In light of the resurgence of Harlock-related material, I thought it'd be fun to re-visit this classic piece.

"At the end of the Journey, all men think that their youth was Arcadia."

This passage is the first thing we see as the film opens. It appears to be the early 1900's as aerial explorer Phantom F. Harlock flies over the mountains of New Guinea. He comes across a range that seems too high for his single engine plane, so he decides to turn back when a mysterious female laughter begins to haunt him. The ghostly Owen Stanley, Witch of the Mountains, is mocking Harlock's fear, so he dumps all but ten minutes worth of fuel and flies back to face his destiny.

Centuries later, Captain Harlock is reading a book about his ancestor's exploits, while losing a space battle against The Illumidus, an alien race who has conquered the Earth. Harlock and his ship of refugees are forced to crash-land at a nearby base, and are grounded permanently by the alien commander Zeda. Zeda offers Harlock a job (which is rejected), issues him some food coupons then dismisses him.

However, giving humans hope in these tough times is The Radio Voice of Free Arcadia, an illegal broadcast by a woman Harlock seems to know.

Later at dinner, he runs into a strange, yet optimistic man. After a bar room brawl, he introduces himself as Tochiro, mechanic for the now-defunct Earth Solar Federation. Soon, they are captured by Zoll, a Tokargan mercenary who works for The Illumidus because they defeated his people too. He uses a machine to scan their minds and finds something extraordinary, which makes their meeting all the more fateful.

As the film progresses, Harlock and Tochiro gain a sense of purpose and embark on an adventure that teaches them new meanings of pain, love and sacrifice. Although they gain a new ship and new friends in the process (most notably, the Pirate Queen Emeraldas), it is their honor that saves them in the end.

Whew, where to begin reviewing this film?

Guess I should start with the general feeling of the movie. It isn't a film that made me jump around to rocking BGM or dazzled me with hordes of super-mechs. Instead, it drew me to watch the lives of these people and made me want them to succeed in their endeavors.

The sometimes-somber songs of the New Japan Philharmonic enhanced the male romantic spirit of the film, and functioned like an extra character in key scenes. However, the sound of that music gets muffled in several scenes due to the film's mono hi-fi sound. This is not anyone's fault, but an aspect that is present.

I found the animation a bit slow with its frame rates, but then I remembered AoMY was made during a time without CGI or computer assists, and that made my experience a lot more memorable.

I enjoyed the design of Matsumoto Leiji's characters tremendously. The slight strength of the stoic Captain Harlock (whose voice actor commands the strongest presence of anyone I've heard in anime), the quirky potato-head nature of Tochiro and the lithe beauty of the female characters (who have and forever will be Matsumoto's depiction of a lady from the live-action French film MARIANNE OF MY YOUTH) all complement the abstract background paintings perfectly.

Which reminds me; another element that struck me was Iwamitsu's art direction, which frequented much use of basic color, instead of the blended general schemes other animators used in the past. This leads to mostly good results, except for the scenes in outer space where many images are so dark, it's hard to see what's going on. For example, it made my enjoyment of a climactic confrontation between Commander Zeda and Captain Harlock that much more difficult (but I managed.)

However, it did enhance generational nature of the story, especially in the 1900's sequence, which started with Phantom's plane being green, and turning red for the duration. Captain Harlock's Arcadia also goes through a similar phenomenon during his trip to Earth.

I'm sure a generational focus is what Matsumoto had in mind when he commissioned ARCADIA OF MY YOUTH. The film spreads to three different time periods to make its point, which strengthens one of its central themes of immortality.

This is one of those classics pieces that stands the test of time in many ways, like CASABLANCA and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. It isn't how good the film looks now, but how the tools of the trade were used in the past, and how they helped the story and characters develop along the way.

In the modern age of DVDs, such things are more readily appreciated, which is why I hope AnimEigo, Toei/Tokyu, or both choose to digitally rework this movie. In light of the fact the film's twentieth anniversary is next year, this should be sufficient provocation for AnimEigo to put ARCADIA OF MY YOUTH through the same transfer and restoration process they're currently using on the original MACROSS TV series (which is some of the most incredible work I've seen on an anime DVD) and maybe clear up some of the problems I mentioned earlier. If an English dub track is absolutely necessary, maybe they could acquire the audio Peregrine Films used for their U.S. releases of MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA and VENGEANCE OF THE SPACE PIRATE.

Until that day, I'll just pop in the VHS version, hit play, and wait for the captain to give the command: "Arcadia. Hasshin!"