1978

Uchū Kaizoku Kyaputen Hārokku
[Space Pirate Captain Harlock]
SF Comics, 1978

While the television series Space Pirate Captain Harlock followed the manga relatively closely, the manga had the ability to follow tangents, explore story arcs further and indulge in extensive character development, not being constrained by time and budget as a television program naturally is. The manga allows us further into the mind of Harlock than ever before, and through the eyes of supporting characters we see how Harlock has changed over time, and how events have shaped him. For obvious reasons this is the most developed Harlock character, regardless of his previous incarnations. This is Captain Harlock, whole and complete. Well, as complete as he can be in the mutable Matsumoto universe.

Stylistically the manga is dark; Matsumoto never for a moment spares the ink. The Arcadia is often rendered as a white speck in an enormous swathe of star-studded blackness, and the Arcadia’s crew become lost against the ship's interiors, a dark and overpowering backdrop of dials and gauges. And for all that this is merely black and white line art, Harlock here comes across as far more three-dimensional and fully-fleshed than in any other incarnation, televised or otherwise.

      
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1979

Otoko Oidon [I Am A Man | Man Myself]
Kodansha Comics, 1979

A highly successful series from the early 70s, ‘Otoko Oidon’ details the exploits of a luckless young man as he bumbles his way through life. The strangest thing (in a sea of strange things) about the protagonist is his enormous collection of blue-striped boxer shorts, in some of which he grows copious crops of mushrooms that he boils up into what I expect is a reasonably nutritious stew.

No Harlocks or Tochirōs were harmed during the writing of ‘Otoko Oidon,’ but the blue-striped boxer shorts have become a common theme in many Matsumoto manga. Viewers of Hunt for Young Harlock will now recognise the ground cover of Harlock and Tochirō’s mushroom-shaped refuge. They will also finally understand who the hell that guy with the mushrooms in his underwear is. Yes, rather than Harlock making a guest appearance in ‘Otoko Oidon’, Oidon makes a guest appearance in Hunt for Young Harlock. (In the same anime, it also appears that Tochirō wears the same blue-striped boxer shorts as the hapless Oidon, and has a rather unhealthy collection of them.) And, blink and you'll miss it, but it does seem as though Oidon, his underwear and his nabé pot, are also lounging about the corridors of the Arcadia in an episode of Endless Odyssey.

The proto characters that do appear in ‘Otoko Oidon’ are Tori-san, replete with bandanna wrapped around his beak (to stop him stealing Oidon's mushroom stew), a Kei Yuki look-alike (yes, I know, most of Matsumoto's women look like that...), and a Masu lookalike, the cook from the Arcadia.

1985

Daifurinten [Improper Life]
Sun Comics, March 1985

‘Daifurinten’ follows the unexpectedly amorous adventures of a Tochirō-type character named Utamaro. If you were ever curious how Matsumoto’s short male characters ever ‘did it’ with his tall willowy female characters, ‘Daifurinten’ lets you count the ways. (As an aside, Matsumoto’s manga quite often contain tastefully naked women indulging in sexual congress in an extraordinary variety of manners.)

For readers who believe that the character of Mayu, Tochirō’s daughter from Space Pirate Captain Harlock, was invented specifically for the TV series, it may be time to reassess. Another 'Mayu' appears in ‘Daifurinten’ in the company of proto-Tochirō. There may in fact be nothing new under the Matsumoto sun, and who knows where Mayu has appeared before.

1988

V2 Panzā [V2 Panzer]
Young King Comics, 1988

‘V2 Panzā’ teams up a pseudo-Harlock and Tochirō with yet another willowy woman, this time on a sidecar trip to hell. Though this unblemished version of Harlock has yet to be scarred or lose an eye, he does come replete with the skull and crossbones insignia, which in the Matsumoto universe must make him an heir to the Arcadia legacy, ergo he surely must be another version of Harlock.

As the two male characters of this tale spend most of their time jammed together in a sidecar whilst their female travelling companion rides the bike, it serves to demonstrate that even in Matsumoto’s male-centric universes, the men don’t seem to mind sitting back while the women do all the work.

Gun Furontia [Gun Frontier]
Akita Comics Select, 1988

First appearing in 1972, this two-volume collection of wild west-type stories from 1988 does not contain pseudo-Harlocks and Tochirōs — it actually does contain Harlock and Tochirō. In a short forward to the 1988 reprint of 'Gun Frontier,' Matsumoto waxes lyrical about the nostalgia of the ‘Gun Frontier’ for men, about the dreams of youth contained therein, and cryptically hints that this could be Harlock and Tochirō’s true origin (and since it is clearly stated in the Space Pirate manga that Harlock and Tochirō used to live on Heavy Melder, the futuristic equivalent of the Gun Frontier, this just might be the case...).

For anybody having difficulty reconciling the notion of the great space pirate as a gunslinger, don’t worry. Harlock suits the western milieu far more aptly than he does the whole pirate thing. He walks like a cowboy, draws a gun like a cowboy, rides a horse like a cowboy. And remember, the Harlock of the Harlock-and-Tochirō partnership is a totally different beast. He’s happy, humorous, gregarious and slightly bumbling, yet replete with his layer of impenetrable cool.

The perversity of 'Gun Frontier' is not that the great Space Pirate Harlock is spending his time in a hick western town (and we must remember that Harlock and Tochirō often visit such ‘western towns’ on maverick planets in the course of their space adventures), but that Tochirō is in actual fact a sword-wielding, geta-wearing, butt-kicking samurai in disguise. Weird. The two friends are joined in 'Gun Frontier' by a woman of extremely loose morals, Shinunora, who offers herself to every man she comes across, including Harlock and Tochirō. While Tochirō has not much difficulty batting her off (well, maybe just a little difficulty), when Shinunora offers a free blowjob in an icy river, Harlock can hardly refuse.

'Gun Frontier' is full of nudity, sex, alcohol and flying six-shooters. It’s a lewd comedy of errors, and by far the hardest Tochirō-Harlock incarnation to assimilate, but it’s certainly fun trying.