mae@aplvax.UUCP (Mary Anne Espenshade) (11/06/85)
Thank you, Kathy Li, for telling us all about Harmony Gold's Harlock/Queen Millenia series. It isn't on where I am yet (even Robotech has been off for a while), but now I'll know what to expect and it's just as bad as I had heard rumored. The quotes below are from Kathy's article with my comments. > I am NOT a Japanese Animation expert, (although I'd love to learn > how to be one) but I've learned a little bit about it this summer, > like how Harmony Gold murders stories and names and "creatively edits" > whatever they turn out. They're preferred over other production > companies, however, in that they don't murder quite as badly as others. Well, this should cost them THAT reputation. To learn more about Japanese animation, check out convention video programs, more and more shows are turning up at cons, usually with someone to narrate. There are also local and national clubs such as the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization. > As I've said, I've only heard this, so it doesn't upset me that > Harlock's been made psionic, and that they've put Queen Millenia in > the same timeline as Harlock. It certainly upset me. The timeline isn't too bad a problem since the shows were set in the same universe and they just moved them closer together. But where did they ever get the idea to make Harlock psionic? The plot must be radically changed if this is a relavant detail. > Also, the storylines were spliced episode by episode. Now we come to the worst offense - "spliced episode by episode", even Voltron didn't stoop that low. At least in Robotech some semblence of the original continuity was left. > the LaMatalle and the Mezones (spelling is incredibly arbitrary, Not only did you spell them both correctly, Harmony Gold didn't change them (must have been an oversight on their part). > There's also > been an interesting subplot dealing with Melody (the alien friend of > Harlock with no nose or mouth) and Olivia Snow (Queen Millenia). Some > type of bloodfeud or something. Melody had a line about how The Queen > had been responsible for the destruction of her planet. Interesting is right, vivid imagination on someone's part but I guess they had to invent a connection between the shows somewhere. Yayoe's interest in the Earth is to prevent it's destruction at the end of her thousand year reign. The Illumidas (villians in "My Youth in Arcadia") destroyed Mimei's planet. > If you like Japanese animated melodrama (I do!!!!!) > this is perfect for you. Lots of loyalty oaths, lots of high-sounding > heroes, lots of angst, etc. Also clear demarcations of good and bad Now this sounds like Harlock! Maybe Macek got at least one detail right. > I'm sorry I can't tell you which Harlock series is used Thanks to your description, I can. It is the 1978 series, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, rather than the 1982 series, SSX. Queen Millenia was made in 1981. > the Arcadia... is the only ship Harlock ever has, it just changes design between series. > The second in command is a blonde woman named Kay, and > there's also a computer that takes over in the most benevolent of ways. > Harlock also has an alien woman named Melody, who never seems to be > quite in this world, who counsels him, and listens to his problems. > She also saves his ass a lot. I suppose I can understand renaming Mimei Melody, since she is usually sitting in Harlock's quarters playing the harp. But did they leave in the detail that she lives entirely on alcohol? At least Kei got to keep her name. Do they ever refer to the computer by "name" or address it directly? > The story opens with scientists being murdered > by blue-skinned female assasins, the Mezone (Mazone? Meson?). Unless they have mentioned that the Mazone are sexless plants, they'll have to write themselves out of a corner later on. > One > scientist who is murdered leaves behind a son Terry, who joins Harlock's > band in fighting the Mezone. During all of this, Harlock is believed to > be a villain by the earth-authorities, and gets blamed for everything > that goes wrong. This part at least sounds familiar. There were a lot more Japanese names to Americanize in these shows than in the parts of Robotech. Do you have any names for the villians? Most of the alien names were left the same in Robotech, since nationality didn't matter, but they did change a few. > A subplot to all this is the little girl Maia (Minmei's > voice wears better on a 7 year old). The daughter of Harlock's best > friend (dead, of course), Maia represents somewhat of a problem for > Harlock. She cannot come into space with him, Maiu is the daughter of Emeraldas and Tochiro, familiar characters to any of you that have seen the Harlock movie "My Youth in Arcadia". There should be an important connection between this subplot and the "benevolent computer" mentioned above. I'm trying not to include any spoilers, but since I have no way of guessing which parts of the story will be used it leaves me making cryptic remarks. > the reason Robotech and Harlock had to be combinations of series is > because for American syndication, an animated series must have a > particular number of episodes. Neither Macross, nor Captain Harlock > had enough. That's why they added on. OK, so if they wanted a long-enough series from Matsumoto's universe, why didn't they just buy the 115 episodes and two movies of Galaxy Express 999. It takes places at the same time as Harlock and had characters that link the events in Queen Millenia and the first Harlock series. And when they wanted to lengthen Macross, why didn't they buy it's actual sequels - Orguss and Southern Cross, instead of Southern Cross and the unrelated Mospeada. It would also make more sense for them to buy shows actually made for children if they don't want to have to cut the adult stuff, I can think of two right off that have over 200 episodes each. Harlock had 42 episodes and Queen Millenia ran for 41, has anyone heard how many episodes the combination will have? Since they are not presenting the episodes intact, it could be any number over the magic 65 Macek has mentioned in interviews as being the minimum for syndication. Mary Anne Espenshade ...!{allegra, seismo}!umcp-cs!aplvax!mae