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To be fair it's not that we were unhappy with "Harlock Saga", but we weren’t bowled over either.

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Harlock Saga

Review by Matthew Anderson

6 Episode OVA series

Company: US Manga Corps

Region: 1

Running Time: 180 min (6 episodes)

Rated: PG (Violence, brief nudity)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Captain Harlock. A Space Pirate. A Noble hero. A Dangerous Man. He lives in the sea of stars, afraid of no man, no alien. He does not even fear the gods of the universe. He lives by his own code.

Mime, the ships navigator has vanished. While searching for her, Harlock's partners Tochiro and Esmeraldis discover that a crazed villain named Albrech has stolen the Rhine Gold. With this, he intends to attack the gods and destroy them. The only way he can succeed is to have the Rhine Gold shaped into aring. To do this, he tricks a young man named Dabia who has created the only process that could shape the Rhine Gold. Now, horrified at what he has done, he joins Harlock on board his ship the Arcadia.

Albrech's theft of the Rhine Gold has awakened the god Wotan from his sleep. Terrified at the prospect of being defeated, he has the Fasolt brothers create a fortress that will destroy Albrech, Harlock, and everyone else that stands in his way.

Now, Harlock must stop Albrech and Wotan before their war destroys the universe!

Unfortunately, it seems that his navigator Mime is involved more than she lets on. Will she tell the truth before it is too late?

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: Good video quality, although a little faded. The source animation is no where near as beautiful as "My Youth in Arcadia" so naturally, the superb quality of the DVD format brings out the simpler looking animation style.

AUDIO: Good audio with plenty of directionality. The Wagner music in the back ground is mixed well, in order to accentuate, not overpower the story. Since this drama is dialogue centered for the most part, there is not a lot of need for hard core surround sound.

EDITS: Clean animation has been used for the open and close with English titles replacing the Japanese ones. The episode titles have been replaced with English as well.

EXTRAS: Some nice extras in this one. An interview with the English voice talent, clean animation, and information about the Harlock universe make up the extras.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Leiji Matsumodo is the master of creating epic stories. Harlock Saga is a prime example of his talent. It is a story of trials, redemption, and war. All the characters are complex people with their own demons to exorcise. With Harlock Saga, Leiji has given us more drama than you can keep awake for. This story has some very long parts. A little more action, and a little less talking would have helped make this story a little better.

ACTING: Not really bad, not really great. The Japanese language is pretty dull,with not a lot of difference between the characters being angry or happy. The voices do have a regal quality, and that is very important for the type of story Leiji Matsumodo has given us.

For the US cast, the voices are totally miss-matched and annoying. Tochiro is not some crass biker punk, Mime's high pitched voice is annoying, and frankly Captain Harlock sounds a little light in the loafers. While the voices may not be right, the actors do have a better acting range than the low key Japanese voices.

FAN SERVICE: There is some great fan service in this one. Every single Leji Matsumodo creation makes a cameo appearance (look for the Yamato at the end of the movie). There is also some nudity, but nothing in the big chest, sexy category.

FINAL EXAM

Captain Harlock, long time a fan favorite has reemerged into the Japanese anime market. Along with everything but his classic Yamato series being redone, the chance to see this hero revitalized was one that could not be passed up.

That is, until we actually sat down and tried to watch this 180 minute epic.

To be fair it's not that we were unhappy with "Harlock Saga", but we weren’t bowled over either. The animation flowed smoothly, and it had some beautiful looking CG, but for the most part it looked rough. There were lots of heavy lines a serious lack of detail, and at time, it looked like it was done with crayon. In a word, it looked cheap.

While the story was interesting, it was a little too simple, and the dialogue was not always gripping. There were parts in almost every episode that just seemed to go on and on. It was hard to sit through this 3 hour epic with out dozing off.

The acting was decent, but annoying at some times. Tochiro's English voice was way too rough to fit the character, and sometimes, his voice made me jump, which was good since I was falling asleep. Some of us felt that Harlock's voice in either format wasn't manly enough. Not to say that the acting was bad, just the tone.

The best thing to do when you watch this DVD is to not think about "My Youth in Arcadia". If you do (like we did), you will find yourself comparing Harlock Saga to MYIA all the way through, making for a disappointing journey.

Harlock Saga is a true Space Opera, with plenty of Wagner to pump it up. Despite our complaints, this is a very good anime. Be fore warned that there will be parts that will bore you. Make sure you watch this in several sittings. Watching Harlock Saga all the way through, despite its interesting story, will put you to bed faster than Sominex.

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