Harlock: Space Pirate

The irony is that Harlock dates back to the early 80's and was written and drawn by the same people as Yamato and such. So its not too much of a coincidence and many things named came decades after Harlock. (Look up Arcadia of my youth)

It also reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Phantom. What it didn't remind me of, regrettably, was the original Captain Harlock. It's safe to say Joss Whedon didn't look to Harlock for inspiration for Firefly (try the British sci-fi series Blake's 7 for that), because the Harlock cartoons were nothing like this. Harlock was not some unkillable superhuman, he was just a man notable for his principles, none of which can be found in this version. The character used to be a man of honor and conviction, an idealist who would never give in to despair in the bleakest of circumstances. Now he's some bitter shell of a man who's so broken by his failure that he'd rather see the whole universe destroyed than go on as it is, making him basically the biggest psychopath in all fiction. Other characters such as Kei and Yattaran are visually recognizable but otherwise have pretty much nothing in common with their original counterparts. If you've never seen any old Harlock, you might enjoy the film for what it is, but for me it just discards everything that made the old stories great. If you want to find out about those, I recommend you go here:

http://www.cornponeflicks.org/harlock/harlockmain.html



-There is no such word as "alot."