Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013)

In the future, the inhabitants of planet Earth has scattered among the stars but due to overpopulation in the new colonies, there’s a mass re-immigration back to the planet. The only problem is they can’t. The ruling Gaia Sanction has declared Earth to be a sanctuary and forbids any returning humans to land on the planet. This results in a battle called the Homecoming War. A 100 years after that battle, Captain Harlock in his ship The Arcadia is the last rebel fighting against the oppressors. Picking up a new recruit in young Yama, Harlock and his crew set out to unlock the “nodes of time” which he hopes will set things in the universe back to how it was once. However, it’s no coincidence that Yama has joined the Arcadia’s crew. His older brother Ezra, a high ranking commander in the Gaia fleet has placed him there in order to find out Harlock’s plans and ultimately kill him. Will Harlock defeat the Gaia and is Earth still the blue paradise planet it once was?

From the director of the 2 Appleseed movies (Shinji Aramaki) comes this new reimagining of Leiji Matsumoto’s legendary character Captain Harlock in a CG animation movie. The impressive visuals on display hit you immediately when the movie starts (it reminded me of the Final Fantasy VII – Advent Children movie). Apparently it took nearly 5 years to complete this movie and the filmmakers used cutting edge 3D technology. It’s such a shame though that with the attention paid to the animation they couldn’t have made the same with the storyline and the characters. I felt it lacked the essence of what made the Captain Harlock series so good. Some of the plot makes no sense and the characters are nothing to how they were in the anime series/movies. If only the scriptwriters had kept things simple and not too complicated it might have worked. Whilst it may deliver on epic and exciting large scale space battles, it fails on character development and lacks any emotion. The Gaia Sanction make for a completely forgettable enemy for the Arcadia’s crew. With so many memorable villains from the anime series to choose you’d think they could have picked one of them but no, it’s obvious they wanted to create a new enemy instead. There is also a lot of talk about dark matter in the movie and that Harlock has conquered death because of it and is now immortal. Dark matter is also the infinite source of power for the Arcadia which was developed by the alien civilization Niflung. The dark matter smoke plumes which emanates from various vents in the Arcadia’s hull looks really cool in the movie. As the ship is run on this alien technology even if it is damaged in battle it regenerates automatically.

I did find it hard to really care for anybody in the movie as the characters come across as cold. The worst of all is Harlock himself – he seems to me like a completely different man. His motivations are questionable yet he has a crew that blindly follow him into any situation. That said I did like Shun Oguri voicing him. The new character of Yama is really annoying as he changes his allegiance more than once for stupid reasons (he must be one confused individual!) and I’m not sure what happens right at the end of the movie but it just seemed to me like Yama had transformed into a younger version of Harlock complete with a scar across his face and an eyepatch. It was a big minus for me not to have Emeraldas as one of the characters either.

If it wasn’t for the superb animation I probably would’ve rated this even less. This could have been a very good movie but with the messy storyline and uninteresting characters it just didn’t do anything for me at all. This movie also didn’t find favour with Japanese movie critics who gave it a thumbs down. I’m sure those who watch this having never had any exposure to Captain Harlock will enjoy it despite a lot of technobabble spoken by the characters. I was left bitterly disappointed by it all. To see Captain Harlock at his best, check out the movie Arcadia Of My Youth or the anime series instead.

Sadako’s Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

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Be Forever Yamato (1980)

The year is 2202 and the Black Nebula Galaxy Empire launches a surprise attack on Earth and totally overwhelms the planet’s defences.  To guard against any attack on their fortress HQ, they plant a huge bomb which will destroy over half the planet. Surrender is the only option available. Luckily the old crew of the Yamato manage to escape minus Yuki to an asteroid where the Yamato is hidden inside.  The Yamato heads to the Black Nebula Galaxy and the empire’s home planet in order to destroy the trigger for the bomb on Earth. Meanwhile on Earth Yuki is shot during the Yamato crew’s escape and captured by the alien commander Alphon who begins to fall in love with her. She has to become his house servant and tries to get close to him in order to feed the Earth Resistance some information on neutralising the bomb. Will the Yamato be able to make their way deep into enemy territory and pull off the impossible?

This was the 3rd theatrical Yamato movie but the 4th overall. There was a TV movie (The New Voyage) before this movie which introduced the Black Nebula Galaxy Empire. Once again Leiji Matsumoto excels himself by giving the viewer an exciting action packed space opera onboard the Yamato. I enjoyed catching up once more with the dedicated crew of the ship. There’s two parallel storylines running throughout the movie: one focuses on Yuki and her attempts to soften up Archon to gain information for the resistance and the other with the Yamato itself. It is the plot with the Yamato’s journey that I found more interesting as they discover the enemy’s home planet is exactly like Earth. The enemy disguised as human beings explain that it is Earth but 300 years into the future and the Yamato crew are shown their own demise in battle. It is obviously a trap by the enemy to confuse and demoralise the crew and they eventually find that it is indeed a ruse. Using their Wave Motion Cannon, the fake Earth is destroyed only for an even greater threat to emerge as a huge metal fortress planet Dezarium is revealed. It is only due to Sasha (a new half human half alien female character) who has taken over Yuki’s duties on the Yamato that saves the day and enables the ship to enter Dezarium, blast away at a target inside it and fly out before it explodes. I loved the battle scenes, they’re probably the best of the 3 movies I’ve seen.

There are a couple of new characters in this movie. I’ve already mentioned Sasha. The other is the new Yamato captain in Admiral Yamanoto. He’s a rather pointless character who contributes zilch to the movie. Apart from barking out orders and dying in battle that’s all he does. They should have given command of the ship to Kodai from the start although that does happen at the climactic battle.  The quality of the animation I thought had improved slightly from the previous Yamato movie I watched. Even though the running time is over 2 hours long, the exciting storyline makes sure that the viewer is always glued the movie. The animation itself is of a high standard.

Overall, this is an excellent anime from Leiji Matsumoto and Yamato fans who have come to enjoy the massive space battles and heroic figures in the previous movies will no doubt be thoroughly entertained by this movie too. I will be checking out the other Yamato anime movies that followed this one sometime in the future. Highly recommended.

No trailer for the movie I’m afraid.

Sadako’s Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

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Queen Millennia (1982)

In the year 1999, the planet of La Metalle is heading towards a disastrous near collision with the Earth as it nears a 1000 year erratic orbit around the Solar System. An inhabitant of La Metalle named Yukino Yayoi who has been given the task of overseeing the Earth and its people for 1000 years as its Queen is nearing the end of her reign where she has to hand over the task to somebody else. The Queen has disguised herself as an Earth inhabitant and is working as a teacher and a part-time assistant to an astronomer. The people of La Metalle who have been in suspended animation in their crystal city for many years wake up from their long slumber as their planet nears the Earth. Yukino is shocked when she discovers that the ruler of La Metalle has plans to conquer the Earth by creating a space bridge between the two worlds in which La Metalle’s troops will take-over the planet thereby forcing the human race to flee into space. Yukino, Professor Amamori and his nephew Hajime vow to stop the invaders. Yukino’s sister Selene is also on hand to help the trio. To complicate matters further for Yukino, the commander in charge of La Metalle’s forces in none other than her boyfriend  – Fara.  Yukino’s underground ship The Ark is deployed in a last ditch effort to stop the La Metallians? Will they succeed in their mission?

This is one of Leiji Matsumoto’s lesser known works and it is based on a long 42 episode anime series which aired in Japan during 1981/82. It wasn’t a big success for some reason. Basically the plot compresses the season long storyline into a 2 hour movie. I would say it is a prelude of sorts to Galaxy Express 999 as the main character Yukino is the mother of Maetel, the heroine of GE999. In another similarity to GE999, the story is told through the eyes of a young boy Hajime who has lost both his parents. They were both working on Yukino’s ship The Ark when a mysterious explosion killed them.  Hajime adores his beautiful blond haired teacher Yukino and there’s a hint that it is more than that and Hajime is secretly in love with her. The movie has a typical tragic storyline that Matsumoto likes to employ in his work.  The character of Yukino takes centre stage in the movie in which she tries to hide her true identity from Professor Amamori and Hajime whilst trying to plead with her sister Selene and her assistant Yamori to what the extent of La Metalle’s plans for Earth is going to be. I’m sure most people will get a feeling of deja-vu with the 2 main characters. Yukino and Hajime apart from wearing different costumes more or less look like Maetel and Tetsuo. I’m not sure why Matsumoto has made Professor Amamori’s head and features look so odd. It’s almost like he’s Homer Simpson!!

I might be in the minority here but Leiji Matsumoto is right up there with Hayao Miyazaki when it comes to epic anime movies. I’ve never seen a bad movie yet from Matsumoto and this story is another brilliant and exciting space opera. There is one devastating sequence which shows a seeing a city being pummelled when La Metalle launches fiery meteors as its first line of attack with Hajime searching desperately for Yukino amongst the ruins of her badly damaged apartment in a skyscraper. Earth forces respond back by using old tanks, giant catapults and WWII planes to hit the enemy. There’s also the awesome sight of seeing Yukino’s circular shaped The Ark spaceship rising from the surface of the Earth for the first time.  It’s like a chunk of the Earth’s surface disappearing off the face of the planet! There’s also plenty of drama and tears in the story especially towards the end as Yukino bravely sacrifices herself to save the planet she loves and the old dead Queens who oversaw the Earth centuries ago with their effigies lining up on the walls with a glowing green flame containing their souls on a long corridor inside The Ark coming back to life to help Yukino. It’s quite an emotional climax as Hajime says goodbye to Yukino as her coffin is escorted to an awaiting ship in the sky to whisk her body out to deep space. A lot of the plot is Earth based rather than being set in deep space and although there are several battle scenes I didn’t feel it had a sense of grandeur as the ones in the Space Battleship Yamato movies.

Undoubtedly another big reason why I love this anime movie so much is the superb evocative soundtrack by New Age composer Kitaro.  It suits the spectacular storyline very well and the end song Star Sky Angel Queen which is sung in English by American singer Neil Sedaka’s daughter Dara is excellent. This is yet another soundtrack I’ll be trying to buy in the near future!!

Once again I’m giving this epic Leiji Matsumoto movie the maximum rating. It gave me a superb moving plot with characters I cared about.  I’m sure this will appeal to Matsumoto fans but this movie is very hard to find at the moment (I think it’s only available in Japan). It’s a shame that no distributor in the West has given it the proper DVD release it deserves as I’m sure old school anime fans would love it. Highly recommended.

Sadako’s Rating: 5 stars out of 5

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Farewell Space Battleship Yamato (1978)

A deadly comet hiding the fortified city of the Comet Empire is heading to Earth wiping out entire planets in its wake and nothing it seems can stop it. The Space Battleship Yamato has been mothballed after their last encounter with the Gamilus Empire which ended with the ship’s captain dying. The latest ship in the Earth Defence Force fleet the Andromeda is only on a test flight out in space and unready for combat action. The deputy Captain of the Yamato – Kodai reassembles the old crew plus a group of pilots called The Cosmic Tigers to join him on a secret mission to intercept the comet. He blatantly disregards orders from his superiors not to take the ship out. An old enemy thought to be dead and now aligned with the Comet Empire distract the crew of the Yamato leaving the Comet Empire unchallenged as they enter the Solar System. A final stand between the Earth Forces and the Comet Empire ends in defeat.  Now only the Yamato can stop the enemy from destroying the Earth but can the Yamato with it’s wave gun stop the relentless Comet Empire?

Space Battleship Yamato is probably the most popular of all the franchises in the Leiji Matsumoto universe. It was shown over in the West specifically the US as Star Blazers. To my knowledge I don’t think it ever came to UK shores, well not to TV screens at least. Since the 70’s there has been numerous anime series, several movies and in 2010 a live-action movie which I had the pleasure of watching in Japan. The Yamato ship itself holds an iconic status in the hearts and minds of the Japanese people probably due to the fact that in the Pacific War the ship took on the might of the US Navy alone in a futile fight off Okinawa. It was sunk with a heavy loss of life. It was deemed to be a suicide mission. This movie is the 2nd out of 5 and is a little bit different from the anime series as it has a darker storyline which sees many characters sacrificing their lives and the climax has an ambiguous ending which leaves the viewer assuming the Yamato has been destroyed. It was meant to end the Space Battleship Yamato saga but due to the popularity of the movie and with Japanese audiences eager for more adventures this movie doesn’t exist in the series’ continuity at all. This was the only way possible for them to carry on with the franchise. Basically this means that this movie is seen as something that is happening in an alternate timeline and has nothing at all to do with the anime series otherwise it would make no sense.

I found this to be quite an emotionally charged anime movie thanks to the storyline and heroism of the characters. Leiji Matsumoto is a master at creating an epic space opera and it is hard not to get involved in the story. There are plenty of rousing and exciting space battles for your enjoyment with the addition of Desslar, an enemy of the Yamato who was thought to have died during their war with the Gamilus Empire. Having been saved by the Comet Empire, he is now aligned with them seeking revenge. There’s a personal battle going on between Desslar and Kodai but even Desslar shows he is wiser and more forgiving in this movie even when he’s the last of his kind. He turns his back on his new allies and does the right thing in giving Kodai the information he requires to defeat the Comet Empire before sacrificing himself. What I found really good about the story is even when you think the Comet Empire is down and out, back they come again to take on the Yamato. The Yamato has to defeat them 3 times – first as a large comet then as a large city and finally as a massive battleship. The sad climax sees Kodai order the remaining crew off the ship and with his deceased girlfriend Yuki at his side and the ghosts of crewmembers who have perished he steers the Yamato straight into the heart of the Comet Empire battleship. It’s such a powerful and brutal ending which really hits you in the gut. It can be said that the plot of the movie follows the real life final mission of the Yamato with the ship being destroyed for a noble cause in saving millions of people on Earth.

Words can’t tell you how much I loved this movie – it’s a masterpiece by Matsumoto which is well written. Even though it’s quite a long movie at nearly 2 and half hours the time just flew by. The animation might look dated but that’s just a minor gripe and the unforgettable soundtrack is just excellent. I wanted to see more and didn’t want the movie to end. Now I will have to seek out the 3rd movie to get more of my Yamato fix!! Highly recommended for fans of classic anime.

No trailer I’m afraid but there is this montage of classic Yamato clips.

Sadako’s Rating: 5 stars out of 5

 

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