Harlock: Space Pirate (2013)

Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of Harlock: Space Pirate.

Synopsis: In the future, humanity has mastered faster-than-light travel and established colonies on myriad planets. As human existence wanes and the universe's resources diminish, half a trillion humans embark on the arduous journey home. This sparks the Home Coming War, driven by the desire to repopulate Earth, until the Gaia Sanction, an authoritarian universal government, proclaims Earth sacred and off-limits to humans. Amidst this decaying cosmos, the space pirate Captain Harlock (Shun Oguri), commands the formidable flagship Arcadia on a mission shrouded in secrecy.  Yama (Haruma Miura), sibling to Fleet Commander Isora (Toshiyuki Morikawa), is tasked with infiltrating the Arcadia to unveil the pirate captain's enigmatic agenda.

The Good: 

* The animation is amazing, from the steampunk styled space craft to the vast vistas of space it looks almost perfect.

* The battle sequences are a whole lot of fun to watch, both colorful and spectacular.

* The voice acting across the board is pretty solid and well done.

* The design of the Arkadia (Harlock's ship) is amazing, with that large shiny skull at the front it just oozes menace, and the inside has a really nice blend of steampunk mixed with high end modern electronics.

The Bad:

* The script is all over the place especially near the end, it is possible it may have been edited for English audiences but there's a definite time skip where something has happened or even been mis-translated so the ending feels a bit garbled.

* The overall story is a little shallow compared to the source material.

                     IMDB 6.4/10            Rotten Tomatoes 54% (audience)        Me 6/10

The titular Captain Harlock (Shun Oguri).