After the Earth was despoiled, humankind left to colonize thousands of worlds now that the planet has healed the Gaia prohibits repatriation and has even fought a Homecoming War to keep returnees away. In a nutshell, this re-imagining of space opera conflicts sees a lone space nomad and his crew of freedom-loving space pirates challenge the Gaia Coalition, the official law in the known galaxies. I’m not a follower of newer Japanese fantasy but I know plenty of fans who are, and Harlock 3-D will delight them. The label is fulfilling its role as a niche purveyor of limited editions: collectors get access to quality product available nowhere else. Twilight Time corrects that injustice with a sterling-quality two-disc set that presents both the Japanese and International versions, each in either 3-D or 2-D versions. In terms of entertainment value it is better than or equal to the majority of digital animation features, but its only visibility in America has been a flat DVD from an outfit called Ketchup Entertainment. Harlock: 3-D is real eye candy from start to finish. The adventures of the moody space pirate have made several circuits around the franchise track, with TV shows, miniseries and theatrical features, the one previous to this effort being made only three years before, in 2010. Toei’s branded Harlock franchise has many features that would seem derived from the Star Wars franchise, although the original shows appeared in Japan more or less at the same time. Although this smacks of protectionism, you could make the case that it has commercial ‘issues’ - its themes are rather morbid, what with a leading character who, if I read him right, is allied with a fantastic ‘dark matter’ entity that he doesn’t even understand, a dark force that provides the superduper power for his superduper space ship Arcadia. Suppose they had a space war and nobody came? Toei Animation’s 3-D extravaganza Harlock: Space Pirate 3-D was prepped and primed to take the world by storm, but like too many foreign super-productions it didn’t even get a U.S. Produced by Joseph Chou, Yoshi Ikezawa, Rei Kudo (Toei Animation) Written by Harutoshi Fukui, Kiyoto Tareuchi from the manga by Leiji Matsuimoto Kyaputen Harokku / Ship Date Janu/ available through Twilight Time Movies / 34.95 Don’t worry, the 3-D visuals are excellent.Ģ013 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 115 (Japanese) 111 (International) min. This collector’s disc set gives us rude ‘n’ raucous space battles, along with a pirate’s bounty of original Japanese extras. Ray guns! Space armadas! Storm troopers! Toei’s manga became a pricey 3-D animated motion capture epic just three years ago, but was denied a release stateside.
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