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I definitely like the smile of Harlock. The show is going slightly better than in beginning.
Dropped at 13 episodes. yall gotta stop overrating these old shows. It's a decent barebones action adventure but there's very little meat on those bones that would make it worth my time. First of all, there's barely any attractive characterization for the cast. Daiba has been one-dimensional because all he does is angst. I'm sure he'll turn around but even after that, there's nothing I can say about him to describe him, just like everyone else. Harlock is much lauded as one of the original badass archetypes and he gets that reputation because he's competent, not so much because he's charismatic. Some strong and silent types will utter great one liners when they do talk, like the DCAU Batman, but not Harlock. Which is fine. Major Mokoto is cool just because she's competent too. But the problem is that Harlock is competent because everyone else is incompetent and because his ship is made out of plot armor. He can take on entire enemy fleets by himself and just land anywhere on Earth he wants despite being the most wanted man on the planet. This is as opposed to having clever battle plans or nerves of steel under high pressure situations. They add a softer side to him with Mayu but that aspect is seriously overplayed throughout the course of these 13 episodes. He visits her like every other episode and the only thing it serves to do is remind you of his soft side and Mayu's tragedy. The latter doesn't even make sense because you'd think he'd just put her on the pirate ship instead of being threatened directly by the military because she knows him. Plus he'd actually give her a father figure, which sounds like a great trade-in for becoming an outlaw within the context of this story.
Harlock's plot armor also makes the action scenes unengaging. If his one ship can defend the Earth so much so that the enemy has to lure him away to attack, then that eliminates much of the tension.
Plus I'm surprised no one ever mentioned this before but Leiji Matsumoto drops heavy hints of being a right-leaning nationalist. When he promoted sacrificing oneself for duty in Galaxy Railways, I already had my suspicions. Now with this series there are several elements that should raise a red flag 1)portraying a world at peace as one that has given into laziness, docility, and complacency and framing the opposite of this as fighting in a war 2)Daiba's arc about becoming a "real man" and I don't think I've ever seen a strong female character that gets the spotlight in Leiji's works ever, while the Mazone are all women who can hypnotize men. 3) a nostalgic homage to a Japanese submarine from WWII. 4)The crew goes on a killing rampage of Mazones shown to be living peacefully on Earth without bothering to capture and question them first.
I mentioned this last point last because it's not really noticeable enough to affect your enjoyment of the show, and plus I could be proven wrong by later episodes.
