on Earth, because they decide to side with the invaders, The Illumidus, instead of fighting for its freedom, and Earth's government doesn't want any rogue elements such as Harlock's group. Harlock and company are exiled from Earth, which Harlock couldn't care less, because he doesn't want to cling to something that is dead anyway.

This movie is meant as an introduction to the characters of the Harlock series and try to make some sense of the convoluted mess that is the Matsumoto Universe, and I find it succeeds in this undertaking.

I feel this movie is worth seeing, if only to see how it all began, due to the fact that the Harlock series characters are enjoying some renewed interested in the past couple of years with the release of the Queen Emeraldas OVA and Harlock Saga OVA.

"I Live in freedom, under my flag."

As a big fan of the original Harlock television series I got this film with big expectations. It's good, dark anime that has a few confusing moments. My real problem is the departure from the storyline established in the series. It makes the film a little incoherent if you remember the show.

This film is not only a Masterpiece, it is also one of the best films ever made. Many consider Miazaki's animes as Masterpieces but I do consider - and I know I'm far from being alone - that Waga seishun no Arcadia (1982) is above Princess Mononoke and other Miazaki's masterpieces. The recent Bluray released in France as a collector edition is truly amazing, with a beautiful picture and all the cinematic grain retained. The team on this film was simply a dream team. Waga seishun no Arcadia's director,Tomaharu Komatsubata, a veteran in Japanese animation who worked on many iconic films like Star Blazers, and series like Grendizer or Galaxy Express 999, is a very underrated film director, whose work on this film is simply fabulous. Chara designer, Kazuo Komatsubara (1943-2000), was simply one of the best character designers ever and his work as animation director on this movie is one of his best achievements. Composer Toshiyuki Kimori (1947-1988) achieved a wonderful and haunting soundtrack that fits perfectly to the mood of the film. And last but not least, composer Masaki Hirao added a couple of very atmospheric - and once again haunting- songs for Maria Asahina and Shibuya Teppei. Though the series Waga seishun no Arcadia: Mugen kidô SSX (1982-83) follows the film,it's not very coherent to the mood of the film, which is quite violent and shocking at times and definitely NOT FOR CHILDREN, while the series was obviously made for a larger audience.Though quite good, the series lacks the darkness and mood of the film. Needless to say that those who love the film might be surprised. To conclude, I will simply say that Waga seishun no Arcadia is definitely the best Harlock film. And one of the best films ever.

And no film, modernized or CGIed -like in 2013-, will ever surpass it.

Never did, never will. Arcadia go, Hasshin!

The world and character building is beautiful. You can see the thought put into the uniforms, the ship designs, and the factions at play. Technologies and natural wonders have rules around their interaction, and they are never broken.

Even characters you don't suspect have unique moral values, and they all scheme and act upon those values. I can trace the through-lines of the protagonists and the antagonists, and that's the mark of a well-rounded script.

However, I must contrast this with the goofy moments, for example action scenes that are prolonged solely for melodrama. I watched this with my father, and he regarded it as one of the worst films he'd ever seen. I don't blame him. Anime from my experience seems allergic to subtlety and nuance. This film, at least in its cinematography, is hardly an exception. From characters stating what they feel at any given moment to its obnoxiously blatant WWII motifs, you might tune out if you take it scene by scene.

However, as a whole, especially if you appreciate older animation, I recommend this as a well woven tapestry of storytelling.

The second movie for the festival is another anime, albeit an older one, belonging to the 80s. I vaguely remember watching the series on television as I recall the familiarity of the pirate motif spaceship. But maybe I remembered wrong, as there are plenty of such space aged cartoons in those days, like Macross, Gundam, and the likes.

The introduction already put me off, with a really repetitive Phantom Harlock flying his red biplane and monotonous introduction of his name, over and over again. The plot takes some getting used to, with the bombastic names as we follow this rogue pilot/pirate in his quest to duel with Commander Zeda of the Illmidus alien race.

Watching this early 80s animation brings about the obvious comparisons and observation of how advanced animated movies have become. It's obviously 2-D drawings here, and plenty of details which were not possible to be included. Things like background characters having continuity presence issues (varying numbers amongst a crowd in a constant setting), and objects appearing and disappearing for the same reason that drawing by hand, takes up time, and yet draws attention to themselves. And having to draw many, well, sometimes animators do become lazy. This is most unlike today's computer generated graphics where crowd and objects are rendered with a click of the button, and possibly given some artificial intelligence along the way so that they can seem to "act" independently.

Space battles have become a dime a dozen, and watching this film today, sadly, the battles are not as exciting as it should have been, with its numerous laser cannon scenes. Some scenes were repeated by showing stock clips over and over again, and brings back fond memories of how, as a kid, you tend to see past these shortcomings, and enjoy the animation for what it is. In today's standards, this will be judged more like stemming from the indifference from the animators, and the lack of pride and professionalism.

The characters here are typical of Japanese anime, with weird coloured hairdos, and quite surprisingly, this movie loads up on the melodramatics and exaggerated dialogue. Compared with anime of today, there has been vast improvement in story pacing, setting, and character design.

While there were families and kids watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and this one, it wasn't unexpected that this anime too had its fair share of walk outs, probably because of the hard-to-grasp storyline for toddlers, or the insane need to read subtitles and then explaining to the kids what some of the imaginary words meant.

P.S. somehow the screening was marred by the speakers set to maximum volume. The dialogue and musical fanfare just got drilled through your ears into your head and probably gave everyone a splitting headache watching it. The first boo-boo for the festival, and I really hope it's the last.