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Captain Harlock (manga)

Japanese manga series

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ393501
Source-derived summary

Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Japanese: 宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック, Hepburn: Uchū Kaizoku Kyaputen Hārokku; also romanized as Space Pirate Captain Herlock), also titled Captain Harlock, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto. It was serialized in Akita Shoten's Play Comic from January 1977 to June 1979, with the chapters collected into five tankōbon volumes. The series follows the titular Captain, an outcast who has turned into a space pirate to rebel against Earth's government and humanity's general apathy.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock was adapted into an anime television series in 1978 directed by Rintaro and produced by Toei Animation. An animated film adaptation of the same name was released in 2013. This show uses Syncro-Vox instead of actual lip synching.

In August 2014, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his debut, Matsumoto launched a retelling manga, Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage, illustrated by Kōichi Shimahoshi, which features some significant plot differences.

Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the manga in North America. A sequel comic book written and drawn by Jérôme Alquié, in collaboration with Matsumoto, and published by Ablaze Comics began publication in 2021.

Synopsis

In the year 2977 AD, humanity has achieved a vast starfaring civilization, but is succumbing to ennui, often due to defeat and subjugation by a foreign invader.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Captain Harlock (manga)” is japanese manga series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Captain, Harlock and manga, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977, 1979, 1978, 2013—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Captain, Harlock and manga is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “japanese manga series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q393501. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1977, 1979, 1978 and 2013.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Captain Harlock (manga)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Captain Harlock (manga) primary sources, Captain Harlock (manga) archive and Captain research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Captain Harlock (manga)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Captain Harlock (manga)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.