In a distant corner of the galaxy, the Illumidas rule
over Human Colonies with an iron fist.
But one man has broken the bonds that held him and risen to become a
legend. That man is Captain
Harlock. Aboard his vessel, the Arcadia,
Harlock and his comrades traverse the stars operating as Pirates, striking and
plundering Illumidas held worlds across the cosmos, hoping to liberate Humanity
from their grip. It wont be an easy
journey as the Illumidas are so desperate to stop Harlock that they’ll offer
the greatest reward for his capture.
Driven by the promise of freedom, Harlock wont let any threat stand in
his way.
Ah, Captain Harlock.
Even though he only pops through the Anime Corner every once in a while,
I’m always excited to look at one of this adventures, for a review or a First
Impression.
The guy is practically Anime
royalty because of his look, his bad ass way of doing things, his ship, heck
Harlock is a staple of an age of Anime long since gone and yet people are still
wondering who he is and why he’s such a big deal.
Me, I’m just happy to give him some
spotlighting when I can.
Which brings us
to todays FIF, our look at the TV Series sequel to one of my favorite Harlock
stories, Arcadia of my Youth.
So how
does this new adventure begin and might I be continuing it down the line?
A good chunk of the episode rightfully goes to recapping
the Arcadia of my Youth movie.
It’s a
good reminder of how epic and awesome that movie is and if you haven’t had a
chance to see it, I highly recommend it.
Or, if youre short on time, you can check out my review from a few years
ago (Link).
Afterwards, we get
introduced to our standard Leiji Matsumoto protagonist (who isn’t Harlock or a
girl), Tadashi Monono.
I guess since the
works of Matsumoto are only loosely connected, he can always get away with
creating a character like Tadashi even if he bears a striking resemblance to
Tetsuro from Galaxy Express 999 or Tadashi Daiba from Harlock Saga and serves
the same kind of role as Logan from Shinji Aramako’s Harlock: Space Pirate
Movie.
He’s young, impulsive and
stubborn but is quickly scooped up by Harlock to join his crew.
Chances are he’s the audiences purview into
the world of Harlock…though why is that needed when the Arcadia of my Youth
Movie proves Harlock doesn’t need that kind of character around since he can be
a compelling lead all by himself?
As for the titular Captain, Harlock’s entrance into this series is nothing
short of his typical bad ass nature: just walking around in the desert casting
a wide shadow. He’s become a bit more of
a legend now since the events of the movie and man does it make a stunning
first impression later when the Arcadia rises behind him to meet his enemies. I’ve gotta say, even after we revisit footage
from the Movie, Endless Orbit looks pretty good for its time. This came out in 1982 (more on that in a
moment) and 80’s Animation in Anime was already at a high point thanks to
Macross and the Mobile Suit Gundam Compilation Trilogy. Looking at Endless Orbit shows that Matsumoto’s
penchant for gorgeous space operas hasn’t faded and seeing the wildly
overpowered Arcadia in action never gets old.
When you see the Skull and Crossbones on the nose of that ship
coming…run.
Now, we come to the question: should I continue with this
title? Well…it’s tempting, it is. However, one thing holds me back from saying
yes…and that’s the unfortunate fate of this series. While the Arcadia of my Youth Movie was
popular enough to merit a sequel, said sequel came out just as the
aforementioned Super Dimension Fortress Macross was taking scifi Anime in a
bold new direction and Mobile Suit Gundam was starting to gain traction thanks
to the aforementioned Compilation Trilogy of Films. As a result, the Space Opera genre of Anime
pioneered by Leiji Matsumoto kind of died out for a period, beginning with the
fact that Endless Orbit SSX was cancelled after 22 episodes (out of what I
assume was a planned 42-50 episode run).
Maybe I’m jumping the gun and they had enough of a heads up to craft and
ending but something tells me otherwise.
IDK, it might not hurt to look at further as I’m a sucker for old school
scifi like this. Plus, it’s Captain
Harlock. Review or First Impression, he
is always welcome here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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