Revered among the anime faithful is Leiji Matsumoto's legendary Captain Harlock series, whose characters have become icon in pop culture. Two of the good Captain's supporting cast, sisters Emeraldas and Maetel, are featured in a new DVD MAETEL LEGEND. This disc explores the origins of the gentle Maetel and her warrior sister.

Movement One - In voice-over, Maetel explains the fate of her home world Metalle, which once was the twin of our own Earth. However, a black hole knocked Metalle from its orbit, and now the planet wanders the galaxy as a cold, frozen wasteland. On the surface, the populace struggle to survive the bitter cold. Queen La Andromeda Promethium declares that she will undergo 'mechanization' - she will become a machine to survive the harsh conditions of her world. Despite the pleas of her daughters Maetel and Emeraldas, the Queen has the mechanization done. The girls reject the surgery, wanting to remain human and not become heartless machines. However, the Queen soon declares that all of her subjects must undergo mechanization, to the delight of Hardgear- the mech who developed the procedure. Seems Hardgear is actually using the process to control the newly made 'machine-people' for his own mad schemes of universal conquest. Hardgear tries to force mechanization on Maetel and Emeraldas, but the girls refuse to comply. Together with faithful soldier Dagar the ladies have figured out Hardgear's plot, but cannot solve how to undo the mech transformation process to save their mother, who is slowly turning into a machine. Running low on resources, Hardgear has his mech soldiers attack and loot Earth ships, and uses their crew as fodder for his machine army. Maetel and Emeraldas realize the only way to break Hardgear's control over their world is to go into the bowels of Metalle and destroy the machine zealot. But how can two human girls fight through an army of mechs? Will the Queen fully transform before they can save her? And what further deviltry does Hardgear have in store for them down below?

Movement Two - Having escaped death, Hardgear continues his reign of terror on Metalle. The still half-human, half-machine Queen orders all of her people to 'submit or die' to the mechanization process. She has moments of human compassion, but her growing machine parts quickly force her to do Hardgear's bidding. Meanwhile, Maetel and Emeraldas are frustrated they cannot solve how to stop the mechanization of their mother. The Queen tries to commit suicide when she realizes there's no hope, but her machine body will not allow her to die. The Queen tries to send Maetel and Emeraldas off world to not only save them, but also allow them to one day come back and free Metalle. She tells them that together, there is nothing that can stop kindly Maetel and fierce Emeraldas. However, Hardgear sabotages their first escape attempt, capturing Maetel and forcing Emeraldas into the frozen wastelands - where only machines can survive. Can a mere human Emeraldas brave the terrible cold and rescue her sister? Will Hardgear's plans for Maetel's death also spell the doom of her mother? Will the girls ever fulfill their destiny to free Metalle?

When I first saw "Galaxy Express 999", the character of Maetel - with her quiet demeanor and inner strength, intrigued me. MAETEL LEGEND is an attempt to provide the background for this intriguing character, as well as her enigmatic sister (who is a regular to Harlock fans.) However, this disc is entirely too long. While the essential story is very interesting and compelling, there is far too much redundancy - the 'second movement' seems to last for hours and have fifteen endings. The Queen has become a machine - no wait! - she's still human! This scenario happens all the time, and is so unnecessary except to pad out the episode. If someone had edited MAETEL LEGEND into a concise 30-minute show, it would be a classic addition to the Harlock mythos. Hardgear is nothing but a typical mech villain (with all the stereotypical actions and speeches), so it's nice to see his comeuppance when the Queen becomes fully a machine. It is cool to see the teen years of Maetel and Emeraldas, and the reason they are who they are. The relationship between them is very well scripted and the only true strength of the show. Unfortunately, other characters that might be as compelling like Dagar and his son Jam are killed off rather quickly, so their impact becomes minimal. The animation is fine, with good character detail (like Emeraldas' skull hairpin), but the background art is not as well executed - there are a lot of those typical machine backdrops. Picture quality is very good - the colors are deep and the images are sharp and clean. Audio is the fine standard for Japanese television.

MAETEL LEGEND has been released with a number of extras on DVD. There is a "meet the cast" feature, which isn't as detailed as it could (and should) be and a short feature on creator Leiji Matsumoto. Included as well is a trivia game, which shows clips from the film and then asks questions - and you really need to pay attention to get them right! For DVD-Rom enthusiasts, there are extensive features included for that format as well.

I looked forward to viewing the story of Maetel with great enthusiasm, and to say I'm disappointed would be an understatement. If the story had been edited, if the secondary characters weren't clichés, if the second half wasn't so redundant....yes, a promising classic undone by trying to do too much. It's a case of the old adage that 'less is more', or as my music teacher once said - "Hit it and get off". Despite it's potential MAETEL LEGEND can only be considered a minor footnote in the Harlock epic.