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nHarlock Space Pirate (2013)
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nDirector: Shinji Aramaki
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nThe universe of science fiction anime films is vast andnwondrous, I’ve been exploring it as of late, I hope you guys are enjoying mynexploration of anime films. But anyways, within anime science fiction, there’sna small niche reserved for films about space pirates. For example, today I’llnbe talking about Harlock Space Pirate, but there’s Space AdventurenCobra (1982), also about a space pirate. There’s a bunchnof other anime sci-fi films worth mentioning in case you feel the need tonexplore this type of film more, for example there’s Space Battleship Yamato (1979),nFinal Yamato (1983), and yet another one we could mention is one of my all timenfavorite anime science fiction films: Lensman: The Secret of the Lens (1984)na film that I’ll be reviewing here soon, so keep your eyes peeled. But whatnconcerns me today is this super cool animated film called Harlock Space Pirate (2013). I’d never seen the series or read the manga that it is based on,nbut there was something about the concept of a space pirate driving a giganticnspaceship that looks like a skull, that just grabbed me. There’s just somethingncool about the idea…add to that the James Cameron quote on the cover thatnreads: “This is truly an unprecedented movie. This movie is already legendary,nwith its overflowing imagination and magnificent visuals; this movie is onenthat the world has never seen before. Harlock leads the way to a world of newnideas!” and I was sold. I’m ultra happy I decided to buy this one; it’s annamazing science fiction film! Epic in every sense of the word!
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nHarlock Space Pirate (2013) is a computer animatednfilm based on the manga written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. I havennever read the manga or seen the television series that followed, so I went intonHarlock Space Pirate without any previous knowledge of the character ornits mythos. I don’t know if this is even considered a good adaptation, but ifnthe positive reviews are any indication, then it is. So what was my impression?nI was blown away! That’s my official impression! Totally blown away. Personally,nI’m not a huge fan of computer animated films, because sometimes the result cannbe cold and mechanical because sometimes the filmmakers focus so much on thenvisuals that they forget that story is equally important for a movie to work,nwhich is why we get films like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), big onnvisuals, not so big on creating characters and stories we can identify with.nWhich is one of the many things I loved about Harlock Space Pirate (2013),nit has a story that grabs you and characters you can care about. It has anheart!
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nThe story concerns Captain Harlock, a pirate that’s goingnaround the universe placing these bombs in specific points in the universe.nWhen he blows up all 100 bombs, the explosion is supposed to trigger some sortnof cataclysmic event that would send the universe back in time, to a time whennthere wasn’t an over population of planet earth, to a time when humans hadn’tndestroyed the earth beyond recognition. Of course, not everybody wants this tonhappen. The powers that be want the status quo to remain as is, so of course,nit’s the government chasing Captain Harlock through the universe, trying tonstop him from detonating the bombs. Will the corrupt Gaia Coalition stopnHarlock and his crew of space pirates from blowing up the galaxy and restartingnhumanity?
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nSo like I was saying, it’s the characters that pulled me innfirst because they are all a bunch of rebels who fly through the cosmos withnone concept on their minds: freedom! Freedom is what drives their ship; it’snthe reason why you become part of the crew, because you believe in freedom. Thenfilmmakers managed to make Captain Harlock a truly intriguing and fascinatingncharacter, at first they don’t show him much to keep you in anticipation, butnonce Captain Harlock takes over the film, let’s just say he has an intriguingnand magnetic personality, he’s a very fleshed out character. I’m sure that hasna lot to do with all the back story the character has, what with the manga andnvarious television series to back him up, well, of course Captain Harlock didn’tnend up being a cardboard cutout of a character. This is a character with a well establishednpersonality and solid motivations. He is a man who will stop at nothing untilnthings are set right for the human race! But this is only the tip of theniceberg when it comes to the story behind this film, there’s a lot of intrigue,nthere’s revenge and plots within plots. In other words, even though this filmnhas tons of style and coolness to it, it doesn’t forget to back that up withndecent story and characters.
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nWhen a film has awesome story and characters, and isnaccompanied by amazing effects and visuals, well, it makes it a perfect packagenfor me. And boy did this movie blow me away with its concepts and visuals! Inmean, here’s a film that puts a lot of effort into making things look cool,nthis movie just oozes coolness from every pore! I loved the numerous spacenbattles! Captain Harlock’s ship looks like something H.R. Giger might havendesigned, with this giant skull on the front, which at some points smashes intonother spaceships! What’s so cool about Harlock’s ship is that besides the skullnin the front, it also looks like an old pirate ship…and get this, the spaceshipnhas a healing factor! It repairs itself! From what I gather, on the cartoonnshow the spaceship looks even more like a pirate ship, with these awesome laserncannons on the side, which made it onto the movie as well. It’s just an awesomenvisual, a pirate ship shooting lasers in space, in fact, the characters in thisnmovie are so well developed that even Captain Harlock’s spaceship (called ThenArcadia) has a shroud of mystery about it, even the ship is a character on itsnown! There are scenes with hundreds of spaceships shooting lasers at each other!nSuddenly it feels like a pirate movie, but instead of cannonballs, thenspaceships shoot lasers, the result is pure eye candy!
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nFinal word is I loved this movie and the character ofnCaptain Harlock so much that I will be purchasing some of the old televisionnseries to explore this character further; this is no easy task because thisncharacter has had many incarnations throughout the years. This 2013 film wasndirected by Shinki Aramaki, the director behind most of the Appleseed computernanimated films like Appleseed (2004), Appleseed Ex Machina (2007) and mostnrecently Appleseed: Alpha (2014). But for those of you interested in exploringnthe character past, there’s been a couple of different Captain Harlock series.nThey are: Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978), The Mystery of the Arcadia (1978),nArcadia of My Youth (1982), which by the way was a feature film. It wasnfollowed by a series called Albator or Orbit Road/SSX (1982). Then came HarlocknSaga (1999) and Space Pirate Captain Harlock: The Endless Odyssey (2002). I’mnreally looking forward to seeing all of these and catching up with this excellentncharacter and the universe that surrounds him. But as far this new 2013 moviengoes, I highly recommend it to lovers of epic science fiction with an emphasisnon cool.
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nRating: 5 out of 5
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