Anime Picks Week : Captain Harlock

Hello again readers and welcome back for Day 2 of Anime Picks Week. This next write-up was at the suggestion of my dad and I have to concur this particular piece of anime covers so much in it. A dystopian timeline with humanity being nothing more than couch potatoes, minds fully at ease that their governments are tending to their every woe that all they do is recreation. No opinions are voiced, no movements are made and no one speaks up. Utopia in some minds, but for others it is viewed as a lethargic, easy target from above. Not everyone on the planet or around it are going to stand for alien invasion. This is Captain Harlock.

Snake Plisken... I hear you were dead.

Based on the manga known as Space Pirate Captain Harlock by artist Leiji Matsumoto (Submarine Super 99, The Galaxy Railways, Gun Frontier, Cosmo Warrior Zero, Queen Emeraldas and Arcadia of My Youth) comes a future of the year 2977, with vast star travel and ferrying but the planet as a whole seems to be falling into a slow but steady sense of despair. The general mood is apathy and none can be bothered to reach beyond their four walls let alone the depths of space. One man and his crew of brigands fight the governments and the alien oppressors known as the Mazone, a species of plant female humanoids that claim to have a link to Earth itself and demand it back. With the only way to be a hero to his planet is to be an outlaw, Harlock hoists the skull and crossbones as they cripple vessels, end blockades and thwart the world's new alien masters.

Harlock is not alone in his battles. The crew of the Arcadia has Daiba Tadashi, a 14 year old lad that joined the Arcadia after the death of his father by the Mazone. Chief Navigator Kayla Kerry, a young woman that scheduled for hard labor for striking the military officer that made light of her father's passing. La Mime , an alien woman who is the last of her kind, saved by Harlock she has psychic abilities and holds one of the closest bonds with the captain. Caliban, first mate to the Arcadia who is kind of the comic relief when he is not building model ship kits and blowing everyone away with his mathematical genius. Maji. The ships chief engineer managing to keep that ship in the sky. Doctor Zero, chief medical officer that is constantly bandaging the crew and snapping at the ship's cook that he points out does not offer enough vegetables and lastly Miss Masu, the curmudgeon cook who holds Doctor Zero and his cat Mi-kun in content due to their unorthodox visits to the kitchen.

Sweetie, bangs are out this season.

Earth Defense Navy and Infantry are constantly attacking the Arcadia or any of their scout ships, convinced that Harlock is the greatest threat the planet has ever known. Continuously exposing the schemes and plots of the Mazone, Earth Defense is of the belief that Harlock is merely throwing them off the scent and he is more than responsible for piracy, treasonous behavior, moral conduct and murder. Will the Mazone ever be defeated? Will Earth ever truly be free? Will Miss Masu and Doctor Zero just bump uglies on the prep table?

Quick few bits of info on this series now. The 1978 series gave you about 13 episodes that the Mazone made their way to Earth in a large sphere and appeared as ancient Mayan gods to those that saw them. While the Arcadia of My Youth shows Harlock's choices and beginnings on being a pirate and acquiring the Arcadia. This series has produced multiple manga and anime based on Harlock or his ancestors to show his family has always rocked the boat of society. Gun Frontier is an amusing series of Franklin Harlock, a gun fighter that searches for a lost clan or tribe of Japanese foreigners and even a spin-off female counterpart called Queen Emeraldas whose manga has a huge following that she also got a series and a few films as well. A computer animated film in 2013, Space Pirate Captain Harlock was released and apparently dropped 30 million into the project. Hell I am stoked to go watch it now!

Damn space floozies attacking me in my sleep.