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SUMMARY

Captain Herlock. 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.

Because of Tadashi's impulsiveness, Key Yuki has been injured by the Noo.  While her comrades take her back to the Arcadia, Tadashi is taken to the Noo temple.  There he is introduced to Maji, former Arcadia Engineer.  The two of them are confronted with the awesome and horrible power of the Noo.  The Noo forces them to fight each other, in the hopes that this will make Herlock come to rescue them.

At the same time, Kei is fighting for her soul in the netherworld.  It is there she learns the origins of the Noo, and their plans for the universe.

While her soul fights for life, her body has been possessed by the Noo.  Now, she is a lethal killing machine, ready to destroy the Arcadia and anyone who stands in her way.  Especially, her former lover Herlock!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: Much more improved over volume one.  The pixelization and wrinkles that plagued the first release are gone.  There is still some edge enhancement, but you see it only if you look for it.

AUDIO: Both the English and Japanese 5.1 are pretty evenly matched.  The Japanese track is a little softer than it's English counterpart and has more treble.  There is a fuller soundstage on the English track.

EDITS: Primarily the clean open and close animation was used.  There were no edits to the episodes or episode titles.

EXTRAS:A text less opening.  That's it.  I don't count previews as extras.  Oh, there is a pencil board that comes with the DVD.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Leiji Matsumoto is the master of creating epic stories. "Captain Herlock" is a prime example of his talent. It is a story of trial, redemption, and war. All the characters are complex people with their own demons to exorcise.   Thanks to the work by "Millennium Actress" scribe Sakayuki Murai, he captures the spirit of the original TV series, while infusing the legend with his own style.

ACTING: With the Japanese cast, is excellent.  While Makio Inoue is still the best voice for Herlock, Koichi Yamadera (Spike from Cowboy Bebop) comes damn close.  Finding a good use for his restrained delivery, he gives Herlock the intensity and strength he was lacking in "Harlock Saga".

The English cast does a fine job, but just not as strong as the Japanese cast.  Lex Lang is a decent Harlock, but his voice just isn't deep enough.

FAN SERVICE: You see some more references to the original TV series, "Galaxy Express 999", "Yamato" as well as "The Cockpit".

CONCLUSION

Not a lot happens in this volume.  I mean, there is still plenty of action, adventure, and suspense, but as far as the plot goes, things don't progress very far.

The first two episodes on this DVD deal with Tadashi being held captive by members of the Noo Cult.  There he meets Maji, a former member of Herlock's crew, who was trying to rescue a friend from the evil Noo.  In what feels like an episode of classic "Star Trek", the two men are forced to fight each other for the amusement of the Noo.  Naturally, their conflict draws out Herlock, who rescues his friends and defeats evil all at the same time.

During all this, Chief Ilita is still on a space trucker ship, on its way to Terra II.  I'm sure he and the people who rescued him will have a part to play in the impending final battle, when ever that is.

While the crew continues on it's journey to rescue the Earth, Yattaran tries to explain why and how the Earth vanished.  It's an amusing scene, as Yattaran's highly technical explanation causes several of the crew members to proclaim "I'm lost".  Hell, I consider myself a learned man, and I didn't understand some of it.

Their down time doesn't last long.  Kei, injured while taking a Noo energy beam for Tadashi, is fighting for her soul in the netherworld.  In the real world, her body has been taken over by the Noo, and is now loose on the Arcadia, armed to the teeth.  The crew, unwilling to hurt their beloved Kei, seem powerless to stop her.  Once again, thanks to Herlock's brains, and Tadashi's courage, the Noo are once again defeated.  They also gain valuable insight on their foe, making them even more bound a determined to defeat this threat once and for all.  

You can tell when animators are enamored with a certain character.  Their scenes seem to have more detail, and a little more fan service.  I'm sure that you all have figured out that I am talking about Kei Yuki.  The realization of every fan boy's wet dream, you have this ethereal beauty with a kickin' bod, in a skin tight suit, armed with tons of weapons, kicking ass.  The animators lavish a lot of attention to her, giving a cool battle scene some serious sex appeal.

It's not just Kei's scenes that look good.  The animation for the entire series is crisp and clean, with a polished look that not even "My Youth in Arcadia" can match.  The level of detail is wonderful, supporting awesome character and mechanical designs. Some of the CG enhanced animation do look like cut scenes from a video game, but overall it's one of the best animated series to come out in recent memory.

In order to be fair, I feel I must point out that there is a lot of down time.  If you are expecting nonstop action, you won't find it here.  Characterization and explanation are the main elements of this series.  Don't fret, like most Herlock stories, the last couple of episodes will have one hell of a knock down-drag out battle to make all the quiet time worth while. 

The story doesn't move much, but "Herlock Saga: The Decimated Planet" is another great chapter in the grand Herlock cannon.  I bet that this volume is the calm before the storm.  If you have made it this far, man the torpedoes, and full speed ahead to the next volume!

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