Two Harlock Film Testimonials
Asahi Shimbun’s digital site has a new page on the Harlock film [here]. Don’t get confused by the lady”s picture. Basically, the point of this website is that everyday Asahi chooses some topic to promote and posts a picture of a model, well, promoting whatever it is they’re promoting. So they’ve decided that August 9th will be “Harlock’s Day” because it’s a month before the movie’s release. [Thanks to CPZ for the tip]
Anyway, the bulk of the information on the page is what we’ve been hearing all along: James Cameron loves it, Matsumoto wants you to see it, international fans are going crazy over it, etc etc. But there are some interesting lines from two “outsiders”: Goro Yamada is a critic and sometime magazine editor, and Ichiro Kishida is a media producer and sometime magazine editor. (It is fair to say that sometime magazine editors are legion, in Japan and elsewhere.) Here is what each of them has to say about the project:
Goro Yamada’s Take:
“I’d like to apologize first of all. Although I’d heard that Captain Harlock was getting the 3D CG treatment with a Hollywood-level budget, I honestly didn’t have much hope for it, the reason being that we’d been betrayed many times before when famous manga series were remade into live-action or CG.
However, Harutoshi Fukui’s script manages to resurrect Harlock in a new myth without ruining the worldview of the original series, and he’s wonderfully proven to us that “every masterpiece houses eternity within it.”
Ichiro Kishida’s Take:
“Hello, Kishida here. What really gratifies me as a Leiji fan is that [the project] reveals the mysterious image of Harlock. The story is told in such a way that the viewer’s expectations are betrayed at every turn, and powerful images serve as highlights from start to finish. The 30 million dollar production budget shows, as the movie feels more real than reality itself, and you get sucked into the story from the very beginning.
In my opinion the world’s three most beautiful women are the Bond Girl, Fujiko Mine and Maetel. It’s good to know that the small-faced 10-heads-tall hourglass-shaped heroines that Matsumoto draws so well are alive and kicking still. A sequel is absolutely inevitable. Just as is the case with Alien, the first movie [in the series] is the best, and so this is a must-see masterpiece for everyone and not just the fans.”
My Comment:
It seems to me these comments are totally geared to the concerns and criticisms that many in Japan have been voicing. Will they have a positive effect? Who knows, but I find it hilarious that Kishida sells a potential sequel short in order to promote the film 😀 Fiendishly clever if you ask me…
Kritik der Animationskraft 
CPZ also found this: http://event2.ncsoft.jp/1.0/aion/1308harlock/
Odd artwork, but a new(ish) teaser (new voice over, some old and new footage spliced giving some stunning new screen shots!!
Ok first time in a while my computer hasn’t eaten half the resolution of the video. Stupid outer space it’s so pixalated! Oh good is this to die for, I’m a sucker for good lighting and camera movement. It’s what made me watch the first anime. Fell in love with the show because of that first shot of Harlock framed by the Arcadia’s helm.
It just keeps looking better and better the more you see of it, doesn’t it?!
It looks beautiful doesn’t it? Totally.
Wow. Yeah, it’s like old wine in new wine skins. Even the voice over text is the same, though now Yama narrates it, which is totally cool (“his mission” becomes “my mission”). The new shots are great, and the overall video quality is awesome.
This Tower of Aion thing is apparently a MMORPG, so they’re promoting it by doing a Harlock-syle Tower of Aion poster of something. Silly stuff, but well done too.
My oh my… there’d bloody well BETTER be a sequel!! 😉 There’s even a “Chekov’s Gun” throw-away scene at one point that might be a clue for the possible direction!
You know, though, whether there’s a sequel or not depends purely on how well the film does in theaters.. (1) If it does very well in Japan we can have one, no matter what happens abroad; (2) If it does very well abroad and passably well in Japan, we’re OK too. But if it bombs in Japan, I think it’s game over.