I think my first experience with anime, was at a friend's house, when I was around 6-7 years old. He was that friend that had things you had never seen before, and wanted soo bad. He was a good friend, and I did see him alot (Not just for the cool toys and movies)

The first ever anime I did see at his home was Cyborg 009 (Also know as Cyborg Soldier 009 I think)



It was a great moment in my life, since I had never seen a cartoon that had so much action, speed and good stories. I'm not saying that I did understand all the things I saw, but the parts I understood was wonderful. I think the intro is one of the things I remember best. Every episode was dubbed into Swedish, but the intro was in Japanese (I did not know that then), but to this day I can still hum it and remember the lyrics, even though I have no clue what he is singing.



The anime is about a group of cyborgs that figth an evil organization, that had 3 guys (triplets if I remember correctly) that had one third of their faces (Left side, middle and right side) that were machine parts.



All of the cyborgs are from all over the globe, different lives, different backgrounds, but they have all been mortally wounded and later saved by Dr. Isaac Gilmore.
Made into cyborgs (human with machine/robot parts) to stop the triplets' attempts to take over the world.

This is the 1979-80 anime I think.

Another show that I did see at my friend's house was Robotech.



It's a series that starts of with a big alien spaceship crash landing on a small island outside of Japan I think. All the aliens are dead, so the humans start to gather as much information and technology as they can. So time passes by and a city is built around the alien ship. They also try to get the ship itself to work, since they know, that from wherever this ship is from, others will come look for it in a matter of time. They create fighter planes that are able to transform into robots (or mechas, with means it is controlled by a pilot) So the aliens finally find their lost ship (or was it a ship of their enemy's? I don't remember) Anyway, they start attacking, and the humans fight back with their new figther planes. Really good animation, story and voice acting.



I have later found out that this anime is a real long runner with 85 eps, over three seasons. I did only see a couple of eps from the first season. If you can rent or get a hold of some eps from this anime, I highly recommend it.

And now time for my first ever anime movie.

Space Pirate Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth (1982)
(Space Pirate Harlock: Waga seishun no Arukadia)



This is to this day one of the best anime movies I have ever seen.
It is sort of a background story to why Harlock (know also as Herlock)
becomes a space pirate. He is called a pirate and in the anime series he is hunted by Earth's troops, but he is really one of the few that is saving earth over and over again from aliens, odd space events and much more. But back to the movie.

Aliens that are called Illumidas have taken over Earth and is controlling it with a iron fist. Some humans try to fight back, while others are just fine with working for them.
If memory serves me right, Harlock's lover Maya is the leader of the rebels and is sending out songs of hope for the people. At one point he is going to meet her, but the aliens follow him or was it that he is trying to get to her and warn her. Anyway, Harlock is badly wounded and loses one eye.

Maya and Emerelda (she is also a space pirate) are captured, so it is up to Harlock and his old friend Tochiro, Miime (A female alien cyborg) and the rest of his crew, with some Tokargan soldiers to save Maya and Emerelda.
But his beloved Maya dies as they try to save her.



There are some side stories, but I'm not going to give to much away.
One thing that I still think is brilliant, is that Harlock's and Emerelda's spaceships have parts that looks like parts from old pirate ships. Like they control the ships with rudders and at the back of the ships and they have windows (as in old "sea ships")



If you are looking for a first class, grade A anime movie, this is one of them that I think people on retrojunk should try to get a copy of. You won't regret it.

Three years ago I did find this epic movie in a store. Just pure luck.
The dvd had the name "Space Pirate Harlock: Arcadia of My Youth".
I did not at first remember where I had heard that name before, but I bought it anyway since it had Harlock on the front. And to my surprise it was my childhood movie.
I can't tell you all how happy I was to discover this. So I'm one lucky guy *smile*


Harlock and Esmeraldas

Soon i will make a article about what anime is and why it can bit tricky to get the meaning of.

(If you have questions about anime, PM me and i will try and answer them in the next article.)