Captain Harlock (1978) 1.29

The Life-and-Death Struggle on the Rainbow Planet

Captain Harlock and his crew are despondent after their failure to find Mayu on the Human Planet. They wander, seemingly aimlessly, for a while until they spot some Mazone ships. Daiba leads a team after the Mazone fighters. They engage and destroy some of them but then Captain Harlock orders them to return to the Arcadia.

Everyone follows the Captain Harlock's orders except Daiba who goes after another Mazone ship. Daiba's ship is hit with a beam that causes him to go into a tailspin and crash into the Rainbow Planet. He is surrounded by Mazone when he wakes up.

Shiraku, the leader of this group of Mazone, explains that they are civilians who ran away from the fleet. They are hiding from the other, war-making Mazone. They give him his gun back but ask that he contact Captain Harlock. They want Harlock's protection.

Daiba has doubts and doesn't contact Captain Harlock right away. He talks to Kirika, a little Mazone girl. He grows more comfortable with the Mazone civilians but then Mazone warships attack. Daiba and the Mazone civilians take shelter underground.

Daiba contacts Captain Harlock once the raid is over. Captain Harlock suspects that it is a trap but he comes anyway. He can't imagine not helping Daiba, even though he disobeyed orders. Captain Harlock was right. Shiraku, Kirika, and the others are all Mazone soldiers. Captain Harlock and Daiba manage to shoot their way out of the trap. The Mazone "civilians" are all killed.

Thoughts

This episode is mostly a Daiba episode but all of the other regular crew members from the Arcadia are also in it. 

Kirika looks a little like and sounds just like Mayu. 

I don't understand how Daiba wasn't killed when he crashed into the Rainbow Planet. His ship also survived the impact, intact. Maybe the Mazone saved him. Maybe the beam the Mazone fired at him made him think he was headed on a collision course for the Rainbow Planet when he actually was not.

This is a decent episode. This still doesn't blow me away with greatness but the show seems to be hitting a stride. There are things that happen a little too conveniently but on the whole this show is impressing me considerably more than UFO Robo Grendizer.