Ranked #3515

Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick

A quick ramble on Hakugei.

First, Hakugei is not Melville's Moby Dick. It is not a modern interpretation of the classic novel, nor a space-age reimagining. Typical of the anime industry, the writers of Hakugei have merely appropriated high-profile elements of Melville's classic and have applied it, unnecessisarily but to interesting effect, to a space opera that reminded me in equal parts of Star Wars, Dune, Blade Runner, and, perhaps more so, of The Seven Samurai (indeed, I'm now convinced Gonzo's Samurai 7 was a remake of Hakugei rather than of Kurosawa's classic.)

So, does all this derivativeness make Hakugei a bad show? Nope. It's pretty decent, usually entertaining, and occasionally fantastic. While not exactly fast-paced, the writers do a good job of maintaining narrative thrust. The first half is a fun space adventure with stand-alone episodes that effectively build a believable, if occasionally unsettling universe as well as a collection of likeable, rag-tag characters. The second season is far more ambitious and has perhaps too many plot threads without the thoughtful writing to pull them together.

While the animation is lacking, a typical flaw of late 90s productions, and is occasionally too cartoonish for its own good, the art design is fantastic. This is especially true of the setting second half of the series which features a burned-out environmental disaster of a planet and some awesome neo-noirish spacecraft.

The characters are for the most part a positive element of Hakugei (the annoying android parrot and the "journalist" notwithstanding)- especially Ahab, a combination of the quintessential anime alpha-male and a prototypical wacko goofball. This is what I imagine most shounen brats would be like when they grew up. Ahab's crew is a fine, if typical, cast of characters. The only complaint with them is that they turn into something of a greek chorus of sophmoric slapstick comedy in the more complex (and grim) second season. Thankfully, the second season features a couple of the best villains I've seen in anime in a while.

Sadly, like many anime, Hakugei has some seriously annoying flaws that make it hard to recommend. The second season is downright schizophrenic in tone (cartoonish one second, melodramatic the next) - and much of its humor seems both dated and geared toward a Japanese audience (this added a bit of character for me, so I didn't mind too much.) It also simply fails to successfully address its ambitions in the second season - it's not necessarily a bad thing to want more when an anime ends but in Hakugei's case, a lot of plot lines are, not so much left hanging, as poorly managed. Still, the ending wasn't a bad one compared to many anime. So long as you don't expect too much (and it's Hakugei, so why would you.)

So, who would I recommend this to? If you just can't get enough of 90s sci-fi anime and have seen Bebop, Outlaw Star, Captain Tylor, LoGH, etc, but just want more, try Hakugei. Or, if you enjoy the occasional quality, oddball anime that seems to have disappeared from the radar (Neo Ranga, Shingu, Stellvia, Clockwork Fighters, etc...,) try Hakugei. But if you're looking for Moby Dick? Try yer Kindle. read more