Die Abenteuer des phantastischen Weltraumpiraten Captain Harlock

Here is another "retro" anime series from Toei that I automatically loved after watching it on DVD. The box set just caught my eye, and as a fan of Toei Animation, I had to buy it.

This series is based on a manga that became wildly successful after the series, movies, and OVAs (original video animation) were made. The story is set in the year 2977, when, despite advances in technology and space colonialism, Earth is in a semi-dystopian state where everybody lazily goes about their entertainment, like greyhound or horse races that the planet's inept government takes part in. But there is one man who strongly disapproves of what goes on: Captain Harlock, who had become a space pirate fighting against the government along with his crew on the spaceship Arcadia. But when plant-based aliens known as the Mazone plan to invade Earth, Harlock and his crew are now the planet's only hope.

I love little Mayu Oyama. I thought she was a cute kid. For pairings, I shipped Kei Yuki and the newest member of the Arcadia, Tadashi Daiba, and I don't mean boats. I also ship Zorba the Tokargan and Lucia the Mazone nurse from episode twenty-four. So overall, I really love this series for its superb animation and sci-fi action.

This series is my favorite of all Japanese anime. It is an epic tale of freedom. Young Daiba Tadashi loses his scientist father to a mysterious assassin and winds up joining Captain Harlock and crew in there fight to protect Earth from the Mazone, a species of women bent on destroying humanity. Earth society has become corrupt and apathetic and does not see the threat it faces... so why would Captain Harlock care about Earth who has declared him an outlaw? He has promised to protect the young daughter of his best friend who died before the series begins so she can have a world to grow up in.

Like many Japanese anime TV shows this one is full of human drama, characters who face inner conflicts, adventure that spans the galaxy, and stories that entertain with each episode.

I first watched this series in the late 70s when I live in Hawaii on the local independent TV station that was mostly Japanese programming, KIKU-TV. I think another TV station, maybe the one in San Francisco did the original subtitling.

I was first attracted to Space Pirate Captain Harlock from an illustration of him included in Robotech Art 1, the program guidebook/album of the Robotech TV series. And so when the times came, I bought two of the dubbed Harlock videos from the TV series and the dubbed versions of Arcadia of My Youth (the unfortunately cut-down version from Celebrity Home Video) and the two Galaxy Express 999 movies. I'll limit my comments to the TV series tapes in this statement.

As the story begins, Earth is in a period of economic prosperity and lax morality, somewhat akin to the Roaring '20s in America. The people have become apathetic about themselves and each other--even the planet's President would rather watch the racehorses on TV than do his job.

Rebelling against this madness is Harlock, captain of the rogue battleship Arcadia, who raids the ships carrying luxury items to Earth not out of greed but as a political statement. His Jolly Roger is not a symbol of terror but of personal liberty and morals.

When the threat of extraterrestrial invasion looms, only Harlock and his 40 thieves are ready to face it--while the Earth government can only panic and blame their only savior out of their stupidity.

The animation for the show is typical for 1970s material. Some of the special effects--like the collision between two planets later on--hold up well by modern standards. But bear in mind that this series was made long before computers became a tool in the art of animation.

The dubbing job added narration that was needless (and in some cases, totally WRONG storywise), and humorous lines for comic relief that were also needless. But the flavor of the show is mostly intact, something to be grateful for.

The series spawned a feature film version, not at all related to Arcadia of My Youth. I haven't seen it, but I expect it to be the highlights of the series, the same as the initial Space Cruiser Yamato movie and the Danguard Ace movie.

The plot for this series is quite unusual and it takes a bit to warm to it. Captain Harlock is a space pirate with your usual mottley crew. The plot preaches the idea that people who follow orders live in fear and the crew of Captain Harlock follow his orders out of choice and do not live in fear. So when an extra terrestrial comes to invade the universe and erradicate earth (backed by a semi-biblical plot going back to the big-bang) and preys upon the fears of humanity, Harlock steps in fearlessly.

The animation is top quality but the characters seem eratic and poorly explained. I'm guessing that the manga offers a plot backing to this, but i haven't read that. The plot is engaging and the large faced animation style (for non-central characters) is unusual and amusing. all in all a good watch.

No plot, no character development, subpar animation, dated ubergigamegahyper sexism, I don't care if this series was influential in its days nor if it gets better on the longer run, not gonna bother anymore. Maybe the following series with the same characters were good, but this one is not. The music, on the other hand, is well done, hence the two instead of one star only. NEXT!