Though 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 starship
Arcadia to 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) In
Space 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 ancient
Mayan legends 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 This 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 The
Arcadia of My Youth feature film was released on July 28, 1982. The film, set in a different
continuity from the original TV series, chronicles Harlock's beginnings as a space pirate and his acquisition of the spaceship
Arcadia. The film also includes flashback material dealing with two of his 20th-century ancestors.
Endless Orbit SSX Arcadia of My Youth was followed by 22 episodes of the TV series
Endless Orbit SSX starting in October 1982. Its official French title is simply
Albator, although it early became popular among French speakers as
Albator 84 since 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 the
Space Pirate series, but are noteworthy for the presence of
Emeraldas, a female counterpart to Harlock who originally appeared in a series of Matsumoto-penned graphic novels.
Harlock Saga In the 1990s, Matsumoto released
Harlock Saga, a mini-series based on
Das Rheingold. The series recasts the Captain and his crew in roles with analogues in
The Ring Cycle and pits them against a race of "gods" set on redesigning the universe to their liking.
Gun Frontier Gun Frontier, a
buddy comedy set in the
American Old West, began broadcasting in
TV Tokyo on 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 December 2002 saw the release of
Space Pirate Captain Harlock: The Endless Odyssey, directed by
Rintaro. 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 the
Jolly Roger. The series details Harlock's return and his round-up of the
Arcadia crew 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 original
Captain Harlock TV series,
Endless Odyssey reintroduces Tadashi Daiba to the
Arcadia.
Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013 film) Toei Animation produced a film adaptation of the manga in 2013, titled
Space Pirate Captain Harlock. Toei developed the pilot for its planned computer-graphics remake of
Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga and
anime franchise in 2010.
Mobile Suit Gundam UC author Harutoshi Fukui,
Appleseed director
Shinji Aramaki,
Appleseed mechanical designer Atsushi Takeuchi, and
Ninja Scroll character designer
Yutaka Minowa worked on the new
Space Pirate Captain Harlock pilot with
Marza Animation Planet (formerly known as
Sega Sammy Visual Entertainment). 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. The film premiered in Japan on September 7, 2013. The film also premiered on
Netflix under the title
Harlock: Space Pirate with Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish audio and with English, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles, with some scenes cut from some versions.
Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage In August 2014, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his debut, Matsumoto launched the manga
Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, illustrated by Kōichi Shimahoshi, in the pages of
Akita Shoten's
Champion Red magazine.
Dimensional Voyage is a retelling of the original 1978
Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga. ==Reception and cultural impact==