Space Pirate Captain Herlock, Vol. 1: The Legend Returns

Although the era of the space pirates is seemingly over, the greatest pirate of them all returns to fight a newly awakened ancient menace, retrieving his ship Arcadia from its home on a junkyard planet, and daring once again to confront both evil and the authorities who hound him. The hardest thing for a longtime fan to accept about this latest iteration of Leiji Matsumoto's super-cool, iconic antihero--known from the films Arcadia of My Youth and Galaxy Express 999--is the new spelling of his name, previously "Harlock." On such a manly character, the "her" suggests a bit of parody, but the captain is deadly serious here, with an edge and sense of gravitas that were missing in 2001's disappointing Harlock Saga. The original Captain Harlock TV series is sadly unavailable on video; this new series updates the show with some Cowboy Bebop-like touches (such as bluesy music) and first-rate animation. Featuring both Japanese and English language tracks, this is rated 13-up and highly recommended. [Note: Space Pirate Captain Herlock, Vol. 2: The Tendrils of Fear is also newly available, with Vol. 3: The Demented Planet slated for release on June 1.] Aud: P. (S. Raiteri)