#captain harlock week

[beesgav]

had a dream I was playing the escapists but as them

[canmom]

Animation Night 146: Leiji Matsumoto

Tragically there is a death in the news this week: Leiji Matsumoto, renowned creator of Space Battleship Yamato, Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999. I’d like to commemorate him with an Animation Night...

It would be hard to think of a scifi mangaka or anime director more influential than Matsumoto beyond, well, Osamu Tezuka himself. Sure, Tomino, Anno, Rintaro - but who were they influenced by? Space Battleship Yamato is the bridge from goofy monster-of-the-week super robots to the dramatic anime that would eventually develop in the 80s onwards. So let’s start there.

As recounted in some detail here, Leiji Matsumoto grew up during the second world war; he struggled to find much of an audience for many years until his Senjō WWII manga started to become popular in 1971. This led, in turn, to Matsumoto joining the Space Battleship Yamato project in 1973 alongside producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, and Eiichi Yamamoto of (no seriously) the ‘Animerama’ trilogy of erotic films, notably Belladonna of Sadness.

When Matsumoto joined the project, the plan was for it to be a dark ‘Lord of the Flies in space’ space drama. Matsumoto was at this time a WWII mangaka, so with WWII on the brain, it’s not entirely surprising that he drew most of his ideas from the war. It was his idea to design the spaceship after the actual battleship Yamato, a major symbol of Imperial Japan that in fact did very little before she was sunk in 1945.

Space Battleship Yamato shows a spaceship built in the ruined shell of the battleship, sailing around in space to fight against an alien invasion. It is armed with a superweapon called the ‘Wave Motion Cannon’ (波動砲 hadōhō), which became a standard term for a huge scifi laser weapon. Matsumoto planned to pattern events in the series after real battles in the world war. But the production was cut down, from 52 episodes to 26, and the story simplified, losing a lot of the antagonist’s motivation. Even so, it was a lot more complex than TV anime at the time was used to, a first step on the path to the complex, dark sci-fi anime and manga of the 80s and 90s.

The TV series struggled for ratings until the release of a compilation film in 1977, which kicked off a surge of ‘Yamato fever’. Its character archetypes, like the gruff paternal bridge captain, became stock characters. And while for most part the animation in the series was limited, it was an opportunity for Kazuhide Tomonoga to create some landmark mechanical animation of the sinking of the original Yamato.

Yamato was among the earliest wave of anime to be released outside of Japan. It gaining a following in Europe, and in America it was retitled and edited as Star Blazers. Contemporary critics dismissed it as a poorly animated knockoff of Star Wars, yet it continued to snowball in popularity. You might spot nods to it in various places; Miyazaki put a wrecked Yamato in Nausicaa as a gesture against its militaristic themes.

And it’s hard not to see something almost ludicrously nationalistic in a story about a resurrected Japanese battleship defending the Earth against invaders in a way it couldn’t defend Japan during its actual operation. We might think of the scene in Grave of the Fireflies where Seita imagines his father sailing away on a mighty warship. Matsumoto’s later works would generally veer away from such themes towards more personal stories in the same wide, imaginative scifi setting.

Captain Harlock is a kind of ‘eternal warrior’ type figure; the above cited article compares him to the characters of Michael Moorcock. He’s based on a character created by Matsumoto in highschool, and indeed he is kind of chuuni as a character: he’s a badass space pirate with a skull and crossbones and a cool scar and a swishy cloak. But Matsumoto was way ahead of the game with these motifs, and before long he got the opportunity to give Harlock his own show... at Toei.

But Matsumoto was finished in the director’s chair. He’d write the manga, and Rintaro (c.f. Animation Night 134) would get to direct it, drawing on his time under the wing of Dezaki. Harlock was an enormous success, one of the defining anime of the 70s, wildly popular in Europe as well as Albator.

Harlock spawned numerous TV series - for our purpose the notable one is Arcadia of my Youth (1982), which serves as a kind of prequel to the series with the origin story of Captain Harlock. What better place to begin than the beginning? Its director, Tomoharu Katsumata, is otherwise known for adapting many of Go Nagai’s works to film. The story sets up Harlock as belonging to a lineage that belongs on Earth with pilots called Phantom F. Harlock I/II, setting up the unsettling characterisation of Harlock II as fighting for the Nazis out of a sense of feudal obligation despite his misgivings towards the war.

This highlights the sort of strange tension that seems to exist in Matsumoto’s works. Many of his WWII-set stories are tragedies about pointless and futile deaths in war, featuring reluctant soldiers for the Axis who are not fascist ideologues but nevertheless fight for the cause. But he also likes to imagine that these figures could be redeemed and resurrected fight against the space imperialists. I imagine growing up in Imperial Japan during the war really does something to a person! Anyway I don’t know if I’m reading this right - I need to experience more of Matsumoto’s work to fully see if I think I understand what he’s going for, I think.

In any case, the enormous success of Harlock led to many further adaptations of Matsumoto’s manga such as Starzinger (Journey to the West in space), Danguard Ace (super robots), and ultimately of course Galaxy Express 999, a long bildungsroman about a boy who leaves Earth on a spacebound train - first as a TV anime and then the pair of movies directed by Rintaro in 1980 and 1981.

Compared to the somewhat formulaic TV series, the films were tight and compelling. By this time the renowned ‘charisma animator’ Yoshinori Kanada had really hit his stride, and was ready to essentially duel Tomonaga over who could create a more impressive depiction of a planet exploding into liquid fire, making Galaxy Express 999 not just an influential classic film but a real landmark of animation.

All of these scifi projects are closely tied in together; if you start digging with Matsumoto you start finding all sorts of intricate connections, characters recurring in different series, altogether comprising a ‘Leijiverse’. And of course in such a big body of work there are many recurring themes - conquering empires and mysterious women who are probably queen of somewhere. His most popular works, meanwhile, spawned remakes and sequels in abundance. Matsumoto became less central after these major successes, but continued to inspire anime productions - often at Toei and Madhouse - throughout the 90s. Read about them here if you’re curious!

One of the most surprising twists is the Daft Punk film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. The French duo had grown up watching adaptations of Matsumoto’s works on French TV, and when they decided to make a film to support their album, his style was a natural fit. So Matsumoto was called back up to Toei to supervise the film. We’ll talk more about this soon - I’m planning a music themed Animation Night, which was going to be tonight but I realised there’s more than enough Matsumoto here in its own right to fill out one of these so, hold on tight!!

The other note is The Cockpit (1993), a compilation OVA collecting three of Matsumoto’s WWII stories from the beginning of his career as envisioned by Madhouse star Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Takashi Imanishi and VOTOMS creator Ryōsuke Takashi. Although the animation style is much more 90s, it does serve as an illustration of the sort of stories that Matsumoto was telling with the WWII material.

All the stories focus on Axis soldiers; the first one sees a Luftwaffe pilot who deliberately allows Germany’s prototype atomic bomb to be destroyed by the enemy, the second on a kamikaze pilot fighting on the day of the atomic bombing; the third on a pair of Japanese soldiers in a futile race to reach an air base.

Tonight, then! We’ll be looking at the early parts of Leiji Matsumoto’s long career, in anticipation of visiting his later works down the line. That means starting with The Cockpit to see where Matsumoto himself started, then heading into Arcadia of My Youth to see the origins of Harlock. Which means yeah, we’re gonna be looking at a lot of Nazis and their planes tonight; if that’s a no-go I totally understand.

Animation Night 146 will be going live in about 10 minutes at 8pm UK time at twitch.tv/canmom - hope to see you there!

And rest in peace, Leiji Matsumoto.

[rosemirmir]

Tagged by @lunar-gl1tch!

Last song: What's your FIRE by Rider Chips, a true banger

Favorite color: Teal, Blue, Green, Red, Pink

Last movie/TV show: Saw more episodes of daimajin kanon last night! This show is so good, I more people need to see it

Sweet/spicy/savory: Savory! Though I enjoy sweet too, I like the flavor of spicy food but my gut and body... That's another story

Relationship status: single but im chill with it 😎👍

Current obsession: tokusatsu as a whole, especially KR Gotchard. (KR OOO, Zelda and Captain Harlock/Leijiverse are also always present in the mind)

Last book: Read some of the first volume of the magic knight rayearth manga

Looking forward to: My birthday, which is exactly a week from today! :D

Tag anybody: @stickers-on-a-laptop @pelopides @chancellorxofxtrash @sunlightfeeling and whoever sees this and wants to do it! (No pressure either!)

[kalira]

Fandom Year in Review (2023)

It's the very last day of 2023, which means it's time for my annual look back and some number-crunching with my AO3 stats and writing over the year!

(Before I get to setting next year's goals and back to writing before midnight, of course! ;))

I posted 142 new stories to AO3 this year!

Fewer than last year but still quite a respectable number (especially given I dropped off posting every single day after October this year - I kept it up for 1,675 days straight, or 55 complete months!).

Those stories were in 33 fandoms, 14 of them new, and featured 43 ships (not counting gen relationships), 18 of them new!

I posted a total of 319,688 words to AO3 this year!

By way of events, I participated in:

the Three Sentence Ficathon

my own Valentine's Spectacular

@domaystic

Small Fandoms Fest

@kakashiweek

@whumptober (completionist again!)

NejiHina Week hosted by @nejihinata

~

I started 3 new minific collections, those being:

Dog-sensei & Sparklepuppy (Naruto; Kakashi & Sakura)

Tales from the Fishbowl (Kingyou-hime)

Sailing in Stars and Shadow (Captain Harlock)

All three of which are mainly to corral my 3SFs for those various themes/ships.

I posted 190 minifics in total!

Minific breakdown:

Captain Harlock~ ❧14 minifics

Castlevania~ ❧5 minifics

Chronicles of Narnia~ ❧8 minifics

Greek mythology~ ❧8 minifics

Kamisama Kiss~ ❧9 minifics

Kingyou-hime~ ❧17 minifics

Labyrinth~ ❧gen - 8 minifics ❧Jareth/Sarah - 3 minifics

Naruto~ ❧Dog-sensei & Sparklepuppy - 26 minifics ❧HashiIzu - 1 minific ❧HashiMito - 3 minifics ❧KakaSaku - 4 minifics ❧KakaShisui - 10 minifics ❧MadaTobi - 35 minifics ❧SakuOro - 19 minifics ❧SakuOro (angst) - 6 minifics

SK8 ❧MatchaBlossom - 6 minifics

Tiger & Bunny~ ❧Keith/Agnes - 8 minifics

~

Fandom & Ship Breakdown

(look for the ✧ denoting the new ones)

Alexander (2004) ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Alexander/Hephaistion ✧ ~ 1 story

Aristocats ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Thomas/Duchess ✧ ~ 1 story

Avatar: the Last Airbender ~ 1 story ❧Zuko/Sokka ~ 1 story

Avatar ~ 1 story ❧Jake/Tsu'tey ~ 1 story

Boys Over Flowers ~ 3 stories ❧Ji Hoo/Jun Pyo ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Yi Jung/Woo Bin/Ga Eul ✧ ~ 2 stories

Bread, Love, and Dreams ✧ ~ 2 stories ❧Majun/Takgu ✧ ~ 2 stories

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Spike/Drusilla ✧ ~ 1 story

Captain Harlock ~ 6 stories ❧Harlock/Yama ~ 6 stories ❧Kei/Yattaran ~ 1 story

Carmilla ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Laura/Carmilla ✧ ~ 1 story

Castlevania ~ 2 stories ❧Alucard/Trevor ~ 2 stories

CATS ~ 1 story ❧Tugger/Misto ~ 1 story

Choco Milk Shake ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Jung Woo/Choco/Milk ✧ ~ 1 story

Epic ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Tara/Ronin ✧ ~ 1 story

Hellboy II ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Nuada/Nuala ✧ ~ 1 story

Kagen no Tsuki ~ 7 stories ❧Adam/Mizuki ~ 7 stories ❧Masaki/Hotaru ✧ ~ 1 story

Kamisama Kiss ~ 1 story ❧Tomoe/Akura Ou ~ 1 story

Kingyou Hime ✧ ~ 2 stories ❧Keisuke/Kingyou-kun ✧ ~ 2 stories

Marginal Prince ~ 2 stories ❧Red/Henri ~ 2 stories

Mary Stayed Out All Night ~ 1 story ❧Jung In/Mu Gyul/Mary ~ 1 story

Moon Child ~ 68 stories ❧gen ~ 47 stories ---specifically Kei & Sho ~ 42 stories ❧Kei/Sho ~ 18 stories ❧Sho/Yi-Che ~ 3 stories

Naruto ~ 14 stories ❧gen ~ 7 stories ❧KakaSaku ~ 3 stories ❧KakaTenzou ~ 1 story ❧NejiHina ~ 1 story ❧SakuOro ~ 2 stories

Sea Shanties/Drunken Sailor ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Drunken Sailor/Captain's Daughter ✧ ~ 1 story

Sex Pistols ~ 3 stories ❧Yonekuni/Shiro ~ 3 stories

SK8 ~ 8 stories ❧MatchaLoveBlossom (Adam/Joe/Cherry) ~ 1 story ❧Eden (Adam/Langa) ~ 1 story ❧Adam/Tadashi ✧ ~ 2 stories ❧MatchaBlossom ~ 4 stories

Suzume no Tojimari ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Souta/Suzume ✧ ~ 1 story

The Moon Embracing the Sun ~ 1 story ❧Lee Hwon/Woon ~ 1 story

Tiger & Bunny ~ 3 stories ❧Keith/Agnes ~ 3 stories

Tight-Rope ~ 1 story ❧Ryuu/Nao ~ 1 story

Underworld ~ 1 story ❧Lucian/Sonja ~ 1 story

Valdemar ~ 1 story ❧Lavan/Kalira ~ 1 story

Van Helsing ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Dracula/Velkan ✧ ~ 1 story

Xena ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Xena/Gabrielle ✧ ~ 1 story

Yuri on Ice ✧ ~ 1 story ❧Otabek/Yuri ✧ ~ 1 story

~

. . .and there's my look back on 2023! I explored new things and fell (unexpectedly deeply, perhaps) into some beloved old ones, tried to curtail my impulses on driving too hard on events while still participating and having fun. . .

Of course as always I have many things in the works (a moon-cycle-related project for all of 2024, my upcoming 7th year of doing my Valentine's Spectacular, a dark and twisty longfic. . .) and I'll be back soon! Maybe even with a new story tomorrow? We'll see!

Regardless, I'll always be around on AO3 and I'm sure not going anywhere!

Happy New Year!

~Kalira

[sewghostlycosplay]

I drove 4 hrs (because of traffic) to richmond Va. Yesterday with @underworldqueen13 for galaxycon. The primary reason was because CareyJones was there and i ADORE Black Krrsantan so i HAD to go. I got to his table and he was still at lunch but i decided to wait and as i looked at his table i see Gordian Shard there. I didnt know he was the suit actor for him. His agent said yea he got them printed the week the episode dropped and we havent sold a single one. I was like....i might have to. I am after all standing in like dressed as a pirate twi lek. I have been rocking that cosplay for two or three years and everyone always say's "what did disney put pirates of the carribean in star wars now?" And shit like that in the most shitty ways. I always pointed out characters like Hondo and recently Phee and Gordian Shard taking it a step further and reminding them that space pirate captain harlock was literally classic pirate look just on a space ship. So as i waited i decided HELL YES im getting gordian shard. The agent seemed surprised.

When Carey first saw it on the table he thought his Agent laid it out to do a marker test and then was told nope someone bought it. At first he seemed kinda agitated when he returned he didnt even look at me and just signed it and handed it back. He had no line outside of me and three others. After he kinda got into the swing of it and started talking more i went back up and told him I really did LOVE Gordian Shard. And he finally took in my pirate. We talked for a few minutes about how Han solo has always been described as a pirate and He brought up Hondo. Im glad I went back to talk with him because it was awesome to find someone that wand MORE pirates in star wars.

Also i think @soclonely would appreciate this because i saw the posts about gordian on their page before i saw the season opener and it made me drop everything and watch it immediatly

[ken-the-fluffy-pix]

ENG I finally finished my next masterpiece on the theme of SRW GU, but already the second part. I had to spend 2 weeks on it already, due to the fulfillment of the commission. Incoming series on this work: GaoGaiGar, Mazinkaiser SKL, Grendizer, Gridman Universe, Little Witch Academy, Getter Robo Arc, Smile Precure, Shin Mazinger Zero, Gurren Lagann, Transformers: Victory, Gunbuster, Promare, Votoms, Wataru, Daimos, Fuga: Melodies of Steel, Gundam: The Witch of Mercury, Exkiser, Da-Garn, and Goldran. Also: Getter Robo Armageddon, Full Metal Panic, Ghost in the Shell, Magic Knights Rayearth, Metal Slug, Valkyrie Chronicles, Code Geass series, Evangelion series, Darling in the Franxx, Kill la Kill, Pretty Cure: Max Heart, Fresh, Hugtto, Transformers: Headmasters, Super God Masterforce, Zone, Armada, Energon, J-Decker, Might Gaine, Brand New Animal, Knights and Magic, Gundam: Ironblooded Orphans, G, SEED, Crossbone, Narrative, Dunbine, Sonic X, Captain Harlock, Arcadia of my Youth, Yamato 2199, Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel troops, Lost Universe, Slayers, Sakura Wars, Combattler V and Voltes V, Cowboy Bebop, OG Super Robot Wars, 30 and T.

I will update soon with DLC. Wiki page: https://super-robot-wars-gu-universe.fandom.com/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars_GU2 Soundtrack playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtTi-CZLGf7DbqHyt-9siWdDL-kYzkEoX

RUS Я наконец-то дорисовал свой очередной шедевр на тему SRW GU, но уже вторая часть. Пришлось на нее уже потрать 2 недели, из-за выполнения коммишки. Входящие серии на данный работе: ГаоГайГар, Мазинкайзер SKL, Грендайзер, Вселенная Гридмэна, Академия Ведьмочек, Геттер Робо Арк, Веселые Детки-Таблетки, Шин Мазингер Зеро, Гуррен-Лаганн, Трансформеры: Победа, Ганбастер, Промар, Вотомы, Ватару, Даймос, Фуга: Мелодия Стали, Гандам: Ведьма из Меркурия, Экскайзер, Да-Гарн, и Голдран. А также: Геттер Робо Армагеддон, Стальная Тревога, Призрак в Доспехах, Рыцари Магии, Метал Слаг, Хроники Валькирии, серия Код Гиасс, Серия Евангелион, Милый во Франксе, Килл ла Килл, Хорошенькое Лекарство: Макс Сердце, Новое, Объятие, Трансформеры: Властоголовы, Войны великой силы, Зона, Армада, Энергон, Джей-Деккер, Майт Гейн, Совершенно Новый Зверь, Рыцари и Магия, Гандам: Железнокровые сироты, G, SEED, Кроссбоун, Нарратив, Дунбайн, Соник Икс, Капитан Харлок, Аркадия моей Юности, Ямато 2199, Дораемон: Нобита и железная армия, Затерянная вселенная, Рубаки, Войны Сакуры, Комбаттлер V и Вольтес V, Ковбой Бибоп, Войны Супер Роботов OG, 30 и T.

В скором я буду обновлять, добавляя DLC. Страница в Вики: https://super-robot-wars-gu-vselennaya.fandom.com/ru/wiki/Super_Robot_Wars_GU2 Плейлист с Саундтреком: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtTi-CZLGf7DbqHyt-9siWdDL-kYzkEoX

[callgespenst]

Back at it again!

Formerly call-gespenst, tbkultracombo, captain-harlock-confessions, and probably a few other stupid urls I'm forgetting about.

The short version: I dipped out on tumblr when a lot of other people did, and now that Twitter is spiraling, spiraling down, it feels like a good time to try this again.

The long version:

Back during the Great Tumblr Exodus of...2018? I was barely using tumblr at the time to begin with, and my old blog had A Lot of old content from people I'm really, really glad are no longer in my life. But I've definitely been feeling like I could use a good old fashioned blog again. Keeping things organized and visible on twitter is at best a nightmare, and I have a lot of creative projects I've been putting off for anywhere from a few weeks to several years that I want to finish off and document.

If any old friends that have stuck it out here for the last few years are reading this (here's hoping!) it's good to see you again. I'm doing objectively pretty well. I'm married and own a house and have two very sweet cats that some lesbian cat whisperer friends of mine found at a motel. We've got a big tv with surround sound we use to watch all our anime, a basement big enough for an airbrush booth and a sewing area, and once a week I go out with the lads and play mahjong. Life is pretty good, and I hope you're all doing good too.

Anyway, knock on wood, but at this point I think tumblr is the social media equivalent of a cockroach and unless the servers all explode at once, it's probably going to stick around. So I'm hoping I do too.

[ridley-was-a-cat]

What I Watched This Week 7/16 - 7/22

Sgt. Frog Ep. 1-25 - Crunchyroll was acting up for me this week, so I popped in the Blu-ray of this that a friend randomly sent me, not realizing I was starting myself down the path of three hundred and sixty episodes. The show follows the titular frog, who is an alien invader sent to subjugate Earth, as he struggles between spearheading the Earth invasion with his frog compatriots or spending his time building Gundam models. It's hard at times to get a read on who the target audience is for this, as much of the action involving the alien frogs and the human children they live with has the feel of a children's cartoon, with recurring gags and educational episodes, while at the same time it's full of references to much older anime and some borderline risque jokes. I guess it's a bit like Looney Tunes or The Animaniacs in that it's a kids show the adults watching would also get a kick out of. I'm enjoying it for what it is, but I really don't know if I want to watch straight through, so this may be a sporadic, long-term project. 7/10

Initial D Second Stage + Third Stage - Season two was only a single cour, and season three was a movie, so I'll combine them into one here. I continue to love this series despite my lack of interest in the subject matter, which I have to assume is due to the character writing. Takumi is such an easy character to root for, with his likable, humble personality, and earnest competitiveness, and his father's understated bad-assery absolutely delights me. I thought the story took some interesting risks with Takumi's love interest, and I was really invested in the two of them working things out as I really liked her. Takumi keeps growing as a racer, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series and seeing what he does now that he's not in high school. 8/10

Lupin the Third Part 1 - It can be a wild experience to watch older anime, as it can feel like they were still working out what they were supposed to be doing. This aired way back in 1971, and had an odd mix of adult subject matter and shounen story structure. Like, Fujiko is fairly top-heavy, and she often got her clothes ripped off, people get killed, and Lupin isn't a good guy, but the episodes are simple villain of the week stories, the heists are pretty short on actual strategy or detail, and the endings are fairly repetitive. It was entertaining in a newspaper comic strip sort of way, but I'm a little surprised this is some kind of cultural institution. 7/10

Captain Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth - I liked, but didn't love, the Captain Harlock series, and this movie worked even less well for me. I'm not sure where it fits in to the timeline of the series, or if it does at all. In fact, I'm not super sure what even happened in the movie, as the plot switched back and forth a bit in time, and spent more time spouting platitudes about True Men and Honor than on crafting a story. It's possible that I just don't find Harlock interesting as a character. 6/10

[laleydraws]

Captain Harlock Week, Day 2: Favourite battle (war/duel)

The fights between Harlock and Zero always make me laugh. 

[deuxlitresdeux]

Captain Harlock week day 1 : Favourite Tochiro Obviously, mine is Arcadia Of My Youth/Endless Orbit SSX. He's really important in the story. He's more than the "guy who builed the Arcadia", even if the Arcadia is the best thing he has created. He's funny, adorable and a major character. I don't have enough words to describe Tochiro Oyama and the many reasons why i love him so much.

[ashtenphantomharlock]

Captain Harlock Week, Day 7: Favourite weapon

Cosmo Dragoon

The Cosmo Dragoon would have to be my favorite weapon. It looks like it is between a colt and a gun that I can’t remember the name of but regardless this weapon is very stylish.  From one of my earlier posts from last year I have purchased a Cosmo Dragoon and I still love it til this day. 

[spacepirateofthearcadia]

Happy Captain Harlock Week everyone! :D 

[canmom]

Animation Night 147: the music!

🎼♫♪ it’s animation niiiiighhhttttttt♫♪

Old hands at Animation Night may recall the two big playlists of animated music videos we used to draw from at the end of every night! Compiled by the indomitable @mogsk​ and scattermoon, they took us on a fascinating tour of visual and musical styles. Animation and music are good friends... at least in short form.

And occasionally, musicians get the idea of doing something a bit grander than a single music video. Like a whole movie. We’ve seen a couple of these before - funnily enough both British - with The Wall and Yellow Submarine on AN #86. For the other landmarks in this tiny genre, we gotta go to... Japan!

Let’s roll back to 2003! Anime is just entering its computer era, and household-name electronic music duo Daft Punk have decided that the thing their new album needs is an animated film by Toei, resulting in Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. Or in Japanese, インターステラ5555, Intāsutera Fō Faibu, "Four Five".

Like Yellow Submarine, Interstella 5555 is largely a frame story to set up the band’s songs. It tells the story of a pop band of blue aliens kidnapped by a dastardly human aristocrat in a scheme to mind control them and exploit their special musical talent to sell records. A young alien astronaut goes on a mission to stop them and free the band.

The film’s animation takes after Leiji Matsumoto, the incredibly infuential mangaka and director behind Space Battleship Yamato, Space Captain Harlock, and Galaxy Express 999. Matsumoto is credited on the film as a ‘Supervisor’, although I’m not entirely sure what that means.

I wrote about Leiji Matsumoto last week, so you can read about his origins in WWII comics before becoming the creation of the Leijiverse. His works were a big hit in France, where for example Space Pirate Captain Harlock came over as Albator, and there a young Daft Punk got to meet the galaxy of tragic long women and little bean guys...

...and they had enough money in their pockets to make it possible to create a movie-length tribute to Matsumoto, with a style that’s a deliberate call back. I’m not sure if Interstella 5555 belongs in the Leijiverse proper, but it definitely hits the style of his designs, not to mention many of the recurring motifs - humanoid aliens, spaceships modelled on unlikely Earth objects, the tragic results of coercive force (in space!)...

I’ve seen it once before but I was honestly too tired to appreciate it. If you’ve seen Interstella before, I hope it will be fun to see it again; if you haven’t, I hope you’ll join me in witnessing it with fresh eyes!

Alongside that we have Sound & Fury! Thanks to @mogsk​ for investigating this one <3

Sound & Fury is so far as I can discern a compilation of music videos based on the songs of country musician Sturgill Simpson. However, I know next to nothing about Simpson, and only came across him through music videos excerpted from this film. Here’s how the music is described...

Breaking with Simpson's established country style, it featured a fuzzy hard rock sound augmented by extensive use of synthesizers, influenced by psychedelia, funk, and electronic rock.[60]

The film as a whole - just forty minutes long - is directed by Junpei Miyazaki of Kamikaze Douga, known for their work on the OPs to David Production’s Jojo adaptation, and on Pop Team Epic. Kamikaze Douga handled a good chunk of the episodes themselves (in both 2D and 3D), and pulled in other studios for the rest - these include some I’m not familiar with, like Grayscale Arts. But one name I definitely do recognise, Michael Arias of Tekkonkinkreet (see AN 52). Arias is an American who went to America to work in anime at 4C; his work on this film seems to be with a much smaller team, actually in live action.

Moreover, two episodes bring in Henry Thurlow and D’Art Shtajio, some of whose work I think I showed back on Animation Night 21. Their selling point is that they’re the only Black-owned anime studio in Japan, and they’ve previous worked a lot on music videos and short films as well as contributing to various TV shōnen anime. It’s cool to see these guys again - unfortunately I don’t think their crowdfunded projects were successful, but I bet what they put will be pretty stylish.

That’s a brief summary of the credits - but what’s it actually about? Samurai, post-apocalyptic landscapes, and a lot of aesthetic stuff. I’m not sure there’s really a unifying story as such; in Simpson’s own words it’s basically a competition to show off cool shit...

Simpson said that while in Detroit, he was inspired after listening to Eminem to write "a bunch of mad shit-talking songs about how fucking awesome we are" but later began to think that what he and his band had produced was not "weird" enough, so came up with the idea to travel to Japan and "get the five most legendary animation directors in history together and get them all drunk and put them to competition to see who can outdo one another, and we'll just animate the whole fucking album"

Not long after finishing the album and film, he cut ties with his record label, citing burnout and criticising the music industry. Basically ‘good luck selling this guys’. It seems like kind of a mess so I bet it will be intriguing to take a look into.

So that’s the subject for tonight! With such a late start I won’t have a ton of extra time, but I’d like to revisit some of our favourite animated music videos at the end, so if you’ve got requests, make note of em! We’ll be going live at twitch.tv/canmom now, and starting films in about 20 minutes - would love to see you there!!

[rosemirmir]

tagged by @stickers-on-a-laptop​!

Fave colour: Teal

Currently reading: Started a little bit of my first volume of Rose of Versailles, same with the OG Kamen Rider manga

Last song: Hateno Village from the Botw ost

Last series: Kamen Rider Den-O (I am also watching Donbros, but the last episode I saw of something was an episode of Den-O I saw the other day, but I am watching both.)

Last movie: Dead stream

Currently working on: Got a few fic wips I need to finish up and a couple art wips for a project I can’t say much else about right now

share 10 different favorite characters from ten different pieces of media in no particular order, then tag 10 people 🎥🎬📺

1. Ankh from Kamen Rider OOO - This bird has truly perched himself in my brain, the bird of all time. I love this asshole (affectionate)

2. Link from Zelda -  My original Blorbo, could gush about him for weeks if enabled

3. Maya from Captain Harlock (Arcadia of My Youth) - I love her and she deserves so much more

4. Bright Noa from Og 1979 Gundam - This poor guy really is doing his best to mantain a ship full of children being sent out to war and the dude is only fuckign 19

5. Minako from Sailor Moon - If you had to make me pick a sailor scout as my favorite, it’d be her. Though I really adore them all

6. Dr. Kiriko from Black Jack - My only exposure to him right now is his one episode in the Dezaki OVAs but  I love this trash doctor man

7. Maetel from Galaxy Express 999 - Maetel my beloved

8. Nico Robin from One Piece - Her backstory always gets to me

9. Yuri from Dirty Pair - I love Kei too but she’s definetly my favorite of the pair

10. Zox Goldtweaker from Zenkaiger - The latest pirate blorbo in my collection of pirate blorbos. He yo-ho-hoyed into my heart and brain

@carmypen @kanohivolitakk @neckspike @toku-fangirl-2015 @heavvymetalqueen @demiurgicfeline @violetlou2020 @cennydd-bookwyrm @sastheforestspirit @ceeceeforeigngeek0927 (no pressure either! do it if you feel like!)

[giraffles]

Of A Feather

IT’S CAPTAIN HARLOCK WEEK KIDS. Which means I have absolutely nothing prepared and spent the whole evening scraping this together. pls just take it as it is. 

day 1 is supposed to be your favorite tochiro, and what an unfair question, I love them all. so have a little thing with a tochiro in it instead! this is set in modern AU/the Lights Will Guide You series. 

Of A Feather

They've just finished cleaning out the den of a much hated rival when Tochiro approaches him with a squawking bundle.

you can also read it here on AO3!

They've just finished cleaning out the den of a much hated rival when Tochiro approaches him with a squawking bundle.

"What the hell is--"

"We're keeping him," Tochiro announces, pulling the sheet off the cage with a flourish, "Isn't he adorable?"

Harlock has to disagree. Inside the cage is a rather large bird, mostly black with crimson accent feathers, and beady little eyes that have murder within their depths. It shrieks even louder when exposed to the light. He can already tell that Tochiro has fallen in love.

"It's ugly. And loud."

"He's perfect," His best friend coos, "Aren't you, Tori?"

"...you didn't seriously name it 'bird', did you?"

"What's wrong with that?" Tochiro questions defensively, "Do you have a better one?"

The truth is, he doesn't. They're both garbage at coming up with fitting titles for anything; the only reason the Arcadia sounds remotely passible is because they stole it from a book of old folktales. (Harlock had personally like 'Deathshadow', but Emeraldas had stared at him blankly until he withdrew it from the table.) But naming a sorry excuse for an animal 'bird' was extra uncreative. The bird flaps its wings, nearly shaking the cage out of Tochiro's hands.

"I'm not sure bringing it along is such a good idea."

"It'll be fine." Tochiro insists. Harlock doesn't believe him for a second.

He makes a good case for returning the bird to the wild. It's a rare breed of parrot, though it looks more like some carrion eater, and it's not domesticated in the slightest. Tori only eats certain kinds of fruit, but chews relentlessly on anything within reach. The bird hates everyone in the crew, save for its savior Tochiro, and barely tolerates Harlock's presence. Tori is obnoxious, messy, and has very few redeeming qualities.

However, the discovery of a broken and badly healed wing that prevents the bird from flying straight destroys that argument. That, and Tochiro's puppy eyes are impossible to say no to. So the bird stays.

Tori never gets any better. He sheds feathers everywhere, stashes food in hidden places on the ship, and makes sure to make enough racket for an army. They find torn connection lines and trashed circuitry with suspicious claw marks, but Tochiro just laughs and fixed whatever his pet breaks. Harlock has to fish the clumsy thing out of the ocean more than once. He knows most of the crew are only joking when they say they're going to finally kill Tori, and yet he also wouldn't be surprised if it actually happened one day. Harlock instates a ship-wide 'no pets' policy. It gets broken on more than one occasion.

But life goes on. Things return to a rhythm, or they find a new one, just like whenever someone new arrives. It's not the worst thing to have ever happened on the Arcadia.

And then, everything falls apart.

The world goes so dark so fast. There are suddenly more important things than a ship, or playing the noble pirate, or a dumb bird he never wanted in the first place. His best friends are dead and there aren't enough answers in the universe for why.

One year, three months, and eight days later, Harlock strikes the deal that puts him behind bars. In exchange, everyone else's criminal records are erased. A little girl in southern California gets protection and is provided for, though she'll likely never know her parent's history. The warship Arcadia ceases to make port. And then, he waits.

Six months after that, they offer him the job.

Kei asks if he wants her to bring the bird along. The northeastern US probably isn't the best place for a tropical animal, but the thought of leaving Tori behind, or worse, handing him over to a zoo, doesn't sit well with him either. If it was anyone else's bird, he would have said to hell with it, but Tori is Tochiro's. Abandoning him would feel like accepting that there was nothing more to be done, and that is unacceptable. Maybe it's a bit of stubbornness. Maybe it's a bit of nostalgia, a bit of pity, a bit of wanting to hold onto any last thing that he can.

It's funny to watch it all play out again, but with different people. An office, albeit a secret one, is different than a ship's bridge but Tori manages to create havoc anyway. Pencils, pens, and computer cords get shredded. Snacks are stolen, only for chewed wrappers to appear later. Someone mentions they're probably breaking ordinance laws by keeping an exotic parrot within the city limits. Again, the bird stays.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He warns Zero when he walks past with a handful of grapes. He blinks at Harlock, holds a grape in front of Tori, who then devours it before chirping. No blood is drawn. Harlock hasn't seen such a peaceful, much less affectionate, display since, well, before all of this. Tori headbutts Zero's hand in search of more treats.

"Do what?" He asks.

"Nevermind."

[captainharlockweek]

IMPORTANT

The lovely @aube-in-arcadia has brought to my attention that way too many Captain Harlock Week posts are not being seen, and sadly, they do not show up in the tag when I search for them. This happened last time too and it makes me very sad. I am so sorry to everyone whose posts have not yet been reblogged. I am going through them all now and I promise I do not ignore anyone's posts. They simply aren't appearing and I have asked the tumblr staff to fix this issue in the past, but we all know how useless they are... I will make sure to reblog all Captain Harlock week posts directly from your blogs from now on, as the tag itself doesn't seem to update.... And thank you so much to Aube for sending me a bunch of the posts I couldn't find. I am very sorry to everyone.