Summary: >

Some of the people who travel the great spans of the universe live by the simple order handed down to them from their governments. Others have chosen to live life by their own code, and play by their own rules. One such person, is Emeraldas - a somewhat infamous and dangerous woman who travels in an unusual looking space vessel that resembles a 20th century airship.

Emeraldas however never seems to get too far without trouble following her, or her jumping right into it. Her code of honor demands it, and often the odds are well against her. Yet she has always managed to emerge somehow. But when Emeraldas comes across an alien vessel flying her flag, she starts the beginning of a very tough fight... one in which even she may not survive.

Thoughts: >

Sometime around the 90s, the old Harlock franchise suddenly became fashionable again in the anime world. One of the results was Queen Emeraldas. In the Harlock universe there is an interesting array of characters, but Emeraldas herself has never really had a series that centered around her in particular. In that respect it's sort of sad that this anime doesn't do an exceptional job of standing on its own. It's supposed to take place some time after Galaxy Express 999 (which I haven't seen), and makes a lot of references to other things within the Harlock universe. Much of that is sort of inconsequential to watching this series, but you come to understand that this series is just more meat to feed people who are already fans of the series.

So where to start. Alright the animation wasn't bad. This is a CGI title that was in the forefront of when CGI anime was new. Well not new, but very rare for a title to be done completely in CGI, and even more rare for it not to look like crap. And actually Queen Emeraldas does look pretty good. The animation was good. Character designs were excellent. There were some flaws here and there, but overall it was pretty well balanced for its time.

There are a lot of big detractors to this title though. First and foremost being that it really misses the mark on a lot of the "heart" in the Harlock universe. It's like the words are there, but it's missing the the real feeling behind the words. The characters themselves aren't particularly super interesting, and the biggest disappointment of all is Emeraldas herself. It doesn't seem like much is actually really revealed about her, which is sort odd since she's rather mysterious to begin with and this series is about her. Her character comes across as very cold and brooding. That's alright, but it never seems like we crack the shell to see what's inside or more insight into why she is that way. Or for that matter why her lost true love happened to be a super short guy resembling a small troll with glasses.

Another detractor in this series is that it's rather anti-climatic. Emeraldas has some sort of reality distortion field that seems to allow her perfect accuracy when she shoots, while no one can hit her despite the fact that she doesn't so much as move. Likewise her ship sweeps the planes of space clean in mere moments, typically only allowing alien vessels to show themselves in great numbers to make blowing them up that much more interesting. But it's not that exciting. Now when Harlock does a dual with the Arcadia like in Arcadia of My Youth, you REALLY get into it. The ships fire on each other in a 17th century ship dual that captures the imagination. The ships take heavy fire and each time have significantly more damage, yet turn around for another pass. It's a dual to the death! Fighting a Puma with a dagger: that's drama. Fighting a spider in your garage with a 12 gage shotgun: that's not drama, and that's the sort of action Queen Emeraldas delivers.

Who flies around in a ship named after themselves anyway?

So in summary I would say this series may be worth it to some Harlock fans, but most people should probably pass this title by. It's part of a larger branch of the Harlock universe which you may or may not be interested in, but it can safely be ignored in the big scheme of things. The Harlock universe thrives on nostalgia and capturing the swash buckling honor and adventure many of us like to think of in times long since passed, but Queen Emeraldas doesn't really capture that, and tends to ring a bit hollow.

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