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Leiji Matsumoto to Launch New Captain Harlock Manga
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
This September issue of Akita Shoten's Champion RED magazine is announcing on Saturday that Leiji Matsumoto (Space Battleship Yamato, Star Blazers, Galaxy Express 999) will launch the Captain Harlock: Jigen Kōkai (Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage) manga in the next issue on August 19. Kōichi Shimahoshi will illustrate the series, and the first 50-page chapter will include color pages.
The issue will also feature Matsumoto's Uchū Kaizoku Captain Harlock ~Ginga Seijo Lunāra~ (Space Pirate Captain Harlock: Galactic Saint Lunāra) one-shot manga. The manga will include color pages at the front of the magazine.
Both works will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Matsumoto's debut as a manga artist. As a first-year high school student, Matsumoto began his career when Gakudōsha's Manga Shōnen magazine published his Mitsubachi no Bōken (Adventures of the Honeybee) manga in 1954.
In Matsumoto's original 1977-79 Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga, the title character rebels against Earth's inept government and fights for humanity with his crew of 40 aboard the invincible space battleship Arcadia. The manga inspired a 1978-1979 television anime, and Crunchyroll and Funimation streamed the series. The anime inspired anime feature films, original video anime, and the sequel Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX. AnimEigo released 1982 Arcadia of My Youth film from the franchise was released in North America in 2003.
Toei Animation's Captain Harlock computer-graphics remake film opened in Japan in 2013. The film remade the original anime series with Toei's highest production budget ever at the equivalent of more than 30 million U.S. dollars. This past February, The International 3D & Advanced Imaging Society named the film the best international animated feature film of 2013.
