Captain Harlock (1978) 1.17

The Skeleton Hero

The Arcadia heads back to Earth and picks up Mayu. She gets a few hours aboard the ship before she has to return to the boarding school. She spends it running around and having fun.

The Arcadia drops off Mayu and then takes off. They find a bottle floating out in space with a message in it from Captain Yamanaka. He was an old but respected adversary of Captain Harlock. Maji, one of Yamanaka's former crew men, is now the chief engineer aboard the Arcadia.

Maji tells the story of how he was loyal to Captain Yamanaka but his life changed when he met Aki, the love of his life. Maji and Aki got married and had a daughter. Everything was going great for Maji until Captain Yamanaka came to see him. He asked Maji to leave his wife and come with him. Yamanaka insisted that Aki was an alien.

Maji couldn't believe what he was hearing. He refused to leave his wife or believe that she was an alien. He parted ways with Captain Yamanaka but then Aki showed up and tried to kill Yamanaka. The captain shot first and killed her. Maji came running when he heard the noise. He arrived just in time to see her burst into flames.

Maji still wasn't convinced. He returned home only to get there in time to see Midori, his daughter, being dragged away by the Mazone. It was only then that Maji joined Captain Harlock's crew.

The Arcadia travels toward the Horse Head Nebula in search of a spaceship, The Braves, and its captain, Yamanaka. They find the ship but everyone aboard is already dead, including Captain Yamanaka. Captain Harlock has the Braves destroyed and then the Arcadia continues on its way to the Horse Head Nebula.

Thoughts

Roughly half of this episode is spent on Maji's story, meaning his life before he joined the crew of the Arcadia. I wasn't sure where it was all going until I saw Aki. It was pretty clear that she had to be one of the Mazone. Her skin and eye color kind of gave it away.

The flashback, Maji's story, is the highlight of this episode. I've got a feeling that Maji is going to soon vanish never to be seen from again. It looks like he is in the next episode but will he survive whatever comes next?

This isn't a great episode but it is a little more nuanced that some episodes and I like that.