Anime: Harlock Saga (review)

Content Warning: Epic space violence, minor violence and gunplay, implied sexual assault, Wagner's music, and one suicide.

The Harlock Saga is a six episode miniseries that's based on Der Ring des Nibelugen by Richard Wagner. You know this music. You've heard Ride of the Valkyries at least once in your life. So, this miniseries is a literal “space opera.”

Before we get too far into this, you must know that this miniseries is a sequel to the original 1978 series Space Pirate Captain Harlock. In addition, the character of Captain Harlock has appeared in other series by Leiji Matsumoto, and this miniseries contains references to these other series as well. So, you might find things a little confusing if you haven't seen the other stuff but you should be able to enjoy it as is.

The miniseries starts with the Space Patrol arriving at an asteroid colony that appears to be completely devoid of life. The ship soon encounters Emeraldas and Tochiro in a small ship. As soon as the ship docks with them, the Space Patrol finds out that the small ship is carrying a bomb capable of blowing them up. Emeraldas and Tochiro use this to get the Space Patrol to blow open the asteroid's space port and take a ship to see what happened inside the colony. There they find a holographic projection of Meeme playing an organ, as well as the swaying corpse of the leader of the colony. Meeme tells them that they must make their way to the planet Rhien, where the villain who killed everyone in the colony, is now making his way to steal the gold which is hidden on planet Rhein. Things start blowing up and Emeraldas and Tochiro are forced to steal a ship from the space port (as the Space Patrol has left without them) and make their way to planet Rhien. They speak with Meeme, discovering that they arrived too late, finding that Alberich has already stolen the gold and the planet will be destroyed. After Harlock and his ship the Arcadia arrive, Meeme gives us some more details about Alberich. He's one of the last clan Nibelheim and he seeks to use the gold to destroy Valhalla, first by forging it into a ring. Emeraldas leaves the show at this point to get back to her own ship (she also has her own miniseries titled Queen Emeraldas, if you like the look of her.)

This is when we're introduced to the young Daiba, living on Earth and is one of the best metallurgists in the universe. Daiba first speaks with Maetel (who's from Galaxy Express 999, a space fairing locomotive [no, I'm not making it up and it appears briefly]) and she tells him to NOT make a ring out of gold if a man turns up asking about it. Well, Alberich shows up afterwards and shoots out Daiba's tire. And then somehow cons Daiba into making the ring. You know, after he was told to NOT DO THIS EXACT THING! As thanks, Alberich shoots Daiba with his Luger, telling you that he's a real bad guy in so many ways, and leaves him for dead. After a few hours, Tochiro turns up, finding that Daiba was wearing a bulletproof vest, and takes the kid to Captain Harlock.

Now that we have the group all together, Meeme explains a bit more about what's going on. Alberich needs the gold because it controls time and he wants to take down Wotan, god of gods. Meeme used her organ on planet Rhien, in conjunction with Freya playing an organ on Valhalla, to make it so time barely moved on Valhalla and time passed quicker in other places, like Earth. There's one cool space battle, brief as it is, and then the Arcadia is summoned to Valhalla by Wotan, who has awaken and is very unhappy about getting old all of the sudden.

While Alberich gathers his forces, and the Arcadia is being pulling through space, we spend some time (haha) on Valhalla. Wotan has commissioned a pair of giant brothers to finish a fortress that may save him. The brothers are madly in love with Freya and have been unable to work, their thoughts so consumed by her. Wotan gives them permission to “touch” her, in exchange for finishing the fortress in time. They then go on to... Well, they don't show exactly what happens to Freya, but she lets out a scream and, yeah. They mercifully fade to black. Meanwhile, Fricka (Wotan's wife, I believe) and Wotan are visited by Elda, the Prophet of Valhalla and told to NOT summon Meeme and the humans with her, or shit will get bad. Wotan, but mostly Fricka, blow her off and keep summoning the Arcadia.

When the Arcadia arrives, it gets stuck in some barren icy wasteland but they do end up enountering Freya, who explains what's been happening. Fricka is all about killing the humans outright while Wotan is just kind of like “eh, they're vermin, we'll deal with them later.”

Soon, Alberich's fleet arrives at the edge of Valhalla's defenses and we get to hear “Ride of the Valkyries” during one of the best space battles I've seen in a while. They really don't make them like they used to. However, Alberich's fleet is decimated until he uses the ring to make short work of the defense satellites. Now, the way to Valhalla is clear, with only the recently finished fortress left to defend it. Now, the reason why we can't let Alberich destroy Valhalla is because Wotan made it the center of the universe and if it's destroyed, the universe will collapse into itself, doing a reverse Big Bang, to the point where NOTHING exists. So, good job, Wotan. You fucking idiot. Wotan has brought this on himself, as he was jealous of the Nibelheim and destroyed them. He's also conquered several species, including giants, and forced them to obey him.

So, should it surprise anyone when the giant brothers refuse to destroy the Arcadia when Freya is aboard? And then take it aboard to save Freya. I will give the brothers some credit as they do realize that Freya will never love them like they love her. That doesn't stop them from loving her, however. And then they start to leave. But Captain Harlock, who has already told Wotan that he's going to return the status quo; not because he likes Wotan but to protect the universe, tells the brothers that he's going to fight no matter what. This gets them to help.

The Arcadia faces off against Alberich's ship but is easily outclassed because of the ring. Then the brothers suck both ships inside the fortress, canceling the power of the ring, but making both ships have to deal with The Dragon inside. Harlock goes inside to get the ring, shooting in the shoulder Alberich with his pistol, and not his cool fucking laser saber thing (he doesn't use it at all in this miniseries and I am very disappointed), and just goes. He does tell Alberich that he should do what he can to get away from The Dragon, which is some glowing slime stuff, but the jerk just wants to shoot at it with his Luger. And nothing of value was lost.

The big moment comes when the brothers decide to blow the fortress, which will allow the Arcadia to escape, as well as The Dragon. They fly away as the fortress blows up, followed by the Arcadia, and The Dragon slime stuff. Which will apparently bring back monsters all over the galaxy. Wotan looks out at the Arcadia as it flies away, promising that he will remember the name of Harlock.

And that's it. I didn't even give all the details, because there's a lot going on here. There's three hours of stuff, and while a lot of it is rehashed from episode to episode, there's some really deep lore to get out. Thankfully, I'd seen Galaxy Express 999, the sequel to that, and another Harlock movie (Arcadia Of My Youth, if I remember correctly), before seeing this and was somewhat familiar with the characters. However, Harlock himself doesn't really speak, much less do anything, until the last few episodes.

That said, this one has fantastic imagery, ship designs, space battles, and of course, music. It's weird, out there, but fun. I only own it as it was collateral for some other anime I loaned out and was never returned. I may try to track down the other movies and do reviews of them, assuming I can still find them.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Suggestion: Confusing if you only watch this but there's enough good looking space ships and battles to help you ignore it.

The Arcadia in flight