Space Pirate Captain Herlock (Anime TV)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Episodes: B-

 

 

Beyond what Warner Bros. Cartoon Network will allow, dozens of Japanese Anime series are produced that only arrive on home video in the U.S. and Pioneer has been one of the prime distributors over the years of the genre.  Now, they have been engulfed into the new Geneon Company and one of the first shows they get to launch is Space Pirate Captain Herlock (2002), from Leiji Matsumoto, who had worked on the series that was released in the U.S. as Star Blazers and more recently did the exceptional music videos for Daft Punk’s Discovery album.  Those videos are even out now on DVD.

 

Herlock begins with a deadly betrayal in space, then the title character returns out of nowhere.  Additionally, magical/spiritual elements and comedy are introduced and though they support the genre at hand, they also make things predictable, but meeting expectations is the commercial thing to do.

 

The first four episodes of the series are here as follows:

 

1)     Blues of the Rubbish Heap

2)     For Whom the Friend Sleeps

3)     The Voice Calling for the Noo from Afar

4)     Yatharan’s 30-second Bet

 

This also requires you really suspending your disbelief and your mind to this world, which is dependent on a great leap of faith from the audience.  Most Anime productions have poor yesteryear character designs that look like a bad cross between the waning years of the old Disney and its many bad imitators.  The squished-down characters look like they are from the old days of TV, when the characters had to be resized to accommodate how small TVs used to be.  That will always be the oddest carry-over to the genre.

 

Each episode is dubbed a “voyage” and that is too grand an assessment.  I will admit that the animation is better than what we usually get, and color quality is not bad, but this is still an affair for fans only.  The lack of character development is also odd, but typical of most shows in the genre, making the audience do too much work.  Ask not what you can do for your Anime, ask what your Anime can do for you.

 

The full-frame image is not bad, and the more detailed artwork benefits as a result.  There is still a certain amount of softness throughout, but that is more the transfer than the material, though some of these shows have a softness that is intended.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 is not strong in subwoofer activity, but this is a TV series, so only so much can be expected.  The Japanese 5.1 has more sound fidelity than the English 5.1 mix, which is typical of DVDs in the genre.  Except for the original Japanese opening of the pilot show, which is odd, all you get are previews of three other Geneon Anime DVDs.

 

Some of the previews are set up like Music Video clips, while many of these shows have theme songs trying desperately to sound like American feature films.  This also points to the been-there-done-that factor that has made millions in the U.S. not follow Anime at all, but there are more than enough fans who see it differently that they will we watching shows like this inevitably.  This is not one of the more violent series, but is still not for young children.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo