This 1998 anime film is from the legendary Leiji Matsumoto. Without Mr. Matsumoto’s talents there would be no SPACE CRUISER YAMATO, CAPTAIN HARLOCK, or GALAXY EXPRESS TV series and movies (which were popular in the seventies and eighties). Matsumoto single handedly changed the face of animation with these space pirate and space war epics. In the late nineties, the anniversaries of these shows (combined with people’s longing for nostalgia) brought about a resurrection of the characters and sagas. The GALAXY EXPRESS series has been reborn in Japan, and in 1998, the ally of Captain Harlock, Emereldas, gets her own series called QUEEN EMERALDAS. ADV Films has secured the North American rights to the first two episodes, and released them uncut on DVD.

The character of Emeraldas is a complex one. She is a true lone wolf with a definite Dirty Harry nature (she like weapons and blowing things up). But she has an emotional side as well since her space ship designer boyfriend, Tochiro, died and left her with deep emotional baggage. Right before he died, he built her one hell of a space ship that would put anything you’ve ever seen on STAR TREK to shame. So she decides to become a free-willed space pirate and takes her ship (called The Queen Esmeraldas) to the far reaches of space. Emeraldas has appeared before in the GALAXY EXPRESS films, and CAPTAIN HARLOCK TV series. Hiroshi Umino is a spunky, rebellious young boy whose life has been one of put-downs and he fights to prove himself as a man.

The first episode DEPARTURE starts out similar to GALAXY EXPRESS 999, with a young boy named Hiroshi, who stows away on an space freighter to escape persecution on his home planet. Hiroshi’s getaway is halted by the military ships of the Alfressian alien race, who decide to use the space freighter for target practice. Just as the space freighter is nearly destroyed, a mysterious cloaked spaceship comes to their aid. The commander of the Alfressian attack force is Captain Eldomane who withdraws his squadron rather than submit to the mysterious ship. The Queen of Alfressa, Baralooda reprimands Eldomane for not pursuing the spaceship, and he asks for more firepower to locate and destroy the unknown enemy.

Meanwhile Hiroshi travels to the desolate planet Daibaran, where he lands a job serving drinks at a saloon in a small town. Soon Eldomane and his guards enter the saloon harassing the locals and trying to scrounge up information on their unknown enemy. It turns out that Emeraldas is in town, and she confronts Eldomain and his troops. This episode does not contain a whole lot of action or story, and mainly serves to introduce the characters.

The second episode is called ETERNAL EMBLEM, and picks up right where the first one left off. Queen Baralooda has provided Eldomane with a gigantic space force and sets out in pursuit of the Queen Emeraldas. Eldomane lays out an elaborate plan to trap Emeraldas and to put salt in the wound has his guards kidnap Hiroshi and his friends from Daibaran. Emeraldas drives her menacing space ship straight into Eldomane’s trap, and is surrounded by the huge Alfressian fleet. As they begin to fire upon her, Hiroshi and friends manage to escape from their holding cell on Eldomane’s gunship, and using the Alfressian’s own weapons, take over the bridge of the ship. With Hiroshi and his friends in command of an alien gunship, they join the Queen Emeraldas in a climatic showdown with the forces of Queen Baralooda.

The episodes feature a combination of traditional animation and 3D computer graphics. The animation includes great space ships battles, weaponry, and explosions. The character design are well done. The animation style is very unique in that it includes cutting edge computer graphics mixed with 1970’s classic style animation. The backgrounds are extremely well drawn and help provide some depth to the overall presentation. The visuals are pure eye candy.

QUEEN EMERALDAS is aimed at a general audience, hence you could probably watch this with your kids, your little brothers and sisters, your nephews and nieces, etc. Though not overly graphic, there are some realistic scenes of death. All of the deaths are of peripheral characters, and there is nothing depressing in the movie except for Emeraldas brooding demeanor. It is interesting to note that the evil race called the Alfressians have already made their presence known in the recent GALAXY EXPRESS series.

There are a few problems though. The two episodes total only sixty minutes and it’s not enough to tell the story at hand, so the story comes off as rushed. The script focuses on the kid Hiroshi and his attempts to prove his manhood, and Emeraldas takes a back seat. The conclusion consists of a typical Matsumoto epic space battle that astounds the mind, but it’s over far too quick. We’ve seen this before in many films, there is a big build up to climax which goes by so quick it’s almost antclimatic. There are some definite pacing problems.

A few comments about ADV’s DVD presentation. Each episode includes the prologue, a voice over narration by Emeraldas, and the opening credit sequence. To keep purists happy, these elements are presented before each episode. This becomes highly distracting during repeat viewings. I would much prefer the opening credits and elements, then the two episodes, then the end credits so it comes off like a mini-movie. ADV has a great menu system, and each sub menu displays some cool graphics accompanied by the symphonic themes.

SIGHT

QUEEN EMERALDAS is presented in a full frame 1.33.1 transfer. That’s the way it was filmed, so no picture information is missing. The image is very sharp with superior detail. All colors (including the otherworldly colors of space) are genuinely bright and accurate. Contrast and brightness are excellent with superior shadow detail. There is no bleeding between colors and no haloing was observed. The blacks are deep and solid and are put to use in the transfer for the scenes of the space battles that take place in the blackness of space. Scenes that look outstanding on the transfer are the space battles (featuring brilliant multi-colored laser weapons over a purple-nebula background), the surface of the planet Daibaran, and the volcano-like explosions. The CGI effects stand out from the regular animation in some scenes, but in others they blend so well you don’t even notice the CGI. To summarize, the film features dazzling animation and images all done justice by this DVD transfer.

SOUND

This is a strong Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack that is truly stunning; I thought it was a 5.1 mix until I read the box. There is a Japanese dub, a French dub, and a great English (all 2.0) dub. ADV provides the best English translation/dub jobs in the industry, and this one is no exception. The sound field includes lots of panning activity and superb ambient sound. Every time a laser weapon is fired, a ship flies by, or characters fight in combat, the sound field is totally immersive and with crisp separation. The bass is excellent and when the ships fly by, you feel the rumble of the exhaust. When the ships explode during space combat, again you feel it. Besides all the sound effects, the episodes are dialog driven, with the dialog coming from the center channel. There are no dropouts, hissing, or distortions of any kind. Michiru Oshima's score is a wonderful hybrid of classical symphony music combined with progressive rock stylings. A female vocalist sings in Japanese over the melodies. The score is modern, yet incorporates elements of those classic 70’s anime shows. But, the exception is this music is CD quality compared to those flat, mono themes. There is another ballad called Silent Song that plays emotionally over the end credits. Overall, a DD 2.0 soundtrack with great fidelity. You should know there are reportedly some problems with the audio track on some players, but I had no such problems.

FEATURES

There is an extras menu that contains character profiles (for Emeraldas and Hiroshi Umino), technical gallery (featuring technical layouts of ships, weapons, and machines), and Web connect. The highlight of the extras is the ADV trailers menu. These are not true theatrical trailers, they are made exclusively for ADV titles and are actually pretty entertaining. The trailers are all full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. TEKKEN, SLAYERS, LEGEND OF CRYSTANIA, QUEEN EMERALDAS, SAKURA WARS, BATTLE ANGEL, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, NINJA RESSURECTION, THOSE WHO HUNT ELVES, BUBBLEGUM CRISIS: TOKYO 2040, BURN UP W, THOSE WHO HUNT ELVES, and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG MOVIE.

CONCLUSION

If you are a fan of Leiji Matsumoto’s work (or anime in general) you should check out this DVD. Or if you are just a sci-fi fan who has been depressed since BABYLON 5 went off the air, you should check this out to get your space war fix. ADV presents the colorful eye candy in such as way as to leave you wanting more. ADV proves they can deliver quality international features on DVD as good as the major studios. Though QUEEN EMERALDAS won’t win any awards, or does not offer any social messages (like a lot of anime) it does feature some memorable characters, futuristic military space craft designs, and state of the art animation that does not fail to entertain.

QUEEN EMERALDAS is available at DVDEmpire

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