SeattleOtaku
Home   Reviews   Seiyuu/Actors   Clubs   Conventions   Shopping   LiveJournal   About Me

Leiji Matsumoto's Sea of Stars

May the solar winds be always at your back.

Leiji Matsumoto's works are usualy intertwined so deeply (and at times confusingly due to evolving rewrites), that they can collectively be called "The Sea of Stars". Science Fiction with a seas-and-pirates motif, Matsumoto's ships and heroes all have the same distinct style and often appear in each other's series.

fwyamatovhs.jpg

Space Battleship Yamato (aka Star Blazers)

The Yamato, the famous sunken battleship from World War II, is given a new life as a starship in this late-'70s series, Space Battleship Yamato (also known as Space Cruiser Yamato and shown in edited form here in the US as Star Blazers). The story follows the young crew of Earth's last hope for survival in an intergalactic war.

The TV series follows three story arcs, also compiled as movies, with two additional stories as the final two theatrical movies.

In the manga version that continued beyond that point, one character believed dead in the earlier stories was revealed to have disguised himself for futher adventures as Captain Harlock (whether he is Harlock is contestable); another link between this show and the others is the Yamato's occasional appearance in the Galaxy Express 999 manga as well. In recent OVA outings (Queen Emeraldas and Harlock Saga), the Yamato appears briefly.


999vhs.jpg

Galaxy Express 999

Another of my favorites from Matsumoto, Galaxy Express 999 follows young Tetsuro and the mysterious Maetel on their journeys aboard the titular intergalactic train. Captain Harlock makes brief appearances, as does his eternally-linked pirate comrade, Emeraldas.

As mentioned above, the Yamato makes appearances in the manga continuation of this series as well. Hopefully when new stories make their way to the animated form, the Yamato will be kept in the loop to finally link them fully in that medium as well.


arcadiavhs.jpg

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Exuding a high level of "coolness" and "style", Matsumoto's Space Pirate Captain Harlock flies among the stars under a skull-and-crossbones flag that perpetually waves even in the depths of space. Fiercly loyal to his friends and lethal to his enemies (oppressors everywhere, beware), he appears in his own TV series, movie, and a recent OVA series, as well as making brief appearances in other Sea of Stars shows as well.

Note that the list below is not in story-line order -- for example Cosmo Warrior Zero takes place at least before Arcadia of My Youth (since Harlock doesn't yet have his eye patch).


qedvd.jpg

Queen Emeraldas

Combining Harlock's level of "coolness" and "style" with a definite kawaii-ness (cuteness), Emeraldas, the pilot of the blimp-shaped Queen Emeraldas, uses a similar skull-and-crossbones flag (hers is red) as her symbol of both fierce loyalty and tragic requiem. Her lover, the man who invented the saber-shaped guns that she and Harlock use, died shortly after designing Harlock's ship, Arcadia.

Linking the series together in yet another way, there are two other guns that were made by Emeraldas's lost love -- his own gun (given to another youth in this series), and the gun carried by Tetsuro in Galaxy Express 999. Emeraldas is also the sister of 999's Maetel.

In terms of cross-over appearances, Emeraldas often appears beside Harlock in his cross-overs as well.


dnavhs.jpg

DNA Sights 999.9

This one-shot OVA entry (so far?) introduces new characters into the merged saga, as two youths and a cat find themselves at the next stage in the Earth's evolution after the surface of the Earth has been bombarded with asteroids.

A rumour that the Yamato would appear along with Harlock and the Arcadia appears unfounded or scrapped; while Harlock does make the nearly-mandatory appearance, I didn't find the Yamato in it after multiple viewings.



[Valid HTML]   [Valid CSS]   [Hosted by Eskimo North]   [Graphics by GIMP]

Home   Reviews   Seiyuu/Actors   Clubs   Conventions   Shopping   LiveJournal   About Me

Feedback Appreciated.

Copyright ©1994-2008 by Eric T. Jorgensen.
All rights reserved. Do not copy/redistribute.