Captain Harlock is the main character of two animated Japanese series by writer/artist Leiji Matsumoto. The character first surfaced in the 1972 series Captain Harlock, which ran for 42 episodes.
Matsumoto's future is dominated by an earth-based starfaring civilization that is slowly but steadily succumbing to ennui; against the general apathy rises Captain Harlock, a scarred, moody space pirate leading the misfit crew (which includes an alcohol imbibing alien, Meet, a robot and a drunken doctor) of the cyborg starship Alkadia in a number of Robin Hood-esque assaults on Earth ships. But soon more urgent matters are at hand - a huge black metal sphere impacts the Earth capital city and ancient Mayan legends appear to be walking the Earth again.
In fact, Earth is now in the sights of the Mazonese, a race of vegetal-based, Modigliani-necked women that explored our world in the mythic past and are now back to grab it. Only Harlock and his mismatched crew have the know-how and the spark to face the enemy.
Matsumoto is at his best when dealing with the vastness of space and the darkness of the human heart, and Captain Harlock provides him with plenty opportunities to ply his art. The episodes features some astute directing stunts (split-screen, flashbacks) and are excellently served by a symphonic score executed by the Tokyo Philharmonic. For all its pulpy space-opera feeling and its action, the series raises a number of issues - from the importance of challenges in the life of men to the limits of violence as a solution to both small- and large-scale problems. The outcast Harlock is well aware of the plight of the Mazonese, a refugee people fleeing a dying planet, and finds neither pleasure nor vindication in his battles nor in his final, melancholic victory. Some of the mechanical design on the series is strongly reminiscent of the first Star Wars film, even if the original Harlock manga predates the American movie. As a result, a heated debate about "who stole what" is still raging among the fans.
In 1982 the character was reprised in the animated feature film My Youth in Arkadia, designed as a prequel to the 1979 series. The movie was followed by 22 episodes of the SSX series, again set before the original 1979 storyline and describing the events leading to Harlock's exile from Earth. Both film and second series feature a newly designed starship and lack most of the original crew, but are noteworthy for the presence of Queen Emeraldas, a female counterpart to Harlock originally appearing in a series of Matsumoto-penned graphic novels (manga).
In the 1990s, Matsumoto also released a short series variously known as Harlock Saga or as The Ring of the Nibelung. Set to the music of Richard Wagner and following the Siegfried legend, the story is once again set in Harlock's earlier days, and pits him against a race of "gods" set on redesigning the universe to their liking. The series' foremost point of interest is the deployment of the whole Matsumoto cast of characters (from all his series) in various roles.
Similarly, Captain Harlock appears in "unbilled cameos" in Galaxy Express 999 and Queen Millennia.
Now twenty-five years old and showing it in many respects, the original Captain Harlock series remains probably the highest point in adventure-oriented space opera to come out of Japan.
