Review: Captain Harlock Space Pirate Dimensional Voyage (whew!)
Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 4:50 pm
The following is an opinion piece. It may conflict with your opinion, and may even contain knowledge that runs contrary to 'accepted works' information. The world will no end if we disagree. Honest.
Unlike many here, I'm not really 'into' the manga scene. I'm not following the latest American/English releases, I don't have a clue what's NEW and HOT in Japan, it's just not my thing. Yes I ate up the various translated releases in the '90s, and of course I bought the Japanese volumes of different series (Yamato, Fist of the North Star, Dr. Slump and so on), but other than that, just not my bag of fish.
Mind, I DID get hooked on One Punch Man (America release) so I guess I qualify as a dabbler, but I've passed on so many things, mainly due to lack of money. I should have bought Queen Emeraldas but I just couldn't do it.
Which brings me to Captain Harlock Space Pirate Dimensional Voyage, published by Seven Seas. I knew this existed from various discussions way back when, and there's been some very nice promo illos that made me feel very interested. So, I scraped up some money and bought the first two volumes.
Hurm. Probably not going to buy Volume 3. MAAAYBE V.3 but that's the last unless something changes radically.
It's a joint effort by Harlock creator Leiji Matsumoto and someone named Kouiti Shimaboshi on art chores. Matsumoto's story is basically a retread of the Space Pirate Captain Harlock anime series from the '70s, heavily salted with his 1999 obsession of "everything happened, all of it, plus space aliens from beyond space doing things", in other words, a misguided attempt to make a 'unified' Matsumotoverse.
So it's Harlock Vs. the Mazon (not Mazone), with character designs taken from the 'Outside Legend' anime, the 'Harlock Saga' anime, the CGI Harlock movie and heaven knows what all else. Maybe even a bit of the Cosmo Warrior Zero anime. And of course everything else that has Harlock in it. Galaxy Express 999, My Youth in Arcadia, Gun Frontier and so on.
Shimaboshi's art is... huh. I guess contemporary? Is this the current style? Long and lanky and One Piece-ish with giant breasteses that would make Shirow blush? For what should be such a prestige high profile comic the art seems very amateur. More Dojinshi than professional. The staging is uneven. Some shots he seems to be trying to emulate a scene from the Space Pirate anime but his 'flow' can't equal what Rin Taro managed to accomplish on a tiny budget with not anywhere enough time. There's an introduction for Tochiro in v.2 that's pretty much a direct lift from Endless Road (OK, Orbit if you must thank you Discotek ) SSX episode 1, and the introduction of series protagonist Tadashi Monono.
Backgrounds tend to be minimal. There's a distinct lack of 'Matsumoto Dials' to be seen. I keep getting pulled out of the story by distractions in the art, odd poses, poor anatomy (even allowing for Matsumoto stylizing) and just...the boobs. Queen Lafrasia (here spelled Lafresia) with a giant rack? That's just not right.
The translation seems O.K. at best. Both volumes have things that pop up that make me question the ability of the person/persons working the job. The big one in V.1 is a scene where Yatteran has fielded a large number of aircraft plamo, flying by remote control, dropping bombs to create a diversion for escape (see also Outside Legend).
Here's the problem. The planes shown are OBVIOUSLY WWII Japanese carrier attack planes. Fixed landing gear dive bombers, Yatteran built 99 of them, and from the look I would guess they were Aichi D3A 'Val' dive bombers. It's a total Pearl Harbor reference. But they translate it as Junkers JU 87 Stuka, a German WW II dive bomber/attack plane. It HAS to be an intentional change as they reference carrier launching and the Stuka was never carrier based nor could it have been. Besides which, the art looks NOTHING like a Stuka. So WTF?
I wonder if it was a Japanese mandated change.
There was some other boner in V.2, some massive grammar or spelling fail but I can't be arsed enough to try and find it right now.
I just don't know. I *think* what Matsumoto was after was to ride the coattails of the Yamato 2199 'revamp revival' concept but the Yamato 2199 production crew was SOOOO on point, so skilled and careful in their crafting that their project turned out brilliantly. This new Harlock manga is just a slog. Retreading ideas that were old in 1999 with uneven art. I am not impressed.
I just hope that the publisher isn't counting on sales figures from this to push the upcoming 'classic' Harlock manga release. They're really two completely different animals. (and heck, if memory serves the Space Pirate manga didn't really end so much as stop. A sad and common problem with Matsumoto).
I guess my advice is to not buy this manga blind. Find a store that carries it and flip thru, see if it pushes your buttons the right way. I'm not sorry I bought the two volumes but they very much on the 'read and shelve it' list, having it just for the overall collection and not a burning need to keep reading. I loves me some Harlock and this... well, It's got the NAME and once in a while a page will turn out really good but...naaaa.
** two stars out of five.
Unlike many here, I'm not really 'into' the manga scene. I'm not following the latest American/English releases, I don't have a clue what's NEW and HOT in Japan, it's just not my thing. Yes I ate up the various translated releases in the '90s, and of course I bought the Japanese volumes of different series (Yamato, Fist of the North Star, Dr. Slump and so on), but other than that, just not my bag of fish.
Mind, I DID get hooked on One Punch Man (America release) so I guess I qualify as a dabbler, but I've passed on so many things, mainly due to lack of money. I should have bought Queen Emeraldas but I just couldn't do it.
Which brings me to Captain Harlock Space Pirate Dimensional Voyage, published by Seven Seas. I knew this existed from various discussions way back when, and there's been some very nice promo illos that made me feel very interested. So, I scraped up some money and bought the first two volumes.
Hurm. Probably not going to buy Volume 3. MAAAYBE V.3 but that's the last unless something changes radically.
It's a joint effort by Harlock creator Leiji Matsumoto and someone named Kouiti Shimaboshi on art chores. Matsumoto's story is basically a retread of the Space Pirate Captain Harlock anime series from the '70s, heavily salted with his 1999 obsession of "everything happened, all of it, plus space aliens from beyond space doing things", in other words, a misguided attempt to make a 'unified' Matsumotoverse.
So it's Harlock Vs. the Mazon (not Mazone), with character designs taken from the 'Outside Legend' anime, the 'Harlock Saga' anime, the CGI Harlock movie and heaven knows what all else. Maybe even a bit of the Cosmo Warrior Zero anime. And of course everything else that has Harlock in it. Galaxy Express 999, My Youth in Arcadia, Gun Frontier and so on.
Shimaboshi's art is... huh. I guess contemporary? Is this the current style? Long and lanky and One Piece-ish with giant breasteses that would make Shirow blush? For what should be such a prestige high profile comic the art seems very amateur. More Dojinshi than professional. The staging is uneven. Some shots he seems to be trying to emulate a scene from the Space Pirate anime but his 'flow' can't equal what Rin Taro managed to accomplish on a tiny budget with not anywhere enough time. There's an introduction for Tochiro in v.2 that's pretty much a direct lift from Endless Road (OK, Orbit if you must thank you Discotek ) SSX episode 1, and the introduction of series protagonist Tadashi Monono.
Backgrounds tend to be minimal. There's a distinct lack of 'Matsumoto Dials' to be seen. I keep getting pulled out of the story by distractions in the art, odd poses, poor anatomy (even allowing for Matsumoto stylizing) and just...the boobs. Queen Lafrasia (here spelled Lafresia) with a giant rack? That's just not right.
The translation seems O.K. at best. Both volumes have things that pop up that make me question the ability of the person/persons working the job. The big one in V.1 is a scene where Yatteran has fielded a large number of aircraft plamo, flying by remote control, dropping bombs to create a diversion for escape (see also Outside Legend).
Here's the problem. The planes shown are OBVIOUSLY WWII Japanese carrier attack planes. Fixed landing gear dive bombers, Yatteran built 99 of them, and from the look I would guess they were Aichi D3A 'Val' dive bombers. It's a total Pearl Harbor reference. But they translate it as Junkers JU 87 Stuka, a German WW II dive bomber/attack plane. It HAS to be an intentional change as they reference carrier launching and the Stuka was never carrier based nor could it have been. Besides which, the art looks NOTHING like a Stuka. So WTF?
I wonder if it was a Japanese mandated change.
There was some other boner in V.2, some massive grammar or spelling fail but I can't be arsed enough to try and find it right now.
I just don't know. I *think* what Matsumoto was after was to ride the coattails of the Yamato 2199 'revamp revival' concept but the Yamato 2199 production crew was SOOOO on point, so skilled and careful in their crafting that their project turned out brilliantly. This new Harlock manga is just a slog. Retreading ideas that were old in 1999 with uneven art. I am not impressed.
I just hope that the publisher isn't counting on sales figures from this to push the upcoming 'classic' Harlock manga release. They're really two completely different animals. (and heck, if memory serves the Space Pirate manga didn't really end so much as stop. A sad and common problem with Matsumoto).
I guess my advice is to not buy this manga blind. Find a store that carries it and flip thru, see if it pushes your buttons the right way. I'm not sorry I bought the two volumes but they very much on the 'read and shelve it' list, having it just for the overall collection and not a burning need to keep reading. I loves me some Harlock and this... well, It's got the NAME and once in a while a page will turn out really good but...naaaa.
** two stars out of five.