Yesflix/Noflix: Kite Liberator Or Space Pirate Captain Harlock?
What the hell have a teenage assassin-for-hire and a space pirate got in common? Probably plenty, this is anime we’re talking about but I’m being more specific. In this case, they’re both lone wolves with one goal, they both feature space themes and they’re both here to try entertain me, but only one of them succeeds!
Spoilers… it’s not Space Pirate Captain Harlock!
This is Yesflix/Noflix the Arcade’s guide on what to watch and not watch on Netflix!
Yesflix – Kite Liberator
The second installment in the “Kite” series, I went into this completely unaware of that fact but came out, and I guarantee you will too, wanting to see more. Kite Liberator is set ten years after the events of the first film and so it’s easy to adjust to the setting and timeline. The film opens on a space station where events begin to unfold when an experiment to protect bone mass against the effects of zero gravity begin to go wrong.
Back on Earth, in Tokyo two police offers corner a gun-toting paedophile in a women’s bathroom only to be held at bay while the criminal takes a young girl hostage only to find himself trapped in the bathroom with an assassin known as “The Angel of Death”. The female assassin strikes her target down and escapes before she can be apprehended, on board a crowded train she makes her change from killer to clumsy maid and she begins her shift in a small maid café before returning home.
We learn by this point that the young woman is Monaka and her father is aboard the space station which is now thrown into chaos after the experiment causes two men to violently mutate into near indestructible monsters. The station is destroyed when the creatures rampage, the only survivors barely make to Earth but are unaware that one of the monsters has survived and made it to the planet as well.
The young assassin is now charged with taking the monster down all the while unaware of her father’s fate aboard the station.
Kite Liberator is beautiful, it runs at just sixty minutes and with several stories running through it, it executes their telling flawlessly. Monaka is as terrifying as the monsters created aboard the station, her ability to switch between personas is as frightening as the strength and speed she wields as she coldly cuts down her targets. It’s a very fast paced film but manages to pull it all together without overburdening its audience!
Fans of Claymore and Ghost in the Shell will love this!
Noflix – Space Pirate Captain Harlock
As with Kite Liberator, I was completely unaware there was a Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga and anime series as well as other OVAs. Unlike Kite Liberator I was not that enthused to go hunt them down after watching the film.
The movie revolves around a man by the name of Yama who has just joined the crew of the Arcadia, captained by the mysterious and rumored immortal Harlock. Earth as we know it no longer exists, humanity has spread itself across the Universe and is now at a point of despair, the species is dying out and the dream now is to return to the planet once called home. The journey back though was a bloody one and a great war sparked between various factions of humanity, Earth was sanctioned as a sacred place and returning home was forbidden.
Harlock oversaw the protection of Earth until he broke ranks, resisted what he saw as a betrayal by the elite class and a cataclysmic event unfolded destroying all life on the planet.
One hundred years later Harlock returns, Yama joins his crew as a double agent and we learn that Harlock has a plan to turn back time and give humanity a chance to do things over from the very start.
It’s so convoluted even remembering all of that hurts – yeah, I went into this one blind but Harlock does nothing to help itself. It’s too much – Earth is gone but we’re getting back, there’s an alien who controls the self repairing self fuelling ship, there’s a spy with some story about his brother being a government official who is paralyzed and who really wanted to be a botanist and not a double agent.
Don’t get me wrong, the movie is something to behold, you know that rush you got during a CG cut scene in a Final Fantasy game? It feels and looks like that it’s just a shame that the story isn’t very well put together. There was potential for Space Pirate Captain Harlock but I say mutiny and go watch something else!
Fans of Firefly and Knights of Sidonia, avoid this like you would asteroids!
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
