Hakugei: Legend Of The Moby Dick

Title card of Moby Dick.

Another anime that was based from the popular novel entitled Moby Dick.The original novel was created by Herman Melville adapts to this theme of the story.However,the adaptation of this anime used futuristic themes and the setting is in outer space.The show aired in 1997-1999 in Japan and it ran 26 episodes.

Set in 4699,space traveling are more common during that time.Many abandoned machines and ships floating and spread around the space are called "whales".The pirates,hunters and bandits of space(known as "whalers") for them,"whales" are more important to them because those abandoned ships contains power source or even treasure in rare occasions.However,Federation Police keep tracking those pirates and gives punishment to them according to the law but for may people,all they want is freedom away from the law.One of the pirates is Captain Ahab and he has a reason for why he became a pirate-he's trying to search the legendary Moby Dick and get revenge.Moby Dick is the biggest machine ever created for Federation Police while for people,it is the threat for their lives. In Captain Ahab's flashback, he lost his leg and right eye when he's trying to kill Moby Dick which causes him to experience Moby Dick's dangerous attack.For the second time,Captain Ahab vowed himself that he will find and kill Moby Dick for revenge and protect the universe. Together with his bunch of (crazy) crew and his spaceship known as "Lady Whiskers", Ahab's search of Moby Dick begins.

We know that there are lot of differences between this anime and the novel aside from the setting.For example is Captain Ahab.In the anime,normally he is an easy-going guy and sometimes make pranks to some of his crew. He becomes serious when he find Moby Dick or a secret from Lucky(a blond,young girl who by many crew like Ahab thinks she's a boy).While in novel, the original Ahab his purpose is to kill the whale for his motive reasons of his own without any of his crew's suggestions.The plot of this anime can be possibly dark because the theme contains war and political freedom against the Federation.As Ahab and the crew almost searching the huge monster,Ahab is getting serious thinks that he will reach his revenge for Moby Dick.The animation can be rough and pleased as well,the machines such as "whales" are much rather sketchy or sharp but good detailed and they made as background setting for the theme.Plus,every episode there are few good 90's theme painting and colored sketches in the characters are exist which give more darker glimpse in the show.You'll soon notice that you like watching other futuristic anime shows such as Gundam or Outlaw Star.When it comes to action scenes, sometimes they skip over focusing only in war and desperation in the other characters.The character designs give pretty much effort as their futuristic style and like in the original novel,the feel of pirate look is there.As for the character's voice acting,you cannot hear many of the pirate's saying such as "Arr!" but instead,they show serious and touching moments in their space adventures.The music of the show can be good and pleasant to hear which you might think it's perfect to the theme.An opening theme and ending theme are available so you will notice the shows design.Oh yes,this anime released it's DVD version in six volumes.

If you're looking for a Moby Dick anime based on the novel like this one,don't expect to compare the differences between the adaptation and the original novel.It might disappoint you but if you're into a sci-fi adventure mood,you'll get amazed with the shows artistic images and Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick might amuse you.

P.S: Hakugei:Legend of the Moby Dick (or simply "Moby Dick") was aired in the Philippines back around 2006 and 2007.It was aired in QTV 11 every 11:00 P.M. weekends in one-hour block.