Queen Emeraldas
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Queen Emeraldas is a four-episode Japanese anime OAV that continues the Harlock Saga created by Leiji Matsumoto. The anime was adapted from Matsumoto's 1978 manga of the same name. Queen Emeraldas is the story of the pirate spaceship, Queen Emeraldas, which is captained by the mysterious and beautiful Emeraldas, a strong and powerful privateer.
Plot
The storyline follows a young boy named Hiroshi Umino who sneaks aboard a freighter in order to leave Earth. As the freighter is flying through space they are attacked by an Afressian ship. However, the train is saved by a mysterious ship and is able to make it to their destination, a desert planet with a Western atmosphere, complete with saloons and bar fights. The boy meets up with another stowaway, an old man, and becomes friends with him. He tells the old man that he came to the planet in order to become a stronger individual. He gets himself a job in a bar with the roughest reputation on the planet to prove himself. When the attacking ship, led by Captain Eldomain, lands on the planet to search for whoever attacked him, Emeraldas appears to save the people of the town.
While the story can stand on its own, independent of Matsumoto's other works, it mostly assumes that the viewer has seen the other Harlock Saga titles, especially Galaxy Express 999 (the TV series and the movies), which featured Maetel, Emeraldas' sister, but had the occasional appearance of Emeraldas. The story of Queen Emeraldas is set five years after the events of the final Galaxy Express 999 movie and was designed to give Matsumoto's fans a further glimpse into what became of Emeraldas. However, of the other characters, most are only mentioned in passing, except for Captain Harlock who has a brief cameo appearance.
Queen Emeraldas' first two episodes were licensed for American distribution by ADV Films and they were one of their earlier releases on the DVD format. Those two episodes also have regular runs on the Action Channel. In Japan, the remaining two episodes were released some time after the initial two, indicating that a separate contract (that is not yet forthcoming) would be required for anyone to license the conclusion to the story outside of Japan.
Episodes
- "Departure" (June 10, 1998)
- "Eternal Emblem" (July 10, 1998)
- "Friendship" (August 25, 1999)
- "Siren" (December 18, 1999)
External link
- ADV Films: Queen Emeraldas (http://www.advfilms.com/catalog/DetailsQueenEmeraldasDVDVolume01.asp)