Queen Emeraldas

Original Title: クィーン エメラルダス
Romanized: Queen Emeraldas
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

The spacelanes are a dangerous place--travelers live in fear of the mighty Afressian empire, ambushing and wreaking havoc on passing ships at will. But one ship and one captain has both the power and will to stand up to them: Emeraldas and her ship the Queen Emeraldas, one of the mightiest vessels ever built, and sister ship to that of the legendary Captain Harlock. They come and go as they please, and none who defy Emeraldas and her ship survive long.

Hiroshi is a young orphaned boy, full of anger and determined to rely on no one as he travels through space. When he stows away on a freighter that comes under attack, his fate becomes connected to Emeraldas' when she appears and saves the day.

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-07-21

Part of the vast canvas of Leiji Matsumoto's universe, Queen Emeraldas is archetypal and straightforward enough to stand completely on its own, but also features a number of tie-ins, both explicit and not, for existing fans. Either way, it takes old-school Matsumoto flavor--a story that is sweeping in scale but centered on personal development and character-building, an orphaned boy striking out on his own, and a way-too-cool hero--and updates it with a slick modern visual polish. Its biggest strength is how good it looks; despite some slightly-too-classic moments, it is a retro-future tale loaded with style and quality action. Its biggest weakness is that it is what it is: The story is unflinchinglly old-fashioned, and Emeraldas is so cool she'll give you an ice-cream headache--so cool she doesn't even need to dodge.

If you're a fan of Matsumoto's related stories, I'm guessing you'll like this one, but familiarity with the world isn't a prerequisite and anyone who enjoys a good space pirate tale or heroes so cool they're almost frozen will probably have a blast.

US DVD Review

The DVD is quite nice, but as with most of their early efforts, ADV missed the mark by a little. The video and audio transfers are flawless to be sure, and the disc includes English, Japanese, and French dialogue tracks, as well as subtitles in English and Spanish. It has animated menus complete with music, an animated track index, and some short character bios.

The biggest problem with the disc is that it only includes the first two episodes of the series, and while it doesn't end on a cliffhanger (you might not even notice there isn't more to it), ADV never got around to releasing the second two.

Additionally, a few small glitches make the disc fall short of really great, even for the era. For one thing, they neglect to include the Japanese cast; ADV is usually good about that, too. Second, at least on my player, when I was watching in Japanese it suddenly cut to the French soundtrack a couple of times. Weird. Third, (and this affects everybody), the theme songs are subtitled in English first, then Japanese (so you can sing along) on the second episode, as ADV usually does. But apparently the end theme was subtitled from another verse or something, because the words on the screen have almost nothing to do with what is being sung. Go figure. A final nit-pick, the subtitles at the very end of the last episode are mis-timed, popping up well before they're supposed to.

Content Guide

Violent, but not extreme; probably 10-up, though some parents might find the violence more objectionable than others.

Violence: 3 - Violent, but usually detached (spaceships and such), with the exception of one particularly brutal fist fight.

Nudity: 0 - Nothing.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - None.

Language: 1 - Not noteworthy.

Notes and Trivia

Fits in with Leiji Matsumoto's vast anime universe, which encompassing Galaxy Express 999 and the Captain Harlock/Arcadia franchise. Emeraldas and several of her aquantances are ongoing characters in the assortment of stories, and Emeraldas plays a pivotal role in another newer OAV series, Maetel Legend.

Although there are actually four episodes in the series, ADV's initial 1999 release came before the second two parts were even completed. While commendable for a timely US release, as of this writing they never bothered to release the other half, and even the first part has been essentially dropped from their catalog.

A totally random note: In the little known very early CD-ROM game Spaceship Warlock (released in 1990 for the Mac and several years later for Windows), the titular pirate ship is vaguely reminiscent of the Queen Emeraldas. This was probably an in-joke by the creators of the game.

Availability

Available in the US from AD Vision on a hybrid DVD (English, Japanese, and French) that includes the first two episodes (with no indication that there are two more). The same was also simultaneously released on subtitled and dubbed VHS, now out of print. ADV has never released the last two episodes in the series.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store