Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Harlock: Space Pirate 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Rated "arrrrrr"?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 19, 2016

About an hour into Space Pirate Captain Harlock (the moniker the film’s actual title card offers) there’s a veritable onslaught of explanatory exposition, something that goes on for over ten minutes, as a whole glut of plot points is laid out in some detail. Unfortunately, as just stated, this sequence occurs almost an hour into the film, and even more unfortunately, despite this expository barrage, things still don’t make a whale of a lot of sense. Space Pirate Captain Harlock has a pretty iconic history, having first appeared in 1977 in manga form courtesy of Leiji Matsumoto (Space Battleship Yamato). The character took off virtually immediately, sparking a multimedia franchise that saw a television series, various film properties and a number of print versions appearing. In one way, that background might help to explain why this version rushes headlong into various story elements without much explanation (at least for an hour or so). On the other hand, this version may be too radical of a departure from that very tradition, for it invents a new context for the character, as well as a somewhat altered general backstory to the saga of Earth itself that may alienate longtime fans of the franchise. This Toie Animation effort is often quite staggering from a visual perspective, but it’s a frustrating experience from a purely narrative standpoint, often presenting noise and fury instead of actual comprehensible plot developments.

Some brief explanatory text cards at the beginning of the film at least attempt to provide a bit of context for this version of the Captain Harlock saga, which follows Harlock tradition by positing hordes of humans settling far off colonies in space, but departing at least somewhat from the Harlock canon by offering an attempted resettling of Earth by Mankind in a kind of planetary aliyah, something that results in a calamitous battle known as the Homecoming War. A protective group known as the Gaia Communion rises up to prevent all but a chosen few habitating Earth, in a kind of reversal of Elysium. In this version, Harlock is supposedly a “space pirate” who, with his crew on the skull fronted Arcadia, hope to make it back “home” to live life on the sylvan paradise that Earth ostensibly offers.

However, as the increasingly dense screenplay soon makes clear, not all is at is seems with either Harlock or in fact Earth itself. Perhaps strangely, though, the focal character of this version turns out to be a kid named Logan, a guy who seemingly by chance ends up on the Arcadia and just as seemingly by chance happens to know how to keep from getting tossed out into the wild blue yonder by uttering a password of sorts. By the time Logan is getting his eyeball implanted with a “retinal scanner” by what is supposedly an invading force of fairly “Stormtrooper”-esque looking Gaia Communion soldiers, it’s apparent that no one is exactly as they seem in what turns out to be an almost ridiculously complicated affair.

It’s at this point that some may feel appreciative that I’m going to break away from the complex plot dynamics to dwell for a moment on a design choice, one which ends up (sorry) playing into the plot dynamics. While Harlock is typically presented in shadow, often surrounded by the misty blue “Dark Matter” that powers him and his ship, my hunch is virtually everyone will notice the facial similarity between Logan and Harlock, despite the fact that Harlock has a bad scar adorning his cheek and also sports an eyepatch (in true pirate fashion). When the plot ultimately starts toying with elements of time travel, my immediate conclusion jump was to assume that Logan and Harlock were the same person from two different timeframes. The reason for that similarity is given a kind of formulaic “explanation” late in the film, but it is revealed much earlier that Logan is in fact related to another character in the film, a wheelchair bound Gaia operative named Ezra.

That at least explains the retinal implant, since it becomes evident that Logan was “planted” on the Arcadia to bring Harlock to justice. However, that’s just the tip of the veritable space iceberg, for there is a rather amazing glut of other subplots that play into this version. Those include the alien Miime who is a part of the Arcadia crew, a mysterious “intelligence” guiding the Arcadia itself, a literal “reveal” concerning Earth, and, last but not least, a continually shifting set of allegiances between the main triumvirate of Harlock, Ezra and Logan. All of this plays out against the kind of proto-Apocalyptic ambience that often informs anime, albeit here with an almost environmentally themed perspective.

Harlock: Space Pirate 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Harlock Space Pirate 3D (as the Blu-ray offers the title) is presented on Blu-ray with AVC (2D) and MVC (3D) encoded 1080p transfers in 2.39:1. The original Japanese version running 1:55:08 is presented on 2D and 3D on one Blu-ray disc, and the "International Version" (with an English soundtrack) running at 1:51:06 is presented on 2D and 3D on the second Blu-ray disc. Both discs offer the same supplements, with the exception of the isolated score track, which is only available on the Japanese language disc. While the film traffics in visual hyperbole virtually all of the time, the fact that so much takes places in dimly lit, even drab, environments perhaps keeps things from popping as vividly as some CGI science fiction fests tend to. That said, there are some incredibly lush tones on display throughout the film, including some very deep blues and reds. The rendering of faces is smooth almost to the point of being rubbery, but other surfaces often offer good texture. One of the coolest looking effects is the huge cloud of "Dark Matter" that the Arcadia erupts out of in its space journeys. Contrast is consistent, aiding in delivering good shadow definition in many of those aforementioned dimly designed sequences.

The overall darkness of much of Harlock Space Pirate 3D tends to minimize some of the spatial effects, though overall the 3D presentation delivers consistent visual immersion, albeit in slight doses at times. There's very little of the "pop out" or "in your face" elements that often typify these animated science fiction films, though one notable exception is a huge set piece involving the rescue of Logan on a planet, a rescue which involves both Harlock himself jettisoning straight out toward the viewer but also a giant "space worm" doing much the same thing during the rescue operation. Otherwise, dimensionality is often achieved through the by now timeworn gambit of offering a foreground object (frequently out of focus) which immediately establishes spatial planes. That approach helps to achieve at least a minimum of dimensionality in even some of the dimmer looking sequences.

Note: There's one potentially peculiar authoring issue that I encountered. I found no "easy" way to toggle between the 2D and 3D versions on either disc. Once one version is chosen, it's then "locked" to that version even if playback is stopped and one returns to the main menu (i.e., the options for either 2D or 3D playback on the Main Menu are no longer available once the film has begun). Ejecting the disc and rebooting it finally provided the 2D/3D options under the Play Menu.

Harlock: Space Pirate 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 tracks provided on the two versions of the film included in this set offer abundant surround activity, along with requisite use of LFE to keep the floorboards shaking in several big action set pieces. There are good uses of panning effects (both side to side and back to front and vice versa) at various moments. The film is awash in sound effects, and some of the discrete channelization in scenes like those taking place on the Arcadia are expertly achieved, with various "bells and whistles" dotting the surrounds and crafting a believable ambience of what life on the spaceship is like. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized. Fidelity is top notch and dynamic range extremely wide on both of the surround tracks.

Harlock: Space Pirate 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Harlock: Space Pirate (1080i; 26:06) is an interesting look at things like the background of the franchise and some of the production processes employed in rendering the film. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• Interviews include:

  Director/Screenwriter Discussion (1080i; 6:18)

  Harlock Creator Leiji Matsumoto (1080i; 14:00)

  Director Shinji Aramaki (1080i; 4:18)

  Adaptation/Screenwriter Harutoshi Fukui (1080i; 3:35)

• Venice Film Festival World Premiere Highlights include:

  Press Conference (1080i; 4:09)

  Red Carpet (1080i; 4:36)

  Standing Ovation (1080i; 4:07)

• TV Spots:

  TV Spot #1 (1080i; 00:17)

  TV Spot #2 (1080p; 00:17)

  TV Spot #3 (1080p; 00:17)

  TV Spot #4 (1080i; 00:17)

  TV Spot #5 (1080i; 00:17)

  Teaser (1080p; 1:07)

• Original Theatrical Trailers:

  Trailer #1 (1080p; 3:13)

  Trailer #2 (1080p; 1:38)

  Trailer - Director's Cut (1080p; 2:30)

  U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:44)

• Storyboard Galleries offer manual step through pages devoted to the following:

  Director Note - Rough Storyboard (1080p)

  Opening Bar - Test to Board the Ship (1080p)

  First Space Battle Sequence (1080p)

  Kei and Logan - Danger on Planet Tokaga (1080p)

  Harlock Dive to Rescue (1080p)

  Logan Flashback - Harlock Lands to Rescue (1080p)

  Gaia Fleet Launch to Attack (1080p)

  Arcadia vs. Oceanos at Orbit of Saturn (1080p)

  Harlock Redemption and Fight Back (1080p)

  Ending Confrontation (1080p)



• Isolated Score Track is available on the Japanese cut in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.

Harlock: Space Pirate 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are tons of plot points scurrying through Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and I'd argue that there's actually too much content for the discursive and even elusive presentation style the film offers. The filmmakers may have been counting on the "history" many fans will have with the character to help fill in the blanks, but that seems like a kind of odd strategy given the changes to Harlock canon that this version makes. The film is an eyeful, to be sure, but from a pure story perspective it's a mixed bag at best. Technical merits are first rate, and the supplementary material is plentiful. With caveats noted, Recommended.