Monday, March 30, 2015

Harlock: Space Pirate DVD Review & Giveaway



Harlock: Space Pirate
Director: Shinji Aramaki
Voice Cast: Shun Oguri, Haruma Miura, Yu Aoi
Studio: Ketchup Entertainment
Release Date: March 31, 2015
Retail: $20.99
ASIN: B00RDEISAA
Running Time: 111 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on DVD tomorrow from Ketchup Entertainment for the first time in United States is the 2003 Japanese 3D CG anime Harlock: Space Pirate. Directed by Shinji Aramaki (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, Halo Legends, Appleseed Saga: Ex Machina), the film features the voices of Shun Oguri, Haruma Miura and Yo Aoi. The movie can be played with the original Japanese voices, an English subtitles version or with English dubbed voices. There are no special features or bonus extras on the disc.

Based on the manga series Space Pirate Captain Harlock by Leiji Matsumoto, the film centers on a young soldier, Yama, of the Gaia Coalition, whom is ordered to volunteer as a new member of Captain Harlock's renegade crew aboard the pirate spaceship Arcadia. Once he is trusted by them, he is to take out the Captain.


While his orders seem to be simple at first, Yama quickly realizes that Captain Harlock might not be the bad guy that the Gaia Coalition claims, especially after the Captain saves his life. He quickly learns that the startling truth of what really happened to Earth and he goes on a quest with the crew of the Arcadia to seek out justice.


The film was screened at the 33rd Hawaii International Film Festival and was shown ast the 70th Venice International Film Festival. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics. However, it did win the Lumière award in Best International 3D Feature (2014) at the 3D Creative Arts Award.



I'm fairly new to the world of anime, so I'm not aware of all the new movies being released. After watching the trailer for this film, I became interested in reviewing the DVD. Compared to Disney/Pixar movies, the $30-million budget seems pretty small, but the director and his film crew did a remarkable job with the computer graphics. While the film is set in the future, the movie has an unique steampunk vibe look to it. Now, the plot is pretty thin for the most part, but the characters are likeable and the the action scenes are topnotch. Yes, this is an animation film, but it isn't for younger viewers as it does contain brief nudity, mild language and scifi-violence. Overall, Harlock: Space Pirate is a beautifully crafted animated film that I enjoyed watching.


*Disclaimer - I received a complimentary copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.


Giveaway Details:

Harlock: Space Pirate DVD
1 Winner
Sponsored by Click Communication / Ketchup Entertainment
USA Addresses Only
Blogger is responsible for shipping the DVD to the winner.
Giveaway Ends April 30th!

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8 comments:

  1. Spirited away.
    heather hgtempaddy@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely Howl's Moving Castle!
    mcfallsk8er[at]aim[dot]com

    ReplyDelete
  3. My favorite is definitely Spirited Away!
    haleyrscully@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Howl's Moving cancel is my favorite anime movie. Thanks for the giveaway. BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com

    ReplyDelete

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