Toei announced on Thursday that its film remake of Leiji Matsumoto 's Space Pirate Captain Harlock anime will open this fall. Toei made the announcement during its Tokyo unveiling of its film lineup.

In Matsumoto's original 1977-79 manga, the title character fights for humanity with his 40 crew members aboard the invincible space battleship Arcadia. The manga inspired a 1978-1979 television anime series, a few features, and the sequel Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX .

Toei Animation first announced in 2010 that it made a pilot for a computer-graphics remake, and it presented the pilot at Tokyo International Anime Fair that year. It then presented a preview at France's Annecy, the world's largest animation film festival, in 2011.

Writer Harutoshi Fukui ( Mobile Suit Gundam UC novels, live-action Bōkoku no Aegis ) reconstructed the story to reflect the themes of modern society, and Shinji Aramaki ( Appleseed ) is directing with the latest filmmaking technology. According to the news source Oricon, this film has Toei Animation 's highest production budget ever at the equivalent of over 30 million U.S. dollars.

Toei Animation had initially planned to release the 3D remakes of Space Pirate Captain Harlock and its robot anime series Daikuu Maryuu Gaiking in 2012.

Source: Oricon