Queen Millennia (Anime)

Queen Millennia (新竹取物語 1000年女王 Shin Taketori Monogatari: Sennen Joō) The manga series by Leiji Matsumotowas adapted into a 42-episode anime TV series by Toei Dōga and broadcast on the Fuji TV network from 16 April 1981 through 25 March 1982. An anime film was released on 13 March 1982 shortly before the TV series ended.

The anime series was combined by Harmony Gold and Carl Macek with episodes from the 1978 Matsumoto series, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and shown from 1985 to 1986 in the United States as the 65-episode Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years. The series was broadcast in Germany on Tele 5 during 1992 and on Mangas in France in 2004.

Plot
The series takes place in the (then) futuristic year 1999. Professor Amamori discovers a 10th planet in the Earth's solar system, which he names La-Metal, while at his observatory in Tokyo. Its diameter is 9 times that of Earth. Amamori notes the planet has a highly eccentric orbit and, as it emerges behind the distant Pluto, Amamori realizes that La-Metal is on a collision course with Earth. He calculates that the planet will impact Earth on 9 September 1999, at 9 o'clock, 9 minutes and 9 seconds.

It turns out that La-Metal orbits the Solar System every 1,000 years, but only this time it is fated to come dangerously close to Earth. While damage to the giant ice-covered La-Metal would be minimal, Earth would be destroyed by the planet's massive gravitational pull. La-Metal is inhabited by a subterranean humanoid species ruled by a mysterious Holy Queen, Larela. She plans to abduct a large number of humans before the destruction of Earth, and enslave them with the help of her operatives already on Earth. These operatives are led by Promethium II, a woman known as a Millennial Queen who goes by the Earth name, Yukino Yayoi. She has been living on Earth for almost 1,000 years, like many such Millennial Queens before her, with the intention of establishing a colony for her home planet.

Promethium, who comes to care for her Earthling foster parents and friends, begins to question the La-Metalians' plans. As Yayoi, she begins working for Professor Amamori and decides to offer her help when Amamori discovers that La-Metal heading for Earth. The professor's young nephew Hajime, whose parents are killed while designing a spaceship to help a small group of humans escape from Earth, also joins their fight to save the planet.

They are soon confronted by a sabotage campaign initiated by a group of La-Metal generals against Earth. As the two planets come closer to colliding, Yukino finds out that a black hole is to blame for La-Metal's orbital deviation. A desperate plan is undertaken to destroy the black hole and save both their worlds.

Characters
La Andromeda Promethium II (ラー・アンドロメダ・プロメシュームII世 Rā Andoromeda Puromeshiyūmu Nisei)
 * Yayoi Yukino (雪野 弥生 Yukino Yayoi)
 * Voiced by: Keiko Han
 * Every 1000 years, a woman called a Millennial Queen is sent from the planet La-Metal to secretly rule over the Earth and lead an underground organization that secretly controls the entire planet. Promethium, known to Earthlings as Yukino Yayoi, is the current Millennial Queen. Some early movie promotional material identified her as Promethium II, and indicated that she was the daughter of the Queen Promethium of the Machine Empire of Galaxy Express 999 (another of Matsumoto's works). This idea (and the suffix, II) was later dropped, however, and Millenial Queen Promethium/Yayoi was considered to be the person who would eventually become the Machine Queen.
 * While shown with rounder eyes in the anime TV series, she is shown with almond-shaped eyes in both the manga and the anime film and looks just like Maetel from Galaxy Express 999.
 * While Yayoi is Professor Amamori's private secretary in all three versions of the story, there are the following differences:
 * In the anime TV and manga, Yayoi lives on the second floor of a ramen shop run by an older couple who have adopted her as their daughter. She has a tiger-striped cat.
 * In the anime film, in addition to being Professor Amamori's private secretary, she also teaches at a school and lives in a high-class apartment.


 * Hajime Amamori (雨森 始 Amamori Hajime)
 * Voiced by: Keiko Toda
 * Hajime is the main character in the manga and is in junior high school. He looks just like the character Tetsurō Hoshino from Galaxy Express 999, only wearing a gakuran. He has a keen interest in space, and is somewhat infatuated with Yayoi. While he doesn't get good grades in school, he is a very honest and kind person. At first he wants revenge on the people who are responsible for his parents' deaths, but he decides it is fruitless to hold a grudge and abandons that plan.


 * Professor Amamori (雨森教授 Amamori-kyōju)
 * Voiced by: Ichirō Nagai
 * Professor Amamori is the head scientist at the Tsukuba Observatory. He is Hajime's uncle, though Hajime's father is his younger brother in the TV series and his older brother in the film. He became Hajime's guardian after his parents were both killed in an explosion. Amamori discovered the 10th planet, La-Metal, and determined it would collide with the Earth. At first, he had plenty of hair, but the discovery caused him to begin losing hair (though in the TV series, he keeps all his hair).


 * Holy Queen Larela (ラーレラ Rāreraundefined)
 * Larela is the Holy Queen and absolute ruler of planet La-Metal. She appears in the film as a small girl with glowing body and eyes, and energy halos at her head and feet. She is cold-hearted, and it is her plan allow Earth to be destroyed when her planet passes it for its final time.

Production
The Queen Millennia anime TV series aired on the Fuji TV network from 16 April 1981 through 25 March 1982 in the 7:00pm to 7:30pm time slot. It replaced Galaxy Express 999 in that time slot, and was replaced by Patalliro! at the end of its run. The series was animated by Toei Dōga. The series was originally scheduled to have 52 episodes, but due to having lower ratings than the previous Galaxy Express 999, the series was completed with only 42 episodes.

Staff

 * Planning: Tokio Tsuchiya, Kenji Yokoyama, Yoichi Kominato
 * Production Supervisor: Masahisa Saeki
 * Teleplay Writers: Keisuke Fujikawa, Shigemitsu Taguchi, Hiroyasu Yamaura, Toyohiro Andō
 * Chief Director: Nobutaka Nishizawa
 * General Animation Director / Character Designer: Yoshinori Kanemori
 * Mechanical Designer: Katsumi Itabashi
 * Chief Designer (Art Direction): Isamu Tsuchida
 * Music: Ryudō Uzaki, Tomoyuki Asakawa
 * Production: Fuji TV, Toei Animation

Music
Queen Millennia had music composed and arranged by Ryōdō Uzaki and Tomoyuki Asakawa. The opening theme song, Cosmos Dream (コスモス・ドリーム Kosumosu Dorīmu), was sung by Masaki Takanashi. The ending theme song, Excellent Legend (まほろば伝説 Mahoroba Densetsu), was sung by Manami Ishikawa. Both songs had lyrics by Yōko Aki, were composed by Ryudō Uzaki, and were arranged by Motoki Funayama.

Ishikawa was selected from 1898 applicants to work with Takanashi on the image song Love Is Flying on Wings (愛は翼に乗って Ai wa Tsubasa ni Notte). The song was performed by the Queen Millennia Grand Orchestra and arranged by Nozomi Aoki. A second image song, Message from Space (星空のメッセージ Hoshizora no Messēji), was sung by Keiko Han and Slapstick, and was arranged by Motoki Funayama. The lyrics for both image songs were written by Yōko Aki and composed by Ryudō Uzaki.