Captain Harlock(キャプテン・ハーロック,Kyaputen Hārokku,also known as "Captain Herlock" in the English release ofEndless Odysseyand some Japanese materials)is a fictional character and the protagonist of theSpace Pirate Captain Harlockmangaseries created byLeiji Matsumoto.
Harlock is the archetypicalRomantic hero,aspace piratewith an individualist philosophy of life. He is as noble as he is taciturn, rebellious,stoicallyfighting against totalitarian regimes, whether they be Earth-born or alien.[citation needed]In his own words, he "fight[s] for no one's sake... only for something deep in [his] heart". He does not fear death, and is sometimes seen wearing clothing with the number 42 on it.[citation needed]In Japanese culture, the number 42 is associated with death (the numbers, pronounced separately as "four two", sound like the word "shini" —meaning "dying/death" ).[2]He is a descendant of the Harlock clan, an ancient Germanic clan of pirate-knights based inHeiligenstadt.
The character was created by Leiji Matsumoto in 1977 and popularized in the 1978 television seriesSpace Pirate Captain Harlock.[3]Since then, the character has appeared in numerous animated television series and films, the latest of which is 2013'sSpace Pirate Captain Harlock.
History
editThough there are slight variations in each telling of Harlock's story, the essentials remain the same. Matsumoto presents a future (2977 AD) in which the Earth has achieved a vast starfaring civilization, but is slowly and steadily succumbing to ennui or despair, often due to defeat and subjugation by a foreign invader. Rising against the general apathy, Harlock denies defeat and leads an outlaw crew aboard his starshipArcadiato undertake daring raids against Earth's oppressors. Even though they have defeated Earth and devastated its peoples, the invaders are often presented in a sympathetic light, being shown as having some justification for their actions.
Space Pirate Captain Harlock(1978 TV series)
editInSpace Pirate Captain Harlock,the Captain's crew included the mysterious, alcohol-imbibing alien woman Miime, a robot, and a drunken doctor. The series presented a story arc in which a huge black metal sphere strikes Tokyo and ancientMayanlegends appear to be walking the Earth again. The invaders turn out to be the Mazone, a race of plant-based women who explored Earth in the mythic past and are now back to reclaim it. Only Harlock and his mismatched crew are brave and capable enough to face the enemy.
Captain Harlock – Mystery of the Arcadia
editThis 1978 short film is ostensibly a retelling of episode 13 of the 1978 series, "The Witch's Ocean Castle of Death". It consists primarily of recycled footage taken from this same episode, but presented in widescreen format. Some new alternate footage is added at the beginning of the story, and some soundtrack adjustments were made throughout.
Arcadia of My Youth
editTheArcadia of My Youthfeature film was released on July 28, 1982. The film, set in a differentcontinuityfrom the original TV series, chronicles Harlock's beginnings as a space pirate and his acquisition of the spaceshipArcadia.The film also includes flashback material dealing with two of his 20th-century ancestors.
Endless Orbit SSX
editArcadia of My Youthwas followed by 22 episodes of the TV seriesEndless Orbit SSXstarting in October 1982. Its official French title is simplyAlbator,although it early became popular among French speakers asAlbator 84since it was first aired in France as of 1984 and the 1978 series had been formerly named in French exactly the same:Albator.The series dealt with Harlock and company's continuing struggle against the Illumidas occupying force, who still retained control of Earth at the end of the theatrical feature. Both film (Arcadia of My Youth) and second series (Endless Orbit SSX) feature a newly designed starship and lack most of the crew from theSpace Pirateseries, but are noteworthy for the presence ofEmeraldas,a female counterpart to Harlock who originally appeared in a series of Matsumoto-penned graphic novels.
Harlock Saga
editIn the 1990s, Matsumoto releasedHarlock Saga,a mini-series based onDas Rheingold.The series recasts the Captain and his crew in roles with analogues inThe Ring Cycleand pits them against a race of "gods" set on redesigning the universe to their liking.
Gun Frontier
editGun Frontier,abuddy comedyset in theAmerican Old West,began broadcasting inTV Tokyoon March 28, 2002. The series follows Franklin Harlock Jr. and Tochiro Ōyama as they search for a lost clan of Japanese immigrants. In contrast to other works, Harlock appears here as Tochiro's sidekick.
Endless Odyssey
editDecember 2002 saw the release ofSpace Pirate Captain Harlock: The Endless Odyssey,[4]directed byRintaro.
The story is set after the original TV series, with Harlock on a self-imposed exile and his crew either in jail or flying under theJolly Roger.The series details Harlock's return and his round-up of theArcadiacrew for a fight against the Noo, a mysterious and ancient evil which has caused the Earth to disappear, and who use fear to conquer their foes. As nearly every part of this series is geared to be a sequel to the originalCaptain HarlockTV series,Endless Odysseyreintroduces Tadashi Daiba to theArcadia.
Space Pirate Captain Harlock(2013 film)
editToei Animationproduced a film adaptation of the manga in 2013, titledSpace Pirate Captain Harlock.Toei developed the pilot for its planned computer-graphics remake ofSpace Pirate Captain Harlockmangaandanimefranchise in 2010.Mobile Suit GundamUC author Harutoshi Fukui,AppleseeddirectorShinji Aramaki,Appleseedmechanical designer Atsushi Takeuchi, andNinja Scrollcharacter designerYutaka Minowaworked on the newSpace Pirate Captain Harlockpilot withMarza Animation Planet(formerly known asSega SammyVisual Entertainment).[5]The official trailer/pilot was aired at the Kawaii-Kon Anime festival in Hawaii on April 17 of the same year, as a special presentation courtesy of director Shinji Aramaki. The film has the highest production budget ever at the equivalent of over 30 million U.S. dollars.[6][7]
The film premiered in Japan on September 7, 2013. The film also premiered onNetflixunder the titleHarlock: Space Piratewith Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish audio and with English, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles, with some scenes cut from some versions.[8][9]
Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage
editIn August 2014, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his debut, Matsumoto launched the mangaCaptain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage,illustrated by Kōichi Shimahoshi, in the pages ofAkita Shoten'sChampion Redmagazine.[10]Dimensional Voyageis a retelling of the original 1978Space Pirate Captain Harlockmanga.
Reception and cultural impact
editHarlock has achieved notable popularity. In 1979, the character won the first annualAnime Grand Prixfor favorite character.[11]In 2006, Harlock and the characters ofGalaxy Express 999were recognized in the third set of "Anime Heroes and Heroines" stamps.[12]Harlock was ranked fourth in Mania Entertainment's 10 Most Iconic Anime Heroes written by Thomas Zoth who commented that "as befitting his archetype status, Harlock has inspired many other manga and anime characters with his strong, stoic appearance and manner".[13]
Several anime and manga characters have been, in some way, inspired by Matsumoto's creation.Naoko Takeuchidrew inspiration from Harlock's stoic qualities ( "strong, silent, unshakeable" ) when designing the character ofTuxedo Mask,[14]whileLast Exile'sAlex Rowwas modeled after the Captain.[15]His basic character design is even thought to be a source of inspiration forOsamu Tezuka's manga characterBlack Jack.A parody of Harlock also appears inProject A-ko.[citation needed]
Adaptations in other media
edit- In France, where the anime was very popular, but renamed "Albator" to avoid mix-ups withCaptain Haddock,in the early 1980s, a local comic series inalbumformat was produced by writer Claude Moliterni and anonymous artists of Studio Five Stars.
- Eternity Comics,an imprint ofMalibu Comics,produced an American comic book series based onCaptain Harlock.It was written by Robert W. Gibson and illustrated byBen Dunnand Tim Eldred. The storyline allegedly started two years after the events inArcadia of My Youthbut ignores the events inEndless Road SSXwhile still borrowing elements from them. The comics discontinued in 1992 after it was discovered that Malibu did not have the rights to useCaptain Harlock.Reportedly, the alleged representative for the rights toHarlockwith whom Malibu exchanged money turned out to be fraudulent and was in no way connected to the rights holders.
- In April 2008, Eight Peaks, aSouth Koreanproduction company, announced that it had signed a joint production contract with Japan's Genome Entertainment to produce alive-actionfilm based on Captain Harlock. Original creator Leiji Matsumoto expressed concern with the project, as neither company had approached him for consent to make the film.[16]
Other appearances
edit- Captain Harlock, or characters indistinguishable from him, have made frequent "unbilled cameo" appearances in many other works of Leiji Matsumoto, includingGalaxy Express 999,Queen Emeraldas,andGalaxy Railwaysas the joker in a deck of playing cards.
- Captain Harlock was originally intended to appear inSpace Battleship Yamatoduring their return voyage from Iscandar. The idea was dropped for a number of reasons which probably included the fact that the rights toYamatowere at the time owned by executive producerYoshinobu Nishizaki.This idea evolved into simply findingMamoru Kodai(Alex Wildstar) alive on Iscandar. The idea was still used later in aYamatomanga by Matsumoto where Yamato later encounters Mamoru who assumed the false identity of Captain Harlock (as revealed when hero Susumu Kodai finds a copy of aCaptain Harlockmanga among his supposedly dead brother's belongings).
- In 2001,Cosmo Warrior Zeropresented a version of the story in which Captain Zero, a human veteran of the Earth-Mechanized War, is commanded by the Machine Men, who won the war and now rule Earth, to hunt down the Space Pirate who is still resisting the invaders. This series focuses on Zero and his misfit crew as they take on the hopeless mission, fighting a more skilled enemy who also may be more justified in his actions than they are. Harlock, Tochiro and Emeraldas put in mostly supporting guest appearances, and are shown as being slightly younger than their previous incarnations.
- In theWarhammer 40,000 Roleplaytabletop games, the legendary Rogue Trader Solomon Haarlock is presumably named after Captain Harlock and Robert E. Howard'sSolomon Kane.Another member of the Haarlock Dynasty, Erasmus Haarlock, bears a number of physical similarities to Captain Harlock:The long, wild hair, a missing right eye (a cybernetic replacement rather than just an eyepatch) and scars around his left eye.
- In the episode "Space Booty" ofMegas XLR,the villain is a parody of Harlock, his name even being Warlock. He invites Coop. Kiva, and Jamie onto his ship and tries to convince Kiva to stay with him and forget about her two friends.
- Glenn Danzigwould often wear a Captain Harlock skull and crossbones T-shirt when he played inThe Misfits.
- In the cartoon seriesSteven Universe,the character Lars Barriga takes up an appearance and role inspired by Captain Harlock in the season five episode "Lars of the Stars".
- In the penultimate episode of the anime seriesMagical Project S,also known as Pretty Sammy TV, the magical girl, Pixy Misa is seen cosplaying as Captain Harlock while she was piloting NASA'sEndeavour shuttlewith a rudder as she was flying towards the Magic Kingdom of Jurailhelm, all while mimicking the famous captain.
References
edit- ^abc"Harlock Voices (Leijiverse)".behindthevoiceactors.Retrieved2022-11-15.Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^"Japanese Meaning of chết に, しに, shini".Nihongo Master.Retrieved2021-04-02.
- ^Rooney, David (2013-09-05)."Harlock: Space Pirate: Venice Review".The Hollywood Reporter.Prometheus Global Media.Retrieved2014-08-14.
- ^The word "harlock" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon "hoarlocke", meaning "one with gray hair". Both "Harlock" and "Herlock" are common translations of the Japanese name into Roman script and both have been used in both Japan and America. "Harlock" has been used more often, but some recent American releases have used the "Herlock" spelling.
- ^"Captain Harlock's New CG Pilot Images, Staff Revealed".22 October 2023.
- ^"Captain Harlock Sci-Fi Anime's Remake to Open This Fall – News".Anime News Network.2013-09-18.Retrieved2013-09-22.
- ^"『キャプテンハーロック』リメイク ánh họa で30 năm ぶりに nay thu sống lại ( tùng bổn linh sĩ ) ニュース-ORICON STYLE".Oricon.co.jp.Retrieved2013-09-22.
- ^Fowler, Matt (2014-05-23)."Harlock: Space Pirate Headed to Netflix".IGN.IGN Entertainment.Retrieved2014-09-05.
- ^"Captain Harlock CG Film Now Available on Netflix in U.S., U.K."Anime News Network.2014-08-03.Retrieved2014-09-05.
- ^"Leiji Matsumoto to Launch New Captain Harlock Manga".Anime News Network.18 July 2014.Retrieved17 May2017.
- ^"Nguyệt san アニメージュ【 công thức サイト】".Animage.jp. Archived fromthe originalon 2010-09-17.Retrieved2013-09-22.
- ^"Animation Hero and Heroine Series III:Galaxy Express 999".
- ^Zoth, Thomas (2010-01-12)."10 Most Iconic Anime Heroes".Mania.Demand Media.Archived fromthe originalon 2013-10-17.Retrieved2014-08-14.
- ^Holzer, Stefanie (July–August 1999). "Interview mit Naoko Takeuchi".AnimaniA(in German) (30).
- ^"An interview with Range Murata".The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society Miscellanea and Ephemeron. 2005-06-03. Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-03.Retrieved2008-12-08.
- ^"Matsumoto: KoreanHarlockFilm Planned Without Consent ".Anime News Network.2008-04-16.
External links
edit
- TheCaptain Harlockarchives
- Capitan Harlock (Anime Mundi),detailed production information(in Italian)
- Anime News Network