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Released by: Twilight Time
Released on: January 19th, 2016.
Director: Shinji Aramaki
Cast: Yí» Aoi, Jessica Boone, Ayano Fukuda
Year: 2013
Purchase From Screen Archives
The Movie:
Directed by Shinji Aramaki, the man behind a few recent Appleseed features, 2013's Harlock: Space Pirate once again brings to life the exploits of Leiji Matusmoto's famous manga creation and this time with the largest budget ever given to one of Toei's animation productions.
As you'd expect, the story takes place in the distant future where the different human colonies that have gone out to resettle throughout the galaxy have fallen on tough times. The Homecoming War breaks out as a massive exodus back to Earth occurs, but there are too many for Earth to handle and the Gaia Communion is put into place to block the huge resettlement. This serves its purpose of protecting the planet but simultaneously leaves scores of would-be human refugees alone to die in the wilds of outer space.
Enter the titular Captain Harlock of the ship Arcadia, space pirate by trade and the commander of a formidable force of like-minded cohorts. He and his crew set about strategically placing a hundred explosive devices throughout the area in question that, when detonated, will give birth to the so-called Genesis Clock. The point? To basically hit the reset button and bring about the rebirth of the planet Earth and basically even the playing field. Of course, the powers that be in charge of the Gaia Communion don't see eye to eye with Harlock on this, and so they come up with a plan to take him out of the picture all together.
A grim space opera mixing the expected science fiction elements with some interesting politics, Harlock: Space Pirate takes some pretty clear (and deserved) pot-shots at corporate rule and at first seems to wear its socialist leanings on its sleeve. As the story evolves, however, it becomes clear not just to Harlock and his crew but to the audience as well that there is no easy solution here and that nothing is really and truly as it seems. There are betrayals aplenty and more than enough plot twists to go around and while it wraps things up quite nicely before it ends, less attentive viewers expecting a slam-bang action anime feature may find themselves a bit befuddled. Stick with it, however, because even if it's not necessarily what you might expect, the payoff to the story is a satisfying one.
If that weren't enough, there are the visuals. The amount of detail worked into every facet of the production is nothing short of amazing and the scope and depth that the animation team and the production designers have come up with for the movie is often times breathtaking. The end result is a movie where the visuals really come to life and pull you in. We get the right mix of realism and slightly exaggerated fantasy here, so that the alien beings in the film looks quirky enough to catch our attention while the human characters are grounded in just the right way so that we can accept them as just that - human characters. On top of that, the action sequences are dynamic and exciting.
Note: Twilight Time provides both the full length one-hour and fifty-five minute Japanese cut of the movie here as well as the one-hour and ffity-one minute international cut of the film.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The two different cuts of the movie are presented in two different ways on two separate discs. So on the first disc you get 2D and 3D versions of the Japanese cut of the movie, and on the second disc you get 2D and 3D versions of the international cut of the movie. Transfer quality is pretty much the same between discs, and that's fine, because the picture quality here is top notch. This is, visually speaking, a very dark movie so you don't get the same sort of 'pop' that you might out of a more colorful production but the look of the movie is in keeping with the story and it works. The animation appears fluid and detailed from start to finish and the strong bit rate keeps compression artifacts at bay. There's as much detail and texture here as the source material provides and generally speaking the visual side of the presentation here is fantastic.
DTS-HD tracks are provided in Japanese for the Japanese cut and in English for the international cut, with English subtitles provided for each version. There's nothing to complain about here at all - the 5.1 tracks sound excellent, they really open up the action scenes but even during the quieter, more dramatic moments in the film there are interesting little bits in the background that attentive viewers will pick up on. Dialogue is clean, balance is perfect and there are no traces of anything even close to any hiss or distortion. Bass response is strong as well, while the subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read.
The main extra for this release is the twenty-six minute long featurette The Making of Harlock: Space Pirate. This does a nice job of delivering the basic history of the character and his origins before then going on and exploring the technology used to bring the animated feature to life. The disc also contains just under a half an hour's worth of individual interview segments. Here we get some more succinct input from Shinji Aramaki and the writers, Harlock's original creator Leiji Matsumoto, Aramaki on his own and then writer Harutoshi Fukui. There's also thirteen minutes of footage from the movie's premiere at the Venice Film Festival, including clips from the press conference, the red carpet walk and then the ovation that the film received after it was shown.
Rounding out the extras are an isolated score (on the Japanese cut's disc) in DTS-HD 2.0, five TV spots, four separate trailers, ten distinct still galleries, static menus and chapter selection. Inside the case, alongside the two discs, is an insert booklet containing an essay on the film from Julie Kirgo and a selection of stills from the feature.
The Final Word:
Harlock: Space Pirate does occasionally get a bit too convoluted for its own good, but when it's on, it's really on. This is, with a few middling criticisms here and there, high concept space opera done right. The animation is fantastic, occasionally even stunning, and the sound design consistently impressive. Twilight Time's Blu-ray release is a good one, offering 2D and 3D versions of both cuts and a healthy smattering of interesting supplements to complement what is a genuinely impressive audio/video presentation of the feature.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
