[Notes] Captain Harlock: The Endless Odyssey (2002) (Disk 1) (SPOILERS)

Or, to give its full title: "Space Pirate Captain Herlock: The Endless
Odyssey Outside Legend." At least, that's the title on both opening
seqs, the US and DVD-extra original mega-boring orchestra-tuning
Japanese. And even though modern fashion is to *spell* it "Herlock,"
the actors still pronounce it "Harlock."

Well, that was boring.

First disk, four episodes, the premise takes its time getting set up,
and I am boooored. As I was by the six-ep OAV in which Harlock gets
in trouble with the Norse gods. Is there any version of the Harlock
saga that *isn't* boring? I missed it the first time 'round (US TV
1985), and I'd dearly love to know now, but...

One problem with Netflix is disambiguating things, especially for a
franchise with multiple iterations. Whatever department adds metadata
isn't always accurate: the copyright date refers to the DVD instead of
the original TV program, or the synopsis describes the wrong
iteration. (E.g., the description for the "Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki"
third OAV, 2004, belongs on the first OAV, 1994.)

<http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Captain_Herlock_Vol._1_The_Legend_Returns/60033756>

(Netflix carries "Queen Emeraldas" (1998), "Harlock Saga" (1999),
Maetel Legend" (2002), "Captain Harlock" (2002), but that seems to be
it.)

"Young Tadashi is living the good life on the Planet of the Rubbish
Heap until, one day, he finds his father dead. Hovering in the area
are four undead corpses, and as they attack, Captain Herlock - a
fearless space pirate -- arrives and saves Tadashi. After saving his
life, Herlock invites Tadashi to join his space battleship crew and
pursue the unknown enemy that threatens Earth in this action-packed
anime adventure series from Leiji Matsumoto."

Well, this Netflix description is accurate enough. Except for the
phrases "good life" (Tadashi is a punk) and "join his crew" (most of
them are in prison) and "action-packed" (when did that become a
synonym for "soporific?").

Some synopsis...

It would appear that the Devil is back in business. In a premise
possibly borrowed from Jack L. Chalker's "Quintara Marathon" series,
we learn that the incarnation of fear and chaos erupted in the first
instant after the Big Bang, was imprisoned 10^-43 seconds later, and
humanity (expanding into space) is now inadvertently and carelessly
breaking the seals (erected by descendent civilzations) that contain
his/its power. Most proximately, an exo-archeological expedition five
years ago to the Hourglass Nebula, of which Tadashi's father was
member. All the other members were killed, and are now zombies.

(Well, it's not *exactly* "Babylon 5" and the Shadows on Z'ha'dum,
but...)

Tadashi /père et fils/ are on Rubbish Heap World possibly because
that's where the planetary-development companies stash the ruins of
alien civilizations, lest the environmental impact statements delay
lucrative colonization efforts. Harlock's ship, the _Arcadia_, has
decided to hide in one pile and commune with the spirits of the
ancient dead. Harlock himself has been lying low. Sheesh, that man
could give Rei Ayanami and Vanilla H (of "Galaxy Angel") a run for
title of Least Affect in an Anime Character.

The Space Sheriffs of Planet Panopticon have been collecting Harlock's
old crew (gotta catch'em all!) in a long-term plan to catch him and
thereby eliminate the messy scourge of space piracy forever. They
draw him to the prison satellite (a metal sphere attached to
Panopticon by a giant chain... uh, yeah) by scheduling a public
execution. Harlock wonders if it's right to bring his crew into
danger; his crew (in particular, First Officer Yattaran) wonders if he
would risk their lives by making the officer. Fortunately, Yattaran
is very good at changing plastic model kits into robotic death
machines, and is able to disrupt the execution long enough for the
_Arcadia_ to deploy its bayonet and crash the party.

Oh, and the zombies destroy Earth and set all the local fleets to a
mad frenzy of fighting and death, but it's really difficult to care.

The coolest thing in the first two eps: the Universal Virtual
University, which is implemented as a holodeck-projected-by-a-laptop.
The virtual décor has a lot of free-floating weighty-looking stone
blocks, library stacks, and reading platforms. (No sign of Mario
chasing starbits, though.)

--
** Phillip Thorne ** [email]pethorne@comcast.net[/email] **************
* RPI CompSci 1998 *
** underbase.livejournal.com ***************************