Arcadia of My Youth

Title:Arcadia of My Youth
Waga Seishun no Arcadia
わが青春のアルカディア
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , ,
Notables: R1 License - AnimEigo
Set against the conquest of Earth by an alien empire. Captain Harlock, together with those who will become his lifelong friends, battle against tyranny no matter what the cost.
118min Movie.
[edit] The ↗Captain Harlock franchise:
  • (1982) Arcadia of My Youth (Movie, alternate retelling)
  • (1982) _ Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (TV) (sequel, 22 TV episodes)
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 6 5 5 6 6 Ggultra2764 [series:250#1552]
(Rent-/ Watch+)

There have been enough retellings on the world of Captain Harlock and what is implied to have caused him to be a pirate such as man's laziness in the 1978 TV anime or the Earth taken over by alien robots in Cosmo Warrior Zero, that I'm beginning to think things just keep getting rebooted for Leiji Matsumoto's personal convenience. Arcadia of my Youth is one of these said reboots, yet this one is also supposed to serve as an origin story to cover how Captain Harlock and his crew aboard the Arcadia came to be. The anime does provide reasonable back story on how Harlock and the major members of his crew such as Tochiro and Emeraldas met up with one another, though some of the circumstances reek of contrivance as to be expected with a space opera as old as this. Melodrama is obviously the name of the game with the major story developments that take place throughout this movie with exaggerated emotions expressed and events happening rather conveniently for Harlock and his allies to get away from or kick alien invader butt. I'm not a big fan of melodrama, but I can somewhat appreciate the fact that this was a movie clearly trying to get the audience to sympathize with Harlock's struggles and take his ideals to heart as this style of writing was a product of its time for many titles.

Don't let what my overall rating and thoughts deter you from sampling Arcadia of my Youth. With Leiji Matsumoto's habit of rebooting the storyline to his franchise with a number of his titles, Arcadia can be watched by new or seasoned fans of Matsumoto's works as this doesn't require one to have prior knowledge of the Captain Harlock mythos to get into. However if you aren't a fan of older anime titles, then definitely keep away from this movie as the outdated animation style and melodramatic storytelling could be huge turn-offs for you.

Last updated Wednesday, November 14 2012. Created Wednesday, November 14 2012.
Buy 5 5 7 4 The Coyote [series:250#64]
the reason the scores on my review are so low is that this is an older anime and to be honest the animation and art dose not compeat with todays (also I don't like subtitles, too lazy) this is still a very good story and one of the great animes. If you consider yourself an anmie fan you really owe it to yourself to see this one

Last updated Friday, February 16 2001. Created Friday, February 16 2001.

Community Anime Reviews

anime mikomi org