Harlock - Space Pirate

Think Twilight Time trucks only in reissues of decades-old gems that might otherwise be underserved? Think again. With the release of a 3D Blu-ray version of the 2013 manga film "Harlock: Space Pirate," the purveyor of limited edition Blu-ray releases shows itself to be both modern and hip.

Actually, the set comprises two discs. One is in standard 2D format, which is nice for those of us who are latecomers to the whole Blu-ray thing and have yet to contemplate an upgrade to 3D capability. Even in two dimensions, though, the film -- which is rendered in near-photorealistic CGI -- looks amazing.

The title character is only nominally the focus. It's a young man named Logan (Adam Gibbs) who is much more at the forefront; he's a spy for a governmental agency called the Gaia Sanction who has managed to infiltrate the crew of a notorious pirate ship that plies the galaxy, seeding mega-bombs on far-flung planets. The ship, called Arcadia, sports a death's head on its prow; it's powered by alien dark matter technology, and is seemingly indestructible.

So is her captain. Warlock (David Matranga) has some sort of semi-mystical connection to the dark matter engine that powers the craft; like the Arcadia, he is immortal. Warlock has spent the last century tracking down one hundred critical points around the galaxy. He has a plan that could restore the cosmos, and the dying human race, to vitality -- or, as the Gaia Sanction fear, spell universal destruction. The Gaia Sanction are committed to doing everything and anything it takes to stop Harlock and his crew. But the more Logan learns about the enigmatic captain, the less certain he is about whose side he belongs on.

At the center of these clashing machinations is Planet Earth -- a lone blue gem in a galaxy of used-up worlds that the ravenous human race has exploited to the point of exhaustion. All 500 billion human beings scattered around the cosmos are eager to return to Earth -- which is now a paradise -- but the Gaia Sanction, in order to preserve the planet, has ordered that no one will ever be allowed to set foot there.

This commandment comes in the wake of the great "Homecoming War" a century earlier -- and commandment is exactly what it is. The film has a romantic steampunk look and some very "Star Wars" attributes, but underneath the space opera veneer it's a critique of religion. The Gaia Sanction's headquarters is a collection of arches and spires that resemble nothing so much as a cathedral; its senior authorities dress like cardinals and popes, and act like any collection of governing elites in human history. Earth is literally a kind of Heaven; as a disillusioned Logan laments late in the story, "Maybe we wanted to believe in a perfect home -- one just out of reach." But Earth, we eventually learn, is far from perfect -- and both the Gaia Sanction and Captain Harlock bear culpability for the shocking secrets that lay hidden there.

Twilight Time's releases often don't provide much in the way of extras, but in that respect -- as in so many others -- this release proves to be an exception. There are extras by the (pirate) boat load, including TV spots, trailers, storyboards, footage from the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival, a making-of featurette, a discussion with director Shinji Aramaic and screenwriter Harutoshi Fukui, and separate interviews with Aramaic, Fukui, and "Harlock" creator Leiji Matsumoto, who reveals that the idea first came to him as a young man in the 1940s, shortly after the end of World War II.

It wasn't until the 1970s that Matsumoto's idea took the form of a manga comic; the following year, Captain Harlock found his way to television in the form of a cartoon that became a smash in Japan and Europe. A 2004 animated movie followed, but this state-of-the-art epic is in a different league entirely; as the breathless narration on the making-of featurette notes (in Japanese, with subtitles), "This is a reboot!" Indeed it is.

Liner notes by television writer and film scholar Julie Kirgo round out the extras; Kirgo is unapologetically enthusiastic about the movie ("Stand back, fellow nerds," she writes; "I've got this"), and she ties the film's look back to source inspirations such as Lord Byron and Mary Shelly.

Fanboys and fangirls have probably seen this film already, but they are going to fly into raptures at the new 3D home release. Neophytes -- and even genre non-fans, like myself -- will appreciate the movie for its striking visuals and its colorful cast of characters, which include a sexy blond female pirate named Kei (Jessica Boone), a wisecracking but gallant slob (Rob Mingle), Logan's insanely obsessed brother Ezra (Mike Yager), and an ethereal alien (Emily Nevers) whose destiny is tied to that of Harlock and his ship.

"Harlock: Space Pirate"
3D and Standard Blu-ray
$34.95
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