Arcadia (Film)

The Arcadia is the ship of Captain Harlock and his crew. Compared to its other incarnation, it was originally a Death Shadow and is powered by dark matter engines provided by Miime.

Appearance
The Arcadia resembles its original counterpart but features a more defined skull decoration including a lower jaw. It also features a pair of long bone-like structures on top that extend and a bow structure on the bottom of the backside.

Abilities and Functions
Powered by the dark matter engines, the Arcadia is able to cruise through space without rest and repair itself. The automatic navigation system is guided by a CPU that is actually the Arcadia's creator Tochiro Oyama. This allows the Arcadia to find any place in record, guide the ship without a controller, and even override a controller. The Arcadia's engines also allow it to warp at rates unprecedented by most computers and systems, often bypassing defenses and avoiding gunfire from point-blank range.

While the armor is not particularity strong, the self-repair functions allow the Arcadia to enter close combat to damage other ships. Once in range, the Arcadia releases anchor points for the crew to enter combat with the other ship's crews.

History
The Arcadia was originally the fourth Death Shadow ship under Captain Harlock's fleet in the Gaia Sanction. However, an accident with the Dark Matter engine caused an explosion taking its creator Tochiro Oyama's life. Tochiro's consciousness had fused with the ship due to the dark matter and had caused the Death Shadow to change into a new form, dubbed by Harlock as the Arcadia. For years, the Arcadia has been the home and means of transport of Harlock and his motley crew. By the time Yama joined, the Arcadia would guide the young man on where he needed to go and be. When Harlock was ready to set up his plan to erase the mistakes he made and destroy the Gaia Sanction, the ship intervened as Tochiro did not want Harlock to destroy the universe. The Arcadia would then be used for the new plan to get the public to turn against the Gaia Sanction until it had to shield itself from the Jovian Blaster. With the dark matter depleted, it seemed the Arcadia ceased to function until Yama is given the reigns as the new captain.