Captain Herlock

After conquering the galaxy, mankind has reached its apex and is now on a steady decline. The resources of the universe are diminishing, and around 500 billion humans begin to return home to Earth. Thus begins a war between the various factions of humans for control of the planet. Eventually, an authoritarian government known as the Gaia Sanction prevents the re-population of Earth.

Captain Herlock was one of the Elite Wing who was tasked by the Gaia Sanction to defend the Earth. His fleet of ships was unstoppable under his command. However, the Gaia Sanction allows a diplomatic elite to immigrate to Earth, which angers Herlock. He goes rogue and fires upon the diplomats and the rest of his fleet. He decides to unleash dark matter on the planet to make it uninhabitable, but also becomes engulfed in it which immortalizes him.

One hundred years have passed, and the legendary Captain Herlock is still at large, with only the Arcadia under his control. The Gaia Sanction continues with their plans for control over the Earth, while hiding its true state. But Captain Herlock is preparing for one final showdown with them, which will determine the fate of the world!

Captain Herlock Main

Oguri, Shun Japanese

Miime Main

Aoi, Yuu Japanese

Yama Main

Miura, Haruma Japanese

Ezra Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Yuki, Kei Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Yattaran Supporting

Furuta, Arata Japanese

Nami Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Tori-san Supporting

Narrator Supporting

Kobayashi, Kiyoshi Japanese

Aramaki, Shinji Director, Storyboard

Fukui, Harutoshi Script

Takeuchi, Kiyoto Script

Okamura, Tensai Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 8, 2013

jillybean

Recommended

I'm lucky enough to have seen this in the theater last night, so I thought I'd add my thoughts after seeing it!

I've been looking forward to Captain Harlock being released because the animation looked amazing. I have to say, it did not disappoint. I was blown away by the CGI! It was beautiful. I can't even imagine how much time they spent on this, but I hope it's done well in theaters here. Major props to the animations team.

I've never seen the original series and went into the film knowing next to nothing about the plot. I think the story was a bit lacking and ... perhaps a bit preditable (as were many of the characters). BUT I still really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. If for no other reason, see it for the animation!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 13, 2019

eienOwO

Mixed Feelings

An extravagant show-piece of 3D rendering technology that's unfortunately bogged down by a needlessly convoluted plot, filled with TV-soap drama and characters who didn't know what they were doing.

If you don't care about making head or tails of a story, and only want the first 5 minutes of space carnage in Revenge of the Sith filling an entire feature film, this is your jam - Harlock repeatedly rams a cheat-enabled auto-healing battleship head-first into swarms of pleasingly weighty metal behemoths, crunching, crushing huge complex components amidst a light show of ray weaponry triggering chain explosions. Releasing endorphins in a primal part of our brains that ... finds a pleasing satisfaction in breaking up and disintegrating objects. The film brings TWO mega space weapons to boot, which is a bit of a missed opportunity when Arcadia didn't explode them as well.

If only the film just focused on being an unapologetic orgy of explosions a la Michael Bay, instead, it succumbed to that most common of afflictions in Japanese 3D animation - melodrama. Three of four recruits were killed in the beginning, why? So Harlock can look like an angsty hard-ass. There's an entire subplot of sibling rivalry, why? Because the glasses-wearing douche needed an excuse to be all cold and aloof. Why does he hate him? Because the younger idiot randomly opened a valve that caused an explosion. Why did he open that valve? Because he was angry! WHY?!?!?!? If you want melodrama, at least establish a clear root cause! Or else you're just brooding for the sake of brooding!

And what was the point of the subplot melodrama? What did the brooding bros do except creating unnecessary conflict out of nothing and dragging countless lives with them? What was the point of making the alien the last of her race? Just to make it depressing or is her backstory integral to the central tenet of the story? In which case WHY did she become the last of her race? Either TELL us, or don't include these half-baked headless characters that don't MEAN anything!

Even the namesake of the film, Harlock himself, is apparently a complete idiot with NO idea of what he's doing! He unleashed dark matter to "protect" Earth only to ravage it, then to... "make up" for his own colossal f***-up, he decides, on behalf of 500 billion lives, to end the universe and start anew?! HE'S THE REASON IT'S SCREWED UP IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

To explain a bit of the film's background, the Harlock of the original series was an archetypical ROMANTIC hero - a lone voice of hope against alien tyranny, like a Rebel leader of the original trilogy. He was NOT a nihilistic, emo kid that succumbed to a hopelessness of HIS OWN FAULT, and decided to end everything with himself! And this selfish **** is the HERO of this film?!?!? Shouldn't he be the villain and root cause of all these problems?!?!

Leiji Matsumoto revolutionised manga into a more mature, "realist" direction, his Space Battleship Yamato is a case study of tackling suffocating nihilism right. As far as I'm concerned this film remake neither inherited the true romantic spirit of the real Harlock, nor did it successfully bring in the nihilism of Matsumoto's other works. All of the problems the characters face are of THEIR OWN MAKING - they're not heroes, they're not anti-heroes, they're just brooding teens in their puberties throwing a tantrum from breaking their own playstation. It speaks volumes when the only tolerable characters are an emotionless, backstory-less alien and a catatonic woman.

I really wish some screenwriters would mature out of their brooding bros, whether it be Cloud, Noctis, or these insufferable "hero" villains.

p.s. minus points for that one weird gratuitous zero-grav shower scene, for god's sake some Japanese animation, GROW UP!

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 1, 2018

KR_P

Not Recommended

I came into this blind -having never watched the original series or even read a synopsis.

The premise (of being relegated to living on dying planets) is quite good even though it is illogical given the super advanced science and technology on display.

The movie has really good visuals and passable OSTs; normally that would usually make for a good watch but the monumentally stupid plot and incredibly awful, trope riddled characters ruined any chance of enjoyment for me.

I won't say to skip it but if you are going to watch it -have low expectations for everything but the CGI to mitigate disappointment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Captain Harlock Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Akanezora - Jan 1, 2014	62 replies	by _-_Sally_-_ »» Jul 24, 2023 9:24 PM
	I don't really know what's going on, but I love Miime. salsalsalsal - Dec 23, 2022	1 replies	by The_Holyone66 »» Dec 23, 2022 6:25 AM
	Captain Harlock not Herlock omy785 - Aug 21, 2017	19 replies	by valoon »» Aug 19, 2022 5:17 AM
	Captain Harlock music Sad_Joker - Mar 5, 2019	0 replies	by Sad_Joker »» Mar 5, 2019 12:05 AM
	Is this related to the series or manga? Tyler117 - Sep 7, 2014	3 replies	by Brynhildr »» Mar 18, 2015 7:08 PM

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