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How to Get Into Captain Harlock




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Codeanime93



Joined: 28 Jul 2017
Posts: 599
PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:10 pm Reply with quote
I remember a lot of people just hate 2013's Captain Harlock because he basically spoiler[wants to destroy the universe and rebirth it.] Which seems odd that Captain Harlock would be that spoiler[genocidal and acting like Gundam's Char Aznable from the CCA movie. ]
That and other character changes and basic backstory changes probably didn't endear it too much to fans of the character.
In fact some people including me would jokingly theorize from the 2013 movie that spoiler[Harlock in the movie is not the normal or real Harlock and since he hands over the mantle of the eyepatch to Yama Daiba, then Yama Daiba is the real Harlock and this was an origin movie.] I know it's ridiculous and made in jest totally to the movie.
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:49 pm Reply with quote
I was always impressed with how 'evil' he was willing to be. Like nowadays our anti-heroes will be bad and then show they did what was right and gain redemption.

I remember in the original show when they discover all the undercover Mazone lurking in society, they don some shady robes and burst into rooms and vaporize the aliens. Are they at a singing venue? At home with a lover? Harlock and his Jolly Pirates are kicking down the doors, blasting aliens, and leaving without so much as explaining a thing. There's just no attempt to court public opinion, or appeal to the authorities. Okay he does appeal to them, and when they don't help he does and does stuff himself.

Quite the man of action.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:56 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
(or when he's referenced in parodies like Project A-Ko!)


Ah, the Project A-Ko parody. Used to be, only the experts could spot it. Cool
("Can't a guy get a little drink once in a while? (hic!)")

Basically, trying to "Get into" a Matsumoto series from recent versions is almost suicidal futility.
The original 70's TV series established the canons--and the crossovers--while the movies and 90's-10's icon-revivals, like the recent Tenchi series, pretty much took the titles and ran with them. Leiji's no stickler for canon.

You probably won't be interested in the series if you start with "Arcadia of My Youth", it's more of a "prequel" for characters we all know, and roots them in a dreary story of how oppressed earth was before he left, and how Harlock first met Tochiro. If you know them already, it's memorable and theatrical-anime-classic, but I didn't back then, so it was a snore, and like a bad superhero-origin movie, we don't see Harlock in his jolly-rogers, sword and cape until the very end of the movie.

At least GE999's movie was enough of an origin/series recap to get an idea of the premise, but in both cases, to get into a Matsumoto series, there's really only one door: The front one, on the first episodes of the original 70's TV series. That's how the Japanese first got into it, and it worked for them.
And back when we had digisubs, that was how I first finally made head or tail of it.
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yamiangie



Joined: 03 Mar 2010
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:42 pm Reply with quote
The best thing is likely to just watch Galaxy Express 999 movies Harlock works best as deus ex machina. I love that first anime series myself because they were smart enough to flesh out the rest of the crew. SSX didn't even have a fun suport cast going for it everyone says it tanked because of gundam but it's just wasn't as good a product as the first show.

Codeanime93 wrote:
I remember a lot of people just hate 2013's Captain Harlock because he basically spoiler[wants to destroy the universe and rebirth it.] Which seems odd that Captain Harlock would be that spoiler[genocidal and acting like Gundam's Char Aznable from the CCA movie. ]
That and other character changes and basic backstory changes probably didn't endear it too much to fans of the character.
In fact some people including me would jokingly theorize from the 2013 movie that spoiler[Harlock in the movie is not the normal or real Harlock and since he hands over the mantle of the eyepatch to Yama Daiba, then Yama Daiba is the real Harlock and this was an origin movie.] I know it's ridiculous and made in jest totally to the movie.



I always found the 2013 do have taken Harlock in an odd direction, spoiler[ he should have never have been the one to destroy earth even if by accident.] Somehow the theme the people doing the movie wanted to express was "the older generation being regretful they've screwed up the future." Harlock should never be part of the problem, he's normally the one that sees it coming and hating the government or not fights to so that the next generation has a future.

Oh and the end of the movie was changed late in production. spoiler[Harlock was going to die and Yama take over as Harlock.] In fact if you look at the story arc and how the two have parallel history's it's clear what should have happened.

Also the guy who wrote the movie is the Gundam Unicorn guy so yeah Harlock seems a lot like Char/Full Frontal.
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Codeanime93



Joined: 28 Jul 2017
Posts: 599
PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:38 pm Reply with quote
yamiangie wrote:
The best thing is likely to just watch Galaxy Express 999 movies Harlock works best as deus ex machina. I love that first anime series myself because they were smart enough to flesh out the rest of the crew. SSX didn't even have a fun suport cast going for it everyone says it tanked because of gundam but it's just wasn't as good a product as the first show.

Codeanime93 wrote:
I remember a lot of people just hate 2013's Captain Harlock because he basically spoiler[wants to destroy the universe and rebirth it.] Which seems odd that Captain Harlock would be that spoiler[genocidal and acting like Gundam's Char Aznable from the CCA movie. ]
That and other character changes and basic backstory changes probably didn't endear it too much to fans of the character.
In fact some people including me would jokingly theorize from the 2013 movie that spoiler[Harlock in the movie is not the normal or real Harlock and since he hands over the mantle of the eyepatch to Yama Daiba, then Yama Daiba is the real Harlock and this was an origin movie.] I know it's ridiculous and made in jest totally to the movie.



I always found the 2013 do have taken Harlock in an odd direction, spoiler[ he should have never have been the one to destroy earth even if by accident.] Somehow the theme the people doing the movie wanted to express was "the older generation being regretful they've screwed up the future." Harlock should never be part of the problem, he's normally the one that sees it coming and hating the government or not fights to so that the next generation has a future.

Oh and the end of the movie was changed late in production. spoiler[Harlock was going to die and Yama take over as Harlock.] In fact if you look at the story arc and how the two have parallel history's it's clear what should have happened.

Also the guy who wrote the movie is the Gundam Unicorn guy so yeah Harlock seems a lot like Char/Full Frontal.

I always wondered why there was such a radical departure for Harlock, yeah the Endless Odyssey Harlock is pretty dark as a character but the 2013 movie literally turns him into a Char Clone.
That also makes sense as Yama seems more like a Gundam protagonist in that movie.


Last edited by Codeanime93 on Sat Aug 12, 2017 9:41 am; edited 2 times in total
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writerpatrick



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 671
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 11:52 pm Reply with quote
I expect Dimensional Voyage will be made into an anime. It seems like an obvious candidate.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4570
PostPosted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:11 am Reply with quote
All I've seen of the character was the Endless Odyssey series, which was generally entertaining even without the full context of everyone's backstories. I'd really like to see the original TV series someday.
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Codeanime93



Joined: 28 Jul 2017
Posts: 599
PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2017 2:17 am Reply with quote
Top Gun wrote:
All I've seen of the character was the Endless Odyssey series, which was generally entertaining even without the full context of everyone's backstories. I'd really like to see the original TV series someday.

The first thing I actually saw with Harlock was Galaxy Express 999 that was pretty good introduction too. He's not the main character though. I wouldn't honestly recommend the 2013 movie as a entry point for anyone or Harlock Saga. Harlock Saga was OK, just rather underwhelming.
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SilverCrono



Joined: 20 Oct 2014
Posts: 31
PostPosted: Sun Aug 13, 2017 12:48 pm Reply with quote
Anyone remember the news that Gainax was working on a new trilogy of Matsumoto films, including Harlock? Though it isn't supposed to come out until 2023 at the earliest, I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned here, even if at the end of the article - after all, "Zero Century Herlock" sounds like yet another reboot, and I''m interested in it.

I know ANN had an article on this last month, but I can't seem to find it. Another source for the curious: http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2017/07/08-1/gainax-helps-brings-leiji-matsumoto-space-opera-heroes-together-in-the-zero-century-emeraldas[/i]
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AyanamiRei



Joined: 27 Aug 2016
Posts: 87
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:57 am Reply with quote
People who start with the Aramaki movie and decide to continue based on it will be rapidly disillusioned: apart from reusing the typical "newblood" coming onboard at rhe start of a new "adventure" and the government being "bad" (though not in the same way as usual), the tone is very different. Largely "thanks" to Harlock's full reimagining, a verybad surprise for the character supposed to support the movie on his shoulders. The romantic outlaw was missing.
And those who dismissed Harlock works just because of the movie would miss things that could potentially be more for them.


About Gun Frontier, the anime who had far enough time to cover a full story, chose to end on a non-conclusive ending. And to add to the fault, it suddenly went scifi (sudden appearance of some Matsumoto SF story character) just because.
The manga while being longer (it's a "road-movie", so it's full of stops who don't affect the quest directly) has the good idea to have an END. Though I admit the wandering can get repetitive at times.
By the way, in parallel to Dimensions, this is the other Leiji Matsumoto manga who received a recent remake.

Even more out-of-continuity (if you can use this term), there was the Cosmowarrior Zero animated adaptation (the original is a videogame) where a Earth Union soldier is sent to chase an outlaw (and maybe deserter?) named Harlock. I found it decent (maybe because back when it was released in France, we had nothing else to get our hands on).
Laughing
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Codeanime93



Joined: 28 Jul 2017
Posts: 599
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 12:51 pm Reply with quote
AyanamiRei wrote:
People who start with the Aramaki movie and decide to continue based on it will be rapidly disillusioned: apart from reusing the typical "newblood" coming onboard at rhe start of a new "adventure" and the government being "bad" (though not in the same way as usual), the tone is very different. Largely "thanks" to Harlock's full reimagining, a verybad surprise for the character supposed to support the movie on his shoulders. The romantic outlaw was missing.
And those who dismissed Harlock works just because of the movie would miss things that could potentially be more for them.





They turned Harlock into a Char Clone in that movie, plain and simple. Which makes sense as someone has pointed out it was written by the Gundam Unicorn writer. Which apparently he is only good at Gundam and not Harlock as he tended to characterize Harlockspoiler[ now as a Char Aznable type extremist.]
spoiler[He might as well have started dropping space colonies.]
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rxargyros



Joined: 03 Jul 2016
Posts: 25
Location: Bear Hill, Brunei
PostPosted: Mon Aug 14, 2017 1:18 pm Reply with quote
I knew I haven't watch an anime adaptation same goes with the manga. however, I watched the movie that make an CGI animation. Almost like 6 times I watched CGI.

Sorry my english wasn't as good as others.
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