Albator

The name, which reminds one of "Albatross" in french is instantly recognised by die-hard Captain Harlock fans as "the french for Harlock". Albator has enjoyed phenomenal recognition in the french speaking world, no matter that his name was an even greater cruelty than the "Tommy Hairball" thing (ahem..). In the land of 400 cheeses, Albator is only second to the pioneering giant robot series "Goldorak" (available on video in america as "Grandizer").

There is one advantage to watching Albator over the american dub of Harlock. One of them is not getting irate over the cramming of the totally unrelated "Queen Millennia" show in the Harlock series.
But if you think Americans had it bad with the "Hairball" names, let's examine a few facts about the Captain Harlock the french know.

First of all, there's the good captain himself, named after a clumsy bird. It is only "justified" by the fact that "they" thought the name was too close to the belge comic character, "Captain Haddock", of "The adventures of Tintin", named after a clumsy fish. Then, you have the Arcadia...but here, tis called Atlantis!

If you thought "Tommy Hairball" was a sacrilege, french viewers had to swallow "Ramis Valente". But that is but one Tadashi. The subsequent Tadashi was dubbed "Johnny".

Here are a few of the other names:

Meeme is called Clio. I don't find that particularly offensive, and it helps differentiate her from LaMime, who is named Mima. Our "Yuki Mori lookalike", Kei Yuki/Carrie, is named Nausica, but no relation to the Valley of The Winds (grin).
My favorite here is "Les Sylvidres", the french name for the Zetons/Mazones. It gives them an aura of...hmm...crystal, glass,...green...i get many esoteric mental images when i hear that name.
Harlock's other enemies, the Illumidas, are here known as "Humanoides", although at times they forget and get called the "Illuminoides". Emeraldas tips her hat to Victor Hugo, and is renamed Esmerelda, like the gypsy from "Hunchback of Notre Dame". I'll consider myself lucky they never called Tochiro "Quasimodo". Why do it right if it's so much "cooler" to do it wrong, they probably thought. Tochiro's name here is Alfred, and he is constantly mixed-up with Rocky/Yattaran , who is also named Alfred, a confusion that extends to the fact that both have the SAME VOICE ACTOR!
GAHHHH!

Levie, the cute blonde baby is named Lydia, and in a flight of fancy, cute blue-haired baby Mayu is Stellie. They perpetuate the error of calling Dr. Ban Dr. Zero, when they are two different characters.

The following is a quote from my contributor, Le Docteur U:

"...I don't find the names irritating... at least not in the Albator (78) series. Harlock would have been nauseating for us french because of Capitaine Haddock (he is very lame... well maybe not in the original Tintin series, but now since Herge (the creator of Tintin) is dead, well they completly destroyed him. (he was an alcoholic, now he drinks grape juice, which destroys the stories)) Ramis Valente is (IMHO) not as worse as Tommy Hairball, since it doesn't mean anything at the first degree in french... I think they took latin references. Valent is more like Valiant... couragous maybe... Ramis ends in is which is one way of ending a name in latin. Maybe (it is possible that) Ramis means something in Latin.... "

But enough with the "Boule de cheveux" names...

The Harlock Series were named as follows:
Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Harlock/Space Pirate Captain Harlock-----Albator Le Corsaire de l'espace
Mugen Kido SSX/Endless Journey SSX------------------------------Albator 84

And Waga Seishun no Arcadia/My Youth in Arcadia became, very originally, "Le Retour D'Albator".

There was less "censorship" in the french version than in the american dubs, but the three final episodes of "Albator"never saw the light of a french television screen. The plug was pulled. Also, some censorship involved the first five episodes of Albator 84, because they were, in actuality, "Arcadia of My Youth", broken down into five parts, with most of the "gore" cut out. Albator was first shown on "Radio-Canada" (actually a tv station) in Quebec and on "Antenne 2" in France, in the late 70's, early 80's, followed later by Albator 84.

The Albator episodes released in France, Canada, and the rest of the francophone world, according to my internet liasons, were:

x) L'espionne
x) Le grand capitaine
1) Le pavillon noir (6 thursday 20 august 87)
2) L'escadrille du néant (6 friday 21 august 87)
3) Les torches embrasées (6 saturday 22 august 87)
4) Sous la banière de la liberté (6 sunday 23 august 87)
5) Le batême du néant (6 monday 24 august 87)
6) Le repaire (6 tuesday 25 august 87)
7) Le tombeau englouti (6 wednesday 26 august 87)
8) L'armada royale (6 thursday 27 august 87)
9) Les humanoïdes végétales (6 friday 28 august 87) (6 tuesday 15 sept. 87)
10) La planète de l'amour (6 saturday 29 august 87)
11) Les naufrageuses d'âmes (ou 'Les naufrageurs d'Arius') (2 monday 23 mars 81)
(6 sunday 30 august 87)
12) Le complexe d'Oedipe (2 monday 30 mars 81) (6 monday 31 august 87)
13) Une micro-poussière de temps (6 tuesday 1 sept. 87)
14) Le piège des sables (6 wednesday 2 sept. 87)
15) L'amour défendu (6 thursday 3 sept. 87)
16) L'îlot sacré (6 friday 4 sept. 87)
17) Quand la mort tient la Reine
18) L'ombre du souvenir
19) Le traquenard de la reine (6 friday 11 sept. 87)
20) La planète des fleurs sauvages (2 thursday 26 juil. 84) (6 saturday 12 sept. 87)
21) Le testament (2 sunday 13 sept. 84)
22) La planète du néant
23) Presque traitre malgré lui
24) L'étoile filante de l'amour
25) Le chat perdu
26) Le voyage de retour
27) Le pouvoir de l'Antlantis (6 monday 14 sept. 87)
28) Aux confins de la nébuleuse (6 saturday 19 sept. 87)
29) La bataille de la planète de l'arc-en-ciel (6 monday 21 sept. 87)
30) Mon ami d'enfance (6 tuesday 22 sept. 87)
31) La construction de l'Atlantis (6 saturday 26 sept. 87)
32) Le piège de la planète des tempêtes (6 sunday 27 sept. 87)
33) Le sacrifice d'un homme (6 wednesday 23 sept. 87)
34) Le sauvetage (6 thursday 24 sept. 87)
35) La mystérieuse évasion (6 tuesday 29 sept. 87)
36) Le loup dans la bergerie (2 monday 24 nov. 80) (6 wednesday 30 sept. 87)
37) Le sacrifice (6 friday 25 sept. 87)
38) Le départ pour la mort (6 monday 28 sept. 87)
39) La revanche de Vilak (2 monday 22 déc. 80) (6 sunday 20 sept. 87)
40) (not released in France)
41) (not released in France)
42) (not released in France)

Albator 84

Here is what Le Docteur had to say:

"Albator 84 is so badly dubbed it is awful. They mix up La Mime with Clio (Meeme) first... and then with Nausica (you have to hear Mima (LaMime) having Nausica (Keiko) voice actress first and then change it back when Nausica arrives!!)"

Here are some of the names credited on the Albator 84 opening sequence. Oddly enough, according to Rene Gilles, these are not really the voice actors, but the producers of the show who listed themselves, other than to list Richard Darbois (Albator), Francois Letcha (Albator 84), Thierry Bourdon (Ramis/Johnny), etc... Rene promises to have all of the names on his web site, as he did for Knights of the Zodiac.

Alexandra & Eleonore De Gorsky
Caroline Guicheux
Ines Pezet
Sylvie Ribeiro (sounds like a brazilian name)
Claude Brrandibas
Patrick Dousset
Benjamin Huchez
Jean-Claude Lafage
Alain Lemonerie
Florent Meyer
Jean Francois Roulet
Jacques Santoni
Jean Michel Treheux

Acording to my database, the following episodes were released:

1) Le grand départ (2 thursday 12 january 84) (2 tuesday 1 january 94)
2) La petite fille
2) La panne
3) L'ombre de la mort
4) La plume est plus forte que l'épée
5) Le bateau fantome (ou 'Le vaisseau fantome')
6) L'oasis de l'espace (ou 'L'oasis')
7) La vengeance (ou 'Vengeance)
8) La planète de fer (2 thursday 8 march 84) (2 wednesday 20 mai 87)
9) Sabotage (2 wednesday 27 mai 87)
10) Il neige dans l'espace
11) L'invasion (2 wednesday 10 june 87)
12) Le grand défi (ou 'Le défi') (2 thursday 5 april 84)
13) La déesse dorée (2 wednesday 11 déc. 85) (2 wednesday 24 june 87)
14) Une belle amitié
15) Le marchandage (2 wednesday 23 sept. 87)
16) L'opération de la dernière chance
17) Le serment
18) La boule de feu (wednesday 26 july 84)
19) La mer de la mort
20) Les chats ont deux oreilles
21) Le vaisseau ne répond plus
22) La voie lactée

This is only a list of titles, a more complete episode guide will be available soon on Harlock's Arcadia. All you gotta do is match the titles.

Theme Songs

Lyrics by Eric Charden · Music by Didier Barbelivien
· Performed by Michel Barouille ·

About the Theme Songs:
I really, REALLY liked the song for Albator 84, because it was catchy and giddy...but then again, i liked "Tommy Hairball" names, so i guess y'all don't trust my taste anymore (I'm SORRY! if you knew how many letters i get on that subject....).

Manga!

The Albator manga is printed by Editions Dargaud, the same as Asterix, redrawn, coloured, and hard-bound.

Credits!

This page would not be possible without the interest and love for Albator of Le Docteur U! His Albator Site originally inspired my FAQ and is a worthy asset to the franco-parlant Albator Fan Community! Also to thank is Douglas Orlowski, whose incredible image collection was a priceless contribution to this Albator page! I hope will colaborate again in future web pages. More thanks should go to Steve Harrison, who, in spite of our initial squabbles, turned out to be a pretty cool guy after all (grin), and is himself an encyclopaedia of Matsumoto knowledge. To all, domo arigato gozaimasu!

Click here to send me mail!

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Disclaimer: Captain Harlock is a trademark of Toei animation. I am not affiliated with Toei nor do I profit from this work. It's a fan thing, ya know...

This page copyright 1996 Cristian R.