Anime Meta-Review
Queen Emeraldas
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Title Info
- seen: 1-2 of 2
- type: OAV
- grade: flawed
- made: unknown
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
A modern descendant of an old title this OAV explores the character of Captain Harlock's female equivalent Emeraldas (The Queen is her ship). Considering that she is cool and deadly, travels the universe in a super high tech pirateship and exemplifies the philosophy of piracy and freedom there is lots of potential here. Sadly she is obviously way too cool to actually be challenged by anything a story might contain, and thus is forced to restrain herself to an opening speech and being a plot device in someone elses story, even though in theory she is the focus. Thus we are forced to follow the story of a headstrong youth and a bunch of spacers (and a saloon owner) and his dreams of power and independance. We are clearly supposed to be attached to his character growth, but since Emeralda has already acheived everything he dreams of (and is way cooler) be becomes an irritating distraction. I was also annoyed by Emeraldas seemingly so certain of her invulnerability that she doesn't bother dodging incoming fire (too cool to be hit?) although I realised later that it just may mean she has confidence in her personal shields. Anyway, reasonable animation although too many still frames, retaining of the style from older movies and poorly integrated computer effects reduce the charm. A fun watch for harlock fans and the curious, but not serious competition for the latest and greatest.
The folks at THEM clearly know a bit about the Harlock universe and find the dialogue and CG effects, and other flaws, make this tape a limited experience in this review which is tough but fair.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:23 WST 2009