If you have a desire to get into anything Captain Harlock, you can actually just jump in almost anywhere and be fine.
Alternative Titles:
- Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Herlock
- Space Pirate Captain Harlock
- 宇宙海賊・キャプテンハーロック
Year Anime Premiered: 1978
Animation Studio: Toei Animation
Number of Seasons: 1 + 4 Movie + 19 OVAs + 1 + 4 spin-off OVA + 1 AU setting
Source Material Country of Origin: Japan
Source Material Available: Manga
Is It Officially Licensed Past Where The Anime Ends?: Yes
Is It Fan Translated Past Where The Anime Ends?: Yes
Entry Last Updated: February 23rd, 2026
Where To Start The Captain Harlock Manga After The Anime?
The hard and fast rule for pretty much everything Captain Harlock is to read the manga from the beginning as the various anime series often do their own thing with the concepts, even when fully adapting a manga series.
But we’ll go through this series by series.
Captain Harlock (1978)
The Captain Harlock 1978 anime is not a full adaptation of the original manga, nor is it an especially good adaptation overall. Unfortunately, it is also a manga you need to read from the beginning.
There is no place to jump into the Captain Harlock original manga due to the fact that the anime introduces anime-original characters early, and does make them somewhat important to it’s anime-original story moments as it goes on.
If the original Captain Harlock manga is looking a bit old for you, the Captain Harlock: Dimensional Voyage manga is a remake of the original manga with more modern art. It is remaking the manga with slight reboot elements, but it is still not really related to the anime all that much either.
Arcadia of Youth Movie
Arcadia of Youth is a sequel movie to the original Captain Harlock anime, but is an anime-original movie.
Endless Orbit SSX
Endless Orbit SSX is a sequel to Arcadia of Youth, but is also anime-original.
Queen Emeraldas (OVA)
The Queen Emeraldas is a full adaptation of the four-volume manga of the same name.
Harlock Saga – Der Rings des Nibelungen (OVA)
Welcome to the only series you can reasonably continue in the manga. The Der Rings des Nibelungen adapts to Volume 2, Chapter 13 of the manga.
Do make sure you are reading, specifically, the Harlock Saga manga, as the Der Rings des Nibelungen, a famous opera, has been adapted to manga several times. This one is just Harlock-flavored.
Cosmo Warrior Zero
Fully anime-original story, no manga relation.
Gun Frontier
The Gun Frontier anime does not adapt all of the Gun Frontier manga, a Wild West AU of Captain Harlock, but it does jump around the manga with what it adapts and makes changes to events.
As such, it is recommended to read the manga from the beginning.
Endless Odyssey
No corresponding manga. Just taking the Captain Harlock IP and having more anime-original adventures, though technically the story is a sequel in some ways to the original anime and manga.
Captain Harlock (2013) (Movie)
This CGI movie is both a reboot and re-imagining of the original manga story.
Is The Captain Harlock Manga Over?
The Space Pirate Captain Harlock manga is complete. It ended in 1979 with Volume 5, Chapter 25.
The Queen Emeraldas manga is complete. It ended in 1978 with Volume 4, Chapter 21.
The Der Rings des Nibelungen manga is complete. It ended in 2002 with Volume 8, Chapter 58.
The Captain Harlock: Dimension Voyage manga, a more modern remake of the original manga, is also complete. It ended in 2019 with Volume 10, Chapter 52.
The Gun Frontier manga is complete. It ended in 1975 with Volume 3, Chapter 34. It also has a single sequel novel called Gun Frontier II that released in 1999.
Will There Be More Harlock?
There was an attempt to bring Harlock (as well as the author’s other iconic characters like Emeraldas and Maetel) to the modern screen with a trilogy of movies called the Zero Century movies. The first was set to air in 2020, but it was delayed and likely canceled before that.
The project is pretty much confirmed as dead since it was headed by Gainax, and Gainax shut down in 2023.
