Adachi-ga Hara

Angela Balzac is an agent at the space station DEVA, whose inhabitants have no physical bodies, their minds digitized and processed into a virtual reality environment. After failing to track down the hacker known as "Frontier Setter", she is tasked to look for him down on Earth, now a barren planet where the rest of the humans live.

This work was produced as the ninth special animated piece for the 24-hour television program by Tezuka Production, which took full charge of the original story, screenplay and direction. Tezuka Osamu crafts a love story in the time when humans are expanding into space at the end of the 21st century, employing an omnibus form similar to Bradbury's "Martian Chronicle." The story line is similar to "Phoenix: Nostalgia." Leaving the earth after marriage, a woman is left behind in space when her husband suddenly dies of a cosmic disease. These background details were used in "The Phoenix" as well. This time, her friends on the Earth head for space to save the woman who was once everyone's ideal lady. In this special animated piece, Tezuka Osamu emphasizes his basic concepts that "love can save the earth" and "only love can save humans."

It is 2046 when a mysterious alien force begins their annihilation of the human race. Leaving behind the one person she loves, Mikako joins the interstellar battle as a pilot. And so - while Mikako risks her life to save mankind - Noboru waits. At first days, then months, then years for each new message that will let him know whether Mikako is still alive. And, while she barely grows older in the timelessness of space, Noboru ages. The two lovers, worlds apart, desperately strive to remain connected as the gap between them widens at a frightening pace.

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.