Yattaran

Yattaran is the first mate of Captain Harlock best known for his love of ships, even building models and ships in bottles in his free time.

Appearance
Yattaran sports the basic appearance of characters by Leiji Matsumoto, an overall ovaloid appearance but sports a pot belly and a pair of glasses. He is usually dressed in a white t-shirt with a blue horizontal stripe going across the torso area and the sleeves rolled up, blue jeans, a brown belt with a yellow buckle, black boots, and a dark blue bandanna with a skull and crossbones. Matsumoto reveals that Yattaran is modeled after his assistant Kaoru Shintani.

Personality
Yattaran at first glance is seen as lazy and more concerned about building and playing with models, so immersed that he often forgets to bathe or eat. In times of crisis however is when Yattaran shows his dedication and fearlessness to get things done. He also finds being called a pig offensive.

Abilities
Yattaran is an expert shipwright having a passion for ships and large vehicles. Most of the time, he builds models at very moderate speeds. As stated by Captain Harlock, next to Tochiro Oyama, there is no one better than Yattaran in knowing the structure of the Arcadia, often working the maintenance and renovations. He is also an expert in space combat, one of the few people in the crew to pilot the Arcadia and effectively use the weapon systems.

Behind the scenes
One of Kaoru Shintani's jobs as an assistant to Mastumoto was to build spaceship and vehicle models for reference. This is probably where Yattaran got his eccentricities. Shintani is also known for his own manga, Area 88 which would occasionally include cameo appearances of Matsumoto characters.