Space Pirate Captain Harlock: Riddle of the Arcadia Episode

The year is 2977. Mankind has become complacent and stagnant. All work is done by machines, while humans spend all their time on entertainment. But when a mysterious invader from the stars catches Earth unawares, only the legendary space pirate Captain Harlock and the crew of the Arcadia have the will to stand against them.

Many years into the future, battle has been raging across the galaxies as 500 billion humans, whose forebears were exiled from Earth, plan to return to what is still called home. Forced to flee a ravaged Earth, humans have now depleted the corners of the galaxy to which they fled. Earth has now become the most valued and precious resource of all, controlled by the corrupt Gaia Coalition which governs the human race across the different galaxies. Captain Harlock and his trusted crew are the only hope mankind has of discovering the secrets that the Gaia have kept hidden.

Earth has been conquered by the evil Illumidus Empire, with parallels drawn to the U.S. post World War II occupation of Japan. Captain Harlock with a group that will become his life long friends begin their fight against this tyranny visited upon the planet Earth, with no regard to the costs the struggle will have on them, caring only for the ideal of restoring freedom to the people of Earth.

On an archaelogical mission to the end of the known universe, Professor Daiba unwitting unleashes an ancient horror from its confines. Five years later the malevolent alien force sets in motion a plan which reunites the various crewmembers of the Arcadia to sail the stars once more as well as bring Tadashi Daiba to meet Harlock for the first time (again).