Waga Seishun no Arcadia

I was never a particular fan of the original Captain Harlock series, personally finding it a bit slow and the ongoing plot not being hugely engaging. However, I decided to give the movie a fair shot and it was incredible.

Gone are the animation errors and slow pacing, replaced with beautifully smooth and elegant art and animation. The plot is fairly simple, but well-executed and has a few good tear-jerker moments.

The movie provides a sort of backstory for Harlock and the Arcadia, also featuring his fellow pirate Emereldas. The villains aren't the series' antagonists but instead the Illumidus, a force occupying Earth - which sets ... up a good plotline about the lengths to which humans will go for an easy life under occupation. The central conflict, however, is the rivalry between Harlock and an Illumidus leader which leads to a spectacular confrontation in space.

The film manages to be incredibly hot-blooded and exciting without the need for loud and fast-paced music, or shouting attack names - the composure of all involved makes the final battle incredibly dramatic.

The art is definitely some of the best you'll see, with Leiji's trademark slender and pale characters given fantastic rendering on the big screen and the ships and backgrounds being detailed not in the way, for example, Do You Remember Love relies on incredible amounts of small lights, buttons, rivets and panels, but instead an almost Go Nagai-like use of thick lines and shading.

The character design doesn't aim for realism, but instead the traditionally Leiji caricature style where a character's build and expression tells you everything you need to know - heroes are stoic, scarred and wear capes, sidekicks are either square-jawed space heroes or dumpy glasses-wearing friends, and women either wear retro-future catsuits or floaty dresses as they breathily sigh their lines.

It's a wonderful piece of retro-future styled sci-fi whose only real flaw is the slightness and predictability of the plot.

And the ending song, which evokes the original series' dramatic opening, is stirring in its own way.

Arcadia of My Youth is an example of everything I believe a good adventure film should be. Taut yet deliberately paced, easy to understand yet never falling into clunky exposition, and full to the brim with raw, melodramatic emotion, this movie is a perfect introduction to the illustrious Leiji Matsumoto Universe. Speaking from my own experience as someone who was introduced to Matsumoto's works from this film, I can tell you that I cannot wait to learn more about these endearing, over-the-top romantic characters and their strange, anachronistic world.

This film is a rare example of an adventure film that is not also paired with action ... as the focus. While there are a considerable amount of thrilling sequences, the focus here is instead on the plot, which tasks the newly returned from war Phantom F. Harlock II with the fight for his people's dignity against the occupying forces of the Illumidus Empire.

While the setting is in the far, far future, it seems to be much more inspired by the creators' experience of world war II and the western genre of live-action film. The antagonistic Illumidus empire seems to parallel the real-life american occupation of japan rather than a more ethereal evil empire typical of space operas such as this. These ties to more earthy, believable milieus serve to very effectively ground the film, allowing it to push the limits of believablility in other ways (a futuristic machine capable of viewing past lives, with the previous incarnations having the same appearance and names as their future counterparts is the most glaring example).

The animation is spotty in places, but on the whole the grand, epic space battles (which are obviously modeled after world war II naval battles) more than make up for some spotty character animation early in the film. The character designs, tho perhaps odd to modern sensibilities, are on the whole very distinctive and evocative of the film's fantastic mood. One notable criticism of them, however, is Matsumoto's unfortunate tendency toward same-face syndrome, particularly on his female characters. That said, this does not noticeably detract from the film's quality, and as flaws go, is highly
forgivable in the context of such a great cinematic experience.

Overall, Arcadia of My Youth is a shining example of what japanese animation was and is capable of in terms of storytelling. A wonderful introduction to classic anime for newer fans, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie to virtually everyone who has a taste for adventure and hope in their heart. You will surely be better for viewing it.

Captain Herlock: Arcadia of My Youth strips down sci-fi into a dramatic and somewhat dull affair. Unfortunately, after watching what felt like an incredibly long and meandering film, I didn't get much out of this particular story. It's an extraordinarily self-serious and dramatic film, but it does not really justify this feeling with how dull it is at the same time. Overall, Captain Herlock was a letdown, and simply far too long for what is a pretty shallow plot, while having some decent moments.

A quick synopsis: Captain Herlock is a dark and depressing take on a dystopian sci-fi future where Earth has been occupied by ... an alien force. These aliens, the Illumidus, are manipulative and malevolent leaders. The Illumidus' plan has already succeeded by the time the story happens, but Herlock has to stop them from further destroying everything he holds dear, travelling to different planets to fight them every step of the way.

Firstly, the positives. The orchestral score is gorgeous; it complements the seriousness of the story and characters, and is usually the highlight of most scenes. The character designs can also be pretty neat, with some genuinely remarkable characters like Herlock alongside some goofier ones, although some of them fell a bit short. The art and style also tended to be quite solid and impressive, particularly seeing the Arcadia ship later in the story.

While the plot and story is the number one issue, there were times when it was good. I enjoyed it for the most part until about the midway point. While it starts slow and doesn't get to the real meat of the story until later, it's at least interesting. You see Herlock's history and get a sense of how he is following somewhat of a doomed path. The movie plays with the idea of using flashbacks, and I thought maybe we would get a story about how these different generations of Herlock have all paved the way for our very flawed main character and his doomed mission. That would have been a much better movie, but there are many things I would have changed about this story.

Into the negative, the story is by far the biggest one. For starters, I just don't see what the central point is here. War is bad? That would not be enough to carry the movie, but even that isn't really it. Pride comes before the fall? No, Herlock seems to fall up in every scenario, and there's even a significant lack of tension because it's obvious these one-dimensional villains are far too incompetent to stop him. One who doesn't learn from history is doomed to repeat it? That one is interesting because despite literally being a Nazi pilot in World War II through a shared flashback with an ancestor, Herlock never references it or any of the other strange remembrances. I ended this story confused with what is meant to be the takeaway. Despite its self-seriousness, it never tries to tackle any exciting ideas. If Herlock was portrayed as a flawed anti-hero or straight-up antagonist, this would've been an interesting case study.

Another significant issue is tone. I have a soft spot for the goofier characters, who provide some of the only moments to breathe. But they really do not go with the extremely dark and grim tone. I would've preferred wholly serious or more goofiness, and probably the latter because it would not change the film much. Watching this film can be excruciating, with only a few moments of hit-or-miss comedy.

While it does take itself very seriously, the conflict is just confused. The Illumidus are not compelling antagonists, and their central leader figure is just disappointing. Herlock seems to steamroll through them. While there are stakes and losses, it's an incredibly black-and-white, simplistic battle that doesn't have much, if any, weight.

One odd thing about the film is the feeling of repetition. I felt like I saw the same panning shot of the Arcadia several times, and there was a lot of waiting around. I don't usually feel like an animation like this one with such high quality needs to be edited down. It's a rare case where I would have preferred significant cutting to make it more digestible because there just isn't enough to justify two hours of run time.

In conclusion, Captain Herlock was a letdown, although it had some okay elements and was an interesting film to dissect. The animation and music are great, and it has some promise early. However, it really goes downhill later on and fails to say anything meaningful while also not being entertaining. Overall, despite high hopes, I thought it was pretty close to forgettable, with the few moments of intrigue and good presentation barely keeping it from being outright bad. Captain Herlock ultimately squanders most of its potential and is a surprisingly pointless space adventure.