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A note concerning spellings:

Character and place names throughout the Harlock mythos have many variant versions produced by many different translators and/or fans. For example, since it is an actual name that exists outside of the Harlock stories, we can safely say that "Arcadia" is correct, and "Alkadia" is not. For wholly invented names such as "LaMetalle," on the other hand, we cannot decisively say that "La Metal," "Larmetar," or La Meter" are not equally viable spellings. In such cases, I have adhered to the spellings I have used in my subtitled versions for consistency's sake, which were chosen partly for aesthetics, and partly to most accurately approximate the manner in which the name is pronounced in the series or film in question. In all instances, characters will be referred to by their original Japanese-version names for purposes of consistency and clarity.

The Captain Harlock Character Guide

Section Two-A: The Mazone

The Mazone are a race of intelligent, humanoid plant beings from beyond the Andromeda galaxy. They generally appear as females, though amongst the civilian sectors of the populace we do see the occasional male Mazone. Since the species is hermaphroditic and individuals reproduce asexually, these differences would seem to be merely superficial rather than functional. At the time of the Space Pirate series, their star system has been obliterated by the explosion of their sun, and the entire Mazone race is en route to earth aboard a huge caravan of ships. Far back in earth's history, the Mazone visited our Solar System and transplanted beings from Venus to earth, nurtured them with the beginnings of scientific knowledge, and left them to develop into a race of beings the Mazone could treat as domestic animals upon their return. This backstory is only vaguely hinted at in the actual series, the source for the full version being the Space Pirate Captain Harlock TV Film Series book, which outlined a version of the show much more closely based on the manga version than the show which was eventually produced.

Early on, in episode three, the Mazone are described as a species which is naturally green, but which turns white within earth's atmosphere. No one apparently told the colorists this, as the Mazone randomly appear white, green, or blue, regardless of where they're found. Whoopsie.

We have come for your astronomers!




Queen Lafresia

Absolute monarch of the Mazone race, Lafresia is committed to guiding her people to their new home on earth. At the outset, Lafresia does not regard Harlock as a major obstacle, and even saves his life on one occasion, in order to give her military something to continue to focus their attention upon (a decision she comes to regret.) Once regarded as a great, wise regent, Lafresia becomes more unpredictable and dangerous as the increasing desperation of her situation causes her to abandon her conscience. At first unwilling to kidnap Mayu as a diversionary ploy, feeling the tactic cowardly and dishonorable, she eventually concedes to that-and worse-as the threat posed by Harlock and the Arcadia becomes more and more apparent. Her own citizens' growing mistrust of her single-minded mission causes much dissension amongst the Mazone, dissension which Lafresia handles with ruthless intolerance.

Lafresia becomes obsessed with understanding the mind of her enemy, even above and beyond strategic necessity, and eventually meets Harlock in a face-to-face duel, in the course of which she is discovered to be human (a fact revealed but never explained.) He allows her to leave and take her civilians to find another home, but while Lafresia makes good on her promise to depart, she's not above after-the-fact spoilsport tactics, and attempts to leave the world she could not attain in ruins.

Despite the fact that pervasive rumours to the contrary state that Lafresia falls in love with Harlock, nothing could be further from the truth. She first considers him a trifling matter, and in the end curses his name as the one who has destroyed her dreams and the future of her people. I can only speculate that some viewers have confused her with the Mazone Sunora.



To accomplish this mission, I would gladly go down as the most merciless queen in history.

To the victor goes the Earth.




Commander Cleo

Queen Lafresia's right hand and most trusted officer, Cleo is commander of the Mazone Royal Guard and supreme commander of the Mazone fleet. It is Cleo's intelligence-gathering that reveals Harlock's weakness: his attachment to Tochiro Oyama's daughter Mayu. Lafresia initially rejects Cleo's suggestion of using Mayu to draw Harlock away from her fleet, but reluctantly agrees to the tactic in order to quell a bloody revolt. In the final conflict, Cleo acts as a decoy for Lafresia, and is killed by Tadashi Daiba.



Cleo, commander of the Royal Guard.




Commander Cassandra

Front-line Commander and head of the Third Quadrant Division, Cassandra sees the civilian fleet as a hindrance to the Mazone military and argues that they should be abandoned to their fate after an attempt to protect a passenger ship (which Harlock mistook for a command ship) causes her fleet to lose to the Arcadia. Revising her tactics, Cassandra places the civilian ships in the front line of battle to shield her fleet from attack, but is ultimately defeated when Harlock uses a diversion to draw off the rest of her battleships and flanks her command ship, leaving Cassandra alone to swallow the bullet (or blade, as it were.)



Cut the civilians loose, and we soldiers alone will press on to earth!




Shizuka Namino

A Mazone spy masquerading as the Secretary to the Prime Minister of earth, Shizuka is a consummate manipulator who stages an assassination attempt on her boss, then frames Commander Kiruta for the crime, only to then break him out of jail and trick him into asking Harlock to give her sanctuary for her apparent treason. Shizuka's ultimate objective is to ascertain the mystery of the Arcadia's unidentified forty-second crewman, and then disable the ship from within. When her identity is discovered by Harlock, Lafresia abandons her, only for Harlock to grant her freedom in spite of her actions. He rescues her after her own forces attempt to terminate her rather than let her return in defeat, but torn between guilt of failing the nation of her allegiance and feelings of admiration for her honorable enemy, Shizuka ultimately orchestrates her own death at Harlock's hands.

Harlock never tells Kiruta (who was quite smitten with Shizuka) that she was a spy, and claims she died a hero during combat with the Mazone fleet.

Shizuka makes an encore appearance of sorts in Endless Odyssey, re-conceived as a holographic assistant to Dr. Daiba. She has dark hair (a la the manga version of her original character) but the same dress and pendant. Naturally, there's no way to reconcile these two versions as being the same person, so don't hurt yourself trying.



One woman had betrayed the Prime Minister, deceived Commander Kiruta, and orchestrated her acceptance aboard the Arcadia single-handedly: Shizuka Namino.




Lola

Captain of a special combat squadron attached to the Mazone front-line base on Venus, Lola is the albatross around Tadashi Daiba's neck. Tadashi hesitates in firing upon her after glimpsing her face, which nearly results in his death. After she is taken prisoner, he is put in charge of her care and interrogation. Lola uses her hypnotic abilities to impersonate Tadashi's late mother, manipulating the boy into first divulging all he knows about the Arcadia, and then releasing her. Armed with new knowledge, the Mazone assail the Arcadia once more, and Lola and Tadashi meet for a third time, when Tadashi finally accepts the death of his mother and destroys Lola.



If you're going to kill me, then go ahead and kill me...if you can.




Teshusse

Teshusse is the foremost mind amongst Mazone civilian scientists and an old friend of Queen Lafresia. When Lafresia initially proposed the plan of emigrating to earth to escape the doom that would come from the impending explosion of their sun, Teshusse was her most fervent supporter. However, the rigors of the long journey, coupled with concern over the unforeseen threat posed by Harlock, have caused Teshusse to seriously rethink the wisdom of the Mazone grand plan, and she clashes with Cassandra over the rights of the beleaguered civilian populace. When she herself takes a small group of citizens and deserts the Mazone caravan to settle on nearby planet Beta, Lafresia sends Cleo to execute her and the other deserters, regardless of their former friendship.



However you forge it, steel without pliancy will always be brittle. The same is true of a heart without mercy.




Alellgias

Alellgias is the commander of the Mazone front-line base on Venus. When her clan members in the Amazon jungle are attacked by the Arcadia (an attack launched by Tadashi against Harlock's wishes,) Alellgias vows revenge upon Harlock. She dispatches the mesmerizing Lola and her squadron against the Arcadia, and confronts the Arcadia ship-to-ship. Harlock wins the initial conflict, but Alellgias retreats to the Venus outpost and launches a new assault when the Arcadia traces her forces back to base. Unfortunately for her, her pride and disparaging attitude towards her enemy don't save her when the Arcadia rips her ship a new one.



He may brag of being a space pirate, but before I, Alellgias, Captain Harlock's just a common outlaw.




Aki

One of multitudes of Mazone hiding amongst the earth's population and passing themselves off as human, Aki was once married to Chief Engineer Maji, then of the Earth Federation battleship Braves. Aki played the role of happy homemaker by day, enemy agent by night until Maji's superior Captain Yamanaka discovered her true identity. Yamanaka was forced to kill Aki in self defense, for which Maji nearly killed him in return. After Aki's death, a group of Mazone kidnapped hers (and ostensibly Maji's) daughter Midori, resulting in Maji's eventual joining of the Arcadia's crew.



Well, truth be known, I don't have a single spoken line in the whole show, so no exciting, insightful quote here.




Midori/Patoras

Midori is a Mazone who was raised as the daughter of the Arcadia's chief engineer, Maji, though as Mazone are plant beings who reproduce asexually, she has no actual biological relationship to him. Following the death of her mother, Midori is taken back into the custody of the Mazone. Some time later, Maji would encounter her again, now fully matured and serving as a Mazone soldier under the name Patoras, but still wearing the bell her father had bought from a gift shop in Paris. She claims to have never had familial feelings for her human "father," merely to have used his protective efforts to allow her to complete her mission-the assessment of the Arcadia's complement of crewmen. Maji must ultimately destroy her ship to redeem himself in his own eyes.

Whether or not Midori willfully served with the Mazone or whether she was indoctrinated into servitude is never precisely revealed, though the episode's final moments provide us with some clue.



Jingle, jingle, jingle....




Murem

Murem is a Mazone taken prisoner during an early skirmish. Describing herself as the combat commander of the forces in sector 6721, Murem takes a few moments to tout the power of her nation before self-destructing, nearly killing Harlock and Tadashi in the process. It is from Murem that Harlock first becomes aware of the Mazone queen, Lafresia.



You will understand the greatness of the almighty Mazone, and you will kneel before the great Mazone queen, Lafresia.




The Dorm Dean

A classic example of the Wicked Stepmother Syndrome, the dorm dean at Saint Giovanna Academy, Mayu Oyama's Catholic boarding school, is actually one of the thousands of Mazone infiltrators already insinuated into earth's population. Harlock ends up blowing her away right in front of Mayu, which is the sort of thing that would cause huge psychological scars in children lacking the benefit of much more frightening issues to crowd it out of their minds.

I like you, so I won't punish you too severely.






Meizo

Meizo is an emissary from Queen Lafresia who appears to Harlock in the form of a 4-D projected image. She advises Harlock to return to earth and forgo combat with Mazone fleet from the safety of her own ship, or at least what passes for safety before the Arcadia's main guns blast her to bits.



You're a damn fool who knows nothing of the Mazone's grandeur.




Histerias

Histerias is the commander of the seventh fleet attached to the Mazone's permanent Milky Way base; Mimay discerns she is a high official. Histerias is the pilot of the ship that brings the emissary Meizo to the Arcadia, but manages to escape when that ship is destroyed. Harlock intends to allow her to leave peaceably enough, but the revenge-minded Tadashi chases her down and destroys her plane nonetheless. His own fighter damaged by shrapnel from the explosion, Tadashi seems to see Histerias still alive and floating towards him in the emptiness of space, but seeing as the slowly asphixiating boy was quite out of his head with panic at the time, it's quite likely that her seeming survival was merely his paranoid delusion.



I have nothing more to say. Really.




Aman

Aman presides over her realm at the bottom of the Sargasso Sea, within a huge plastic bubble filled with a menagerie of ancient ships, planes, and other vehicles. She sends first an I-boat and then the hulk of the Japanese battleship Musashi to the surface in order to lure the Arcadia into her witch castle, where one day's time equals a hundred years on the the earth's surface (an updating of the famous Japanese tale of Urashima Taro.) When Aman's power lulls the crew into sleep, Tochiro, the soul of the Arcadia's computer, acts on his own to destroy Aman and save the crew.



In a hundred years I will return you to the surface...to a world ruled by the Mazone!




Sunora

Probably the most unusual Mazone encountered in the series, Sunora appears to be somewhat non-corporeal; her body is filled with a shifting aurora and she possesses powerful psionic abilities. She is the guardian and sole occupant of the Mazone's North Pole outpost, where Queen Lafresia's fleet is expected to make its initial landing. Sunora has waited endless years for the coming of an enemy, and when Harlock arrives, she is torn between her duty to kill any enemies of the Mazone and the almost instant love for him that her loneliness and solitude give rise to. Mimay is forced to confront Sunora in a psychic duel for Harlock's life, and emerges the victor. Sunora melts away, and begs Harlock not to look upon her in her pitiable state.

Sunora's dress is identical in style to that worn by Queen Lafresia, which may have given rise to the persistent but erroneous rumor that Lafresia falls in love with Harlock, but the two are decidedly separate characters and no connection is ever made between them.



I've lived only for the purpose of killing you, Harlock. But now that the time has come....




Saki

Saki is an agent working with Kazuya Katagiri, Kei Yuki's former love. Masquerading as his niece, she attempts to pump Kei for information regarding the Arcadia's curious behavior at Aman's sea-floor base while Kei is attempting to help Kazuya carry on her father's work. The discovery that Saki is a Mazone leads Kei to the unavoidable conclusion that Kazuya has betrayed her and humankind.



Why did it move? What is the Arcadia's secret?




Akias

Akias commands a Mazone combat carrier and awaits Harlock's arrival in the Horsehead Nebula, where she expects him to be drawn into a trap while investigating the fate of Captain Yamanaka. Her plan, which involves an electromagnetic whirlpool, a powerful gravity well, and a gigantic guided fireball ultimately fails, and Akias finds herself on the wrong end of the Arcadia's pulsar cannon, meeting her fate at the bottom of a sea of magma.



The Arcadia is nothing more than a collection of outlaws, is it not? I, Akias, will defeat it with a single strike!




Jorjibel

Once a prisoner aboard the Arcadia, Jorjibel escaped through Mimay, who took pity upon the Mazone due to her resemblance to an old friend, Fure. Mimay encounters Jorjibel a second time while visiting her homeworld of Jura, now devoid of all animal life and remade into a garden paradise for Queen Lafresia. The two fight a duel to the death, and Mimay destroys her adversary and lays the memory of her lost friend to rest.



You stupid Jurans aren't worthy of life. Being fertilizer for the Queen's flowers is more fitting.




Elza

A Mazone pilot who kidnaps Yattaran, Elza is assigned the duty of extracting information from her prisoner concerning the Arcadia's general makeup before the pirate ship can find her own. Playing upon Yattaran's deep-rooted desire to have his passion for models taken seriously (especially by a pretty girl,) she encourages the naive First Mate to build her a scale replica of the Arcadia so her commander can study it before they are discovered. Unfortunately for her, the Arcadia arrives too soon for her plan to be put into effect, and Elza takes a painful-looking laser blast to the heart during the spectacular rescue that saves Yattaran from his captors.


I'll make a model of this ship...we'll see which one comes out better.






Lucia

A deserter from the Mazone caravan, Lucia has fled the tyranny of Queen Lafresia with her love, Zorba, son of Zoll. Lucia was the nurse who attended Zorba after his ship was shot down by the Arcadia, and the one who encouraged him to seek his freedom from Mazone slavery. One of the few sympathetic Mazone with no ulterior motives, Lucia genuinely loves Zorba, and remains by his side until the all-too-bitter end.


If you want to live free, then run.






Sainess

A colleague of Teshusse, Sainess proposes that the Mazone abandon the plan to emigrate to earth and settle instead on the uninhabited planet Beta in the Andromeda galaxy. Motivated by a perceived anti-civilian resentment amongst the Mazone military, Sainess decides to desert with a small band of refugees, but is ultimately murdered by Commander Cassandra.

Many of the officers are considering abandoning we civilians.






Miyu

A Mazone infiltrator in the colony of earthmen living on the Human's Planet in the Ulysses Nebula, Miyu holds the colony's leader Professor Aihn (who once took care of Harlock in his younger days) as hostage, forcing him to use his weather and tectonic-controlling systems against the Arcadia, with the lives of the colony's children hanging in the balance. Miyu meets her demise, like so many of her race before her, at the quick-firing hands of Tadashi Daiba, but not before her machinations virtually ruin the peaceful colony.

I'm a Mazone, one of the special task force! This is my only line!






Shiraku

Encountered by Tadashi Daiba on the Rainbow Planet, Shiraku presents herself as one of a band of civilian refugees who has fled the Mazone caravan. She promises to give certain information as to the whereabouts of the kidnapped Mayu in exchange for Harlock's protection, but Shiraku is in truth a no-good lying snake-in-the-grass, which Harlock, though not Tadashi, suspects right from the start. Her plot to kill Harlock fails, though just barely, and she has the double pleasure of being shot by both Harlock and Tadashi. You'd think they'd learn after a while to stay away from those two.

The first word you speak will cost you your life.






Kirika

A young Mazone girl who befriends Tadashi Daiba, Kirika is one of the supposed refugees hiding from Queen Lafresia on the Rainbow Planet. In reality, she is working with Shiraku to draw out and kill Harlock. At the moment of truth, however, she is unable to gun down Tadashi, and walks away with her mission uncompleted, thus becoming probably the only Mazone to ever be in the sights of Tadashi's Cosmo Gun and not end up fitting comfortably in an ashtray.

I am...the child of a Mazone soldier!!






The Twin Sisters

From all appearances, the co-commanders of the Mazone's elite ten-dollar ho brigade, the pair's Twin Strategy involves anchoring the Arcadia with gravity beams, sending missiles and warships to blast it, and finally sandwiching it between two planets. Harlock's counter-strategy involves blasting the crap out of them and rescuing Mayu in spite of the odds, proving once again why this show is named Captain Harlock instead of Invincible Space Tramps.

Twin strategy part four...live through THIS!!






Commander Adolf

Commander of the Mazone advance force, Adolf impatiently waits for Shizuka Namino to complete her mission of sabotage aboard the Arcadia before commencing her attack. Though the Arcadia's weaponry is compromised by Shizuka, its capacity to deliver an old-fashioned ramming attack is as daunting as ever, and Adolf ends up with the Arcadia's blade right smack dab in her spine, which had to hurt like all hell for a very short period of time.

Don't run, you cowards! There's only one enemy ship!





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