Anime Movie Review: Space Pirate Captain Harlock

My earliest memories of Anime are Galaxy Express 999 and Battle of the Planets (Gatchaman), I watched them as a kid but it wasn't till I was in college that I re-discovered the magic of anime and started doing a little research to find the shows I watched as a kid, I discovered the versions I saw were sadly far from the original versions....Robotech is probably the worst offender. I also discovered series I hadn't heard of like Space Battleship Yamato and Space Pirate Captain Harlock.
Since learning about Harlock I've wanted to watch the series, his design is so iconic and has transcended many generations...  Well I still haven't gotten to see the original series but I watched the 2013 Space Captain Harlock movie! Holy crap this was incredible!!!
First off the animation is absolutely stunning! Remember the first time you saw GitS or FF: TSW ....Space Pirate Captain Harlock will floor you the same way. The crew of the Arcadia are re imagined 100% faithfully to the original series and are simply jaw dropping to see on screen. The story is equally incredible, it retains the ideas of the original series while developing some new details around the mythos of how Harlock became Captain of the Arcadia. Speaking of the Arcadia, Toei Animation has done an impressive job redesigning it for the 21st,  century. Seeing it emerge from the dark matter cloud created from folding space was a very cool effect.
When Yama shows the crew the little white flower he brought back from the surface of Earth it totally reminded me of the episode in SDFM when Hikaru finds a field of flowers growing while out on patrol and it also reminded me of Wall E. I'm older and more cynical and the first thing that I thought of was, "Big F'n deal weeds! Wonder if Yama found any cockroaches also."
Space Pirate Captain Harlock is now on Netflix, so check it out! For more info head over to the official site: harlock movie.com



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