Captain
Harlock was the original libertarian space pirate, inspiring a small but hearty
band of followers, such as L. Neil Smith’s Henry
Martyn. Harlock and his crew still sail for freedom’s sake exclusively, but
he now has an apocalyptic environmental axe to grind. Leiji Matsumoto’s
brooding hero of the anime of your youth gets a motion-capture
computer-generated reboot in Shinji Aramaki’s Harlock: Space Pirate (trailer here), which releases
today on DVD.
In
the far future or long, long ago, humanity is toast. We spread like roaches
across the galaxy, until malaise and resource depletion set in. Recognizing the
end is nigh, most colonists decided they wanted to return to their spiritual
home: the Earth. Of course, the little blue planet could not sustain the
billions of prospective home-comers, so the ruling authorities revoked the
welcome mat. After the resulting Homecoming War, the Gaia Coalition emerged,
declaring the Earth off limits. However, this did not sit well with Captain Harlock
and his crew, who take every opportunity to harass Coalition ships.
Clearly,
Harlock has been quite successful at this piracy thing, considering how long he
has been at it—reportedly a century, give or take. It is his ship’s Dark Matter
engine that keeps him so young and elusive. The Arcadia is the product of alien
technology developed by the willowy, but sadly nearly extinct Juran beings. The
mysterious Mimay might just be the last of her kind. She might also be Harlock’s
mistress, but that remains ambiguous.
Ezra,
the Coalition’s wheelchair bound fleet commander is so determined to capture Harlock,
he sends his younger brother Logan on a mission to infiltrate the Arcadia. If
Harlock should happen to kill Logan instead, Ezra is pretty much okay with that
too. However, Harlock is onto Logan from the start, but he sees potential in
the lad.
Frankly,
this film represents some of the best mo-cap animation yet produced. The
figures are life-like, but not slavishly so. Indeed, they often defy physics in
the grandly cinematic action sequences. As it often the case with sf and
fantasy anime, there is a little too much cosmic swirling in the third act, but
Aramaki’s otherworldly vistas look very cool. Unfortunately, devotees of the original
series will be disappointed the libertarian-resistance-to-oppression themes are
largely back-burnered in favor of some over-population gobbledygook. (Can you
relate, Jericho fans?)
Still,
the Arcadia crew are still an appealingly colorful and dangerous lot, including
the head-turning but deadly serious Kei Yuki, as well as the slovenly but
resilient First Mate Yatteran. There is some suitably complex intrigue and
Harlock diehards might be interested to see what aspects of the series
mythology screenwriters Harutoshi Fukui and Kiyoto Takeuchi keep and what they
discard. Considering the original far-flung manga and anime reached back to the
American old west and 1930s Europe, you can hardly blame them for narrowing the
scope somewhat.
