To sail free on the sea of stars.
Creative Staff
Story: Leiji Matsumoto and Jérôme Alquié
Art: Jérôme Alquié
Translation/Adaptation: Fabrice Sapolsky
Lettering: Dezi Sienty
What They Say
The definitive hardcover edition containing all 6 issues of the critically acclaimed space adventure by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto and artist Jérôme Alquié.
Set within the timeline of the original series, this brand-new CAPTAIN HARLOCK adventure marks the beginning of an original new story arc. Planet Earth is threatened by an upcoming invasion by the Mazon and despite being banished as a pirate, Captain Harlock won’t give up trying to save the world. This time, the source of danger comes directly from Earth, not outer space. A team of scientists discovers a Mazon mausoleum where they find information about terrifying genetic manipulations and a destructive power capable of either providing the Mazon with immortality or putting an end to their civilization. The unprecedented cold spell hitting Earth might only be a taste of what this new enemy has in store… Will Captain Harlock and his crew manage to solve this mystery and save the Earth from yet another menace?
The hardcover edition features behind-the-scenes sketches, designs, artwork, and photos on the creation of the story, and contains a complete cover gallery.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
For my money, Leiji Matsumoto is one of the top five greatest manga artists and storytellers. His stories about Captain Harlock, Queen Emeraldas, Maetel, and Tetsuro are wonderfully epic, Romantic, and sentimental, filled with both a childlike wonder and an odd melancholy. His shared universe of noble pirates, enigmatic travelers, and space trains is space opera at its finest, and I’m always happy to run across something new by him.
The main Harlock story concerns his fight with the alien Mazon—plant-based creatures who resemble human women. The Mazons lost their home planet and now make the long trek to Earth to wipe out the human population and take over the planet as their own.
Some might say that they should. Now united under a centralized government, the people of planet Earth languish under a Capitalist nightmare. Wealth inequality has inflated to untenable rates, and the poor have no money or power to do anything beyond surviving, and the wealthy laze about in their mansions, weak and purposeless. The fire of imagination and the spirit of exploration has all but been burnt out of the species, with very few exceptions.
Orbiting over all this is Captain Harlock, an enigmatic figure—space pirate, freedom fighter, and exiled defender of Earth. Although disgusted with the state of humanity, he still fights for them. More specifically, though, he fights to preserve the planet for his beloved Mayu, daughter of his best friend. Despite being exiled by the Earth government, Harlock defends the planet with everything he has, and his crew stands with him no matter what.
This series doesn’t tell the entire story of Harlock’s fight against the Mazons. Instead, it focuses on one particular story that wasn’t part of the original series. The threat remains the Mazon, but this time, it’s not sleeper agents or advanced scouts sent from the armada, it’s from a long-buried secret deep within the Earth woken by unsuspecting Earth scientists and nurtured by an alien woman with a grudge against the Mazons.
Deep within the Earth, a group of scientists stumble across a mausoleum. Inside they find the dead bodies of Mazons, but also a sarcophagus containing the body of a giant, mutated Mazon. The scientists might have been able to keep it imprisoned if not for the treachery of an assistant named Talika, who posed as a human woman, but is actually a member of an alien race devastated by the Mazons. She releases this giant Mazon, and discovers that she has the ability to generate extreme cold. Knowing that the Mazons are plant-based lifeforms and need the heat and the light to survive, Talika manipulates the ice Mazon into freezing the planet, using the promise of re-uniting her with her two sisters as her carrot.
The ice Mazon’s sisters were also genetically manipulated in an attempt to aid the conquest of the planet. One sister gained the ability to generate extreme heat, and the other projects a field of darkness drains a person’s will to live. Alone, the ice Mazon is more than enough for Harlock to handle, but all three together might be more than even the mighty pirate can overcome.
What follows is a grand adventure in classic Leiji Matsumoto style. The action is done in big, bold strokes, the characters are larger than life, and every moment is permeated with this Romantic spirit that remains the hallmark of his work. This is just fun—there’s no other word to describe it.
The story works very well. After a clunky, but necessary, information dump at the beginning, the story eases into a steady pace. It captured my attention almost immediately, and I ended up reading it all in one sitting. It’s a very surface-level story, make no mistake, but the lightness of the story mixed with the Romantic melodrama creates its charm. There’s nothing quite like it in terms of tone. Many have tried, but no one has so far managed to capture just the right touch. Leiji Matsumoto is like a chef who knows the exact ratio of ingredients needed to make this sort of story work.
The art also works very well. Jérôme Alquié cleaves heavily to Matsumoto’s style and character models, but tells the story in a slightly different way. The panel layouts are more modern, and there’s less space. If you’ve ever read Matsumoto’s early work, like Queen Emeraldas, there’s lots of empty space and silent panels, giving it an almost brooding tone. You don’t really get that here, but that’s okay, because the pacing of the story is faster.
The only place where the art falls a little flat is the colorwork. “Flat” actually serves as a good word to describe it. There’s a certain lack of depth and texture to the colors that made the art look rather two-dimensional. It’s not terrible, by any means, and it’s used smartly to convey the emotional truth of the scenes, but it lacks a certain verve that does take away from the excitement of the story.
Moving on, Fabrice Sapolsky does a fantastic job of adapting and translating. I’m unsure what the original language of the comic was, but this reads very well. There are no odd word choices or clunky sentence structures that took me out of the moment, and, honestly, if you hadn’t told me that this wasn’t originally written in English, I wouldn’t have known. Translation’s a fine art, almost an invisible one, like lettering and editing, and the true mark of quality is when you, the reader, never notice it. Going by that metric, Sapolsky is a master translator.
In Summary
Space Pirate Captain Harlock hits all the sweet spots for a die-hard Leiji Matsumoto fan like myself. The story feels like it belongs in the original series, and more than that, the comic captures the spirit of Captain Harlock and his adventures. If you’re a fan, you’ll definitely want to check this out, and if you’re new but interested, this is a fine place to start. Dr. J gives this a…
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A+
Age Rating: N/A
Released By: Ablaze
Release Date: 23 February 2022
MSRP: $24.99
