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THE LEIJIVERSE INTEGRATED TIMELINE

Third Edition

==================================

by Richard Mandel

version 3.00

INTRODUCTION

------------

"Mr. Matsumoto doesn't much care if all the pieces fall conveniently into

place. He has always been more interested in telling a good story than

pleasing continuity buffs."

- Robert W. Gibson, Eternity Comics

Welcome back to the third edition of this most singular, and perhaps

controversial, of fan efforts regarding the works of legendary Japanese manga

and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto. It is an attempt to come up with an

artificial linear chronology - a de facto integrated timeline, if you will -

for many of the major related science fiction anime titles on which he has been

the creator or chief writer, as well as many of the related manga (i.e. Japanese

comics) he has penned. A lot of fans prior to this work claimed this was

impossible. Some still do. So, before we get down to the nitty-gritty of this

document, let me explain its nature and what it is all about.

There is an obvious continuity running through many of Leiji Matsumoto's

major works - or M-san, as I will refer to him in this document. All of you who

are fans of M-san know what I'm talking about. This is that wide-ranging group

of his science fiction stories, both major and minor, that we have collectively

come to call the "Leijiverse." The same characters, stories grouped around

certain events in time, or the rise and fall of certain technologies, and so

forth. Even so, whenever a fan actually tries to line these stories up and put

them in some sort of chronological order, they never quite fit together. The

dates are always a bit off. Key events sometimes change from story to story.

Characters who are supposed to have lived and died in a certain era suddenly pop

up in another, and no answer is given as to why. Sometimes key technologies

themselves, such as starships or the Mechanization process, will inexplicably

change their appearance or ownership ... and so on, and so on. There are three

main reasons for this state of affairs.

First, like any good author, M-san occasionally revises his tales. He has

had any number of reasons for doing so - new publishers who request certain

changes, new ideas that come to him, or the conceiving of a new approach to an

old tale, and so on. Perhaps the best known example of this are what are

collectively known as the "revival Leijiverse" stories - partial or in some

cases almost complete rewrites of many of his classic science fiction tales done

for a new generation of his fans. This was one of only two times he has

apparently ever attempted to unite any of his works in some sort of grand

scheme.

Second, the transition from manga to anime often results in any number of

changes - not all of which have been with M-san's approval or blessing. The

initial appearance of the little girl Mayu Oyama in the 1978 TV series SPACE

CAPTAIN PIRATE HARLOCK is one of these. She never appears in the original

manga, nor in any of M-san's older Harlock tales, but was put there at the

insistence of director Rin Taro (with whom M-san has had any number of creative

differences) in order to humanize the tale, and make it more accessible to

mainstream audiences. Yes, she is based on some of M-san's own creations in

other manga stories (DAIFURINDEN, et al), but Maya is NOT part of the original

Harlock mythos - as shocking as this may sound to some fans. She's an

afterthought, forced upon M-san by Rin Taro, with whom he has had to reluctantly

come to terms with over the years - even though she was never conceived as part

of the original Harlock mythos. In retrospect, it's hard for us Leijiverse fans

to think nowadays of Captain Harlock without thinking of little Maya - but she

was not there to begin with. She is an addition to the tale, not part of the

original concept.

Third, M-san personal writing philosophy, which he summarizes in the

Japanese phrase "toki no wa," actively works against any cohesive chronology.

What does this mean? The concept behind the phrase is difficult to translate

into English in just a few words, but I'll try. One way of putting it is this:

all possibilities exist at all times for all people in any tale. Confused? Let

me try again, but from a different angle. M-san's writing philosophy treats his

creation, the Leijiverse, more like a looping multiverse - a universe of

multiple concurrent possible realities - than one single dimension. He

justifies changes to his works over the years, however large or small, by

claiming that each tale or group of tales has its own unique chronology that

folds in on itself, like a ring or moebius loop. Parallel timelines with

repeating characters and events if you will - or as the old Western saying goes,

"What goes around comes around." Identical characters can be born, live their

lives, and die at different times. The same goes for key events and

technologies. The philosophy of "toki no wa" also helps explain in part the big

break between M-san's older anime stories and his later "revival Leijiverse"

stories, beginning with HARLOCK SAGA. He essentially rebooted his entire

Leijiverse into a new and unique chronology in order to fulfill the grand

unifying concept he had for it at that time. There are those who see this

claim as intriguing, even something wonderful and unique in its own right. On

the other hand, critics rightly point out that it conveniently saves him from

ever having to rewrite any of his works - from straightening out the multiple

myriad continuity issues that have cropped up over the years. Which position

is right? Who knows? Toki no wa.

"I've many times seen, in various articles, publications, websites, etc.,

the idea put forth that the various stories featuring Captain Harlock and

assorted attendant characters don't fit into any proper chronology that

could make any sense at all. After this declaration, which is significant

and utterly true, the writer will then proceed to elaborate on some form

of overarching continuity, as if they had suddenly been struck with a flat

iron and were unable to remember their own prior assertion. Failure dogs

their heels throughout the ill-fated attempt, and finally catches them and

eats them. They have blown it."

- unknown spokesman, Corn Pone Flicks

I am not going to pretend to even try to sort out and discuss all of the

different variations and permutations of everything in the Leijiverse. Such a

task is beyond my skill, and would make this document far longer than it already

is. I'll leave that to the critics and the true scholars of this field, and not

opinionated fan spokesmen like the above. What I have chosen to do - and I wish

I had made this more clear in the last edition of this work - is to come up with

an artificial construct and make a chronology of that. What this document does

is to attempt to make a timeline of what the Leijiverse would be like IF it were

internally consistent and everything - or almost everything - fit neatly into

place. I can't stress the word "artificial" hard enough. This is not an

integrated linear chronology of the so-called "real" Leijiverse, and on that

one point (and one point only) I will concede to my critics. Such a thing is

indeed impossible, and I admit that, for the three reasons I outlined above.

Thus the artificial model. This is an integrated linear chronology of an

artificial Leijiverse - a model based on M-san's multiple realities in which

everything exists in a single reality, has a set place, and the flow of time is

linear - not running together on multiple possible tracks or looping through a

bunch of rings in multiple space-time continuums. What I am ultimately trying

to describe is an idealized place. It is not Leijiverse reality.

Over the past few years, I have heard from and read the comments of fellow

fans who have seen the previous edition of this work. That includes any number

of critics - and all of them take the same general approach. They almost always

denounce my efforts at establishing a linear chronology and then make the

mistake of trying to paint their own coherent picture of the actual Leijiverse -

with all of its rings, loops, twists, and everything. I myself prefer to keep

things simple, but I honestly can't criticize these folks. After all, thanks to

"toki no wa," all of us are permitted to have our own unique notions of the

Leijiverse. We can accept whatever part of it we like and that is both "true"

and "real," because "toki no wa" makes it so. For instance, we can accept only

the original manga stories as "true" and reject all else. We can accept only

the world of the "revival Leijiverse" anime and even reject its manga, which was

written at the same time, because "toki no wa" allows us to do that. However

broad or limited you want your scope or interpretation of the Leijiverse to be,

"toki no wa" says that you are always right no matter what your perspective.

So what serves as one of the chief impediments to a consistent Leijiverse also

gives us an unlimited amount of freedom in interpreting it. All of us are

both right AND wrong at the same time. "Toki no wa." By this same line of

reasoning, I am permitted my so-called "fantasy" of a timeline for an

artificial Leijiverse, where everything fits like it should, just as much as my

staunchest critics are permitted to claim there can never be a consistent

chronology, because "toki no wa" says we can do that. In my case, however, my

timeline - or ring, or loop, or sphere, or Leijiverse subset, or whatever you

want to call it, is just a lot larger and more intricate than most fans. I try

to integrate as many data points as I can, not just the ones that are the most

obvious. Remember, my effort is just as much "true" and "real" as anybody

else's interpretation - even if it IS just a model - because of "toki no wa."

I guess, in a way, this makes me the James Dixon of the Leijiverse. Fans

continue to argue over his STAR TREK fandom chronology to this day, which was

very much his own creation and based on his own perceptions of what the TREK

multiverse "should" be, as opposed to the official Okuda chronology. Even so,

that hasn't stopped these same people from using - and mining - Dixon's

extensive research for their own purposes. I accepted that from the moment

I began this work ... and it was partially for that reason that I began it.

I expect this to be used and data-mined - or in some cases partially reworked -

by my fellow Leijiverse fans just as much as serious Trekkers do to Dixon's

work. Why? I've saved you a lot of research into the finer details of the

Leijiverse - or at the very least, have pointed out most of the major (and

minor) places where you can start researching on your own. It was with this

idea firmly in mind, way back when, that I began ....

"It's no surprise that there are fans out there trying to provide for a

larger continuity [of the Leijiverse] that can account for multiple

universes, parallel timelines, etc. We actually know that Matsumoto-

sensei is interested in time and physics, so this is a legitimate

approach (or as French fans say, 'leijitime' - which breaks down into

'leiji'" + 'time.')"

- animekritik (a.k.)

from the Kritik der Animationskraft Internet site.

"So if I'm allowed to interpret the Leijiverse however I want, why do I

need this work? There's no reason for it -- is there?"

Fair point. Fans can view M-san's works however they please. That's how

he has set up the Leijiverse. I think the best illustration of this was by Tim

Eldred in his STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH web comic, where Trelana gives Wildstar a

vision of the infinite possibilities of time. He is given the briefest of

glimpses of these parallel concurrent realities - including one in which he

never existed, and the Yamato (nee Argo) was commanded by a woman. As I noted

before, and to borrow one fan's notion of continuity, you can grab whatever

subset of the Leijiverse you want built around whatever unifying principle or

principles you chose and make it work for you. "Toki no wa" permits that. At

the same time, however, there is a definite need for some kind of guide that you

can use in building your own concept of the Leijiverse. That's what I'm trying

to do with this revised timeline - this model, this oversized subset, this

integrated linear chronology of an artifically "perfect" Leijiverse. You can

use it to begin getting a grasp on how the tales (or subset of tales) you like

that relate to the rest of the Leijiverse (the superset), or relate to tales

that share similar elements (other subsets). In other words, this work is a

RULER, not a RULE. It is a guidebook to your road, not the road itself. I have

made it as broad and as encompassing as possible in order to cover as much of

the Leijiverse as I can - and where I speculate I try to say so - but never

forget that what I describe is NOT the actual Leijiverse. It is an artifical

Leijiverse that has been made in such a way as to conform, for the most part, to

what most fans' concept of the Leijiverse might be like if it were a linear and

internally consistent place. It is not. The actual Leijiverse is not linear,

as is this model (1). The so-called "real" Leijiverse loops in on itself

multiple times - almost to the point of redundancy, one might say. Even so,

"toki no wa" permits me my linear model just as much as it does the real thing,

or you and whatever your own personal interpretation might be.

Remember learning about Mercator projection maps in high school? That big

"Map of the World" that the teacher would occasionally use when talking about

world geography? Remember how funny all the continents looked, with Greenland

being larger than North America when it's actually smaller? That's one way to

think of this timeline. A Mercator projection map is a mathematical means of

mapping the curved, continuous surface of a sphere onto a flat rectangle. The

farther you move away from the equator, the more and more things get distorted.

It doesn't have to be a Mercator map, either. Any attempt at mapping a sphere

onto a flat surface ultimately fails because you can't accurately map a curved

surface onto something flat. Something always gets distorted in the process.

Think of my artificial model, my integrated timeline, as that flat map of the

various and sundry "rings of time" that make up the actual Leijiverse. There's

no way I can accurately map them all. Too many iterations, and too many data

points within those different and unique iterations. With this artificial

linear timeline, however, I can give you a useful tool by which you can measure

and plot out whichever of those rings you choose for yourself. By showing you

what the "center ring" might look like, if such a thing existed, and if it were

made linear - or "mapped flat," if you will - with almost everything fitting

nicely into place, you can then use this model to measure against your own

interpretation of the Leijiverse, or whatever subset thereof that draws your

particular interest. Mine is a "best fit line" through most of the known data

points that will help you along the way towards developing your own theory about

the Leijiverse. After all, a ring is nothing more than a line joined at its

endpoints ... isn't it?

"Leijiverse = 'lazy-verse.'"

- unknown blogger.

"But why all the dates and the notes and comments and such? I though you

said I could interpret the Leijiverse any way I want."

They're there for the sake of convenience. They are there for research

purposes - so you will know "when" something is supposed to happen and why.

They are there so you can look up for yourself the sources I consulted for any

given "date" (nee data point), as well as some of my reasoning for inserting it

where I did. That's why. Not only do serious researchers do this sort of

thing, they insist on it. "Show your work," as my high school math teacher

used to say. It's a maxim I've never forgotten.

"But you make it way too complicated, and I don't agree with <insert data

point(s) of contention here>. I think that <insert argument here>."

There's another way to look at this, you know. Pretend the dates and

commentary aren't there. Just the events. Pull out the events in which you're

interested and write them down, in the order that I give them. Now take them

and compare them to your idea or concept of what you think the Leijiverse should

be. Certain things almost always happen in a certain order in almost every

incarnation of the Leijiverse, no matter in which of the infinte Rings of Time

you find yourself. Captain Harlock is born on Earth. His parents die. He and

Tochiro become friends. He becomes a space pirate and captain of the space

galleon Arcadia. Captain Harlock eventually becomes one of the leaders in

mankind's fight against the Machine Empire. And so on. Establishing the

general pattern of events is actually quite easy. It's dating everything that's

the real bitch, thanks to the way the Leijiverse is set up. That too I have

tried to keep in mind as I developed my artifical reference model, and this

document to explain it. You can "fix" my dates however you want. The general

patterns must remain the same, though, if your own personal model is to be true

to the Leijiverse itself.

I decided to do this third edition once the "revival Leijiverse" period

finally began to wind down. It was as much a matter of necessity as desire.

The release of the second season of GALAXY RAILWAYS threw some of my initial

dating assumptions for that anime out of whack, and this needed to be fixed.

Also, in the past few years, I have gained access to more translations and

summaries of many Leijiverse manga, and this new data also needed to be

incorporated. Finally, I wanted to do what I had contemplated doing back then

and convert this entire document to plain vanilla text form. That would make it

easier on my many overseas readers, particularly in Japan and Europe, who wanted

to make translations of it for their friends. Just feed it into the appropriate

translation software and push the button, then go back and make the many

necessary idiomatic and formatting corrections (urgh!), and there you go.

For what it's worth, you have both my permission and blessing to do so.

I want to thank author Tim Eldred for encouraging me in my start down this

long and strange path. This never would have happened had it not been for his

initial encouragement and advice. I also want to thank everyone across the Big

Pond on the TokiNoWa web site. You were kind enough to post the second edition

of this work, even damaged as it was due to an unrecoverable hard drive crash.

You comments and criticisms have been appreciated. I hope your regulars and

visitors enjoy this edition as much as they did the earlier one. While I'm at

it, I should not forget the efforts of Kana Press in France and the American fan

scanlating group Rabbit Reich, for translating many previously unavailable

Leijiverse manga into French and English respectively. You both helped clear

up a lot of misinformation and incorrect assumptions I had made with regard to

these titles. Finally, I'd like to give special praise the animekritik ("a.k.,"

as he is better known in the blogopshere) over at the Kritik der Animationskraft

website for two things: writing the most fair criticism of the older edition of

this work I have yet read, and for opening my eyes to new avenues of research I

had not or was unable to pursue before - such as the MIRAIZER BAN connection to

the Rings of Time view of the Leijiverse, for example. While we may differ in

our interpretations about certain things - a perfectly human thing to do - I

have nonetheless found your insights valuable on more than one occasion. You

will see echoes of your own research and information within these pages. I hope

you and your friends profit from this new edition, too - as I hope for all read

and use it.

In closing, lest I forget, I want to make special mention of the people at

Corn Pone Flicks, the original fansubbers of the CAPTAIN HARLOCK TV series, for

stubbornly continuing to insist that any attempt at Leijiverse continuity is

impossible, and for attacking me (by implication) for daring to even attempt

such a thing. I took your words as a challenge to meet, as you can see. I

consider myself fortunate enough to have seen my efforts bear the fruit that I

had hoped they would, and more. Go ahead and continue to broadcast your

closed-mindedness to everyone who visits your website, if you insist. I'm

glad I didn't listen to you - and so are millions of Leijiverse fans worldwide.

- Richard Evan Mandel

7 December 2011

(rtrodude@gmail.com)

A BROAD BREAKDOWN OF THE LEIJIVERSE

-----------------------------------

When most fans talk about periods of M-san's works, they are almost

inevitably referring to his anime stories - but let's not forget he is an author

and illustrator of hundreds of manga tales. M-san has been writing manga almost

continuously since his career began. Unfortunately, most of his manga stories

have yet to receive proper translations here in the West, so fan perceptions of

his creative output have been shaped, for good or worse, by his anime tales or

adaptations of his manga works for anime. Fans generally group these into three

broad periods, as follows:

THE CLASSIC PERIOD (1968-1978)

This is the period in which the four great "classic" anime TV shows by

M-san began production. These are STAR BLAZERS (aka UCHUU SENKAN YAMATO),

SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK, QUEEN MILLENNIA, and the original GALAXY EXPRESS

999 television series. (2) There is also a large body of early science fiction

manga by M-san that belongs in this era, in which you can see glimpses or early

efforts at characters and concepts that eventually wound up in these three

shows. This is the period that propelled M-san to initial fame, and made him

second only to Osamu Tezuka as one of the founding fathers of Japanese anime as

we know it.

Although its first anime is STAR BLAZERS (1974), I date the start of this

period to 1968 and the relase of the first volume of M-san's classic sci-fi

manga series SEXAROID - the story that made him famous. It was the first he

wrote where his creativity was allowed free reign, and it was the first to get

him major attention in Japan. It is also the first major "Leijiverse" work per

se - with concepts, characters, and a graphic style that is instantly

recognizable to fans of M-san's works even today. I would daresay it is one of

the great classics of Japanese science fiction, despite its status as a manga,

and its influence on the anime industry can be seen in everything from

"hardcore" works such as Masamune Shiro's GHOST IN THE SHELL and Suzuki

Toshimichi's BUBBLEGUM CRISIS to such lighthearted fare as the Personicoms of

CHOBITS. Save for assorted earlier manga shorts, SEXAROID is the TRUE

beginning of the Leijiverse and its classic period, in my opinion - not STAR

BLAZERS.

This period actuallys lasts until 1981, when the last episode of the

GALAXY EXPRESS 999 TV series was aired, but for purposes of this document I

date it to 1978 and the release of the first GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film.

A lot would be changed and reworked for that effort - and that movie would also

mark the beginning of a new period in the development of the Leijiverse.

There is a LOT of chronological confusion regarding this era. This is due

to the fact that most of the Leijiverse stories created during this time - save

for certain works such as QUEEN MILLENNIA and CAPTAIN HARLOCK, and military

manga such as the BATTLEFIELD series (aka THE COCKPIT, HARD METAL, et al), are

set around the beginning of the 23rd century (the 2200s), or have no date at all

- although the "near future" is usually implied. One of the more obvious

exceptions to this is the TV adaptation of SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK, where

a date of 2977 is given right at the start of the show. Of course, the gimmick

there was that the date was exactly 1000 years after the start of production -

but that date would stick when it came time for the next period of M-san's anime

works. Some of the dates in his other "classic" works - GALAXY EXPRESS 999 in

particular - would have to be adjusted upward to better fit the new continuity

that was being envisioned for this next era of M-san's creative genius.

THE HEYDAY PERIOD AND FALL FROM GRACE (1979-1982, 1983-1995)

This era marks when M-san was the height of his original popularity and

creativity, before changing trends in anime and its audience base forced him

to the sidelines. The four great Leijiverse feature film adaptations - GALAXY

EXPRESS 999, MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA, ADIEU GALAXY EXPRESS 999, and QUEEN MILLENNIA

- were all made during this period, as was a fifth (a TV special) that is almost

unknown here in the west - MARINE SNOW NO DENSETSU, aka THE LEGEND OF MARINE

SNOW. This was also the first time that M-san attempted to unify his various

works into something of a consistent whole. Sadly, that original effort went

unfinshed - as would so many of his efforts over the years, and as his second

such effort to do so would almost a decade later. Bits and pieces of this first

effort still survive, though - such as KAIZOKU KIKAN ARCADIA, the original pilot

for the ENDLESS ROAD SSX anime TV series, and both the ARCADIA ROMAN ALBUM and

SSX GUIDEBOOK - that give us an important glimpse into what might have been.

The "heyday" era is generally held by fans to have ended in 1981 with the

release of the feature film ADIEU GALAXY EXPRESS 999: FINAL STATION ANDROMEDA.

In truth, the last anime title based on an M-san work during this time was AREI

NO KAGAMI (aka THE WAY TO VIRGIN SPACE), which was released in 1995. Between

these two are a smattering of TV specials and educational films, but nothing in

the way of popular anime TV series or feature films as there had been only two

decades before. Public perceptions had changed, and M-san's work was seen as

"old school" at this time - shunned in favor of giant transforming robots and

oversexed pre-teen girls with pie eyes. A virtual "fall from grace," if you

will. Even in AREI NO KAGAMI, though, you can already see certain changes

taking place in Leijiverse anime - such as integrated computer graphics and

some toning-down of the old themes that so used to dominate Leijiverse tales.

Nevertheless, all of the old ideas and concepts regarding the Leijiverse appear

to have remained in place during this "fall from grace" period. It was not

until the next major period in Leijiverse evolution that things significantly

changed.

FYI, the first-ever linear timeline for the Leijiverse was published during

this period, and can be found in the MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA Roman Album. The dates

it contains - and there are only four of them, albeit extensively annotated -

represent the only chronological glimpse we have into how M-san viewed his

creation - the Leijiverse - at this point in his career. They reflect M-san's

revised dating of his classic science fiction stories, using the 2977 date from

the anime version of SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK as the new anchor point for

this adjusted chronology. This new continuity, albeit with several significant

alterations for his "revival" period, has remained essentially the same since

this time.

THE REVIVAL PERIOD (1998-2011)

Fortunately for us and the rest of the world, the Leijiverse was not about

to roll over and die. M-san had never stopped writing manga, for one thing.

Also, during that long hiatus where the only Leijiverse shows on TV were all

reruns, an entire generation of anime writers and producers were gaining access

to the industry - ones who had grown up on and fondly loved their "classics."

M-san's works were among those revered by them. It should then come as no

surprise that once some of these people finally gained enough power and

prestige in the anime industry to begin reviving "the classics," then the

Leijiverse was swept back into the public eye along with them.

These "revival period" shows are probably the works of M-san most familiar

and accessible to Leijiverse fans today. They represent something of a reboot

of the Leijiverse, with M-san altering or in some cases completely changing

the backstories of most of his major characters in an effort to weave a new

(and grand) unifying theme throughout his stories. This theme is a new threat

to the universe in the form of the Metanoids - who are not as overt or as crude

as the older Mechanoids, but in their own unique ways are perhaps even more

terrifying. They are "too human" to be machines, for one. Mechanoids are

said to have no souls, while early on Metanoids are establieshed as having

them. The Metanoid threat appears in every one of M-san's "revival" tales (to

varying degrees) starting with GALAXY EXPRESS 999 ETERNAL FANTASY and HARLOCK

SAGA, and continued until DAI YAMATO ZERO GO - his own unfinished effort at

rebooting the revered YAMATO (STAR BLAZERS) franchise. Also part of this

"revival" period are MAETEL LEGEND, SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL, COSMO WARRIOR

ZERO, and more.

In an odd parallel to his "heyday" period (AREI NO KAGAMI), the standalone

short "Out of Galaxy Koshika" (based on the online manga of the same name and

done as an interpretation of the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen) most likely

marks the end of the "revival Leijiverse" period. This is just a guess, but

the 2011 live-action YAMATO movie and the soon-to-come CGI CAPTAIN HARLOCK

feature film (2013?) probably mark the beginning of another period in M-san's

onscreen works ... one that has yet to be explored.

It should also be noted that most of M-san's manga works in this period

also reflect the "revival Leijiverse" view of his creation. The unfinished

10-volume HARLOCK SAGA manga (out of 11 planned; the concluding volume was

never written), which goes well beyond what we saw in the anime OVA series,

is one of these. It is the foundation work off of which the rest of the

"revival" manga and anime stories are keyed. Also belonging to this period

are the mangas GREAT YAMATO and THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA, both of

which found their way via a long a torturous path into having parts of them

adapted for the aborted DAI YAMATO ZERO GO anime OAV series. The unfinished

"new" GALAXY EXPRESS 999 third manga series keys directly off of the ETERNAL

FANTASY anime OVA - itself a pilot film for a new anime TV series that never

materialized - and also shares common themes with the HARLOCK SAGA manga.

COSMO WARRIOR ZERO, SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL and GALAXY RAILWAYS all have

their proper places in the "revival" period. And so on, and so on ... but

their most basic underlying theme - that of the Metanoids - can be traced

directly back to the HARLOCK SAGA and GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY mangas. Thus, any

fan who wants to get a better grasp on how M-san was intending to reboot and

unify his most famous works around the theme of the Metanoid threat needs to

pay as much attention to this manga (and other related manga of this period)

as well as what anime titles were eventually produced.

Finally, one must take into account two of the many Leijiverse-based

videogames produced during this period. These are COSMO WARRIOR ZERO and STORY

OF GALAXY EXPRESS 999. ZERO started out as a videogame before it was adapted as

an anime series. Some of the material in the game didn't make it into the

anime. No surprise there - this happens a lot, as any fan of Japanese

videogames will tell you. STORY OF GE999 is useful as more of a reference tool

than anything else. For example, neither Tochiro's nor Tetsuro's mothers had

names until this videogame gave them ones - Setsuko Oyama and Kanae Hoshino,

respectively. The game itself is forgettable, but there are other such odd

little bits and nuggets of trivia and lore tucked here and there within for

hardcore Leijiverse fans to find.

Many younger fans tend to ground their own personal interpretations of the

Leijiverse squarely in the "revival" period. It's easy to see why. It's more

fleshed out and has more of a unified feel to it than any other period in the

development of the Leijiverse across the years. Even so, I favor the somewhat

older "heyday period" attempt at continuity and use it as the basis for this

document, despite what few sparse clues are available. Perhaps it reflects the

fact that I grew up watching the older works, both "classic" and "heyday." My

first Leijiverse anime was STAR BLAZERS, which I first saw during its original

television run in the United States back in 1980. The first full-blown

Leijiverse movie I ever remember watching was the Roger Corman English-dubbed

adaptation of the first GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film. Both made quite an

impression on me - and I still smile whenever I hear "Captain Warlock" say,

"Bartender - milk!" That's probably why the "heyday" period works better for

me for bringing both the "classic" and "revival" periods into some sort of

shared continuity. It's what I know best. I also point out that since it

lies being between the "classic" and "revival periods, spanning the gulf

between them, as it were, then it's more of a natural to adapt the rest to it

than trying to shoehorn all of the older "classic" and "heyday" stories into

the quite different continuity of the "revival" period. Of course, you'll have

your own opinion, and I respect that - but this is what works for me.

To be fair, there are those fans who say you should just take everything

at face value and deal with it as you get to it. Corn Porn Flicks, for

example, who have been rather stridently vocal on this point. "Toki no wa,"

I respond. Whatever works for you. Remember, this is just your Baedeker -

your guide - and not the path itself that you might choose. I am showing you

how all the data points COULD relate to each other as a whole in an IDEAL

situation. How they all actually fit, or whatever subset of those data points

you chose to interpret for yourself ... well, that's up for you to decide. The

would-be Leijiverse restrictionists stand at one end of the timeline debate

spectrum. I stand firmly at the other end. You, and other readers like you,

will probably fall somewhere in between. That's your right, and more power to

you, I say. "Toki no wa."

REGARDING LEIJIVERSE MANGA

--------------------------

Dedicated Leijiverse fans will soon notice that I have not included all of

M-san's many manga in this linear model. The reason is fairly obvious. M-san

has written a wide variety of manga over the years on many subjects. Not all of

them can be considered part of the Leijiverse as most fans regard it - that is,

there's nothing in them that have any relation to his most famous works aside

from the art style and maybe a side reference or two. Thus, you can have a

M-san manga series such as the two MACHINERS CITY volumes (MACHINERS CITY and

NEW MACHINERS CITY), both excellent reads in their own right, without once ever

alluding to ANYTHING belonging to the Leijiverse proper (although "acknowledged"

Leijiverse works sometimes reference THEM, like HARLOCK SAGA does with MACHINERS

CITY and the "Dr. Harlock" character in same). You can have parodies - as M-san

does in parodying his own beloved GALAXY EXPRESS 999 with the raunchily funny

DRIFTING EXPRESS 000 - all done in good fun and having no impact on the

Leijiverse proper. You can even have a complete "serious" standalone manga

adventure like V2 PANZER SERAZARD - the story of three people engaged in a DEATH

RACE 2000 style motocross race across the deserts of Mars - and not once come

across ANYTHING bearing on the back history of the Niebelungen, or the Mazone,

or where exactly was the base where Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture were

stationed in STAR BLAZERS, and so on. It's just a entertaining story and

nothing more. Aside from the names and M-san's easily recognizable art style

and stock character models, there's nothing else in here that connects with the

common fan notion of the backstory of the Leijiverse. It can be "made" to fit,

of course, but most fans would agree that it's no more a part of the Leijiverse

as they perceive it to be than is, say, CRISIS III or TORIYAMA NO MII - or

even DANGUARD ACE (3).

On the other hand, there ARE a lot of M-san's manga - both old and new -

that have a direct bearing on this unique fan notion of the Leijiverse. There

are the older Harlock stories - "Great Pirate Harlock," "Space Battleship

Deathshadow," the "Duel! Emeraldus vs. Herlock" comedy short, the DIVER ZERO

manga anthology, and so on - where we see M-san developing the concepts and

backstory for one of his greatest creations. Somewhat in the same vein is his

most famous manga series - THE COCKPIT (aka the BATTLEFIELD series) - from

which selected elements of the Harlock backstory were drawn, and most of which

fits nicely into almost any model of a consistent Leijiverse, linear or curved,

that you care to make. Both SEXAROID and MYSTERY EVE have their places here,

too - and even his most funny and self-introspective work, OTOKO OIDON (aka I

AM A MAN!) has its own unique connection to Harlock's times. There are also

many of what I call the "parallel manga" - done in conjunction with whatever

anime projects M-san had going at the time, and often exploring side tangents

that were never touched upon in the anime proper. The list of these is too

numerous to give here; suffice it to say that these are the manga that most

fans immediately recognize and state to be part of the Leijiverse.

It goes without saying that this third and last group have their proper

place in this linear Leijiverse model of mine. So too do the second group,

insofar as what data and insights they can provide that do not directly

contradict anything in the first group, or in the anime proper. As for the

first group, I discount them entirely - not out of disrespect, but out of

practicality. They were meant to be standalone stories. They were never

meant to be part of a consistent Leijiverse as we fans might conceive of it.

LEIJIVERSE INTRUSIONS BY OTHER CREATORS

---------------------------------------

I have already alluded to the fact that there are others, such as director

Rin Taro, who have had a significant impact on the way that Leijiverse anime

have been shaped and is now viewed by fans. Another of these is artist Syd

Mead, who was called in by Yoshinobu Nishizaki as a replacement for M-san for

the ill-fated YAMATO 2520 anime OVA series. Not that I have anything against

Mr. Mead - he's a great artist, and his work on the designs for the classic

science fiction feature film BLADE RUNNER have made him justly famous. He's not

M-san, though. He's an outsider. Nevertheless, he made his own particular mark

on the Leijiverse with YAMATO 2520 - just as Rin Taro did with the original

CAPTAIN HARLOCK TV series, and would later do again with ENDLESS ODYSSEY. Fans

were split on Syd Mead's particular "intrusion" into the Leijiverse until some

of his spaceship designs also turned up - in of all places - in the 2009 YAMATO

RESURRECTION anime feature film. That pretty much closed that particular issue.

Syd Mead's contribution to the Leijiverse is now an integral part of it, whether

some fans like it or not - just as YAMATO 2520 is itself part of the Leijiverse

proper, due to its connection with the YAMATO franchise, and whether fans like

it or not. (4)

It should come as no surprise that intrusions are also true for the manga

side of things - or "comics," as we call them here in the West. The first

three primary contributors in this regard are Comico Comics, Argo Press, and

Eternity Comics. All of them created Western-style comic books for the

Leijiverse under license at various times. These tales fill significant gaps

in the Leijiverse - just as does the YAMATO 2520 anime OVA series does on the

anime side of things - and no model of the Leijverse, linear or not, would be

complete without them. The fourth is comic book author and illustrator Tim

Eldred, whose hand can be seen in both the Argo Press and Eternity Comics

series, and who has since gone on to produce a number of online STAR BLAZERS

web comics for Voyager Entertaiment. These deserve special mention, and I will

get to them in due course.

Comico and Argo both created original comic book stories for the STAR

BLAZERS franchise at different times. Comico's two series fill in important

gaps between the three seasons of the show - and in the case of the latter,

provide significant backstory on the history of the Comet Empire. Argo Press

mainly fills in the gaps between the Comet Empire story arc and the third and

fourth Yamato feature films - THE NEW VOYAGE and BE FOREVER YAMATO. Argo Press

also contributed an original story in this regard, the "Icarus" arc, which fills

in an important gap regarding the youth of Sasha, daughter of Starsha and Alex

Wildstar. As for Eternity Comics and their long-running yet ultimately aborted

CAPTAIN HARLOCK series ... well ... the sad story of how they came by and

ultimately lost their license is best told elsewhere. It's a shame that the

series was never finished, because Eternity's stories fill in a major gap in

the adventures of Captain Harlock, his fight against the Illumidas, and the

eventual rise of the Machine Empire that has been barely touched upon in M-san's

own works. There's events and data points of backstory in these tales that are

found nowhere else, and help explain some of the things happening in other

Leijiverse tales around the same time. Yes, there are some issues with other

Leijiverse works, especially ENDLESS ROAD SSX, but no worse (or better) than

M-san's own contradicitons.

I have include these three "outside intrusions" - as one fan called them -

for the same reason I included YAMATO 2520 and other such anime works. They

have their place in my linear model of an artifically consistent Leijiverse.

They fit nicely into slots where there would otherwise be major gaps. They have

no major contradicitons with M-san's own stories, and what minor contradictions

exist can easily be adjusted for in the same manner that I do for his relevant

manga tales. In other words, they help make this linear model of mine more

complete than it would otherwise be. That is why they are here. If you don't

like or want them, then don't include them in your own interpretation. Easy

enough?

Tim Eldred has been doing yeoman's work with the official STAR BLAZERS

website for Voyager Entertainment, as the many who have visited there will

attest. I got to chat with him briefly (via email) way back when at the start

of the STAR BLAZERS REMASTERED project, and he's quite a guy. Have I

mentioned his hand in helping to create the Eternity Comics and Argo Press comic

book series? His latest - and some say greatest - contribution is to release

a number of STAR BLAZERS web comics. At present there are two main series of

these. The first is STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH, and the second is THE BOLAR WARS

EXTENDED.

Eldred had no idea that things were about to come together for Yoshinobu

Nishizaki's long-delayed YAMATO REBIRTH feature film project when he began his

own web-comic take. Using existing art designs and write-ups, he crafted his

own version of how the Yamato (nee Argo) was rebuilt and relaunched in the 2220s

to deal with an apparent black hole moving towards Earth. It's easy to accuse

him of "jumping the gun" now, since the 2009 release of YAMATO RESURRECTION, but

it's still an enjoyable read. The two stories are actually quite similar in

many places. Even if their endings are different - and Eldred's concept and

resolution of the situation is quite different than Nishizaki's - Eldred's

effort still stirs the soul. His actually rings more true to the old spirit of

the franchise and strives for continuity, while Nishizaki is once again on his

"new uninspiring crew in new ship saves the universe at the expense of the most

beautiful women around" theme that seems to permeate most of his works. STAR

BLAZERS REBIRTH actually made it into the second edition of this work - as much

of it as was available at the time, anyway - because back then it was the only

available material that dealt with the "end," so to say, of the STAR BLAZERS

era. YAMATO RESURRECTION has since been released ... and now we have a problem.

Which "take" of these events is the proper one? Eldred's or Nishizaki's?

Eldred's current project is THE BOLAR WARS EXPANDED. With this, he takes

most of the ideas that were intended but ultimately abandoned for the third

season of STAR BLAZERS (it got cut in half, remember?) and attempts to

reconstruct the intended story in web comic form. It is quite a read, to say

the least, and highly recommended for all STAR BLAZERS fans in particular, as

well as Leijiverse fans in general.

As much as I love Eldred's work - and I still don't regret including

STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH in the earlier edition of this timeline - I have to

reluctantly treat it as a "second group" work, like I do certain of the relevant

Leijiverse manga by M-san. In the first case, YAMATO RESURRECTION is the

official on-screen continuing of the story of the Star Force. It represents

Nishizaki's original intent, and his hand can seen in it throughout (for better

or for worse). As for THE BOLAR WARS EXTENDED, its story does not match what

ultimately ended up on-screen - even as truncated as that was. It represents an

alternate take on events for the back half of the series, just as much as

FAREWELL TO SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO represents an alternate take on the

Earth-Cometine War. That doesn't stop me from sourcing Eldred's tales for

selected data points, but ONLY when what he presents doesn't conflict with

what's on screen or in "first group" print sources.

I still recommend Eldred's web comics to anyone who wants to read them (I

mean that, Tim, and you can quote me on it!), especially fellow STAR BLAZERS

fans. Unfortunately the Rings of Time that he is depicting in these tales are

too divergent from the artifical "center ring" I am trying to extrapolate to

include his tales as a whole. That is why I treat them like a "second group"

manga source - only cherry-picking what I can from them without going "off the

plantation," as it were. I hope you understand ... and I hope Tim does, too.

ABBREVIATIONS

-------------

The following abbreviations are used for Leijverse works, both manga and

anime, in this document:

ARA MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA ROMAN ALBUM

BFY BE FOREVER YAMATO

BWE THE BOLAR WARS EXTENDED (web comic by Tim Eldred)

CHR CAPTAIN HARLOCK comic book series by Eternity Press

CHEO CAPTAIN HARLOCK ENDLESS ODYSSEY (aka OUTSIDE LEGEND)

CHQ1K CAPTAIN HARLOCK AND THE QUEEN OF 1000 YEARS (HGM hack job)

CHP SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK offical program book by Toei

CWZ COSMO WARRIOR ZERO

DNA FIRE FORCE DNA SIGHTS 999.9

DZ DIVER ZERO

DYZG DAI YAMATO ZERO GO

Eldred Tim Eldred of Voyager Entertainment (various materials)

FSY FAREWELL TO SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO

FY FINAL YAMATO

GE999 GALAXY EXPRESS 999

GE999A GALAXY EXPRESS 999 FINAL STATION ANDROMEDA (aka ADIEU GE999)

GE999F GALAXY EXPRESS 999 ETERNAL FANTASY

GE999P GALAXY EXPRESS 999 official program book by Toei

GF GUN FRONTIER

Gibson Robert Gibson, author of the CHR stories for Eternity Comics

GPH "Great Pirate Captain Harlock" manga short

GR GALAXY RAILWAYS TV series (both seasons and the OVA series)

GRA1&2 GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film ROMAN ALBUMS (both movies)

GY GREAT YAMATO (the DAI YAMATO managa)

HS HARLOCK SAGA (in general ...)

HS1 HARLOCK SAGA: THE RHINEGOLD (manga)

HS2 HARLOCK SAGA: THE VALKYRIE (manga)

HS3 HARLOCK SAGA: SIEGFRIED (manga)

HS4 HARLOCK SAGA: GOTTERDAMERUNG (manga)

I5555 INTERSTELLA 5555

KKA KAIZOKU KIKAN ARCADIA (aka the SSX pilot film)

Lewis Bruce Lewis, "History of the Star Blazers Galaxy"

ME MYSTERY EVE

ML MAETEL LEGEND

MSD MARINE SNOW NO DENSETSU (aka THE LEGEND OF MARINE SNOW)

MYA MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA

MYAR MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA Roman album

OO OTOKO OIDON (aka I AM A MAN!)

QE QUEEN EMERALDAS

QEC QUEEN EMERALDAS 4-part comic book series by Eternity Press

QES "Queen Emeraldas" manga short (aka the "Death Herlock" short story)

QM QUEEN MILLENNIA

QRA QUEEN MILLENNIA feature film ROMAN ALBUM

S99 SUPER SUBMARINE 99

SB1 STAR BLAZERS SEASON 1 (the Iscandar story arc)

SB2 STAR BLAZERS SEASON 2 (the Comet Empire story arc)

SB3 STAR BLAZERS SEASON 3 (the Bolar Wars Story Arc)

SBC1 STAR BLAZERS Comico comic book series 1 (the Callisto story arc)

SBC2 STAR BLAZERS Comico comic book series 2 (the Eurythmia story arc)

SBC3 STAR BLAZERS Argo Press comic book series

SBD "Space Battleship Deathshadow" manga short

SBR STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH (web comic by Tim Eldred)

SPCH SPACE CAPTAIN PIRATE HARLOCK

SBR STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH online Internet comic by Tim Eldred

SBTM STAR BLAZERS TECHNICAL MANUAL and ROLE PLAYING GAME

SBY SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO (live action feature film) (5)

SR SEXAROID

SSM SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL

SSX CAPTAIN HARLOCK ENDLESS ROAD SSX

TASY THIS IS ANIMATION: SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO

TC THE COCKPIT (aka BATTLEFIELD)

TSM THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA

TT1 "The Tochiro (Part 1)" manga short

TT2 "The Tochiro (Part 2)" manga short

TTB THE TALE OF A TIME GONE BY manga anthology

UTSM THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA

Y2520 YAMATO 2520

YNV YAMATO THE NEW VOYAGE

YPA1&2 YAMATO PERFECT ALBUMS 1 & 2

YR YAMATO RESURRECTION (aka YAMATO REBIRTH)

YT YOZIGEN TOKEI manga anthology

Since many of the works in question exist in multiple incarnations,

smallcase letters following the abbreviation are used as needed to distinguish

among them:

-a anime TV series or OVA version

-f anime feature film version

-g videogame version

-m manga version

These can be used to mark specific distinctions among the various versions of a

given title, as follows:

QMa anime TV adaptation of QUEEN MILLENIA

QMf anime feature film adaptation of QUEEN MILLENNIA

QMm manga version of QUEEN MILLENNIA

Footnotes

(1) The best way to visualize the Leijiverse is as an n-dimensional toridal

Master Ring of Time in the general space-time continuum, with the pocket

artificial universe of Valhalla at its center. There are an infinite number of

bisects you can do of the Leijiverse to create an infinite amount of smaller

Rings of Time, each of which is distinct in its own right. They can run in

parallel, they can be cut at an angle (to make an ellipse, which is a type of

ring), and they can even intersect or cross multiple other rings depending on

your bisect(s). Parallel Leijiverses, if you will. You can even do

perpendicular bisects to create a ring or set of rings around one or more fixed

points in time. The "revival Leijiverse," the heyday period, the early Harlock

tales, the original GE999 TV series, the world of the SEXAROID manga, et al.

Here's the goofy part - since we're dealing with an n-dimensional construct,

then any Ring you pick may not "look" like a ring from your perspective. It

might look like an infinity sign, or a moebius loop, or so on. That's the

nature of the beast we're dealing with. Follow so far? The term "ring" is

just a convenient point of reference - since the n-dimensional "rings" we're

talking about are more like rubber bands, able to bend and flex and twist in

time and space wherever and however the story or set of stories go. That's the

nature of the beast we're dealing with. So far, so good.

Now take any point on any Ring of Time, itself a subset of the Master Ring,

and it will have an infinite number of analogs on an infinite number of similar

Rings. Since each Ring is unique, and has its own unique place within the

Master Ring of Time, then that point on that particular ring may appear to be in

a different location when viewed from the ring in which you are currently

located. It depends on how far out on the Master Ring it is from you - how

much removed from your chosen perspective than its Ring of Time in which it

properly belongs is located. Since you can only perceive the Master Ring from

within your smaller Ring of Time, everything else beyond it - including the

Master Ring - is distorted by your chosen perspective. Nothing in any other

ring can ever quite look right because you can never get a true picture of the

n-dimensional nature of the Master Ring. Any model, including my own artifical

one, will always be distorted because of the curved nature of the Rings of

Time. Also, if it helps, remember to think of my timeline as a linear

depiction of the one Ring of Time that's running in the exact middle of the

Master Ring - save that it's been cut and unrolled from a curved Ring into a

"flat," straight line.

I didn't come up with this definition of "toki no wa." It's M-san's own,

as described in MYA, HSm "The Rhinegold," and the MIRAIZER BAN manga. Another

good alternative is the animekritik's "nested Time Sphere" concept, which he

discusses on his website - Kritik der Animationskraft.

(2) There is also STARZINGER to consider, a "Power Ranger type" anime TV series

on which M-san played an important creative role, if one wants an honest picture

of this era - as well as DANGUARD ACE, M-san's only "robot" show. Most fans

discount both entirely as belonging in separate continuities apart from the

Leijiverse proper, since they contain no common elements with his other, more

recoginizable science fiction works - the Yamato, Captain Harlock, the Three-

Nine, et al.

(3) Some fans have argued rather vociferously for the inclusion of MIRAIZER BAN

in my model, since it does a better job of defining M-san's "toki no wa"

philosophy than any other of his works. The actual story, however, creates so

many problems with regards to continuity issues that I've had to exclude it from

my linear model on practical grounds. I do recommend it, however, as a

necessary read for anyone wanting to understand how the concepts of time and

"toki no wa" work with regards to the Leijiverse proper. There's also a lot of

excellent fan discussion on MIRAIZER BAN out there on the Internet -

animekritik's in particular - and you might want to look that up, too.

(4) While we're at it, let's not forget the major part played by anime mecha

designer Kazutaka Miyatake in creating most of the new ship designs for YAMATO's

Comet Empire story arc - most notably that of the Andromeda, one of the all-time

great anime starship designs and a perennial fan favorite. It is said that when

M-san saw Miyatake's proposal, he was quite impressed. The only part of the

design he changed was the upper bridge structure - to the form we know today.

The original upper bridge design can be found in several YAMATO art books of the

period.

Miyatake's work is as much part of the Leijiverse as is Taro's, Mead's,

Eldred's, and many others. Try to imagine YAMATO without the presence of the

mighty Andromeda, and you will see what I mean.

(5) There are elements of the 2010 live action YAMATO feature film that are

unique to that particular interpretation of the tale; hence its place here.

----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

------------------

c.15 billion BC

- The “Big Bang” (creation of the Leijiverse). [CHE0, Y2520]

- The Leijiverse is formed from a zero-point singularity by the event known as

the “Big Bang.” [CHEO #03, “The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar”]

- The Noo, the original primordial demon, controls the known universe during the

fleeting microseconds known as Planck time.

[CHEO #03, “The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar”]

- The high energy element monopole is formed in the chaos following the Big

Bang. It will be the rarest member of its family of energy-yielding ores, as

well as the most powerful. In normal circumstances, only one particle of

monopole exists in any given galaxy.

[Y2520 #01, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." Best evidence seems to indicate that

it was formed while Noo was in control, per CHEO #03. That might account in

part for its unusual energy properties.]

- The Twisted Rope, the first sign of order in the universe, is formed. Noo

domination of the universe is put to an end by the Descendants of the Twisted

Rope. Noo is forced through the Hourglass Nebula into “the edge between dimensions.” The Seal of Yedar is placed over the interdimensional portal at

the heart of the Hourglass Nebula.

[CHE0 #03, “The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar”. Comparison with HSa appears to imply that the gods of Valhalla and the Descendants of the Twisted Rope

might be one and the same. Both are claimed to be the oldest intelligent

species in the universe in their respective tales.]

- A city is built on the surface of the Rainbow Planet. Its ruins represent

the oldest known construction of any kind in our dimension of the known

universe.

[CHE0 #07, “The Moon Waits in the Promised Land” and #08, “In the Depths of the Shadow of the Soul." See also SPCH #29, “Struggle for Survival on the Rainbow Planet”. The Ninth Sol System Expedition will visit these ruins in their quest to find the Gate of Yedar. Comparison of the dialogue among

these episodes of both series would seem to suggest that this unnamed city

came into existence either at the same time as or not long after

construction of the Gate of Yedar.]

c.10 billion BC

- The Elder Race arises on the planet Akwaar. They are the oldest of all

intelligent species in our universe and also the oldest known spacefaring

civilization.

[Lewis. Comparison with HSm and HSa appears to imply that the Nibelungen and

Elder Race are one and the same; however, conclusive proof is lacking.]

c.5 billion BC

- The Elder Race embarks on a aeons-long project of creating worldships

scattered across the known universe. Within each worldship is a Guardian

Spirit, a non-corporeal entity of great power and intelligence. The main

purpose of each Guardian Spirit is to oversee the evolution of all forms of

life on its worldship. Among the countless number they create over the next

billion or so years are nine worldships within the Milky Way galaxy.

[Lewis]

- The first two Elder Race worldships ever created are the binary planetary

pair Iskanda and Desla of the Sanza Star System within the Greater Magellanic

Cloud. They serve as a titanic monument to the struggle between the forces

of light and dark in the universe.

[Lewis. It is possible that the Elder Race and the Nibelungen are one and

the same, when Lewis is compared with HSa and HSm. If so, then this monument

may have been created by them (or more likely the giants of Risenheim) as a

tribute by the gods of Valhalla in order to commemorate their victory over

the Noo, per CHE0 #03.]

c.4 billion BC

- The Elder Race discovers a cooling planet, the third of nine orbiting a

newborn yellow star, in the outer edge of the western spiral arm of the Milky

Way galaxy. They decide it has the potential to become the greatest of all

the worldships they have ever made. They alter the course of their own world

Akwaar so that it will make a close pass of this new world. The gravitational

attraction between the two will cause large volumes of water to be transferred

from Akwaar, bringing with it the seeds of life to this newly born planet.

According to legend, this planet is the last worldship that the Elder Race

ever creates.

[Lewis]

- On its lonely journey through the heavens, the rogue pelagic planet Aquarius

makes a close pass of the newborn Earth. The titanic tidal forces between the

two during the pass pull huge amounts of water from Aquarius to Earth. This

forms the Earth’s oceans and is the beginning of life as we know it on our world.

[FY. Date as given on the Babylonian clay tablet Dr. Sane submits for his

review concerning the legend of the planet Aquarius. See also Lewis.]

c.3.8 billion BC

- Having traveled back through time with the help of Mystery Eve, one of the

first things done by a young Japanese man named Mamoru is to relieve his

bladder on a nearby rock. His urine provides the primal spark of life on

Earth in the Leijiverse.

[ME Volume 2]

c.2 billion BC?

- The Elder Race successfully ascends to the next level of existence. They

entrust the care of “their children” on their many worldships to their respective Guardian Spirits.

[Lewis. My date is conjecture. Lewis gives no specific date for this event.

If the implications of HSa and HSm are correct, and the Elder Race is the

Nibelungen, then this might have been when they abandoned Akwaar and

“ascended” into Wotan’s service on Valhalla itself.]

650 million BC

- Alberich leads the Nibelungen in a failed revolt against Valhalla. As their

punishment, the Nibelungen are banished to the remote world of Nibelheim at

the ends of the universe. Only those Nibelungen who did not take part in the

revolt - such as Alberich's younger sister Freya - are permitted to remain on

Valhalla.

[HSa, HSm Part 1, "The Rhinegold."]

c.200 million BC (?)

- The Gorda, one of the oldest civilizations in the annals of known history,

construct their intergalactic warp wormhole transit network. Parts of this

system will still be functioning as late as the 26th century in the Terran

measure of time.

[Y2520 #4, "Ancient Mysteries." This episode was never produced; however, a

draft plot outline exists. NOTE - The ancient Gorda warp wormhole network

and GE999's "hyperspace tunnels" may be one and the same. It would certainly

explain how intergalactic travel in a year or less is possible later on in

the Leijiverse. Everybody's using those parts of the old Gorda warp wormhole

system that are still functional, or have been repaired. My date is a best

guess based on what extremely limited data is available.]

150 million BC

- The Mazone pay their first visit to our Sol System. They establish a

temporary base on Venus during this stay. The base will be expanded and made

more permanent in subsequent visits.

[SPCHa #12, “Mother Be Eternal." We see the base on Venus in this episode. Yattaran also conjectures bases on Mars and Jupiter, although these are never

shown.]

100 million BC

- The servants of Noo are successful in bringing about the downfall and

destruction of the homeworld of the original Descendants of the Twisted Rope.

Aeons later, this will become the Planet of the Rubbish Heaps. The only

survivors of this disaster in our universe are the various guardians of former

Twisted Rope bases and worlds scattered throughout the heavens. One of these

happens to be hidden deep under the surface of Luna, Earth’s moon. [CHEO #03, “The Voice Calling For Noo From Afar” and #07, “The Moon Waits in the Promised Land.” The tomb that Harlock and company visits is part of the planet itself and not part of the archaeological rubble that had been dumped

there. The date is from the English dubbed dialogue. The subtitles say

“several millennia” but this is probably a translation error. The guardian of Luna gives the same date for her people’s demise in both sub and dub as does the English dub for the guardian of the Planet of the Rubbish Heaps. If the

sparse implications from HSa and HSm hold any weight, then this planet may

have been the original homeworld of the gods of Valhalla. The “downfall” that the guardian talks about might be the corruption of the gods of Valhalla by

their sense of absolute power over creation, as is evident by Wotan’s behavior in HSa and HSm. This could also be the date that half of the artificial world

of Valhalla was blown away by the Sword of Heaven, as depicted and discussed

in HS4. There is reason to believe, based on Mimay’s (aka Melody’s) dialogue in CHQ1K that the Mazone might have numbered among the servants of Noo at this

time.]

98 million BC

- A large meteor hits the main island of Japan at present-day Tokyo. Its

massive impact crater is dozens of miles wide and several miles deep. The

course of the Kanto River is altered to flow through the crater itself. As

millions of years, pass the crater will eventually be filled in by sediments

deposited by the Kanto River.

[QMa #08, “Mayday! An Underground Explosion”]

65 million BC

- A planet-wide cataclysm causes the near-simultaneous eruption of every active

volcano on Earth. The net result of this massive discharge of ash and dust

into the atmosphere will significantly lower Earth’s surface temperature, leading to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. This environmental change

is brought about by a near passing of the planet LaMaetel during its

thousand-year orbit through the Sol System.

[QMa #07, “Invitation to the Underground.” Yukino Yayoi shares this fact with young Hajime Amamori during his first visit with her to the secret

LaMaetelian base beneath Tokyo. An alternate account is hinted at in HSm

Volume 2, "The Valkyrie," in which Wotan himself implies he might have been

the one behind it.]

26 million BC

- A Nibelungen colony is established on the planet Tiamat, the fifth in our Sol

System. It is located at the present location of the the inner asteroid belt.

[HSa. Miime talks of having lived on the Sol System’s mythical fifth planet prior to its destruction. I have yet to find a name for this planet in any

Leijverse source, so I borrowed Zechariah Stichin's name for it.]

8-5 million BC

- The Guardian Spirit of Akwaa, greatest of all such Spirits, determines that

the humans of Earth, the last Elder Race worldship, holds the greatest

potential for becoming a new Elder Race. It is the culmination of billions of

years of subtle genetic experimentation and manipulation on all of the

humanoid life forms evolving on all of its worldships scattered throughout

the universe. To that end, groups of these early humans are taken from Earth

and seeded on all other Elder Race worldships, including the nine in the Milky

Way galaxy. To further enhance the experiment, the evolution of these seed

groups is either augmented or retarded to varying degrees. Only the humans

of Earth are left alone in their evolution. They will be the unaltered master

template by which the development of the others can be measured. The nine

major humanoid seed groups within the Milky Way galaxy will be known

collectively as the Nine Daughter Races of the Elder Race.

[Lewis. My date is probable conjecture. Lewis gives no specific date for

this event.]

- A group of humans from Earth are deposited on the planet LaMaetel and their

evolution accelerated to such a degree that they become a technologically

advanced civilization within two million years. Their primary responsibility

is to watch over the Earth and see to it that the natural evolution of

humanity and its development towards civilization is not altered or hindered

in any way. This original mission will become obscured and corrupted over

the passing of many millennia.

[Lewis and QMa. Yukino Yayoi’s younger sister claims that the LaMaetel are the oldest and most advanced humanoid civilization in the known universe,

having existed for “millions of years.” This would imply that the LaMaetel are one of the oldest offshoots of the Nine Daughter Races, since the Elder

Race and its contemporaries (the Mazone, the Nibelungen, et al) predate the

LaMaetel by aeons.]

- The Iskandaa, humanoid inhabitants of the worldship Eurythmia, are the first

of the Nine Daughter Races to achieve spaceflight capability. They are the

Milky Way galaxy’s first spacefaring civilization. The Iskandaa will become known as great explorers, bringing their knowledge and advanced technology to

all worlds that they visit.

[SBC2 and Lewis]

- The Iskandaa visit our Sol System for the first time. They find human life

on both LaMaetel and Earth. They leave Earth alone at the request of the

LaMaetel, who share with them their special trust from the Spirit of Akwaa

regarding the humans of Earth. From this the Iskandaa learn of Earth’s unique place in the cosmos. This will become a carefully guarded secret known only

to the Iskandaa ruling elite. They decide to give the people of LaMaetel

advanced spaceflight capability in order to aid in their guardianship of the

humans of Earth.

[Probable conjecture based on QMa and Lewis. This would help explain the

obvious technology gap between the humans of LaMaetel and the humans of Earth

as depicted in the various QM materials. It also helps explain how Starsha of

Iscandar knew so much about Earth, as depicted in SB1.]

- Rise of Juran civilization.

[CHQ1K. “Melody” (aka Mimay) says in the series that her people’s culture had existed “for millions of years.” The Japanese original of SPCHa makes no reference to this. Oddly enough, Jura is depicted as already being an old

world in QEm Volume 1, albeit under different circumstances and with human

colonists - the indigenous humanoid population having died out long before.]

c.5 million BC

- The ancestors of the Cometine leave their homeworld on the planet Arishna,

located on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, and depart on a multigenerational

voyage across the void towards the Andromeda galaxy. It is the first step on

their path to a long history of deep space conquest. Arishna becomes a dead

world with their departure. The only traces left behind of its former

inhabitants are stripped, abandoned cities on its surface and semi-sentient

satellites in orbit monitoring the demise of its shrinking and dimming sun.

[SBC1 #2, “The Prisoner and the Power” and #4, “Sacrifice.” See also SBTM, “White Comet History.”]

- The Mazone encounter the Jura - and come away much the wiser for it.

[CHQ1K. One of the first things Melody (Mimay) says when she encounters her

first Mazone in person during the series is, "It has been many aeons since

last our people met. An aeon is one million years.]

c.2 million BC

- Dawn of intelligent human life on Earth as we know it.

[Contemporary archaeological accounts and CHQ1K. In Harmony Gold's version

of events, Olivia (Yukino) implies that the LaMaetel were on Earth at the dawn

of humanity “over two million years ago.” Miime seems to also imply the same in HSa, stating that the Nibelungen were fully aware of the dawn of humanity

and may have been more than just observers to the event.]

- The Mazone return in force to establish a permanent presence in the Sol

System. Their first and largest base is on the planet Brumus. Their second

base is on the planet Venus. Their third is on the Sidonia plain of Mars.

Their fourth is in the jungles of South America on Earth. The fifth and

largest is on the central southwest coast of Japan.

[CHP; SPCHa #09, “The Fearsome Plant Lifeform” and #12, “Mother Be Eternal.” See also SB2 #06, "Rescue on Brumus." Perhaps the legendary face on Mars and

the purported alien ruins on its Sidonia plain have something to do with the

Mazone, but this is sheer conjecture on my part. Brumus was once inhabited

and the surviving architecture bears striking similarities to Mazone

artifacts. This too is conjecture on my part.]

- From their initial footholds, the Mazone fan out over all the Earth. They

discover that the indigenous human population makes excellent slave labor.

They will use them as such for thousands of years to come. Their presence on

Earth does not escape the detection or concern of the planet’s guardians on LaMaetel.

[CHP, SPCHa #09, “The Fearsome Plant Lifeform,” and CHQ1K. CHP states that the Mazone brought humanity’s ancestors from Venus but this contradicts all other sources regarding humanity’s origins in the Leijiverse. The interaction between the Mazone and the LaMaetel comes from CHQ1K.]

c.600,000 to 35,000 BC

- Several near-misses by LaMaetel as it swings through the Sol System in its

eccentric thousand-year orbit are the cause for the starting and stopping of

all four of Earth’s major Ice Ages. [QMa #07, “Invitation to the Underground.” Yukino Yayoi shares this fact with young Hajime Amamori during one of his visits to the secret LaMaetel base

hidden under Tokyo.]

c.500,000 BC

- The people of LaMaetel begin sending their Millennial Queens to Earth. Their

original orders are to watch over the humans of Earth as they climb the road

towards civilization. Eventually this will become corrupted into a new

mission: to rule over Earth and restrain the more barbaric impulses of its

human population.

[QMa, CHQ1K, Lewis. There are hundreds of mummified bodies within the ancient

tombs of the secret LaMaetel base. If each of them ruled for a thousand

years, well ... do the math. 500,000 BC is the earliest date conjectured by

many authorities for anything resembling primitive human cultures. It is also

highly probable that the Millennial Queens were sent to Earth in order to

combat the rising influence of the Mazone.]

- The LaMaetel establish a major colony on the planet Venus.

[QMa #28, “Showdown on Venus.” The date is a guess based on the apparent age of the ruins and Miray’s dialogue in the episode.]

c.380,000 BC

- The Mazone and the LaMaetel clash over the fate of humanity. It is the first

great war between two technologically advanced cultures on the Earth’s surface and will later become known as “the war of the gods” in human legend. Open warfare is waged with advanced technology beyond the comprehension of early

humanity.

[CHQ1K. It stands to reason that both cultures must have interacted at some

point, since both were on Earth at the same time in mankind’s past - even if you discount CHQ1K as an acceptable source and go with "straight" Leijiverse

sources. As to the war, there are certain historical and archaeological

anomalies in human history across the globe that migh point to advanced

technology and the use of nuclear weapons on Earth in ancient antiquity.]

c.300,000 BC

- The war between the Mazone and the LaMaetel eventually ends in stalemate and

ceasefire. A compromise of sorts is achieved between the Mazone and the

LaMaetel. The Mazone are allowed to continue to use humans as slaves so long

as the majority of humanity is left alone to continue its evolution. The

Mazone will be allowed to continue their “godlike” interaction with humanity under the watchful eye of the Millennial Queens. The LaMaetel apparently

excuse this as a necessary means of advancing human civilization without

having to actually become directly involved. This marks the start of a

tenuous and often uneasy relationship between these two disparate advanced

humanoid species. Each apparently intends to use the other for its own

secret purposes.

[CHQ1K. It stands to reason that both cultures must have interacted at some

point, since both were on Earth at the same time in mankind’s past - even if you discount CHQ1K as an acceptable source and go with "straight" Leijiverse

sources. As to the war, there are certain historical and archaeological

anomalies in human history across the globe that migh point to advanced

technology and the use of nuclear weapons on Earth in ancient antiquity. At

one point in CHQ1K, Selen states that hers is a fallen people and that the

once-great civilization of the LaMaetel was drawing to its end. Perhaps their

truce with the Mazone, thus compromising their noble values, marked the

beginning of that fall.]

- The LaMaetel permit the Mazone to interact to varying degrees with almost all

of humanity’s great pre-Diluvial civilizations. These will include the mystery civilizations of Central and Southern America, the lost civilization of Mu in

the Pacific Basin, the lost civilization of Atlantis in the present-day

Bahamas and central Atlantic, the lost civilization of Lemuria in the Indian

Ocean, and the pre-dynastic civilization of Egypt.

[CHP and SPCHa #09, “The Fearsome Plant Lifeform.” It is intimated that the the Mazone were either the builders of or assisted in the building of the

Great Pyramids of Egypt. It is also intimated that surviving remnants of

their still-functional technology are responsible for the mysteries

surrounding the Bermuda Triangle, long thought to be part of the legendary

lost continent of Atlantis. The so-called "underwater pyramids" off the coast

of Japan are often cited as evidence of the lost civilization of Mu, which

again was supposedly influenced by the Mazone. I should note in all fairness

that in the original Japanese sources the LaMaetel and the Mazone never knew

or came into contact with each other. Even so, they must have at some point

given their advanced technology. The Harmony Gold materials developed for

CHQ1K, dreadful as they may be, are currently the only source of information

on this extraordinary relationship.]

- Rise of homo sapiens, i.e. “modern man,” on Earth. [Contemporary accounts. Certain modern scholars (Stichin, et al) have

suggested that homo sapiens was genetically engineered from homo habilis,

which was the dominant humanoid lifeform on Earth at the time. There is

circumstantial evidence to support that this was the case in the Leijiverse.

Miime alludes to the possibility that this was done by the Nibelungen in the

various HS materials. The technology of both the LaMaetel and the Mazone were

also capable of this as well, per the various QM and SPCH materials.]

c.130,000 BC

- Rise of homo neanderthalis, aka “Neanderthal Man,” on Earth. [Contemporary accounts. Certain modern scholars (Alford, et al) have

suggested that this interesting variant of homo sapiens was genetically

engineered. There is circumstantial evidence to support that this was the

case in the Leijiverse. It is a fact that the Mazone enslaved humans during

their time on Earth per the various SPCH materials. Perhaps the Mazone did

a little genetic engineering of their own in order to breed a more suitable

... “pack animal?” Wotan had always found then intriguing, and says as much, in HSm Volume 3, "The Valkyrie (Part 1)," because of their great strength

and simple minds. He also ruefully regrets having brought about their

eventual extinction.]

c.95,000 BC

- Establishment of a dedicated elite warrior caste among the Mazone specializing

in subterfuge and covert operations.

[CHQ1000. The Mazone “civilians” who deal with Tadashi Daiba (aka “Terry”)

tell him that they’ve been a warrior people for “a thousand of your centuries.” The Japanese original establishes that the Mazone have been warriors for at least two million years. It could either be a translation

error or some inventive dialogue on the part of Macek and company. I’m taking it to mean the founding of an elite or covert group of Mazone warriors, much

like our special ops teams of today. After all, it was a similar group of

Mazone who laid that elaborate trap for Tadashi and Harlock on the Rainbow

Planet.]

c.70,000 BC

- Approximate date of the dawn of Lemuria, the greatest and most enlightened of

mankind’s pre-history civilations.

[James Churchward, THE LOST CONTINENT OF MU. The LaMaetelians probably had

direct contact with the people of Lemuria at some point in the Leijiverse if

the legends, are true but this pure conjecture on my part.]

c.50,000 BC

- Approximate date of the dawn of the other great pre-history civilizations of

mankind: Atlantis (Atlantic Basin), pre-history Egypt, and Yu (China/Tibet).

All are founded as colonies of Lemuria with “… the blessing of the gods.” [Contemporary accounts. “The gods” in question may have been the Millennial Queen of LaMaetel and her people, but this is pure conjecture on my part.]

c.11,500 BC

- Tiamat, the legendary fifth planet of the Sol System, is destroyed in an

event that brings about the First Cataclysm on Earth. The Nibelungen colony

on Tiamat manages to evacuate to Earth before the planet’s destruction. The Mazone base on Mars likewise manages to evacuate before the final destruction

of Tiamat. The atmosphere of Mars is ripped away and large portions of its

surface are devastated by the explosion and flying rubble, rendering it a

lifeless and barren world in a matter of minutes. Part of the rubble of

Tiamat eventually becomes the inner asteroid belt of the Sol System as we

know it today.

[HSa, HSm "The Rhinegold," and contemporary accounts. The planet is never

named in the various Leijiverse materials so I’m going with the name Stichin gives. The destruction of Tiamat may have been triggered by a close passing

of the planet LaMaetel (QM), because just such an event is recorded in

ancient Middle Eastern and Chinese historical records that claim to survive

from the era. Meeme directly references the event and the evacuation of her

people in both HS sources. She claims that Wotan caused the destruction of

this planet for no other reason than pure spite. Contemporary scholars

(Hoagland, Flandren, et al) theorize that the so-called “city” on the Sidonia plain of Mars was laid waste and half-buried in a cataclysm that

happened about this time. By the way, some past scholars also theorized

that the rings of Saturn were formed from the ejected oceans of Mars during

this spectacular interplanetary event. True or not, it's an interesting

tangent ....]

c.11,000 BC

- The Van Dern meteor stream passes the location where Central Station will

exist in the year 2973.

[GR1 #15, "Joint Forces." The Van Dern meteor stream is described as being

in an eccentric orbit lasting "several thousand years." I have not mentioned

it until now because my timeline views things largely from the human point-

of-view. It is safe to assume, though, that it appears regularly "every

several thousand years" prior to this date as well - 18,000 BC, 25,000 BC,

32,000 BC, etc.]

c.7800 BC

- The ancestors of the humans later known as the Lugal are born in one of

Earth’s first great advanced civilizations. [FY. This would be the Middle Eastern empire overseen by the former Lemurian

colony centered around pre-history Egypt.]

c.7500 BC

- Mankind’s first great advanced civilizations on Earth are at their zenith when they are almost completely destroyed by the passage of the rogue planet

Aquarius. The entire surface of Earth is completely deluged with water up to

and over the tops of the highest mountains. Among the few survivors is a large

group evacuated by an alien race known only as the Lugal and relocated to the

planet Dinguil, where they continue to grow and flourish. A handful of other

humans ride out the cataclysm in a giant ark complete with full supplies and

samples of all living life forms. Human civilization is forced to start again

from scratch. This event will later become known as the Great Flood and is the

major event in the Diluvial Age on Earth.

[FY. The event is described in the movie. This is the current Leijiverse

take on the Great Flood myths that are part of every major culture, present

and past, on Earth. It is also quite probable, although never explicitly

stated, that the current Millennial Queen and her people may have had their

part to play in the legend of the Great Flood as well. Yukino Yayoi seems to

imply as much in QMa #08, “Mayday! An Underground Explosion,” although she attributes the Great Flood to a close passing of LaMaetel. Since FY was

produced after both QMa, and QMf makes no references to the Great Flood, I

have chosen to go with FY's account of the event.]

- One of the results of the Great Flood is the underground diversion of one of

the Kanto River’s main tributaries. It swiftly hollows out a great cavern complex in the pre-Diluvial sedimentary rock beneath the Kanto Basin. By the

time the underground river has done its work the Kanto cave complex has become

the largest in the world. Its main feature is a central chamber approximately

ten miles wide with a ceiling about two miles high. It is discovered by the

people of LaMaetel after the flood waters recede, and hidden from prying human

eyes by advanced technology. It will serve as their main base of operations

on Earth over the next ten millennia.

[QMa #08, “Mayday! An Underground Explosion.” The sediments of the Kanto River basin are about one-and-a-half miles deep, per the anime, so the Kanto

cave complex must be deeper than that. Must have been one helluva meteor

strike! Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, the LaMaetel normally reach

their underground base via a series of standard and anti-grav lifts,

elevators, and such. Hajime falling all the way down into it in QM #05,

"The Vast Underground Complex," is just dramatic license on the part of the

TV show. There's all kinds of ways to explain or hand-wave that bit away.]

c.7000 to 1500 BC

- The Mazone are once again allowed to intervene in human affairs on Earth by

the LaMaetel. Among the many human cultures that they influence at this time

are the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Aryans of India, and the great Amerind

cultures of Central and South America. Almost all of these cultures have

arisen at or near pre-Diluvial Mazone bases. For reasons of their own, the

LaMaetal choose not to interfere with these latest Mazone activities.

[SPCHa #41, “Duel: The Queen vs. Harlock” and material suggested by CHQ1K. I should not in all fairness that in the original Japanese sources, the LaMaetel

and the Mazone never knew or came into contact with each other. Even so, they

MUST have at some point given their advanced technology. The Harmony Gold

materials, dreadful as they may be, are currently the only source of data that

deals with this possibility.]

- Also assisting humanity’s return to civilization unseen is Miime the Nibelung sorceress. Her main base of operations is in present day Scandanavia. She

apparently manages to avoid contact with and protect her charges from both

LaMaetellian and Mazone influences. All cultures that she influences come

away with the stories of Valhalla embedded as legends and myths in their

culture.

[HSa. Miime shares this information with Captain Harlock shortly before they

visit the real Valhalla. She never mentions any contact with the people of

LaMaetel or the Mazone, but that doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility.

The mythlore of the cultures Meeme influenced is quite different than those

affected by either the Mazone or the LaMaetel.]

- The Eurythmians establish a thriving colony on the planet Iskandaa.

[SBC2 #04, “A Blast From The Past." It is my conjecture that the colony was established at the future location of Mother Town, the chief city of Iscandar

in later millennia as depicted in SB1 and YNV.]

c.5000 BC

- The Dinguil, the blue-skinned descendants of those humans who survived the

Great Flood, overthrow their Lugal benefactors and exterminate them. In short

order, they both master Lugal technology and ally themselves with two other

interstellar powers, the Bolar Federation and the Dezarium Empire. Together

these three embark on the first known campaign of interstellar conquest in the

recorded history of the Milky Way galaxy.

[Lewis]

c.5000 – 4980 BC

- The First Intergalactic War, aka “The Yin-Yang War.” The interstellar civilizations of Eurythmia, Telezart, and Shalbart unite with their allies

against a confederation of the Dinguil, Bolar, and Dezarians for control of

the known universe. Historians will later call these two sides the Yin

Federation and the Yang Alliance respectively. It is the first known

interstellar war in recorded history and will last for approximately two

decades.

[Lewis]

- The peoples of Galman and Bimeria elect to remain neutral during the First

Intergalactic War. This does not save them from being attacked by the

Dezarians. Many of the Galmans and Bimerians are successful in escaping

before both worlds are conquered and claimed by the Yang Alliance. A few

survive under Dezarian rule and attempt to preserve what remains of their

ruined culture and history as best they can via oral tradition.

[Lewis]

- The survivors of the planet Bimeria relocate to an isolated world located

approximately halfway between the Milky Way galaxy and the Greater Magellanic

Cloud. They abandon their advanced technology and revert to a primitive

lifestyle. In this fashion these Bimerians, later known as the Bee People of

Beeland, will survive the First Interstellar War. They will eventually forget

everything about their past save for distorted legends passed down by the

families of their hive elders.

[Lewis]

- The refugees from the planet Galman who successfully escaped their conquered

homeworld appeal to the Yin Federation for assistance. The Eurythmians direct

them to the planet Desla within the Sanza Star System. It is the only other

planet in the known universe with an environment almost exactly like that of

Galman. The delighted Galman refugees decide to relocate to Desla at once.

They claim the planet as their own and rename it Gamilon in memory of their

lost homeworld. They are both welcomed and given assistance by their new

neighbors, the Eurythmian colony on Iskanda, as they settle on their new

world. The Gamilons will eventually lose touch with their homeworld Galman

due to the great distances involved.

[Lewis. Leader Desslok could be indirectly referencing this event in one of

his speeches in SB3. Eldred describes the colonization of Gamilon by the

Galmans in his supplemental materials for the SB1 DVD boxset. This happened

around the same time as the colonization of Iscandar, according to Gamilon

Science Officer Vixor in the SBC3 #04, “A Blast From The Past.”]

- The Gamilon Codices are written around this time. They preserve the story of

the true origin of the people of Gamilon and how they came to their homeworld.

Many copies are made, but few survive the passing of the years.

[Lewis]

- Scientists on the planet Eurythmia develop wave motion technology. It will

prove to be be to the First Intergalactic War what the atomic bomb was to

World War II on Earth. Some within Eurythmian society see it as the war’s final solution, while others argue that it should be used only for peaceful

purposes. The necessities of wartime decide in favor of the former. The

dissident faction on Eurythmia loses the debate and abandons its homeworld

for a new start on the distant colony world of Iskanda. They rename

themselves the Iscandar after their new homeworld. They break all ties with

their Eurythmian brothers and strive to build a peaceful society isolated

from the conflict around them. Over time, the true origins of the people of

Iscandar will pass into legend, and their ancient past all but forgotten.

[SBC2 #4, “A Blast From The Past" and Lewis. The date given in the comic comes out to approximately 2800 BC. I have taken the liberty of moving it

back a few thousand years so it will better fit with the data from Lewis.]

- A team of Eurythmian scientist is successful in trapping, imprisoning, and

harnessing the immense power of the Guardian Spirit of Eurythmia. This is

done in order to achieve their greatest technological triumph. It is the

Planet Crusher - a mobile wave motion gun platform of immense power and

proportions. It remains to this day the single most powerful weapons

platform ever created by one of the Nine Daughter Races in the known history

of the universe. Subsequently, the military forces of the Yin Federation

sponsor the building of an entire fleet of Eurythmian planet crushers for

the war effort against the Yang Alliance.

[Lewis. It is possible that the trapping of the Spirit of Eurythima is what

caused the Iscandarian faction on Eurythmian to finally give up hope and

abandon their homeworld to the militarist faction. Lewis does not say one way

or the other.]

- The Yin Federation’s new fleet of Eurythmian planet crushers proves to be the deciding factor in winning the First Intergalactic War. The Yang Alliance is

defeated once and for all. The Dinguil are confined to their homeworld and

“reduced to a primitive state of existence.” The Bolar Federation survives, but is forced to retreat to the isolation of New Bolar, a harsh colony world

buried deep within the Milky Way’s galactic core. The Bolar homeworld is destroyed and the Bolars lose most of their advanced technology in the

process. The Dezarians are the most severely punished for their policy of

attempting to systematically exterminate the cultures of the peoples that

they conquered. They are banished along with their homeworld into an empty

parallel universe dominated by the giant, galaxy-shaped Black Nebula. It will

take millennia for the three leading cultures on the losing side of the First

Interstellar War to rebuild their respective civilizations and return to the

Sea of Stars.

[Lewis. New Bolar will become the new homeworld of the reborn Bolar

Federation, as depicted in SB3. The banishment of the Dezarians to the

universe of the Black Nebula is briefly alluded to in BFY. Their descendants

became the Black Nebula Empire as depicted in both YNV and BFY.]

c.4980 – 4900 BC

- This is the period in galactic history know as the Inward Turning. Revolted

by the rampant bloodshed forced upon them in order to win the First

Intergalactic War, the Yin Federation abandons the very technology that

enabled it to defeat its foes. Wave motion technology in all forms is either

destroyed outright or hidden away in secret repositories - in the event that

it is ever needed again.

[Lewis; see also SB1, SB3 and SBC2 #4, “A Blast From The Past." The Eurythmian and Shalbart technology caches are uncovered in the STAR BLAZERS

era. Starsha of Iscandar’s gift of wave motion technology to humanity was what helped them defeat the Gamilons in 2199-2200 and caused such a monumental

leap forward in human spaceflight capability. The Shalbart cache is revealed

near the end of SB3, from which the Star Force is granted the gift of the

Cosmo Penultimate Cannon.]

- The planet Eurythmia is abandoned when its remaining inhabitants leave their

world to join their more peaceful brethren on distant Iscandar. They

carefully hide all traces of their past on both worlds. The inhabitants of

Iscandar then revert to an agrarian lifestyle with their history preserved in

legends and oral tradition. It will be thousands of years before they regain

their “lost” advanced technology. Meanwhile, back on Eurythmia, its Guardian Spirit remains trapped within her hyperspace prision, unable to break the

bonds her own people placed upon her.

[Lewis and SBC2 #5, “Crescendo.” The Guardian Spirit of Eurythima will remain imprisoned for almost six millennia before being freed by the Star

Force in 2202.]

- The Shalbart Empire collapses under a series of Wars of Secession. At the

same time, the ruling house of the Shalbart Empire, located on the planet

Gardiana, begins a selective breeding program to enhance its psychic powers.

This is to ensure its survival in the millennia to come. They convince the

people of Gardiana to abandon and hide away their advanced technology, and

revert to a pastoral lifestyle. Even so, and unlike their contemporaries from

the Yin-Yang War, the inhabitants of Gardiana never forget their past and

their knowledge of the advanced technology they have hidden away on their

world. The Shalbart Empire will eventually dissolve as the planet Gardiana

turns inward, abandoning what few off-world holdings it has left. The memory

and legacy of the last days of the Shalbart Empire is reserved by the rest of

the Milky Way galaxy in the (distorted) legend of Queen Gardiana.

[Lewis; see also SB3. In that series, the old man who explains the legend of

Queen Gardiana to Wildstar and Nova says that her rule ended “thousands of years ago.”]

c.4500 BC

- Lady La Lela Promethium, the ruling matriarch of LaMaetel, authorizes the

successive cloning of three identical daughters to be her children and heirs.

[QMa, QMf, SSM - implied. The TV series establishes that the LaMaetel

reproduced by cloning (as opposed to sex) in order to maintain the genetic

purity of their species, and we see these cloning chambers in both QMf and

SSM. Selen is the eldest twin per the original source materials. Her facial

features are slightly different and her hair somewhat darker than her two

younger sisters. All three had ankle-length hair as adults; however Selen cut

hers to a more manageable length while on Earth, per QMf. Andromeda and

Miray, the two younger sisters, were physically identical and almost

impossible to tell apart with the untrained eye. Miray, like her elder sister

Selen, also changed her appearance per the feature film (QMf) - dying her hair

a deep blue and cutting it to shoulder length.]

- Birth of La Selene Promethium (aka Selen), eldest daughter of Lady La Lela

of LaMaetel.

[QMa, implied. Selen appeared to be 19 or 20 in human years when she was

removed from her position as heir to the Millennial Throne of Earth. The

humans of LaMaetel appear to age one year for every 300 or so human years, as

opposed to the more poetic description of "every thousand years" given in QMf.

The exact minimum ratio I have calculated from the various associated LaMaetel

source materials is 1:285. Even so, I’m not being exact in order to allow some leeway given M-san’s "toki no wa" philosophy regarding the Leijiverse.]

c.4000

- This was approximately the last time that the Van Dern meteor stream, one

of the most destructive roving asteroid fields in the Milky Way galaxy,

passed the location where Central Station would exist in the year 2973.

[GR1 #15, "Joint Forces." The Van Dern meteor stream is described as being

in an eccentric orbit lasting "several thousand years."]

c.3500 BC

- Birth of La Andromeda Promethium (aka Promethium), second daughter of Lady La

Lela of LaMaetel.

[QMa, implied. See also the entries for 4500 BC regarding LaMaetel.]

3114 BC, 12 August

- The planets of Jupiter and Saturn almost collide and the orbits of Venus,

Mars, and Earth are changed. All settle into an approximation of the orbits

we know today, with one major exception: the new orbit of Mars now crosses

that of Earth. The resultant environmental upheavals and global disasters

cause the various civilizations of Earth to go through the first recorded

“Dark Age” in current human history. Also, the Mayan calendar begins. [From material suggested by Russian scholar Immanuel Velikovsky (WORLDS IN

COLLISION) and American scholars Donald Patten and Samuel Windsor (THE

MARS-EARTH WARS). In the Leijiverse, this would have most likely been caused

by a passing by the rogue planet LaMaetel through our Sol System. The

Mayans are significant in explaining the Mazone and their origins in both SPCH

sources. This date is also the oldest one in any historical annal accepted by

contemporary scholars, per ancient Mayan and Chinese sources.]

c.3000 BC

- The First Gamilon Civil War. The Galman colony on the planet Desla becomes

cut off from its neighbors on Iscandar as its people fight each other in a

centuries-long civil war over Desla’s scarce planetary resources. The winning faction emerges on the other side of the conflict as the Gamilons, a hardened

and militant people bent on conquest.

[Lewis]

- It is known that at this point in time the Mazone continue to maintain bases

or garrison forces in or near many of Earth’s major human civilizations. They maintain a presence in an old undersea base in the Atlantic in what is today

known as the Bermuda Triangle. It is also known that a major Mazone colony

exists at this time above ground in and around the coastal forests of the main

island of Japan. The seeming indifference of the LaMaetel to these bold moves

by the Mazone remains a mystery to this day.

[SPCHa #07, “The Sunken Pyramid.” The age of the Mazone colony in Japan roughly corresponds with the existence of the Ainu, the original inhabitants

of Japan. We know from QMa that the LaMaetel were also in contact with the

Ainu, because Yukino Yayoi says as much. We also know that the LaMaetel had

a relationship with the Mazone for many years, per CHQ1K.]

c.2600 BC

- The Mazone garrison in Egypt hides a powerful energy weapon inside the chest

of the Sphinx.

[SPCHa #14, “The Sphinx’s Tombstone.” It is stated that the Mazone weapon was placed inside the Sphinx during the reign of Pharoah Khufu, “founder of the Fourth Dynasty” of the Egyptian Old Kingdom.]

c.2500 BC

- Birth of La Miria Promethium, aka Miray, the youngest and last daughter of

Lady La Lela of La Maetel.

[QMa, implied. Her name in QMf is Senjoo, which is Japanese for "new queen."

She appeared to be 16 in human years when she was ordered to replace her

sister Andromeda and ascend to the Millennial Throne.]

c.2000 BC

- Queen Mariposa, the last living descendant of the ruling house of the Shalbart

Empire, is captured by the Bolar Federation during a goodwill tour of the

Milky Way galaxy. She is exiled to the planet Phantom and left there to die.

The Bolars had left her there believing it to be an icy and lifeless world.

In truth it is a living planet in the service of Queen Gardiana. It hides

Mariposa deep inside itself and puts her to sleep (i.e. places her in

suspended animation) until such time as either peace returns to the galaxy or

a new guardian to protect her can be found.

[SB3. Planet Phantom says Queen Mariposa was entrusted to its care “thousands of years ago.” The implication is that Phantom was made during the time of the Shalbart Empire’s greatest influence over the Milky Way galaxy and that it had gone into hiding during the Wars of Secession. Interestingly enough,

Bolar Prime Minister Bemlayze claims he personally banished Queen Mariposa.

His claim is confirmed by the Elder of Gardiana. This would seem to imply

that the lifespan of both races is measured in thousands of years.]

c.1000 BC

- Most of the Mazone leave Earth and the Sol System for reasons that are today

unknown, and depart for a dark world somewhere beyond the Milky Way galaxy.

They leave behind a “small” contingent to await the day when they will return. [SPCHa #02, "A Woman Who Burns Like Paper." CHQ1K implies that the Mazone and

the LaMaetelians eventually had a falling out and turned on each other.

Historically this roughly corresponds with the fall of the Olmecs, the first

significant human civilization in South America. It may have also been tied

to the cataclysm caused by the then-current passing of the planet LaMaetel

through the Sol System.

c.680 BC

- Mars has its last near passing of Earth as well as a spectacular near-passing

of the planet Venus, before settling into the orbit we know today. The Earth

likewise settles into its current orbit and axial tilt as a result of this

encounter. The event is recorded in the legends and annals of humanity

worldwide at the time.

[Historical accounts. This depends, of course, on how you interpret the data.

This date would correspond with some scholars believe to have been a massive

plasma discharge from the atmosphere of Venus, which was noted in the legends

and historical records of every major civilization on Earth at the time. The

best known example of these records are the Babylonian “Venus tablets,” which were sourced by Russian scholar Immanuel Veilkovsky for his various works on

the origins of Venus. The event was also recorded in the Jewish Old Testament,

the astronomical observations of both Egypt and China, and the histories of

the Central and South American civilizations.]

- The LaMaetel are forced to abandon their colony on the planet Venus. Their

ruins are preserved under a force shield, however, due to the former colony’s significance as a dueling ground for the LaMaetel royal house.

[QMa #28, “Showdown on Venus,” implied. The date is a guess based on the apparent age of the ruins and Miray’s dialogue. In the Leijiverse, the plasma discharge recorded in Earth history might have been tied to the event that

left the LaMaetel colony on Venus in ruins. The “force shield” is necessary to explain how Yukino and Miray can have their duel without protection of any

kind in the dense, 800 degree, carbon dioxide rich atmosphere of Venus as we

know it today. For some of M-san's other treatments of an ancient

civilization on Venus see SPCHa #12, "Mother Be Eternal;" TTB Chapter 2,

"Venus Transformed;" and DZ Chapter 3, "The Queen of Venus."]

c.50 BC

- The inhabitants of the Armor Planet begin constructing an armored shell around

their world, as well as metal exoskeletons for both themselves and all life

forms on its surface.

[GE999a #017, "The Armor Planet." Maetel states this happened "over three

thousand years ago."]

c.5 BC

- Clan warfare sparked by the new religion of Kabrill Minoxas Gamilas rages

across all of the planet Gamilon. This conflict becomes known as the Second

Gamilon Civil War.

[Lewis]

c.4 BC

- The birth of Christ

[Anchor point for the Earth Gregorian calendar. It was off by approximately

four years due to a computational error on the part of Pope Gregory’s mathematicians.]

(date uncertain)

- The Comet Empire constructs Gatlantis, a mobile space fortress of great

power and armament. within the hollowed-out half-shell of a small moon. It

is constructed in such a manner that its protective energy fields give off

the appearance of a white comet as it traverses the Sea of Stars. Over the

many years and multiple Tours of Conquest in which it is used, Gatlantis

becomes “the de facto symbol of the Cometine race.” It is largely from this symbolism where the Comet Empire (aka White Comet Empire, Cometine, et al)

gets its name.

[SBTM, “The Star Fortress Gatlantis”]

- The Cometine begin construction of more Gatlantis-type mobile star

fortresses.

[SBTM, s.v. “The Star Fortress Gatlantis.”]

c.AD 100

- A vigorous young feudal culture arises on New Bolar.

[Lewis]

c.300

- The discovery of steam power brings about an Industrial Revolution on New

Bolar.

[Lewis]

333

- An advanced alien spacecraft crashes at Darkwood Manor in England. The crash

kills the current Earl of Darkwood and his wife. Their young son survives but

his mind is altered and lifespan extended by “strange energies” coming from the downed vessel. With the help of the estate servants, he contrives to hide

the ship under a giant barrow (mound) lest it be discovered by the nearby

superstitious villagers. The ship, its contents, and technologies will be the

source of his intense scrutiny for the next two centuries.

[I5555. We neither learn from where the ship came nor what it was doing in

Earthspace at the time.]

555

- The current (and last) Earl of Darkwood implements his “5555” plan on hapless musical acts both on Earth and across the galaxy. He is able to do this using

the technology and tools of the now-repaired spacecraft that crashed into his

father’s estate two centuries before. [I5555. Look carefully at the star map shown in the Earl’s book, VERIDUS QUO. Does that double galaxy motif look familiar? You’re going to see it again in QM, FY, and HS4.]

c.980

- The Vikings one of the earliest non-Amerind visitors to the New World,

establish a colony in “Vinland;” aka present-day Newfoundland. [Contemporary historical accounts. I mention this in passing because Norse

mythology was onfluenced (or possibly created) by Meeme the Nibelung sorceress

during her stay on Earth, per HSa and HS1.]

- Height of the Toltec civilzation in Central America.

[Contemporary historical accounts. The Toltecs were one of Earth’s ancient civilizations supposedly influenced by the Mazone per SPCHa.]

- The Mazone underwater base in the Sargasso Sea of the Atlantic Ocean is

abandoned. Over time, most of it will become buried under a deep layer of

sediment.

[CHQ1K. Doctor Zero estimates the date of the underwater Mazone pyramid at

"over two thousand years." The Japanese original, SPCHa, never gives a date.

All Captain Harlock says in it is that the body in the tomb appears to have

been there “since time immemorial.” Since at least one other Mazone construct appears in the same area later in the series, I have surmised the

the existence of a former Mazone city or colony there - much like the

purported ruins on the Sidonia plain of Mars.]

999

- La Andromeda Promethium, the second daughter of Lady La Lela of La Maetel,

celebrates her coming of age.

[QMa #25, "A Bond Between Old Enemies". Like her daughter Maetel in MLa,

Andromeda (or "Promethium," as I will come to call her in subsequent entries

and as most fans know her later incarnation) appeared to be about sixteen

when her life changed and the Millennial Throne of Earth passed to her

instead of her elder sister Selen.]

- LaMaetel’s moon is destroyed by gravitational tidal forces on its current pass through the Sol System. Most of the rubble is captured by LaMaetel’s gravity, joining a series of thin rings around the planet.

[QMa #04, “The Vanishing Meteorites.” These are the asteroid rings you see circling the planet in the feature film. The Earth passes through at least

one of these rings as LaMaetel approaches Earth, resulting in the devastating

meteor shower depicted in the feature film. They are present in MLa but not

in GE999A. Yukino Yayoi told Hajime Amamori that her people heavily mined

them for raw materials, and their unusual energy properties feature

prominently in several of the television series episodes. It is quite

probable that the LaMaetel mined them out of existence during their long

journey across the cosmos while establishing the technology of the Machine

Empire. See also SSM.]

- Selen, the eldest daughter of Lady La Lela of LaMaetel, falls out of favor

with her mother and the ruling elite. She has become disgusted with the way

her people treat their human slaves of Earth and no longer wishes to be a part

of it. For this she is disowned by her mother, stripped of her position as

the heir designate (and next Millennial Queen) and then sent to a forced

labor camp. Selen and a small band of followers will eventually flee to Earth

and in secret set up the organization known as the Millennium Thieves. Its

ultimate aim is to free mankind from any and all LaMaetelian influences. The

Millennium Thieves also begin construction of a space battlecruiser to defend

Earth, in the event LaMaetel ever attempts to take the planet by force.

[QMa #25, "A Bond Between Old Enemies" and QMf. The feature film plays this

story somewhat differently than does the television series. We never learn

Selen’s background; only that her relationship with her sister Promethium is a strained one. Selen herself discusses the building of the battlecruiser

with Promethium about halfway through QMf. By the way, Selen’s apparent age in human years is about 19 or 20, give or take a few years, when this event

takes place.]

- La Andromeda Promethium is appointed Millennium Queen of Earth in her exiled

sister’s stead. She assumes an Earth identity as a Japanese maiden named Yukino Yayoi.

[QMa #25, “A Bond Betwen Old Enemies." Yukino Yayoi told Hajime Amamori that she was brought to Earth in her youth. Her “parents” on Earth were actually LaMetalians whose memories had been erased so as not to reveal

Promethium’s (or their) true origins. She and her adoptive parents must have pulled the TUCK EVERLASTING bit many times, moving from place to place during

her thousand year rule on Earth, so that no one could discover their long

LaMaetelian lifespans truly were.]

sometime during the 20th century (exact dates uncertain)

- La Andromeda Promethium, the current Millennium Queen of Earth, becomes

concerned that the rubble of LaMaetel’s moon could pose a great danger to Earth on LaMaetel’s next pass through the Sol System. To that end, she secretly orders the construction of a giant space ark in the Kanto cave

complex beneath present-day Tokyo. The ark is intended to evacuate as many

humans as possible, should disaster befall.

[All QM sources. In QMa the space ark is a large spacecraft that was built

inside the cave complex. Its size is never given but it appears to be about

the size of a contemporary naval vessel. In the movie the spaceship is built

around the cave complex itself, and appears to be 10-15 miles in diameter.]

- At some point during her time on Earth, the young La Andromeda Promethium

begins thinking about having a family of her own.

[GE999Em. Maetel implies that she might have been born on Earth but this is

clearly impossible, per MLa. I have chosen to interpret Maetel’s remark rather broadly. After all, Promethium did seem awfully eager to be reunited

with Fara in QMf. Perhaps this explains why.]

c.1100

- Arcadia, the future baronial estate of the Harlock family, is granted to them.

It is located in the old Germanic kingdom of Thuringa, somewhere near what

will become the present day town of Heilgenstaadt.

[MYA and actual German historical records. The kingdom of Thuringa (modern

day Thuringen) was an active supporter of the Knights Templar and their German

successors, the Teutonic Knights. If there was a pirate-knight Harlock, per

MYA, then his family must have already held a fiefdom or estate for his

support. There are several Heilgenstaadts in German and Austria, but the one

that best fits MYA's description is in Thuringen, one of the southernmost of

the old Prussian states and deep in the heart of old Franconia. Thuringen is

known as “the green heart of Germany.” Its deep wooded valleys and rugged terrain match well with the World War II flashback scene of Arcadia, as shown

in MYA.]

c.1120

- The first historical record appears of a “Captain Harlock.” He is a respected German knight in the service of the Knight Templars during the

Crusades. He is known for fearlessness in battle and skill on the high seas.

[Conjecture based on actual historical records and events referenced in MYA.

In the movie, Captain Harlock refers to his family as the “pirate-knight” Harlock clan. This is probably an indirect reference to a Knight Templar

ancestor, given their history. The Jolly Roger, the traditional flag of the

pirate, is said to have been derived from the flags that the Knight Templars

flew on their ships at the end of the Crusades. Captain Harlock seems to

have been drawing on the origins of the Jolly Roger in making it the flag

of freedom for his time. M-san certainly did his homework with regards to

Captain Harlock’s origins!]

c.1210

- A descendant of the Templar pirate-knight Harlock joins the newly formed

Teutonic Knights.

[Conjecture based on actual historical records and events referenced in MYA.

The Teutonic Knights originated as a German satellite group of the Knight

Templars. They actively recruited members from among the “poor” German nobility. Captain Harlock’s ancestors were probably among these, given what slim clues we have.]

1291

- A Teutonic sea-knight named Harlock assists in the evacuation of Acre, the

last Crusader stronghold in the Holy Land.

[Conjecture based on actual historical records and events referenced in MYA.

According to some writers and historians, this was the first time that the

Knight Templars flew the Jolly Roger. In the Leijiverse, this act would

have doubtless been performed by Captain Harlock's ancestor. No such tale

exists in "canon" literature, though ... yet! Perhaps he was accompanied

by Tochiro the Moor and the Lady Selen? *grin* There's been a fan artwork

piece or two on aspects of this conjectured event over the past few years,

though, and hopefully we'll see more.]

1526

- The Harlock family is formally recognized as one of the established members

of the new Prussian nobility.

[Conjecture based on actual historical records and events referenced in MYA.

The Teutonic Knights disbanded as an order in 1525. Practically all of them

became part of the new Prussian nobility the following year. Baron - yes,

BARON - Phantom F. Harlock II was “paying the rent” when he joined the Luftwaffe in the 1930s, per the World War II flashback scene in MYA.]

1666

- Saint Maetel, a beautiful blond woman, has a profound impact on the life of

classical musical composer Franz Schubert.

[GE999Em Volume 4, Chapter 2, “The Unfinished Symphony of the Blank Belt Planet." In the English-language Viz release this is Volume 4, Chapter 3,

"Blank Belt Symphony." A distant descendant of Schubert's, living on an

asteroid far from Earth, shows Maetel and Tetsuro a drawing in a dusty old

volume from his library that used to belong to his ancestor. The drawing

resembles Maetel, dark furs and all. Mr. Schubert tells them that “Saint Maetel” visited his ancestor on Earth in the year 1666. Maetel never disputes his claim. The manga implies that they are one and the same. Since Maetel

claims to be “a woman who has traveled through time,” then Mr. Schubert’s assertion might be correct, per one interpretation. A more likely answer is

that the drawing is of Maetel’s mother, La Andromeda Promethium, during her time on Earth as its last Millennial Queen per the various QM sources. Maetel

was not even alive when the meeting between “Saint Maetel” and Franz Schubert took place. Also, the black furs Maetel wears during her journeys in the

various GE999 and GR stories were a parting gift from her mother, per MLa.

It should be noted that Maetel bears an uncanny likeness to her mother when

Promethium was young (and still human). See the various QM materials, SSM,

and GE999A.]

1791

- Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the most gifted musical composer and

performer of his era.

[Actual historical event. I5555 implies that the Earl of Darkwood was one

of Mozart’s sponsors, and was thus ultimately responsible for his death at an early age.]

1838

- An young American frontiersman buys a "fairly new" muzzle-loading rifle and

powder horn.

[GFa #01, "Welcome to the Gun Frontier." See also GFm Chapter 1, "To the

Gun Frontier!" Franklin Harlock and Tochiro Oyama briefly come into

possession of these in 1876, when they kill the man after he tries to hold

up a pawnbroker's shop.]

1865

- Sea captain Franklin Harlock and samurai warrior Tochiro Oyama meet in a raid

raid by Western pirates on a town on Japan’s eastern seaboard. Tochiro scars Harlock’s face in the ensuing sword duel. It is only stopped when the burning vessel’s gunpowder stores start exploding. Tochiro helps Harlock escape his doomed ship and thus saves his life. As payment for his debt of gratitude,

Harlock will bring the inquisitive Tochiro back to the United States with him

shortly thereafter. “I’ve always wanted to explore your Wild West,” the samurai tells the bemused Harlock.

[GFa #09, “Caught between Winchester and Midland City.” Japan was in a state of civil war from 1863 to 1866 as the various shogunates fought with the

Emperor on how best to deal with rising Western influences. In 1865 a joint

Anglo-French fleet was sent to Japan on the order of their respective

governments to bombard Japanese ports. This was in retaliation by an attack

on a British delegation by the Choshu shogunate. Japan remained in a state of

civil war until the ascension of Emperor Meiji in 1967. The date for Franklin

Harlock’s raid is never given in GFa, but it best fits here given other

internal evidence in the anime and historical data from the period. This

might imply that the Tochiro Oyama of the various GF stories could have been

a Choshu samurai and that Samurai Creek was settled by a Choshu contingent;

however, conclusive evidence is lacking. ADDENDUM - I have been informed by

many Leijiverse fans that this event is based on a manga short that does not

appear in GFm, which inspired GFa in the first place. It was apparently

added to GFa in order to provide additional backstory for Harlock and

Tochiro's unique relationship. Even so, it is still useful for establishing

the dates for the various GF materials.]

1866

- Samurai Creek, the first full-fledged Japanese settlement in the United

States, is established somewher in the American Wild West.

[GFa #11, “Shitalnen.” Tochiro Oyama says that his sister and the others in the settlement left Japan in order to live a life free of the restrictions of

Japanese society. This implies that they left before the reforms of Emperor

Meiji, who ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 1867. GFa also implies

that this event happened not long after Tochiro Oyama and Franklin Harlock

became acquainted.]

1868

- The Japanese settlement at Samurai Creek is attacked by a gang of outlaws

disguised as U.S. Army cavalry. The outlaws are unsuccessful in their goal to

seize the inhabitant’s cache of imported gold. Many of the outlaws are killed by samurai warrior Yukikaze and his fellows before they are gunned down. The

outlaws then massacre the settlement’s inhabitants in retaliation. What survivors remain, mostly women and children, flee for their lives into the

desert. The outlaws themselves are force to flee when a contingent of real

U.S. cavalry show up, led by Tochiro and Harlock. Sadly, many of the

surviving women who fled the massacre are captured by the escaping outlaws,

taken with them, and raped before eventually being sold into prostitution.

The few who manage to successfully escape murder and slavery are cared for by

a U.S. Army doctor named Modorovichi, who is part of the cavalry detatchment.

After the conclusion of the affair, what few survivors return and spirit away

their hidden gold, leaving only memories and charred timbers behind. Tochiro

swears vengeance over the affair, and will spend the next several years

attempting to track down both the survivors and the backers of the Samurai

Creek massacre.

[GFa #04, “Duel in the Rain” and #05, “The Song of Bowlegs.” Tochiro’s former girlfriend Maya Yukikaze (the daughter of the samurai Yukikaze) says that

the massacre at Samurai Creek happened five years before the events depicted

in the series.]

1872

- Sinunora, a new recruit to the mysterious Organization, is detailed to keep

an eye on the whereabouts of samurai Tochiro Oyama.

[GFa #11, “Shitalnen.” Sinunora tells Harlock and Tochiro about this during their encampment together on Bone Peak. She was in Europe at the time of her

assignment. Intercontinental travel times in the 19th century were on the

order of months.]

-------------------

1876 - GUN FRONTIER

-------------------

c.1880

- Birth of Phantom F. Harlock I in Germany at the Harlock family estate in

Heilgenstaadt. He is the first member of the Harlock family to bear the

traditional name of the family’s male heirs in the centuries to come. [MYA and TTB Chapter 08, "The Birdman of Kilimanjaro," implied. I am

interpreting that the Harlock of this manga tale and Phantom F. Harlock I

of MYA are one and the same. The father appears to have been about the same

age his son was (i.e. late twenties) during the adventure depicted in the

manga tale. The “F” probably stands for Frank, which is a common German name - and possibly a reference by M-san to his famous gunslinger relative

Franklin Harlock (the GF stories).]

c.1900

- An ancient city of incredibly advanced technology is uncovered during a strong

earthquake on the planet Iscandar. Its first visitor is a young woman named

Starsha. She soon encounters the Guardian Spirit of Iscandar within its

ruined walls. Starsha learns the true history and heritage of her people,

then willingly unites with the Guardian so it can speak to her people. In

this manner Starsha becomes the living embodiment of the Guardian Spirit of

Iscandar. The transformed Starsha returns to her people with the truth about

the ruined city and its significance. She will become the prime mover behind

Iscandar’s Great Renaissance. The grateful people of Iscandar eventually appoint Starsha as their first ruling queen, and her first act as Queen of

Iscandar will be to rename the newly rebuilt ancient city Mother Town - in

honor of the Guardian Spirit of Iscandar.

[Lewis]

1914-1918

- Phantom F. Harlock I becomes a noted German fighter ace during World War I.

[TTB Chapter 08, "The Birdman of Kilimanjaro," implied. Harlock appears in a

cameo at the end of the story in question, when he shoots down and kills both

the main male and female protagonists.]

c.1916

- Phantom F. Harlock II, firstborn son of the famed aerial explorer, is born on

Earth in Germany at the family estate in Heilgenstadt.

[Probable conjecture based on MYA. This presupposes that Phantom F. Harlock

II was 29 and a captain in the Luftwaffe in 1945 during the events depicted in

the World War II flashback sequence.]

-------------------------------------------------

c.1920 - "The Birdman of Kilimanjaro" manga short

-------------------------------------------------

1920

- Birth of one Tochiro Oyama, grandfather of the famous late 20th century news

photographer of the same name.

[UTSM]

1923

- Queen Starsha of Iscandar gives birth to her daughter Sasha.

[Lewis]

1924

- Sasha of Iscandar reaches young adulthood in one year, after which she resumes

aging normally. It is a side effect of her mother’s union with the Guardian Spirit of Iscandar, to which she also has access. This rapid aging phenomena

will become a trademark of the ruling house of Iscandar.

[Lewis]

--------------------------------------------------

c.1925 - "Duel! Emeraldus vs. Harlock" manga short

--------------------------------------------------

c.1930

- Phantom F. Harlock I writes a book that is part personal diary and part life

philosophy. In detailing his aerial exploits in the years following the First

World War, he also recounts his outlook on life and the factors he feels are

important in becoming a true man of honor, independent in both mind and

spirit. The book becomes an underground hit with men of similar caliber or

those aspiring the same path in life. It also becomes a bible of sorts for

Harlock’s descendants and admirers down the years. [MYA; see also TCm Volume 1, Chapter 9, "The Owen Stanley Witch"]

c.1935

- In an act he will later describe as “paying the rent,” Phantom F. Harlock II becomes a fighter pilot in the German Luftwaffe. He rises to the rank of

captain during World War II and establishes himself as one of Nazi Germany’s top fighter aces.

[MYA; see also TCm Volume 2, Chapter 12, "My Youth in Arcadia." Harlock

seems to imply in the movie that he was coerced into enlisting in order to

keep the Nazi government from seizing the family estate.

1933-1945 LE

- World War II

[Actual historical event. The war actually began in the Far East long before

the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Imperial Japan’s bloody conquest and occupation of Manchuria in 1933 was an ominous portent of things to come. I

go with the extended WWII dates for the Leijiverse for the sake of the

relevant manga, such as some of the tales in TCm.]

1938

- A German archaeologist named Zangels will publish a book in this year that

will still be known in the 30th century. Its most famous quote goes something

like this: "People are often not conscious whenever their path through life

crosses that of destiny. Because of this, they are completely unprepared for

fate when it throws something sinister in their way. They only realize that

they could have avoided such encounters long after they have passed."

[GE999EFm Volume 1, Prologue Part 1, "Competing Destinies." Maetel shares

Zangel's book with Tetsuro shortly before they arrive at planet Destiny, in

preparation for his meeting with Galaxy Railways chief operating officer Layla

Shura.]

-----------------------

1933-1945 - THE COCKPIT

-----------------------

---------------------------------------------

c.1942 - "The Fangs of an Aurora" manga short

---------------------------------------------

1942, 19 February

- The Mahoroba (i.e Hull I-112), third and last of Japan’s super dreadnoughts, is launched from the Kure Naval Yard. It is basically an enlarged version

of the Yamato class, with an extra 18” triple gun turret both fore and aft. Completion of the unfinished superstructure will be delayed two years due

to lack of resources and the outbreak of World War II.

[UTSM. In our universe the Imperial Japanese Navy actually ordered Hull

I-112. The main difference between the Mahoroba and the real-world I-112

was in the armament. The Mahoroba design as posited by M-san was considered

at one time, but ultimately rejected due to lack of resources and the

estimated blowback effects on both ship and crew when engaging in rapid

fire of the ship's main battery. Eventually, a simplified version with two

20” guns in three turrets, very similar to the original Yamato design, was finally approved. Construction was cancelled before it began due to the

outbreak of the war.]

---------------------------------------------

c.1942 - "The Owen Stanley Witch" manga short

---------------------------------------------

1944, 13 March

- In their only surface naval action together as a unit, the Japanese

battleships Yamato, Musashi, and Mahoroba are dispatched to attack American

forces at Leyte Gulf in the Phillipines. They easily smash their way through

U.S. Carrier Task Force 38 off Samar Island and proceed to wreak havoc on

unprotected American landing operations and support operations. They are

eventually chased back through the Phillipine Sea by overwhelming numbers of

American carrier planes under the command of Admiral Willian “Bull” Halsey. The Yamato escapes with only minor damage, as does the Mahoroba. The Musashi

is not so fortunate. It is successfully torpedoed while retreating, causing

it to fall behind its escorts and protective air cover. It takes over 14

direct hits from American dive bombers and torpedo planes before it finally

sinks. Admiral Halsey is later court-martialed for allowing the Japanese

battleships easy access to Leyte Gulf. He had initially taken his fleet

northwest - away from the Phillipines and chasing a successful Japanese

decoy fleet of carriers.

[UTSM implied; selected data also sourced from studies conducted by numerous

military and civilian groups concerning alternate outcomes of the Battle of

Leyte Gulf. The subject of the sunken Musashi is one of the significant

plot points regarding UTSM.]

sometime during mid- to late 1944.

- The WWII-era Tochiro Oyama, now a military combat photographer, is reported to

have died during one of the land battles on Leyte Island in the Phillipines.

[UTSM]

1944, late October or early November

- A Japanese soldier and former motorcycle racer duels an American 1st Cavalry

reconaissance scout, using their respective motocycles, in the jungles of the

Phillipine island of Leyte - not far from the battlefield at Celabanka.

[TCa; see also TCm Volume 1, Chapter 13, "Steel Dragoon." At the start of

the story, the Japanese are having to abandon their newly arrived artillery

pieces, which "came all the way from Japan." This fits reasonably well

with the end of the U.S. Army's Ormoc Valley campaign against Japanese

ground forces. Large numbers of these "newly arrived" pieces were captured

at that time. There is a blatant historical goof in M-san's story, however

(not surprising; the tales of TCm are more about telling the story than

niggling over small details). The 28th Imperial Regiment had been ground

up two years earlier on Guadalcanal at the Battle of Edson's Ridge.]

1944, 8 December

- A plan to send the Mahoroba to assist Japanese forces on Iwo Jima against a

landing by U.S. Marines is scrubbed due to lack of air cover. It will

eventually be hidden in a secret underground complex, thus surviving the

war intact and undetected.

[UTSM, implied. Date based off of real-world events.]

------------------------------------

1945 - "Eternal Arcadia" manga short

------------------------------------

1945, first week of April

- Luftwaffe captain Phantom F. Harlock II and Japanese optical designer

Tochiro Oyama have a fateful meeting on an autobahn outside of Wiesbaden,

Germany during the closing days of World War II.

[MYA; see also TCm Volume 2, Chapter 13, "My Youth in Arcadia." The

attacking Allied tank corps in the movie is coming from the southwest, which

according to Oyama is “from the other side of Wiesbaden.” The U.S. Army captured Wiesbaden on 28 March 1945, which according to Oyama happened “last week” per the English dub. By the way, Wiesbaden isn’t all that far from Heilgenstaadt, the ancestral home of the Harlock family. It escaped the

depredations of World War II largely intact.]

- Captain Harlock is shot and captured by French maquis (partisans) on the

German-Swiss border after helping Oyama flee to Switzerland. He is blinded

by them shortly after his capture when he is struck in the head with a

rifle butt. He survives the war but will remain blind for the rest of his

life.

[TCm Volume 2, Chapter 13, "My Youth in Arcadia." The manga story was the

basis for the World War II flashback scene in the movie. The movie version

omitted Harlock being blinded by the maquis after his capture.]

- Tochiro Oyama successfully escapes Germany via Switzerland. He survives

the war and eventually dies a natural death in his native Japan.

[TCm Volume 2, Chapter 13, "My Youth in Arcadia;" see also MYA]

1945, 7 April

- The U.S. Navy successfully sinks the Japanese super dreadnought Yamato in

the waters between Kyushu and Okinawa, some fifty nautical miles southwest

of Cape Boga.

[SB1 #02, “The Giant Awakens”]

----------------------------------------------

1945 - "Sonic Thunder Attack Unit" manga short

----------------------------------------------

1945, 5 August

- In what may be the last action of Japan in World War II in the Leijiverse,

prior to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, a Japanese "Ohka"

rocket plane succeeds in hitting and sinking an Essex-class fleet aircraft

carrier serving on the American naval picket line off the coast of Japan.

[TCa #02, "Sonic Thunder Attack Unit;" see also the original manga short in

TCm. Date as given at the start of the story. There is a blatant historical

goof in M-san's story, however (not surprising; the tales of TCm are more

about telling the story than niggling over small details.) There was never a

successful Ohka attack on any American aircraft carrier, large or small - much

less at the end of World War II. The Ohka was used in several successful

efforts to sink other ship types of earlier that year, which might have

inspired M-san's story.]

1945 (other events)

- Iscandarian technology begins to approach the same level as its ancestors,

whom they call the Ancients. From plans and ancient machines discovered

beneath Mother Town’s central tower Iscandarian scientists reconstruct Cosmo DNA technology. Iscandar also rediscovers space flight and begins

exploring its local area of space.

[Lewis]

- Contact between Iscandar and its neighboring planet Gamilon is accidentally

renewed when an advanced Iscandarian space probe lands on the planet and is

promptly captured by Clan Desslar. They successfully reverse-engineer it and

apply the technology gleaned from it to develop advanced weapons. With this

edge Clan Desslar soon defeat their enemies and unites the planet Gamilon

under its rule.

[Lewis]

c.1950-2020

- The Gamilon Holy Wars (aka the Gamilon Unification War)

[Lewis]

c.1950

- The people of the planet Gardiana rediscover the Vaults of Yesterday, inside

of which the ancient technology of their forbearers has been safely hidden

over the long millennia. They study it along with the records preserved

there, but heed the warnings of their ancestors regarding its use. The

people of Gardiana eventually decide to reseal the Vaults and erect their

royal tombs over them, in order to keep them hidden from outside eyes. They

then resume pastoral ways once again, resolving never to invoke the legacy

of their ancestors except in times of direst need.

[Lewis]

- The people of the planet Dezarium discover that the world on which they are

living is actually an artifical construct with a hollow core. A journey to

the center of their planet, lead by a man named Skaldart, chances upon the

Guardian Spirit of Dezarium. It has been hiding at the center of their world

ever since the end of the very first Intergalactic War. Skaldart is possessed

by this Spirit, and within a few short years becomes the supreme leader of

his people. Under his guidance, his people regain spaceflight capability.

They soon turn their efforts towards escaping the Black Nebula and returning

to the universe from which their ancestors were banished.

[Lewis. Perhaps, per CHEO, the Guardian Spirit of Dezarium was corrupted by

the Noo? Conjecture, yes - but that would account for its turning from good

to evil within the context of the Leijiverse.]

c.1955

- Birth of Phantom F. Harlock II’s daughter. [TCm Volume #2, Chapter 12, “My Youth in Arcadia”]

1967

- Death of the famous rock musician Jimi Hendrix.

[I5555. We see an alien get transformed into someone resembling Jimi Hendrix

by the Earl of Darkwood. The supposition is that Hendrix was one of the Earl’s “protégés” and that his untimely death was also due to the Earl’s influence.]

1968

- A teenaged Nobotto Oyama moves to Tokyo in the hope, like many of his

generation in Japan, of being accepted as a student at a reputable

university. He fails miserably at every attempt over the next 3-4 years

because he is at heart a slacker and doesn't dedicate himself hard enough

to his studies. The next time we see him, in 1972, he will be attending

night school in one final effort to enter any kind of university and earn

a college degree - and he will be living in a run-down boarding house with

only the very basic necessities.

[OO Volume 1, Chapter 1, "The Four-and-a-Half Tatami Mat Room of My Youth,"

and Volume 5, Chapter 1. In the latter, Nobotta celebrates his first

anniversary of getting kicked out of night school, which happens in the

very first story of the series. He then goes on to say that he has now been

living in Tokyo for the past four years and eight months. Working backwards

gives an approximate date of 1968. Nobotta is best described as the "black

sheep" of the Oyama family tree. Most of his ancestors and descendants are

famous scientists, fighters, adventurers, and he is ... well ... who he is.

He only does things whenever he has to ... and he often finds a way to screw

them up in the process ... which is one of the reasons why the 00 manga

series is so hilarious. He's a nice enough guy in his way - but he has a lot

of trouble applying himself to any task.]

------------------

1970 - MYSTERY EVE

------------------

------------------------------------

1972 - OTOKO OIDON (aka I AM A MAN!)

------------------------------------

- Nobotta Oyama obtains his pet bird Tori - given to him by an erstwhile lady

friend. The bird is of an unknown exotic species and comes from South

America. It is so foul-mouthed, having spent most of its life with rough

sailors, that Nobotta has to bind its beak to keep it from offending visitors.

Its daily diet reflect Nobotta's impoverished state - regular doses of

mushrooms (grown in the rotting pile of underwear inside Nobotta's closet)]

and crotch rot lotion (bought to address aforementioned issue). Nobotta

winds up keeping the bird for two reasons: it's his only live-in companion,

and he can aways eat it if his situation gets too bad.

[OO Volume 2, Chapter 7. This was the official introduction of the bird

we know as Tori-san into the Leijiverse. That's one of the two reasons for

this entry. Another is that OO explains a lot of the Leijiverse in-jokes

seen in CWZ #14 & #15, "Follow Young Harlock (Parts 1 & 2)."]

1973

- This was the last time that anybody attempted to destroy Sybil, the central

control computer of the planet Glowbright.

[GE999a #035, "The Witch of the Plated Planet (Part 2)." This would imply

that the native humans of the Plated Planet are not Earth colonists, but were

put there by other intelligences in an event that is now lost to history.

Either that, or Sybil survived the attempt by the planet's natives to destroy

her and ensnared the human colony that was eventually established on her

world. This alternate explaination fits with the "alien tech" notion that

was postulated in GE999a #003, "Titan's Sleeping Warrior" - see related entry

for the First Wave of human colonization. The episode visuals imply that

Sybil was a Mechanoid in origin - but her being a Metanoid would fit better,

given M-san's later revisions to the Leijiverse. The Mechanoid conversion

process did not yet exist at this time, whereas M-san established the

Metanoids as an old race - at least as old as humanity, if not older - in

various ML, HS, and GE999F related materials.]

-----------------------------------------------------------

1976, April - "Eternal Arcadia" manga short - framing story

-----------------------------------------------------------

1976, late October or early November

- Nobotta Oyama finally secures a decent job as an entry-level sailor on a

whaling ship. He uses the cash advance on his new job to pay off all of

his debts. He leaves behind his bird Tori-san in his old apartment when he

leaves, confident that his landlady - with whom he has become good friends

over the past few years - will keep both bird and room for him until his

return at the end of whaling season.

[OO Volume 9, final chapter. Nobotta's fate is seemingly left open-ended in

the actual manga but was made clear by M-san in later interviews. He also

described the numerous clues in the story that point towards this resolution.

Whaling season in Japan usually starts in November.]

c.1977

- Practically all humanoid life on the planet Jura is wiped out in an

environmental holocaust. The sole survivor, a young Juran woman named

Mimay, will lead a desperate fugitive existence for the next millennia -

hiding from the giant, semi-sentient plants that exterminated her people.

[SPCHa #20, “The Dead Planet Jura” and the corresponding footage from CHQ1K. Mimay (aka Melody) says in the English dub that her homeworld was destroyed

“a thousand of your years ago.” QEm Volume 1 depicts Jura as a barren, windswept wasteland. This might have been elsewhere on the planet where

the plants had either died out or could no longer survive, but this is

conjecture on my part. The date given in the English dubbed dialogue might

support this notion, but this is admittedly reaching a bit.]

1977, spring

- Nobotta Oyama returns from whaling season to reclaim both his room and his

bird Tori-san. He will lead a somewhat successful life from now on, at

least evoking (if not always living up to) those of his other family members

and ancestors.

[OO Volume 9, final chapter, and later interviews on OO given by M-san.]

1979

- The LaMaetel begin building a modern housing complex, made of multiple

multi-story apartment buildings, for the thousands of humans they expect

to shelter in the Hidden Land during the upcoming passing of the rogue planet

LaMaetel. Construction does not finish until sometime in the 1990s. The

entire complex is the size of a city.

[QMa #06, "The Vast Underground Complex." The Caretaker says the building

where she and Hajime are currently located, which is on one end of the

complex, is "based on a twenty-year old design. You can find more modern

buildings farther on." She points Hajime to some futuristic-looking buidings

far in the distance, which she says "were built this year (1999)."]

c.1985

- Hajime Amamori is born in Tokyo, Japan.

[All QM sources. Hajime was “about 14” in 1999 when the planet LaMaetel made its final pass of Earth, although he is consistently played younger

and less mature than this age might suggest - especially in CHQ1K. Then

again, preteens are rather unpredictable ....]

c.1990s

- Agents working on behalf of Lady La Lela begin spreading rumors among the

inhabitants of Earth that the end of the 20th century will bring about the

end of the world. These rumors eventually take hold and are perpetuated in

various ways. Collectively they are known as “millennium fever” and are often the subject of ridicule by humans who don’t take them seriously. [Conjecture inspired by all QM sources and contemporary events of the era.]

- Professor Amamori, father of Hajime Amamori, is secretly recruited by La

Andromeda Promethium to develop an antimatter engine for her space ark. He

promises to keep his work a secret from everyone, including his wife and son.

To aid in his efforts, he is given access to technology and research

materials that are light-years ahead of anything that human technology on

Earth possesses at the time.

[All QM sources]

- Cloning technology becomes a reality on Earth.

[UTSM, implied; see also current events of the era, such as the successful

cloning of "Dolly" the sheep.]

sometime during the late 20th century

- The planet Brumus, eleventh planet in our Sol System, is discovered.

[SB2 #06, “Assault on Brumus;” see also DZ Chapter 6, "Tragedy of the Tenth Planet." The original Japanese dialogue says Brumus was discovered “in the 20th century.” Per the DZ manga, it was discovered late in the 20th century and the name given to it by its previous inhabitants was Juban. DZ also

says that the frozen remains of its people will be discovered by Captain

Harlock near the end of the 30th century - all perfectly preserved, buried

deep under the ice at one of its poles, in a scene that seems to anticipate

GE999a #005, "Shadow of the Planet of Indecision."]

1993

- Toshiro Oyama, grandson of WWII photographer Tochiro Oyama, mysteriously

disappears and is never seen again.

[UTSM. Toshiro is apparently the son of OO's Nobotto Oyama. These three

Oyamas are all apparently ancestors of the Tochiro Oyama of Harlock's day,

per various printed interviews and conversations with M-san. BTW, Toshiro

was picked up by the Mahoroba and carried into the future, where he will

reappear in GR1 #16, "Sexaroid."]

-----------------------

1997 - INTERSTELLA 5555

-----------------------

1997

- Discovery of the Darkwood stargate on the far side of Earth's moon.

[I5555. The Darkwood stargate is the interstellar portal by which the Earl

of Darkwood (and later the Crescendolls) travel from Earth to other parts

of the universe. The significance of its existence will become clear in

the era of the Star Force. See also SB1 #01, "The Sleeping Giant."]

late 1998

- Professor Amamori family buys a modest home for his family on the

outskirts of Tokyo. He immediately converts his oversized garage into a

sophisticated electron accellerator lab, complete with the newest and most

modern equipment.

[All QM sources. According to QMa, the Amamori family had only lived at

their home for a few months prior to the explosion that killed Hajime’s parents. Visuals in both QMa and QMf suggest that it was near an industrial

district in the outlying sections of the city.]

----------------------

1999 - QUEEN MILLENNIA

----------------------

1999, March

- Astronomers on Earth first detect the return of LaMaetel, as it approaches

the rest of the Sol System in its 1000-year orbit around Sol.

[QMa #01, "September 9, 1999" and #02, "Look to the Vast Universe, Hajime!"

Accordind to the second episode, it was the 167,889th planet discovered by

Earth astronomers up to that point.]

- Hajime Amamori's parents are killed by an explosion from the high-tech

electron accellerator business his father runs from the building next to

their house. His mother is killed instantly. His father passes away at the

hospital, early the next morning. His father's brother, the noted astronomer

Professor Amamori of the Mount Tsukuba Observatory, takes in the orphaned boy

as his own.

[QMa #01, "September 9, 1999" and #02, "Look to the Vast Universe, Hajime!"]

1999, April

- A giant explosion resembling a volcanic eruption opens a large, unobstructed

two-mile deep geological vent near the Mount Tsukuba Observatory. The

facility receives minor damage from the blast but remains operational. It

is soon learned that the blast is not volcanic, but artificial in nature.

The vent leads straight down into a vast and previously unknown cavern

complex beneath the Kanto River basis (and Tokyo itself).

[QMa #08, “Mayday! An Underground Explosion.” The Kanto basin cavern complex will later serve as the site for the undergound city beneath Tokyo

in the 22nd century, per SB1 #01, "The Sleeping Giant."]

- Hajime Ammamori learns Yukino Yayoi’s true identity as La Andromeda Promethium, the reigning Millennial Queen of Earth. He begs her to save his

world from destruction by the imminent passing of her own planet LaMaetel.

[QMa #07, “Invitation to the Underground” and #08, “Mayday! An Underground Explosion”]

1999, May

- LaMaetelian advance scout ships destroy a number of Earth’s energy transmission and spy satellites. This act catches the attention of Earth’s ruling elite, who are by now fully aware of the real danger that the passing

of LaMaetel poses. They plot to save themselves, while leaving the rest of

humanity behind to deal with the LaMaetel and threat they pose.

[QMa #x, “X”]

- Astronomers and military space observers worldwide witness an incredible

sight. The approaching rogue planet LaMaetel tears a large chunk out of the

rings of Saturn while on its way. The event sends the various world

governments into shock, since this event can neither be hidden nor explained

away to private astronomers. The public is now aware of the approach of

LaMaetal. This also causes certain members of the ruling elite and industrial

cabals to accellerate their own private plans to evacuate Earth post-haste.

[QMa x, “X”]

1999, June and July

- La Andromeda Promethium comes to grip with her mother Lady La Lela plans to

invade and conquer Earth on LaMaetel’s next pass. She is also unexpectedly reunited with her exiled elder twin sister Selen - who turns out to be head

of the Millennial Thieves organzation on Earth, dedidcated towards thwarting

the plans of the LaMaetel at any cost. The two form an alliance and pool

their various resources on Earth to stop the impending LaMaetelian invasion.

[QMf, QMa. This encounter gets all of about fifteen minutes in the film

but is dealt with across several episodes in the television series. The

activities of the two reunited sisters, Selen and Promethium, has interesting

parallels with the later activities of Promethium’s twin daughters, Emeraldas and Maetel, in the centuries to come - per ML, HSm, and GE999.]

1999, August thru September

- A daring plan is offered to the United Nations Security Council by the

Japanese government to save Earth from LaMaetel’s approach. It is based on a old United States NASA contingency plan to divert incoming asteroids.

Three rockets tipped with multiple megaton thermonuclear warheads are to be

fired at the planet and detonate at selected precise coordinates in LaMaetel’s path. The projected effect of the resulting explosions is calculated to change

LaMaetel’s trajectory enough so that it will miss Earth. Despite attempted sabotage by Lady La Lela’s agents, the rockets are launched on schedule. The explosion from the rockets has only a minimal effect on LaMaetel’s trajectory;

however, it succeeds in avoiding any possible collision between the two.

They will come close enough to skirt each other's Roche limits - causing

all kinds of natural disasters on each due to the tremendous gravitational

tides involved - but they will not collide.

[QMa. This concept is an old one among the various national space agencies.

Japan has its own space program with excellent rockets for satellite launches.

In the television series the warheads are based on LaMaetelian technology

that Yukino Yayoi covertly provided for the effort.

- Petty bickering and covert tactical strikes against each other - and by

undercover LaMaetelian forces - prevent the elite of Earth from building a

spacegoing evacuation fleet in time to escape Earth before LaMaetel makes its

final approach.

[QMa #x, "x"]

- Death of Miray, youngest daughter of Lady La Lela. She dies in a duel with

her elder sister Promethium on the planet Venus, while fighting over the

Millennial Throne of Earth.

[QMa #x, "x." In the movie she is named Senjoo and Miray is the name of the

Guardian of the Tombs (the golden female humanoid). Senjoo in Japanese

means "new queen." The death of Yukino’s younger sister is not depicted in the feature film.]

1999, first full week of September

- The arrival of the planet LaMaetel in Earthspace is marked by a devastating

meteor shower that rains fire and destruction upon the cities of Earth. The

shower is caused by Earth’s passage through LaMaetel’s asteroid rings. [QMf]

1999, 9 September

- On this date, as predicted, the rogue planet LaMaetel has its final encounter

with Earth. The reason it is the final one is that LaMaetel has been pulled

off of its thousand-year orbit by the dark star Ra. It will fly out of the

Sol System and into interstellar space once this encounter is complete. The

LaMaetelians attempt to evacuate their planet and invade Earth as planned,

but are repelled by the combined forces of humanity, Selen and the Millennial

Thieves, and La Andromeda Promethium and her supporters.

[All QM sources.]

- Death of Selen, eldest daughter of Lady La Lela, in the "heyday" timeline.

She dies defending Earth from the invasion fleet her mother has sent to

Earth.

[QMf. She survives in QMa, and it is implied that she and her associates

aid in the rebuilding of Earth. I have yet find anything regarding her

death, such as when and how, in the "classic" or "revival" timelines.]

- Death of La Elisu Milu (aka Daisuke Yamori), head of the LaMaetelian

mission on Earth and Promethium’s chief assistant. [All QM sources - although his death is portrayed differently and for

different reasons in QMf.]

- Death of Dr. Fara, chief minister of LaMaetel and Promethium’s longtime love. He sacrifices himself trying to save LaMaetel from her mother’s wrath. [QMf]

- Lady La Lela survives the assault on her person by the former Millennium

Queens of Earth.

[SSM #05, “Promethium’s Magic Flute.”. Maetel is escorted to a secret chamber hidden deep beneath the surface of LaMaetel. There, much to her

surprise, she finds her grandmother Lady La Lela apparently alive and well.

This implies that Lady La Lela must have survived the events depicted

at the end of the Queen Millennium feature film. In QMm, she is with her

daughter at the end of the story, once Promethium decides to return to

LaMaetel.]

- Death of La Andromeda Promethium, second daughter of of the Queen Mother,

Lady La Lela. She dies defending Earth from the invasion fleet her mother

has sent to Earth. Her body is returned to her homeworld before it leaves

the Sol System for good.

[QMa and QMf. She lives in QMm, returning to LaMaetel with her mother

Lady La Lela at the end of the tale. Her fate is neither addressed nor

explained in CHQ1K. Both ML and SSM can be interpreted as implying that

the later Promethium was a clone of the original with most of her memories.

Lady La Lela had been recording her captured daughter's memories in an

effort to edit and revised them in QMf, and the process had almost been

complete when she was interrupted. Multiple clones of Promethium figure

in more than one episode of SSM, each with a copy of her memories.]

- Large numbers of LaMaetelians refugees, revolted by the ways of their

leaders, flee their homeworld. They are welcomed by the humans of Earth.

With them they bring not only portions of their technology but their

compatible genetic structure. Intermarriage and cross-breeding between

these two compatible species will introduce a new random gene factor in

humanity’s genetic structure. This random factor extends its bearer’s lifespan a hundred years or more. This factor pops up wherever the

LaMaetelians have settled and intermingled with the local population, most

notably Japan and Germany.

[Probable conjecture. This is an attempt to explain a number of time and

character related inconsistencies that are known to exist in the Leijiverse

over the next two millennia. Humanity appears to have extended lifespans

later in the Leijiverse, particularly in the 30th century and the era of

Captain Harlock. This would help in explaining why.]

- The legend of Queen Millennia and what she did for the sake of Earth will pass

into the legends and lore of humanity, and they will take it with them

whenever they finally move out onto the Sea of Stars for good.

[GR #09, "Memory." David carries a lucky 1-gable coin with the image of Queen

Millennia around with him, and tends to flip it when making decisions. He

also directly alludes to the legend of Queen Millennia, although he does not

discuss it. The viewer is assumed to already know her story.]

sometime during the early 21st century

- Lady La Lela creates a clone of her dead daughter Promethium and imparts

to it all of the memories she had copied before Promethium’s death. She then abdicates her throne to the new Promethium and exiles herself to a

lonely, isolated existence deep within LaMaetel’s inner core. [SSM #06, “La Lela’s Requeim;” see also QMf and MLa.]

- Humanity begins the slow process of recovering from the passing of LaMaetel.

The most immediate effect is to strengthen the power of the United Nations.

It takes complete charge of the recovery process worldwide. This is

mankind’s first significant step towards a united Earth government. [Probable conjecture suggested by the various QM materials and the

background materials for SB1. I note in passing that the logo of the UEG

in the days of the Star Force looks suspiciously like that of the United

Nations. Only a planetwide cataclysm, such as that of the close passing of

LaMaetel, would have prompted the founding of a worldwide government. The

Gamilons were, of course, the icing on that particular cake.]

- LaMaetelian scientists create an artificial sun to keep portions of the

planet habitable as it makes its lonely journey through the cold voids of

space.

[ML and SSM #06, “La Lela’s Requeim”]

- Hajime Amamori becomes one of Japan’s most famous early space pioneers. [Conjecture inspired by QMa.]

- Commissioning of Project Time Sweeper under the auspices of the Japanese

government. It is a secret effort to develop time travel technology. The

head of Project Time Sweeper is Dr. Sazeko Sado. His assistants are Dr.

Jiro Sanada and Dr. Toshiro Oyama. Also apparently involved in the project,

athough what sources are available never make clear in what capacity, is one

Nobotto Oyama. The subject of Project Time Sweeper is the aged Japanese super

battleship Mahroba, which is currently being kept in a secret underground

naval base. It has been there ever since the end of World War II,

undiscovered and unknown by the United States.

[UTSM and on-line background materials "Google-ated" from Japanese sites.

Dr. Sanada is the direct ancestor of Steven Sandor, the chief science

officer of the Star Force in Star Blazers. Toshiro Oyama is a direct

ancestor of Tochiro Oyama, the famed starship engineer and sidekick of

Captain Harlock, and is the same as the Japanese photographer who supposedly

died in World War II. How he can exist at this point in time is explained

in the manga. The early invention of time travel, via the Time Sweeper of

other similar technolgoy, is a recurrent theme of early Leijiverse manga.

ADDENDUM - Although it is not considered part of the Leijiverse proper, the

final story in the WADACHI tales points to Time Sweeper technology first being

realized in the early 21st century. This is somewhat consistent with UTSM and

other Leijiverse manga works touching upon time travel, such as ME and HSm.

WADACHI also implies that OO's Nobotto Oyama was part of the team that

invented the Time Sweeper.]

2000

- The first Queen Starsha of Iscandar dies. Her daughter Sasha assumes the

Crystal Throne of Iscandar.

[Lewis]

- The Dinguil rediscover their past when they uncover the legendary lost

ancient Lugal Space Fortress buried deep under the ancient sediments of

their world. Within a decade they begin unlocking the secrets of its

advanced neutrino-based technology. An industrial revolution of

unprecedented scale and speed takes place among the Dinguil. Within a

century they have mastered all of the secrets of the Lugal once known to

their ancestors.

[Lewis; see alsy FY]

c.2005

- The new Queen Promethium of LaMaetel and her royal consort Dr. Ban become

the proud parents of twin sisters. The elder is named Emeraldas, after the

rare red emeralds of Earth. Maetel, the younger, is named after her

homeworld.

[Probable conjecture inspired by MLa, GE999Em, and SSM. We know Maetel was

on or near Earth in the early 21st century because she speaks of it to

Tetsuro in GE999Em. While discussing the subject of helium-3, she shares

the intriguing fact that she was an eyewitness to the final mission of the

original Star Force aboard the Yamato - which would have been FY (or SBR, if

you prefer Eldred's story over YR, the "official" continuation movie). This

contradicts the ML press kit, which says that Maetel was 16 when the events

depicted in MLa take place. It and other "revival" sources - such as the

various HS materials - failed to properly take into account the extreme

longevity of LaMaetelians, to whom “a thousand years is as but a day,” per QMf. My interpretation is that Maetel only appeared to be 16 in Earth years

at that time that ML takes place. Calculating backward and taking her

self-proclaimed presence during FY into account gives Maetel an approximate

birthdate near the start of the 21st century. This makes her a little

girl at the time of FY and a young teenager during the events of ML, which

makes a kind of sense. Then again, if you're a "revival" Leijiverse fan,

you'll have to come up with your own dating/aging scheme ....]

2007

- This was the last year that the Earth produced a decent space navigator

as far as the chief navigator at the Space Cadet School in 2198 was

concerned.

[SBC1 #2, “The Prisoner and the Power.” Wildstar remembers this while trying to decide how to deal with the situation on Callisto.

c.2010

- Helium-3 is discovered to exist naturally in large quantities on Luna,

Earth’s moon. It is also found to exist in large quantities on other similar bodies throughout the Sol System. The largest concentration is on

Europa, the water-bearing moon of Saturn. This discovery makes cheap

nuclear fusion power a reality for mankind. It is also the solution to

mankind’s growing energy crisis on Earth. [HSm Volume 3, "The Valkyrie (Part 1) and GE999Em Volume x “Double Planet Guillotine;” see also SBTM. Maetel gives an approximate date of the early 21st century for this discovery. I place it here because all of the Earth

warships used in the early years of the Earth-Gamilon War (2186-2199) used

Kelvin-type fusion power plants. Fusion powered spacecraft has long been a

“near-future” dream of current space scientists. HSm makes it clear that while humanity had known about helium-3 for a long time, they had always

encounted difficulties in shrinking to the technology to a portable level.]

------------------------------

2020 - MARINE SNOW NO DENSETSU

------------------------------

2020

- Desslok the First, leader of Clan Desslar, puts a bloody and violent end to

the Gamilon Holy Wars by exterminating his foes to the last man, woman, and

child. With his world united behind him he embarks on a campaign of

galactic conquest. The only world he spares is neighboring Iscandar,

Gamilon’s ally and unwitting benefactor of old. [Lewis]

- The Gamilons reveal to their worried neighbors on Iscandar that they now

possess the secrets of interstellar spaceflight technology. Warships

powered by a rare and volatile ore that is common to both planets form the

basis of the Gamilon fleet. Desslok the First plans to use this fleet in

his conquest of the galaxy. The Iscandarians choose not to interfere,

fearing that they might invoke the wrath of the Gamilons and bring

destruction to their own world.

[Lewis; see also YNV. The rare ore is never named, but might be cosmonite

or something similar. Cosmonite ore is a frequent power source for

starships in the Leijiverse, especially in the manga sources. TT2 is the

best example of this, but there are many others - such as the Japanese

original of SB1 #06, "The Ghost of Recent Past."]

----------------------------------

2024 - FIRE FORCE DNA SIGHTS 999.9

----------------------------------

-------------------------------------------

c.2030 - THE ULTIMATE TIME SWEEPER MAHOROBA

-------------------------------------------

---------------------------

c.2030 - SUBMARINE SUPER 99

---------------------------

2030

- Kokoda Base is built on the far side of Luna.

[DZ Chapter 1, "The Birth of Diver Zero"]

2033

- The planet Gamilon begins a period of violent seismic activity. Its

scientists ascertain that its core has become unstable and will collapse

within a few centuries. Inevitable mass panic and religious upheavals are

brought about by the revelation of this discovery. Clan Desslar uses these

events to further cement its power among its people and the last of the

“undesirables” are eliminated. Emperor Desslok the First decides that the best way to save the Gamilons is to return to the stars from whence they

came and find a new homeworld to claim as their own.

[Lewis]

2040

- Gamilon forces attack and occupy the planets of Balan and Beeland. These

are to be used as staging areas in its search for a new homeworld within the

Milky Way galaxy. Queen Sasha of Iscandar puts up an impenetrable barrier

barrier around her world in protest. This effectively cuts all ties

between Iscandar and Gamilon save for a special communications link. The

mystified Gamilons see this as an ill omen for the future of their world

and accelerate their plans of interstellar conquest.

[Lewis]

2041-2201

The Earth-Gamilon War.

[Lewis; see also SBC3 issue #1 and the rare "special" issue that focused

almost exclusively on the war. It's the one with the profile of Captain

Avatar on the cover, and the last one listed on the official starblazers.com

Internet site. Rather rare and hard to find nowadays ....]

2041

- A fleet of deep space probes from the Gamilon Empire conducts a detailed

survey of the Sol System. The results of the survey cause the Gamilons

to decide almost immediately that Earth is the ideal choice for their new

homeworld. An Earth Expeditionary Force begins forming back on Gamilon for

the purpose of conquering (or destroying, if need be) the planet’s native inhabitants. In the meantime, however, a special task force arrives in

advance in the Sol System, seizes Pluto, and begins construction of an

advance base for future operations against Earth. Their primary goal is to

complete their Pluto base as fast as possible; however, they take the time

to monitor the Earth and its fledgling interplanetary colonies via

automated space probes.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History: The Gamilon War” and Lewis. SBTM says it was a Gamilon fleet while Lewis says they used automated space probes. I defer

to Lewis, as his account makes more sense. The Gamilons would want to know

what they were dealing with first in detail before beginning their campaign

against Earth. As Sun Tsu said in THE ART OF WAR, “Know thine enemy.”]

- A number of automated alien space probes are discovered and destroyed by

United Nations spacecraft after they attempt to survey Earth’s defenses and military capabilities. Shocked by both the action itself and analysis of

the debris, a special UN conference is called to deal with this new threat

to mankind.

[Lewis]

- Founding of the United Nations Space Patrol Force (UNSPF), also known as

the Earth Space Navy. Its immediate goal is to deal with the newfound alien

threat to Earth. Almost all UN member nations unite under its banner and

contribute materials, manpower, resources, and locations for bases.

[SBTM, s.v. “EDF Force Structure and Command Chart.”]

c.2041-2059

- Gamilon plans to dispatch its Earth Expeditionary Force are delayed for

about two decades. The main reasons for this are the massive distances

involved, the logistics of both executing and maintaining such a long-range

assault, and the continued need to keep other subjugated areas of

the Gamilon Empire in line.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History.”]

- The Space Cadet School, the primary training and educational facility for

the officers and NCOs for the UNSPF (and later the EDF), is founded

sometime during this period.

[SB3; also SB1, YNV, SBC1 #2, "The Prisoner and the Power," and SBC2 #1,

"The Jackals Come to Feed." The name is mistranslated as "the Space

Institute" in SB3, but the Japanese original makes clear that it is the same

institution referenced in the other sources I have named.]

2045

- The United Earth Government (UEG) is formed. A handful of dissident nations

refuse to join. They claim it is a power grab by a worldwide military

dictatorship using the farce of an impending alien invasion as a convenient

excuse. These dissident nations will engage in a number of “bush wars” against the UEG for the next 150 years.

[Lewis and SBC2. General Singleton has vivid memories of one of the later

bush wars, and one of its unexpected consequences figures prominetly in the

storyline.]

- Alexander Wildstar moves his family from the United States to Japan. He

settles in a small village near the port city of Yokohama, and ends up

"going native" to a large degree.

[SB1 #13, "Know Thine Enemy." Lewis says they settled on Okinawa - which

is where the background materials for the official Voyager DVDs puts them -

but this is in error. In the Japanese original of the epsiode referenced

(and in the later fan-remastered print), we learn that Yokohama was within

bus riding distance from the home where Alex and Derek grew up. This is

completely in accordance with the English dub's "Great Island" reference

(a literal translation of "yamato," the ancient name for Japan). Do not

discount Lewis entirely, however, as he provides important family data found

nowhere else. Per him, Alexander Wildstar is the grandfather of Alex and

Derek Wildstar. Alex was named for him.]

2059

- The first detatchment of the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary Force arrives in

the Sol System. It takes over control of the completed Gamilon base of

operations on the remote planet of Pluto. Its mission is twofold: gather

intelligence and test Earth’s defenses. This detatchment will have numerous encounters with the UNSPF over the next one hundred years. Most of them will

end in defeat or disaster for the humans. The outmatched and outgunned humans

continue to fight on, however, much to the amazement of the Gamilons. The

UNSPF’s only gain from these battles is valuable (yet costly) experience in space warfare tactics. In the meantime, the Gamilons continue to build their

interstellar empire and gather resources for the inevitable assault on Earth.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History.”]

2069

- A lull in the Earth-Gamilon War ensues as the Gamilons redirect resources

towards a massive and unprecedented buildup in their various Deep Space

Fleets. Included among these is the second detatchment of the Earth

Expeditionary Force, which is still in Gamilon space awaiting deployment.

Based on reports from his advance force in the Sol System, Emperor Desslok

the First has come to the realization that the humans of Earth will prove to

be a more resolute foe to conquer than first believed. He is determined to

crush them completely with his next offensive. The UNSPF uses this lull to

begin a massive upgrade of its spacefighting capabilities based on technology

reverse-engineered from wrecked Gamilon ships.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Force Structure and Command Chart” and Lewis]

- Civilian spaceflight in and around the Sol System resumes during this lull in

the Earth-Gamilon War. Many use the excuse to flee Earth and the Sol System

for some other world less threatened by imminent attack. By this time,

humanity’s leaders know that their foes are an alien race of humanoids named the Gamilons. It is hoped that some of the fleeing civilians will escape the

Gamilons, thus preserving humanity’s presence on the Sea of Stars. [Lewis]

2075

- The United Earth Government Underground City Program begins in view of

the continued Gamilon threat to Earth.

[Lewis. See also QM #08, “Mayday! An Underground Explosion;” SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant” and #02, “The Giant Awakens;” and SB3 #19, "x."]

- UNSPF advance bases are built on both Luna (Earth’s moon) and Mars to serve as staging areas in the next round of hostilities with the Gamilons.

[Lewis. Both are referenced various times in the SB franchise proper.]

2081

- In a parallel universe, the space pirate battleship Arcadia is spotted as

part of a massive flotilla of craft assaulting the Mu, a robotic race bent on

the total extermination of mankind. How the Arcadia got there, much less how

it returned to our dimension, remains a mystery to this day.

[SUPER DIMENSION CENTURY ORGUSS anime TV series #34. You can clearly see the

Arcadia on the right flank of the Emaan merchantman Glomar, shortly before the

Emaan vessel is destroyed by the Mu. This was an easter egg slipped in by the

show’s animators. Orguss originally aired on Japanese television during the heydey of M-san’s feature film period in the 1980s. Two different theories have been proposed as to how Captain Harlock and the Arcadia wound up in the

world of ORGUSS. The first is that he was pulled in by the detonation of the

space-time oscillation bomb (like all the other stuff from other parallel

universes). The second involves the use of Time Sweeper technology, much like

Harlock and the Arcadia's cameo in DNA. The tale of the Arcadia's adventures

in the world of ORGUSS would make for one helluva crossover anime or fanfic!]

2096

- Desslok of Gamilon, aka Desslok the Second, eldest son of Emperor Desslok

the First, is born on the planet Gamilon in the Sanza Star System.

[YRA1; see also the feature film edited from the Japanese original of SB1.

The narrator in the movie states that Desslok was 103 in Earth years when the

Star Force undertook its epic voyage to Iscandar. This contradicts Lewis, who

asserts that Desslok of Gamilon was the great-grandson of the original

Desslok. I defer to the original Japanese source material.]

----------------------------

2099 - OUT OF GALAXY KOSHIKA

----------------------------

c.2100s

- The second detatchment of the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary Force arrives in the

Sol System. Once again fighting resumes between UNSPF and Gamilon warships.

This time around, the UNSPF manages to hold its own, albeit at great cost.

All civilian spaceflights are brought to a standstill with the resumption of

hostilities.

[Lewis]

2116

- Assassination of Desslok the First, Emperor of the Gamilon Empire. His son

Desslok the Second, ak Desslok of Gamilon (Desslar Soto, Leader Desslok, et.

al), succeeds him as supreme ruler of the Gamilons.

[Lewis. The term “Leader Desslok” is a literal translation of the original Japanese phrase “Desslar Soto.”]

- One of Leader Desslok’s first orders is to appoint Sarjant Masterson, a prominent general from Clan Talan, as his personal aide. General Talan, as he

is better known in Gamilon political circles, is a longtime friend of Desslok.

Their clans have been allies ever since the Gamilon Civil War. Leader Desslok

also uses the occasion to commission General Talan’s son as an officer in the Gamilon Imperial Space Fleet.

[SBC2 #1, “The Jackals Come To Feed.” This character is called by both Talan (SB1 & SB2) and Masterson (SB3) in the series proper. Lewis provides a

reasonable answer for this seeming contradiction in that Talan was his clan

name.]

2119

- Queen Sasha of Iscandar dies while giving birth to twin daughters named

Starsha and Astra. A Regency Council rules Iscandar for eighteen months until

Starsha, the elder daughter, is mature enough to assume the Crystal Throne of

Iscandar.

[Lewis. Remember, hyperaging from infancy to adult within one year was a

trademark of the ruling house of Iscandar, per BNY and the "Icarus" story arc

from SBC3. I have also taken the liberty of eliminating a number of other

Queen Starshas, Astras, etc. that Lewis lists, since this contradicts certain

statements in SB1, YNV, and BFY about the longevity of the Iscandarians.]

2121

- A Black Nebula scouting expedition is the first to return to its original

home universe. Not long after it encounters and destroys a small Gamilon task

force. It is forced to flee once Gamilon reinforcements arrive, but take the

wrecked hull of at least one Gamilon ship with them. From it they learn about

the rare ore that the Gamilons use as a cheap power source for the FTL drives

of their starships.

[Lewis; see also YNV.]

- Leader Desslok of Gamilon makes his first contact with Queen Starsha of

Iscandar. He is enamored of her despite her resistance to his warlike ways.

[Lewis; see also SB1 #23, "A Shocking Surprise" and YNV.]

Sometime during the mid- to late 2100s

- Cosmonite is discovered. It is a naturally occuring ore that when refined

yields extremely high energy producing properties. A small amount of refined

cosmonite can power a starship's sub-light or near-light engines for months at

a time. Refined cosmonite eventually becomes one of the preferred choices of

fuel for almost all starships within the Milky Way galaxy, although its

relative rarity makes it a rather expensive commodity.

[SR Volume 1, TT2. The discovery of cosmonite is a key plot device in the

first major story arc of SR. Cosmonite pops up now and again in Leijiverse

stories set farther down the timeline, most notably in TT2. That tale states

that Harlock's pirate starship was originally fueled with cosmonite, and that

Harlock managed to scrounge up 10 tons (!) of cosmonite ore to help Tochiro.

The energy yield of refined cosmonite must have have been astronomical in

comparison to fusion power, for example - given the fuel requirements of

long-term space travel. It would have been a perfect fuel source for the

massive colonization fleets we see leaving Earth in various classic Leijiverse

manga, such as SR and ME. Incidentally, in the Japanese original of SB1, it

is cosmonite and not titanite for which the Star Force is seeking on Titan.

It also states that cosmonite was the primary fuel source for it auxiliary

engines - not its wave motion engine, which worked on wave energy - and is

thus in agreement with the other Leijiverse sources mentioned above on the

subject.]

2143

- Patrick John Orion is born on Earth somewhere in Ireland, United Kingdom.

[YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis. I defer to the birthdate given in the official

YAMATO source materials. Orion’s birthplace is never given but the accent is a dead giveaway.]

2150

- Iscandarian scientists working on an immortality gene for the common people

accidentally create a deadly mutagenic pathogen. It escapes confinement and

wipes out almost all life on the planet Iscandar in a matter of days. Leader

Desslok of Gamilon tries to render aid and assistance but is stopped by his

own people. He can only watch helplessly from afar as the Iscandarians die by

the thousands. In the end, the only survivors are Queen Starsha and her

younger sister Astra. Both are protected from the virus by their link with

the Guardian Spirit of Iscandar. Much to the chagrin of the Gamilons who

opposed Desslok, and hoped to claim Iscandar as their own, Starsha and Astra

are still quite capable of operating the planet's ancient defenses against

invasion. Desslok is soon able to force them to back down and let Iscandar

be. From this point on it will have a unique place within the Gamilon Empire

- the only world it claims where there is absolutely no Gamilon presence,

either on the surface or in orbit.

[SB1 #25, "Welcome to Iscandar," and Lewis.]

2151

- The military exploits of Colonel Dommel Lysis attract the attention of Leader

Desslok.

[Lewis. In SB1 #13, "Know Thine Enemy," Desslok spoke very highly of

General Lysis. He called him “one of my brightest generals” and alludes to his earlier successful military career.]

2153

- Sazeko “Dr. Sane” Sado is born on Earth somewhere in Japan. [YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis. I defer to the birthdate given in the official

YAMATO source materials.]

2154

- Abraham Avatar is born on Earth somewhere in Colorado, United States.

[YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis. I defer to the birthdate given in the official

YAMATO source materials.]

- Draco Gideon is born on Earth, location unknown.

[YNV. Sandor tells Wildstar that Gideon was in the same graduating class as

Captain Avatar at the Space Cadet School. That would make them about the same

age, give or take a year.]

- Keisuke Yamanami is born on Earth somewhere on Great Island (Japan), exact

location unknown.

[YNV. Sandor tells Wildstar that Yamanami was in the same graduating class as

Captain Avatar at the Space Cadet School. That would make them about the same

age, give or take a year.

2159

- The lull in the Earth-Gamilon War ends as the Gamilons attack across a broad

front. This attack marks the beginning of the third Gamilon campaign to

conquer Earth. Once again the UNSPF is able to hold its own despite grievous

losses. The Gamilon offensive will eventually grind to a halt at the Sol

System’s inner asteroid belt within a few years. [Lewis]

c.2170

- As an adult, Dr. Sane once remarked that he had developed an allergy to

certain "pretty flowers" while dating a girl in his youth.

[SB2 #13, "Trap on Telezart"]

2171

- Terence Webster Knox, aka "T.W. Knox" or "Hard Knox," is born on Earth,

location unknown.

[YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis. The YPA sources state that Knox had already been

in the service for 12 years prior to the Cometine War. This would make him

at least 30 years old when the forces of the Comet Empire attacked the Space

Marine base on Brumus.

2172

- Alexander “Alex” Wildstar, elder brother of Derek Wildstar, is born on Earth in the family home near Yokohama, Japan.

[YPA1&2, TASY, SB1 #13, "Know Thine Enemy," and Lewis. I defer to

the birthdate given in the official YAMATO source materials.

- Steven Sandor is born on Luna, Earth’s moon, in the colony city of New Sweden. [YPA1&2, TASY, SB1 #13, "Know Thine Enemy," and Lewis. I defer to

the birthdate given in the official YAMATO source materials. We learn in

SB1 #11, "The Desslok Mines" that Sandor and Alex Wildstar were both

classmates at the Space Cadet School in their youth.

- Sho Yamazaki, future chief engineer of the Yamato (after Patrick Orion),

is born on Earth somewhere in Japan.

[Probable conjecture based on YNV. He appears to be a contemporary of

Sandor’s but this is conjecture on my part. We know he was one of the older crewmembers aboard the Yamato during its trip to Iscandar because Wildstar

says so in YNV. There is a character in SB2 who may very well be Yamazaki and

bears at least a passing likeness to him. He is one of the first people

injured aboard the Argo during the final phase of the Battle of Saturn, being

badly burned in an engine room fire. His being put off the ship at Ganymede

due to his injuries is what saved his life, and allowed him to come back later

as the Argo's second chief engineer. ADDENDUM - This character is known as

"Commander Meyers" in the SBC3 "Icarus" miniseries. It too emphasizes his

close relationship with Sandor, and his return to duty aboard the Argo after

the events depicted in SB2.]

- This year marks the official end to the third attempt by the Gamilon Earth

Expeditionary Force to conquer that world for the Gamilon Empire. “By 2172, the [UNSPF] had been able to turn back most of the Gamilon raids and recon

operations. It even began mounting its own attacks against the Gamilon bases

.... Between 2172 and 2185 the campaign became stalemated by continual

attacks and counterattacks by both sides.”

[SBTM, s.v. “The Gamilon War of 2041-2199.”]

- The UNSPF takes advantage of the current lull in the Earth-Gamilon War to

complete construction of a new space fleet. It is one that can finally fight

the Gamilon ships on their own terms. Even so, the lack of FTL drives still

puts the UNSPF craft at a decided disadvantage.

[Eldred and SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History: The Gamilon War.” Eldred gives the date as 2191 but this appears to be in error. A Yukikaze class destroyer is

depicted as taking part in the Battle of Lake Victoria in 2184, per SBC2.

It is possible that the Yukikaze class was an older design that predated

construction of the new space fleet.]

c.2175

- Dr. Sane works his way through medical school as a barber.

[SB2 #14, “Eyes for the Prize." Dr. Sane mentions this while trimming Mark Venture’s hair for him, prior to Venture’s first in-person visit with Trelana.]

2177

- Adam Avatar, the only son of Abraham Avatar, is born on Earth, location

unknown.

[Lewis is the only source for this date. I have yet to find a birthdate

listed in any of the official YAMATO background materials. Adam Avatar died

as a young officer aboard the Paladin duing the Battle of Pluto in 2199.

That would put his age in the early twenties, which agrees with Lewis.]

2178

- Steven Sandor is badly injured and his older sister Mio killed in a rocket

car accident at an amusement park on Luna, Earth’s moon. He survives to become a quadruple amputee. Due to his condition, his parents volunteer to

have him fitted with experimental bionic limbs. He will use bionic limbs in

one form or another for the rest of his life.

[SB1 #11, “The Desslok Mines.” Lewis first gave the date as 2171 in his chronology, but he later adjusted it to October 2177 for SBC3's "Icarus"

story arc. My source is the Japanese original of the episode in question.]

2179

- Peter “Pete” Conroy is born on Earth somewhere in the United States. [Probable conjecture based on SB1, SB2, and FSY. Pete Conroy seems a bit

older than most of the Star Force (save for Sandor, Yamazaki, Dr. Sane, and

Captain Avatar). His status as Black Tiger squadron leader implies that he

has alreadys spent more than a few years in military service. His younger

brother Cory has a pronounced twang in his accent that might imply childhood

in the Midwest or Southwest United States. Pete Conroy’s accent could have been softened by his years in the service (as was mine and my brothers,

during our respective stints in the U.S. Navy - ed.)]

c.2180

- Captain Abraham Avatar turns down a promotion to rear admiral. It is the

first time, but not the last, that he refuses an admiral’s stripes. [SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed.” Colonel Shannon shares this fact with Derek Wildstar while touring the bridge of the Argo.]

- Colonel “Cosmo” Shannon turns down his first chance at a promotion to brigadier general. His stated reason is that he feels such a promotion would

cause him to lose touch with the men and women under his command. His

promotion is instead given to Colonel Ian Helms, the next officer in line.

The fact that his promotion was secondhand in nature will become a constant

source of irritation and eventually a lifelong obsession with Helms.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed”]

2181

- Derek Wildstar is born on Earth in Japan somewhere in or near Yokohama.

[YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis; see also SB1 #13, "Know Thine Enemy." I defer to

the birthdate given in the official Yamato source materials. These have

been confirmed by YR, which states on screen that Wildstar (Kodai) was 18

when he first boarded the Argo in 2199. Lewis incorrectly gives his

birthdate as 2179. SR states that his mother's first name was Mia. I have

yet to find a source that gives his father's first name.]

- Nova Forrester, daughter of Yuki and Leslie Forrester, is born on Earth in

Austin, Texas in the United States.

[YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis. I defer to the birthdate given in the official

Yamato source materials. Lewis gives the date as 2179 and gives the first

name of Nova's mother as Karen, but both are now considered non-canon. The

original Japanese character name for Nova Forrester is Yuki Mori, which raises

an interesting point. Both Nova and her mother have distinct Oriental facial

features, which implies Japanese ancestry. I consulted about this with Tim

Eldred, author of the Star Blazers DVD supplemental materials and the Star

Blazers comic books by Argo Press. We both agreed that Nova probably had

Japanese ancestry. My original suggestion was that Nova named her daughter

Miyuki, as featured in SBR and subsequently YR, after “a beloved Japanese relative.” Who better than her own grandmother? Eldred played off this notion in SR, where Miyuki is named after BOTH grandmothers. After all,

the maiden name of Nova's mother is Mori ... which makes her original name

Yuki Mori. Where have we heard that name before? -_^ Thanks, Tim, for

using my idea in SR!]

- Marcus “Mark” Venture, Jr., eldest son of Marcus and Anna Venture, is born on Earth in Brooklyn, New York in the United States.

[YPA1&2, TASY, and Lewis. I defer to the birthdate given in the official

Yamato source materials. Lewis gives the date as 2179. Mark Venture’s curly

hair implies Italian ancestry; hence the first name Marcus and the family ties

to New York. The Ventures appear to have relocated to Great Island (Japan) at

some point during the Earth-Gamilon War. Mark visits with both his parents

and his younger brother Giordi several times at their home on Great Island

during his tour of duty with the Star Force.]

- Joseph “Chief” Hardy is born on Earth, location unknown. [TASY. He was a classmate of Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture when the Yamato

was commissioned into the Star Force in 2199, per SB3 #03, "Argo Target Mars,"

and succeeded “Slops” Mulligan as chief cook of the Argo. He is not to be confused with Black Tiger pilot Jefferson Hardy.

- Homer Glitchman is born on Earth, location unknown.

[Conjecture based on SB1 #3, "Departure From Earth." He appears to be about

the same age as Derek Wildstar. I have yet to find an official birthdate in

any of the Yamato background materials.]

- Dashell “Dash” Jordan is born on Earth, location unknown. [Conjecture based on SB1 #3, "Departure From Earth." He appears to be about

the same age as Derek Wildstar. I have yet to find an official birthdate in

any of the Yamato background materials.]

- Christopher Eager is born on Earth, location unknown.

[Conjecture based on SB1 #3, "Departure From Earth." He appears to be about

the same age as Derek Wildstar. I have yet to find an official birthdate in

any of the Yamato background materials.]

- Jefferson Hardy is born on Earth, location unknown.

[Conjecture based on SB1 #3, "Departure From Earth." He appears to be about

the same age as Derek Wildstar. I have yet to find an official birthdate in

any of the Yamato background materials.]

2182

- A coalition of African states led by Tanzania refuses to be part of the new

United Earth Government, and attacks United Nations forces stationed on their

borders. With approval from its member states, a UN military force from

Euroland attacks and invades the Tanzanian coalition. Open warfare ensues as

the UN Euroland forces attempt to beat the rebellious African states into

submission.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed” and Part 4, “A Blast from the Past.”]

2182-2185

- The Euro-African War.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed” and Part 4, “A Blast from the Past.” The Euro-African was the last of mankind’s great wars on the planet Earth prior to the Gamilon planet bomb campaign.]

2183

- Patrick John “Tim” Orion, Jr. is born on Earth, location unknown. [Conjecture based on YNV. He was a fresh graduate from the Space Cadet School

when recruited by the Star Force in 2201. SB1 infers that the age of 18 is

the median age for Space Cadet School graduates. “Tim” appears to have been his nickname or common use name per Lewis, and Eldred often refers to this

character as "Tim Orion" in his various works.]

- Cory Conway, younger brother of Peter “Pete” Conroy, is born on Earth, location unknown.

[Conjecture based on SB3 #2, "The Great Battle in the Milky Way". He was a

fresh graduate from the Space Cadet School when recruited by the Star Force in

2201. SB1 infers that the age of 18 is the median age for Space Cadet School

graduates. Cory has a pronounced twang in his accent that might imply

childhood in the Midwest or Southwest United States.]

- A pilgrim ship full of followers of the Gardiana cult begins a

multigenerational voyage across interstellar space searching for the mythical

Queen Gardiana.

[SB3 #19, “The Way to Planet Phantom." The pilgrim elder states that they have been journeying through space for twenty years.

- A large refugee colony attempts to flee Bujumbura, Tanzania, where some of the

worst fighting in the Euro-African War is taking place. Lieutenant General

Charles Singleton, commander of all UN Euroland forces fighting in the war, is

ordered to attack the convoy in violation of the Geneva Convention and prevent

it from leaving the area. The justification is that the resources required to

care for these refugees would place added strain on the already taxed

Tanzanian coalition resources. Singleton details Brigadier General Ian Helms,

the local UNSPF field commander, with the dirty job of actually attacking the

convoy. Helm’s forces are routed when the refugee convoy turns out to be a fully armed and armored force of Tanzanian shock troops attempting to escape.

Their escape is successful, and the Tanzanians destroy most of Helm’s air support in the process. An enraged General Helms pursues the fleeing

Tanzanians all the way to their stronghold at Lake Victoria, where they dig

in and prepare to make their stand from a well-fortified stronghold.

[SBC2 Part 4, “A Blast from the Past."]

- The Battle of Lake Victoria is fought between the UN ground forces of General

Ian Helms and the besieged Tanzanian shock troops who successfully ambushed

him at Bujumbura. Helms attempts to sustain an offensive attack at all points

on the Tanzanian defensive lines even though he lacks the manpower, air cover,

and resources to successfully pull it off. Within days, the UN casualty rates

mount to such an appalling number that one of his subordinates, Colonel

“Cosmo” Shannon, charges him with dereliction of duty and forcibly removes Helms from command. Shannon then orders a retreat and withdraws the surviving

UN forces from the field. The Battle of Lake Victoria ends in victory for the

Tanzanian forces. They will remain uncaptured and unconquered at Lake

Victoria for the rest of the war.

[SBC2 Part 4, “A Blast from the Past."]

- A UNSPF military tribunal is convened in the wake of the failure of the Lake

Victoria campaign. General Helms charges Colonel Shannon and his followers

with mutiny. The tribunal, under the leadership of General Singleton, clears

Colonel Shannon and makes him their chief witness against his former

commanding officer in court-martial proceedings. General Singleton contrives

things so that no word about the illegal order to attack the Tanzanian refugee

colony is ever entered into the official record. General Helms is found

guilty on all counts, stripped of his rank, and given a dishonorable discharge

from the UNSPF. He chooses exile from Earth rather than life in a military

prison as his final punishment.

[SBC2 Part 4, “A Blast from the Past."]

2185

- Leader Desslok, supreme ruler of the Gamilon Empire, decides on a radical

change in tactics in order to defeat the humans of Earth. He is both angered

and frustrated that his (and his father’s) superior forces have been held at bay for so long by an inferior foe. He orders preparations to be made to

bombard the entire surface of the Earth with “planet bombs,” i.e. asteroids soaked with a hyper-lethal dose of radiation. What life on Earth does not die

outright by the impact of the asteroids is expected to eventually die from the

ever-increasing radiation being deposited on Earth’s surface. To that end, most of the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary Force is temporarily recalled in order

to gather the equipment and materials necessary for Leader Desslok’s new campaign.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History.”]

- Colonel Dommel Lysis is promoted to the rank of general by Leader Desslok.

[Lewis]

- Flash Contrail is born on Earth, location unknown.

[Conjecture based on SB1 #01, "The Solar System Faces Destruction." He was

pulled out of the Space Cadet School a year ahead of graduation when he was

reassigned to the Star Force in 2203.]

- Jason Jetter is born on Earth, location unknown.

[Conjecture based on SB1 #01, "The Solar System Faces Destruction." He was

pulled out of the Space Cadet School a year ahead of graduation when he was

reassigned to the Star Force in 2203. By the way, BWE asserts that Jason's

last name is properly spelled as "Jehter" (pronounced jee-ter, not jet-ter),

but that it was so frequenly mispronounced that he had to learn to live with

it. It's a situation to which Giordy "Jordy" Venture could have probably

related.]

2186-2199

- Dates for the Gamilon’s fourth and final campaign against Earth in the Earth-Gamilon War.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History” and Lewis]

2186-2188

- The last lull in the Earth-Gamilon war occurs as most of the Gamilon forces

remaining in the Sol System withdraw beyond the orbit of Neptune. There will

be only scattered skirmishes between UNSPF and Gamilon forces during this

time.

[Probable conjecture based on SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History” and Lewis]

c.2189

- The Gamilons destroy Minerva, the tenth planet in the Sol System. The

rubble forms a new outer asteroid belt beyond the orbit of Pluto. UNSPF

observers do not know what to make of this move, since Minerva had no

strategic value whatsoever.

[SB1 #09, “Gantz’s Last Stand." The exact date of the destruction of Minerva is never given, only that it was done by the Gamilons. The Japanese original

implies that the reason for the destruction of Minerva was so the Gamilons

could mine the rubble for their planet bombs. This means that the destruction

of Minerva had to happen between 2185 (the date of Desslok’s decision to start using planet bombs on Earth) and 2191 (the date that the first planet

bombs began to fall on Earth). I split the difference.]

2190

- Giordi Venture, younger brother of Mark Venture, is born on Earth in Brooklyn,

New York.

[Lewis. Many early STAR BLAZERS sources give his first name as "Jordy."

See my earlier entry on Jason Jetter for more insight into this issue.]

- Alex Wildstar graduates from the Space Cadet School. His first assignment as

an officer is to a UNSPF warship operating in the Earth-Gamilon combat zone.

As such he becomes directly involved in two space battles with the Gamilons

over the ensuing months.

[SB1 #13, “Know Thine Enemy." Alex briefly recalls his first tour of duty when visiting his younger brother Derek while on leave. The various original

Japanese source materials seem to imply that Alex Wildstar graduated from the

Space Cadet School in December of 2190.

- Steven Sandor graduates from the Space Cadet School. He is a member of the

same class as his good friend Alex Wildstar. Sandor's first assignment as an

officer is as an engineering supervisor at the main UNSPF shipyard at

Yokosuka on Great Island (Japan).

[SB1 #11, “The Magenetron Wave." Sandor recalls this while chatting to Wildstar during the episode. The various original Japanese source materials

seem to imply that Steven Sandor graduated from the Space Cadet School in

December of 2190.]

- Over the next decade, Sandor will be married twice - to women named Marua and

Bethany respectively - in time he later calls his "listless years." Neither

marriage lasts for very long.

[SR]

2191

- The Gamilons complete the construction of the planet bomb launching and

guidance facilities on Pluto.

[SBTM, s.v. “Pluto Base.” It had five massive silos capable of launching a total of 20 planet bombs every 24-hour cycle.]

- The first Gamilon planet bombs hit Earth. They are targeted at major

cities, industrial complexes, military bases, and spaceports of the world’s most powerful nations: the United States, Euroland, the Russian Consortium,

the Indian Ocean States, and China. Millions die in the first wave of

attacks. Millions more will die in the months to come. There is little that

the UNSPF can do to stop the planet bombs, despite their best and most valiant

efforts.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History.” These began to hit while Alex Wildstar and Steven Sandor were still in the Space Cadet School per their recollections in

SB1 #13, "Know Thine Enemy" and SB1 #18, "The Magnetron Wave". The various

original Japanese soure materials, in particular the rare Yuki Hijiri manga,

name the following cities as among those first destroyed: New York, Moscow,

Paris, Berlin, Beijing, and Calcutta. It also lists Tokyo, but that was

not destroyed until the following year.]

2192, 21 April

- Alex Wildstar takes a month’s leave to spend some time with his family. [SB1 #13, “Know Thine Eneny." This was Alex’s first leave since graduating the Space Cadet School and joining the fleet as a UNSPF officer. Alex himself

indicates in his dialogue that several months have passed since he graduated.]

2192, 22 April (early hours of the morning)

- The city of Tokyo is completely destroyed by the first ever planet bomb strike

on Great Island (Japan). The magnitude of the impact is so great that it

causes Mount Fuji to erupt for the first time in centuries.

[SB1 #13, “Know Thine Enemy." It is stated in the episode that Japan had only escaped targeting up to this point by the Gamilons because they were busy

attacking the Earth’s more powerful nations first.]

- Alex Wildstar’s leave is cancelled and his squadron is recalled to active duty in wake of the Gamilon planet bomb strike on Tokyo.

[SB1 #13, “Know Thine Enemy." This happens within minutes of his witnessing the planet bomb strike on Tokyo.]

mid-2192

- Launching of the Great Fleet from Earth. This represents the UNSPF’s largest and most powerful space fleet ever deployed to combat the Gamilon menace in

the Solar System. Its ultimate goal is to reach and destroy the Gamilon base

on Pluto, which is directing the planet bomb attacks against Earth.

[SB1 #18, “The Magnetron Wave” and Eldred's DVD set feature article, “Planet Earth 2199 AD”. Sandor was present at the launch of the Great Fleet and later described it to Derek Wildstar during the Star Force’s mission to Iscandar.]

- Fleet Captain Abraham Avatar leads the Great Fleet on the UNSPF’s last offensive against the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary Force. Captain Keisuke

Yamanami is in charge of the UNSPF forces guarding his rear. Avatar will

later describe it as “a hellish two-year-long campaign” to sweep the Sol System’s inner asteroid belt free of the Gamilons. The biggest success of the campaign is capturing a fully intact and functional Gamilon advance base

on the asteroid Icarus before the Gamilons have time to destroy it. The

capture of this base represents a technological coup for the UNSPF and gives

them, among other things, the technology for near-instantaneous interstellar

communication.

[Lewis. Yamanami's presence inferred by SBC3's partial comic adaptation of

BFY, in particular the issue "Prelude." Icarus Base plays an important role

in both BFY and the prequel "Icarus" story arc in SBC3. Only Lewis records

the base's origins.]

- The retreating Gamilons fall back to the Jupiter and build a new base there to

replace the loss of their one on Icarus. It is constructed on a floating

continent deep within the dense atmosphere of Jupiter. Because of its

location and lack of sufficient technology to withstand Jupiter’s powerful gravity, Captain Avatar’s fleet is unable to get close enough to this new base to destroy it. This base will eventually prove to be the Grand Fleet's

undoing, as it is in a perfect position to gather forces for cutting Avatar's

supply lines.

[Lewis]

- The Bolar Federation conquers the planet Berth.

[SB3 #12, “The Penal Colony in Space."]

- Humanity moves en masse into underground cities as the mounting radiation on

the Earth’s surface from the incessant Gamilon planet bombs begins to take its toll there.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon History.”]

2194

- A surprise Gamilon ambush destroys an entire UNSPF squadron near Mars under

the command of Captain Yamanami. This effectively cuts Captain Avatar’s supply lines, and he is forced to withdraw the Great Fleet from Gamilon-

controlled space. This ambush signals the beginning of the end for Great

Fleet operations, as well as those of the beleaguered forces defending Earth.

Captain Yamanami is relieved of field command by his superiors following his

defeat, and ordered to return home with his dead and wounded.

[Lewis; see also SBC3's “Prelude.” The date is listed as 2192 in the online version of Lewis’ timeline but this might be a typo. Placing this event here makes more sense from a continuity point-of-view. Captan Yamanami’s presence as squadron commander at Mars is conjecture on my part; however, we do know

that he fought and lost a major battle against the Gamilons during the war.

According to SBC3, which is the source for this data, the only ship to survive

in Yamanami’s squadron was his own, and he returned to Earth with 372 dead among his own crew.]

- The United Earth Government, upon hearing the news of the UNSPF ambush at

Mars, realizes that it is going to lose the Earth-Gamilon War no matter what

it does. To this end it authorizes Project Argo, a proposal by the

Interstellar Committee, to build a new space battleship to serve as a “space ark.” This will save a carefully chosen group of young men and women and send them into the Sea of Stars to find a new home, and thus escape extinction by

the Gamilons. Along with them will go a genetic databank containing samples

of the DNA of every plant and animal lifeform on Earth, past on present, for

reconstitution upon finding a new homeworld. Great Island (Japan) provides

both the leadership and a protected site for the construction of this new

space battleship. In deference to Great Island’s leadership in this matter, the new ship is to be rebuilt from the wreck of the Yamato, the famous World

War II battleship. The site of construction for the new Yamato is directly

beneath the wreck of the old Yamato, some fifty nautical miles southwest of

Cape Boga. In an ironic twist, a last-minute change of plans causes the new

Yamato to be built just below and partially inside the ruins of its namesake.

[SB1 #01, "The Sleeping Giant;” see also Eldred and Lewis. Lewis gives the date of 2194 for the inception of Project Argo. Eldred gives 2198 as the date

construction of the new Yamato actually began. The extra four years were

needed for the gathering of materials and resources, as well as the

construction of the underground complex at the Bogasaki sub-annex.]

[ASIDE - I5555 raises the possibility that the original goal of Project Argo

was for the Yamato to escape the Sol System via the Darkwood stargate. This

was the only guaranteed safe route of escape past the Gamilons, who apparently

knew nothing about it. This is pure conjecture on my part, of course, but

consider that the Yamato as originally designed did not have wave motion

technology. As a sublight vessel it would not have been able to escape the

Gamilons. I shall revisit the subject of the Darkwood stargate again when

discussing events related to SB2.

[ADDENDUM - The live action SBY confirms much of what I had originally

postulated with this entry, including the original purpose of the Yamato and

the fact that it was originally designed as a sublight vessel.]

- Adam Avatar graduates from the Space Cadet School

[Lewis. The various original Japanese source materials seem to imply that

Adam Avatar graduated from the Space Cadet School in December of 2194.]

2195, 8 January

- General Lysis issues a new battle tactics manual for the Gamilon Imperial

Space Fleet with the blessing of Leader Desslok. “Its fundamental purpose was to reorganize the Gamilon fleet into a unified force capable of delivering

coordinated assaults from its light and heavy ship assets, its battlecraft

fleet, mine warfare arm and special weapons capabilities. These latter

include the Desslok Cannons, the reflex cannon, and the SMITE transportation

device.” [SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Tactical Fleet Doctrine.”]

2195, sometime later in the year

- Steven Sandor is assigned to Project Argo. His job is to supervise the design

and construction of the rebuilt Yamato.

[FSY; see also Lewis. In FSY Sandor states unequivocally that he both

designed and built the revived Yamato.]

- Battlefield Analyzer IQ-9, one of the the first mobile artificial

intelligences in the Leijiverse, is created. His purpose as designed is to

serve as a mobile animated interface to the main computer of the rebuilt

Yamato.

[Lewis. SB1, SB2 and Lewis appear to imply that it was Sandor who also

designed and built IQ-9, although this is nowhere explicitly stated. What

we see on screen tends to support this, however, as Sandor is always the

first one consulted whenever there is any problem with IQ-9.]

2196

- The Audacious class of Gamilon space battleships, designed by General Dommel

Lysis, enters service.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Fleet Battleship.” The Audacious is the name of the rather unique-looking vessel that General Lysis uses as his fleet flagship

throughout most of the back half of SB1.]

- General Lysis of Gamilon and his personal battle fleet, the largest ever

assembled under the authority of a single independent field commander, leave

Gamilon to conduct a successful three-year campaign against rebellious races

in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Imperial Space Fleet.”]

- Gamilon forces overrun the major UNSPF bases on both Mars and Mercury. The

survivors are forced to retreat to remote observation posts.

[Lewis; see also SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant.” Cadets Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture were completing their deep space training at a UNSPF observation

post on Mars about the same time that the Battle of Pluto took place.]

- The Fist of Gamilon, the largest planet bomb ever constructed during the

Earth-Gamilon War, is launched at Earth. It reaches its target despite the

best efforts of the UNSPF to stop it. At some point before entering Earth’s atmosphere it breaks into two large pieces and multiple smaller ones. The

first large piece destroys most of the southeastern portion of Can-Am (the

United States and Canada), devastating the landscape from southern

Pennsylvania all the way to eastern Texas. Major southern cities such as

Washington DC, Raleigh, Atlanta, Knoxville, Memphis, Mobile, Little Rock, and

New Orleans are either vaporized or wrecked beyond repair. Miami is the

southernmost major city in CanAm to escape major damage. The second piece

leaves a continent-sized crater in the middle of what used to be eastern

Euroland. All life both above and below ground in both of these areas is

wiped out almost instantly. The other fragments wreak their own damage on

the helpless Earth on other parts of the globe, albeit on a smaller scale.

Almost all surface water still remaining on Earth is vaporized by the force

of these blasts, and it will be years before the oceans of Earth reform

themselves. The worldwide rain of debris from the Fist of Gamilon turns the

entire surface of the Earth into a radiation-soaked, crater-marked desert.

[Lewis plus some conjecture on my part; see also SB1 #01, "The Sleeping

Giant." New York apparently survived the impact of the Fist of Gamilon per

BFY, as did Paris. This appears to imply that the original target of that

particular piece of the Fist of Gamion was Washington DC, and that the UNSPF

was able to knock it off-target - as they do with some of the planet bombs

in the live action SBY. The actual impact point appears to have been

somewhere in the state of Tennessee or even in northern Mississippi. The

other was probably aimed at either Paris or Berlin, although Geneva is a

strong possibility due to Switzerland’s importance in the Common Market. Since we know that Paris survived, though, then it was probably knocked off-

target, too - and Homer's line in SB2, "The Giant Awakens" about the Ukraine

might be indicative as to where the second half of the Fist of Gamilon

eventually hit. One shudders to think what might have happened had the Fist

of Gamilon succeeded as originally designed and aimed.]

2197

- Prince Zordar the Fifth, heir to the Comet Empire, launches his fortress

Gatlantis, aka “the White Comet,” from the Andromeda galaxy on his own personal Tour of Conquest on the Sea of Stars per Cometine royal tradition.

His stated intent is to conquer the Milky Way galaxy for the Comet Empire.

Despite the advanced technology at his disposal, it will take the White

Comet four years to reach the Rim Territories of the Milky Way. Prince

Zordar uses this time to conquer and establish a string of supply bases

along his intended route through the intergalactic void.

[SBTM, s.v. “White Comet History." The exact date comes from SB2 #15, "Trelana."]

- The Comet Empire conquers the Black Fox Nebula.

[SBTM. “Timeline of the Earth/Comet War.” See also SB2 #15, "Trelana." This happened in the first year of Prince Zordar's reign, per General Dire.]

- The prototype of the Desslok Cannon undergoes its first successful test

firing at the proving grounds of the Gamilon Imperial Ordinance Division.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Force Structure and Command Chart.”]

- A single Earth vessel carrying a family of three manages to flee the Sol

System. The Gamilons choose not to pursue it, deeming the ship too small and

worthless a target to worry about. The vessel eventually makes it to a

habitable world orbiting Barnard’s Star and lands there. This vessel and its occupants will go unnoticed and forgotten by everyone for the next five years.

[SB3 #08, “The Pioneer's of Barnard's Star”. Tomono, the daughter of the old man per BWE, says they left five years ago. This puts their departure from

Earth one year before the end of the Earth-Gamilon War. This raises a couple

of interesting questions. How many other humans successfully fled the Sol

System during the Earth-Gamilon War, and whatever happened to them?]

2198

- The Comet Empire conquers the Magma Star Cluster.

[SBTM. “Timeline of the Earth/Comet War.” See also SB2 #15, "Trelana." This happened in the second year of Prince Zordar's reign, per General Dire.]

sometime prior to the 2200s

- The Metanoids are created when their homeworld is threatened with extinction

by a negative energy void.

[GE999EFm]

--------------------------------------------------

2199-2224 - STAR BLAZERS (aka UCHUU SENKAN YAMATO)

--------------------------------------------------

2199, January

- The White Comet conquers the rogue planet Petronia. It is located in a lonely

star cluster approximately three-fifths of the way between the Andromeda and

Milky Way galaxies.

[SB2 #14, “Eyes for the Prize” and SBTM, s.v. “Timeline of the Earth/Comet War.” This happened in the third year of Prince Zordar's reign, per General Dire.]

2199, February-April

– The battered UNSPF plans its last attack against the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary Force. It amounts to little more than a kamikaze strike against

its Pluto base. Fleet Captain Abraham Avatar argues unsuccessfully against

the plan. Instead, he is appointed overall commander of the fleet that will

be making the attack.

[Lewis]

- Commander Alex Wildstar and his ship, the Paladin, is among those assigned to

take part on the assault on Pluto. Assisting him will be Lieutenant Adam

Avatar, only son of Captain Abraham Avatar.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant,” and #06, “The Ghost of Recent Past;” see also Lewis.]

- Lt. Commander Steven Sandor takes personal charge of repairing and

refurbishing all of the UNSPF ships to be used in the assault on Pluto.

Among these is Alex Wildstar’s destroyer Paladin. [SB1 #18, “The Magnetron Wave"]

- Forward elements of the Comet Empire encounter Gamilon patrol ships on the

borders of the Gamilon Empire. Prince Zordar, upon hearing the news and to

the surprise of his own people, befriends the Gamilons and quickly enters into

a strategic alliance with them. The White Comet is thus allowed to pass

through Gamilon-controlled space unmolested. Prince Zordar, unlike his

advisors, realizes that he will need allies of like mind and heart in this

strange new galaxy he intends to conquer - for the time being, anyway.

[SBTM, s.v. “White Comet History.” It is intimated in various scenes in SB2, in particular SB2 #11, "The Star Flies," that Prince Zordar and Leader Desslok

had been aware of each other for some time.]

- Astra of Iscandar, younger sister of Queen Starsha, leaves to undertake the

dangerous journey to Earth through the Gamilon lines. Her mission is to

deliver the plans for Iscandarian wave motion technology and Queen Starsha’s offer of the Cosmo DNA to save Earth.

[SB2 #01, “The Sleeping Giant,” and #25, “Welcome to Iscandar"]

------------------------------------------------------------

2199-2201 - STAR BLAZERS: THE QUEST FOR ISCANDAR

SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO

(both the anime and live-action feature films)

------------------------------------------------------------

6 May 2199

- Captain Avatar's fleet is defeated by elements of Colonel Gantz's Gamilon

Earth Expeditionary Force fleet in the Battle of Pluto.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant." In the first and second editions of this work, I got a fair amount of grief over this date from English speaking fans

that had access to the DVD boxed set or other American source materials. Most

of these, including SBTM, give the date as 6 August 2199. Eldred gives the

date as 21 August 2199 in his DVD materials. The original Japanese sources

say May of 2199. My choice of the exact day is a nod to SBTM.]

- Adam Avatar is killed during the Paladin's final suicide run at the Gamilon

fleet. His body is never recovered.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant" and #06, "The Ghost of Recent Past." Wildstar is the one who has to tell Adam's father, Captain Avatar, that they found no

bodies inside the wreck of the Paladin. SB1 never says what happend to the

crew, aside that everyond save Derek's brother Alex, the Paladin's captain,

were killed in action.]

- Astra of Iscandar’s ship is shot up by the Gamilons while attempting to bypass the Battle of Pluto. Injured, her vessel rapidly losing power and control,

she attempts to make a crash landing near a manned UNSPF observation post on

Mars. The attempts fails - and Astra is killed - when her ejection pod

malfunctions due to battle damage sustained in her attempt to skirt the

Gamilon fleet.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant."]

- As it turns out, Astra did not die - as humanity knows the term - when she

crashed on Mars. Her spirit transmigrated to the next phase of existence.

It will take her the next 25 years to figure out what has happened to her,

as well as how she can now both interact with the physical universe and

cause change within it. She will be the one behind all of the seemingly

miraculous things that will happen to the future Star Force during the next

five turmoil-laden years - from the snowfall on Mars all the way to the Argo

seeming to fly itself after being ambushed by the first Dezarium fleet ...

and more. Thus, in one of her many infinite possible incarnations available

to her new existence, Astra becomes the "spirit" of the Argo in every sense

of the word.

[SR]

- Cadets Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture find Astra’s body and the message capsule from Queen Starsha of Iscandar.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant."]

2199, 7 May

- Commander Alex Wildstar is captured by the Gamilons.

[SB1 #25, “Welcome to Iscandar"]

- The Interstellar Committee orders Cadets Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture

to keep Astra’s message capsule safe until they can be picked up by Captain Avatar’s battleship, which is en route from Pluto back to Earth. [SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant"]

2199, 9 May

- Captain Avatar picks up cadets Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture from Mars on

his way back to Earth after the Battle of Pluto.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant"]

2199, 10 May

- Captain Avatar’s space battleship returns to Earth. [SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant." We learn in FSY that an Earth vessel

traveling at top sublight speed (in this case the Yamato/Argo) can make the

trip from Jupiter to Earth in three days. It then stands to reason that a

trip from Pluto to Earth at top sublight speed is about five days, give or

take a day.]

2199, sometime in late May or early June 2199

- The wreck of the Paladin is abandoned on Titan by the Gamilons.

[SB1 #06, “The Ghost of Recent Past," implied. It couldn’t have gotten there by itself and we know Alex Wildstar was captured by the Gamilons; therefore

the Gamilons must have left it there.

- The starship transporting the captured Alex Wildstar back to Gamilon is caught

in a space storm and crashes on Iscandar. All aboard are killed except for a

badly injured Wildstar, who is washed up on the shore near Mother Town. Queen

Starsha finds him, realizes he is a human from Earth, and begins the long and

delicate process of nursing him back to health.

[SB1 #25, “Welcome to Iscandar"]

- Using Starsha’s gift of wave motion technology, Steven Sandor and his engineering team begin converting the almost-completed Yamato into mankind’s first faster-than-light (FTL) starship. The original mission for the Yamato

is scrubbed by UNSPF fleet commander General Charles Singleton. Its new

mission is to make the long journey to Iscandar and retrieve the Cosmo DNA in

order to save Earth.

[SB1 #02, “The Sleeping Giant" and #02, "The Giant Awakens." The actual construction/conversion of the Yamato/Argo is never shown, save for a brief

scene in 2010's live-action SBY movie. It agrees with the original anime in

that the message capsule contained only the plans for the engine, and that

building and installing it in the Yamato/Argo took a fair amount of time.

The alternate version Lewis gives in his account must therefore be considered

non-canon, where the engine itself (in miniaturized form) was contained

within the message capsule.]

2199, 6 August

- Captain Phantom F. Harlock XII, the last remaining UNSPF commander in the

field, violates orders and "turns pirate," going after the Gamilons on his

own. Harlock begins conducting a series of hit-and-run raids on the Gamilon

Earth Expeditionary Force between the outer planets of the Sol System and the

Oort Cloud. This draws away the bulk of the Gamilon fleet. By doing this,

Harlock hopes to provide an opening through which the Yamato can eventually

escape from Earth, once it is able to launch.

[Based on material from Matsumoto-san’s manga Cosmoship Yamato and the official SB1 managa adaptation by Akira Hio; see also SB1 #09, “Gantz’s Last Stand." My date is a nod to Musashi’s dating for the Battle of Pluto. Although this use of the Captain Harlock character never made it on screen

(it was planned, but cut due to time and production restrictions), it helps

explain why Colonel Gantz was able to assemble such a large fleet so quickly

against the Star Force in the Minervan asteroid belt. It was already out

there hunting for Captain Harlock. My inclusion of Captain Harlock in this

timeline is my homage to Matsumoto-san’s original story outline for the SB1 TV series.]

2199, 21 August

- A specially modified Gamilon fleet command cruiser is fitted with the new

Desslok Cannon. Shortly thereafter it is appropriated to serve as Leader

Desslok’s personal flagship. [SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Force Structure and Command Chart”]

2199, 22-23 August

- A Gamilon Prowler class recon plane is spotted monitoring the Cape Boga area

off of Great Island. Its location puts it directly above the Bogasaki

underground complex where Project Argo is nearing completion. Acting against

orders, Cadets Derek Wildstar and Mark Venture unsuccessfully attempt to bring

it down. They crash instead near the wreck of the old Japanese battleship

Yamato when their engine fails. They are eventually picked up by a rescue

team without learning about the hidden base beneath their feet.

[SB1 #01, “The Sleeping Giant." According to SBTM, this was the first time that the UNSPF had ever seen the Prowler in action.]

2199, 5 October

- The rebuilt Yamato fires its first shots in anger, as it defends itself from

a surprise attack by a Gamilon space carrier.

[SB1 #02, “The Giant Awakens"]

2199, 6 October

- The rebuilt Yamato is rechristened as the Argo by its first commander,

Fleet Captain Abraham Avatar.

[SB1 #03, “Departure from Earth." It is never renamed in the Japanese original (and some of the other foreign dubs), thus retaining the name of

Yamato in these versions of the franchise.]

- The Star Force departs for Iscandar aboard the rebuilt Yamato.

[SB1 #03, “Departure from Earth"]

2199, 7 October

- The Argo performs its first space warp. It is a small jump from the Earth

to Mars.

[SB1 #04, “Space Warp." The Earth-Mars jump later became a routine test for all EDF warp-capable starships, as is shown in YNV and SB3.]

- Captain Keisuke Yamanami is promoted to Fleet Captain. This is done due more

to the needs of the war than any desire of the UNSPF, due to his “disgrace” at the hands of the Gamilons at the end of the Great Fleet’s campaign of 2192-2194. With the departure of Fleet Captain Avatar, Yamanami is one of

the few remaining experienced senior space officers remaining on Earth.

THe newly promoted Yamanami is given a desk job overseeing fleet operations,

where he will be stuck for the next three years.

[SBC3's partial adaptation of BFY, Part 1, “Prelude." Which begs the obvious question - where was Captain Gideon all this time? None of the various

Japanese or Eldred-derived materials materials have ever addressed this

particular issue, as of this date (2011).]

2199, 8 October

- The Gamilon advance base in Jupiter's atmosphere is destroyed by the Star

Force. This marks the first successful use of the Argo’s wave motion gun. [SB1 #05, “The Floating Continent."

2199, 10 October

- The Star Force discovers the abandoned wreck of the Paladin on the Saturnian

moon of Titan while mining for titanite.

[SB1 #06, “The Ghost of Recent Past." See my earlier entry on the discovery of cosmonite for an alternate interpretation of this event, as described in

the original Japanese source materials.]

2199, 13-15 October

- The Star Force engages and destroys the Gamilon base on Pluto. This puts an

end to the constant rain of planet bombs on Earth. This small victory comes

too late to reverse the cumulative effects of the accumulated radiation on

Earth from almost a decade of constant planet bombing by the Gamilons.

[SB1 #07 and 08, “The [Second] Battle of Pluto (Parts 1 and 2)”]

2199, 16 October

- Colonel Gantz, former commander of the Gamilon base on Pluto and field

commander of the Pluto Garrison Fleet of the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary

Force, recalls his entire force of 225 vessels from the outer reaches of the

Solar System. Gantz’s intent is to intercept and destroy the Star Force at all costs.

[Implied by SB1 #09, “Gantz’s Last Stand." The Gamilon fleet strength comes from SBTM. It is my belief, based on the contextual evidence, that his fleet

had already been deployed because it was chasing after Captain Harlock - as

mentioned in an earlier entry. Harlock’s decoy action apparently did its job in giving the Star Force a chance to escape Earth.]

2199, 17 October

- The Gamilons abandon all of their surviving bases in the outer Sol System on

the orders of Colonel Gantz.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon-Earth Timeline”]

2199, 31 October

- The Battle of the Minervan Asteroid Belt. The Gamilon Expeditionary Force is

wiped out in pitched battle with the Star Force. This marks the first use of

Steven Sandor’s asteroid ring to defend the Argo. [SB1 #09, “Gantz’s Last Stand"]

- The Star Force is the first Earth unit to engage (and defeat) a Gamilon

Conqueror class battleship.

[SB1 #9, “Gantz's Last Stand”) and SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon S-Type Space Battleship.” This was Colonel Gantz’s flagship. It rarely appears again for the rest of the SB franchise, save for the occasional cameo - such as at

the end of SB2 #2, "Blackout."]

2199, 23 November

- The Star Force leaves the Milky Way galaxy.

[SB1 #10, “Farewell to Earth."]

- Elements of a huge Cometine advance task force under the command of General

Naska notes the Star Force’s departure from the Milky Way while assembling at the planet Redella. Naska begins monitoring the activities of the Star Force

on behalf of Prince Zordar. However, he refuses to engage his forces in

support of the Gamilons, in accordance with his standing orders.

[SBTM, s.v. “White Comet Force Structure and Command Chart”]

2199, 25 November

- The Star Force reaches the outer defense perimeter of Gamilon­controlled space. It is protected by the Desslok Mines, a large mobile minefield.

[SB1 #11, “The Desslok Mines"]

2199, 26-27 November

- The Star Force makes the passage of the Desslok Mines.

[SB1 #11, “The Desslok Mines"]

2199, 28 November

- The Gamilon 2nd Mobile Attack Fleet is organized under the command of General

Zorka, as the Star Force continues its advance into Gamilon-controlled

territory. Additional Gamilon battle fleets are redeployed or reorganized as

the full danger that the Star Force poses begins to be understood.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Force Structure and Command Chart"]

2199, 30 November - 2 December

- The Star Force makes the passage of the Alpha star of Orion.

[SB1 #12, “The Sea of Fire." My source for the name is the Japanese original. In the English dub, this is mistranslated as the “wishing star of Vultan.”]

- Captain Avatar collapses on the bridge of the Argo. It is the first public

indication of his failing health.

[SB1 #12, “The Sea of Fire"]

2199, 3 December

- The Star Force captures and interrogates a Gamilon pilot. This is the first

time that UNSPF has ever captured a live Gamilon. He is later released

unharmed as a show of goodwill.

[SB1 #13, “Farewell to Earth"]

2199, 6-28 December

- The Star Force is held up at the Octopus Star Cluster for three weeks, until

it finds a safe passage through the dangerous starfield.

[SB1 #14, “The Worst of Times"]

2199, 29 December

- General Kort, overall field commander of the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary

Force, is dismissed by Leader Desslok for incompetence. Desslok personally

selects General Dommel Lysis as his replacement.

[SB1 #14, “The Worst of Times"]

2200, January

- An improved version of the Desslok Cannon is mounted on a second generation

Gamilon fleet command cruiser for field testing. Due to the ongoing demands

placed on the fleet by the actions of General Lysis, this ship and its new

weapon are never deployed. This helps obscure the fact that this new weapon

is at best only a marginal improvement over the original Desslok Cannon.

[SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Force Structure and Command Chart.”]

2200, 2 January 2200

- General Dommel Lysis of Gamilon arrives on Balun to officially assume overall

field command of the Gamilon Earth Expeditionary Force. His primary objective

is to deal with the problem posed by the Star Force’s mission to Iscandar. [SB1 #15, “The Galactic Whirlpool"]

2200, 4 January

- The first attempt by General Lysis to ambush the Star Force ends in failure,

thanks to the unexpected intervention of Queen Starsha of Iscandar.

[SB1 #15, “The Galactic Whirlpool"]

2200, 10 January

- The Star Force reaches the planet Bimeria, aka "Beeland."

[SB1 #16, “Tin Wit's Tale"]

2200, 14 January

- The attempt by General Vulgar to attack the Yamato with his pseudo­balanosarus ends in spectacular failure.

[SB1 #17, “The Burdens of Command"]

- Captain Avatar is forced to undergo a dangerous operation in order to save his

life.

[SB1 #17, “The Burdens of Command"]

2200, 17 January

- An unexpected encounter with a Gamilon magentron wave space fortress nearly

destroys the Yamato.

[SB1 #18, “The Magnetron Wave"]

2200, 22 January

- The Star Force destroys a Gamilon long-range communications satellite.

[SB1 #19, “Little Boy Lost"]

2200, 24 January

- Captain Avatar’s health begins to fail as his ongoing radiation sickness becomes more pronounced. To this end he promotes Derek Wildstar to lieutenant

commander and names him as deputy captain (i.e. executive officer) of the

Argo. This eases the burden of command on the weakened Avatar.

[SB1 #20, “The Battle of Balun." The part about the promotion was probable conjecture on my part at the time; however it has been somewhat confirmed by

the 2011 live-action SBY - in which Wildstar was a somewhat older officer who

already held the rank of full commander. For those of you not familiar with

military protocol, here's the logic. There were at least two, possibly three

other senior officers available on the Star Force during the trip to Iscandar

(Steven Sandor, Chief Engineer Orion, and maybe Assistant Chief Engineer Sho

Yamazaki) who outranked the young Lieutenant Derek Wildstar and could have

been named as deputy captain in his place. They weren't because they could

better serve the Star Force where they were, and Wildstar had proven he had

command ability. All he needed was the rank and experience. It stands to

reason, per current military protocols, that Wildstar must have been promoted

at this time by Captain Avatar in keeping with his new duties. That's why he

was advanced a full grade to lieutenant commander via a field (or possibly

"brevet") promotion. He kept his promotion after the Star Force returned to

Earth, per the on-screen evidence. By the time SB2 rolls around, Wildstar

has apparently been promoted to the rank of full commander - as per the 2011

live-action SBY. I note in passing that in FSY's alternate version of events,

Wildstar was made the captain of an Arione class frigate following the Argo's

return from Iscandar. This confirms, at least from the anime point-of-view,

that his rank was at least that of lieutenant commander at the time - since

such a posting and rank is in keeping with current naval tradition in most

present-day surface navies.]

- The Star Force reaches planet Balan, the halfway point between Earth and

Iscandar. General Lysis accidentally destroys his own base on Balan when he

drops the planet’s artificial sun on it in a failed attempt to destroy the Star Force.

[SB1 #20, “The Battle of Balun"]

2200, 27 January

- General Lysis is court-martialed for his actions in the destruction of the

Gamilon base on Balan. He is sentenced to death by a military tribunal led

by General Krypt, Gamilon chief-of-staff.

[SB1 #21, “The Battle of the Rainbow Cluster (Part 1)"]

2200, 28 January

- The life of General Lysis is spared by the personal intervention of Leader

Desslok, who gives him one last chance to defeat the Star Force.

[SB1 #21, “The Battle of the Rainbow Cluster (Part 1)"]

2200, February

- The planet Telezart enters into a long and deadly war with its interstellar

neighbors for control of its local area of space

[SB1 #15, “Trelana." Trelaina briefly describes this conflict when speaking to Mark Venture in private.]

2200, 3 March

- The reinstated General Lysis challenges the Star Force to a final showdown at

the Rainbow Star Cluster.

[SB1 #21, “The Battle of the Rainbow Cluster (Part 1)"]

2200, 7-10 March

- The Battle of the Rainbow Star Cluster ends in victory for the Star Force.

General Lysis takes his own life by blowing up his command ship under the

Argo, hoping to take down the Star Force with him. The explosion blows the

keel off of the Argo and kills many of its crew, but fails to destroy the

ship outright. The Gamilons are so shocked by the absolute defeat of their

best field general and best-equipped space fleet that they fail to take

advantage of the Argo’s helplessness. They leave the Star Force alone and unmolested for the rest of its journey toward the Greater Magellanic Cloud.

As for the Star Force, it will take them weeks to repair their badly damaged

vessel, salvaging whatever materials they can from the battle wrecks around

them.

[SB1 #21 and 22, “The Battle of the Rainbow Cluster (Parts 1 and 2)." The manner in which the Argo is eventually repaired is probable conjecture on my

part. There weren't enough raw materials on board the ship to do the job

and they had to get them from somewhere. All they would have had to do,

per SB1 #3, "Departure From Earth," is feed the "raw" material into the

ship's Dynamic Do-All and have it produce whatever finished parts/products

they needed. Other repair techniques seen in other SB1 episodes could account

for the rest of the work.]

2200, 13 April

- The Star Force is surprised to meet Captain Harlock en route to the Sanza Star

System. From him they learn much about the state of affairs on both Earth and

in Gamilon space at this time. Harlock also takes the time to meet privately

with Derek Wildstar. He gives him some helpful advice about the burden of

command then has been placed on his young shoulders. Harlock then departs

once again, still pursuing his self-appointed mission of drawing as many

Gamilon forces away from the Yamato as possible.

[Derived from both of the SB1 Japanese manga adaptations, by Leiji Matsumoto

and Akira Hio respectively. Eldred has done extensive research on the role

Harlock was to have played in SB1 as originally intended, and you can find

the fruits of his labor on the official STAR BLAZERS web site. Hio also adds

a few other times that the Star Force encounters Harlock en route, most

notably right after the Battle of Balun. My inclusion of Captain Harlock in

this timeline is my homage to Matsumoto-san’s original story outline for SB1.]

2200, 23 April

- The Star Force arrives at the Sanza Star System - where they discover, much

to their surprise, that Gamilon and Iscandar are a binary planetary pair.

[SB1 #23, “A Shocking Surprise"]

2200, 23-25 April

- The Battle of Gamilon.

[SB1 #23, "A Shocking Surprise and #24, “No Quarter"]

- Death of General Krypt. He is shot to death by Leader Desslock for daring to

suggest that the Star Force is unbeatable.

[SB1 #24, "No Quarter." This was censored out of the original English

adaptation back in 1978. The scene was restored in the fan-produced STAR

BLAZERS REMASTERED edit of 2008.]

2200, 26 April

- The Star Force reaches Iscandar.

[SB1 #24 “No Quarter" and #25, "Welcome to Iscandar"]

2200, 26 May

- The Star Force leaves Iscandar with the Cosmo DNA.

[SB1 #25, "Welcome to Iscandar"]

2200, June-August

- Large sections of the Gamilon Empire rise up in revolt upon receiving news of

the Battle of Gamilon and the apparent death of Leader Desslok. Most of the

military might and resources of the Gamilons are tied up in putting down these

revolts, leaving nothing with which to go after the Star Force. In the

meantime, Leader Desslok - who managed to survive the Battle of Gamilon - has

become obsessed with the destruction of the Star Force and pursues the Argo in

warp after warp, always looking for the right opportunity for a final decisive

attack. His leaderless subordinates do their best to hold his empire

together in his absence.

[SB1 #26, “Journey's End” and SBTM, s.v. “Future Course of Action by the Gamilon Empire”]

- Taking advantage of the unrest within the Gamilon Empire, Cometine

surveillence craft begin probing both of the Magellanic Clouds and the edges

of the Milky Way galaxy.

[SBTM, s.v. “Further Course of Action by the Comet Empire”]

2200, 5 September

- Leader Desslok of Gamilon fails in his final attempt to ambush the Argo within

the Sol System itself. His ship is destroyed and presumed lost with all

hands. His body is never recovered.

[SB1 #26, “Journey's End”]

- Death of UNSPF Fleet Captain Abraham Avatar. His had been a long struggle

with radiation sickness, acquired from injuries sustained at the Battle of

Pluto in 2199.

[SB1 #26, “Journey's End”

2200, 6 September

- The Star Force returns to Earth with the Cosmo DNA.

[SB1 #26, “Journey's End” and SB2 #3, "Choices" (restored print)]

- A Cometine Scorpion fighter on routine reconnaissance of the Sol System

discovers and recovers the still-living body of Desslok of Gamilon. He is

taken back to Gatlantis for immediate medical treatment.

[SB2 #11, "The Star Flies," and SBTM, s.v “Insights into the Gamilon-Comet

Empire Alliance of 2200.” Only in the latter do we learn that the recovery of Desslok’s body apparently occurred almost immediately after the destruction of his ship. This would make sense given the twin facts that Cometine patrol

craft were already probing the Milky Way on recon missions at this time and

they were also monitoring Desslok’s actions against the Star Force.]

2200, 7 September

- A UNSPF medical team makes the surprising discovery that the late Captain

Avatar’s brain is still functioning, albeit at a very low level. His body is immediately placed in cryostasis while General Singleton is contacted for

further instructions. His orders are to come up with a way to revive Captain

Avatar. The Star Force is not informed for fear that the effort will prove

unsuccessful. The revival eventually proves successful; however, the lack

of oxygen to Avatar's brain for a prolonged period means that he is revived

as a "tabula rosa" - with no memories of his past life. He has to be taught

who he was and of what he was capable all over again, and the process will

take years - during which time he is kept in isolation.

[SBC3 adaption of BFY; FY implied]

2200, 10 September

- The Cosmo DNA is activated on Earth. The planet’s surface is freed completely of deadly radiation and life-sustaining conditions are restored. The

reconstruction of Earth begins.

[SB1 #26, “Journey's End" and SB2 #03, "Choices." In the Icarus story arc of SBC3 (Part 2, “Waxwing") the Cosmo DNA is activated on the 13th - a full week after the Argo's return to Earth.]

2200, 10 October

- Hero’s Hill is dedicated. It is a monument to the fallen of the Star Force. It is located on the highest coastal hill on the outskirts of Megapolis City.

[First featured SB1 #02, “Blackout," and then seen again on various occasions throughout the rest of the franchise. In the original Japanese dialogue, the

narrator notes that the Star Force met at Hero’s Hill “on Captain Okita’s [Avatar’s] memorial day.” That meeting took place on the evening of 10 October 2201. The anniversary of Captain Avatar’s death was 5 September, so the 10th must have been the date of the dedication of the statue of Captain

Avatar and the Star Force monument at Hero's Hill - Avatar's "memorial day,"

as it were. 10 October was also the earliest day Wildstar could have made it

back to Earth, per both SB2 #01 "A New Enemy" and FSY. If the intent of the

Star Force was to hold regular meetings at Hero’s Hill on the anniversary of Captain Avatar’s death (per Eldred's SBR) - which was 5 September - and Wildstar couldn’t make it due to his patrol duties, then it stands to reason that Dr. Sane would have chosen some other significant day to reschedule the

memorial ceremony so Wildstar could attend. The anniversary of the dedication

of Hero’s Hill would have been such a date.]

2200, 10-12 October

- The Argo undergoes the first part of a two-part major rebuilding and overhaul.

The major feature of this part of the overhaul is the replacement of the

ship’s wave motion gun system with a new design. Although the power of the charge is the same, the Yamato’s wave motion gun can now fire a short-range, wide-dispersal beam. It is a prototype of the next-generation wave motion

gun to be fitted in the EDF’s next two classes of space battleships - the Borodino and Andromeda classes.

[Eldred's SB2 DVD supplement “Inside the Argo” and SBTM, s.v. “Space Battleship Argo.” Personally, knowing something of naval construction techiniques, I would tend to think that this took the better part of a month,

but since SB2 says the Argo was on space patrol during the time between SB1

and SB2, well ... that leaves only a few days for a refit and overhaul, per

SBTM. I have to go with what's on screen and what the officially licensed

source materials say. Oh, well ....]

2200, 12 October

- The Argo completes the first part of its overhaul and is relaunched on

schedule. It will be serving as the flagship of the 15th Interstystem Patrol

Fleet. The fleet’s mission is to police the outer edges of the Sol System and beyond. The EDF fears attempted reprisals by the Gamilons and wants its best

field commander (and most feared warship) on the front lines in the event of

an attack.

[Eldred's DVD supplement “Inside the Argo,” FSY, and SBTM, s.v. “Space Battleship Argo.”]

between October 2200 and August 2201

- Lieutenant Commander Derek Wildstar is promoted to the rank of full commander.

This is in recognition of his services during the Iscandarian campaign. He

retains his status as deputy (i.e. acting) captain of the Argo.

[Probable conjecture, as implied by SB1 #20, "The Battle of Balun," FSY,

SB2 #01, "A New Threat," YNV, BFY, and SB3 #01, "The Solar System Faces

Destruction."

- The construction of Megapolis City (later known as Megalopolis) begins over

the ruins of Tokyo on Great Island (Japan). It will serve as the seat of the

United Earth Government. In time it will become the largest city on Earth.

[Eldred's DVD supplement “Earth AD 2201;” see also BWE, where a direct connection is finally made (in an officially licensed publication!) between

the two names. According to M-san, Megapolis City from STAR BLAZERS and

Megalopoplis from GE999 are one and the same. SBC3 put Megapolis City on

Okinawa, but this has since been tacitly acknowledged as an error by at least

one of its creators.]

- Major reconstruction efforts begin to reclaim the portions of Can-Am and

Euroland devastated during the Earth-Gamilon War.

[Implied by BFY. In the scenes involving the Black Nebula Empire’s “fake Earth,” the Star Force comments that some things seemed different than what they knew. What they are shown around, per the visuals, is a recreation of

Earth before the devastating effects of the Earth-Gamilon War.]

- A new spaceport named Gideon Field is built at the EDF Kadena Base on Great

Island.

[SBC3's partial adaptation of BFY, Part 1, “Prelude." This would seem to presuppose that Captain Gideon made a name for himself during the Earth-

Gamilon War if they named a major military base after him. Sadly, however,

his exploits in that conflict have yet to be described.]

- The United Nations Space Patrol Force (UNSPF), aka the Earth Space Navy, is

reorganized as the Earth Defense Force (EDF).

[Implied by SB2 #1, "A New Threat" and FSY. The term “Earth Defense Force” is actually used right off the bat in the Japanese original of SB1, but appears

here for the first time in the various English dubbed materials. This is one

of the rare cases in which I defer to the SBTM.]

- The terraforming of Mars begins.

[SBC1 Part 3, “Target: Argo!"]

- The EDF builds a new major interplanetary base on Mars. It also builds new

bases and expands (or rebuilds) existing ones at Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune,

Pluto, and Brumus - in particular, on the Jovian moon of Ganymede and the

Saturnian moon of Titan.

[SB2 #1, "A New Enemy," #6, "Rescue on Brumus," #18, "Gideon's Trumpet, #22,

"Aftermath," and SB3 #05, "SOS Legendra."]

- The EDF establishes a uniform naming policy for future warships based on

historical naval vessels of Earth’s past. All nations that currently or once fielded major naval vessels will have ships named for them in the new EDF.

The only exception is the new super space battleship class, which will carry

names based on constellations in Earth’s nighttime skies. [SBTM, s.v. “EDF Force Structure and Command Chart.” The last sentence explains the seeming anomaly of the names for the Andromeda class super

space battleships of SB2.]

- Construction begins on the Pluto Observatory on Charon, the planet’s only moon. It is seen as a monument to mankind’s first tenuous steps on the Sea of Stars.

[CHEO #05, “Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet"]

- Captain Yamanami takes on the task of a guest lecturer at the Space Cadet

School in addition to his headquarters duties.

[YNV. Most of the senior Star Force officers claim to have never heard of

Captain Yamanami prior to his reassignment to the Argo. This means that he

couldn’t have lectured at the Space Cadet School until after they had graduated and been away from Earth for a while.]

- Advance forces of the Comet Empire monitor a tremendous energy surge that

originates from and covers the entire surface of the planet Telezart.

Cometine forces rush to the scene to investigate. What they find is a world

where all life has been completely destroyed in a matter of minutes. The sole

survivor is Trelana, a being of incredible psionic powers. She is hiding in a

spaceship parked deep within a cave beneath Telezart’s surface. They seal the only access to the cave before continuing their mission of conquest, thus

rendering Trelana a prisoner within her own homeworld.

[SB2 #12-14 and FSY. Both Trelana and Sandor assert that the destruction on

Telezart happened fairly recently. SBTM asserts that the Cometine assault on

the planets of Ceresis, Probain, and Brumus happened about the same time as

the Comet Empire's first visit to Telezart.]

- Desslok of Gamilon is restored to full health on the direct order of Prince

Zordar. As the crafty Cometine leader has foreseen, the grateful Gamilon

emperor swears alliegance to the Comet Empire as a mercenary general. This

gives Prince Zordar his first “conquest” in the Milky Way. In other words, he can now claim dominion over a sizeable portion of the Milky Way galaxy

without having had to fire a shot. The truth of the matter is kept from

Leader Desslok, although some of his subordinates remain suspicious.

[SB1 #01 "A New Enemy" and #02 "Blackout," and SBTM, s.v. “The Gamilon-Comet Empire Alliance of 2201.”]

- The warship Spirit of Gamilon is delivered to Leader Desslok by his

subordinates. It is the same Gamilon command cruiser that was used to field

test the new version of the Desslok Cannon, and as such is the only one of

its kind in the entire surviving Gamilon fleet.

[Eldred, DVD supplement “Desslok and the Gamilons;” see also SBTM, s.v. “Gamilon Force Structure and Command Chart.”]

- Derek Wildstar finds the time to write a book on deep space battle tactics.

It is the first of its kind on Earth and quickly becomes popular within

military circles upon publication. Not long afterward it becomes required

reading at the Space Cadet School.

[SBC1 Part 2, “The Prisoner and the Power." Colonel Fenalon told Wildstar that he had read his book.]

2200, 5 December

- Prince Zordor holds a council of war with his command staff about the plans

for his conquest of the Milky Way galaxy. Of particular interest to him is

the planet Earth. A surprise guest to this council is Leader Desslok of

Gamilon, who is in attendance at the personal invitation of Prince Zordar.

[SB2 #01, "A New Enemy." The date is from the original Japanese dialogue.

The arrival time at Earth by Gatlantis is estimated to be “about 6660 Gatlantean hours.” This comes out to about 278 days, provided a Gatlantean hour is the same as our own, although there is no way to know for sure.

Zordar and his generals also comment on the wide technology gap between Earth

and the Comet Empire at this point in time. Cometine intelligence apparently

hadn’t detected any major buildup in Earth's defensive capability at this point. This means that Zordar’s council had to have happened before the EDF Fleet Replenishment Plan was underway; otherwise, the buildup in Earth’s space forces would have been noted as part of the conference briefings. The fact

that later in the series Zordar admits a measure of respect for the potential

combat capabilities of "the mighty Andromeda," even when he was making fun of

it, tends to supports an early date for this particular conference. The date

reference was inadvertently omitted in the English dub.]

2201, 8 January 2201

- The EDF, with the approval of the United Earth Government, puts into action

its Fleet Replenishment Plan. Authored by Fleet Captain Draco Gideon with

the assistance of Commander Steven Sandor, this plan represents the most

ambitious ship construction effort in Earth’s history. Its intent is to replace the entire EDF fleet with new, modernized, wave motion engine

equipped warships within two years. Also included in the plan are new supply

bases, support facilities, and fleet staging areas.

[SBTM, “EDF Force Structure and Command Chart.”]

2201, August - September

- By the end of August 2201, the combined shipyards of Earth and its various

interplanetary colonies bases have produced over 600 brand new warships of

eight different major warship classes and multiple minor ones. These range in

size from patrol cruisers all the way up to the first of the super space

battleships of the Andromeda class. Another 300 are in various stages of

construction and will be completed by the end of the year.

[SBTM, s.v. “EDF Force Structure and Command Chart.” You might find this timetable a bit hard to believe unless you study the American naval

construction effort during World War II and also take into account possible

future techniques. American shipyards built 78 escort carriers in only 46

months - in addition to work on hundreds of other military and civilian

vessels of every size and description during the same time period (June 1941

to April 1945). These included the largest class of main fleet aircraft

carriers ever built (the Essex class), America's only purpose-built class

of battlecruisers ever built (the Alaska class), hundreds of heavy and light

cruisers (the Baltimore and Cleveland classes and their derivatives), hundreds

of destroyers and destroyer escorts, and completion of the four Iowa class

battleships - not to mention the legendary Liberty civilian ships and their

follow-ups, as well as many other ship classes I haven’t even named. 600 new ships in only eight months? Quite believable, given historical precedent and

what we know about the EDF's production capabilities at this point in time in

the Leijiverse. Prince Zordar himself seems impressed by this fact, and says

as much in the original Japanese dialogue of SB2 #07, “A Clash of Perspectives."]

- Fleet Captain Draco Gideon is assigned command of the Andromeda. It is the

first in a new class of super space battleships, and is designed to replace

the Argo as Earth’s premier ship-of-the-line space battleship class. Gideon’s assignment is a reward for the success of the Fleet Replenishment Plan. Ten

more Andromeda class vessels have already been authorized for construction by

the Defense Committee.

[SB2 #03, “Choices”) and SBTM, “EDF Force Structure and Command Chart.”]

------------------------------------------

2201 - STAR BLAZERS: THE COMET EMPIRE

FAREWELL TO SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO

------------------------------------------

2201, 7 October

- The 15th Intersystem Patrol Fleet is attacked by spacecraft of unknown origin.

They are in fact patrol ships from an advance fleet of the Comet Empire.

[SB2 #01, “A New Enemy"]

2201, 10 October

- The 15th Intersystem Patrol Fleet, headed by the venerable space battleship

Argo, returns to Earth after a year patrolling the outer reaches of EDF-

controlled space.

[SB2 #01, “A New Enemy." The exact date is never mentioned in the English dub but is stated twice in the dialogue of the Japanese original. This event is

the anchor date for all events in the Earth-Cometine War. Eldred’s dating agrees with this and it is also the date used in the Star Blazers comics by

Argo Press (with which Eldred was involved). SBTM places the event about a

month earlier, on 5 September 2201, in keeping with the dates used in FSY.

This is because there was no English translation of the original Japanese

series proper in existence when SBTM was written.]

- Launching of the EDF super space battleship Andromeda.

[SB2 #01, "A New Enemy" and FSY. Only in FSY do we see the actual launch

ceremony.]

- The Argo and the newly launched Andromeda almost collide in Earth orbit.

[SB2 #01, "A New Enemy" and FSY. In FSY it almost collided with Wildstar’s Arione class frigate in Earth’s upper atmosphere.]

- Cometine forces attack and conquer the planets Ceresis and Probain.

[SB2 #05, “The Chase." The conquest is mentioned as having just occurred in the opening narration of the episode in the original Japanese version. This

narration was cut from the English version of the series.]

2201, 10-12 October

- The Argo undergoes the second part of a two-part major overhaul. Major

improvements added at this time include offensive armaments with longer range,

a new and more powerful sensor suite that includes a first-generation time

radar, and side-mounted depth charge racks for anti-space submarine warfare.

[SB2 #02, “Blackout." This portion of the refit was only supposed to take two days; however it was put behind schedule by General Naska’s second electronic warfare attack. The new depth charge racks are never mentioned by Sandor in

his briefing; however, they are shown in use for the first time against the

Cometine space submarines in SB2 #07, “Fine Tuning,". The racks are not shown on any of the original Japanese materials for SB1; therefore they must have

been added at this time. These early side-mounted racks are later replaced by

a vertical launch "hedgehog" system just aft of the aft main gun turret per

SB3 #14, "The Galman Wolf."]

2201, 11 October

- General Naska launches his second massive electronic warfare attack against

the Sol System.

[SB2 #02, “Blackout”]

- Leader Desslok leaves Gatlantis, with the blessing of Prince Zordar, to seek

and destroy the Star Force by any means necessary.

[SB2 #02, “Blackout."]

2201, 12 October

- Derek Wildstar and Nova Forrester quietly cancel their wedding plans.

[SB2 #03, “Choices” and FSY. General Singleton comments to Nova in FSY that he intends to be a guest at the wedding, which will take place in three days.

He says this while the Argo is still a day out from Earth. This would have

made their planned wedding date 13 October 2201 (and not 7 September 2201, per

FSY's dating system.)]

2201, 13 October

- The mutiny of the Star Force. The Argo is seized and stolen for an

unauthorized mission to the planet Telezart. Joining in the mutiny are the

ship’s former Black Tiger fighter squadrons, now stationed on Luna. [SB2 #04, “Mutiny." The original Japanese dialogue for the series gives a date of 4 November 2201 for this event, almost a month after Wildstar’s return to Earth aboard the Argo per FSY dating - which is the same as the Japanese

original for SB2. The rewritten English dialogue implied that only three days

had passed since the Yamato’s return to Earth. Eldred also appears to agree with the "short overhaul" dating in the materials he helped develop for the

Argo Press comics. This is one of the rare instances where I defer to another

source (in this case Eldred and the English dub) over the Japanese original.]

2201, 17 October 2201

- The Star Force has a showdown with the new super space battleship Andromeda

near Jupiter.

[SB2 #05, “The Chase"]

2201, 18 October 2201

- The 11th Outer Perimeter Patrol Fleet is wiped out by the forces of Comet

Empire, under the command of General Naska, while attempting to defend planet

Brumus from a Cometine invasion.

[FSY. The Star Force sees the wreckage of this fleet as it approaches Brumus.

The telling absence of the 11th Fleet in the original TV series also implies

its destruction, although it is never shown. This event was retconned into

the STAR BLAZERS REMASTERED version of the episode by use of selected FSY

footage.]

2201, 20 October

- The Star Force engages and destroys part of General Naska’s fleet at Brumus and then evacuates all surviving Space Marines from its surface.

[SB2 #06, “Rescue on Brumus." The original Japanese dialogue mentions that only ten Space Marines, including Sergeant Knox, survived the Cometine

assault.]

2201, 23 October

- The United Earth Government finally recognizes the serious nature of the

threat of the Comet Empire. The Star Force is cleared of all charges of

mutiny and sedition. Their mission to Telezart is now given official

sanction. Based on the Star Force’s reports from Brumus, General Singleton orders the EDF Second and Third Fleets to Brumus to further investigate the

activities of the Comet Empire.

[SB2 #06, “Rescue on Brumus"]

2201, 26 October

- Major Hirath’s Cometine missile cruiser squadron engages and is wiped out by the Star Force.

[SB2 #08, “The Sargasso of Space"]

2201, 28 October 2201

- General Tobruk’s full battle fleet engages the Star Force after several days of initial sparring. It is completely destroyed by the use of the Argo’s wave motion gun.

[SB2 #10, “Carpe Diem"]

2201, 29 October

- Leader Desslok’s grand scheme to destroy the Star Force is foiled at the last minute due to the political scheming of Princess Invidia, royal consort of

Prince Zordar. Desslok and his fleet are immediately recalled to Gatlantis.

[SB2 #12, “Cause and Effect." NOTE - The original English dub bowlderized the relationship between Invidia and Zordar, making her his sister (and causing

for several scenes which might be interpreted as incestuous!). This was

corrected, per the Japanese original, for the fan-produced STAR BLAZERS

REMASTERED prints.]

2201, 30 October

- The Star Force arrives at Telezart. It defeats the Cometine forces stationed

there and rescues Trelana, who provides them with critical intelligence on

both the Comet Empire and the space fortress Gatlantis.

[SB2 #13, “Trap at Telezart” and #14, “Eyes for the Prize"]

- Leader Desslok is falsely placed under arrest by Princess Invidia for treason

against the Comet Empire.

[SB2 #14, “Eyes for the Prize"]

- Both EDF Fleet Commander Singleton and Fleet Captain Gideon urge the UEG

Defense Committee to accelerate construction on all Andromeda class vessels

currently building in order to better face the danger posed by the Comet

Empire. The Defense Committee readily agrees in light of the intelligence on

the Comet Empire forwarded by the Star Force. Construction on all other

vessels on Earth is suspended, in order that their resources can be redirected

for the effort.

[SB2 #14, “Eyes for the Prize." Only five of the ten additional Andromeda class ships that were authorized had actually started building, according to

Captain Gideon. At least one of these (the Fornax, per fan accounting) is

shown partially completed at two different times in the series. The effort

proved to be too much even for the ample resources of the EDF. The Andromeda

was still the only one available to assist the fleet at the Battle of Saturn.

The other Andromedas were eventually completed, though, if their cameos in the

YR movie are any indication.]

2201, 31 October

- The Star Force departs Telezart.

[SB2 #15, “Farewell to Telezart"]

2201, 2 November

- Trelana of Telezart attempts to stop Gatlantis by destroying her own planet

Telezart directly in its path. The Comet Empire battle fortress is severely

damaged but not destroyed as had been hoped. It resumes its course at reduced

speed while effecting repairs en route to Earth. Trelana's fate is unknown at

this time.

[SB2 #16, “Confrontation"]

2201, 6 November

- Prince Zordar orders his Cometine forces to begin the conquest of Earth.

[SB2 #17, “Gideon's Trumpet"]

2201, 7 November

- Acting on his own personal authority, EDF Fleet Captain Draco Gideon assumes

command of all EDF space fleets in the field. He stages all of them at the

Saturnian moon of Titan, in preparation for an expected showdown with the

main invasion fleet of the Comet Empire.

[SB2 #17, “Gideon's Trumpet"]

- Leader Desslok escapes confinement with the assistance of his aide General

Talan. He takes Princess Invidia as hostage and uses her to escape Gatlantis.

He is picked up by his own fleet once he is free. Desslok’s actions cause Prince Zordar to reconsider the circumstances surrounding his former ally’s confinment, and he soon unravels Invidia’s schemes. Zordar returns the Spirit of Gamilon, Desslok’s command crusier, to him as a sign of good faith and to show that he personally was not part of Invidia’s plotting against Desslok. The Gamilon leader accepts Zordar's gift and departs to resume his vendetta

against the Star Force.

[SB2 #17, “Gideon's Trumpet"]

2201, 8 November

- The Star Force discovers and destroys a secret Cometine supply base on Brumus

during an unscheduled layover.

[SB2 #18, “Requeim for Brumus"]

2201, 9 November

- The returning Argo is the last major EDF capital ship to join the combined

EDF space fleets under Captain Gideon’s command at Titan. [SB2 #18, “Requeim for Brumus"]

2201, 10-11 November

- The Battle of Saturn

[SB2 #19 & #20, “The Battle of Saturn (Parts 1 & 2)"]

- Death of Fleet Captain Draco Gideon, and almost all EDF personnel aboard their

respective ships, when the EDF fleet is annhiliated by the mobile space

fortress Gatlantis at the end of the Battle of Saturn.

[SB2 #20, “The Battle of Saturn (Part 2)"]

2201, 12 November

- The United Earth Government surrenders unconditionally to the Comet Empire,

following the complete rout of the combined EDF fleets in the Battle of

Saturn. The Star Force is presumed lost or destroyed during the battle.

[SB2 #20, “The Battle of Saturn (Part 2)." It is important to note that the entire active EDF fleet in the field, save for the Argo (and possibly a

handful of ships that didn't or couldn't answer Gideon's orders for whatever

reasons) was wiped out at the Battle of Saturn. Earth had nothing left with

which to defend itself save its automated satellite systems. These were

easily destroyed by the Comet Empire once it arrived at Earth. Other EDF

ships will survive this era, however, because they appear in other tales later

down the timeline (SB3, BWE, YR, et al). Most are probably new builds, but

some may actually date back to the Earth-Cometine War and might be salvaged

battle wrecks, or even the few ships that were unable to report for duty under

Gideon's command for any number of reasons. I base this surmise on the visual

evidence of the later stories - plus the fact that at least one Cometine fleet

survived the Battle of Saturn. This is the small one that delivers Zordar's

surrender ultimatum to Earth in SB2 #21, "Aftermath."]

- Prince Zordar orders the destruction of the main EDF base on Mars as Gatlantis

passes on its way to Earth. There are only a handful of survivors

[FSY timeline only. This same footage was retinted and recycled for the

destruction of Luna in the television series. The events of SBC1 match those

of the English-dubbed series, in that Gatalantis did not attack Mars as it

passed by.]

- Prince Zordar turns Luna, Earth’s moon, into a flaming ball of fire as a show of power.

[SB2 #21, "Aftermath." NOTE - This act probably collapsed the Darkwood

stargate on Luna’s dark side (I5555) - which would explain why it never appears again in other Leijiverse stories. My guess is that this was one of

the reasons why Prince Zordar targeted Earth’s moon specifically, instead of bombarding Earth’s surface right away - as he does later on. He stated in the anime that his act was a show of power against Earth. By collapsing the

Darkwood stargate, Prince Zordar removed mankind’s last hope of escape from his dominion. This is just surmise on my part, of course, but it has gained

a fair amount of support among Leijiverse fans over the years since I first

proposed it.]

- Desslok of Gamilon and his forces ambush the Star Force near Luna, Earth’s moon. The battle ends only after a dramatic personal showdown between Desslok

and Derek Wildstar. After the confrontation the Gamilon leader suddenly

withdraws and abandons the field, leaving behind his former alliance and a

puzzled Star Force.

[SB2 #23, "Desslok's Revenge" and #24, "Old Scores Settled."]

- Death of Black Tiger fighter pilot Jefferson Hardy.

[SB2 #25, “A Desperate Gamble." Hardy did NOT die in the original English dub, but his death scene was restored - for the most part - for the

fan-produced STAR BLAZERS REMASTERED print of this episode.]

- Death of Space Marine Corporal Joseph "Killer" Kane.

[SB2 #25, “A Desperate Gamble." He's the one doing the death dance after the Cometine soldiers turn the floodlights on Wildstar's boarding party and start

shooting.]

- Death of Black Tiger squadron leader Peter “Pete” Conroy. [SB2 #25, “A Desperate Gamble." Conroy did NOT die in the original English dub, but his death scene was restored - for the most part - for the

fan-produced STAR BLAZERS REMASTERED print of this episode.]

- Death of Space Marine Sergeant Knox.

[SB2 #25, “A Desperate Gamble." Knox did NOT die in the original English dub, but his death scene was restored - for the most part - for the

fan-produced STAR BLAZERS REMASTERED print of this episode.]

- Death of Neville Royster.

[SB2 #26, “End Game." He dies in episode 24 in the Japanese original, when the Argo's second bridge is hit during the search for the hangar port doors

at the bottom of Gatlantis. This was moved for the fan-produced STAR BLAZERS

REMASTERED prints to better fit with the available English-dubbed footage.

Royster's death was cut from the original English dub.]

- Death of Star Force Chief Engineer Patrick Orion.

[SB2 #26, “End Game." Orion did NOT die in the original English dub, but his death scene was restored - for the most part - for the fan-produced STAR

BLAZERS REMASTERED print of this episode. This is why you see him again in

a brief cameo in SBC2, in which he declines to join the Star Force mission to

Eurythmia due to his advanced age. The SBC2 cameo is not considered canon

anymore, but is here noted for those interested.]

- The Star Force, along with the unexpected last-minute intervention of Trelana

of Telezart, engages and destroys the Comet Empire. There are only twenty-

eight survivors, both whole and wounded, from the entire Star Force.

[SB2 #26, “End Game." In BFY, Wildstar states that 96 members of the Star Force died during the Earth-Cometine War. This apparently does not count

casualties among the wounded, but does include all ten of the Space Marines

from Brumus who joined the Star Force and were killed in action during the

course of the Earth-Cometine War.]

- Trelana transmigrates to the next level of existence while in the process of

destroying Zordar's gigantic superdreadnought.

[SB2 #26, "End Game" and SR. In the episode, Trelana's last words to Zordar

are that she is going to show him "a new way." SR makes clear what that new

way was, as well as how the deaths of everyone on both sides during the Five

Years of Fire affected it.]

2201, 14-21 November

- Most of the surviving elements of the Comet Empire fleets that took part on

the assault on the Milky Way galaxy regroup at Redella under the command of

General Radnar.

[SBTM, s.v. “Further Course of Action by the Comet Empire” and SBC1, Part 1, “S.O.S. Argo." Radnar is named as the senior commander of all surviving Cometine forces in SBC1. His dreadnought is based on production sketches

(which can be found in YPM1&2) of an unused design for Prince Zordar’s dreadnought.

- The current rulers of the Comet Empire decide that expansion into the Milky

Way galaxy would be more trouble than it is worth. Their decision is to

pursue conquests in other parts of intergalactic space. In this they are

vociferously opposed by General Radnar. He breaks with his superiors and

decides to initiate action against Earth and the EDF on his own. The Comet

Empire does not forbid Radnar’s actions; however, they officially break all ties with him. They leave him and his forces to whatever fate lies in store

for them in the Milky Way Galaxy. Any success by Radnar will be to their

advantage; any loss will be entirely his own affair.

[SBC1, implied. It is stated repeatedly in the story that Radnar is violating

orders and acting on his own initiative.]

- The Comet Empire appoints a new heir to replace the defeated and disgraced

Prince Zordar. Zordar is officially listed in Cometine records as killed in

action with the Star Force. His true fate remains an official secret.

[SBTM, s.v. “Further Course of Action by the Comet Empire” and SR]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

2201, 28-30 November - STAR BLAZERS: THE CALLISTO CRISIS comic book series

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

2201, 28-30 November

- The sun in the Arishna system goes nova, destroying all of its innermost

planets. The former Guardian Spirit of Arishna leaves at the same time,

departing the system in a hyperlight burst of energy.

[SBC1 Part 2, “The Prisoner and the Power” and Part 4, “Sacrifice"]

- The EDF frigate Hanley is made spaceworthy in just three days in order to help

deal with the Callisto crisis.

[SBC1 Part 2, “The Prisoner and the Power.” This event is significant in that the Hanley was the EDF vessel closest to completion, per on-screen evidence

(we see a vessel that is probably the Hanley in SB2 #02, "Blackout"), when the

impending threat of the Comet Empire was finally realized. Its construction

was apparently held up for more Andromedas despite its being so close to

completion.]

- Mars Base is destroyed by General Radnar during the Callisto crisis.

[SBC1 Part 3, “Target: Argo!"]

- General Talan and his Gamilon fleet join with the Star Force to deal with the

Callisto crisis. It is the first time that humans and Gamilons have allied

themselves in a common cause.

[SBC1 Part 3, “Target: Argo!"]

- The EDF frigate Hanley is destroyed in action against General Radnar’s forces during the Callisto crisis.

[SBC1 Part 4, “Sacrifice"]

- General Radnar and his forces are wiped out in Earth orbit, thanks to the

unexpected intervention of the Guardian Spirit of Arishna.

[SBC1 Part 4, “Sacrifice."]

- Luna, Earth’s moon, is restored to its former glory by the Guardian Spirit of Arishna.

[SBC1 Part 4, “Sacrifice"]

2201, first week of December

- The rebuilding of Earth begins.

[YNV. Sandor tells Wildstar he watched the rebuilding begin from his hospital

window.]

- Steven Sandor buys himself a home on Great Island within sight of Mt. Fuji.

[SBC3's "Icarus" story arc, Part 1, “The Rock." Must have done it on the Leijiverse equivalent of the Internet (called Earthnet in some tales), since

he was in the hospital at the time. In BWE, Sandor tells Tomoko he has "a

small place" back on Earth where she can stay when she gets back.]

- Steven Sandor develops the warp supercharger. It represents the first

significant improvement in human space warp technology since its gift by

Starsha of Iscandar in 2199. The warp supercharger permits starships to make

one long jump from origin to destination in most cases, instead of a string of

smaller jumps as had been the norm. Voyages of extended duration still

require a series of jumps, although such can be longer than before.

[SBTM and YNV; see also SB3 and BWE. Sandor had apparently been experimenting

with the idea for a while. Construction probably began while he was still in

the hospital. In the first series it took about 3½ months for the Yamato to make the return trip from Iscandar to Earth. By the time YNV rolls around, he

has reduced the time for the same trip to only a week! BWE implies that with

its supercharger, the rebuilt Argo could make a jump as large as 7000 to 8000

light-years, since Mariposa extends its capability "a little longer" into the

10-12,000 light-year range. In SB3, it takes three jumps for the Argo to go

from the planet Galman to the planet Phantom, so long range trips via multiple

jumps weren't entirely eliminated by Sandor's supercharger.]

- Lieutenant Commander Sho Yamazaki, formerly an assistant engineer with the

Star Force, is reassigned as the new chief engineer of the Argo.

[YNV. Yamazaki is never given a name in the English-language version of SB3,

but the Japanese name of his character has since been accepted by fandom as

correct for the English dub, too. This is apparently meant to be the same

engineer who reported the fire in the Argo’s engine room in SB2 #19, “The Battle of Saturn, Part 2”) just before a big explosion throws him off-screen. When his character is first introduced in YNV, Mark Venture observes that

Yamazaki had recently been discharged from the hospital. He had apparently

been put off with the rest of the Star Force wounded at Ganymede, thus

escaping the certain death reserved for the majority of his comrades. NOTE -

In SBC3's "Icarus" story arc, this character is given the name "Commander

Meyers."]

- EDF space probes discover the planet Eurythmia, an isolated and seemingly

desolate world within the Milky Way galaxy. It is unique in that it is the

only interstellar body ever encountered by humanity to have an absolutely

perfect circular orbit. This is a physical impossibility and implies some

form of intelligence at work. A scientific expedition is promptly dispatched

to Eurythmia for a detailed study of the planet under the joint leadership of

Professors Hans Schiller and Jessica Shannon. Jessica’s father, EDF Colonel “Cosmo” Shannon, is put in charge of the EDF forces escorting the Eurythmia survey mission. The study goes without a hitch and the expedition eventually

returns to Earth unharmed.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed"]

- A new interstellar power arises to challenge the revolt-ridden Gamilon Empire

in the wake of the defeat of the Comet Empire. It is the Mercenary Empire, so

named because most of its military forces are made of mercenaries from various

intelligent species across the galaxy. Its leader is Supreme Commander Lotar.

Under his leadership, the Mercenary Empire promptly seizes control of a dozen

key systems formerly occupied by the Comet Empire. Lotar’s ambitions appear to be to seize control of all former Cometine holdings within the Milky Way.

This also happens to include the Earth and its fledgling interstellar

colonies.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed."]

- Unknown and unnoticed, General Ian Helms and his followers return to Earth.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed"]

--------------------------------------------

2201, 7-25 December - YAMATO: THE NEW VOYAGE

--------------------------------------------

2201, any time between late November and early December

- Sasha, daughter of Commander Alex Wildstar and Queen Starsha of Iscandar, is

born.

[YNV and SBC3's "Icarus" story arc. Sasha is a small, chubby baby when we

first see her, no more than a year old at most in apparent age. It is

established in BFY and SBC3's "Icarus" that Sasha aged a little more than one

year for every Earth month; therefore, the date of her birth couldn't have

been too far removed from the events depicted in YNV.]

2201, 7 December

- Desslok of Gamilon, now reunited with General Talan and the rest of his fleet,

orders their course set for Gamilon. He wishes to pay his respects one last

time to his former homeworld.

[YNV; see also SBC2 Part 4, “Sacrifice”]

2201, 8 December

- Patrick John “Tim” Orion Jr. is granted his request to join the Star Force. [YNV. He was a member of the 2201 graduating class of the Space Cadet School.

We first see him in the movie the day before he graduated. The Star Force was

his requested duty assignment. The original Japanese source materials for

STAR BLAZERS make it clear that December was the month in which the Space

Cadet School held graduation exercises for its senior class.]

- Derek Wildstar and Nova Forrester decide to postpone their wedding again;

this time, “for a while.” [YNV. According to Nova, “I’m happy as things are.” Their wedding will wind up getting postponed for another four years, by the way.]

2201, 10 December

- A total of 59 new crewmembers (including Orion Jr.) join the Star Force.

[YNV. 30 new engineers (including Orion Jr’s ill-fated boatload) and 29 others in other duty sections (Kitano’s report). Most appear to have been straight from the Space Cadet School graduating class of 2201 per the movie

visuals. This number does not appear to have included new pilots for the

famed Black Tiger Squadron, nor does it appear to have included any

replacement Space Marines per se. We don't see Space Marines on the Argo

again until Eldred's SR web comic series.]

2201, 12 December

- The Yamato leaves Earth on a routine training mission for the next two weeks

on the Martian side of the Sol System inner asteroid belt.

[YNV]

2201, 15 December

- Desslok’s fleet arrives at Gamilon and discovers a clandestine Black Nebula Empire mining operation in full swing. An angered Desslok orders his fleet to

wipe out the aliens who are, in his eyes, desecrating the sacred soil of

Gamilon. The destruction of the Black Nebula mining ships, with their holds

full of high-energy ore, sets off a chain reaction that causes Gamilon to

self-destruct within the hour and blows Iscandar out of its orbit. Desslok and

his surviving forces immediately set off in pursuit of the helpless planet

Iscandar, which is now speeding out of control across the Sea of Stars.

[YNV. I note in passing that the ore iscandarium, so named in the movie, and

the more common cosmonite in the Leijiverse may be one and the same, or

similar ores with similar properties. Both are used to fuel FTL starships.]

2201, 16 December

- Despite Desslok's pleas, both Queen Starsha and Alex Wildstar refuse to leave

Iscandar. The planet is now moving fast enough to warp on its own, which it

does. Not knowing what else to do and for possibly the first time in his

life, Desslok calls for help. He sends a message to the Star Force, so Derek

Wildstar will know what is happening to his elder brother Alex.

[YNV.]

- The Yamato’s training exercises are cancelled when word of Desslok’s distress signal is received. The Star Force is immediately dispatched to the Greater

Magellanic Cloud with orders from EDF Commander General Singleton to provide

what aid and assistance to Queen Starsha they can. “It’s our turn to help her and yours is the closest ship,” Singleton tells the Star Force. [YNV]

2201, 23-25 December

- The Battle of Iscandar is fought between forces of the Black Nebula and the

alliance of Desslok's Gamilons and the Star Force over the fate of the

wandering planet Iscandar.

[YNV]

2201, 25 December

- The end of the Battle of Iscandar results in no clear winner. Instead, Queen

Starsha decides to destroy her world (and herself along with it) rather than

continue being a war prize. She is survived by her royal consort, EDF

Commander Alex Wildstar, and their daughter Sasha. They are both taken aboard

the Argo prior to its leaving the area, along with Desslok and what remains

of his Gamilon fleet. As for the Black Nebula forces, they are destroyed when

the planet Iscandar explodes.

[YNV]

- Starsha's physical death causes her to transmigrate to the next level of

existence - where she is at long last reunited with her sister Astra.

[SR]

2201, 26 December 2201

- Before they go their separate ways, Desslok thanks Derek Wildstar for

answering his earlier distress call. Desslok and his fleet then leave to find

a new home and rebuild the Gamilon Empire. The Star Force begins the journey

back to Earth.

[YNV]

2203, 3 January

- The Star Force arrives back at Earth ... and, far away, the Black Nebula

Empire begins plotting its revenge against humanity for thwarting its designs.

[YNV. It took seven days for the Argo to warp from Earth to Iscandar’s new position. One more day out was the red giant star that caused them so much

trouble in one of the movie’s deleted scenes. It was within sight of the same red giant star where Derek Wildstar and Leader Desslok said their goodbyes at

the end of the movie. You can clearly see it in the background behind their

ships. Hence, the Star Force was eight days’ worth of warping away from Earth at that point.]

2202, first week of January

- Sasha begins to read on her own.

[SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 1, “The Rock."]

early 2202

- Wave motion gun cartridges are developed.

[BFY. They are first used in this movie.]

- According to one version of the legend of the Star Force, former Argo chief

engineer Patrick Orion survived the end of the Earth-Cometine War. Now fully

recovered from his battle wounds, Orion accepts a job as an engineering

instructor at the Space Cadet School. In this version of events, this act

marks his formal retirement from the Star Force.

[SBC2 Part 1, “The Jackals Come to Feed." Orion mentions his new job when he politely declines Wildstar’s offer to rejoin the Star Force. This event is no longer considered canon, but I have included it anyway for reference

purposes.]

- The Earth colony of Centarius is established on the sole habitable planet in

orbit around the star Alpha Centauri.

[SB3 #01, “The Solar System Faces Destruction"]

- Excalibur, the third and final incarnation of the Desslok Cannon, is

developed.

[SB3 #25, “Argo Shoot That Sun!"]

- The EDF commissions its Design Board to do a study on several new classes of

space warships. Some are based on or derived from current designs, while

others are all-new efforts. Out of this study will come the plans for the

next generation of EDF space warships to be built, including the Arizona class

super space battleship and the Andromeda II class space control ship.

[SBTM and SR. SBTM notes that the first Andromeda II was “officially commissioned in 2202,” but this date was revised upward to 2214 for SR. The Arizona class, first seen in SB3 and subsequently in SR, is clearly based on

the original Andromeda design - at least as far as everything below the

"waterline" is concerned ....]

- The Galman Empire develops and deploys "space submarines," that achieve a form

of stealth by submerging into subspace until ready to attack.

[SB3 #13, “The Galman Wolf." Desslok may have gotten the idea during his alliance with Prince Zordar of the Comet Empire, per SB2 #07, "A Matter of

Perspective."]

---------------------------------------------------------------

mid-2202 - STAR BLAZERS: THE EURYTHMIA AFFAIR comic book series

---------------------------------------------------------------

mid-2202

- Leader Desslok learns the location of Galman, the original homeworld of the

Gamilons. He immediately begins making plans to pay a pilgrimage to the

birthplace of his people.

[SBC2 Part 4, “A Blast From the Past."]

- The Star Force frees the Guardian Spirit of Eurythmia from its millennia of

imprisonment by the hands of her own people. In the process, it also destroys

all surviving Eurythmian Planet Crushers, including the one in use by the

Mercenary Empire. Without the power of the Planet Crusher to back it, the

Mercenary Empire quickly collapses.

[SBC2 Part 5, “Crescendo"]

----------------------------------------------------------------

2202, 6 September to 24 November - STAR BLAZERS: ICARUS

(SBC3 three-part story arc)

----------------------------------------------------------------

2202, 8 November

- The now-teenaged Sasha goes with her "uncle," Steven Sandor, to his new

posting at the EDF base on the asteroid Icarus. This is at the request of her

father, Commander Alex Wildstar. His stated intent is to keep her rapid aging

from prying eyes. Alex’s real intent is to get her out of harm’s way from the invasion from the Black Nebula Empire he knows will be coming someday.

[SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 1, “The Rock." Sandor calculated Sasha’s growth rate at around seventeen times that of a normal human.]

2202, 22 November

- Sasha celebrates her “sixteenth” birthday. [SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 1, “The Rock"]

2202, 24 November 2202

- Steven Sandor is almost killed in a pressure suit accident at Icarus.

[SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 2, “Waxwing" and Part 3, "Angel Too Close to the Sun"]

- Commander Derek Wildstar puts in a call to on Earth from his current command,

the EDF long-range patrol ship Advance. He tells Nova, “I’ll be back in eight short weeks.” [SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 2, “Waxwing"]

2202, 30 November

- Sasha’s application for enrollment is accepted at the EDF Space Cadet School. [SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 3, “Angel Too Close to the Sun." This explains the uniform she is wearing in BFY. It is that of a first-year Space Cadet

School midshipman.]

2202, 22 December

- A top-secret meeting is held in the office of UEG President Fujimori. The

only other attendees are EDF Commander General Singleton and Gally Forrester,

the younger sister of Star Force member Nova Forrester who works as an EDF

staff psychologist. The subject of the meeting is the recently revived

Abraham Avatar. Captain Avatar is alive; however, he has no memory of his

past. It will be Gally Forrester’s job to try to revive his memories and reacquaint him with the man he once was.

[SBC3 "Icarus" story arc, Part 3, “Angel Too Close to the Sun." This serves as set-up for his eventual reappearance in FY. His revival was attributed to

the effects of the Cosmo DNA in restoring Earth to its glory of old. The

Cosmo DNA is what kept his brain alive even though his body had died, so the

logic goes. Make of it what you will. This potential story arc was never

fully explored before SBC3's cancellation in mid-arc, due to a shake-up in

the comic book industry at that time. In a related non-canon event, SBC3 also

appears to imply that Astra's body had been retained on Earth and that it too

might have been revived. This would have been at odds both with the original

Japanese source materials and Matsumto-san’s own manga. Both of these emphasize that Astra was taken to and laid to rest on Iscandar by the Star

Force, not preserved in cryostasis on Earth and later revived.]

2202, 23 December

- Captain Keisuke Yamanami assumes command of the Argo on the direct orders of

General Singleton.

[SBC3 BFY partial adaptation, Part 1, “Prelude"]

2202, 24 December

- Yamanami orders Sandor to have the Argo repainted in keeping with its new role

as the flagship of the EDF Special Defense Forces. He also assigns Cadet “Mio Sandor” (i.e Sasha) the job of actually supervising the paint job. [SBC3 BFY partial adaptation, Part 1, “Prelude"]

- The Gamilons detect a Black Nebula Gorda-class space fortress de-warping just

inside the Sol System. They also detect a Black Nebula strike fleet enroute

to Earth. General Talan reports to Leader Desslok that the EDF has not

detected either event and that humanity has no clue that they are about to be

attacked by the Black Nebula Empire. Leader Desslok decides not to intervene

on Earth’s behalf for the simple fact that his own available forces in the area are too small to repel such a large assault.

[SBC3 BFY partial adaptation, Part 1, “Prelude"]

--------------------------------------------------------

2202, 25 December to 2203, 5 January - BE FOREVER YAMATO

--------------------------------------------------------

2202, 25 December

- Earth is conquered and occupied by the Black Nebula Empire.

[BFY]

- Derek Wildstar’s patrol cruiser is shot down over Earth while witnessing the destruction of the EDF Automated Fleet by the Black Nebula Empire.

[BFY]

- All Star Force members save Nova Forrester successfully escape Earth and flee

to Icarus Base in the asteroid belt on the orders of General Singleton. Nova

is not so fortunate. She is wounded during the escape and unable to leave

with her comrades. Instead, she is captured – along with General Singleton, Alex Wildstar, and many other EDF command staff officers. Nova is lucky in

that her captor is Alphon, a kindly Black Nebula intelligence officer. As for

the others, they are imprisoned and given one of two choices: cooperation or

a very swift death.

[BFY]

2202, 26-30 December

- The Black Nebula invasion forces threaten to destroy all life on Earth with a

hyperion bomb unless all resistance ends to their rule. The United Earth

Government has no choice but to capitulate. Their first task is to reveal the

location of the Argo. The only two people on Earth who know that are General

Singleton and Alex Wildstar, but they refuse to cooperate. The two are

subsequently dragged away for execution unless they talk.

[BFY]

- Death of Alex Wildstar. He kills himself with a bomb surgically implaneted in

his chest some months before (anticipating just such an event) so General

Singleton can escape.

[BFY; see also the partial BFY adaptation by SBC3, in particular the issue

"Prelude."]

- Black Nebula intelligence officer Alphon seizes an abandoned upper-class home

in Megapolis City as his own. He moves Nova there and tends to her injuries.

[BFY . According to SBC3, the former occupant of the house was none other than

the recuperating Abraham Avatar, who was spirited away to the nearest

underground city even as Black Nebula forces were storming the area. The

house briefly reappears in SB3 as the residence of both Derek and Nova, in

the short time that they lived together between the end of BFY and the start

of SB3.]

- In order to deceive the Black Nebula forces he knows will be waiting to

intercept their ship, Derek Wildstar has Doctor Sane inject everyone aboard

their escape ship with a drug to simulate death for a time. While the drug is

being prepared, he and his fellow Star Force members rig their ship so that it

will look like they died from an atmosphere leak due to a hatch damaged by the

firefight during their escape from Earth. The ruse is successful, and the

deaths duly reported to intelligence officer Alphon. After the patrols leave,

IQ-9 revives the others. The Star Force quietly repairs their ship and then

slips to Icarus base.

[SBC3's partial adaption of BFY. The news of the finding of the ship and

the lifeless bodies inside comes as a crushing blow to Yuki in the movie

proper, who doesn't know what has really happened.]

- The Star Force arrives at Icarus Base - where, to their delighted surprise,

they find the Argo hidden inside. They use it to successfully escape the

Solar System.

[BFY]

- General Singleton and his followers flee to the old underground city beneath

Megapolis City. There they begin organizing what resistance they can against

humanity’s Black Nebula masters. He also orders the Argo to find and disable the control source for the hyperion bomb that the Black Nebula has placed on

Earth.

[BFY]

- The Argo leaves the Sol System. Its destination is the Virgo Cluster, from

where the control signal for the hyperion bomb seems to be eminating.

[BFY. The distance between the asteroid belt and planet Brumus is just over

four days at top sublight speed, per SB2.]

2203, 31 January

- The Argo is forced to lay for several hours over for minor repairs to its

radar system after its first successful test of its new warp supercharger

system.

[BFY. I note in passing that the trip to the Virgo Cluster would have

normally taken nineteen days without the supercharger.]

- Derek Wildstar is shocked when Cadet “Mia Sandor” reveals herself to be none other than his own grown niece Sasha. She in turn is shocked when Wildstar

tells her about her father’s death. [BFY]

- An Argo reconnaissance plane stumbles across a nearby Black Nebula mobile

supply base hiding inside a nebula. The Star Force’s Black Tigers catch the base by surprise and destroy its support fleet before it can even be launched.

Captain Yamanami then orders the base destroyed with the Argo’s wave motion gun.

[BFY]

2203, 1 January

- The Argo destroys two Black Nebula battle fleets and several Gorda class

battle fortress while escaping a trap in the Virgo Cluster meant to destroy

it once and for all. The ship's new wave motion cartridges prove particularly

useful in this encounter.

[BFY]

2203, 2-3 January

- While Earth is dealing with the Black Nebula, Leader Desslok launches a

successful campaign to free Galman from control by the Bolar Federation.

The Galman and Gamilon peoples are reunited for the first time in millennia.

Desslok makes Galman his new seat of power and quickly builds the new

Galman-Gamilon Empire into one of the largest in known space. His only major

contender for total control of the Milky Way galaxy is Prime Minister Bemlayze

of the Bolar Federation. Their respective star empires soon become mortal

enemies.

[SB3 #16, “The Day of Desslok”]

- The Yamato penetrates a hyperdimensional corridor into the parallel universe

of the Black Nebula Empire. There, for a time, they are deceived into

thinking they have arrived at a future Earth. It is actually Dezarium, the

homeworld of the Black Nebula Empire, where the controls for the hyperion bomb

on Earth are located.

[BFY]

2203, 4 January

- The Black Nebula’s “future Earth” ruse is exposed. At the same time, Earth resistance forces are successful in retaking control of Megapolis City and

seizing the hyperion bomb. A dying Alphon reveals the secret of the bomb’s controls to Nova even as the Star Force engages the forces of the Black Nebula

Empire for the last time. The Star Force eventually triumphs, Dezarium is

destroyed, and the hyperion bomb deactivated; however, the price of victory is

almost too great for Derek Wildstar to bear ....

[BFY]

- Death of Sasha, daughter of Alex Wildstar and Queen Starsha of Iscandar.

With her dies the Iscandarians, one of the oldest intelligent humanoid races

in the known universe. It is not her final end, though - for as the direct

descendant of Iscandarians of royal blood, her physical death is merely a

gateway to the next level of existence. She is transmigrated, being reunited

with the spirit of her mother Starsha, and getting to meet the aunt she had

met before in the presence of Astra, Starsha's sister.

[BFY, SR]

2203, 5 January

- The Yamato finally returns to Earth from its journey to the former Black

Nebula empire's parallel universe.

[BFY]

sometime in January 2203

- The Earth and its growing network of interstellar colonies come together under

the banner of the Earth Federation. This represents the founding of a human

oriented interstellar federation that (under various names) will last for

about 760 years - and come to dominate the Milky Way galaxy for most of that

time.

[SB3 is the first time in the STAR BLAZERS franchise that the term "Earth

Federation" is used. It is still in existence under this name for both YR

and Y2520. Sometime after that it changes its name to the Solar Federation,

(or a variant name thereof, depending on your source) and becomes the dominant

power in the Milky Way galaxy. It will remain so until the mid-2960s, when

it is finally conquered - by either the Illumidas in the "heyday" Leijieverse

(per MYA) or the Machine Empire in the "revival" Leijiverse (per HSm and

CWZ).]

- Launching of the Arizona, the prototype for the newest class of EDF super

space battleships.

[SB3 #24, "Battle at the Scagaleck Star Cluster." We actually see it briefly

in an earlier episode in the Japanese original, as it is leaving Earth, but

this earlier scene was cut from the English dub (it is present as an Easter

egg in the DVD release). The design proved successful enough, despite the

loss of the class ship, that the EDF ordered more. A sister ship to the

Arizona, the EDS Gideon, makes a brief appearance during SR under the command

of Captain “Dash” Jordell.]

- The Argo is drydocked at a secret EDF base high in the Canadian Rocky

Mountains for a major refit, following its battles with the Black Nebula

Empire. This is the last major refit that the Yamato will receive during its

original service lifetime and the only one that takes place at a facility

outside of Japan. The main purpose of this refit is to install an upgraded

wave motion engine, but many other onboard systems are updated as well.

[SB3. In the Japanese original the refit took place in the mountains near

Angen, Japan. We know a new wave motion engine was installed per the series

visuals. The new one has two main motor rotors, whereas the old one only

had one. My guess, per the English dub, is that the Argo was docked at the

same base at which the Arizona was built and launched; however, this is pure

conjecture on my part.]

-----------------------------------

2203 - STAR BLAZERS: THE BOLAR WARS

-----------------------------------

mid to late January 2203

- The Cosmo Hound enters EDF service.

[SB3 #02, “The Great Battle in the Milky Way." It first appears in this episode, and the dialogue indicates that it was new technology.]

- Commander Derek Wildstar is promoted to the rank of captain. He is the

youngest person ever to achieve the rank of captain in the EDF. His first

assignment is a familiar one, save that this time he will be the Argo’s commander - i.e. resident “old man.” [SB3 #01, "The Solar System Faces Destruction"]

- A stray Galman planet destroyer proton missile crashes into Earth’s Sun. The resultant runaway chain reaction causes the sun to begin abnormal expansion.

All life on Earth will be destroyed from the heat within one year unless the

reaction is stopped.

[SB3 #01, "The Solar System Faces Destruction"]

- All available EDF vessels that can be spared are ordered by General Singleton

to begin a systematic search of the Milky Way galaxy in order to find mankind

a new home before all life on Earth is eradicated. Among the vessels involved

in the search are the Argo, the Arizona, the experimental cruisers Bismarck

and Prince of Wales, and other unnamed ships from Africa and Euroland.

[SB3 #01, “The Solar System Faces Destruction,” #24, “Battle of the Scagelek Star Cluster,” and the SB3 DVD Easter egg deleted early scene involving the Arizona. The other two ships in the deleted scene are the Bismarck and the

Prince of Wales, per the original Japanese source materials. Nova mentions

the additional ships from Africa and Euroand in SB3 #24. My guess is that

the Bismarck and Prince of Wales represented the ships from Euroland, given

their names (two famous European battleships from WWII). We never do find

out anything more about the ships from Africa. NOTE - It is possible to

read into the dialogue of SB3 #24 that the Arizona went missing long before

the mission to find a new Earth. The original Japanese background materials

make it clear that the Arizona was to have been the focus of a side story arc

for SB3, as part of the mission to find a new Earth, that was abandoned when

the show got cut in half. The English dubbed dialogue obscures this fact.

Eldred discusses this on both the DVD and the official STAR BLAZERS web site.]

2203, 14 January

- Homer Glitchman meets his future wife Wendy Singleton, daughter of EDF

Commander Charles Singleton.

[SB3 #03, “Star Force Embarks at Dawn”]

2203, 15 January

- The Yamato launches on its new mission: to find a new Earth before the

overheading Sol destroys the old one.

[SB3 #03, “Star Force Embarks at Dawn”]

2203, 18-19 January

- The Legendra Incident marks the first time that Earth comes into contact

with anyone from the Bolar Federation - in this case, the badly damaged

Berth garrison fleet flagship Legendara.

[SB3 #05, “S.O.S. Spaceship Legendra” and #06, “Fierce Battle Near Planet Brumus.” A good case can be made that Captain Ram and his crew are former Comentine who now work as mercenaries for the Bolar, but this is strictly

conjecture.]

2203, 2 February

- The Star Force comes to the assistance of Earth's Centaurius colony, located

in the Alpha Centauri system. It had been the victim of an unprovoked Galman

attack.

[SB3 #07, “The Rough Seas of Alpha Centauri”]

2203, 5 February

- The Star Force comes to the aid of a family of human space colonists lost

during the Earth-Gamilon War.

[SB3 #08, “The Last Pioneer." This is the same family of three that left Earth in 2198, as referenced earlier in this timeline.]

2203, 7 Feburary

- The Argo wins another decisive battle against General Dagon of the

Galman-Gamilon Empire at Barnard’s Star. [SB3 #09, “The Battle of Barnard's Star”]

2203, 28 February 2203

- General Dagon tries and fails to defeat the Star Force with his new battle

fleet. Instead, his own fleet is wiped out.

[SB3 #010, “Dagon's Counterattack"]

2203, 2 March

- General Dagon is killed when his ship falls into the same black hole inside

which he had hoped to destroy the Yamato.

[SB3 #011, “Danger at Cygnus"]

2203, 16-17 April

- The Star Force fights its first action against the Bolar Federation at Berth,

a penal planet on the borders of Bolar space.

[SB3 #012, “Stellar Prison Camp” and #13, “The Dreadful Bolar Federation”]

2203, 7 May

- The Argo is captured by Admiral Smirdon of the Galman-Gamilon Empire. It is

soon released on the personal order of Leader Desslok, after he learns of the

grave blunders his subordinates have been committing with regards to the Star

Force and Earth. Leader Desslok apologizes to the Star Force and invites them

to the planet Galman in order to make amends.

[SB3 #014, “The Galman Wolf” and #15, “Star Force Becomes a Prisoner"]

2203, 31 May

- The Yamato arrives at planet Galman.

[SB3 #016, “A Festive Day for Desslok”]

2203, 1 June

- The Bolar Federation attempts to destroy Galman with a wave of planet

destroyer missiles warped to its location. Only the quick action of the Star

Force saves Desslok and his people.

[SB3 #017, “The Moment of Crisis"]

2203, 30 July

- The Galman Empire’s attempt to reverse the abnormal growth of Earth’s sun ends in spectacular failure.

[SB3 #018, “The Angry Sun”]

2203, 14 August

- The Star Force chances upon a pilgrim ship full of followers of the Gardiana

cult as it searches for a new Earth.

[SB3 #019, “The Way to Planet Phantom”]

2203, 4 September

- The Star Force arrives at planet Phantom.

[SB3 #020, “The Planet Phantom”]

2203, 9 September

- A Galman scientific expedition to planet Phantom discovers, almost too late,

that the entire planet is a living organism.

[SB3 #021, “False Hope”]

2203, 11

- The Star Force rescues Queen Mariposa, last living descendant of Queen

Gardiana, from planet Phantom before it is destroyed by Leader Desslok. He

is angry that the planet made a fool of him by disguising itself as the new

Earth that humanity so desperately needed.

[SB3 #022, “Farewell, Planet Phantom”]

2203, 10 November

- The Star Force discovers the wreckage of the EDF warship Arizona, victim of a

Bolar ambush, on planet Beta in the Skalagek Star Cluster. There are no

survivors.

[SB3 #023, “Fierce Battle at the Skalagek Star Cluster"]

2203, 15 November

- The Argo arrives at the long-lost legendary planet Gardiana. With the

ssistance of Leader Desslok and the Gamilons, the Star Force is successful in

repelling an attempted conquest of Gardiana by the Bolar Federation. The

Star Force receives the Hydrocosmo Penultimate Cannon as a gift from the

grateful inhabitants.

[SB3 #024, “The Secret of Planet Gardiana”]

2203, sometime around 20 November

- Dr. Sane is informed on a secured channel from Earth that his former patient

Abraham Avatar is alive, well, in full command of his facilities, and

completely cured of his radiation sickness. He is also asked to keep the news

confidential for now.

[FY. Dr. Sane tells Derek and Nova that he had “only found out a month ago” that Captain Avatar wasn’t dead after all. I’m guessing that General Singleton or perhaps even Gally Forrester relayed the news to him during the

Argo's return trip to Earth from Planet Gardiana.

2203, 1 December 2203

- The Argo fires the Hydrocosmo Penultimate Cannon at the Sun. Earth is saved

once again by the Star Force.

[SB3 #025, “Argo Shoot the Sun!”]

- Death of Jason Jetter.

[SB3 #025, “Argo Shoot the Sun!”]

- Death of Flash Contrail.

[SB3 #025, “Argo Shoot the Sun!”]

----------------------------------

2203, 5-26 December - FINAL YAMATO

----------------------------------

2203, 5 December

- The collision effect between the Milky Way galaxy and a second galaxy emerging

from a parallel dimension reaches a critical juncture. Many stars, solar

systems, and other interstellar bodies are either destroyed or tossed about

the Sea of Stars as these two galaxies pass through each other. The most

seriously affected part of the Milky Way is its galactic core. Many of the

key systems in the Galman-Gamilon Empire are affected and most of the

populated systems in the Bolar Federation are destroyed. The EDF dispatches

the Star Force on a rescue mission to pick up any survivors it finds in the

affected areas.

[FY. This impending collision was first noted by Professor Amamori back in

1999, per QMf. This galaxy is in all likelihood the same as that noted by the

Earl of Darkwood in his book Veridus Quo, per I5555.]

2203, 6 December

- The Star Force arrives at the Milky Way galactic core with orders to

investigate the interdimensional collision and rescue any survivors. They

find both the Galman-Gamilon and Bolar empires devastated. What was once

Galman is now a dead world smashed to pieces by planetary rubble. There is no

sign of Desslok and his people. The Star Force holds a memorial service for

Desslok and his people, and then departs as fast as it can in order to escape

being destroyed itself.

[FY]

- The Dinguil Emperor uses the power of his Uruku space fortress to accelerate

the passing of the rogue planet Aquarius through the Sea of Stars. His intent

is to have Aquarius wipe out all life on the planet Earth and then move in

as its new master, once the waters have receeded. This will spare the Dinguil

a nasty war of conquest.

[FY]

- The Argo makes an emergency warp to escape the sheer volume of rubble being

generated by the galactic collision effect. It dewarps at Dinguil, the fourth

planet in the Unfa star system, which is currently suffering a planetwide

catastrophe thanks to a close passing of the rogue planet Aquarius. The Star

Force attempts to rescue those still alive but is unsuccessful, losing many of

its own people and a Cosmo Hound in the process. The only one who can be

rescued is a young Dingul boy, who proves to be human save for his blue skin.

[FY]

- Without warning, the Argo is attacked by General Zarl and his Dinguil space

fleet. He has mistaken the Star Force for an enemy. The Argo’s hull is penetrated by deadly hyper-radiation missiles. Many crewmembers are killed

and even the ones who manage to don spacesuits are overcome by the radiation.

For some inexplicable reason, the ship somehow manages to fly itself back to

Earth with its cargo of injured, dead, and dying Star Force members.

[FY]

2203, 7 December

- The Argo suddenly dewarps in the vicinity of Pluto and enters the Sol System

at top sublight speed. To everyone’s surprise the ship appears to be flying itself. There is no response from anyone on board.

[FY]

2203, 12 December

- The Argo returns to Earth and docks itself at one of the surface ports

outside Metropolis City. Nova, Dr. Sane, and a special EDF medical team move

in to investigate - and discover the horror inside. A few of the crew are

still alive, thanks to their spacesuits, but are suffering from exposure to

hyper-radiation. Nova is horrified to find her beloved Derek Wildstar

not breathing, having failed to don his spacesuit in time before the

radiation overcame him. Fortunately for her, he is just barely alive and is

rushed to the intensive care unit at Central Hospital as fast as possible.

[FY]

2203, 13 December

- The United Earth Government begins organizing escape convoys in order to flee

the planet before Aquarius arrives.

[FY]

2203, 14 December

- The first escape convoy leaves Earth.

[FY]

2203, 18-19 December

- Derek Wildstar finally regains consciousness. He learns from Nova that most

of his crew died from hyper-radiation sickness from the Dinguil attack. It

was a miracle that he didn’t die as well. [FY]

- A Dinguil battle fleet attacks the Sol System. Its goal is to prevent any

humans from leaving Earth and thus ensuring the extinction of the species once

Aquarius arrives. They annhiliate anything in their path. Pluto Base, the

Saturn civilian science station, the first escape convoy to leave Earth, even

the EDF intersystem patrol fleet – all are destroyed in short order by the Dinguil.

[FY]

- Derek Wildstar resigns his commission in the Earth Defense Force. He is

upset about being unable to save the lives of those who died under his command

during the first Dinguil ambush. General Singleton sadly accepts Wildstar's

resignation, then asks Yuri to contact a certain someone for the job of

commanding the Argo.

[FY]

- The Dinguil fleet attacks Earth. They are very selective in their targets:

spaceports, landing fields, and anything that could be used to launch or

service an interstellar spacecraft of any kind. The only ships to escape

damage are those stored in the old underground or underwater locks, such as

the Argo.

[FY]

2203, 20-22 December

- Derek Wildstar decides to pay one last visit to the Argo. He is left

speechless when he comes face to face with the ship’s new commander: the revived Abraham Avatar. Avatar’s orders are to launch at once and destroy the Dinguil at all costs. Avatar “invites” Wildstar to rejoin the EDF and be part of the Star Force again. Wildstar cannot refuse the invitation, as

General Singleton has rightly guessed.

[FY]

- The Argo launches from Earth on what will prove to be its final mission.

[FY]

- The Star Force links up with a nine-vessel EDF destroyer squadron commanded by

Captain Mitzutani. Together, they embark on a search-and-destroy mission,

seeking the Dinguil fleet that has been romping through the Sol System for the

past week.

[FY]

2203, 24 December

- The Second Battle of Pluto. Captain Mitzutani and all but one ship of his

destroyer squadron are wiped out as they put their vessels in front of the

Argo to protect it from hyper-radiation missile strikes. Also killed are most

of the members of the Argo’s search-and-rescue units, mowed down by the Dinguil in cold blood while attempting to rescue the survivors of Mitzutani’s stricken squadron. In turn the Dinguil fleet is spotted and destroyed by the

Argo while in the middle of reloading its attack craft for another go at the

Star Force.

[FY]

2203, 25 December

- The Fuyuzuki, sole survivor of Captain Mitzutani’s destroyer squadron, picks

up what few survivors there are in the wreckage and, along with the Star

Force wounded, departs for Pluto Base. The ship itself is too shot up to

continue the fight, leaving the Argo to continue on alone. The Star Force

spends Christmas Day in quiet contemplation. Their only gift is a few hours’ brief respite from fighting the Dinguil.

[FY]

- Captain Avatar orders the Argo to the coordinates for the next-to-last space

warp that the planet Aquarius will make before it warps to Earth. His intent

is to intercept the Dinguil and prevent them from causing Aquarius from making

that last warp.

[FY]

2203, 26 December

- The Yamato warps to the new location of Aquarius mere hours ahead of the main

Dinguil fleet. They take the time for a quick survey, marveling at this

pelagic planet’s floating continents and aquatic beauty. They also discover, much to the Star Force’s surprise, an automated Dinguil processing facility for refining large amounts of heavy water from the seas of Aquarius for use in

their spacecraft.

[FY]

- The Star Force receives a visit from the Guardian Spirit of Aquarius. She

tells them a brief history of her world and the important part it plays in

bringing life to lifeless worlds. Hers is a two-edged sword, she tells them,

for the power of creation also implies destruction. She knows her world’s visit to Earth is 6000 years too soon and that the Dinguil are responsible.

She also tells them who the Dinguil really are before she takes her leave.

Within minutes the Dinguil arrive and the Battle of Aquarius begins.

[FY]

- The Dinguil fleet and their mighty Urdu space fortress are destroyed by the

Star Focre despite tremendous odds. Even so, and despite a near-herculean

effort to stop it, the planet Aquarius completes its final space warp. The

Star Force has won the Battle of Aquarius but may have lost the war. There

is now nothing between Earth and an impending cataclysm save the Argo.

[FY]

- Death of Mark Venture near the end of the Battle of Aquarius.

[FY]

- Both Derek Wildstar and Captain Avatar seize on a bold (and desperate) plan

to save Earth from the ravages of the impending deluge. To this end, Avatar

orders the Argo to return to Aquarius and has it dock at the Dinguil heavy

water processing plant. He then fills every available hold and compartment

with heavy water. The idea is to park the Argo between Earth and Aquarius

with its wave motion gun plugged. At the right moment, a volunteer who has

stayed aboard will manually fire the gun, which due to the plug will cause the

ship to self-destruct. The energy from the explosion will be greatly

amplified by the ship’s cargo of heavy water. This in turn will create a powerful concussion wave "blowback" effect, that will cause the waters of

Aquarius to be turned away from Earth long enough for the planet to pass with

only “minimal” damage done. The Star Force is horrified but Avatar’s word is final - as is his decision to be the one who stays aboard to fire the wave

motion gun. He has no friends and no family. He is a man who has already

died once. He is expendable. The others (especially Derek Wildstar and Nova

Forrester) are not. “The Argo is all I have left,” he tells Wildstar. “As captain, I have the right to stay with my ship.” [FY]

- The Argo is attacked by the surviving Dinguil forces before it can finish

carrying out Captain Avatar’s plan. All seems lost until Desslok and a Galman battle fleet arrive in the nick of time. Desslok had found the flowers

that the Star Force had left behind on Galman in memory of his people. He

destroys all remaining Dinguil vessels and then departs, leaving the Argo

alone and unmolested to complete its final mission. All surviving Star Force

members save Captain Avatar are then evacuated from the ship by the destroyer

Fuyuzuki. The venerable space battleship Argo then takes up station-keeping

between Earth and the rapidly approaching Aquarius.

[FY]

- Death of Captain Avatar (this time for good). He dies when he fires the

Argo’s plugged wave motion gun, causing the ship to self-destruct. [FY]

- Captain Avatar’s plan succeeds and the Earth is spared another Deluge. [FY]

- Destruction of the Argo, the oldest and most famous super space battleship

in the Earth Defense Fleet. Its shattered hull becomes trapped inside a large

mass of ice in orbit around Earth – the remnants of its fateful encounter with the rogue pelagic planet Aquarius. This will subsequently be named Aquarius

Island in memory of the event. It becomes a second moon in Earth's sky,

and is held in special reverence in the hearts of mankind due to the Argo's

sacrifice.

[FY, SR, YR. NOTE - A bit of trivia here. The Argo “breaks its back” during its destruction at about the same spot as did the real-life Yamato

during its final hours back in 1945, when it was sunk at Cape Boga. An

American armor-piercing bomb penetrated its deck and exploded inside the

powder magazine for the number two main gun turret - igniting all of the

powder in the magazine at once. This is the explosion you see and hear in

the 1945 flashback in SB1 #2, "The Giant Awakens." It was so powerful that

it blew the ship apart and was heard in Tokyo over 100 miles away. That is

why the remains of the Yamato are in two main pieces today.]

2203, 31 December

- Derek Wildstar and Nova Forrester are married in a simple seaside ceremony,

attended by the Star Force and other close family and friends. They also

finally consumate their four-year long relationship on their wedding night -

during which their daughter is conceived.

[FY special epilogue, YR, SR]

- At this point in time, after thirteen years of one planetary disaster after

another (2192-2203), Earth's population has been drastically reduced - down

to somewhere between 1 and 1.2 billion people.

[YR, implied. Each Evacuation Fleet was intended to shuttle 300 million

people at a time to Amarl, and there were four "fleets" all told. That means

Earth's population was no greater than 1.2 billion in 2220. That includes

all the people who volunteered to stay on Earth, because we know there were

empty seats in some of the early evacuation ships from the movie. I'm

talking about the original plan, of course - combat losses inflicted by the

Interstellar Alliance kept reducing the number of Amarl Expresses available

for each successive Evacuation Fleet, and Earth couldn't build new ones

fast enough to keep up with its losses - but enough of that. Now flip that

figure around and go by current real-world population estimates. That means

some FIVE BILLION people died on Earth at the turn of the 22nd century - and

most of them would have been from the Gamilon planet bomb campaigns. Just

think about that number for a while. Five billion dead ....]

- Some of the people who lived through the events of 2199-2203 will coin the

phrase "The Five Years of Fire" to describe it. It is a term that eventually

ends up in the history books.

[SR]

sometime between 2204 and 2220

- The SUS Federation, a dictatorial galactic core power that has somehow

survived the double galaxy collision, quickly moves in to pick up the pieces

left behind by the destruction of the Bolar Federation. Within a decade it

will be the leader of what it calls the Interstellar Allance. This is made

up of the major surviving coreward systems and interstellar powers, and is

more of a glorified protection racket than a true alliance. The SUS

Federation is the strongest of the surviving coreward powers, and thus

dominates the Interstellar Alliance both politically and militarily.

[YR. The Queen of Amarl notes that her planet had long been a military

stomping ground for "generations" of her people due to its valuable mineral

ores. Some interpret her remark to mean that wars had been fought over

possession of Amarl all the way back to the Yin-Yang War, thousands of years

before. Also, the Interstellar Alliance could not have existed prior to the

Bolar Federation - because the Bolar had dominated the galactic core for

thousands of years, per SB3.]

2204-2403

- The next two hundred or so years is what future Leijiverse historians will

later refer to as the First Wave; that is, mankind's first wave of

interstellar colonization and exploration. It begins after the end of the

the Bolar Wars and the passing of Aquarius, and ends with the start of the

Hundred Years War.

[SB3 #01, "The Solar System Faces Destruction," SR, Y2520 #01, "A Hope

Towards Tomorrow;" see also MLa. This is a term I have coined to describe

what's happening to mankind during this period in Earth history.]

2204

- The United Earth Government decides to begin set up human colonies on any

halfway habitable world found during the 2203 planetary surveys that is

either not already claimed by another galactic power or where the native

population welcomes them. The idea is to spread humanity out across the Sea

of Stars so that no single catastrophe can force it into extinction. The plan

is opposed to no avail by General Singleton, who warns that it will be “the end of us [humanity] as a people.” [SR Chapter 01, “Time of Chaos;" see also YR. YR's Amarl would not have been one of the new worlds discovered during this period, as it was apparently

located in former Bolar space.]

2204, 2 September

- Nova Forrester gives birth to her daughter. She names her Miyuki by combining

the first names of both of her grandmothers - Mia Wildstar and Yuki Forrester.

[SR, YR. Both agree that Miyuki was conceived on the first night of their

parent's honeymoon - their wedding night, to be more exact. This event is

depicted in the special epilogue of FY. As I mentioned earlier, I once

discussed this problem with Eldred and we both agreed that Nova had Japanese

blood on her mother's side of the family. He followed this notion in SR.]

sometime in 2205

- After much debate and political wrangling, the icy mass of Aquarius Island is

moved into a higher and safer orbit around Earth. This is meant both to

preserve it as a memorial and to keep it from crashing into the planet

someday.

[SR]

2205-2216

- Dr. Sazeko Sane retires from the EDF, his age having finally caught up with

him. He returns to his preferred calling - that of a veteranarian - and soon

goes into business for himself at a private animal clinic and wildlife

preserve not far from Megapolis City. Joining him in his retirement is his

old Star Force drinking buddy IQ-9, who with the destruction of the Argo

no longer has any function to serve - save as a companion and friend.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate. Dr. Sane started his

career as a vet, per the Japanese original of SB1, and got drafted for

service as a regular medic during the Earth-Gamilon War.]

- Steven Sandor is promoted to the rank of captain and becomes a staff officer

at EDF Headquarters, seriving as Chief of the EDF Space Science Corps. At

some point over the next fifteen years, he will earn his brigaider general's

star and change jobs. He is eventually promoted to lieutenant general, and

not long after becomes EDF Chief of Staff - the role that General Stone once

held during the Earth-Cometine War and second only to General Singleton in

authority over the entire EDF. He has one romance during this time - with

a young and vibrant woman named Carol - but they grow apart as he becomes more

involved in the Yamato Resurrection project, and they eventually break up.

Sandor will later confide to Miyuki Wildstar, "I liked her too much to watch

her become another ex-Mrs. Sandor."

[YR, but with the English dub names and some SR retconning as appropriate.]

- One of Sandor's first acts at EDF Headquarters is to seek for and win approval

for the Yamato Resurrection project. The goal is to excavate the remains of

the Argo from inside Aquarius Island, and combine them with new technology

to rebuild the ship. Technically it will be an all-new vessel and the second

space battleship to bear the name Yamato (as the Argo was originally named),

although it will be deliberately designed to look and feel as much like the

original as possible. Sandor's plan is enthusiastically supported by a

grateful public, and the United Earth Government gives him carte blanche

approval for the project. His only regret is that he cannot be directly

involved in the work himself due to his duties at EDF Headquarters. However,

he assigns former Star Force engineer Patrick "Tim" Orion Jr. as project

leader and coordinator.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate. YR's version of events

stand in stark contrast to Eldred's SR - where approval to resurrect the

Argo was a tough political and budgetary fight from day one. Oh, and if any

fellow STAR BLAZERS fans out there want to argue the point about whether or

not the new Yamato (nee Argo) was an all-new ship, as opposed to the old one

rebuilt, you need to re-watch YR and the end of FY more closely. It couldn't

have been anything BUT a new ship, albeit built in part from the remains of

the original - since the original was so badly damaged as to be unsalvageable

by any reasonable standard. Built almost exactly like the old girl, yes -

but still a brand-new ship, nonetheless. There ARE subtle differences, if

you watch YR closely, and this was something Nishizaki intended even back

when YR was still just a proposal.]

- Three of the chief people Orion Jr. gets to be on his Yamato Resurrection

team are the twins Shou and Tou Tenma, acknowledged engineering geniuses, and

Sakuri Kobayashi, one of the best of the EDF's new crop of starship pilots.

All three will be hip-deep in work on the new ship - the Tenma twins in

particular, who design and build its new transition wave motion engine.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate. The new Yamato's power

plant has a multi-chambered wave motion gun that can hold up to six charges,

as opposed to the single shot arrangement of the original. This is part of

the Tenma design. Sandor somehow finds the time to tweak and improve upon

their work, so that all six chambers can be fired at once in an emergency.

Just such an event happens late in the movie, BTW ....]

- Captain Derek Wildstar will consistently refuse combat commands for the next

fifteen years. Rumor has it that he is waiting for the day when the Argo is

resurrected from its icy grave inside Aquarius Island, and that command will

be his once that happens. He will spend part of this time lecturing at the

Space Cadet School, where he will meet a bright and promising young female

cadet named Mako Orihara.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate]

- Upon graduation from the Space Cadet School, Mako Orihara is immediately

assigned to the Yamato Resurrection project as the ship's chief navigator.

This is due to her special knowledge of the ship's new ECI navigation suite,

which is located inside the old third bridge and includes an 360 degree

virtual reality display. Mako helped develop the ECI while still a cadet

and proved to be the most adept at using it. The new Yamato will be the

first EDF vessel fitted with the ECI.

[YR. This probably happens quite late in this period, but this is just a

guess. No firm date can be established from the data we have so far, other

than the fact that Maho appears to be quite young for a bridge officer.]

- The Cosmo Pulsar space superiority fighter is developed.

[YR]

- Wave motion torpedoes are developed for the EDF equivalent of the space

submarine - the "Shinano-type" attack boat. The first of these is to be

fitted to the new Yamato in a special hangar under its bow.

[YR. NOTE - Shinano was the name of the third Yamato class battleship in

WWII. It was converted to a carrier in mid-construction, and remained the

world's largest aircraft carrier until the American Forrestal class of the

1950s.]

- Advancements on Earth in cybernetics lead to the creation of the first

“sexaroid.” These are sophisticated androids built in the likeness of beautiful female human women. A whole series of sexaroids is eventually

created and put into service for various and sundry purposes (not all of them

of the sexual service variety). To the surprise of many, including her own

husband, EDF Captain Nova Forrester consents to being the model (and supplies

both the basic neural net and empathic patterns) for the “Yuki” series of sexaroids.

[SR Volume 1 and GR1 #16, "Sexaroid." Matsumoto-san has stated for the record

that SDF Officer Yuki, the triage nurse from Galaxy Railways, is a sexaroid

patterned after the likeness of Nova Forrester (aka Yuki Mori) of STAR

BLAZERS. The visuals of Yuki-7 from the original SR manga also suggest a

likeness to everyone’s favorite female Star Force officer - or maybe that’s just Matsumoto-san’s penchant for broomstick blonds with big hair. The reasons behind Nova’s decision to be the model for the “Yuki” series would make for one helluva story! The truth behind this tale is implied in GR1 #16,

"Sexaroid." Yuki tells Mr. Oyama that she was patterned after a beautiful

woman "long ago." The reason she feels attracted at times to Manabu Yuki is

because he resembles the image of the man loved by the woman whose mind served

as the basis for her own neural net. That would be Nova Wildstar and her

husband Derek - or Yuki Mori (note the name!) and Susumu Kodai in the Japanese

original. ADDENDUM - Per GR2 #12, "The Wings of the Soul," sexaroids carry

their personality boot data on a special biochip that is inserted into a

push-slot directly behind and a little below the left ear. This is common to

most high-level androids - not just sexaroids. It is supposedly impossible to

boot them up without one. These are interchangeable among models, per DZ and

SR, so that it is possible to transfer (or even copy) one sexaroid or regular

android's personality from one body to another simply by swapping biochips.]

2206

- The United Earth Government and the Galman-Gamilon Empire sign the Reparation

Act Treaty. This makes the Gamilons the de facto protectors of the fledgling

Earth Federation, drawing a virtual line across the interstellar sand of the

Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The Gamilons will not allow any other

interstellar power in the Milky Way galaxy to cross that line.

[SR. Which explains why YR's SUS Federation never attacked Earth directly

with its fleet, but used the indirect means via the cascading black hole!

If the Interstellar Alliance had come in guns a-blazin', they'd have had to

deal with Desslok - and you know how bad-ass an enemy HE can be.]

2208

- Giordi Venture, following in his late brother's footsteps, graduates from the

EDF Space Cadet School.

[YR and SR, implied]

2214

- By now, former Star Force chief engineer Sho Yamazaki has been promoted to

flag rank and serves as Chief of the EDF Engineering Corps. His current

pet project is the experimental super space battleship Andromeda-II.

[SR. Yamazaki was Orion's successor as of YNV, and served in the role

until FY.]

- By now, former Star Force officer Christopher Eager has risen to the rank

of captain and is in command of the space battleship EDS Mitzutani (SB-23).

His executive officer is former Star Force member Tatsu Kitano.

[SR. This is a EDF FY-type space battleship. Kitano is from YNV.]

- By now, former Star Force officer "Dash" Jordell has risen to the rank of

captain and is in command of the space battleship EDS Gideon (SSB-21). His

executive officer is former Star Force member Ben "String" Bean.

[SR. This is a SB3 Arizona-type super space battleship. Bean is from SB3.]

- By now, former Star Force officer Cory Conroy has risen to the rank of

captain and is in command of the space battleship EDS Yamanami (SB-22). His

executive officer is former Star Force member Shigeru Sakamoto.

[SR. This is a EDF FY-type space battleship. Sakamoto is from YNV.]

- By now, former Star Force chief nurse Penny Aycur has become a full-fledged

doctor and a section chief in the EDF Medical Corps. She also continues in

part-time role as an EDF chaplain.

[SR, BWE. Aycur is from SB3.]

- By now, former Star Force member Goro "Buster" Block has risen to the rank

of Commander and is serving as chief engineer aboard the Andromeda-II.

[SR. Block is from SB3.]

- By now, the young Giordi Venture has seen five years of duty as an EDF officer

in the field, serving aboard various warships in Earthspace. He will be

be assigned to the ill-fated experimental battleship Andromeda-II, but a

a freak illness causes him to miss the launch. He will be the only crewmember

not aboard when the Andromeda-II disappears on its maiden voyage. This gives

him the traditional reputation of being bad luck, as is commonly associated

with such survivors. He is soon forced to leave the ranks of line officers,

and eventually winds up at EDF Headquarters as Sandor's adjutant.

[SR, but retconned to take the events of YR into account. There is a long

standing military tradition that anyone who is unable to go into combat with

their unit, and their unit subsequently gets wiped out, is considered to be

bad luck. It sounds silly, but it's true - and there are all kinds of stories

and military folkore from services around the world regarding this belief.

There is at least one other example of such a person in the Leijiverse, and

that is GR2's Ariavenus.]

2214, 5 September

- All surviving Star Force members assemble for their yearly meeting at Hero's

Hill to honor the late Captain Avatar and the fallen among their ranks. As

it turns out, this will be the last such meeting of the Star Force. Their

various duties, assignments, and responsibilities will prevent them from

ever coming together like this all at once ever again - although groups of

them will continue the tradition as they are able and for long as they live,

and they will all keep in touch with each other as best they can.

[SR, somewhat retconned]

- The experimental super space battleship Andromeda II passes the last of its

space trials and is declared "spaceworthy and ready for service." It has

been built to serve as the EDF's new flagship.

[SR]

2214, 6 September

- General Charles Singleton officially retires from the EDF. He relinquishes

his role as EDF CinC to his hand-picked successor, Lt. General Steven Sandor.

His daughter Wendy continues in her job as chief CinC aide, still being

groomed for the top slot (as Sandor's successor when the time comes).

[SR, but retconned to take the events of YR into account. The promotion in

rank is implied but supported by the YR visuals. Sandor has two stars on his

uniform collar. Recall that in SB2 Singleton's chief aide, General Stone,

was a two-star general.]

2214, 7 September

- The EDS Andromeda-II is officially commissioned into the service of the EDF.

Its first mission a simple one - an "inspection tour of the Solar System."

This amounts to little more than serving as a glorified taxi for most of the

EDF's top brass and UEG's most self-serving politicians.

[SR, but retconned to take the events of YR into account. This "original"

mission of the Andromeda-II is mentioned on p.67.]

2214, 5 October

- The new EDF flagship, the EDS Andromeda II, is lost with all hands when it

disappears inside a freak wormhole. No bodies are ever recovered, nor is

the ship. Its captain and crew are listed as "missing, presumed dead" on

the books by the UEG and the incident is quickly hushed up. Private - and

quiet - memorial services are eventually held in honor of its crew. This

public loss-of-face will cause the EDF to discontinue its research along

similar starship design lines, and instead head in a completely different

direction based around proven designs and engine technologies. As for the

Andromeda-II, her true fate and that of her crew will not be discovered for

another decade.

[SR, but retconned to take the events of YR into account. The "new design

direction" is that of YR and Y2520, as seen in the EDS Blue Noah and the

various Cometine-based "Block II" EDF warship designs.]

- Among those lost aboard the Andromeda-II is Homer Glitchman, husband of

Wendy Singleton Glitchman, daughter of former EDF CinC Charles Singleton.

His loss comes as a heavy blow to Wendy, leaving a hole in her heart that

she finds impossible to fill over the next few years.

[SR, but retconned to take the events of YR into account]

2214, second week of October

- The anti-militarist faction within the UEG Council uses the loss of the

Andromeda-II to ramrod through a series of laws changing the organization

of the EDF, as well as reducing its active fleet strength. More emphasis

is to be placed on the construction of civilian and survey ships, at the

expense of EDF warships and long-range patrol units. EDF efficiency is

further hampered by the appointment of civilian commisioners to oversee

almost every aspect of its operations - in particular its budget. Time and

again, as cooler heads try to prevail on both sides, the anti-militarists

will invoke the "reckless" example of the Andromeda-II's loss and get their

way. This situation will have a cumulative degrading effect on the overall

operational capabilities of the EDF - not noticeable at first, but one that

comes to a head some ten years hence during the Separatist Crisis. Years

later, in writing her memoirs, Miyuki Wildstar will record, "Sandor and

Orion [Jr.] did everything they could - legally and otherwise - to keep the

[EDF] fleet going. The [UEG] Council made their lives miserable, too.

Every time they got a ship into the air, it was like winning a war - and

then starting a new one the next day."

[SR, but retconned to take the events of YR into account. Perhaps that's

why we see so many "old" EDF designs in YR. Perhaps that's also why the

EDS Blue Noah from YR appears to be a one-of-a-kind ship.]

2213-2217

- The Wildstar family goes on a "world tour," visiting places of cultural

significance both old and new. Years later, in her memoirs, Miyuki Wildstar

will recall that it was during this time that she and her father began to

grow apart. She felt like he was becoming obsessed with waiting for the

Argo to be rebuilt, and this became a sore point between them. Aggrevating

matters is the breakup of the old Star Force, as its members move on to new

duties and assignments. "Dad watched every one of them get promoted and

then go off to do his new job," she would write years later. "It was like

watching him slowly die."

[SR, but dates retconned one year back to take the events of YR into account.

Nova is probably present in the YR version of this event, which adds a whole

new dimension to the SR's conflict, and the parallel one indicated in YR.]

2217

- A cascading black hole is spotted on approach to the Sol System. Computer

projections indicate that it will cross the orbit of Earth and swallow it in

three years. The decision is made to evacuate the entire remaining

population of Earth to a suitable colony world in order that humanity might

escape imminent extinction. Amarl, an inhabited moon of the planet Sairam,

is the most likely candidate and its government secretly agrees to the

evacuation - without first seeking approval from its partners in the

Interstellar Alliance. Construction begins at once on a fleet of giant

evacuation ships, dubbed "Amarl Expresses," for the effort. The original

plan calls for only one fleet of Amarl Expresses to be built, but that it

be reused in four successive waves, or "evacuation fleets." This will be

enough to evacuate Earth's entire population - some 300 million people per

"wave" or "fleet" at a time.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate]

- Derek Wildstar leaves Earth as captain of the combat support ship Yuki (in

other words, a glorified freighter). He will spend the next three years in

space. The only contact he has with his family are the eagerly awaited

letters, "care" packages, and occasional comm calls (as their duties permit).

He rarely speaks to his daughter Miyuki during this time.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate . The movie seems to

imply that she wouldn't talk to him because he refused a combat command, thus

forcing her mother to take this more dangerous job ... and apparently dying

because of his choice three years later.]

- Kosaku Oomura is assigned as Wildstar's executive officer aboard the Yuki.

The two get to know each other quite well during the next three years, and

Oomura will follow Wildstar to his next command in the same role.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate]

- Nova Wildstar is given command of one of the EDF's new "Block II" Andromeda

class super space battleships - where she will serve for the next three years.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate. The "Block II" design is

not the same as that seen in SR. Instead, it's essentially a Cometine-era

Andromeda souped up with Y2520-like extras, but still recognizeable in its

basic shape and design. SR's Andromeda-II is a different beastie altogether,

but you have to consult Eldred's SR for more on that subject.]

- The elderly Dr. Sane agrees to be Miyuki Wildstar's guardian in the absence

of both her parents. She lives by herself in the family home, but spends

as much of her spare time with Dr. Sane as possible, training as a vet's

assistant.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate. In the original movie

proposal, and in Eldred's SR, Miyuki instead trains to be a medical nurse -

as her mother before her.]

2220

- The EDF launches the EDS Blue Noah, its newest fleet flagship and meant to

be the forerunner of a new generation of super space battleships. Its first

mission will be to spearhead the escort forces for the Third Immigration

Fleet to Amarl.

[YR. The Blue Noah's name is a direct reference to the anime TV series of the

same name, produced by STAR BLAZERS co-creator Yoshinobu Nishizaki. Its

design heritage to the 17th Yamato from Y2520 is painfully obvious, right

down to the layout of its main gun battery. This may have been meant to help

bridge the gap "mecha-wise" to this later series, since almost every EDF

warship in YR sports selected Y2520-like design features. NOTE - One of the

major differences between YR and SR is the ship that Nova commands. In

Eldred's SR she is given command of the Andromeda II. In Nishizaki's YR she

appears to have turned down command of the Blue Noah, planting her fleet

commander's flag instead on a souped-up "Block II" Andromeda. Why she

didn't take the newest and best ship in the fleet, like she did in SR, is

anybody's guess. Perhaps it's YR's nod to SR?]

---------------------------

2220 - YAMATO: RESURRECTION

---------------------------

2220

- The SUS Federation, leaders of the Interstellar Alliance, deceives its

members into believing that Earth's evacuation effort is actually an

insidious plot to take over their own worlds. They spearhead an effort to

ambush each Evacuation Fleet at a warp point just over halfway between

Earth and Amarl. Most of the First Evacuation fleet is destroyed, and only

part of the Second successfully runs the gauntlet. Over 330 million humans

are killed in these two unprovoked attacks, with the survivors limping on

to Amarl in what badly damaged ships manage to warp out of the fight and

escape.

[YR]

- Among the thousands of EDF casualties lost in the ambush of the First

Evacuation fleet is its fleet commander, Captain Nova Forrester. There are

witnesses who saw her badly damaged ship attempt a warp, but there is no

one aboard when it dewarps near Amarl. The only sign she was ever on the

bridge during the warp is her half-burned and torn-up officer's cap. Both

she and her entire crew are listed as "missing, presumed dead" - their

bodies having disintegrated "from a radiation leak" during their ship's

ill-fated warp.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropirate]

- The new Yamato is launched from Aquarius Island.

[YR]

- Captain Derek Wildstar, commander of the new Yamato, is placed by Sandor in

overall command of the Third Evacuation Fleet from Earth to Amarl. His is

the first one to make it there with minimal casualties from Interstellar

Alliance attacks, due to inspirational leadership and excellent tactical

planning. All 6300 Amarl Expresses and 162 escort ships make the trip,

although a fair number of the EDF vessels and some of the Amaral Expresses

have sustained serious combat damage.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate]

- After the attack on Amarl by the SUS Federation, Wildstar declares war on

their weaker ally's behalf and leads a combined EDF-Amarl fleet against

Earth's new enemy. All of the Amarl ships and many EDF vessels are destroyed

in the subsequent battles, but Wildstar will eventually win the war. The

Inteerstellar Alliance quickly falls apart once the deceit and true aims of

the SUS Federation are revealed, and they are left to fight alone against

Wildstar's forces. Eventually, the SUS Federation is destroyed for good -

but not until after a long and protracted final battle.

[YR, but with the English dub names as appropriate]

- The Yamato is successful in destroying the cascading black hole approaching

Earth. The only casualties it suffers are on its third bridge (a well-known

"deathtrap" - ed.), which is unintentionally dragged twice across the wall

of the black hole while the Yamato gets into the proper position to destroy

it. Lt. Mako Orihara and her entire ECI crew are killed instantly when this

happens, although it takes some time for the rest of the crew to discover

this. Along with Commander Oomura, who died in the battle with the SUS

Federation, they are the only fatalaties of the new Yamato on its first

mission.

[YR]

- While enroute back to Earth, Wildstar receives an unexpected visitor in his

private quarters on board the Yamato. It is the spirit of Astra, there to

bid him a final farewell. She explains to him how she became the "spirit"

of the original Argo, and how this affected the fortunes of the Star Force.

Sadly, she can no longer continue in this role. The new Yamato is a different

ship, with a different "feel" and temperament of its crew. They will need to

find their own "spirit," one might say, but she has confidence that they will

prove just as worthy of their new ship as the original Star Force was of the

Argo. The recent clash with the SUS Federation has proven to her that this

is possible, and she encourages Wildstar in this regard. With that, she says

her final farewell and departs ... and Derek Wildstar feels a coldness in the

ship around him he has not experienced since he first set foot inside the

original Argo in 2199. He promises himself to lead his crew on the right path

to finding their own unique "spirit" for the new Yamato, just as he once felt

with the old Argo.

[SR, heavily retconned. One fan has already suggested that the spirits of

Mako and her ECI crew might have become the new Yamato's own "guardian

spirits" - the same way that Eldred describes what happend to Astra and the

Argo in SR. It's an intriguing possibility, although there are as yet no

firm data points to support this conjecture. Even so - who knows?]

- A number of Earth's colonies, especially those on the fringes of the Earth

Federation, begin suing for independence. They are not happy with what they

see as deliberate neglect by the central government. Not helping matters

any are certain members of the Johannsen Colony, who have "gone pirate" and

raiding supplies from Earth freighters meant for other colonies. Some of

the more remote and less affluent (or protected) colonies have degenerated

to "filthy ghettos," as one of their citizens calls them, where theft is

common and the black market trade is enoromous. This is the start of the

Separatist Crisis, often referred to in histories of the period. The

situation isn't helped any by an EDF weakened by ten years of tight budgets,

fleet cutbacks, and constant civilian interference with its operations.

Years later, Miyuki Wildstar will recall in her memoirs, "The fleet had been

so scattered and defanged they couldn't do anything about it. The [UEG]

Council had been caught blind." The financial floodgates are suddenly opened

by desperate politicians, giving the EDF the resource it needs to rebuild -

but it takes four long years before the last of the Separatists are put down.

This is the action in which the new Yamato becomes involved immediately after

the defeat of the SUS Federation.

[SR, but retconned to take YR into account.]

December 2220

- Not long after Wildstar's return from Earth, and before the Yamato departs

for the role it will play in the Separatist Crisis, the bereaved Wendy

Glitchman throws herself at him. She is desperate for affection, having

suffered the loss of her husband Homer (aboard the Andromeda-II) for years,

and hopes that Wildstar will sympathize with her, due to the recent loss of

his wife Nova. Wildstar gently declines, insisting that Nova is still alive

out there - somewhere. "Miracles do happen," he tells her, and encourages

her to have faith that her own beloved might still be alive, too. He puts

it another way four years later, when giving some friendly advice to one of

his crewmen. "Death once claimed my brother, my captain, my rival, and my

best friend. All of them were granted a reprieve, a second life - if only

for a short while. Anything is possible."

[SR, but retconned to take YR into account.]

2221

- Founding of the Galaxy Railways.

[Probable conjecture based on GE999a #001, "Departure Ballad." 2221 was the

original date given for GALAXY EXPRESS 999. The Galaxy Railways are implied

to be in existence by the mid-2220s by GE999Em, since Maetel states that she

was an eyewitness to the last voyage of the space battleship Yamato (and the

original Star Force). The Three-Nine itself is in existence by the time ML

takes place in 2290, since both Maetel and Emeraldas escape the planet

LaMaetel aboard it. My choice of this exact date for the founding of the

Galaxy Railways is my nod to the original GE999 TV series.

- Founding of both the Galaxy Railways Space Defense Force (aka GRSDF, SDF) and

the Galaxy Railways Space Panzer Grenadiers (aka GRSPG, SPG). The first is a

private military organization that acts as the de facto police service for all

space train rail lines, stations, and associated properties. It is split into

a number of platoons, each with its own specially armored space train. At

least one GRSDF platoon is based at every major station and/or crossroads

station in the space rail network. The second is more of a loose-knit,

rapid-response organization drawn from the elite of the GRSDF. It takes

action where the space rail lines don't run or the use of an armored space

train (which can operate independently of any rails) is impractical.

[GR. The GRSPG is unique to GR. The GRSDF is first mentioned in GE999, and

is seen in action in several of the TV episodes. The idea that the GRSDF

had its own specialized armored space trains was first introduced in GE999.

In GR, Mamoru Yuki first joined the GRSDF but was later recruited into the

GRSPG due to his excellent record.]

---------------

2222 - SEXAROID

---------------

2224

- By this date, "almost 90%" of Earth's turn-of-the-century human population

has relocated to other worlds - "fled to the colonies," as new EDF Commander

in Chief Wendy Glitchman puts it. She sees this as a good thing, whereas to

to her aged father it means "the end of humanity as we know it."

[SR. Do you realize, based on the population figures we were given in YR,

that this means Earth's population in 2224 was down to 1-2 million people?

That is, unless there was a big boom in population levels over a single

generation. Fortunately, this is the lowest it gets for centuries to come.]

- By this date, Kathleen Orion, granddaughter of the late Patrick John Orion of

the Star Force and niece of enginer Patrick Orion Jr., is serving aboard the

rebuilt Yamato in its support services division.

[SR, but retconned to take YR into account. Kathleen was first seen as a

little girl in SB1 #10, "We Will Return."]

- Lieutenant Brian Kasumi, EDF Marine Corps, along with a full company of Space

Marines, is assigned to the new Yamato. Space Marines will be part of the

ship's complement from this date forward, in belated recognition of the

services that the late Sergeant Knox and his men performed on the old Argo

during the Earth-Cometine War. The fact of the Separatist Crisis may also

have a lot to do with their presence.

[SR. This data point probably needs to be bumped up to 2220, to better fit

with events following the end of YR. I'm leaving it here for now - hence the

"belated" note - until such time as the folks across the Big Pond decide when

and how they want the Space Marines to return to the Yamato.]

- The venerable Cosmo Zero space superiority fighter, aka "the Super Star," is

still in service even at this late date. Although no longer considered a

first-tier, front-line craft, they are considered more than adequate for

their new roles of intersystem patrol and colony protection - thus sparing

newer and more valuable EDF fighter craft from being wasted in these roles.

[My attempt to explain how Cosmo Zeros turn up in SR, even though they're

quite outdated at this point in time in the Leijiverse. EDF resources were

supposedly strained due to supporting all of Earth's new space colonies.

It's common sense they would assign older ships and craft to less critical

roles. It's a practice that current real-world militaries due today, and

have been doing throughout history. SR indicates that all Zero frames still

service had been updated with the latest avionics, engines, and weaponry -

again, just like in real life.]

- By this time, wave motion technology has been improved to the point that any

EDF space warship can go to warp a mere ten seconds after firing a full charge

from its wave motion gun.

[SR. This actually matches quite well with YR's transition wave motion engine

technology. Orion Jr. informs Wildstar that the only time the new Yamato will

lose power after firing its wave motion gun, like it used to do in the good

ol' days, is if it fires all six of its transition cylinders at once.]

- By this date, Dynamic Do-Alls are no longer standard features on EDF vessels.

This did not stop the technology's inventor, Lt. General Steven Sandor, from

amassing a personal fortune by licensing the technology (which he invented)

for sale in the civilian market.

[SR]

- As of this date, Miyuki Wildstar has enlisted in the EDF and has trained to

serve as a regular nurse, like her mother before her. She and her father

Derek Wildstar still have a rocky relationship due to the loss of Nova, her

mother and his wife. Miyuki consents to being assigned to the new Yamato per

her father's wishes - but as she later confides to a friend, "I don't have to

like it."

[SR, but retconned to take YR into account. Per SR, she has also dyed her

hair auburn - again like her mother.]

2224, 6 October

- Death by natural causes of General Charles Singleton, retired, former EDF

commander-in-chief.

[SR. NOTE - He appears to have earned his fourth star at some point, although

exactly when I can't determine with the data I currently have.]

2224, 9 October

- A memorial service is held for the late General Singleton. He is interred

at Hero's Hill, due to the pivotal role he played in bringing about the

creation of the Star Force and his leadership during the Five Years of Fire.

Sadly, only a handful of his closest friends and former staffers attend, and

the only family member present is his bereaved daughter Wendy. All of the

surviving Star Force members are away on various duties and unable to attend,

but all of them send their condolences.

[SR. This is one of the saddest scenes in the story. It requires a bit of

retconning for this timeline, but there's no reason NOT to include it.]

2224, 24 October

- An EDF fleet spearheaded by the space battleships EDS Gideon and EDS Yamanami

catches the Johannsen Colony pirates in the act of stealing food and supplies

intended for other Earth Federation colones and "takes them out," in the words

of one grateful colonist. The breakup of the pirate gangs puts an end to the

Separatist Crisis, since there are now enough ships - and EDF escorts for them

- to keep the peace, as well as ensure the resumption of regular supply

shipments to the outer colonies. A grateful Captain Wildstar radios his

congratulations to his former Star Force comrades, who now command both

ships, as well as heartfelt gratitude on behalf of those among his crew who

are from the colonies.

[SR, but retconned to take YR into account.]

2224, 4 November

- The new Yamato, commanded by Captain Derek Wildstar, pays a courtesy call on

the Galman-Gamilon Empire. They eventually arrive at its heart, the planet

Galman, and are warmly greeted by Leader Desslok on its moon Starsha. It is

the first time that Wildstar and Desslok have seen each other since the

signing of the Reparation Act Treaty in 2206. Desslok informs Wildstar that

something is afoot. "Don't think that the Andromeda Galaxy has been silent,"

he advises. "Zordar, for all his might, was only a prince. You've no idea

what I've kept out of your (Earth's) way." Desslok warns Wildstar that a time

will come, sooner than Earth might like, where it will have to fight for its

own survival - and he hopes that "protected" humanity will be up to the

challenge. This is the last time that Derek Wildstar and Leader Desslok

will see each other face-to-face in their respective lifetimes.

[SR, but retconned to take YR, Y2520, and M-san's "revival" Metanoid theme

into account. You can take Desslok's warning in any number of directions -

especially with the required YR retconning. In only few decades, LaMaetel

fleets will begin attacking Earth freighters and colony ships, per ML. The

next major galactic war is only 150 years away, per Y2520. What about the

Cometine - or their Harlock-era possible descendants, the Illumidas?

There's also the Metanoids to consider, too - the "revival" wild card in all

of this. Lots of threats for Desslok to fight against, and to warn Wildstar

about.]

2224, late November

- The wreck of the Andromeda-II is discovered quite by accident by the new

Yamato, hundreds of thousands of light-years away from where it originally

disappeared. There are a surprisingly large number of survivors - including

the entire bridge crew and EDF CinC Wendy Glitchman's long-lost husband Homer.

Due to the vagaricies of the wormhole into which they were pulled, only a few

hours have passed for the Andromeda-II survivors, whereas a decade has gone

by for the rest of the physical universe. Just about everyone on board both

ships claim the chance encounter to be a miracle. As for Captain Wildstar,

it is to him a sure sign of the new Yamato's own unique "eternal soul" - just

like the Argo of old.

[SR, but retconned to take YR into account.]

- Also around this time, and according to at least one account, Derek Wildstar

is reunited with his long-lost wife Nova. She too has not aged a day since

she was lost in the ambush of the First Evacuation Fleet in 2220.

[SR, somewhat retconned for YR. In this version of events, she was not on

board the Andromeda-II when it disappeared. Where Derek found her and how

that reunion came about is anyone's guess, since that tale has not yet come

out of the official YAMATO production offices in Japan. All we can do is

retcon Eldred's SR as best we can, and keep our fingers crossed until then.]

sometime between 2225 and the 2400s

- Mankind begins adapting the various alien technologies that it has obtained

for its own uses. This helps greatly in the rapid growth and expansion of the

First Wave of human space colonization.

[GE999a #003, "Titan's Sleeping Warrior." Maetel tells Tetsuro that the

technology of the Galaxy Railways space trains is based on alien tech, "some

of which we still don't understand." Many of these technology would have

come from Earth's extraterrestrial wars at the end of the 22nd century, per

SB1-SB3. It is also possible that there might have been some leftover

LaMaetellian technology involved as well, per the QM television series.]

- The planet Masspron, famed throughout the Milky Way galaxy for its techincal

and manufacturing acument, is contracted by the Galaxy Railways to make key

parts of its space trains and associated technology.

[GE999a #025, "The Steel Angel." Maetel says that some of the factories on

Masspron "have been running non-stop for hundreds of years without a break."]

- The first stage of the terraforming of Mars is completed. The planet now has

a breathable atmosphere, although the planet remains a dry, windswept desert

of a world. It never advances beyond this point and is quickly abandoned,

as other worlds (such as Saturn's moon Titan) prove more adaptable to human

needs. Mars is quickly passed by and soon becomes a backwater world, with

most of its original colonists leaving as fast as they can scrounge up the

money. The only people left behind on Mars are those colonists who are too

poor to leave.

[GE999a #002, "The Red Winds of Mars"]

- The Saturnian moon of Titan is terraformed into an Earthlike world.

[GE999a #003, "Titan's Sleeping Warrior"]

- Spherical mobile "colony houses," favored by early space colonists and

equipped with legs for self-powered mobility across long distances, are

developed.

[GE999a #028, "The Great Author of the Mirage Planet." Maetel tells Tetsuro

that such designs were used "in the early days of space colonization." You

can see "space houses" of this design in many of M-san's works - some with

legs, but most without - or possibly retracted/removed? These are featured

in some of M-san's early manga tales. An aquatic variant of the same idea

appears in TTB Chapter 13.]

- The planet Mariko's Firefly is colonized. Unusual ores contained within

the planet causes the humans that settle there to begin glowing in the dark.

It is not fatal, fortunately, and they quickly adapt to this unusual effect.

The trait becomes hereditary and part of the planet's culture, with both the

pattern and intensity of the glowing affecting one's social standing.

[GE999a #016, "Planet of Fireflies," implied]

- The planet Beethoven is terraformed into a world completely covered by water,

but with a hollow core and a number of artificially maintained air pocket

enviroments under the surface capable of sustaining life.

[GE999a #015, "Water Planet Beethoven," implied]

- Construction begins on the Infinte Track - the longest space rail line to be

operated by the Galaxy Railways. When completed, it will reach from Megapolis

(Megalopoplis) Station on Earth to the heart of the Machine Empire in the

Andromeda Galaxy. Such a trip would normally take two million years or so

at lightspeed; however, considerable reverse-engineered alien tech plus large

hyperspace tunnels and existing spatial "shortcuts" - both natural and

artificial (as in still-working ancient alien artifacts) - will eventually

shorten the travel time to just one Earth year for a one-way trip.

[GE999a, multiple references. See also GE999m, GE999Em, and GR. Maetel

alludes to the alien tech several times, most notably in GE999a #001,

"Departure Ballad," and we see hyperspace tunnels and shortcuts in multiple

GE999a episodes. Both of these figure in other Galaxy Railways related tales,

too. It's the only way to even come close to halfway explaining the

scientific discrepancies of such a journey as riding the Infinite Track and

make it at least conceivable, if not believable. This is perhaps M-san's

most blatant example of pseudo-scientific "hand-waving," as noted sci-fi

author Brian Aldiss once called it. Y2520 provides a possible answer to

this problem in the aeons-old Gorda warp wormhole network, which was said to

have spanned several galaxies.]

- The Planet of Tomorrow is one of the earliest human colonies established on

the Infinte Track. At some point during the colony's development, though -

when this happens isn't clear - the decision is made to hide its true origins.

The reality of space travel becomes a carefully guarded secret, and the people

are slowly but surely coerced into believing that they have always lived on

the Planet of Tomorrow. The truth about their origins, their situation, and

the existence of the Galaxy Railways is kept a carefully guarded secret. As

for the Galaxy Railways, they have no choice but to go alone with the charade,

unless they want to lose an important stop along the Infinite Track.

[GE999a #060, "The Planet of the Pint-Sized Room (Part 1)." Maetel states

that humans have lived on this world as long as the Galaxy Railways have been

in the region. No reason is ever given why the Galaxy Railways co-operates

in maintaining the facade ... only that it does, and goes out of its way to

do so.]

- Snowinca is one of the first worlds in the Andromeda galaxy to be colonized.

[GE999a #091, "The Snow Woman of Andromeda (Part 2)." Maetel recognizes

Yuki's home up in the cliffs as having "early colony style" technology, in

particular its elevator, kitchen, and "tin man" style Mechanoid bodies.

Tetsuro doesn't think too highly of the free "tin man" body Yuki offers him.

The original Snowinca colonists must have lived inside the mountain where

Yuki, the Mechanoid "snow woman," now has her home.]

- A hollow asteroid is also seized upon by early human settlers as an ideal

place to plant a colony. They name it Macaroni au Gratin, because it

somewhat resembles a piece of straight macaroni - right down to the hollow

center, where the main colony city is located. Within a few generations, it

will become one of the great human technological worlds along the Infinite

Track. Eventually, it will fall under control of the Machine Empire - who

will turn it into a showpiece of Mechanization. Few other worlds within the

Andromeda galaxy will be able to compare with its level of technical

sophistication and expertise.

[GE999a #108 - "The Destruction of Macaroni au Gratin"]

- Molecular teleporation technology is first developed on the world of Macaroni

au Gratin. From there it spreads to other worlds, systems, and galaxies along

the Galaxy Railways space rail network.

[GE999a #108 - "The Destruction of Macaroni au Gratin," implied.]

- Just as the Galaxy Express #999 - aka "the Three-Nine" - is built to be the

space express train on the Infinite Track, so too is the Galaxy Express #777

- aka "Three-Seven" - built for what will later become known as the Infinite

Loop. It has no origin and no terminus, no start point or final destination.

It is the only space express train that eventually runs on every single space

rail line in the vast Galaxy Express system. In other words, it travels ALL

of the tracks on a regular, looping basis - being serviced along the way as

needed. Just as the Three-Nine is known in legend as the Train of Dreams, so

the Three-Seven is known as the Train of Fate - because any passenger who

boards it can't control where they are going or how long it will take to get

there. They can get on or off at their leisure, but more often than not end

their ride far from where they started, and also from where they had intended

to go.

[GR1 #13, "Train Bound For Fate." This helps explain why you see the Three-

Seven all over the place in the course of the original GE999a TV series. As

one fan recently put it to me, "it's like the Three-Nine, only different."

Interpret that however you will. FYI, the last time we ever see Maetel in

GE999a, she is leaving the Bat Planet aboard the Three-Seven with a new

traveling companion.]

2238

- Brone, the future emperor of the Seiren Federation, is born on Earth.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!"]

c.2280

- Heavy work droid GS7077 is abandoned in an ever-growing pile of junked,

scrapped, and wrecked androids, robots, and other types of machinery in the

Pteradon crater on Luna. It is and will continue to be an open dump for all

kinds of machinery over the next several hundred years.

[DZ Chapter 1, "The Birth of Diver Zero." GS7077 told WG187223 that he had

had been abandoned on Luna "over 700 years ago."]

c.2280-2290

- The wandering planet LaMaetel begins passing through an interstellar void.

The lack of stars, planets, or other interstellar bodies in the void, coupled

with the ever-increasing distances to reach the nearest ones, puts a severe

strain on LaMaetel's already limited resources. Also, some time during this

period, the artificial sun built for LaMaetel by master scientists Ban and

Hardgear breaks down. The planet becomes covered in a perpetual snowstorm,

and ice begins to build up everywhere on the surface. Giant reinforced domes

have to be built in order to protect LaMaetel's cities and farms. Some areas

have to be abandoned, and the empty buildings are soon buried under millions

of tons of snow and ice.

[ML, SSM. Date implied by Y2520.]

- Hardgear becomes the first Mechanoid on LaMaetel during this period. The

exact how and why remain unknown, although it is known that the Metanoids

supplied him with the initial technology. He makes it his own personal

crusade to convince Queen Promethium that Mechanization is the only way to

save her people from the ever-increasing cold. In this he is opposed by Dr.

Ban, his fellow colleague and husband of Queen Promethium.

[MLm; background materials for MLa]

- Hardgear engineers the death of Dr. Ban in order to remove his chief rival.

The good doctor had forseen Hardgear's plans, however, and prepared for just

such a contingency. Before his body dies, his living essence is captured and

contained within a specially built heart-shaped pendant by his daughter

Maetel. By this means Dr. Ban lives on, albeit in a disembodied state.

Hardgear gets away with the act, and is soon promoted to the position of Chief

Science Adviser to take his late rival's place.

[ML, GE999]

- The LaMaetellian Food Riots ensue as the population begins to kill each other

over what little food and arable land is left inside the domes. Lada La Lela

advises her daughter Queen Promethium to put down the riots with deadly force.

Promethium resists, but in the end the rioters leave her little choice. This

marks the beginnign of a series of hard decisions that Promethium is forced to

make in light of her planet's steadily worsening ecological situation.

[SSM #06, "La Lela's Requeim"]

- One of the first successful test subjects (outside of Hardgear himself) for

the new Mechanization process is Commander Leopold, commander of all

LaMaetellian armed forces. His right arm is Mechanized while the rest of him

remains flesh and blood. He never completes the conversion process for

personal reasons.

[SSM #01, "Departure of Fate" and #05, "Promethium's Magic Flute." This is

just a guess on my part based on what we see later in GE999, but Leopold may

have been a test subject for partial Mechanization. That is, using a

deliberately downgraded form of the original Metanoid-provided process to

replace only part or parts of a human body - like artifical organs or bionic

limbs, only far more sophisticated. SSM implies that Leopold was given a

partial conversion in order to make the full process more palatable to the

people of LaMaetel - i.e., they had the choice at first of either going part

way or all the way. Later, as we see in ML and SSM, they had no choice at all

and the full conversion process was ordered for all but a handful of resisters

and human prisoners. The few "humans" who remained were then given a choice -

live and work like dogs or be forcibly converted. SSM shows us how that

turned out ....]

- Count Mecha, a noble in Queen Promethium's court, is the first LaMaetellian

(outside of Hardgear himself) to be fully mechanized.

[ML, GE999]

- Another decision foisted upon Queen Promethium at this time, actively

encouraged by both Lady La Lela and Chief Science Adviser Hardgear, is the

capturing and enslaving of humans from Earth freighters and colony ships that

are passing within range of LaMaetel. La Lela's justification for this action

is that the extra manpower is needed to help solve LaMaetel's numerous

ecological problems.

Hardgear's motivation is more sinister. He needs more recruits (and raw

material) to support his crusade for complete Mechanization of Lamaetel.

[ML, SSM #06, "La Lela's Requeim." The largest such colony effor at this time

in the known history of the Leijiverse is the Brone Expedition - Y2520 - which

left Earth in 2285. Its route was the same as LaMaetel's, and it apparently

passed the wandering planet enroute to its destination. This helps to provide

a workable date for ML that is consistent with all other known data points

regarding events on LaMaetel in this period.]

2283

- The adult Brone, now a radical intellectual, asserts that only a genetically

engineered elite among humanity is worthy of moving out into the Sea of Stars.

He is largely ignored by the bulk of Earth's leaders, but soon gains a large

cult following. The movement that he leads becomes known as Neo-Facism.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." The genetic engineering explains why

the future Seiren humans will look the way they do.]

2285

- The Brone Colonization Expedition leaves Earth - much to the relief of the

Earth Federation and its leaders. Brone takes almost all of his followers

with him on giant colony ships towards the galactic rim - stopping at one

planet after another, but never fining a world quite suited to them. After

years of travel in this manner, Brone will ultimately decided to lead his

people to Cluster M27, a large nebula on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

--------------------

2290 - MAETEL LEGEND

--------------------

2290

- Queen Promethium undergoes total conversion to a Mechanoid. Her twin

daughters Emeraldas and Maetel, the last living heirs of her family line and

among the handful of humans left on LaMaetel, are forced to flee for their

lives in order to escape being forcibly Mechanized. They escape to the Sea of

Stars aboard the Galaxy Express Three-Nine space train. With their departure,

Queen Promethium begins making plans for what will later be known as the

Machine Empire.

[ML]

- Shortly after Emeraldas and Maetel escape the clutches of Queen Promethium

and her Mechanoids, the Three-Nine is pulled through a space-time warp and

ends up near the planet Metabloody. It is an event caused by Wotan's

interference with this particular Ring of Time in order to exact his revenge

upon Captain Harlock. The two girls will take part in the new chain of events

that occurs as a result of this - which includes the death of Great Harlock,

the future Captain Harlock's father, and a new means by which Emeraldas

obtains her namesake starship - after which the pair manage to safely return

to their own proper time and place.

[HSm Volumes 2-9. Their age in HSm, plus the fact that both of them are

aboard the Three-Nine, means that this happened fairly quickly after the

events depicted in ML. There's been enough time for them to change their

clothes and get acclimated to life aboard the Three-Nine, but that's about

it. HSm states repeatedly that the normal flow of space-time had become

confused - which accounts nicely for the presence of the younger versions of

these two in that tale. I note in passing that HSm is the foundation document

of the "revival" Leijeverse, and that this particular event may not apply to

other iterations, such as the "classic" or "heyday" timelines. Also, they're

drawn several years younger than they should be - as cute little girls, and

not the young teenagers we see in ML. That's just M-san's art style, folks.

He draws his teenage boys the same way - often younger than they should be.]

2293

- Brone and his people find a habitable world in Cluster M27 named Giza. It

is the sixth planet in its solar system, and it has a wealth of apparently

abandoned alien technology that is thousands, perhaps millions of years old,

created by a now-dead alien race known as the Gorda. Giza is also rich in

monopole ore - an energy-yielding substance far more powerful than the

cosmonite that is normally used for starships. They end their journey here,

claiming the world as their new home.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow" and #2, "Yamato! Launch!" This is the

first mention of monopole in the Leijiverse. It appears to be from the same

class of energy ores as cosmonite and iscandarium, although it is more

powerful than both.]

- Brone builds a cloning chamber in his palace on Giza. He uses it to grow

clones of his own body, so he can harvest their organs and extend his own

lifespan. He wants to live to see the fledgling Seiren Federation grow to

dominate the universe. In short, he has aspirations of godhood - as with

any absolute ruler with vast resources at his command.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!" I note in passing that the translation of the

Y2520 production notes that Eldred has on the offical STAR BLAZERS website

(www.starblazers.com) uses "Salene" instead of Seiren. It's a difference

in translation, and I'm deferring to the fansub in this case.]

c.2300 to c.2399

- This century is sometimes referred to as the Pax Galactica in some historical

accounts of the Leijiverse. The reason is that no wars of any significance

are known to have taken place on an interstellar (or greater) level within

the Milky Way galaxy during this time.

[BFY, Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!" This does not include the war of conquest

fought by the rising Seiren Federation for total control of Cluster M27.

It will take them a hundred years to make it to Rokoko and Rinbos near its

edge - and that's about the the time that the next major galactic war will

fire up.]

- Over the next hundred or so years, Brone and his people will build an

interstellar empire in Cluster M27 based on the alien technology that came

with their new world. It is based on the use of monopole ore as an energy

source, and "leads to a path different than from the Earth Federation's use

of wave energy," according to one historian. This marks the rise of the

Seiren Federation. Most historians will agree that had it not been for the

development and refinement of this technology by the Seiren, the Hundred

Years war would have never happened.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." If the visual clues we are given in YR

are any indication, then the humanoid people known as the Ethos also had

access to the same technology. Their starship designs bear striking

similarities to those that the Seiren would build some three-quarters of a

century later. This is one of those Leijiverse tangents that can't be

pursued due to lack of sufficient data, but it makes for some great fannish

speculation.]

- As the Seiren Federation expands, Brone and his people discover that Cluster

M27 is a virtual gold mine of monopole ore.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

c.2300 to c.2650

- According to at least one account, Emeraldas will spend most of her early

years wandering from planet to planet, riding to them on any starship that

is willing to carry her and working such odd jobs as her skills and personal

sense of honor will permit. Among these are hired gun (only for lawful

purposes) and bodyguard (again, the same reasons). She will also get her

first personal starship - a rennovated small one-man transport - sometime

during this era, as well as her free trader's license.

[QEm Volume 1; see also MYA. In the manga in several places, Emeraldas

favorably compares her early years to those of young Hiroshi Umino. She never

says any of this directly, save the part about her ship - but it can be

implied from the way she talks on the subject. IN QEa #04, "Siren the Witch,"

we see that her first starship was of the same general size and design as

Hiroshi's. QEa Episode 2, "Eternal Emblem," appears to imply that Hiroshi's

ship was custom-built based on an old hull - which may very well have been of

the same type as that Emeraldas once used herself. The fact that she was a

free trader with a legitimate license comes from MYA.]

-------------------------------------------------

c.2300 - AREI NO KAGAMI (THE WAY TO VIRGIN SPACE)

-------------------------------------------------

c.2360

- It is about this time that Dyruz, a Buddhist monk from Earth, begins a quest

for knowledge that will take him far away from his homeworld and into many

strange and curious parts of space, both known and unknown. In order to

better enable

his quest before he starts, he trades his human body for a Mechanoid one.

[GE999a #067, "Dyruz the Space Monk." While aboard the Three-Nine, Dyruz

tells Tetsuro and Maetel that he has been on his spiritual journey for "over

six hundred years." I have rounded up a bit - 613 years - in order to err on

the side of caution.]

2403

- The planet Rinbos, originally settled by Earth colonists and located at the

edge of the space that the Seiren Federation claims, is seized by them due to

its rich deposits of monopole ore. The Earth Federation promptly dispatches

a battle fleet to reclaim it from the Seiren - who blast it out of existence.

This action clues the Earth Fedeartion in as to the true significance of

monpole. The destruction of the Earth Federation fleet over Rinbos is

generally held to have been the opening act in the Galactic Hundred Years

War.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." Aga talks in brief about the early

history of Rinbos late in the episode. The first battle fought over control

of Rinbos is shown in flashback early in the episode.]

2403-2508

- The Galactic Hundred Years War is fought between the Earth Federation and the

Seiren Federation. Practically all of the fighting occurs in the rim areas of

the Milky Way galaxy near Cluster M27 - where the Seiren Federation is

centered - or in the side of the cluster itself closest to the galactic rim.

This leaves other parts of the Milky Way free to continue their own affairs

unmolested by the conflict. The Earth Federation is fighting to claim the

knowledge of monopole technology. The Seiren is fighting to protect its own.

This war will have many striking parallels to the American Civil war of the

1860s - save that it is fought with the latest technology on an interstellar

scale, and will last for just over a century. For Seiren Emperor Brone, the

war is a personal affair. He sees it as a long-overdue payback on Earth for

practically forcing him and his people into exile so many years before.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow" and #2, "Yamato! Launch!"]

sometime in the 2470s

- Ryuzu, a famous Spanish flamenco dancer, assumes a Mechanoid body for the

sake of her lover, a German nobleman named Baron Glock. Other women quickly

copy her move, and she thus loses her uniqueness in Glock's eyes. He

literally dumps her (in a rainstorm, no less) and finds another woman who has

a newer and more unique Mechanoid body. Unknown to him, one of the quirks of

being the first with her particular style of Mechanoid body is having a

limited ability to control the flow of time. Ryuzu will eventually abandon

Earth and relocate to a gravity well located beyond the Oort Cloud of the Sol

System, where she preys on passing spacecraft with her time control ability

for her amusement.

[GE999a #009, "The Gravity Graveyard (Part 2)." The manga places this only

300 years in the past, c.2670, instead of 500 per the anime. This plays

differently in the first GE999 movie, where Ryuzu was Count Mecha's lover and

her ability to control time was because she was trained how to operate Count

Mecha's Time Castle. The date I give can fit either the series or movie

interpretations. In the GE999a materials, the Ryuzu of the Time Castle is

name Leryuzu, she is this Ryuzu's sister, and she has the same type of

Mechanoid body - which means she also has a limited ability to control the

flow of time. See GE999a #79-81, "The Pirate of the Time Castle (Parts

1-3)."]

2503-2508

- The Galactic Hundred Years War finally grinds down to a halt. Not that either

side has won, mind you - they simply run out of resource to continue the fight

on an interstellar war. Small skirmishes and minor battles will continue

during this time, but the only major action between the two opposing battle

fleets will be fought at Rinbos - the planet where the war started in the

first place.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

2503

- The Earth Federation flagship Yamato is dispatched to the planet Rokoko

on a top-secret mission involving the technology of the ancient Gorda

civilization, which serves as the basis for Seiren power. Rokoko is

believed by most Gorda experts to have been the center of Gorda civilization,

and the Earth Federation is fortunate enough to establish their presence

there first - much to the dismay of Emperor Brone. After arriving and

investigating the Gorda ruins, however, the Yamato and its science teams are

forced to flee for their lives - with a Seiren battle fleet hot on their

heels. Only the Yamato's captain and a select few knows what they found

there - and brought back with them. Emperor Brone only suspects, but fears

the worst - which is why he dispatched the fleet after them.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!"]

- It is at this time that the Rinbosian scrap dealer Shima Toubou will acquire

custody of his two young wards - Nabu and Merci. Nabu is the son of two

family friends from Earth who died on Rokoko. Merci is an orphan whose

past is shrounded in mystery, and only Shima knows her true heritage.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

- The last major battle of the Hundred Years War is a spectacular and deadly

clash of main battle fleets in and around the planet Rinbos. The super space

battleship Yamato, sixteenth to bear the name and flagship of the Earth

Federation fleet, is shot down by the Seirens during the battle and crashes

on the surface of Rinbos. The wreck will not be discovered until years

later, in 2520. Instead, they believe it to have crashed into the surface

of colony world M3 and exploding, killing its entire crew and everyone living

a nearby civilian city.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow" and #2, "Yamato! Launch!"]

2508

- An uneasy ceasefire and armistice is declared, ending the Hundred Years War.

The Earth Federation holds the superior strategic position and can thus claim

overall victory, but its ability to wage war has been badly depleted. On the

other hand, Seiren Federation forces have suffered heavy losses and -

according to some sources - were on the verge of losing the war. Emperor

Brone sees the ceasefire as convenient, giving him a chance to re-equip and

rearm for the next round of fighting with the Earth Federation.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

- As it will later be learned, the Seiren Federation was in worse shape at the

the end of the war than anybody thought at the time. They were beginning to

run out of monopole to power their ships. The ceasefire was necessary, from

their perspective, to provide time to gather enough in order for one last

massive push to kick the Earth Federation out of their territory once and

for all. After that, they could mine more monopole from the worlds they had

lost during the war. This fact was a highly classified Seiren state secret

known only to a select few among the Seiren elite.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

- The armistice line divides the Griffon system in two. Rinbos, the planet

where the war started and ended, winds up on the Seiren side of the line.

Nearby Wagus, a habitable desert world, winds up on the Earth Federation

side. Both powers immediately build massive military based on each to keep

an eye on each other for any hint that the armistice is breaking down - much

to the consternation of the local civilians on both worlds, who just want to

get on with their lives in peace.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

2508-2520

- In the two decades that follows the ceasefire, a booming trade in surplus and

salvaged military technology takes place on both sides. There are enough

battle wrecks, both in space and crashed on planetary surfaces, to make any

dedicated businessman willing to work hard a quick fortune. One of the

most enterprising of these is the late middle-aged scrap dealer Shima Toubou.

He is from the Earth Federation, and was somehow trapped behind the lines on

the planet Rinbos when the war ended. Very little is known of his past, but

he is an acknowledged expert in Earth Federation military technology and even

the local Seiren garrison soldiers have respect for his acumen. Their

superiors suspect Shima may have been a high-ranking Earth Federation officer

during the war, but they never find enough evidence to prove this. They keep

him under their eye, but otherwise let Shima conduct his life - and his

salvage business - as he sees fit.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

- The surface of the planet Rinbos is rendered almost completely uninhabitable

by the effects of the war. The Seiren gather all civilian survivors into

Osaka City, which is the one city intact enought to be rebuilt from the mess.

As part of the rebuilding effort, they encase the city under a giant dome.

Many of the civilian youths rebel against this control, however, and contrive

ways to escape it. Their most popular gathering place is the Skeletal

Forest - a vast graveyard of charred and petrified trees - on the far side

of Rinbos (and away from prying Seiren garrison eyes). One of their most

popular pasttimes is to hold hoverbike races through the canyons, arroyos,

and rocks of the bluffs surrounding the Skeletal Forrest. These youths have

their main hideout inside the hangar bay of an old wrecked space battleship

buried at the far end of a box canyon. The canyon was created by its crash

during the last battle over Rinbos, and its wreck is located deep inside a

cave at the end of the box canyon.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow"]

- One of the oddities of the Seiren control over Rinbos is that no craft of

any kind is allowed to fly higher than 30000 grids (?) without special

permission. It is automatically assumed to be hostile if it is, and the

computer-controlled planetwide missile batteries have standing orders to

shoot down anyone, regardless of affiliation or purpose, that violates this

ban.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." A mistranslation in the current

fansub renders "grids" as "gurus," but the context indicates "grids" is the

proper word. You can interpret "grids" as feet, meters, or whatever - Y2520

never makes clear how this term is to be interpreted.]

------------------

2520 - YAMATO 2520

------------------

2520

- The Seiren Federation discovers the wreck of the Earth Federation space

battleship Yamato, former flagship of the fleet and sixteenth to bear the

name, located inside a cave at the end of a box canyon on the far side of

Rinbos. It had been shot down and crashed there during the final major

battle of the Hundred Years War - unknown to all save the local youths, who

had found its remains the ideal place for their own private hangout. They

excavate the wreck and make arrangements with a local scrap dealer named

Shima to salvage it. There is no trace of its crew, its main computer core,

or whatever it was that it picked up from the Gorda ruins on Rokoko. This

disturbing discovery will frustrate Emperor Brone to no end.

[Y2520 #1, "A Hope Towards Tomorrow." Major Reykard relates the story of the

sinking of the Yamato to his honored guest, Emperor Brone's daughter Amnesis,

at a private dinner - leastwise from the Seiren perspective. Shima knows

the rest of the tale, since in another lifetime he was the Yamato's captain

when it was shot down, and was one of its few survivors. In #2, "Yamato!

Launch!" Brone reveals that he personally ordered the shooting down of the

Yamato, in order to destroy the ancient secret of the Gorda that it found on

Rokoko - and thus prevent it from falling into the Earth Federation's hands.]

- The newest space battleship Yamato, seventeeth to bear the name, is built in

secret at the Great Lift spaceyard on Rinbos and launched from there. The

fact that its based on the plans of the sixteenth Yamato but built in a

Seiren spaceyard makes for some rather interesting design changes during the

automated construction process - including the installation of a hybrid

wave-motion and monopole-powered main engine. The new Yamato is crewed by

almost a hundred dissident youths who are desperate to leave the planet.

Among them are the young wards Nabu and Merci, along with their adoptive

father Shima. He just happens to have been the captain of the previous

Yamato, and knows the secret (involving Merci) kept inside a protected area

of the former ship's data core. The Yamato is badly undercrewed, but Shima

and his youths have to work with what they have - as they launch just ahead

of Seiren security forces, who fail to prevent them from leaving.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!" The Yamato's new hybrid main engine is termed

the wave-monopole engine throughout the series. It takes Shima and his

two or three weeks to build the ship, using the Seiren's automated spacedock

facility at the Great Lift. NOTE - This particular episode will prove most

informative to Leijiverse fans interested in automated starship construction

techniques at this period in Leijiverse history. The same general techniques

principles can apply to other periods, too. Only the resources required and

time involved will change, as a general rule. Bear in mind, though, that

everything needed to build the seventeenth Yamato, including all the raw

materials, was already present and ready for use at the Great Lift facility.

Building such a ship from scratch would take a lot longer.]

- Among the many supplies and resources taken by the Yamato's young crew

before their departure is a full flight of the Seiren military's latest

space combat fighter - the SR1.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!" They take at least 24 of them, per the

visuals. Two full squadrons, possibly more.]

- The launching of the new Yamato triggers the resumption of hostilities

between the Earth and Seiren Federations. Emperor Brone of the Seiren

Federation wants the secrets that Shima hid in the old Yamato's data core,

as they are the key that will determine the continued existence of his

empire.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!" and #3, "Combat." The second episode implies

that Shima had waited for years to rebuild the Yamato. All he needed was a

crew for the ship - which is why he had been so nice to the disaffected

youths of Rinbos. They were the perfect material for new recruits. Oh, and

the reason there are apparent Seiren youths among Shima's crew is because

they're half-breeds - and thus rejected by Seiren's Neo-Facist society.]

- The first major casualty of the war is the planet Rinbos. Missile strikes

on its primary monopole ore storage center causes a chain-reaction explosion

which soon destroys the planet. Only a few hundred civilians manage to

escape the disaster, hurriedly evacuated by the Yamato before the planet

blows up. Most of the Seiren military personnel on the surface are killed.

One of the few survivors to make it off the planet in time is Major Reykard,

the kind-hearted commander of the local Seiren garrison.

[Y2520 #2, "Yamato! Launch!" Most of the civilians who are evacuated are

the family and personal friends of the new Yamato's crew. Reykard's escape

would have been revealed in Y2520 #4, "Ancient Mysteries" - which was never

produced.]

- Shima takes the Yamato to Rokoko, and warps right into the middle of a

pitched battle between the Earth and Seiren fleets. The timely arrival of

the Yamato turns the tide of battle in favor of the Earth Federation, and

the Seiren are sent packing.

[Y2520 #3, "Combat"]

- The Earth Federation attempts to seize the new Yamato, claiming that its

original technology was theirs to begin with. Their plans are thwarted when

the ship's computer refuses to recognize anyone but Shima and his young crew

as the rightful operators of the ship. Instead, the Earth Federation has

to content itself with providing logistical support and a carefully selected

group of officers and enlisted men to bring the Yamato's crew numbers up to

full strength.

[Y2520 #3, "Combat"]

- Shima decides to return to the Gorda ruins on the surface of Rokoko to finish

what he started there almost two decades before. Merci learns that she

somehow has a natural affinity for Gorda technology - which may explain her

native talent for computers. She learns from the old Gorda systems that there

is a warp portal on Rokoko that can take them to the Dragon Galaxy - the next

stop on the trail of the ancient Gorda. They are hotly pursued by a Seiren

battle fleet but escape at the last moment through the Rokoko warp portal.

Emperor Brone then decides to warp the entire planet of Giza and its

supporting battle fleet after them to the Dragon Galaxy, in order to claim

the Gorda secrets for himself. Several Earth Federation battle fleets soon

follow, via the Rokoko warp portal, with the same purpose in mind.

[Y2520 #3, "Combat" and #4, "Ancient Mysteries." The last episode was never

produced but a draft plot outline exists.]

- The Yamato is badly damaged once it arrives in the Dragon Galaxy, thanks to

the arrival of Brone's forces. The Earth Federation battle fleets arrive in

the nick of time to save them, leaving the Yamato free to lick its wounds and

continue its mission.

[Y2520 #4, "Ancient Mysteries." This episode was never produced; however, a

draft plot outline exists.]

- Shima and the Yamato's crew discover an ancient Gorda warp portal that is the

hub for what amounts to an old warp wormhole transit system that spans several

nearby galaxies (!). Among these is Galaxy M33 - better known as the

Triangulum Pinwheel Galaxy - located some 2.5 million light-years away, and

which the warp portal records claim is the original home of the Gorda.

It also claims that the purest and most powerful forms of monopole - "level

10," as Emperor Brone knows it - can be found in Galaxy M33.

[Y2520 #4, "Ancient Mysteries." This episode was never produced; however, a

draft plot outline exists.]

- The shortest route through the old Gorda warp wormhole network to Galaxy M33

takes the Yamato to a junction point right beside the Seiren home system,

where the planet Giza was originally located. Brone warps Giza back to its

home system by the same route, then calls in additional forces to attack the

Yamato before it can jump into the next segment of the warp wormhole network.

Shima and his crew find their path blocked by Brone's "palace ship" - the

biggest starship they've ever seen.

[Y2520 #5, "A Spacecraft the Size of a Planet (Part 1 of 2)" This episode was

never produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. The outline indicates

that this could have very well been a two-parter, and I am treating it as

such.]

- Captain Shima is killed in the battle that follows, and he passes on his

mission concerning the Gorda to Nabu, his young ward. Before his death, he

reveals how Nabu and Merci became his wards. Nabu was the son of two

scientists who were part of the origial Rokoko investigation team and were

killed during the Seiren attack. Merci is actually the last known living

Gorda, and was retrieved from a aeons-old cryostasis capsule on Rokoko. SHE

was one of the secrets that the Yamato carried away, and that he so carefully

guarded for the past 17 years. The other is hidden deep in the old Yamato's

data core. It is the plans for the assembling of a Gorda superweapon - of

which Emperor Brone has already found at least one piece - that has "the

power to end the war" and ensure total dominance over all of known space.

Shima also reveals that the reason that everyone at the battle of Rinbos

thought the Yamato crashed on another planet was that his ship had just

enough power left for him to make a small warp behind another Earth ship,

thus hiding his crash on Rinbos. It was the other Earth ship that crashed on

Colony M3. After Shima's death, Nabu offers Major Schmidt, the senior Earth

Federation officer on board, command of the Yamato. Schmidt accepts and is

able to fight his way around Brone's palace ship to the next warp wormhole

portal. The Yamato warps away towards Galaxy M33, with both the Seiren and

Earth Federation fleets in pursuit. Schmidt appoints Nabu as his executive

officer, as he has come to trust the young man's talents over the past few

weeks.

[Y2520 #6, "Origins (Part 2 of 2)" This episode was never produced; however,

a draft plot outline exists. The outline indicates that this could have very

well been a two-parter, and I am treating it as such. The title for the

second part is my own. I have retconned the original plot outline somewhat,

since the English translation of the original is a bit confusing with regards

to Merci's origins and "powers." Shima also reveals, sadly, that all of his

original crew died when they tried to evacuate the ship in lifeboats and the

Seiren destroyed them all.]

- After it arrives in Galaxy M33, the Yamato proceeds to a white dwarf star

indicated by the ancient Gorda data in their possession. This is supposed

to be where the Gorda superweapon is hidden. It can only be "opened" by

causing the start to spin up via the application of monopole energy.

Emperor Brone's fleet arrives on the scene, and brushes the poor Yamato

aside in a burst of superior firepower. Brone then claims the star for

himself. Using a vast amount of refined "level 5" monopole that he has

brought with him in his "palace ship," he succeeds in "opening" the star.

Inside he finds most of the rest of the Gorda superweapon. He then has

his piece of it - which he found inside Giza's own star - brought out from

his ship in order to complete the weapon and make it functional.

[Y2520 #7, "Space Extinction Crisis." This episode was never produced;

however, a draft plot outline exists. This is Episode 6 in the original

series outline - bumped up by one when I turned the original Episode 5 into

a two-parter.]

- As it turns out, Brone's "level 5" monopole is not powerful enough to

properly control the ancient Gorda superweapon. He tries to use it anyway

and it essentially backfires - trapping his "palace ship" and most of his

fleet inside a newly created superstring (as the astrophysicists call it).

Brone and all of his people are killed instantly. The out-of-control

cascading superstring created by the misfired Gorda superweapon now threatens

the very existence of the universe itself, and it's up to the crew of the

Yamato to stop it ... somehow. They do so by reloading the weapon with the

proper "level 10" monopole, which they have picked up along the way in their

epic journey. Nabu fires it at the superstring, which promptly collapses.

Once again, the universe is saved ... thanks to a ship named Yamato.

[Y2520 #8, "The Final Solution of the Big Bang." This episode was never

produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. This is the first half of

Episode 7 in the original series outline - bumped up when I turned the

original Episode 5 into a two-parter. I have split the original proposal

into two episodes for the sake of convenience. I have also had to do some

heavy retconning and simplification of the original plot outline because all

it is at this point is a bunch of ideas. I applied Occam's Razor to come up

with my solution to the final fight in Galaxy M33.]

- All ships involved in their respective fleets return to their respective

federations - save the Yamato. It is invited to the Seiren Federation as

a diplomatic courtesy, to celebrate its role in saving the universe. Nabu

asks and is given consent by the Earth Federation for this special trip.

[Y2520 #9, "The Return of Peace to the Universe." This episode was never

produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. This is the second half of

Episode 7 in the original series outline. I have split the original proposal

into two episodes for the sake of convenience. The title is my own.]

- Amnesis, the daughter of the late Emperor Brone, assumes the rule of the

Seiren Federation. Having been a part of Brone's expedition to search out

the secret of the Gorda - as well as one of its few survivors - she has come

to reject Neo-Facism and everything for it stands. She and her advisors

will eventually negotiate a truce with the Earth Federation, that will in

time become a formal alliance. She also takes the time to marry her consort,

Major Reykard, onetime garrison commander of Rinbos and also a survivor of

the fight over the secrets of the Gorda. They had grown close during their

time together as part of Brone's expedition to Galaxy M33.

[Y2520 #9, "The Return of Peace to the Universe." This episode was never

produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. This is the second half of

Episode 7 in the original series outline. I have split the original proposal

into two episodes for the sake of convenience. The title is my own.]

- The Yamato travels to Earth. For Nabu, Merci, and their fellow Rimbosians,

it is their first visit to humanity's homeworld - and it is an eye-popping

experience for all of them. Nabu offers the Yamato to the Earth Federation

military but they decline. Its technology is too unique for them to integrate

into fleet operations, although they do accept the gift of its complete

engineering schematics and specs, as well as those of the old Yamato's data

core and everything they have collected concerning the Gorda. The Earth

Federation "gives the Yamato back" to its Rimbosian crew, in a manner of

speaking, and encourages them to explore the Sea of Stars in their ship.

This they do, and soon depart Earth for new adventures on their own. In the

meantime the Earth Federation uses the data that Nabu gave them to begin

construction of the eighteenth EDF warship to bear the name "Yamato" ... and

with that, the saga of Y2520 ends.

[Y2520 #9, "The Return of Peace to the Universe." This episode was never

produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. This is the second half of

Episode 7 in the original series outline. I have split the original proposal

into two episodes for the sake of convenience. The title is my own.]

c.2521-2900

- This is the time of the Second Wave of interstellar exploration and expansion

by mankind.

[My term. See my entry on the First Wave.]

- The Ghost Trains first appear on the Galaxy Railways space rail network in

the period immediately following the Hundred Years War. One of them is

first observed picking up the war dead. They appear to be based on or

derived from the model 138 space locomotives, which were last used during

the years when the space rail network was being completed. No one knows

who operate them, but their apparent purpose appears to be to pick up the

dead or dying and transporting them to "points unknown." Many legends and

rumors will grow and surround the Ghost Trains in the centuries to come, and

they are almost always given a wide berth by the living whenever they appear.

[GE999A, GR1 #04, "Eternity." GR1 states that the Ghost Train encountered

by the Sirius Platoon was first seen immediately following a major war "long

ago." SDF database checks confirm the type of locomotive. The fact that

there was more than one can be deduced from GE999A. Layla Shura, the chief

operating officer of the Galaxy Railways, knows all about them and explains

their purpose to the Sirius Platoon officers. The Machine Empire probably

requisitioned them for its own nefarious purposes during the Machine War,

as GE999A depicts.]

- Eventually, after a few generations have passed, the Seiren Federation will

be absorbed into the Earth Federation and it will cease to exist as an

independent entity.

[Y2520 #9, "The Return of Peace to the Universe." This episode was never

produced; however, a draft plot outline exists. This is the second half of

Episode 7 in the original series outline. I have split the original proposal

into two episodes for the sake of convenience.]

- Sometime during this period, the Galman-Gamilon Empire ceases to exist.

[Implied. We never hear from or about it again after SR.]

- Sometime during this period, humanity will first encounter the universal

penumbra - long voids of intense darkness that occur at regular intervals in

the Sea of Stars. No one is able to ever figure out why these exist, and they

are carefully mapped to prevent them from being space navigation hazards.

[GE999EFm, s.v. "St. Elmo's Fire Dragon."]

- Agents of the Machine Empire in the Andromeda galaxy encounter the Metanoids.

Upon hearing this news, Queen Promethium recognizes its significance and

immediately offers an alliance. This the like-minded Metanoids and their

ruler, Darqueen, are only too willing to accept, as it dovetails nicely with

her own ultimate aims. Both dream of achieving intergalactic dominance with

the help (and at the expense) of the other. The Machine Empire wants the

human-like, helium-3 based cyborg technology of the Metanoids, to which they

have so far been denied. The Metanoids want more open access to the

fast-acting, self-replicating abilities of the latest generation of

Mechanoids. This event marks the beginning of the rise (and eventual

dominance) of the Machine Empire in the Andromeda galaxy, with the Metanoids

as its advisors and agents. Their most visible presence will be as Queen

Promethium's elite bodyguard of Machine Knights - a position that only a

handful of non-Metanoids will ever achieve.

[Implied by HSm Volumes 3-8 and the GE999EFm series, as well as ML, SSM, and

GE999A. This would go a long way towards explaining the curious relationship

between the Mechanoids and the Metanoids in "revival" Leijiverse works,

especially in the turbulent decade leading up to the Machine War. One might

say, based on Maetel's revelations at the end of GE999A, that it was Queen

Promethium herself who first contacted the Metanoids, but this would be

retconning of a "heyday" work for purposes of the "revival" Leijiverse.

Besides, what information we have from ML appears to indicate that it was

the other way around - the Metanoids contacted the Mechanoids first, and may

have even been responsible for their creation. I'll leave this line of

speculation to the fans and scholars, and move on ....]

c.2530

- Now that it is the dominant interstellar superpower in the Milky Way galaxy,

the Earth Federation changes its name to the less Terro-centric sounding Solar

Federation. It will retain its new name until its collapse in 2964 under the

Illumidas heel, over 450 years later.

[Implied by Y2520, MYA, SSX, CWZ. Y2520 is the last Leijiverse story in

sequence where the term "Earth Federaton" is used. Almost all subsequent

stories use "Solar Federation" or some variant thereof, with CWZ's

"Terrestrial Federation" being the only notable exception.]

c.2650

- According to one account, the disabled ship of the free trader Emeraldas

crashes on the planet Jura, a human colony world located in the Ammonite star

system somwhere within the Horsehead Nebula. It is there that she finds what

will become her trademark ship, the Queen Emeraldas - built by the ancient

beings of Mosgalut long before. and kept for her all this time by Zonaluna of

Mosgalut - who dies not long after bequeathing the ship to Emeraldas.

[QEm Volume 1; see also HSm Volume 3, "The Valkyrie (Part 2)." The date has

been adapted from the HSm account, which is quite different and therefore

incompatible with the older account given in QEm. The inhabitants of the

planet Meta-Bloody, where the Queen Emeraldas is located in that version of

events, say that it had been the subject of local legends "for over 300

years." The QEm account can be taken as the pre-"revival" version of the

origins of the Queen Emeraldas itself. By the way, the planet Jura also

appears in SPCH, where it is depicted as a jungle world. It would not be

hard to retcon and reconcile the two stories, though. They take place on

different parts of Jura, and perhaps the human colonists in QEm found a way

to overcome the giant plants that destroyed Mimay's people. See? Not that

hard at all.]

- According to one account, Emeraldas will receive the scar on her face while

fighting a gravity saber duel with the governor of the human colony on Jura

for possession of hew new ship. She offers mercy to the governor after

besting him, but he instead shoots her in the face - barely missing her left

eye. He succeeds in breakng her gravity saber after the duel resumes, but

she is quickly able to secure another from the ship and kill her opponent.

Emeraldas never has the scar from this duel removed from her face. It serves

as a constant reminder never to give quarter to a foe who asks for none or

deserves none.

[QEm Volume 1. The governor is never named in the manga version. My earlier

description - and my error in the earlier edition of this document - came from

an online summary of the tale. I have since obtained a proper translation,

and have corrected this document accordingly.]

- In another account of the tale of the Queen Emeraldas, the inhabitants of the

planet Meta-Bloody discover an ancient alien ship lying half-buried in a

canyon in one of the planet's more remote locations. It denies entrance to

all who attempt to enter it, killing a number of them who try anyway, and

tells them that it is waiting for its rightful owner ... who has yet to

arrive.

[HSm Volume 3, "The Valkyrie (Part 2)." This is the "revival" version of the

origins of the Queen Emeraldas.]

2673

- The Mechanoid known as the Gunslinger on the planet Memory begins his career.

[GE999a #020, "Professional Souls." He states he has been a gunman "for the

past three hundred years.]

- The technocrats of the War-Torn Planet literally split their world in two so

they will no longer have to live with the environmentalists that oppose them,

as well as a number of primitive tribes on the planet. Shortly thereafter,

their half of the planet explodes due to an imbalance in its giant rocket

motors. Left behind is only half a world, with is surviving inhabitants

soon enough reverting to primitive barbarism. Only jungle-covered ruins are

left behind of what few cities and items of high techonlogy remain.

[GE999a #023, "Queen of the Primitive Planet." Date implied by visuals.]

2690

- Main Dendorum, of the colony world of Macaroni au Gratin, is Mechanized. He

is the president of the colony city located inside the hollow asteroid.

[GE999a #108, "The Destruction of Macaroni au Gratin." 283 years, per the

dialogue. NOTE "Main" as in "main program routine."]

2693

- Sub Dendorum, of the colony world of Macaroni au Gratin, is Mechanized. He

is a major leader among the loose coalition of colony settlements located on

the outside of the hollow asteroid.

[GE999a #108, "The Destruction of Macaroni au Gratin." 280 years, per the

dialogue. NOTE "Sub" as in "program subroutine."]

sometime in the late 2700s

- The cartoonist in the lobby of the hotel on the planet Memory begins his work.

He will continue non-stop, save for biological needs, for "over two hundred

years."

[GE999a #020, "Professional Souls"]

- The Queen of the planet that will become known as the Witch's Harp begins

demanding most of the planet's abundant food resources for herself. This will

reduce the rest of her realm to ruin, with half-starved subjects fighting over

whatever scraps of food they cannot steal. The signal to bring the food to

her private island is a beautiful harp call. Multiple automatic laser guns

scattered everywhere shoot anyone who has extra food. This situation will

remain in effect until Tetsuro and Maetel's visit in 2973, via the Three-Nine.

[GE999a #065, "Symphonic Poem of the Witch's Harp." The waitress at the hotel

says that this has been happening "for over two hundred years."]

c.2700

- The socialist society on the world later known as the Gimme Planet collapes

due to the simple fact that all of the people who used to work have now

become totally dependent on handouts, with no personal initiative or desire

to earn a living. Within a few years, everyone - including those few

remaining upper-class citizens who are unable to move off-word for whatever

reason - are forced to beg themselves. Within a generation, the entire

population is reduced to abject poverty, and subsists either by begging

or by bartering with their neighbors and relatives for what few goods are

left. The planetary economy collapses and never recovers ... but somehow,

incredibly, the people survive. The Gimme Planet is what the rest of known

space renames this world, and avoids contact with its beggar population as

much as possible.

[GE999a #074, "The Gimme Planet." Maetel says that the total collapse of

planet's economy happened "sometime between one to two hundred years ago."]

c.2750

- The atmosphere of the planet Illumida, one of the most technologically

advanced worlds in the Andromeda galaxy, becomes too poluted from

overindustrialization and hypertechnology to sustain life. Its inhabitants

have only two choices - accept imminent extinction or head into the Sea of

Stars. They chose the latter, and it is this choice that will eventually pave

the way for the rise of the Illumidas as one of the major interstellar powers

in the Andromeda Galaxy.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire Part 2 - Secrets." While CHR is admittely

apocryphal insofar as most Leijiverse fans are concerned, it is the ONLY

source to date that explains the origins of the Illumidas as seen in MYA and

SSX. For fans of the "revival Leijiverse" stories, this is the point where

your timeline - or "ring" if you will - begins to diverge from that of the

"heyday" stories. In the "revival Leijiverse" the Illumidas apparently chose

extinction - which explains their conspicuous absence, as well as the Machine

Empire rising to power a decade or two earlier than is the case with the

"heyday" stories. BTW, I'm not going to point out every difference between

the two in later entries, but this is something you should keep in mind if

you're a fan of one or the other. Just keep track of the stories involved and

you can spot the differences easily enough for yourself.]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-=> BREAKPOINT BETWEEN THE "HEYDAY" AND "REVIVAL" LEIJIVERSE TIMELINES <=-

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

c.2853

- There is a world somewhere within the Outer Rim of the Andromeda galaxy, along

the Infinite Track, whose unique planetary conditions grant its humanoid

inhabitants and settlers virtual immortality. They neither age nor die, so

long as they remain there - within the confines of its unique atmosphere.

They stay either at the peak of their young adulthood or at the age they were

when they first arrived. Death is an unknown thing ... so when a passing

spaceship crashed on it, killing one of its two occupants before the planet's

ecosystem had time enough to save him, its inhabitants were shocked. They had

to learn how to conduct a funeral for the young man from the craft's only

other survivor. Such a thing was so different - so "refreshing" even - from

the way they were used to living, that they quickly became obsessed with the

new concept. Rather than lose their new way of life, they abruptly killed the

ship's only remaining survivor right after the funeral for her companion, so

they could have another funeral ... and thus the custom began. People are

now routinely killed just so the funerals will never stop - and thus one

monotonous lifestyle was traded for another. Their world became a place of

eternal funerals, and it became known to the rest of the Andromeda galaxy as

the Planet of Funerals.

[GE999a #066, "The Planet of Funerals in the Mist." Machiru recounts this sad

tale to Tetsuro and Maetel. She was an eyewitness to the event, and says it

happened "about 120 years ago." She also says that weapons were unknown on

her world before this happened, but were developed in order to kill people and

keep the eternal funerals going.]

c.2860

- The last battle of a great planet-wide war is fought on the world of El

Alamein. Most of its surface has been reduced to ruins and desolation in

prior decades of fighting. After this date, most of the fighting will be of

a regional nature, since there is no longer any infrastructure left to wage

combat on a global scale.

[GE999a #046, "The Voices of El Alamein." Nanmi tells the Conductor of the

Three-Nine, "It's been over a hundred years since the most violent battles

ended." Maetel later observes that the planet was named after the North

African tank battle of World War II, since its arid climate was similar and

perfect for mass mechanized combat.]

c.2870

- The ruling Queen of the world later known as the Flower Captial first imports

those plants from another world. Her world is a drab and barren place, with

few plants of its own, and she wants them in order to beautify the place.

Somehow, the transplanted flowers mutate and evolve toxic strains that become

dominant in their new form. Their pollen is deadly poison to anyone who

breathes enough of it - especially young children. The planetary government

never reverses the Queen's decree after her death - that anyone who picked a

flower was to be executed - since they find it an extremely convienent means

of population control. Over the next century, the population of the Flower

Captial will be slowly decimated, and 40% of it will have died from toxic

pollen posioning by the time a terrorist act in 2973 finally destroys all of

the flowers growing on the surface.

[GE999a #070, "The Planet of Fragile Flowers"]

c.2915

- Masu "Miss Masu" Tsunajima is born in a fishing village somewhere on the coast

of Japan.

[SPCHa #33, "The Lone Man's Charge;" implied]

- Goro Otowara, future commander-in-chief of Earth's military forces in 2979, is

born somewhere in Japan.

[SPCHa #33, "The Lone Man's Charge;" implied]

c.2920

- Setsuko Oyama, mother of Tochiro Oyama, is born.

[GE999g]

- Matthew, a young man on Duet, the habitable moon of Herise, begins a job as a

postal carrier. He will retire in 2974 as an old man, having delivered the

mail "for over fifty years." In all those years, he never fails in his job

save once - a single letter that appears to have no address or postage.

[GROVA Part 1, "The Tidal Wave of Time"]

sometime in the 2920s

- Goro Yuki, eldest of the Yuki brothers, is born.

[Probable conjecture based on his apparent age in SSX #03, "The Legend of

Arcadia"]

- Souichiro Yuki, brother of Goro and Wataru Yuki, is born.

[Probable conjecture based on his apparent age in SPCHa #16, "The Farewell

Song"]

- Wataru Yuki, youngest of the Yuki brothers, is born.

[Probable conjecture based on his apparent age in GR#1, "Setting Out."]

2929, 1 October

- The merchant ship Sell is launched by the Solar Federation Transportation

Department. It is built to "an old design." At some point later in its life

it will be purchased by a company named Andromeda Call, and converted for

space tourism. In this role, it will normally transport 100-120 passengers on

a sightseeing run between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies.

[SSX #05, "The Girl From the Ghost Ship Sell," date corrected per MYA and ARA.

The year 2960 is given in the anime, but this is WAY off given the other dates

that are listed in conjunction with the Sell's disappearance and has been

adjusted accordingly. The "old design" in question is a nod to space sailing

ships, which used to be a staple of Japanese science fiction in both anime and

live action.]

c.2930

- The Machine Emipre establishes a civilian settlement on the planet Serract in

the Tohr Sector.

[CWZ #07, "The Need to Believe"]

- Schawanhelt Bulge is born.

[Probable conjecture based on his apparent age in GR#11, "The Yearning."]

2932

- Chancellor Aphrodus has a number of forced labor and concentration camps

built on his colony for the containment of so-called "undesirables."

[QEm Volume 2. The head guard pulls up the past 50 years' worth of prisoner

records for Emeraldas at the Sector 4984 Camp, so it's been in operation for

at least that long.]

2933

- A man named Edmond leaves his home planet of Supersweet and embarks on a

successful fifty-year career as a space warrior.

[GE999a #032, "The Bitten Planet of Suspended Space"]

c.2935

- Faust Hoshino, father of Tetsuro Hoshino, is born.

[GE999A implied, see also various and sundry GE999a episode flashbacks and

CHE's "Sins of the Father" story arc. He was supposedly a friend and

contemporary of Captain Harlock prior to the Earth-Illumidas War, which means

the two are about the same age.]

2938

- Phantom F. Harlock XCIX is born on Earth at the family estate of Arcadia,

located near Heilgenstaadt, Germany in both the "classic" and "heyday"

Leijiverses.

[MYA, SSX, GE999f, and CHR implied. Harlock is an adult and has seen years of

military service with the Solar Federation Space Navy when the events of MYA

take place. Some MYA background sources make his age to be 29 when he turned

his back on Earth and became a space pirate. The fact that he was the 99th

(XCIX) and last to bear the traditional family name comes from the Harmony

Gold press kit for CHQ1K.]

c.2939

- Doctor Zero, the third medical officer to serve aboard the Arcadia, is born.

[CHEO #05, "Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet." He is listed as being 60

years old in his official file, per the subtitles.]

early 2940s

- Metanoid agents begin to infiltrate the Solar Federation power structure.

[HSm Volume 3, implied]

- Wataru Yuki marries his first wife, Fumi.

[Implied by SPCHa #16, "Kei: The Farewell Song" and the M-san interview in

the GR1 DVD set regarding Kei Yuki's background, retconned]

- Half of the mineral-rich planet Rosamund collapses due to overmining of its

energy-rich crystalline ores. The only survivor to escape the disaster on

that side of the planet is a man named Wheatman, the engineer for the Galaxy

Railways ore run. Among the millions of dead and missing are Wheatman’s parents and younger sister.

[GR1 #08, “Afterglow). Wheatman’s picture inside the old #825 and the flashbacks in the episode suggest he was in his early 20s when this happened.

He is an old man with a failing heart by the time GR1 takes place. This date

is an educated guess and could be off by a couple of decades either way.

Remember, apparent ages are difficult to judge in the Leijiverse.]

- The planet Snowinca, know as "the gateway to the Andromeda galaxy," becomes

almost completely Mechanized.

[GE999a #090, "The Snow Woman from Andromeda (Part 1)." This happened when

Tsuru, the owner of the last ramen shop on Snowinca, was still a young man

with a head full of hair. He is now old and bald. His girlfriend Yuki, is

Mechanized about this time, becoming the "snow woman" of the story per

GE999a #091 (Part 2).]

c.2940

- Commissioning of the Karyu class of space control ships for the Solar

Federation Space Navy. These represent their most powerful class of space

warships prior to the outbreak of the Earth-Illumidas War.

[CWZ. The ship is an old design that predates the series, according to both

Zero and Harlock, and is described by Zero himself as "delicate." My date is

an educated guess based on its level of technology and comparison with its

apparent successor, the Admiral class space battleships of MYA, SSX, and CHR.]

c.2943

- Author Sosetsu Yoi leaves Earth and settles on the Mirage Planet as its sole

occupant. He wants the peace and quiet of being completly alone in order to

write "the longest novel in the world."

[GE999 #028, "The Great Author of the Mirage Planet."]

c.2945

- Warrius Zero is born.

[The CWZ press release by Enoki Films states that Zero was in his "late

twenties" at the time of the Big Galaxy War.]

- Tetsuro Ilita, father of Yukihito Ilita, is born.

[CHEO #05, 05, “Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet"]

c.2947

- The Solar Federation gains a new enemy in the form of the Illumidas, a

previously unknown humanoid race from the Andromeda Galaxy with a reputation

for viciousness. The Illumidas resent the expansion of humanity on its

borders. A series of unofficial skirmishes soon escalates into an all-out

war.

[CHR Volume 03, “The Color of a Rose.” Commander Jigor reflects that he had seen twenty years of combat in the Illumidas military only to transfer to the

Earth Occupation Forces and see even more. This tallies well with other

material suggested MYA and SSX. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source of detailed information regarding the origins

of the Illumidas and the early years of the Earth-Illumidas War.]

- Keiko “Kei” Yuki, daughter of Wataru and Fumi Yuki, is born on Earth in Japan, exact location unknown.

[Conjecture based on an interview with Matsumoto-san included with Volume 1

of the DVD release of GR1. He states for the record in the interview that

Kei Yuki is the elder sister of Manabu and Mamoru Yuki, the sons of Wataru

Yuki. Kei appears to be a young woman in SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword,” and not the angry young teenager we see in the flashback scenes in SPCHa #16,

“Kei: The Farewell Song”). She's also old enough to have become a respected starship captain and space pirate by the time CHEO rolls around, and her

actions and mannerisms are that of an older woman who still looks young.

SPCHa strongly implies that Kei's birthplace was in Japan, although the exact

location is never given. Matsumoto has also said on other occasions that Kei

Yuki is a direct descendant of Nova Forrester Wildstar. Whether or not

Wataru and Fumi were still married when Kei was born is open to debate;

however, Wataru is Kei's father per M-san, so she couldn't have been born

that long after their divorce, if such is the case. Her birthdate needs to

be as late as possible in order to avoid dating issues with SSX, SPCHa, and

CHEO, while still remaining consistent with M-san's GR1 statements.]

2948

- Tochiro Oyama,is born on Earth in both the "classic" and "heyday" Leijiverse.

[SPCH #01, "The Jolly Roger of Space." This is the date engraved on Tochiro's

tombstone/memorial marker on Earth. The name of Tochiro's mother comes from

GE999v. One of the ironies of the "heyday" Leijiverse is that Harlock and

Tochiro are almost a decade apart agewise; yet it is Tochiro, the younger of

the pair, who will die first. This date also applies to the "heyday"

Leijiverse as implied by the timeline given in ARA.]

- The marriage of Wataru and Fumi Yuki breaks up.

[Conjecture based on an interview with M-san included with Volume 1 of the

DVD release of GR1. He states for the record in the interview that Kei Yuki

is the elder sister of Manabu and Mamoru Yuki, the sons of Wataru Yuki. He

never says they had the same mother; therefore Wataru Yuki must have been

married twice. Kei Yuki’s parents are named as Souichiro and Fumi Yuki in SPCH #16, “Kei: The Farewell Song.” Occam’s Razor dictates that Souichiro and Wataru must therefore have been married to the same woman, Fumi, at

different times. Since they share the same last name then it is reasonable

to conclude they must have been brothers. The intrusion of Wataru Yuki into

Kei Yuki’s background results from the “revival" Leijiverse reinterpretation of the backgrounds of almost every major established character in the

Leijiverse - like Kei Yuki, as you can see here.]

- Wataru Yuki marries Kanna, his second wife. They relocate to the planet

Tabito, a peaceful world located in a remote system on the far side of the

Mazelan Nebula.

[GR #01, “Setting Out.” and CWZ #10, “On the Edge of the Galaxy.” This is pure conjecture on my part, but the move from Earth may have had something

to do with his divorce from his first wife, Fumi.]

2949

- Marina Mii is born on the planet Miraisenia.

[CWZ #08, "Marina Everlasting" and the CWZ press release by Enoki Films. The

latter states Marina was 22 when she joined the crew of the Karyu.]

- Mamoru Yuki is born on the planet Tabito.

[GR1 #01, “Setting Out.” This presumes that Mamoru was born within a year of his parents’ marriage and that he is four years older than his younger brother Manabu.]

c.2950

- A teenaged Hanako leaves her parent's home on the planet Wildflower and heads

for the nearby world Trader Junction to look for both a job and a husband.

She finds only the job - never the husband. By the time Tetsuro meets her

on his first trip on the Three-Nine, the rough and poor life she has been

forced to leave have prematurely aged her.

[GE999a #009 and #010, "Trader Junction (Parts 1 & 2). It has "been decades"

since Hanako felt as peaceful as she did when Tetsuro buys her the first

square meal she's eaten since losing her noodle shop job.]

- The Conductor, a native of the Planet of Memories, hires on with the Galaxy

Railways. He will eventually be assigned to the Three-Nine, one of its most

prestigous space trains.

[GE999a #042, "A Woman's Memory," implied. He states in the episode that he

is from the Planet of Memories and that "I spent all of my youth" with his

ex-girlfriend, who shows up on the Three-Nine during the episode. The GROVA

series suggests that the Conductor's last name is Black.]

- A small planet named Future is terraformed by Dr. Cyclops and his team. It

quickly becomes home to hard-working and industrious human colony. Although

have more in spiritual wealth than physical, that does not prevent the planet

from turning into a pleasant place to visit, and it quickly becomes a regular

stop on the Three-Nine's run. Future will serve as the model for the next

major terraforming project by Dr. Cyclops and his team.

[GE999a #049, "The Planet Future." The connection with Dr. Cyclops is

surmised based on the way Future looks, which is remarkably like that of the

Ghost Planet seen in GE999a #036, "The Great Doctor Cyclops." The good doctor

appears to have had a thing for 20th century rural Japanese life on Terra.

The age of the colony on Future is a guess based on the apparent ages of the

hotel owner and his wife, who claim to have been among the planet's original

settlers.]

- Prior to the Earth-Illumidas War, Faust Hoshino earned his living as a

construction worker - primarily as an operator of heavy equipment, such as

excavators and mechanical shovels.

[GE999a #087, "The UFO of the Planet of Forgotten Parents." Tetsuro recalls

this in a short flashback. I'm presuming his mother must have told him this,

since this would have been before he was born and per GE999A Faust served

with Harlock in the Solar Federation Space Navy.]

2950

- Phantom F. Harlock XCIX is born on Earth in the "revival" Leijiverse.

[HSm; in particular "The Valkyrie" and "Gotterdammerung" story arcs. His

exact age is never stated, but HSm strongly implies that he and Tochiro are

the same age. We know Tochiro was born in 2950 per the CWZ press kit;

therefore, Harlock must have also been born in 2950 in the "revival"

Leijiverse. His youth - early 20s - might explain Harlock's impulsive

behavior in such "revival" stories as SSM and CWZ, as opposed to the older,

more measured Harlock we see in such "heyday" stories as MYA and SSX - but

this is conjecture on my part. A later date for Harlock's birth is also a

better fit - somewhat - with CHEO, as it would make him 49 at that time,

and keep fellow Leijiverse fans from having to jump through some of the same

hoops that I had to do in the previous edition of this document.]

- Tochiro Oyama is born on Earth in the "revival" Leijiverse.

[CWZ press kit. He is the same age as Yattaran in the "revival" Leijiverse.]

- Yattaran is born on Earth somewhere in Japan.

[CWZ press kit; see also SPCHa #23, "The Song of the Model Lover." Yattaran

grew up in Japan, according to his friend Doctor Zero. I ascribed his

birthplace to the port city of Kobe in the previous edition of this document,

but I honestly don't have any solid proof that such was the case.]

2951

- The bounty hunter Sylvania is born, location unknown.

[CWZ offical press release by Enoki Films. She was 20 years old at the time

Warrius Zero arrived on Heavy Melder looking for Captain Harlock, per CWZ

#05, "Tochiro the Great Samurai."]

2953

- This is the last time that Tetsuro's pistol was cleaned and in top-notch

shape, per Boss Antares.

[GE999a #004, "The Great Bandit Antares." Note that this date PRECEEDS the

creation of the Cosmo Dragoon pistol by over a decade in what passes for the

normal Leijiverse continuity. It only works for the TV series version of

events - in which Tetsuro carries a space warrior's Cosmo Gun Special instead

of a Cosmo Dragoon.]

- A ruthless dictator seizes control of the world that will eventually be known

as the Sacred Planet of Silence. In the pattern of such types, he violently

suppresses all opposition and encourages the populace to inform on each other.

A special hypersensitive hearing device is invented so potential informats can

better go about their tasks. These will eventually be implanted in most of

the population, causing their ears to enlarge and bend forward somewhat. This

backfires somewhat, since even the slightest sound is now capable of driving

most of the population into a fit - so a series of Sound Pollution Laws are

eventually passed to reduce, if not outright eliminate, as much of the

planet's noises as possible.

[GE999a #064 - "The Sacred Planet of Silence." Sylvia, the woman who aids

Maetel and Tetsuro on this world, says that these laws have been in place "for

a long time." She used to have the hearing devices just like everybody else,

but had them removed about six months prior to Maetel and Tetsuro's arrival.

The episode implies she had hers since childhood, which means that the devices

were probably invented at that time. That would have been while the former

dictator was still alive. I'm guessing that at least a generation has passed

since the devices were made - 20-30 years, give or take - since the current

governor, an old man, used to be one of the former dictator's top henchmen.

Syliva appears and acts like a woman in her late 20s, so I go with the lower

estimate and date this to the early 2950s. My estimate could be off up to 10

years either way.]

- Broygerd abandons his wife shortly after his infant son Verlong is born. He

cannot cope with the fact that his son was born with only one arm.

[CHR Volume 05, “Storms.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he is to date the only source for this information.]

- Tadashi Momono is born on the planet Meshiras.

[SSX #01, "Arcadia Lift Off!" and #03, "Battlezone Lullaby" - implied. He

is a preteen, at least, since he's starting to look at girls with more than

a childhood eye. The age of 14 is common for preteens in the Leijiverse.

It's a safe bet he was born on Meshiras, since he didn't have enough money

for decent food - let alone fare for offworld passage on even a tramp space

freighter.]

- Manabu Yuki is born on the planet Tabito.

[GR1 #02, “A Knot in Time." This date presupposes that he is four years younger than his brother Mamoru. He states in the dialogue that he is

"almost 20" on the day he is to report to join the GRSDF.]

- The Galaxy Railways station on the planet Merides is abandoned after this

date.

[GR1 #04, "Eternity." The station hadn't been used in twenty years, per

the dialogue. Exactly how or why is never stated.]

2954

- Killian Black is born on the planet Herise.

[GROVA Part 3, "The Rewritten Destiny." This assumes that Killian was the

same age as Manabu (20) - when he was within months of his graduation from

the GRSDF Academy.]

c.2955

- Pride and Alice are born sometime around this year on the planet Deadwood.

Both are soon made orphans, and wind up being treated as outcasts as children.

They soon discover that they have no one to lean on except each other - and

this is what gives them the will and courage to survive and eventually grow

up.

[GE999a #045, "The Ride of the Space Valkyries." Both act and appear as if

they are in their late teens or early twenties. My date is an estimate and

might be off by as much as five years either way.]

- Most of the population of Miraisenia agrees to Mechanoid conversion in order

to avoid extinction, due to impending ecological changes on their world.

Those who refuse flee to the stars looking for a new home. One such

Miraisenian colony ship is hit by an asteroid and destroyed near the Sol

System. Its sole survivor is a little girl named Marina Mii. An elderly

Japanese couple named Oki take her in and adopt her as their own human

daughter. They manage to conceal her true identity as an alien from

everyone. As it turns out, Marina and only one other Miraisenian manage to

survive the extinction of their species.

[CWZ "Marina Special." No exact date is ever given for Marina’s arrival on Earth; however, she recalls that “there weren’t many Machine Men on Earth in those days.” This, coupled with the fact that she was 22 when she joined the Karyu’s crew, implies a date shortly before the Earth-Illumidas War.

- The Procyon Binary Star orbital track accident occurs. It is the worst in

the history of the Galaxy Railways up to this point in time. A young GRSDF

officer by the name of Wataru Yuki emerges as a hero for rescuing the sole

sole survivor - a 10-year-old girl named Katarina. Schwanhelt Bulge is

inspired to join the GRSDF after hearing about Wataru Yuki's heroism.

[GR1 #11, "The Yearning"]

2955

- Killian's birth parents succeed in altering the flow of time and preventing

the death of their young son. His destiny was to be run down by a young

woman named Eme - the girlfriend of a Herise nobleman named Modesto. His

parents succeed in altering the flow of time so that Eme swerves off the road

to avoid Killian and hits a retaining wall, throwing her from her car and

directly into a large boulder. The impact breaks her neck, and she dies

instantly. Thus one life is exchanged for another - but this flow of events

is not what was fated. This act by Killian's parents will bring down the

wrath of the Enforcers on the planet Herise.

[GROVA Part 3, "The Rewritten Destiny." Killian is repeatedly described in

the original Japanese dialogue as a "tokuiten" - a person who has been pulled

out of the normal flow of time. Does that term sound familiar, ORGUSS fans?

It's the same word used to describe pilot Kei Katsuragi and his friend Olsen

throughout that classic anime TV series.]

- All life on the planet Herise is destroyed by the Enforcers. One of only two

survivors to escape the planet is a 1-year-old baby, whom the Conductor of

the Three-Nine adopts. He eventually gives him the name Killian Black. The

other is Modesto, the nobleman whose girlfriend was made to die in Killian's

place. The planet Herise is soon taken off of the Galaxy Railways space rail

network, and the local space rail line is moved to the nearby habitable moon

of Duet. This will be the last time that any space train stops at Herise

until the Three-Nine crashes there in 2974.

[GROVA Part 3, "The Rewritten Destiny." The GROVA series suggests that the

Conductor's last name is Black, since Black is Killian's adoptive last name.

By the way, Maetel was present at this event. The Conductor will later

recall that accepting Killian, and carrying him away aboard the Three-Nine,

was the first time he had ever violated Galaxy Railways policy since he

started working for them.]

- Louise Fort Drake is born somewhere in the Claudius Star Group Republic.

[GR1 #02, “A Knot in Time” and #14, “Bond.” She was 18 years old when she became part of the GRSDF.]

2956

- Phantom Harlock is appointed to the prestigious Space Defense Academy for

training as a starship officer in the Solar Federation Space Navy.

[Probable conjecture, with regards to the "heyday" timeline. We know Captain

Harlock was a starship commander for the Solar Federation per MYA. This

presupposes an Academy background, if the space navies of the future are

anything like the navies of today. “Mustang officers” (those without an academy background) rarely rise to command rank, save in wartime - and then

only after training programs at service academies are accellerated. There is

a Space Defense Academy in Harlock’s day per the background materials for CWZ. All of the Earth Federation officers aboard the Karyu are Space

Defense Academy graduates. It stands to reason that Captain Harlock, having

once fought for Earth, is a Space Defense Academy graduate as well.]

late 2950s

- According to at least one version of their respective life stories, a young

Phantom F. Harlock will befriend Tochiro Oyama while the two are still

youths. It will eventually grow into the friendship of a lifetime, echoing

similar friendships by their ancestors across the centuries.

[HSm Volume 3. Per its version of events, which is intended for the

"revival" Leijiverse, they grew up together - so this actually goes back as

far as at least the back half of the 2950s. MYA implies that Harlock grew

up at the family estate at Heilgenstaadt, so perhaps Tochiro was the son of

a visiting family friend? You can retcon this all sorts of ways.]

- In one of the more commonly accepted versions of his past history, the young

Phantom F. Harlock, heir to the Harlock estate of Arcadia in Heilgenstaadt,

Germany, falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Maya. As it turns

out, she is a longtime friend from his childhood days.

[MYA. Maya says in the movie that they first fell in love in the days of

their youth. Her actual quote is, “Like Heilgenstaadt - our Arcadia - where we ran together.” This date presupposes that Harlock was a teenager at the time his romance with Maya began. This datum is true only for the "classic"

or "heyday" Leijiverse interpretations. For the "revival" interpretation,

you have to look at the end of HSm Volume 4 - where a visiting messenger from

Valhalla predicts to the teenaged Harlock in 2964 that he will meet and fall

in love with a young woman named Maya. How long their relationship lasted

in the "revival" Leijiverse - of if they ever had any children, as another

prophecy in HSm claims would happen - is not known.]

- Alexander Nevich and his wife agree to take part in the Phoenix Experiment.

It is a top-secret government project studying real-time memory transfers

between parents and their offspring. Their as-yet-unborn child will also be

part of the experiment.

[CHR "Deathshadow Rising" story arc, Volume 04, “Bridges.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for

this information.]

- A deadly accident at the Galaxy Railways station on the planet Destiny claims

the life of Kinyuko Kayamori's son.

[GR1 #06, "Sobbing in the Dark." He would have been the same age as Manabu

Yuki had he survived.]

- Galaxy Express #162 is lost when an accident causes it to fall into the

gravity well of a red giant star. Only a portion of the passengers are

saved.

[GR1 #15, “Fellowship on the Battle Lines.” This was one of the assignments shared by GRSDF officers Bulge, Julia, and Murase early in their careers.

Injuries suffered during this incident resulted in the scars on Murase’s face. The date is probable conjecuture, as the incident appears to happen

before Bulge’s reassignment to Captain Wataru Yuki and the Sirius Platoon.]

2957-2966

- The Earth-Illumidas War.

[CHR. Per Gibson, the war lasted for a decade. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for

this information.]

- At some point early on the war, the Solar Federation will have Tochiro Oyama

supervise the construction of a number of hidden mobile space stations,

intended for resupply and rest for Space Navy units in the field. The war

will keep most of these from being completed; however, at least four will

be built. These four are a base in Earth's inner asteroid belt known as the

SSX Base, the mobile asteroid known as Deathshadow Island, a combination

multi-ship spacedock and space fortress almost as large as a Galaxy Railways

hub station hidden inside a removeable asteroid shell, and the mobile moon

known as Pirate Island. All of these will end up in Harlock's possession,

with Earth authorities lacking the will and capability to reclaim them, and

he will use them - along with Emeraldas and other trusted friends - as part

of his pirate operations.

[GPH; DZ; HSm Volumes 3-8; SSX #06, "The Great Space Fortress Appears;" all

SPCH sources; and various issues of CHR. It is in the SSX episode where we

learn that Tochiro was the genius behind this program. He also implies that

there is more than the one we see in that story ... and there most certainly

are. GPH appears to be the first Harlock tale to feature him having an

asteroid base, out from which he operates. Pirate Island is featured

multiple times in HSm, and appears to be the largest of them all - with a

full-fledged shipyard and construction facility contained inside! Hence its

description as a small moon. Deathshadow Island is featured prominently in

all SPCH sources.]

2957

- Tadashi Daiba, younger brother of Tsuyoushi Daiba and son of Lt. Commander

Tadashi Daiba of the Solar Federation Space Navy, is born on Earth in

Megapolis City.

[Probable conjecture based on HSa, HSm Volume 1, and CHR Volume 01, “An Exchange of Futures.” While Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal, it tallies fairly well with the apparent age of the Tadashi Daiba depicted in

both HSa and HSm.]

- The attempt to terraform the planet Tastasia ends in colossal failure. The

planet’s artificially created ecosystem begins to feed upon itself, and will rapidly collapse over the next decade. The end result leaves the surface of

Tastasia an oceanless, barren wasteland.

[CHR "Queen Emeraldas: The Children of Eden," Volume 01, “An Exchange of Futures." Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however he is to date the only source for this information.]

- Alexander Nevich and his expectant wife are caught off-world in one of the

first Illumidas attacks on Solar Alliance colony worlds. The trauma of the

attack causes Nevich’s wife to go into premature labor. A young Solar Federation ensign named Daiquin guards Nevich and his wife while she gives

birth to their son Alex. He also helps them escape capture by the Illumidas.

[CHR "Deathshadow Rising" Volume 02, “Severance” and Volume 03, “Ghosts." Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however it is to date the only source for this information. Alex’s birth had to have happened near the start of the Earth-Illumidas War due to his apparent age. He seems to be

about the same age as Tadashi Daiba.]

- Among the many victims of early Illumidas attacks is a young girl, daughter

of a wealthy farming family on a colony world where sunflowers grow in

abundance. An Illumidas fighter strafes the field where all of them all

walking, killing her parents and younger brother. Shortly thereafter, she

is captured by Illumidas ground forces and forcily converted into a cyborg,

Her human name is lost with her ruined past, and she becomes known simply

as Alpha One. Eventually, she will be sold into slavery and bought by the

captain of the trading ship Sell, who gives her the disgusting job of

cleaning the bilges - where she will remain for the next several years.

[SSX #05, "The Girl From the Ghost Ship Sell." Date is a best guess based

on the flashback visuals, and allowing enough time for her for events to

have happened as she describes them to Tadashi.]

2958

- The man who will become Baron Darghund enlists in the Solar Federation Space

Navy in order to impress Maya, whom he also loves. He is somehow able to

avoid deep space duty and remain on Earth, in ordert that he be close to Maya

as much as possible. He proposes marriage soon after, but she rejects his

offer. She is already engaged to his rival, Phantom Harlock.

[CHR Volume 02, “And Its Roots Grow Strong Under the Ground,” slightly retconned. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however he is to date the only source for this information.

- The Solar Alliance military embarks on a crash program to develop a new

space battleship design capable of dealing with the Illumidas. The reason for

this is that the venerable Karyu class super space battleships, the backbone

of the fleet, are falling victim time and again to their more nimble

opponents.

[Probable conjecture based on CWZ, MYA, and SSX. CWZ establishes that the

Karyus are not the most agile of ships, while both MYA and SSX show us how

maneuverable most Illumidas designs are.]

- The latest effort by the brilliant terraformer Doctor Cyclops and his team

is complete - an artifical Earth-like world with a transluscent, enclosed

atmospheric shell. Shortly after the initial wave of colonists move in,

however, a flaw in one of the shells systems (a single bad screw) causes the

shell to fail and the atmosphere inside to rapidly evacute - killing everyone

on that side of the planet in a matter of minutes. The surviving colonists

promptly evacuate the colony and personally blame Cyclops for what happened.

His professional and public reputations are ruined, so much that he soon

disappears from view. He will not be heard from again for the next fifteen

years. The flaw in the failed colony world is found and fixed, but no one

will live there due to the disaster and the reputation of the man who built

it. It becomes known as the Ghost Colony. Even the space trains of the

Galaxy Railways only make infrequent stops there - and never for very long.

[GE999a #036, "The Great Doctor Cyclops"]

2959

- Launching of the SDS Admiral, the prototype (and lead ship) for the Solar

Federation Space Navy’s newest class of space battleship. The design proves to be successful, and is put into production as quickly as possible. The

Karyu and her sister ships are either retired or relegated to secondary

duties while the Admirals replace them on the front lines.

[Probable conjecture based on CWZ, MYA, and SSX. CWZ establishes that the

Karyus were "delicate" ships that were long past their prime. SSX tells us

that the Solar Federation's Deathshadow was an Admiral class space vessel.

Both MYA and SSX - and even CHR, apocryphal though it may be - establish

that the Illumidas had genuine respect for the Admirals.]

sometime during the 2960s

- A young woman named Yayoi, a native of the planet where Footstep Village is

located, commits suicide after the manga novel on which she spent countless

hours of hard work is rejected by "a big city publisher." Her body is found

floating in a nearby marsh, and later buried in the local cemetary. Her

prized manuscript is lost at this time, and will not be seen again until 2973

- when a visiting tourist named Tetsuro Hoshino is led to it by Yayoi's ghost.

He will later shop the manuscript around for her, and eventually arrange for

its posthumous publication.

[GE999a #058, "The Ghost of Footstep Village," implied]

- The planet Palomas is colonized. It is the last major colony world to be

estabished by the Solar Federation before the end of the war and its collapse.

[SSX #12, "The Luminous Battleship."]

- The planet Filament is destroyed when its sun goes nova.

[GE999a #030, "The Ghost Planet Filament," implied. It had to have happened

after the Mechanization process became available galaxy-wide, yet recent

enough for stories of "ghosts" appearing in the era not to have become a

local legend.

- The World War II Japanese battleship Mahoroba reappears on Earth some eight

centuries after its mysterious disappearance. The ship is immediately

impounded by Earth Federation officials and its crew subjected to an extensive

debriefing. Not long after, the vessel itself winds up in the hands of the

Galaxy Railways Space Panzer Grenadiers. They appreciate the value of the

Time Sweeper technology it carries, and have the ship rebuilt as a space

battleship in the same manner as the legendary Yamato. The two twin space

battleships, Yamato and Mahoroba, soon become familiar sights again in the

universe as they embark on various missions for the GRSDF.

[UTSM and DYm. The possibility of time travel and interdimensional slipping

via Time Sweeper technology is explored in such stories as HSm Part 4,

"Gotterdamerung," and DNA.]

- Toshiro Oyama, who was aboard the Japanese battleship Mahoroba when it was

catapulted far into Earth's future, discovers himself to be a rich man. This

is due to the simple act of compound interest on funds in a simple trust, set

up for him by a mysterious benefactor before his abrupt departure from Earth

in 2030. He uses his newly acquired wealth to move to the Outer Rim colonies

and set up a mining business. A few years later, his company strikes it

rich when it discovers a rich vein of cosmonite. Profits from his strike

and from subsequent mining turn him from an already rich man to one wealthy

beyond the dreams of avarice. He can have anything money can buy - and yet,

for all this, he is terribly lonely. He is a man out of his own time, and he

is also unattractive - which means he has no female admirers save those only

intersted in his money. He derives what little pleasure he has, aside from

his business, into tricking these into believing he has suddenly become poor

and seeing how they react to the news. Eventually, he will buy his own

private Dreamliner space express train and cruise the stars - feeling too

rich and too old now for the type of adventures he had in his youth, yet

always craving for them.

[UTSM implied, GR1 #13, "Sexaroid," plus some conjecture on my part. This

replaces the entry in the second edition about him meeting his distant

descendant. That entry was based on faulty data at the time. Sadly, there

is as yet no hard evidence that such ever happened, as with him when he met

his own grandfather in UTSM. Oh, and Toshiro's mysterious benefactor is

Yuheyao, the mysterious blond from UTSM who was always helping him out.]

- The Galaxy Railways begins construction of new "interdimensional tunnels" for

its space rail network, in order "to bring the galaxies closer together."

[GR2 #01, "A New Departure." Possibly an improvement on the old warp

wormhole network they were previously using, per Y2520, or maybe they were

finally able to reactivate parts of it that hadn't worked before? Whatever

it involved, this new space rail construction effort has dramatic implications

to the GR storyline - especially in the second season.]

- Prior to his enlistement with the Galaxy Railways SDF, Bruce J. Speed serves

as a mercenary fighter for whoever will hire him. During this time he grows

close to a young woman named Lisa Lee, who trains under him as a fighter.

They quickly lose touch after he joins with the SDF, and she will not hear

about him again until the year after his death.

[GR2 #04, "Stardust Blues." The woman's name is translated as "Misary" in

the common fansub. My transliteration is an attempt to make her name sound

more normal in English, but it could be rendered other ways, too - such as

"Misery." Her flashback might imply that she and Bruce fought together

in Guella's planetary civil war.]

2960

- The Admiral class space battleships enter service.

[MYA, SSX, and CHR - implied]

- In the "heyday" Leijiverse, Phantom F. Harlock graduates with honors, at the

top of his class, from the Solar Federation Space Defense Academy. His first

assignment as a green ensign is to a cruiser patrolling the Outer Rim

colonies, in light of increasing Illumidas attacks. His first act as an

officer upon graduation is to marry Maya, his longtime love.

[MYA; see also GPH and SBD. The earlier stories leave no doubt that Harlock

was married at one time in his earlier incarnations. Harlock’s wife as depicted in these early manga (Francoise in GPH, unnamed in SBD) bear an

uncanny likeness to Maya from MYA. Emeraldas confirms that he was married

in MYA when asked by Tochiro about Maya's relationship to Harlock. Her

answer was, and I quote, “Yes; however, she would never tie down a man like Harlock.” This answer has been misinterpreted by many over the years, including Gibson, to conclude that Harlock was never married. It’s fairly clear from the evidence that Harlock WAS married in the "heyday" Leijiverse.

I have interpreted her remark literally; that is, Maya was the typical "sea

captain's wife" you often encounter in literature. She was rather lonely

and missed her husband; however, she had no intention of making him stay on

Earth and give up his life on the Sea of Stars. In deference to fans and

scholars who prefer Harlock to be single, I point out that in the “revival” Leijiverse Harlock was never married. Maya was at best his lover, and may

have had a child by him out of wedlock, as HSm seems to imply, but they were

never married.]

early 2960s

- The Space Panzer Grenadiers, the elite forces group of the Galaxy Railways

Space Defense Force, resurrect the space battleship Yamato from its icy

Arctic grave on Earth and claim it for their own. They refit and update the

ship, man it with a full crew, and use it as part of their many missions to

protect the Galaxy Railways from danger. In so doing they save the venerable

Yamato from certain destruction in the intergalactic war that is about to

break out between Earth and the Illumidas.

[HSm Volume 3 and GE999Fm. Great Harlock, the father of Captain Harlock, is

passed by the revived Yamato while making his landing approach to Heavy

Melder in the year 2964. Ten years later, in 2974, the Yamato passes the

Three-Nine on its way to do battle with Darqueen and her Metanoid forces.

Maetel explains to Tetsuro that the Yamato now belongs to the Space Panzer

Grenadiers.]

- Revi Bentselle, daughter of Captain Bentselle, is born on Earth Colony Two.

[SSX #03, "Battlezone Lullaby," implied. She is about five years old, give

or take a couple of years, when the story in question takes place - comparing

her age at the time with her age in the photo inside her cameo pendant.]

- The Conductor is forced to leave young Killian Black in the care of a

Catholic orphanage, as his duties with the Galaxy Railways prevent him from

being a proper parent. The only reason he does this is because one of the

passengers has threatend to report him "smuggling a young child aboard the

Three-Nine" to his superiors. Killian never learns the reason for his

apparent abandoment until he becomes a young adult, and events on his current

mission reunite him with his foster father.

[GROVA Part 3, "The Rewritten Destiny"]

2961

- In the "heyday" Leijiverse, Phantom F. Harlock is promoted to lieutenant

after completion of his first tour of duty, based on his excellent service

record. He is reassigned to the Deathshadow, one of the Solar Federation

Space Navy's new Admiral class space battleships. He will remain aboard for

the next six years, eventually becoming its captain, and he will come to know

the ship well.

[MYA; SSX #3, "Battlezone Lullaby" and #10, "Snowfall in the Sea of Stars;"

see also CHR #1, "Transitions."]

- Brogyerd is assigned to the Deathshadow during his time with the Solar

Federation Space Navy. This will be when he first meets Harlock, and the

two soon become friends.

[CHR #1, "Transitions." Per Gibson, they have know each other for "almost

ten years."]

- Both the Deathshadow and the Dark Victory, its sister ship, are assigned to

assist in the evacuation of Anuald and several other key Solar Alliance

colonies in the path of invading Illumidas forces.

[CHR Volume 11, "Message in a Bottle, Part 1." Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Takashi Yuki, chief navigator of the Deathshadow, is killed by the Illumidas

during the evacuation of Anuald.

[CHR Volume 11, "Message in a Bottle, Part 2," retconned slightly. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this

information. I note in passing that in Gibson’s apocryphal stories Takashi Yuki is the father of Kei Yuki. His death is what drove her to join the

Illumidas resistance and eventually join forces with Captain Harlock. I defer

to M-san’s account of Kei Yuki’s joining the Arcadia as given in SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword." Thus, in my retconning, he is just a relative of Kei's -

possibly an older cousin - and not her father.]

- Birth of Tetsuro Hoshino, only son of Faust and Kanae Hoshino.

[GE999a #018, "Maetel of the Mud," but adjusted for GE999f. Tetsuro is ten

years old in the TV series when he boards the Three-Nine, but is older in the

movies. I'm guessing an age of twelve, since he is described as having passed

out of childhood and become a young man - i.e. teenager - in GE999A, which

meant he was at least fourteen by then. I have pushed the year of Tetsuro's

birth back two years accordingly.]

- This was the last time Hanako's parents on the planet Wildflower heated up

their bath for a guest.

[GE999a #010, "Trader Junction (Part 2)"]

- Probable birtdate of Hiroshi Umino in the "revival" Leijiverse. He is born

on Earth "during its fading days" but is orphaned early in life. Neither his

guardians nor his peers will ever really accept him, making for a rough

childhood.

[QEa #4, "Siren the Witch." Hiroshi is a young teenager, which would make him

no younger than fourteen by most standards. The "fading days" statement fits

fairly well with the state of affairs on Earth just prior to the outbreak of

war and the bombardment of Earth in 2964, per HSm "The Valkyrie" and various

references scattered throughout CHR.]

- Helmazaria's son is born.

[GE999EFa. Before she dies, Helmazaria say that she has a son who is the

same age as Tetsuro.]

2962

- Phantom Harlock is promoted to lieutenant commander and reassigned as chief

operations officer of the Deathshadow.

[Probable conjecture based on MYA and SSX #03, "Battleground Lullaby."

Harlock was an acknowledged tactical genius, per MYA and SSX. A tour as an

ops officer would help explain Harlock’s extensive knowledge of space warfare tactics - something he couldn't learn through cadet training alone.]

2962, September 4

- The tourist ship Sell, a converted merchant vessel built to resemble an old

Earth sailing ship, mysteriously disappears with all hands while making its

regular Milky Way to Andromeda sightseeing run. There will not be any sign

or clue as to what happened to it until five years later, when it is learned

that the ship was seized by the Illumidas and all hands on board save one

were shot. The only survivor is a cyborg teenager whom the Illumidas force

into their service, deactivating her until such time as she is needed.

[SSX #05, "The Girl From the Ghost Ship Sell." Tochiro says that the Sell

disappeared "five years ago," but the dates in its log are WAY off from what

they're supposed to be. It supposedly disappeared in the year 2999 - some

three decades AFTER Harlock and company find it in 2968! Might be a fansub

translation error, might be an original production goof, or maybe it's that

cwazy Wejiwerse scwewing with us again, but I've adjusted accordingly. Also,

the episode appears to imply that Alpha One was a plant right from the start,

and it was her presence on board that allowed the Illumidas to seize the

Sell in the first place.]

2963

- The great underwater city of Cheyenne is finished. Waterpress, its ruling

President and his followers, aquatic aliens from another world, promptly kill

the leader and wife of the native aquatic humanoids who helped them build the

city. They then exile them to "the wastes." They monopolize all of the

oceans' resources for themselves - to the point that they are completely

exhausted within a decade. Ironically, they will also fail in their efforts

during this time to build a new spaceship capable of taking them to yet

another pelagic planet. The rusting ruins of their efforts, located on one

of Cheyenne's few islands, stand as a stark testament to this failure.

[GE999a #075, "Cheyenne the Water Planet (Part 1)." Geronimo says his parents

were killed ten years ago. He never says when the President and his people

arrived, but he implies it was while his father was chief - perhaps another

decade or two earlier. The only date we know for certain is when his parents

were killed by the President's men.]

- Souichiro Yuki, who is by now an important scientist working in Earth’s Space Development Department, is tragically asphyxiated during a “freak accident” on one of his projects. The tragedy is compounded when his widowed wife Fumi

dies shortly thereafter, leaving their daughter Kei an orphan. Kei Yuki is

traumatized by the death of both of her parents and her public abandonment by

her boyfriend, Kazuya Katagiri, her late father’s former laboratory assistant. She is placed into a foster home but runs away shortly thereafter, attempting

to stow away on an interstellar freighter. She is eventually caught and sent

back to Earth on a prison barge; however, an unexpected encounter with a young

Solar Federation officer named Phantom Harlock will forever change her life.

[SPCHa #16, “Kei: The Farewell Song,” retconned. In the actual episode, Harlock was already a space pirate the first time he encountered Kei Yuki.

This is impossible in the "heyday" Leijiverse given the way Kei's character

is developed in SSX and presents certain issues with the "revival" Leijiverse.

Harlock and Kei don’t mention this encounter when they meet again just a few years later per SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword,” but that doesn’t rule out the possibility that something like it didn’t happen, either. There’s certainly enough room for it in Kei's backstory. The SPCHa account only

works as is for the "classic" Leijiverse; retconning to some degree is

required for the other two viewpoints.]

- Goro Yuki, elder brother of the late Souichiro Yuki, adopts the orphaned

Kei Yuki as his own daughter.

[Probable conjecture. My way of reconciling the events of SPCHa #16, "Kei:

The Farewell Song" with SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword.” This act would be in keeping with Japanese tradition, as well as that of many Oriental

cultures.]

- Mamoru Yuki joins the Galaxy Railways Space Defense Force. He eventually

earns a place with its Space Panzer Grenadiers - the elite special forces

unit of the Galaxy Railways, operating from the Three-Six armored space train.

[GR1 #01, “Setting Out” and #02, “A Knot in Time;” see also GROVA Part 4, "Pieces of Time" and GE999EFm Volume 7 Chapters 1 & 3. This takes place

seven years prior to GR1, which takes place in the same year as GE999f - as

established by GROVA, GR2, and the last published volume of GE999EFm. The

boy you see silhouetted in the window of the Three-Nine with Maetel, as young

Mamoru is leaving home to join the GRSDF, is NOT Tetsuro as I once thought

and mistakenly reported in the previous edition of this document. It is yet

another of Maetel's many travelling companions over the years - as evidenced

in SSM, GE999f, GE999a #079, "The Pirate of the Time Castle (Part 1);" and

GE999a #112, "The Vision of Youth! Farewell, Three-Nine!"]

- The Illumidas consolidate their forces and begin preparing a grand offensive

against the Solar Federation. One of their most important allies at this time

is the Machine Empire, their friendly rival and alliance partner in the

Andromeda galaxy. Queen Promethium and her scientists provide the Illumidas

with considerable technical assistance in the fields of robotics, cybernetics,

automation, and component micro-miniaturization.

[Probable conjecture based on MYA, SSX #09, "Who Is The Spy?" and #11, "The

Luminous Battleship." We first meet the cyborg La Mime in MYA, and later

learn from SSX that she became that way when she was badly injured during

the Illumidas invasion of her homeworld. Her replacement body parts came

from the Illumidas themselves. An Illumidas androids infiltrates the Arcadia

at one point, committing various acts of sabotage before it is eventually

cornered and destroyed. This technology did not come from the Illumidas

themselves, as we learn from General Kreuger. He admits that his people

are still behind the Solar Federation in many areas. There is only one other

power that could (or would) have readily provided this to them for their

war with Earth, and that was the Machine Empire. Gibson intimates as such

in CHR; however, he emphasizes that theirs was a strained relationship. An

alliance, between these two powers, however tenuous, would explain both the

Illumidas warrant on Maetel per SSX #01, "Arcadia Blast Off!" and the

occasional appearance of Mechanoids and Mechanoid technology throughout SSX.

Such a connection would have eventually been established had the series been

allowed to run longer, according to what background data on SSX is available,

but this did not come to pass before the series was cancelled.]

- Tadashi Daiba, son of Tsuyoushi and Mitsuko Daiba, is born on Earth in

Megapolis City. He is named after his father’s elder brother. [SPCHa #04, “To the Shores of Distant Stars”). Tadashi Daiba joined the Arcadia II’s crew when he was 14. He was 6 years old when his mother died, which happened 8 years before the Mazone sphere fell on Earth in 2977. The

part about his naming is probable conjecture, in order to resolve certain

issues regarding the Daiba family tree in the Leijiverse.]

- The attempt to terraform the planet Agri ends in colossal failure, when the

planet’s core collapses from the effort. The lives of everyone on the doomed planet’s surface are lost when it implodes. There are no survivors. [GR1 #12, “Twilight”. Captain Bulge tells Manabu Yuki that Makoto Kasanugi, the young man for whom he has been mistaken, died ten years earlier. He had

been part of Agri’s terraforming team.]

- Most of the people of the Planet of the Rainbow Sash are annhiliated in a

planetwide war, which ends in a global thermonuclear bombardment. Its moon(s)

is (are) also destroyed at this time, with most of the rubble becoming trapped

in a series of multicolored rings around the planet (hence its current name).

Only a few thousand people survive, and all of these are evacuated to a large

underwater city. Among these is a young man named Tadashi Yamada, whose

parents opposed the war - and ironically died on its last day, during the

nuclear firestorm that ended it.

[GE999a #092, "The Last Days of the Underwater City." See also the earlier

manga short by the same name (TTB Chapter 13, I believe), on which this

episode is based. In the GE999a version, the ring is formed by surface

debris blown into orbit by the global nuclear holocaust. I have retconned

this, since explosions that powerful would have probably blown the planet

apart.]

------------------------------------------------

2964 - HARLOCK SAGA: THE VALKYRIE

HARLOCK SAGA: SIEGFRIED

HARLOCK SAGA: GOTTERDAMERUNG (first half)

------------------------------------------------

2964

- According to many of the Leijiverse tales, the foursome of Harlock, Tochiro,

Emeraldas, and Maetel will first meet in this year - although the details

differ from account to account. Some claim it was in a bar on Heavy Melder,

other in a bar on Quarry 7, and still others in a bar on Zela. At least

one living eyewitness swears it was in the lobby of the main hotel on the

planet Meta-Bloody, while another swears they didn't meet until three years

later on Earth, following the end of the Earth-Illumidas War. Every story

has its backers, and no one knows for certain which is the right one - or,

as with any legend, if any of them are.

[My storyteller's take on the various versions of this event as related by

M-san over the years. See SPCHa #30, "My Friend, My Youth;" CH1K; QEm

Volume 4; HSm Volume 4; and MYA.]

- Maetel first encounters Machine Knight Helmazaria at this time.

[HSm Volume 5. Helmazaria's name is translated as "Hellmotheria" in the Kana

Press French language edition of the manga. This early meeting explains why

the two know each other in GE999EF.]

- Schwanhelt Bulge meets Katarina, his future girlfriend, at the restaurant she

owns and operates on the planet Concordia. At the time, he is the newest

member of the Sirius Platoon - the crew of "Big One."

[GR1 #11, "The Yearning." Schwanhelt says in the episode that he's a recent

recruit to Big One's team. He also jokes about his captain being a married

man while visiting the young Katarina. Contexual evidence appears to

indicate that this happened within a year of the incident that would claim

Captain Wataru Yuki's life - give or take a few months either way.]

- The Tiamat line on the Galaxy Railways space rail network is closed off. It

is replaced by the nearby Tiamat Hyperspace Tunnel, built at great cost,

through the numerous "galactic reefs" in the area. The older line was the

only safe bypass; however, it ran through a privately owned area of space.

Its owner closed the only station on that line, located on the planet Blue

Rose, citing violations of its use agreement by the Galaxy Railways. This

would later become known as the Blue Rose Incident - one of the most highly

classified skeletons lurking in the Galaxy Railways closet.

[GR2 #07, "The Blue Roses"]

- The Illumidas and allied forces launch suicide attacks on Earth and many other

key systems as they begin their grand offensive against the Solar Alliance.

Megapolis City and other major metropolitan areas both on Earth and other

planets are bombarded by Illumidas fleets - sent on one-way missions - before

Solar Federation forces can rally. This daring stroke sends shock waves

through the Solar Federation military as they struggle to cope with this

Illumidas strike and its strategic implications.

[HSm Volume 3. The story opens in 2964 with images of a Megapolis City

devastated by orbital bombardment. In the manga the bombardment was caused

by the Machine Empire. I’m assuming a parallel event caused by the Illumidas in the “movie” Leijiverse timeline.]

- Verlong’s mother is killed inside the factory in which she works when the Illumidas bomb and destroy the North American Sector during their first

assault on Earth. The one-armed teenager, now an orphan, is left to fend for

himself.

[CHR Volume 5, “Storms.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information. HSm Volume 3 states that the Earth was

bombarded in 2964. This date happens to dovetail nicely with Gibson’s account.

- Lutrain Estarian’s wife is killed during the Illumidas offensive against the Solar Alliance.

[CHR Volume #10, “The Sins of the Father, Part 2.” Her death is what prompted him to found El Dorado, a peaceful place free from Illumidas guns.

Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The planet Alozoran is conquered and occupied by the Illumidas. Most of its

people are deported and the survivors reduced to living in “a primal state.” [MYA; SSX #10, "Who Is The Spy?." The date is an educated guess. La Mime

describes the occupation of Alozoran by the Illumidas but never says when it

happened. Harlock later says that the only two things left from Alozoran are

La Mime herself and a small seashell she later gives to Revi.]

- The planet Tokarga is conquered and occupied by the Illumidas. Some agree to

serve the Illumidas as mercenaries while others continue a hopeless resistance

against them. The entire surface of Tokarga eventually turns into one big

battlefield.

[MYA. The date is an educated guess. Both Harlock and Zoll reference the

conquest of Tokarga as happening “years ago.” Zoll’s brother and sister were “very small” when he left and still small children when Harlock visited in 2967, so only a few years could have passed since the fall of Tokarga.

- Both of Harlock's parents are dead by this date.

[MYA; see also HSm Volumes 3 and 8. This is first mentioned in MYA, but the

date is given in HSm Volume 3. I note in passing that the events of MYA and

the HSm series are incompatible with each other. MYA is from the "heyday"

period and HSm is the foundation document of the "revival" period of the

Leijiverse. This is one of those key data points, though, regarding Harlock's

background in almost every known iteration of the Leijiverse. In MYA, Harlock

says simply, "My parents are dead." In the "heyday" universe, and if the date

is the same, then his parents probably died during the Earth-Illumidas War.

In the "revival" Leijiverse, the manner in which they died is quite different,

although the end result is the same. In HSm Volume 3, his mother is executed

on the orders of the Earth government under circumstances disconcertingly

similar to the way Maya received her fatal wound in MYA. The tale of how his

father Great Harlock met his death is revealed in HSm Volume 8.]

- Lutrain Estarian’s wife is killed during the Illumidas offensive against the Solar Alliance.

[CHR Volume #10, “The Sins of the Father, Part 2.” Her death is what prompted him to found El Dorado, a peaceful place free from Illumidas guns.

Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The planet Alozoran is conquered and occupied by the Illumidas. Most of its

people are deported and the survivors reduced to living in “a primal state.” [MYA. The date is an educated guess. La Mime describes the occupation of

Alozoran by the Illumidas but never says when it happened.]

- The planet Tokarga is conquered and occupied by the Illumidas. Some agree to

serve the Illumidas as mercenaries while others continue a hopeless resistance

against them. The entire surface of Tokarga eventually turns into one big

battlefield.

[MYA. The date is an educated guess. Both Harlock and Zoll reference the

conquest of Tokarga as happening “years ago.” Zoll’s brother and sister were “very small” when he left and still small children when Harlock visited in 2967, so only a few years could have passed since the fall of Tokarga.

- Phantom Harlock XCVIII, aka “Great Harlock,” abandons Earth for the Sea of Stars aboard his private battlecruiser. Within the year he will disappear

and never be heard from again.

[HSm Volumes 3-8. The only three surviving eyewitnesses from Great Harlock’s ill-fated voyage in this dimension of space and time were his son Phantom

Harlock XCIX, his son’s best friend Tochiro Oyama, and Meeme the Nibelung sorceress. The story as given in the manga is part of the “revival” Leijiverse period and often contradicts the older background story from the

“movie” period in many details. The main contradiction is the presence of the young versions of Captain Harlock and Tochiro Oyama, both of whom are supposed

to be young adults and serving in the Solar Federation space navy at the time

this occurred.]

- Kazuya Katagiri purchases the now-abandoned Yuki estate on Earth for his own

use. The purchase is to celebrate his appointment to his late mentor’s old job.

[SPCHa #16, “Kei: The Farewell Song”]

- Miantir is almost killed in a rockslide near the town of Hearthaven on the

planet Tastasia. Only the quick actions of a local lad save her life;

however, the boy’s right leg is crushed by the falling rocks. It will take almost a year for the leg to heal.

[CHR "Queen Emeraldas: The Children of Eden,” Part 4. The boy says it happened “several years ago.” Miantir appears to have been a preteen at the time of the incident. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Owen, a rookie officer in the Sirius Platoon of the Galaxy Railways Space

Defense Force, is knifed to death by a terrorist during a routine arrest gone

awry.

[GR1 #13, “The Oath”]

- Captain Wataru Yuki, commander of the Sirius Platoon of the Galaxy Railways

Space Defense Force, is killed in action defending Galaxy Express #707 from

an attack by a battlecruiser of the Alfort Space Fleet. This is also the

first encounter mankind has with the Alfort in known space.

[GR1 #01, “Setting Out.” Manabu Yuki was twelve years old when his father died. He was "about 20" when he joined the GRSDF, so this event took place

"about" eight years prior to that - give or take several months. GR2 #24,

"The Eternal Vow," establishes that this happened shortly before the first

Galaxy Railways dimensional tunneling machine was lost, which was ten years

prior to GR2.]

- Katarina, the girlfriend of GRSDF Officer Schwanehelt Bulge, suddenly breaks

off their relationship without explanation immediately after the death of

Captain Yuki. It is a loss that Bulge cannot cope with, and he never speaks

to her again.

[GR1 #11, “The Yearning”]

- Project Over The Rainbow, a top-secret effort by the Galaxy Railways to build

a dimensional tunneling machine, is shut down after the first fully working

model is lost in a dimensional fault. The affair is quickly hushed up and all

traces of the effort hidden. The plant at which the prototype was built is

closed and sealed against intruders.

[GR2 #21, "Reunion." Killian learns that the plant where the prototype is

housed was shut down and sealed ten years ago, per the dialogue. That would

be 2964 in my timeline. 2974 (date of GR2) - 10 years = 2964.]

- It is later learned that Captain Yuki did not die in the attack on the Alfort

destroyer in 2964. The explosive energies created when the hypercharged Big

One rammed the Alfort destroyer opened a portal into the Alfort dimension,

through which Wataru Yuki and the wreck of Big One fell. They eventually

landed on the planet Fathom, where he was nursed back to health by its

inhabitants. Not long after his arrival, a dimensional tunneling machine

bored into the Alfort dimension and crashed on Fathom, devastating much of

its surface. Its main systems were damaged in the crash, causing it to

misread its original programming and start destroying life wherever it found

it. It amalgamated any technology it found, thanks to its built-in

self-repair capability. Yuki eventually sacrificed his life in a failed

effort to shut the machine down. The machine then used his image to further

harrass the inhabitants of Fathom, giving a name and face to its otherwise

soulless personality.

[GR2 #21, "Reunion." Frell's father says that the crash happened "long ago,

and no one who knows the truth is still alive." Killian discovers that

the prototype was built ten years prior to GR2, which would have been 2964

in my timeline. The fully working dimensional tunneling machine crashed on

Fathom after Captain Yuki had already arrived there, so his death may have

been a few months after he arrived - which might push the actual event out to

2965.]

2965

- Phantom Harlock is promoted to commander and named as executive officer of the

Deathshadow.

[Probable conjecture based on MYA and CHR]

- Phantom Harlock befriends Lt. Commander Tadashi Daiba while the latter is

serving as the chief engineer of the Deathshadow.

[CHR Volume 01, “An Exchange of Futures.”. His son brags to Prime Minister Triter about his father’s military service. Lt. Commander Daiba also reveals before his death that he knew Harlock well. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Back on Earth, deep underground and with the assistance of many friends sworn

to secrecy, Solar Federation space engineer Tochiro Oyama begins construction

of the greatest super space battleship of its age. This vessel will turn out

to be none other than the original space pirate battleship Arcadia.

[MYA. It takes anywhere from 1½ to 2 years to build a capital ship in our day. According to Musashi the Earth Defense Forces in 2199 could build

multiple ship-of-the-lines in six to eight months given proper facilities

and resources, per SBTM. According to Y2520 it could be done in as little

as a couple of weeks, but only if all required resources were available

beforehand and already present at a suitably programmed automated spacedock.

One gets the impression from the various Leijiverse materials that building

the Arcadia - as well as its various predecessors - was a labor of love that

took considerable time.]

- Lutarin Estarian founds the independent space colony of El Dorado.

[CHR Volume #8, “Freedom." Oliver Estarian reveals that El Dorado was founded “before the Illumidas conquered [Earth].” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The young lad who saved Miantir’s life in the Hearthaven rockslide learns to walk again despite his twisted leg. The harshness of planet Tastasia’s environment, coupled with the lack of proper medical facilities, results in

the leg not healing properly. The boy’s leg will remain twisted and scarred for life.

[CHR "Queen Emeraldas: The Children of Eden," Part 4. Miantir’s father Professor Barradas offered to have the leg broken and reset but the lad

refuses. He says that his scarred leg is a permanent reminder of the hard

work it was to learn to walk again. “To rid myself of them [the scars] would have somehow lessened what I have become,” he says. You hear this philosophy a lot in the Leijiverse - Zonaluna of Mosgalut tells Emeraldas almost the

same thing in QEm Volume 1, for example. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The Solar Federation begins experimentation with genetic manipulation and

biological pathogens (i.e. germ warfare) in a desperate effort to find some

new weapon that can stop the Illumidas before they mount their next offensive.

[CHR "Deathshadow Rising" story arc, Volume 3, “Ghosts.” Broygerd tells La

Mime about this while recalling the military career of Alexander Nevich.]

- Harlock fights and wins the Battle of the Castle Main Star Cluster. It is

one of the few clear victories by the Solar Federation over the Illumdias in

the short time before the end of the war, and it is one that always rankles

them. During the actual battle, the Deathshadow was ambushed by a superior

Illumidas force, with the captain and many top officers and crew killed in

the initial attack. Harlock, the senior surviving officer, took command and

rallied his men. By skill and daring he managed to fight his way clear of

the field of battle with his crippled battlecruiser and all surviving

crewmembers - while damaging or disabling all the ships that attacked his own

vessel. It takes Harlock months to limp back to a friendly Solar Federation

port, while dodging many dangers and foes along the way. Harlock eventually

takes his ship back to Earth for repairs and refitting, and is awarded the

Combat Badge of Heroism (aka the Black Collar) for his actions.

[Probable conjecture based on MYA and SSX #12, "The Luminous Battleship." He

had to get his Black Collar from somewhere, and he was one of the few Earth

captains whom the Illumidas respected. Zoll mentions the battle when he first

confronts Harlock on the bridge of the grounded Deathshadow in MYA. He

praises Harlock’s prowess in the battle and notes that his own ship was disabled during the fight - thus implying there was more than one ship in

the force that attacked Harlock at the time. The Illumidas officers in the

bar confirm Zoll’s story but play down the battle, saying “Isn’t he [Harlock] the guy who scratched one of our ships? [Zoll's]” Also, Harlock has to be on Earth around this time to meet Doctor Zone for the first time, per SSX #12.]

- Captain Harlock is assigned to review the prototype of a new class of space

battleships during his stay on Earth. While Harlock does not question the

battleworthiness of the design, he is quick to point out that it was built

with little regard for the safety of its crew. The design is rejected based

on his recommendation. This does not sit well with Dr. Feydar Zone, the

ship’s designer, and he will never forgive Harlock for what he considers a deliberate attempt to scuttle his prototype.

[SSX #12, “The Luminous Battleship”]

- Sufrin, a warp technician aboard the Deathshadow, meets and befriends the

teenaged Verlong during his ship’s layover on Earth. [CHR Volume 5, “Storms.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Commander Alexander Nevich of the Solar Alliance proposes a radical solution

to the worsening tactical situation with the Illumidas. He plans to turn

all of the Solar Federation's major capital ships into computer-driven

dreadnaughts. The Deathshadow, the most famous ship in the fleet due to its

victory at the Battle of the Castle Main Star Cluster, is to be the first to

be transformed. Captain Harlock firmly opposes Nevich’s plan for various reasons, but tells his superiors only that there simply isn’t enough time to implement such a drastic measure. To Nevich’s, dismay the Solar Federation Design Bureau chooses to side with Harlock, its most experienced starship

commander. They defer to act on Nevich's plan until a later date. For now,

though, they authorize a small-scale prototype system to be installed on

Captain Torian’s Dark Victory, a sister ship of the famed Deathshadow. Captain Torian is overjoyed. “You got the better ship,” he tells an irritated Nevich, who would have preferred the more famous Deathshadow to test his

plan.

[CHR "Deathshadow Rising" story arc, Volume 3, “Ghosts.” No date is given in the comic; however, it had to have happened while Captain Harlock and the

Deathshadow were still on Earth. Also, Sufrin befriended Verlong during a

layover by the Deathshadow on Earth per CHR Volume 5, “Storms.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this

information.]

- One the frontier world of Raze, a young boy named Paul dies from a prolonged

illness. His father, a well-known space mechanic, is unable to afford the

medical care he needs because of the war. Soon after his son's death, he

takes to drinking and lets his business slide as he seeks escape from life

inside a bottle. Despite his young wife's best efforts, he will remain like

this for the next two years.

[SSX #02, "The Lady Captain Leotard." Paul's mother said he died two years

ago. He was seven years old when he died, which means he was born in 2958.]

- Tadashi Momono's parents are killed sometime during the final years of the

Earth-Illumidas War.

[SSX #01, "Arcadia Lift Off!" This may happen as late as the early part

of 2966, if Tadashi's "two years" statement is a rounded-off figure. I am

going by the calendar date.]

- War on a planet-wide scale resumes on the world of El Alamein. Because of

this, the Galaxy Railways soon curtails all space train service there. One of

the people who successfully makes it off-world before the space trains stop

coming is a young man named Nanmi. He will ride the rails for over a decade,

looking for a new world to which war-weary refugees from El Alamein might

escape and begin their lives anew. Not long after his departure, both sides

in the new conflict deploy fully automated and self-repairing mobile weapons

systems. They prove too efficient at their job and soon wipe out ALL life on

El Alamein regardless of which side built them. Their job done, all of them

go into standby mode - where they sit in the shifting sands "to this day,"

waiting for any excuse to resume what for them has become an eternal war.

[GE999a #046, "The Voices of El Alamein." The actual quote is, "We've been

fighting for almost a decade now. We've been fighting for so long we don't

know how the war first started. We only want it to stop, but no one listens,

and anyone who opposes the war is executed .... There is no place safe left

to live on El Alamein." Nanmi must have left on one of last space trains to

stop at El Alamein, since he left by use of a Galaxy Railways unlimited pass

and the trains stopped running not long after the fighting resumed. The

terrible truth about the end of El Alamein's last global war is revealed in

the second half of the episode. See also CWZ #4, "The Song of Grenadier."]

2966

- Captain Harlock’s battlefield promotion is made permanent and he is reassigned as the new captain of the Deathshadow. In memory of his late father, he

emblazons his family crest on both sides of his ship. This is how both his

friends and foes will be able to easily identify the Deathshadow later on.

[MYA, SSX, and materials suggested by HSm Volumes 3-8]

- The treasure hunter Irene steals a large sum of money from her GRSDF boyfriend

and subsequently disappears.

[GR1 #17, “The Goddess in Armor”]

- An accident at the debut performance of composer Gerhardt von Elrich's epic

masterpiece Phantasmagoria costs him the life of Adelle - his lead singer and

lover. She is killed when the railing on a stage balcony where she is

performing collapses under her, causing her to fall to her death. von Elrich

has a custom-made sexaroid built to replace her, complete with a biochip

imprinted with her personality and recordings of his voice, but the pain of

her memory keeps him from using it. Other singers are eventually brought in,

but von Elrich will always cancel a performance if a live singer is not

available - fearing to boot up his Adelle sexaroid and refresh his personal

pain at her death. The opera soon gains a reputation for being cursed, and

both few and rare are the performances in the eight years that follow.

[GR2 #12, "The Wings of the Soul"]

- The Solar Federation enacts a major offensive against the Illumidas, hoping

to turn the tide of the war. Instead, it serves as a prelude for its own

downfall.

[SSX #02, “The Renegade Captain,” implied]

- Doctor Zero accepts a professorship at the Intercosmos University in Megapolis

City, teaching pre-college gifted and talented students. The one student that

makes the most memorable impression on him is Yattaran, an introverted

teenager with a brilliant mind and a passion for model building. Yattaran

unexpectedly drops out of his class without warning one day and drops out of

his local high school as well. The reasons for Yattaran’s abrupt disappearance will remain a mystery to Doctor Zero for the next few years.

[SPCHa #25, “Dr. Zero and Mee” and the English dubbed dialogue from the corresponding footage in CHQ1K. The date is never given in the Japanese

original. It had to have happened while Yattaran was still a teenager and

before he joined the crew of the Arcadia. Doctor Zero recalls that he already

knew Yattaran before the young man joined Harlock’s crew. The tale of how Doctor Zero first met Yattaran comes from CHQ1K.]

- The Last Battle, which takes place sometime near the end of the year, marks

the final defeat of the Solar Federation space navy at the hands of the

Illumidas. This action is widely regarded as the last official act of the

Earth-Illumidas War.

[SSX #01, "Arcadia Lift Off!" and #02, "Female Captain Leotard." See also

MYA. CHR places the date of the Last Battle in 2957, ten years before MYA,

but this contradicts all available "canon" data on the subject. The notion

that sporadic fighting dragged on for a while longer comes from both MYA and

CHR.]

- The only major capital ships of the Solar Federation Space Navy to survive

the Last Battle are the Admiral class spce battleships Deathshadow and Dark

Victory. These - along with a handful of smaller vessels and older ships

such as the Karyu and its sister vessels - are all that is left to defend

the Milky Way against the Illumidas hordes.

[MYA: SSX #02, “The Female Captain Leotard;” CHR #05, "Storms" and #06, "The Truth Behind Miracles;" see also CHR #11, "Message in a Bottle." Per CWZ

#01, "The Start of the Great Voyage," the Karyu had been reassigned as part

of the Earth garrison fleet. CWZ is a "revival" Leijiverse story, so there

is no evidence to support the Karyu and her sister ships playing any active

role in the Last Battle or its aftermath. Saying anything more would be

pure conjecture on my part, so I'll leave it at that.]

- Captain Bentselle is captured by the Illumidas after his ship is destroyed

in the Last Battle. He will renounce his alliegance to the Solar Federation

within the next two years, and wind up working for the Illumidas as a

mercenary space captain.

[SSX #03, "Battlezone Lullaby." Bentselle's reasons for becoming a turncoat

are never made clear at any time during the series. One thing that is made

clear is that his ship did not survive the Last Battle, per Harlock. He

must have gotten off in an escape pod, or shuttle, or something similar,

before it was destroyed. Since he knows how to command the Deathshadow, it

is reasonable to assume that Captain Bentselle also commanded an unnamed

Admiral-class space battleship at the Last Battle.]

- Captain Leotard is critically injured during the Last Battle. She survives,

but much of her body has to be replaced with cybernetic parts. She loses her

position of authority because of the Illumidas attitude towards women, and

becomes "a wanderer without purpose." Eventually, she will find a new calling

... as an undercover Illumidas operative.

[SSX #02, "The Lady Captain Leotard.]

- On Earth Colony Four, the ailing wife of Captain Bentselle receives the

best medical treatment available under the care of Doctor Ban, the colony's

chief medical officer. Her illness soon grows worse, however, and she dies

before the end of the year. Since her husband never returned home from the

war, their young daughter Revi is now without a home or any family to care

for her. Doctor Ban feels pity for the poor girl and takes her in as his

ward, until such time as he can locate or find out what happened to her

father.

[SSX #03, "Battlezone Lullaby." Doctor Ban discusses Revi's background and

situation with Tochrio during the episode. He says that Captain Bentselle

was officially listed as "missing in action" after the Last Battle, but

never gives any detailed information as to why and how. That may have been

what triggered the final demise of his wife. We find out later in the

episode that it's been so long since Revi last saw her father that she

doesn't recognize him - probably due to a large moustache he started growing

in the final year of the war - once he finally reappears in 2967.]

- Planet Gauss is one of the few Solar Federation allied worlds to remain

unconquered. Their own homebuilt space battleship, the flagship of their

planetary defense fleet, is so powerful that "the Illumidas couldn't touch

it," according to Captain Harlock.

[SSX #12, "The Luminous Battleship"]

- The end of the war finds Doctor Ban still serving as Earth Colony Four's

chief medical officer. He will leave within the year with his charge, young

Revi Bentselle, along with a group of other disaffected people. "I got sick

of the planet's dictatorial government and fled with my friends," he will

later explain. All but the two of them, Dr. Ban and Revi, are killed by

space pirates a year later.

[SSX #03, "Battlezone Lullaby"]

- Sporadic fighting and skirmishes continues for about another year between the

Illumidas and the few surviving Solar Federation forces that refuse to

surrender. In the end, these too are eventually brought to ground, lacking

enough resources to continue the fight.

[MYA, SSX, CHR]

- The Three-Two space train, operating on the Magellan line, mysteriously

disappears. No one knows why at the time. Its wreckage will be found inside

a gravity well in the Alfort parallel dimension eight years later.

[GR2 #20, "At the End of the Journey." There are at least a dozen other

different space trains inside the Alfort dimension gravity well, as well

as various spacecraft from both dimensions. Big One claims that his

predecessors were drawn to the gravity well, then shut themselves down because

"there are no rails on which to run in this place." Some of the wrecked space

trains are centuries old, per the dialogue. One of the wrecked spaceships

looks kind of like an Earth Federation space battleship, circa mid-2200s -

which, if true, means that some of the wrecks in the Alfort gravity may well

date back to the founding of the Galaxy Railways itself in 2221 (see image

in back car window at 16:20, where Mr Akatsuki is asking Frell about how

Big One feels). It would certainly jive with the driving theme behind GR2,

in that the construction of the space rail network is what caused the

dimensional faults to start forming in the first place. BTW, the Three-Two

is eventually rebuilt, since it makes frequent cameos in various GE999a

episodes.]

2967

- The Illumidas turn the Steel Fortress planet into its namesake, equipping

it with major armament, as well as a permanent garrison and support space

squadron.

[SSX #8, "The Boy and Mother from the Iron Planet." I'm guessing that it

probably served as an Illumidas sector headquarters, or such. Just about

everyone in the Arcadia's crew is concerned with the amount of firepower

located there.]

- The Illumidas subject the Earth to a devastating bombardment from orbit as

soon as they arrive. Many of Earth's major cities, monuments, and points of

cultural heritage or history are deliberately destroyed as part of a mass

exercise in psychological warfare. Among those buildings lost forever are

every one of Earth's classic castles. Only a few ancient landmarks survive

the bombardment, such as the Giza Plateau.

[SSX #12, "The Luminous Battleship." An old castle, built to look like it had

been there for years, is part of the scenery on the colony world of Palomas.

When he sees it, Dr. Zero comments sadly that all of Earth's castles were

destroyed by the Illumidas during the war. We know the Giza Plateau monuments

survived because they reappear again in SPCHa #14, "The Sphinx's Tombstone."]

- General Zeda is appointed supreme commander of the Illumidas Earth Occupation

Forces. Upon arrival he establishes his main office at the Megapolis City

Spaceport. Regional and sector offices are set up all over Earth, including

a major one in the former North American Sector.

[MYA, SSX, and CHR "Deathshadow Rising" story arc. In CHR, Nevich’s target for his uprising was the new Illumidas occupation headquarters in North

America. This implies that there was already a major base of operations

there before the death of General Zeda. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The Illumidas, due to cultural prejudice, dismiss all females from any

position of authority or stature in the former Solar Federation. Worthy of

note among those dismissed is Captain Leotard, the Solar Alliance’s most prominent female starship commander.

[SSX #02, “The Female Captain Leotard”]

- Faust Hoshino is dismissed from the service by the Illumidas during their

purging of former Solar Federation military officers. He loses his home and

almost all of his material possessions in the process. He subsequently ekes

out a living doing odd jobs, and is forced to move into a "tarpaper" shack

under a freeway overpass. Later he moves his family into a small shanty as

far from Megapolis City as he can manage. The move is partly due to his

situation and partly to protect his family from the rapidly deteriorating

conditions inside the ruined city. Faust is always aware of his precarious

situation and is seeking any chance to better it - even if it means changing

alliances.

[GE999a and GE999A. Tetsuro has several flashbacks about his father Faust

during the course of GE999a. They are happy ones, for the most part, and show

them living in a small shack in a desolate part of the country, save once -

in GE999a #100, "The Monster of the Loose Zone," where they are living under

a freeway overpass. Faust is not present in this flashback, but the youth of

Tetsuro combined with some signs of still-normal life - such as kitchen

appliances and good clothes - indicate that this must have been early in

their post-war situation. Every time we see Faust in a GE999a flashback,

he is almost always depicted as a kind-hearted but hard-working individual.

The fact that Faust changed sides and decided to throw in his lot with the

Machine Empire is made clear in GE999A. Originally, in GE999a, Faust was

put to death for his steadfast opposition to mechanization - so what made

him change alliegances? That is one of the great mysteries of the Leijiverse

which has yet to be resolved, although Gibson took a bit of an apocryphal

stab at it with his El Dorado colony stories in CHR. By the way, both Captain

Harlock and Captain Leotard were victims of the same purge - Harlock because

he refused to turn mercenary (like Faust and CHR's Captain Torian), and

Leotard because she was a woman.]

- Feydar Zone promptly volunteers for a job with the Illumidas. Despite severe

abuse and mistreatment because he is human, his talents in the starship design

field are soon recognized by perceptive Illumidas officers, such as General

Armus. Within a year he will be granted a position of some authority -

designing new warships for them to use against their enemies.

[SSX #12, "The Luminous Battleship." Practically all of the new Illumidas

warships that gave Harlock so much trouble in his early years were designed

by Zone himself.]

- Maya Harlock leaves her home to join the resistance movement on Earth as a

clandestine shortwave radio broadcaster. All resistance activities in her

area cease with her departure.

[MYA, CHR Volume 2, “And Its Roots Shall Grow Strong Under the Ground.” Two years later, Milos tells Harlock that “the fight went out of Arcadia” after Maya left. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The autonomous colony of El Dorado quickly signs a non-aggression treaty with

the Illumidas. They are granted special favor due in part to their wartime

dealings with the Illumidas. One of the terms of the treaty bans El Dorado

from having any weapons effective against incoming spacecraft.

[CHR Volume 7, “Legacies” and Volume 8, “Freedom.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The Illumidas select the desolate failed colony world of Tastasia as a dumping

ground for the thousands of human refugees left homeless by the Earth-

Illumidas War. The refugees are abandoned on the planet’s desolate surface and left to fend for themselves in Tastasia’s harsh climate. The only escape for many is to sell themselves into slavery for off-world passage on the

occasional visiting pirate or trader vessel.

[CHR Volume 7, “Legacies” and the "Queen Emeraldas: The Children of Eden" story arc. Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- A significant portion of Earth’s population chooses starvation rather than accept Illumidas rule. Others continue to fight on in small, isolated

resistance cells.

[MYA and CHR Volume 1, “An Exchage of Futures.” In MYA, La Mime warns Harlock to "eat while you can" because there is not a lot of food left on

Earth after the war. CHR opens, two years later, with a desperate food

shortage and a crisis over a freighter that's supposed to be coming with

more food. The latter is Gibson's story, and although it is admittely

apocryphal - but in this case his tale is backed up by evidence in MYA.]

- Darghund throws in his lot with the Illumidas. In reward for his services

for the Illumidas Occupation Council, Darghund is made the Baron of Arcadia.

One of his first acts in his new office is to confiscate the Harlock estate

and holdings for his own.

[CHR Volume 2, “And Its Roots Grow Strong under the Ground”). The seizure is implied rather than explicitly stated the comic, especially given Darghund’s behavior towards Harlock. Darghund’s estate is within easy walking distance of the old Harlock family training grounds, with a portrait of Maya on

prominent display inside. He also lives inside a castle, which the dialogue

implies was not his to begin with; therefore he must have seized the Harlock

family's estate for his own. This might help explain how Harlock's Aunt

Anita eventually wound up living on the Steel Fortress planet in SSX #08,

"The Boy and Mother on the Steel Planet." As for the CHR data, Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal but is the only source for information

concerning the tale of Baron Darghund.]

- Tadashi Momono's seven brothers and sisters starve to death during this year.

He is the only survivor of his family.

[SSX #01, "Arcadia Lift Off!"]

- Yukihito Ilita, the future chief of the Space Sheriffs, is born.

[CHEO #05, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory”." This date assumes Ilita was 12 years old at the time of his father’s death.]

--------------------------

2967 - MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA

--------------------------

2967, end of winter or early spring

- The Deathshadow successfully runs the Illumidas blockade and returns to Earth.

[MYA, CHR Volume 5, "Storms"]

- Sufrin is one of several volunteers sent out by Captain Harlock to find

willing passengers who want to leave Earth aboard the Deathshadow. Both he

and Verlong are captured by an Illumidas raid on the veteran’s home where Sufrin is visiting. They will remain incarcerated together until Captain

Harlock’s forced return to Earth. They spend the time becoming fast friends [CHR Volume 5, “Storms.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Captain Harlock attempts to run the Illumidas blockade again and leave Earth

with a ship full of refugees. The Deathshadow is intercepted and attacked by

Illumidas patrols before it can clear the Sol System. Harlock is forced to

surrender and turn back to Earth rather than risk the deaths of his civilian

passengers. This is accounted by some historians as the final act of the

Earth-Illumidas War.

[MYA]

- Captain Harlock refuses service with the Illumidas as a mercenary starship

captain. Instead, he hooks up with Tochiro Oyama - who makes him a better

offer.

[MYA]

- Captain Harlock is shot in the right eye by an Illumidas raiding party during

an all-too brief reunion with his wife Maya. He will wear a patch over his

right eye for the rest of his life.

[MYA]

- Emeraldas is sexually assaulted by her Illumidas captors during her brief

imprisonment on Earth.

[MYA. Her jumpsuit, torn from her collar almost to her crotch by Murgison's

men (if not Murgison himself) speaks volumes. It also helps explain her

later viciousness towards the Illumidas in SSX.]

- In one account of the tale, Emeraldas receives her trademark facial scar when

she is shot in the face by Commander Murgison of the Illumidas. This happens

while Emeraldas is attempting to come to the aid of the wounded Maya Harlock,

and as both of them are being rescued from execution by the Earth govenment

for opposing the Illumidas.

[MYA. For the other two accounts, see QEm Volume 1 and QEa #04, "Siren the

Witch."]

- La Mime, an Alozoran in the service of the Illumidas, becomes the first

person to join Captain Harlock’s original 42-man pirate crew. [MYA. She was actually the third member to join the crew. Harlock and

Tochiro were the first and second respectively. La Mime's homeworld is first

named in SSX #13, "The Riddle of the Golden Goddess."]

- Death of Zoll of Tokarga.

[MYA]

- The planet Tokarga is destroyed by the Illumidas.

[MYA]

- Death of Mira, sister of Zoll of Tokarga.

[MYA. Contrary to what the film depicts, there was at least one group of

off-world Tokargans who survived the destruction of their homeworld. They

will reappear, years later, in SPCHa.]

- Death of Maya Harlock, wife of Captain Harlock.

[MYA]

- Death of Commander Murginson of the Illumidas. He is gunned down in cold

blood by Captain Harlock, for firing the shot that eventually resulted in the

death of Harlock’s wife Maya. [MYA]

- Captain Harlock calls for all who are willing to join him before he leaves

Earth in exile. Many answer his call. Among those who do are Sufrin and

Verlong.

[MYA; CHR Volume 1, “An Exchange of Futures” and Volume 5, “Storms.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for the information concerning Sufrin and Verlong.]

- Inspired by Captain Harlock’s example, Emeraldas forswears her free trader’s license and joins him in the role of space pirate using her own ship, the

Queen Emeraldas.

[MYA]

- Lt. Commander Daiba reluctantly decides not to accompany Captain Harlock into

exile. His reason is that there would be no one left to care for his young

son Tadashi.

[CHR Volume 1, “An Exchage of Futures”). Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information. Gibson makes no mention

of the fate of Daiba’s wife, nor does he say how Tsuyoushi Daiba (i.e. the first Professor Daiba of later Leijiverse tales, who is his brother) survived

the Illumidas occupation.]

- Captain Harlock fights and wins his first two space battles with the

Illumidas. For his stand for freedom and against oppression and conformity

he is branded a space pirate and exiled from Earth. It is a burden he will

proudly bear for the rest of his life.

[MYA]

- Death of General Zeda.

[MYA]

- General Armus replaces the late General Zeda as supreme commander of the

Illumidas Earth Occupation Forces.

[SSX #01, “Arcadia Blast Off!"]

2967, spring

- Green Izma learns of his brother's death. He will spend the next six months

trying to track down Emeraldas, the person who killed him.

[SSX #7, "X = Emeraldas"]

- Feydar Zone invents the Instant Communications Device, or ICD for short.

This allows instantaneous communication to any point within range of an ICD

transmitter without any appreciable transmission lag. The only prices paid,

apparently, are two. First, audio-only transmissions have far greater range

than combined audio and video. Second, although lag is no longer an issue,

the transmission itself gets more and more distorted the farther it has to

travel. There is a limit as to just how far it can go before the message

gets distorted beyond the ability to understand or interpret, but it

generally doesn't matter for audio-only messages. One of these can cross

two million light-years - the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda -

with only minor, short-wave style sound distortion.

[SSX #02, "The Lady Captain Leotard," and #12, "The Luminous Battleship."

We first hear of this in SSX #02, in which Tochiro seems surprised that it's

already in use. That means the introduction of ICD technology is a fairly

recent thing. Harlock is familiar with the theory and states that others have

worked on other kinds of "warp transmitters," as he calls them, but none of

them worked as well as the ICD. Captain Leotard uses a portable ICD to keep

in touch with various Illumidas fleets and units as to Harlock's whereabouts.

Later, in SSX #12, Tochiro credits Zone with the invention of ICD technology.]

- Kei Yuki and her foster father (i.e. uncle) Goro Yuki start an anti-Illumidas

propaganda operation from deep within an asteroid cluster near Colony P3.

[SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword”]

- In memory of Harlock's late wife Maya, and for what was done to herself under

the tender mercies of Commander Murgison, Emeraldas begins her own private

war against the Illumidas. She destroys their ships and kills their sailors

and soldiers on sight whenever she sees them. Her calling card is the red

rose, left behind on every victim - a token and tribute to Maya Harlock.

[SSX #07, "X = Emeraldas;" see also MYA. Maya always had a rose at her desk

whenever she made her Voice of Free Arcadia radio broadcasts. Her call sign

was The Rose. MYA implies that Emeraldas was sexually assaulted - hence her

uniform torn open from collar to crotch during the execution scene in MYA.

Given this, it's quite understandable the way Emeraldas reacts once she is

freed. What woman who had gone through that wouldn't respond the same way?

FYI, this is the only time somethine like this ever happens to Emeraldas in

any version of her life story.]

----------------------------

2967 - KAIZOKU KIKAN ARCADIA

----------------------------

2967, spring through summer

- The Arcadia helps the lizard-like natives of Samarcandra defend their

homeworld against an invasion fleet led by the mercenary starship captain

J. F. Darkback.

[KKA - pilot film clip from about 01:03 to 01:08. This unproduced episode

of the show that later became SSX would have been based on a story from QEm

Volume 3.]

- Captain Harlock has his first encounter with the Mazone, when his ship comes

under attack from a mysterious cross-shaped battlecruiser near the Ulysses

Nebula

[KKA - pilot film clip from about 01:09 to 01:36. This unproduced episode

of the show that later became SSX was a reworking of material from SPCHm,

intended as an updated look at some of the material that was first put to

film in SPCHa]

- The Arcadia discovers a dead world with a number of fairy-like beings in

suspended animation.

[KKA - pilot film clips from about 00:25 to 00:30, and again from 01:37 to

01:42. This unproduced episode that later became SSX appears to have been

inspired by the same YOZIGEN SEKAI short story on which GE999a #093, "Keiko

of the Insect Planet" was based. This manga collection is named at least

once during the narration, so other episodes may have been based on other

of its stories, also - as well as those from its companion volume, YOZIGEN

TOKEI.]

- Captain Harlock and his crew come to the aid of a pair of aliens.

[KKA - pilot film clip from about 02:02 to 02:06. Not sure what this is

from, and may very well be unique to KKA itself.]

- Captain Harlock has his first adventure with Emeraldas since they left Earth

together a few months before.

[KKA - pilot film clip from 02:07 to 02:24. This might have been an original

story concept that was eventually recycled for SSX, or it might have been

based on another QEm tale. There's not enough footage to be certain.]

- The Arcadia plays a call to Heavy Melder's Gun Frontier, as well as to a

Western-like frontier world - where Tochiro ends up on the wrong side of the

law and is almost hanged, and where Harlock has to defend himself against a

local gunman.

[KKA - pilot film clip from 02:42 to 03:02. Most of this material is from

GFm, and eventually wound up being used in GFa. The establishing shot in the

bar appears to be from QEm Volume 4, right down to Tochiro getting

falling-down drunk, with the only major difference being the added presence

of La Mime. This would have been at least two different episodes, perhaps

even three or four, given the wealth of material in both GFm and QEm Volume 4

that could have been drawn on. The idea that Harlock was a regular visitor

to the Gun Frontier also turns up in SPCHa #30, "My Friend, My Youth;"

GE999f; and several episodes of CWZ. GE999a was the first to show us a lot

of Western-like frontier worlds in the Leijiverse - something that fans of

the American live-action sci-fi series FIREFLY might appreciate.]

- The Arcadia pays a call on the planet of Kilimanjaro - a world with an early

20th century Earth culture, which is fighting a war much like World War I and

with the same technology.

[KKA - pilot film clip 03:03 to 03:06. This appears to play off of the TTB

short story "The Birdman of Kilimanjaro," which also served as the basis of

GE999a #107. My description is based on the GE999a episode.]

- The Arcadia pays a visit to another war-torn world, this time fought with

World War II style weaponry.

[KKA - pilot film clip 03:07 to 03:10. This appears to come from the manga

short that appears as Chapter 1 in Volume 2 of my bunkoban collection of

TCm. The tale ends with a tank in the water in the middle of a lake - sound

familiar? Could somebody translate the name for me, please? Thanks!]

- Captain Harlock has a second encounter with the Mazone - this time when one

of them attempts to pose as Emeraldas.

[KKA - pilot film clip 03:11 to 03:15. This is based on a story that appears

at the end of SPCHm Volume 1, and which also inspired one of the scenes in

SPCHa #06, "The Phantom Mazone."]

- Dr. Zero sells himself and his family into slavery in order to escape

Tastasia.

[CHR Volume 6, "The Truth Behind Miracles." Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information. This would

seem to imply that Dr. Zero was captured by the Illumidas during the

occupation of Earth and removed to Tastasia for whatever offense he committed

(if any at all).]

----------------------------

2967-2968 - ENDLESS ROAD SSX

----------------------------

2967, late summer or early fall

- Tadashi Momono joins the crew of the Arcadia as Captain Harlock's cabin boy

and personal cook.

[SSX #01, "Arcadia Lift Off!" and #02, "The Lady Captain Leotard." Tadashi's

parents died two years ago, in the final year of the Earth-Illumidas War.]

- Dr. Ban joins the crew of the Arcadia. He will be the first of three chief

medical officers to serve the space pirate Captain Harlock.

[SSX #03, “Battlezone Lullaby"]

- Goro Yuki is killed by the Illumidas.

[SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword”]

- Kei Yuki joins the crew of the Arcadia.

[SSX #04, “The Pen and the Sword”]

2967, fall (or thereabouts)

- Emeraldas pays a visit to Colony SP7 to visit the grave of her former

"comrade-in-arms." While there, she is cornered by Green Izma, who has

finally tracked her down.

[SSX #7, "X = Emeraldas"]

- Green Izma, the brother of the late Commander Murgison, is killed by the same

person who killed his brother - the female pirate Emeraldas.

[SSX #7, "X = Emeraldas." Green Izma says he's been searching for Emeraldas

for six months, ever since his brother died.]

- The Water Planet is destroyed by the Illumidas three days after the Arcadia

leaves there, to prevent it from aiding and assisting others branded outlaws

by the Illumidas.

[SSX #8, "The Boy and Mother from the Iron Planet." The Arcadia had visited

the Water Planet to stock up on food, water, and other supplies. The

Illumidas feared that the Water Planet would turn into an outlaw's refuge.]

- Harlock's Aunt Anita is killed by the Illumidas.

[SSX #8, "The Boy and Mother from the Iron Planet"]

2967, late fall (or thereabouts)

- Tochiro's shoulder, wounded in his attempt to defend the honor of Emeraldas

by dueling Green Izma, finally heals.

[SSX #7, "X = Emeraldas." Doctor Ban said it would take a month to heal.]

2967, 25 December (Christmas)

- Death of Captain Bentselle, last human commander of the Earth Federation's

Admiral-class space battleship Death Shadow. He shorts out the main computer

core by hurling his own body at it, thus temporarily disabling the ship and

allowing the Arcadia to close in and finish it off.

[SSX #10, "Snowfall in the Sea of Stars."]

- The automated Death Shadow is finally shot down by Captain Harlock and the

Arcadia, thus putting to rest one of the captain's personal demons. The

heavily damaged vessel crashes into one of the deserts of the planet Heavy

Melder, its main computer core burnt out and beyond repair.

[SSX #10, "Snowfall in the Sea of Stars." Now here's where things get

interesting. The Death Shadow that crashes in SSX #10 is largely intact. The

rusting hulk we see in GE999f is a shattered half-hull, with only the aft

section intact. What happened to turn the one into the other? One answer to

that problem, insofar as the Leijiverse is concerned, can be found in the

"Deathshadow Rising" six-part story arc of CHR! The real-world answer can be

summed up in two words - "production issues." See also TT2, QEm Volume 4, and

SPCHa Volume 5]

2967, 31 December

- Tochiro Oyama invents a new type of automatic rice cake machine. It resembles

a cross between a homemade ice cream mixer and a butter churn.

[SSX #11, "Sound The Bell of Freedom." At the beginning of the episode,

Harlock expresses hope that maybe they can enjoy a peaceful New Year.]

- General Armus is dismissed from his command for not being agressive enough

against Harlock. His replacement is General Kruger - a no-nonsense warmonger

who only cares about winning. Before he is escorted away to his

court-martial, Armus warns Kruger that his biggest mistake was making an enemy

of Harlock. Krueger laughs off the warning and immediatly orders an attack on

the free trade planet of Mistral, where Harlock last made port.

[SSX #11, "Sound The Bell of Freedom."]

2968, 1 January

- The Illumidas attack the free trading planet of Mistral on the pretext that

it had harboring wanted criminals - namely, Captain Harlock and his crew

aboard the Arcadia. This occurs even though Harlock voluntarily left the port

on his own within the hour of the turning of the New Year. Harlock returns,

and with the help of Mistral military forces and some unexpected aid from

Emeraldas, is able to soundly rout the Illumidas. All of their forces have

either surrendered or been driven away into space before planetary sunrise.

[SSX #11, "Sound The Bell of Freedom." New Year's celebrations have just

taken place when the Illumidas begin their attack. For younger fans who

might doubt the possibility of a "one-day war," you might want to look at the

Nazi occupation of Denmark during World War II.]

- The Arcadia departs planet Mistral on the morning of New Year's day.

[SSX #11, "Sound The Bell of Freedom." It is daylight when the Arcadia takes

off from the planet's main spaceport.]

2968, first week of January

- Harlock has a serious falling-out with part of his crew, led by Chief

Engineer Doscoi, over his quest to find the mythical lost planet of Arcadia.

At the same time, they finally track down and deals with an Illumidas cyborg

spy that had infiltrated his ship on the Water Planet. The spy, Kei (not

Harlock's second mate Kei Yuki, whom she abducts for a time), had posed as an

exact copy of La Mime in order to fool Harlock's crew. Doscoi and Harlock

eventually patch up their differences, yet neither forgets what happened.

[SSX #10, "Who Is The Spy?"]

2968, first half of year

- According to one account which is now generally discredited, Tochiro Oyama

will die in this year from radiation poisoning.

[SSX #21, "Fight Until The End! Farewell, Tochiro"

- General Kreuger is killed by Feydar Zone during an attack on Illumidas Earth

Occupation Headquarters in Megapolis City.

[SSX #22, "The Fire of St. Aquile"]

- Death of Dr. Feydar Zone.

[SSX #22, “Through the Fire”]

- Illumida, the homeworld of the Illumidas, is destroyed by the High Priestess

of Arcadia as a favor to Captain Harlock, for his refusal to use her gift of

the Fire of St. Aquile for personal gain.

[SSX #22, “Through the Fire”]

- Chief Engineer Doscoi leaves the crew of the Arcadia. Sufrin will take over

the chief engineer's job on a temporary basis, until a more qualified man can

be recruited for the position.

[SSX #10, "Who is the Spy," implied; CHR Volume 5, "Storms"]

- Tadashi Momono leaves the crew of the Arcadia.

[SSX #22, “Through the Fire”]

- Dr. Ban leaves the crew of the Arcadia.

[SSX #22, “Through the Fire”]

- Lt. Commander Mamoru Yuki of the GRSPG is summoned for a special meeting with

Galaxy Railways chief operating officer Layla Shura, shortly before he is

supposed to leave on a special mission. As he arrives, he notices a tall

woman dressed in black furs, accompanied by a boy in a wide-brimmed hat and

cloak, finishing their own audience with Layla and leaving her office. Layla

then gives him confidential information regarding the mission he is about

to undertake. It will result in his death - but she also stresses that his

will not be a death without meaning. Layla tells him how the future Manabu

(his younger brother) will be pulled through time to see him one last time

before he dies. She warns Mamoru that he must refuse his younger brother's

offer to help him escape his destiny. If he does so, Manabu's future will be

forever altered, and Manabu will never become the great man that he is

destined to be. After their visit, Mamoru reports to SDF Commander Mossburg,

and he departs with the GRSPG aboard their own special armored space train -

the Three-Six.

[GE999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 1, "The Army of Destiny," slightly retconned; see

also GR1 #02, "A Knot in Time.]

- Mamoru Yuki is killed in the line of duty, along with his entire GRSPG unit,

while trying to rescue the passengers of two space trains that have crash-

landed on the the Planet of the Mud Diamonds. The first is Galaxy Express

#357, which had been hijacked by pirates for its valuable cargo. The second

is Galaxy Express #505, which had been disabled by falling through a knot in

time from five years in the future. Commander Mossburg's GRSPG unit is both

outnumbered and outgunned, but it gives as good as it gets before the pirates

succeed in destroying it. Another casualty of the battle is the Three-Six,

which is torn apart by the superior firepower of the pirates. It will

eventually be rebuilt.

[GR1 #02, “A Knot in Time;” see also GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 3, "Crossroads

of Eternity;" slightly retconned. Manabu’s elder brother died five years prior to his falling through the time knot and witnessing it himself in

person. The sequence of events depicted in the GE999EFm version require some

retconning, but provide additional details not present in the GR1 account.

The Three-Six was rebuilt for the GRSPG - and lost again during the First

Alfort Crisis - just like Big One was rebuilt after Captain Wataru Yuki's

death, per GR1 #01, "Stepping Out" and GR2 #21, "Reunion."]

- The dying Mamoru receives some final comfort in his last moments from a

mysterious stranger wearing a broad-rimmed hat and cloak. As is later

learned, Mamoru's final comforter is none other than a temporarily displaced

Toshiro Oyama.

[GE999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 3, "Crossroads of Eternity," retconned. Layla

Shura apparently sent him back in time for this event.]

- Lt. Ariavenus of the GRSPG, a friend and member of Mamoru Yuki's SPG unit, is

the only one not present when the rest of her comrades are wiped out at the

Planet of the Mud Diamonds. Given the bad luck that is traditionally

associated with such lone survivors, she decides a change of jobs is in

order. She leaves the GRSPG and transfers to the Galaxy Railway Intelligence

Division, where she finds a new life as a field agent. Even so, she never

forgets Mamoru Yuki, and occasionally finds time to visit his grave on the

planet Tabito.

[GR2 #1, "A New Departure" and #16, "An Uninvited Castaway." The two were

romantically involved, as Manabu is later with Louise Drake.]

2968, second half of year

- Despite the loss of their homeworld, the Illumidas manage to maintain control

over their new intergalactic empire. However, a new threat to Illumidas

dominance of the known universe has arisen in its own back yard. It is the

Machine Empire. Queen Promethium senses that the time for her ascension to

galactic dominance has finally come. Within two years the Machine Empire will

break its former allegiances with the Illumidas and go to war with them for

control of the known universe.

[Implied by SSX and CHR. Gibson, in CHR, goes into far more detail than the

mere hints we get in Matsumoto-san’s scant dealings on the subject. According to Gibson “... the Queen’s Empire is growing a hide tougher than any teeth your race [i.e. the Illumidas] will ever possess (CHR Volume 08, “Sins of the Father, Part 1).” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is often the only source for information regarding the Illumidas.]

- General Muda replaces the late General Kreuger as supreme commander of the

Illumidas Earth Occupation Forces.

[CHR Volume 1, “An Exchage of Futures.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.

- Mitsuru Kiruta, a human currently serving with Earth’s token security forces under Prime Minister Triter’s government, is part of the detatchment assigned

to deal with Captain Harlock and his allies. This event marks the beginning

of Kiruta’s eventual obsession with bringing the legendary space pirate to justice.

[CHQ1K and CHR. Kiruta (aka “Colonel Kamerov”) recalls, in the episode dealing with the building of the Arcadia (SPCH version) that he has spent the

past two years hunting down Harlock, Tochiro (aka “Roger Devlin”), and their space pirate allies. Series continuity establishes that the launching of the

Arcadia took place in 2970; hence Kiruta was first assigned to Harlock’s case while the Illumidas were still in control of Earth in 2968 LE. Kiruta was

already familiar with Captain Harlock’s reputation if you believe Gibson, per the CHR "The Fall of the Empire" and CHR "The Machine People" story arcs.]

- By chance, Alexander Nevich discovers part of Tochiro Oyama’s notes for the computer core of the Arcadia in the ruin of the underground hanger in which

the ship was built. Although incomplete, they provide enough data for Nevich

to combine with his own earlier efforts. He begins work on a new, more

advanced intelligent starship computer core. He names it Hespastion, after

the longtime companion of Alexander the Great, one of his own personal idols

and from whom he believes he is descended.

[CHR "Deathshadow Rising" Volume 04, “Bridges.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he is the only source to date for this

information.]

- Dr. Zero’s wife, now a slave, dies of an unknown ailment shortly after arriving at El Dorado. Their young son Joe survives, but remains in the

custody of his master, Lutrain Estarian, the governor of the colony.

[CHR Volume 8, “Freedom.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- The Hall of Justice is built in the ruins of Megapolis City. The name is a

misnomer. Its is actually a giant arena designed for public executions in

front of a large audience.

[CHR Volume 1, “An Exchange of Futures;” see also SPCHa #01, "The Jolly Roger of Space.' Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information. The Hall of Justice apparently replaced the site used

in MYA. It is the same building used almost a decade later for the attempted

public execution of Captain Harlock by Commander Kiruta in SPCHa.]

- Tadashi Daiba’s father secures and smuggles a number of video games to his son. The obvious effort is to keep up his spirit. Lt. Commander Daiba also

uses them to improve his son’s eye-hand coordination, which is a useful and necessary skill for any combatant. ]

[CHR Volume 2, “And Its Roots Grow Strong Under the Ground.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this

information. Video games and computer simulations are used for this exact

same purpose by the militaries of today.]

- “Doc” Malone becomes Captain Harlock’s second chief medical officer when she joins the crew of the Arcadia against her husband’s wishes. The two

eventually separate and divorce over the matter, each going their separate

ways.

[CHR Volume 5, “Storms.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information. “Doc” Malone was actually a former senior nurse with the Solar Federation military. She became the Arcadia’s CMO because she was the only one on board at the time with any specialized medical

training.]

- Emeraldas has a run-in with Captain Torian and the Dark Victory, both of

which are now in the service of the Illumidas.

[CHR Volume 6, “The Truth Behind Miracles.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Dr. Zero's master grants him freedom from slavery shortly before dying.

He is also given enough money in his former master’s will to buy out the contracts on his wife and son. He will spend most of the following year

searching for them, before finally tracking them down to the asteroid colony

of El Dorado.

[CHR Volume 7, “Legacies.” Gibson’s material, while admittedly apocryphal, is the only source for this information.]

- Tochiro Oyama decides to convert an old Solar Federation secret asteroid base

located in the Minervan asteroid belt of the Solar System into a mobile base

of operations for Captain Harlock and the Arcadia. He will eventually name it

Deathshadow Island. It is but one of many such hidden pirate bases that he

will set up for Harlock and Emeraldas over the next few years for resupply and

repair across the Sea of Stars.

[CHR Volume 04, “The Color of a Rose.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.

This is supposed to be the same Deathshadow Island that is so prominently

featured in the various SPCH materials. Captain Harlock and Emeraldas had a

number of such secret bases scattered around the Milky Way galaxy. The secret

asteroid base hidden in the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt, per Gibson’s CHR "The Fall of the Empire" story arc Volume 01, “Transitions,” is one such example. Others pop up from time to time in the various Harlock anime and manga.]

- The Illumidas Earth Occupation Forces finish setting up a satellite screening

network in geosynchronous orbit around the planet. It permits monitoring of

any part of the Earth’s surface as well as any approach by any incoming object from space at any angle. Completion of the network had been delayed for two

years by resource limitations and interference from Earth resistance forces.

[CHR Volume 01, “An Exchange of Futures.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

-------------------------------------------------------

2969 - CAPTAIN HARLOCK RETURNS

ETERNAL WANDERER EMERALDAS: THE CHILDREN OF EDEN

CAPTAIN HARLOCK: DEATHSHADOW RISING

2970 - CAPTAIN HARLOCK: FALL OF THE EMPIRE

CAPTAIN HARLOCK: THE MACHINE PEOPLE

-------------------------------------------------------

- Death of Lt. Commander Daiba, father of Tadashi and Tsuyoshi Daiba.

[CHR Volume 01, “An Exchange of Futures”). The date happens to be fairly close to Matsumoto’s own reckoning per HSa and HSm. Tadashi tells Alberich that his father died “two years ago.” Well, three is close! Two-and-a-half?]

- Captain Torian and his crew are declared renegades and outlaws by the

Illumidas after they steal their ship, the former Solar Alliance battlecruiser

Dark Victory, and the experimental Ritelex warp drive that had been recently

installed for testing. Unfortunately for them they do not know how to operate

it, and warp themselves into uncharted space after a brief encounter with the

space pirate Emeraldas. Their ultimate fate remains a mystery to this day.

[CHR Volume 6, "The Truth Behind Miracles” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

- Kanae Hoshino suffers a miscarriage due to overwork. Faust Hoshino leaves

home and never returns shortly thereafter, throwing in his lot with the

Machine Empire. Kanae tells her young son Tetsuro that his father is dead,

in order to hide the truth from him.

[GE999EFm, s.v. “Serene Dreams” (Viz edition, Volume 2). Tetsuro meets the spirit of his unborn younger sister. Her apparent age places what would have

been her birthday about the time that Faust left his family and entered the

service of Queen Promethium, per GE999A (and GE999a to some extent, albeit

retconned). This would go a long way in explaining Faust’s motivations for abandoning his family - as well as why Tetsuro always has such positive

memories of Faust in GE999a.]

- Illumidas Supreme Fleet Commander Kelor authorizes the request by General Muda

for Operation Dreadnaught. It is the second major program by the Illumidas

Earth Occupation Forces to build a warship capable of defeating Captain

Harlock and the Arcadia in pitched combat. Joining in the effort, albeit for

reasons of his own, is the human scientist Alexander Nevich. The subject of

Operation Dreadnaught will be the Deathshadow, Harlock’s former command and recently salvaged from Heavy Melder.

[CHR Volume 10, “Sins of the Father" (Part 2). This is the backstory for CHR's "Deathshadow Rising" story arc. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

- The Illumidas launch an unprovoked attack against the asteroid colony of El

Dorado in their unceasing efforts to capture Captain Harlock and the Arcadia.

The colony is able to defend itself and drive off the Illumidas fleet, thanks

both to a joint effort on the part of Harlock and a Machine Empire delegation

headed by Faust Hoshino (Galaxy Railways regional director), and governor

Estarin's decision to have the colony armed with defensive weapons in secret

despite his action being a violation of his previous agreement with the

Illumidas.

[CHR Volume 07, “Legacies,” and Volume 09, “Sins of the Father" (Part 1).

Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information. Harlock appears to reference this event

near the end of GE999A, recollecting the time when he and Faust once fought

side by side.]

- The Arcadia’s faulty warp core is replaced with a new one courtesy of Lutrain Estarian, governor of El Dorado. It is patterned after the one built for his

colony, albeit on a smaller scale.

[CHR Volume 07, “Legacies,” and Volume 10, “Sins of the Father (Part 2). Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information. Remember, Tochiro Oyama hadn’t anticipated many of the combat situations the Arcadia would face when he built the ship’s original engine per SSX #02, “The Female Captain Leotard.”. This is the first of several upgrades the original Arcadia will receive within the next

decade.

- A sorrowful Dr. Zero leaves his son in the care of Lutrain Estarian and joins

the crew of the Arcadia, much to the relief of a grateful “Doc” Malone. He is upset over the death of his wife as well as the fact that he could never give

his son the kind of life the boy has been living with the Estarians the past

few years. His apparent failure as a husband and father is a doubt that will

always gnaw at him, driving him to drink and eventually turning him into a

chronic alcoholic.

[CHR Volume 07, “Legacies,” and Volume 10, “Sins of the Father" (Part 2). Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information. M-san never really tells us how or why Dr.

Zero came to be aboard the Arcadia nor what it was that made him drink all the

time; only that he was a drunk, and that he joined sometime before Yattaran

came aboard per SPCHa #23, “The Song of the Model Lover.”]

- “Doc” Malone leaves the service of Captain Harlock. [Implied by CHR Volume 07, “Legacies” and Volume 10, “Sins of the Father" (Part 2)]

- The Machine Empire begins to gather its forces for an all out assault on the

Illumidas. In response the Illumidas begin massing a number of fleets at the

Delgraci star system. Their plan is to launch their own offensive against the

Machine Empire before the latter can launch theirs first.

[CHR Volume 10, “Sins of the Father" (Part 2), CHR "Deathshadow Rising" story arc Volume 03, “Ghosts," and CHR "The Machine People" story arc Volume 03, “Crossroads.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.

- As part of its planned offensive, Machine Empire operatives infiltrate the

Illumidas power structure at all levels. A large part of this activity is

done by human-looking Metanoids under the guise of the Cabal Corporation. It

is a well-known merchant conglomerate that has been doing business in both the

Milky Way and Andromeda for decades. In fact, it is owned and operated by the

Machine Empire - lock, stock, and barrel.

[CHR Christmast Special, CHR "The Fall of the Empire" story arc, and CHR "The

Machine People" story arc. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

- The Illummidas complete Operation Dreadnaught. The rebuilt Deathshadow engages

Captain Harlock near Mars. Its overwhelming superiority in firepower enables

its captain, Alexander Nevich, to cripple the Arcadia and force it from the

field of battle. Captain Harlock is himself wounded and captured in the

process. Unfortunately for the Illumidas, Nevich has ulterior motives and

turns the tables on his sponsors. He and his crew seize control of the ship,

free Captain Harlock, and declare independence as the nation state of New

Macedonia. At the same time, Baron Darghund’s resistance forces launch attacks against all major Illumidas ground installations on Earth. General

Muda is eventually victorious and defeats his foes on all fronts, but pays a

terrible price for his victory. Over half of his space fleet and a good-sized

chunk of his ground forces are wiped out in the process - and once again,

Captain Harlock lives and escapes to fight another day. Nevich is not so

lucky. He is killed in the same explosion that destroys half of the local

Illumidas fleet when the Deathshadow’s damaged warp core explodes. The wreckage of the Deathshadow dewarps over Heavy Melder, where what remains of

its shattered hull smashes back into the surface from which it was briefly

resurrected - never to sail the Sea of Stars again.

[CHR "Deathshadow Rising" story arc. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.

This helps explain why we see an intact Deathshadow sitting on the surface of

Heavy Melder in SSX #10, “Sorrow in the Sea of Stars,” and only the stern section sticking up out of the ground by the time GE999f rolls around. Also,

the image of the Deathshadow's stern rising out of the sands of Heavy Melder

is one of the enduring images of the Leijiverse - featuring in many of its

anime and manga.]

- Tochiro Oyama joins up with Emeraldas for a time. He begins a series of

upgrades to the Queen Emeraldas in order that the ship can realize its full

power capacity. That way it can use the offensive weaponry he has discovered

it carries, much to the surprise of Emeraldas.

[SPCHa #31, “The Origins of the Arcadia” and QEa #02, “Eternal Emblem”; see also QEm Volume 4. Compare its weaponry in SSX, GE999f, and GE999a with

what we see it deploy in QEa.]

- Heavy Red Bourbon, one of the most potent alcoholic drinks ever devised, is

invented by an unknown barkeeper somewhere on the planet Heavy Melder.

[CWZ #06, “Harlock, My Friend”). Harlock states in the episode that he’s always wanted to try Heavy Red Burborn during his visit to Heavy Melder at

that time. Since he had visited the planet several times before, then he

either didn’t have to time to try it or the drink simply didn’t exist at the time. The latter is more likely given Harlock’s taste for alcohol. Bourbon was his favorite drink, red bourbon from Andromeda in particular per

DZ Chapter 4, "The Android Hunter" and Harmony Gold's CHQ1K press kit.]

2968, December

- The Arcadia makes a brief layover at the planet Santa Xavier to pick up

supplies and recruit new crewmembers. During the layover, a Metanoid spy named

Hannibal manages to infiltrate Harlock’s new batch of recruits. [CHR Christmas Special. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

2969

- The Big Galaxy War

[CWZ series and CWZ Marina Special. Marina Oki describes the Big Galaxy War as

“the first great war fought between humans and the Machine Men.” The date agrees reasonably well with Gibson’s apocryphal materials for CHR. According to Gibson's contextual evidence, the Machine Empire launched their offensive

against the Illumidas in January of 2970. In comparing this with M-san's own

materials, it seems the Big Galaxy War appears to be three separate events

lumped together into one. The first is the Machine Empire’s defeat of the Illumidas. The second is the successful LaMaetelian coup of 2971 that almost

put down the Machine Empire. The third is the revived Machine Empire’s defeat of the revived Earth Federation a few months later.

2970, January

- Without warning or provocation the forces of the Machine Empire attack the

Illumidas on all fronts. The main Illumidas battle fleet at Delgraci is wiped

out in a matter of minutes - an action later known as the Battle of Delgraci

or the Delgraci Rout. The Illumidas are driven from the Andromeda galaxy and

are forced to fall back in all sectors. At the same time, the forces of the

Machine Empire continue their relentless advance into the Milky Way galaxy.

The speed and savagery of the assault come as a shock even to the Illumidas.

Even more shocking is that a number of their own computers and weapons systems

have turned against them - Mechanoid technology preprogrammed for this very

event. As the Illumidas fall back, numerous reports indicate that Mechanoid

forces are taking no prisoners. They are exterminating the Illumidas wherever

they find them - down to the last man, woman, and child. "It seems," says

one historian of the era, "that Queen Promethium had never fogotten the many

insults thrown at her and her people by the Illumidas. It was payback time -

and as with all things, Queen Promethium's revenge was most thorough."

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire." Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information. There are

indications in Gibson’s materials that there had been a lot of bad blood between Queen Promethium and the Illumdias, and that she had decided to settle

old scores once and for all.]

- Captain Harlock is forced to sit out the battle between the Illumidas and the

Machine Empire, due to the extensive damage the Arcadia had suffered in its

fight with the rebuilt Deathshadow.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 01, “Transitions”). Gibson’s material is

admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this

information.]

- Illumidas High Command refuses General Muda’s request for reinforcements and resupply for his Illumidas Earth Occupation Forces. Instead, they order the

destruction of Earth with a planet bomb, in order to free up what resources

they have there for the fight against the Machine Empire. Only a chance

encounter with Captain Harlock’s forces in the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt keeps the bomb from being delivered to Muda. The bomb is instead destroyed,

preventing General Muda from carrying out what will prove to be his final

order from his superiors.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 01, “Transitions.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this

information.]

- Earth resistance forces, with the unexpected help of Machine Empire advisors

and heavy weapons provided by the Cabal Corporation, successfully overthrow

the Illumdias Earth Occupation Forces and retake control of the planet within

two weeks. One of the largest battles for the planet is fought and won within

the ruins of Megapolis City itself. Meanwhile, in the North American Sector,

General Muda and his top staff officers manage to escape their headquarters

before it is overrun by Earth resistance forces. All other Illumdias on Earth

are hunted down and killed - without exception or mercy.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 01, “Transitions.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this

information.]

- The Machine Empire's policy of genocide against the Illumidas is successfully

concluded. Not surprisingly, many of their former subjects put aside any

moral qualms and join them in the carnage. The Illumidas are wiped out

wherever they are found, ceasing to exist as a distinct species. There are

no known survivors.

[CHR "The Machine People" Volume 01, “Crossroads” and Volume 02, “Memorial.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information. This helps explain why you don’t see the Illumidas anymore after this point in the Leijiverse. They were completely

exterminated in the first part of the Big Galaxy War.]

- All Machine Empire forces, both overt and covert, are given strict orders not

to interfere with Captain Harlock, his allies, or their activities.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 04, “Falls” and SSM #01, “Departure of Fate.” Commander Leopold blames the attack on the Three-Nine on Harlock, of whom Queen Promethium was already aware. She does nothing about it, however.

Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for the information regarding the non-interference order. I have

yet to discover why or for what reason the Machine Empire gave this order.]

- With the help of the Cabal Corporation, the Earth Federation is reborn. It

dreams of reestablishing its former space empire despite having almost no

resources from which to begin such an effort.

[Conjecture based on CWZ. There was an Earth Federation in existence prior

to the Big Galaxy War per the series. The first Earth Federation was formed

during the twilight years of the Star Force per SB3.]

- The Earth Space Patrol is founded by the Earth Federation. At first, it is

little more than a provisional militia charged with restoring order to the

war-weary planet. It will become more over the passing years. Even so, it

soon gains a reputation for heavy-handed efficiency. One of its most ruthless

and efficient officers is Mitsuru Kiruta. He begins to advance quickly

through its ranks, and his peers predict a great future for him.

[Conjecture based on SPCHa and HSa. Kiruta's earliest appearance in the

Leijiverse is in a brief cameo in CHR "The Machine People" Volume 01,

“Crossroads.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

- The hastily repaired Arcadia dewarps in Earthspace to find a new Earth

government that has already sold its soul to its new masters in the Machine

Empire. Captain Harlock meets with Baron Darghund and others from former

Earth resistance movement. Together they perceive that the Machine Empire has

more in store for humanity than its apparent generosity.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 04, “Falls.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this

information. Remember, Harlock already knew the truth about the Machine

Empire thanks to Maetel and Emeraldas - as implied by HSm.]

- Prime Minister Triter serves his last term as caretaker leader of the Earth

government in the months following the downfall of the Illumidas. His

replacement is a man who cares more for horse races and golf than he does the

affairs of state. It is yet another indication of the decline and fall of

Earth from its position of former intergalactic prominence.

[SSX #01, "Arcadia Blast Off" and SPCH #31, "The Origin of the Arcadia;" see

also CHR "The Machine People" Volume 01, “Crossroads.” This later prime minster also appears in CHEO. He is never named in the Japanese original.

In the fan-edited version of CHQ1K, he was given the name Walther Busch - so

named after a certain misguided American president of the early 21st century.]

- The Cabal Corporation, acting on orders of the Machine Empire, takes control

of the old Illumidas surveillance satellite network in orbit around Earth.

[CHR "The Machine People" Volume 01, “Crossroads.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this

information.]

- Neville Cabal, the head of the Cabal Corporation delegation on Earth, kills

Baron Darghund in a duel in the ruined arena of the Hall of Justice. Darghund

had deliberately challenged him to a duel in order to kill him and thus, for a

time, thwart the Machine Empire’s covert plans to take over the Earth. Captain Harlock comes upon the scene too late to save his friend. Instead,

he kills Neville Cabal in retaliation and leaves Earth once again to take the

fight directly to the Machine Empire. At the same time, the former member of

the resistance to the Illumidas vow to fight the Mechanoids as hard as they

did the Illumidas.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 04, “Falls”). Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this

information.]

- Captain Harlock's last dealings with the Cabal Corporation involve an expert

Mechanoid bounty hunter programmed to kill him, no matter what it takes.

Harlock ultimately triumphs, but only after a long and prolonged fight.

[This character was introduced by Gibson in CHR "The Fall fo the Empire" and

was meant for the next story arc of the series. The cancellation of the comic

meant that this storyline went unpublished. Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal; however, he remains to date the only source for this information.]

- LaMime of Alozorzan is no longer a member of the Arcadia's crew as of this

date.

[Implied by her disappearance between SSX and CWZ. If you also take Gibson’s admittedly apocryphal materials into account, then her departure has to happen

about this time, right about the point where Captain Harlock decides to take

on the Machine Empire. No reason is ever given in any of the official or

apocryphal sources for LaMime’s departure. Gibson was going to address this issue, but never got the chance to do so due to the cancellation of his

CHR comic series. What plans he had remain unknown as of this date.]

- Tetsuo, the young teenage son of late middle-aged parents who run an inn on

the Wisdom Tooth Planet, leaves home against his father's wishes. The strain

of waiting every day for the next four years, expecting his wayward son to

come back, finally breaks the poor man's mind and he goes insane. After that,

every young boy he sees he believes to be his long-lost son. The truth of

the matter is that shortly after his departure, Tetsuo was abducted and taken

to the Slave Planet - where he would have remained for the rest of his life,

had he not eventually found a way to escape.

[GE999a #086, "The UFO of the Planet of Forgotten Parents." See also TTB

Chapter 12, "UFO 2001." This is the original manga short on which this

episode is based.]

sometime in the early 2970s

- A giant space cloud capable of instantly fossilizing any life form it touches

passes over the world that will later be known as the Planet of Fossils. The

entire population is fossilized save for one man, who had been sent up in

a spaceship to take readings on the cloud. He will spend the next year

attempting to prevent unscrupulous "fossil thieves" from stealing the remains

of his people (and in particular that of his late girlfriend) for sale to art

collectors.

[GE999a #012 & #013, "The Fossil Warrior (Parts 1 & 2)," date implied. It

had to be a fairly recent occurence. The man is never named, and he is

eventually killed by fossil thieves in 2973, shortly before the space cloud

returns for a second pass. Maetel and Tetsuro place his body beside that of

his late girlfiend, so he will be fossilized as part of her - and they will

thus be together for all time.]

- A crippled spaceship crashes on Sakezan's World. Its only survivor is a young

woman named Lisa. She is captured by Sakezan while fleeing the wreck and he

is fascinated by her beauty. He forces her to become his companion, although

she never forgets the life she once led.

[GE999 #029, "Sakezan's World"]

2970

- Tochiro Oyama develops the prototype for the Cosmo Dragoon, so that Captain

Harlock can hunt down and destroy a Mechanoid spy aboard his ship. He will

refine the design over the next several years into the most powerful energy

handgun in the known universe.

[CHR "The Fall of the Empire" Volume 03, “Revelation.” Gibson’s material is admittedly apocryphal, but it happens to agree reasonably well with M-san's

own musings on the subject. The patent was taken out on January 25, 2979 per

HSm Volume 1 and GE999EF; however, the gun as such existed before that. The

first time we ever see a Cosmo Dragoon as such in the anime sources is in CWZ,

which takes place in 2971-2972. In MYA, which takes place in 2967, Harlock

wears an old Cosmo Gun (although it is never named as such in the movie). It

is safe to presume that he is still using a Cosmo Gun during SSX in 2968

because the subject of the Cosmo Dragoon never comes up. The subject also

never comes up in the stories that take place between SSX and CWZ. Put this

all together, and you wind up with an origin date for the Cosmo Dragoon around

2969-2970 - almost the same as Gibson says. According to Gibson and artist

Tim Eldred, the prototype Cosmo Dragoon was somewhat smaller and had a shorter

barrel than the final design, as depicted in HSm, HSa, GE999EFa, and QEa. See

also the Model P38 Cosmo Gun, aka the "Cosmo Gun Special," that used to belong

to Captain Wataru Yuki, per the various GR materials - which is supposedly the

same model used by Tetsuro in the original GE999 stories.]

- Emeraldas and Tochiro Oyama are briefly imprisoned on a mining planet, and

forced to endure hard labor pounding rocks for a time until Harlock can come

to their rescue. This “friendly little visit” is almost the death of Tochrio, when conditions on the mining planet aggravate his already bad health. He

never really recovers his full health after this incidient.

[CHQ1K. Yes, it’s a dialogue goof but an interesting one. We know Emeraldas and Tochiro shared a number of adventures together between SSX and SSM, per

QEa #4, "Siren the Witch" and QEm Volume 4. This probably happened during one

of them. It had to have happened before the building of the second Arcadia,

because it is spoken of in the past tense whenever the ship’s construction is recalled. The visit was probably a lot like Harlock and Tochiro’s own to the Bad Planet - only much worse.]

- Mayu Oyama, daughter of Tochiro Oyama and Emeraldas of LaMaetel, is born on

the planet Heavy Melder.

[SPCHa #31, “The Origins of the Arcadia”]

- The Arcadia II (aka “Death Shadow”) launches from one of Captain Harlock’s secret pirate bases on the planet Heavy Melder.

[SPCHa #31, “The Origins of the Arcadia”). The date is fairly well pegged by a number of sources, both within the series itself and other official

Leijiverse materials. Even Harmony Gold’s materials, dreadful as they are, agree with this date. In CHQ1K Harlock recalls that the events surrounding

the launching of the Arcadia II happened seven years prior to the landing of

the Mazone sphere on Earth in 2977. Most of this episode was effectively

replaced by SSM; nevertheless, the fact remains that the Arcadia II (aka Death

Shadow) was built by Tochiro Oyama for Captain Harlock around this time. The

first time we see the Arcadia II per the chronology is SSM, so this has to

happen here. There is also the completely different origin story for both

Arcadias as presented in the “revival” work HSm Volumes 3-8. This is where the alternate name Death Shadow was first used. I’m not going with those in this chronology because I know more of you have seen the anime than read the

manga. -_^]

- On the planet Sarumakate, where the most secret of all of Captain Harlock’s secret pirate bases is located, the original Arcadia is drydocked for an

extensive overhaul and upgrade. Two years of fighting with the Illumidas have

taken their toll on the ship. Tochiro Oyama also wants to take the time to

install a number of modifications and upgrades he has been planning ever since

the Arcadia’s original design flaws became evident. Kei Yuki is given charge of overseeing the Arcadia’s overhaul and upgrade. [CWZ #10, “On the Edge of the Galaxy” and #14 & 15, “Follow Young Harlock (Parts 1 & 2”), implied; QEa #2, “Eternal Emblem;” as well as selected events in SSX, SSM, and HSm. I deduce the presence of Kei Yuki with the original

Arcadia because she isn’t present when the events depicted by both SSM and CWZ take place.]

- Faust Hoshino leaves his job as a Galaxy Railways regional director to become

a Machine Knight of Queen Promethium. He is one of only a few Mechanoids to

achieve this position.

[GE999A. Metanoids normally served as Machine Knights, per HSm and GE999EF.]

- Nazca’s homeworld is occupied by the Machine Empire. His girlfriend Mel is savagely beaten and left for dead by a Machine Soldier, when she tries to

stop a little girl from being forcibly Mechanized. Nazca knows that

Mechanization is the only way to save her life; however, Mel dies on the

conversion table before the process can even begin. The end result is a

soulless drone with Mel’s memories but none of her personality or looks. Nazca swears vengeance on the Machine Empire and vows to kill Queen Promethium

for what happened to Mel.

[SSM #08, “A Funeral March for Mother.” Nazca summed up his feelings over Mechanization and what happened to his girlfriend Mel in one poignant phrase:

“They took away her smile.”]

- The Terrestrial Independent Fleet is formed, as the Earth Federation struggles

to reform itself in the wake of the Illumidas collapse. It is a space fleet

crewed by humans who have no love for the Machine Empire. Unfortunately, it

is more a show of force than a true modern space fleet. All of its vessels

are either rebuilt Solar Federation vessels that had survived the Earth-

Illumidas War, vessels captured from Illumidas depots, or relics (some

hundreds of years old) from the original Earth Federation. There is not a

single "modern" space warship in its entire fleet, save for the few captured

from the Illumidas.

[CWZ #01, "The Start of the Great Voyage." There was an Earth Federation in

existence prior to the Big Galaxy War, per the series. Also, the Karyu was an

old ship that predated the series. Some of the ships flown by the pirates in

the series appear to be derived from old EDF designs from the Star Blazers

era. It is highly likely that many of the people serving with the TIF used

to be part of the resistance against the Illumidas, but the source materials

do not say one way or the other.]

- Warrius Zero, Earth’s most experienced starship commander to survive the Earth-Illumidas War, is given the rank of admiral and placed in charge of the

Terrestrial Independent Fleet.

[CWZ #01, "The Start of the Great Voyage," slightly retconned. The part

about his having survived the Earth-Illumidas War is the retconning - given

his age and time served in the military.]

- The former Solar Federation space battleship Karyu is returned to service as

the flagship of the Terrestrial Independent Fleet.

[CWZ #01, "The Start of the Great Voyage." Both Harlock and Yattaran refer to

the ship as an antique on more than one occasion. Warrius Zero prefers to

call it “delicate.”]

- Marina Oki’s adoptive human parents are killed in the short-lived Arrow War. This is one of the first skirmishes between the revived Earth Federation and

the Machine Empire. Some later historians will see it as the first act in

the third and final stage of the Big Galaxy War.

[CWZ: Marina Special. Marina says the Okis were killed right after her

posting to the Earth Federation destroyer Monsoon, which happened early in

her military career. The Japanese dialogue and subtitles do not name the

conflict; only that it was a series of terrorist strikes carried out by

Mechanoid command teams on Earth itself.]

- Admiral Zero discovers an ancient yet still functional robot in a junk pile

on a backwater planet during one of his first deep space patrols aboard the

Karyu. The robot’s memory has degraded to the point where it has forgotten everything, save that it once served aboard a famous Earth space battleship.

Amused by its antics, Admiral Zero takes the ancient robot aboard the Karyu

and has it rebuilt. He names it Battlyzer, since it can’t remember its original name.

[CWZ press kit by Enoki Films. Yes, folks, “Battlyzer” is in fact “Battlefield Analyzer” IQ-9. The when, how, and why of where IQ-9 wound

up where he did and in the shape he was when Zero found him remains a

mystery.]

- The last few humans still alive on the planet LaMaetel that have successfully

resisted Mechanization are rounded up and herded into one of the planet’s original (and now ruined) cities. There they are given a choice: their

freedom if they will be Mechanized, or slavery as humans in the service of

the Machine Empire. All choose slavery over forced Mechanization.]

[SSM #02, “Nazca’s Passion” and #03, “The Night Before the Revolution.” These are not the original humans of LaMaetel. Rather, they are ones who

had been captured by LaMaetel's military forces over the past few hundred

years per Hardgear's original plans in ML - as well as the descendants of

earlier prisoners. One of the constant themes of LaMaetel in all of its

various incarnations - QM, SSM, and GE999 - is the presence of a second class

or slave human population.]

- The Galaxy Railways Space Defense Force (GRSDF) develops the black hole cannon

for use on armed space trains. It is a variation on the standard shock cannon

capable of firing a powerful negative energy blast. This will cause a

starship of any size to implode when hit. Its tremendous power is offset to

a large degree by its limited range of 25 space kilometers (i.e. megameters).

[GE999a #026, "The Pirate Queen Emeraldas." The last time anyone fielded

black hole weaponry in the Leijiverse was during SB3. The Bolar Federation

had a single, possibly an early model, version of a black hole cannon on one

of its mobile space fortresses. The one that the GRSDF fields some eight

centuries later can be seen as a logical refinement of this early "alien

tech," per GE999a #01, "Departure Ballad" - as is GR2's dimensional tunneling

device, which employs the use of "micro black holes."]

- Yattaran joins Captain Harlock’s crew around this time. [SSM #04, “Rhapsody in Gold”, implied. See also CWZ #05, “Tochiro the Great Samurai” and SPCHa #23, “Yattaran: The Song of the Model Lover.” We know Yattaran joined Harlock’s crew when the Arcadia made an emergency stop at Earth for repairs. Also, we don’t see Yattaran aboard the Arcadia in any Leijiverse anime prior to SSM. Yattaran acts more immature in both SSM and

CWZ than in any other Leijiverse anime, which might imply he was younger.

In later Leijiverse anime - such as HSa, SPCHa, and CHEO - Yattaran is far

more mellow and laid back.]

----------------------------

2970 - SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL

----------------------------

- Maetel returns to LaMaetel at the request of her mother Queen Promethium.

Her stated reason is to accept her mother’s offer to become the new Queen of the Machine Empire that Promethium is creating. Her real reason is to kill

her mother and destroy the Machine Empire before it takes over the known

universe.

[SSM #01, “Departure of Fate”]

- Maetel, Emeraldas, and their allies Harlock, Tochiro, and Nazca soon realize

that the various Queen Promethiums they see are not the real ones but cloned

copies of Promethium before she was Mechanized.

[SSM #02, “Nazca’s Passion” and #04, “Rhapsody in Gold”]

- An assassination attempt on Maetel by the humans of LaMaetel fails.

[SSM #03, “The Night Before the Revolution”]

- Captain Harlock is attacked without provocation by the Space Panzers of

LaMaetel. The badly damaged Deathshadow barely manages an escape when it

chances upon a freak wormhole.

[SSM #04, “Rhapsody in Gold”). I note in passing that the Queen Emeraldas as seen in this series is identical in appearance to how it appears in CWZ.]

- Maetel is shocked to discover that her grandmother Lady La Lela is alive and

well and living on the surface of LaMaetel’s inner core. Lady La Lela opposes the forced mechanization of her world. She tests her granddaughter to see if

Maetel has the nerve and force of will to go up against her own mother, Queen

Promethium.

[SSM #05, “Promethium’s Magic Flute” and #06, “La Lela’s Requeim”]

- Maetel is taken hostage by Commander Leopold when Lady La Lela refuses to back

his planned coup. He does not anticipate that the real Queen Promethium is

beyond such tactics.

[SSM #05, “Promethium’s Magic Flute” and #06, “La Lela’s Requeim”]

- Queen Promethium orders the final cleansing of all humans from LaMaetel as its

total mechanization nears completion. This prompts a revolt, led by Commander

Leopold of the LaMaetel Space Panzers, which stops the planet’s mechanization from being completed. It also completely destroys its multiple mechanized

outer shells. Most of the humans and a few fortunate Mechanoids escape in a

massive space ark, with the space pirates Harlock and Emeraldas providing

cover from their ships. LaMaetel’s inner planetary core breaks free of its fiery metal prison; however, the multiple explosions from the disintegrating

shells have changed its course. It is now headed for the Euphrates star

system. LaMaetel will settle into orbit around nearby Heavy Melder within

three months - just as Commander Leopold and Lady La Lela had planned.

[SSM #05, “Promethium’s Magic Flute;” #06, “La Lela’s Requeim;” #07, “The Way to the Homeland;” and #08, “A Funeral March for Mother.” The space ark used in the show to evacuate the humans was apparently meant for use during the

invasion of Earth back in 1999, per QM. At that time, it would have been used

to ferry LaMaetel’s civilian population to Earth.]

- Death of Lady La Lela, mother of Queen Promethium. She uses the last of her

life energy to control the disintegration of the planet’s outer shells. This way, LaMaetel's original planetary core can escape destruction. Her living

essence is transformed into a powerful sphere of energy - so that LaMaetel

can make the long trip to Heavy Melder without refreezing its surface and

killing its inhabitants.

[SSM #06, “La Lela’s Requeim;” #08, “A Funeral March for Mother;” and #09, “The Spring of LaMaetel”]

- Queen Promethium manages to steal part of her daughter Maetel’s living essence during the breakup of LaMaetel’s surface shells. Maetel in turn teams up with her sister Emeraldas. Together they are able to defeat Promethium. Their

mother’s Mechanoid body disintegrates into dust as the two barely escape with their lives.

[SSM #08, “A Funeral March for Mother.” This helps explain Promethium’s claim in GE999f that the Machine Planet Maetel, the second such world, was part of

Maetel herself. The third Machine Planet, as seen in GE999A, would have

probably had part of the living essence of Emeraldas had Promethium been

successful in stealing it as she tries to do in the episode. She failed;

therefore, she had to use part of her own as she did with the first Machine

Planet.]

- The planet LaMaetel settles into orbit around Heavy Melder as its new moon,

which the natives will rename as Ganba.

[SSM #08, “A Funeral March for Mother” and #09, “The Spring of LaMaetel;" see also SPCHa #31, “The Origins of the Arcadia.” The planet is called Ganba in the earlier version of the story (SPCHa's) but is in fact LaMaetel per

GE999A. The Three-Nine passes Heavy Melder and heads for LaMaetel, which the

Conductor describes as being its moon.]

- Queen Promethium successfully revives herself for the first time - just as

Hardgear himself had done over six centuries earlier. Almost immediately she

begins rebuilding her Mechanoid forces within the Milky Way galaxy. She also

begins construction of Planet Promethium, the first Machine Planet.

[SSM #09, “The Spring of LaMaetel” and #10, “Lightning Titan," implied.]

- Tochiro Oyama finds the time to help Nazca, Maetel’s young ally in the fight against Queen Promethium, build a small space cruiser of his own. Although

not as heavily armed as the Arcadia, it has the advantages of being smaller

and more nimble. It is also equipped with a Galaxy Railways shield generator,

courtesy of Maetel.

[SSM #11, “Leopold’s Eulogy” and #12, “Song of the Wayfarer.” Apparently Tochiro used the occasion to field-test some of the ideas he had in mind for

the original Arcadia’s upgrade, which would have been taking place about this time on Sarumakate, per CWZ.]

- Queen Promethium perfects the combination of Metanoid memory storage

technology with Mechanoid self-replication to create a new generation of

Mechanoids. These can not only repair themselves but also reconstruct

themselves into their original form (or new forms as directed) as fast as

they can process any available raw materials.

[SSM #12, “Song of the Wayfarer.” Tochiro Oyama figures this out after analyzing the Mechanoid fly that almost destroyed LaMaetel’s sole energy production station. This helps explain how the Machine Empire was able to

rebuild itself within the Milky Way galaxy only a year after its defeat at

the end of the series, and does so again between GE999f and GE999A.]

- The Battle for Planet LaMaetel

[SSM #10, “Lightning Titan” and #11, “Leopold’s Eulogy”]

- Death of Commander Leopold

[SSM #10, “Lightning Titan.” He was succeeded as commander of LaMaetel’s Space Panzers (and nominal ruler of LaMaetel) by his adjutant Banbarra

(name mistranslated as Bernbarrel in the fansub).

- Construction of Planet Promethium, the first Machine Planet, is completed.

[SSM #12, “Song of the Wayfarer”). It was almost complete by the time Tochiro deduces its existence and location. This implies that at least a month (or

less) had passed since the Battle for LaMaetel. This would allow enough time

for Queen Promethium to regenerate herself, rebuild her forces, and build

Planet Promethium from scratch.]

- Harlock and Emeraldas, with the help of Maetel and her young friend Nazca,

attack Planet Promethium by themselves.

[SSM #12, “Song of the Wayfarer” and #13, “A New World Far Away”]

- Maetel receives the pendant carrying the living essence of her father Dr. Ban

during her escape from Planet Promethium.

[SSM #13, “A New World Far Away.” The pendant was being carried around during the entire series by a weird-looking Mechanoid cat that always followed Maetel

and guided her actions. In GE999a #112 and #113, "

- Destruction of Planet Promethium, the first of the Machine Empire’s Machine Planets.

[SSM #13, “A New World Far Away”]

- The bounty hunter Sylvania begins her own personal quest to collect the bounty

on Captain Harlock’s head. [CWZ #05, “Tochiro the Great Samurai”]

- Construction begins on Planet Maetel, the second of Queen Promethium’s Machine Planets. It will in time become the Machine Empire’s seat of power within the Milky Way galaxy.

[CWZ #13, “A New World Far Away”), GE999f, and GE999A. It is implied, although never stated, that the third Machine Planet in the Andromeda galaxy

was also built around the same time.]

- A malfunctioning space probe crashes into the space station on Triton,

destroying the station and killing most of its personnel. Among the few

survivors is Mitsuko Daiba, wife of Professor Tsuyoshi Daiba and the station’s chief meterologist. Her frantic pleas for help both before and after the

crash are ignored back on Earth. Mitsuko and her fellow survivors eventually

die of asphyxiation when the oxygen runs out in the compartment in which they

have taken refuge. A board of inquiry investigating the incident wrongfully

concludes that Mitsuko Daiba was ultimately at fault for failing to notice the

space probe in time. They claim she never called for help despite ample

evidence to the contrary. The manner in which his mother died and the cover-up

that followed leaves permanent emotional scars on her young son Tadashi.

[SPCHa #04, “Under the Flag of Freedom”]

- An artificial world is created as a moon of the planet Ruelbaez. It becomes

known as Technologia, “a place where humans and machines can live together in peace.” [CWZ #08, “Marina Everlasting,” #10, “On the Edge of the Galaxy,” and #11, “The Great Technologia.” According to Machine Knight Helmaeter, work on Technologia had just been completed shortly before Zero was given the job of

hunting down Harlock. Later on, in GR2 #08, "A Mission for Two," we learn

that some of the custom parts needed for the Galaxy Railways space trains

are manufactured on Technologia.]

- Captain Harlock secures the last known Daibaran energy crystals for Tochiro

Oyama in his efforts to build the original Arcadia’s new wave gravity engines. It had taken him a while to find them in sufficient quantity, since all of

the crystal mines on Daibaran were tapped out.

[QEa #02, “Eternal Emblem”) and CWZ #06, “Harlock, My Friend;” see also TT2 and QEm Volume 4. This had to have happened about this time because,

according to Tochiro, the original Arcadia’s upgrade was almost complete when Zeth Voder forced the confrontation at Technologia. TT2 shows us an early

draft of the tale of Harlock's return, save that in it he returned with

cosmonite ore. One of QEm Volume 4's final tales shows Tochiro being reunited

with Harlock so the pirate can take his friend away to work on the new ship.]

- Humanity unlocks the secrets of first-generation cloaking technology.

[CWZ #03, “Flame of Karyu”). A cloaking device, i.e. “stealth mode generator,” was part of the Karyu’s standard equipment. Humanity didn’t have cloaking devices when it lost the Earth-Illumidas war; else it would have used

them. It is my conjecture that they were developed during the Big Galaxy War

to aid the new Earth Federation in its short-lived fight against the Machine

Empire.]

- Captain Harlock and his pirate allies (including Emeraldas) join Admiral

Warrius Zero and the Terrestrial Independent Fleet in an uneasy alliance

against the Machine Empire. This is part of the opening stages of the third

and final act of the Big Galaxy War.

[CWZ and SSM. Both make clear that Captain Harlock fought on Earth’s side against the Machine Empire during the Big Galaxy War. In addition, the

background materials for CWZ from Enoki Films state unequivocally that Captain

Harlock and Warrius Zero “fought side by side” at some point in this conflict even though this contradicts the anime itself. The latter data might come

from the original videogame.]

- Kanae Hoshino hires on as a "grunt" hauler in a local coal yard. Young

Tetsuro is allowed to join her on the job and help in hauling coal, even

though the work is backbreaking. Kanae explains to him that they don't

really need the money (a pleasant lie), but that she wants him to know what

it's like have to do hard physical labor.

[GE999a #059, "The Idle Body's Mirror." This helps explain why Tetsuro is so

strong and agile for his age - he was literally "workin' in a coal mine."

They apparently lose their jobs within the year ... which might help in

explaining their apparently impoverished state at the time of Kanae's death.]

- During their time at the coal mine, one of the Mechanoid bosses flips a gold

coin at Tetsuro. The boy doesn't know what to do with it. When Kanae sees

this, she runs over and picks the coin up, then angrily throws it away. She

explains to the confused Tetsuro that he should never learn to depend on the

charity of others, but to "grit his teeth and work" for his living.

[GE999a #074, "The Gimmie Planet." This apparently occurs in early winter,

since snow has begun to fall - not long before the two lose their jobs at

the mine.]

- The planet Rubiana is destroyed by the Machine Empire. The survivors vow

vengeance against those who destroyed their homeworld.

[CWZ #07, “The Great Technologia”). The exact date is never given but it is implied that its destruction took place during the Big Galaxy War.]

- A fierce battle for control of the planet El Alamein is fought between the

Terrestrial Independent Fleet and the Machine Empire. Most of the human

survivors eventually surrender to the victorious Mechanoid forces save for a

lone mercenary band hiding in the wastes. Among the survivors is Luto, son

of the late commander of all Earth Federation forces on El Alamein. The

wreckage of the battle, most of it still functional to varying degrees, will

cover large portions of the planet’s surface for years to come. [CWZ #04, “The Soul of Grenadier.” Luto is the boy who takes charge of the children in Grenadier’s absence.]

- The entire population of the colony asteroid Macaroni au Gratin, both human

and Mechanoid, is wiped out by the Dendorum bothers - a pair of Mechanoid

psychos - with the implied blessing of Queen Prometheum herself. She also

traps them there under the watchful eye of the Mother Computer. For the next

few years, the pair grow incresingly bored trying to find things to do to

amuse themselves.

[GE999a #108, "The Destruction of Macaroni au Gratin." The elimination of

the colony's population is a fairly recent thing, per the dialogue. It is

close enough to Machine Planet Maetel for Queen Prometheum herself to appear

to Maetel via long-range holographic projection. She names the Dendorum

brothers and briefly describes what they have been up to. This would be a

natural fit for the back end of the Big Galaxy War, where many planets were

either destroyed outright or bombarded into submission by the Machine Empire,

per CWZ. We never learn how the brothers pulled off this amazing feat - only

that it happened, and in such a way as to leave the colony itself intact.]

-------------------------

2971 - COSMO WARRIOR ZERO

-------------------------

2971

- The Machine Empire attacks Earth. This is in retaliation for the assault upon

El Alamein and other similar attacks by human forces against the Machine

Empire. The bulk of the Terrestrial Independent Fleet, led by Admiral Warrius

Zero aboard the Karyu, intercepts a Mechanoid fleet in high orbit and engages

it despite a decided disadvantage in numbers and technology. Zero and his

forces are quickly routed and most major population centers of the Earth are

bombarded without mercy. Admiral Zero and his surviving forces helplessly

watch the devastation from their damaged and disabled vessels, unable to do

anything about it.

[CWZ #01, “The Start of the Great Voyage”]

- The family of Warrius Zero is killed in the Machine Empire’s bombardment of Earth.

[CWZ #01, “The Start of the Great Voyage”]

- The Big Galaxy War ends with the hasty signing of the Terrestrial Federation

Treaty between the revived Earth Federation and the Machine Empire. The

Machine Empire promises to halt further hostilities in exchange for greater

Mechanoid participation in humanoid affairs. Human claims of snatching

victory from the jaws of defeat are sneered at by those who know better -

most notably space pirates (such as Captain Harlock) and the survivors of

the Terrestrial Independent Fleet (led by the now-disgraced Admiral Zero).

[CWZ #03, “Flame of Karyu”]

- The Earth Federation is formally disbanded under the terms of the Terrestrial

Federation Treaty. A Galactic Government is established in its place with

humanoid and Mechanoid lifeforms technically on equal terms. The former

territories of the Earth Federation are renamed the Terrestrial Federation and

are split into two groups: the Planetary Federation, governing affairs in the

Solar System and its neighboring area of space; and the Extra Solar Cosmic

Government, governing all human affairs outside the Solar System. Under the

terms of the treaty, the Terrestrial Federation is allowed to wield its own

armed police and paramilitary forces; however, it is not allowed to rebuild

itself as a major interstellar military power. The Earth Space Patrol is

assigned to the jurisdiction of the Planetary Federation. What remains of the

Terrestrial Independent Fleet is assigned to the jurisdiction of the Extra

Solar Cosmic Government. The treaty effectively ends Earth’s domination of the Milky Way galaxy once and for all - and also marks the beginning of the

end for Earth as a major galactic world

[CWZ #01, “The Start of the Great Voyage;” see also SPCHa #01, "The Jolly Roger of Space" and CHEO #01, "Tears for a Star-Filled Sky."]

- Admiral Warrius Zero, commander of the Terrestrial Independent Fleet, is

courtmartialed and stripped of his command for his failure to prevent the

bombardment of Earth by the Machine Empire. The former admiral is demoted to

the rank of captain and given command of the Mirage, an old patrol cruiser

policing the Solar System between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Most of

Zero’s old crew from the Karyu, furious over the way he is being treated by the Earth government, join him in exile as a sign of protest. As for the

Terrestrial Independent Fleet, it is formally disbanded and its ships and

personnel assimilated into the new Terrestrial Federation Peacekeeping

Force. This marks the final end of what had once been the Solar Federation

Space Navy - at one time one of the most powerful in the known universe.

[CWZ #01, “The Start of the Great Voyage”]

- Lt. Colonel Yamaguchi, former chief engineer of the Karyu, is refused his

request to join Warrius Zero in exile aboard the Mirage. He is instead given

the formidable task of rebuilding the battle-damaged Karyu and making the ship

spaceworthy again.

[CWZ #09, “The Sad Planet”]

- Zeth Voder, a Metanoid from the planet Mirisenia, is named by a joint

declaration of the Terrestrial Federation and the Machine Empire to be

Governor General of the Planetary Federation. His chief aide is the Machine

Knight Helmaeter, who is in truth the real power behind his administration.

The biggest problem Zeth Voder faces as he comes to office are the hundreds

of ex-mercenaries, former Earth Federation and TIF soldiers as well as

civilians, and space pirates (most notably Captain Harlock and Emeraldas of

LaMaetel) who refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Machine Empire over

their affairs.

[From the Enoki Films press release for CWZ.]

- Mechanoid conversion is offered to humanity as a freely given gift by the

Machine Empire, rather than forced upon them as had been done the people of

LaMaetel. This time the plan is to win converts to Mechanization by

advertising its benefits. This change in tactics by Queen Promethium proves

to be largely successful. Those few humans who oppose the process are made

social outcasts and eventually forced into the dregs of society. Those who

try to fight it are attacked and killed when possible.

[CWZ, SSM, GE999a, GE999A, GE999EA.]

- The physical remains of all humans and humanoids that undergo Mechanization

are dumped on the planet Alvarez for the time being, until a more efficient

means of disposal can be found.

[CWZ #09, “The Sad Planet.” It is none other than Maetel who discovers this shocking fact and will reveal it to Warrius Zero and his crew during the

course of the CWZ series. The “more efficient means of disposal” will be developed later in GE999A.]

- Dr. Zero is given his pet cat Mii, as a kitten, by its ailing mother while he

is working as a volunteer doctor in one of the bombed-out sections of

Megapolis City.

[SPCHa #25, “Dr. Zero and Mii”). The date is never given but it had to have happened while major cities of the Earth were in ruins. This limits the event

to happening either during the Earth-Illumidas War or the Big Galaxy War. It

best fits here given Mee’s apparent age (a young cat) and the fact that Mii reappears in CHEO.]

- The Chairwoman of the Terrestrial Federation agrees to be Mechanized. Her

motives are both political and personal. She is also wealthy enough to

afford the expensive human-looking conversion process.

[CWZ #09, “The Sad Planet.” GE999a establishes that there were varying degress to which a person could be Mechanized - partially or fully, and the

more natural-looking the more expensive. Mechanoid bodies that were outwardly

indistinguishable from those of a normal human - like those of Metanoids -

were among the most expensive of all, aside from custom-made ones like Claire

the waitress. Only the wealthy, like the Chairwoman, or those who could

somehow save up or work up the enormous cost could get such a Mechanoid body.]

- The sister of the Chairwoman of the Terrestrial Federation gets her sibling a

present meant to alleviate her childlessness. It is a six-year-old android

boy. The Chairwoman is horrified and refuses to care for it - much to the

consternation of her Mechanoid husband.

[CWZ #09, “The Sad Planet.” GE999a draws a sharp distinction between cyborgs such as Mechanoids and Metanoids - those that either used to have or still

have souls - and androids, such as sexaroids, which were never "alive" in a

human or humanoid sense (although perhaps in their own electromechanical way).

Perhaps this will help the reader understand the Chairwoman's reaction to a

boy that was not and never could be "human" in any sense of the word. For a

live-action film parallel, I recommend the sci-fi feature film Z.P.G. (ZERO

POPULATION GROWTH), starring Oliver Reed.]

- Warrius Zero is restored to his former command, the old Earth Federation space

battleship Karyu, by none other than the Chairwoman of the Terrestrial

Federation. His orders are to seek out and destroy Captain Harlock, the most

feared of all space pirates.

[CWZ #01, “The Start of the Great Voyage”]

- Zeth Voder and Helmaeter depart the Solar System, following the Karyu from a

discreet distance aboard the Machine Empire space fortress Hell Castle. They

suspect there is more to Zero’s mission than meets the eye. Zeth Voder is worried that it might interefere with his ambitions to seize control of the

Machine Empire and declare himself Emperor of the Galaxy. Helmaeter has her

own concerns, which she chooses not to share with Zeth Voder.

[CWZ #02, “Marina’s Impact” and #10, “On the Edge of the Galaxy”]

- All human resistance to Machine Empire rule on the planet El Alamein ends with

the departure of the last mercenary warrior, Grenadier, aboard the visiting

Karyu. The fight for the planet finally comes to an end.

[CWZ #04, “The Soul of Grenadier”]

- Zeth Voder begins manufacturing mass-produced copies of famous pirate ships

manned by lookalike android crews. These are used in horrific and cruel

attacks on human and Mechanoid settlements alike. The idea is to sow doubt

and confusion among those who support the freedom-loving space pirates.

[CWZ #02, “Marina’s Impact” and #07, “The Need to Believe”]

- A Mechanoid civilian settlement on the planet Serract in the Tohr sector is

attacked and destroyed by Captain Harlock. The attack is a mistake. Harlock

was lured into attacking the settlement by agents of Zeth Voder in order to

paint a “truthful” picture of him as ruthless and cruel. [CWZ #07, “The Need to Believe”]

- Helmaeter, acting on her own, tries and fails to sabotage the Karyu. She

knows that Warrius Zero is closing in on the truth behind his mission to

destroy Captain Harlock. Zero and his crew soon discover that the real reason

for their mission is to expose the real results of the Machine Empire’s mass Mechanization program for all to see.

[CWZ #07, “The Need to Believe” and #08, “Marina Everlasting”]

- The Chairwoman of the Terrestrial Federation is killed by Zeth Voder’s henchmen, once they discover the real reason behind Zero’s mission. Before her death, though, she is able to transmit vital data regarding Zeth Voder

and the Hell Castle battle fortress to the Karyu.

[CWZ #09, “The Sad Planet”]

- Captain Harlock has Kei Yuki move the Arcadia from Sarumakate to the planet

Daibaran, with orders to make it spaceworthy as fast as possible. His

reasons are twofold. First, he fears he may need the firepower of the

Arcadia, which is more powerful than the vessel he is currently using, in a

showdown with Zeth Voder at Technologia. Second, Daibaran is closer to

Technologia than Sarumakate. Harlock knows Voder is planning to destroy

Technologia as a show of personal power. He wants the Arcadia as close as

possible in the event he needs it to join the battle fleet of like-minded

mercenaries and space pirates he is assembling to defend the planet. Among

these is Emeraldas of LaMaetel, Harlock’s pirate ally of old. [CWZ #10, “On the Edge of the Galaxy”]

- Captain Warrius Zero forms a temporary alliance with Captain Harlock in order

to defeat a common foe: Zeth Voder and his Hell Castle battle fortress. As

a sign of good faith, Harlock has his chief technical expert Tochiro Oyama

coat key areas of the Karyu’s hull with a new alloy that was to have been part of the Arcadia’s upgrade. Harlock’s original space battleship cannot be made spaceworthy in time to join the battle. The Karyu, with its antiquated

yet powerful St. Elmo’s Fire Cannon, represents the only real chance Harlock’s combined forces have of destroying Hell Castle. Adding the alloy gives the

venerable (and vulnerable) Karyu a better chance of surviving the upcoming

battle.

[CWZ #11, “The Great Technologia;” #12, “War Eternal;” and #13, “The Oath”]

- Captain Harlock’s battle fleet is able to save Technologia and destroy Hell Castle thanks to the bravery of Warrius Zero and his crew aboard the Karyu.

The only survivor of Hell Castle is the Machine Knight Helmaeter. She

considers the encounter with Harlock and Zero a valuable experience in

learning not to underestimate the resourcefulness and determination of humans

at bay.

[CWZ #13, “The Oath”]

- Warrius Zero politely refuses Captain Harlock’s offer to become a fellow space pirate. He will try to reform Earth's power structure from within,

just as Harlock will fight to preserve humanity’s honor from without. The two part ways as friends.

[CWZ #13, “The Oath”]

- The planet Sarumakate is almost destroyed by the space pirate Captain Hunter

and the bounty hunter Sylvania, in a mad attempt to locate Captain Harlock’s legendary store of treasure.

[CWZ #14 & 15, “Follow Young Harlock, Parts 1 & 2”]

- Artemis leaves her "mother," a giant space amoeba, in order to seek for

herself a Mechanoid body. Her "mother" tries to restrain her but fails.

Artemis flees to nearby humanoid inhabited space, where she successfully

transforms her body in order to pass herself off as an alien humanoid.

Eventually, she earns enough to have herself fully transformed into a

Mechanoid; however, the high cost for the required surgery virtually condemns

her to the life of a factory worker for the next two years in order to pay the

bill. The drudgery of her monotonous job, coupled with poor working

conditions and a sadistic floor foreman, soon convince her that life as a

humanoid is not all that it is cracked up to be. Her new Mechanoid body also

wears out long before it should, and she is "sentenced" to be scrapped. The

only thing that keeps her going is her will to someday return to her "mother,"

and from that point onward she begins to plot her escape from the factory.

[GE999a #052, "Artemis of the Clear Planet (Part 2)." Artemis says she's been

away from her "mother" for two years. The vessel she steals for her escape is

an old freight rocket used for shipping Mechanoid body parts - which causes

Maetel to remark on its antique design when she first sees it.]

- Maetel is visiting a space fortress of the Machine Empire when it is attacked

by Emeraldas and her android crew. Maetel helps defend the place, for reasons

of her own, and is eventually forced into a gravity saber duel with her own

sister. Maetel wins the duel and disarms Emeraldas; however, she then spares

her life and allows her to escape. Word of Maetel's act of mercy is passed up

the chain of command and she is soon imprisoned for her actions. Emeraldas

attempts to come to her rescue - and is wounded in the process - but Maetel

refuses to leave her cell. "I must abide by the consequences of my actions,"

she says before bidding Emeraldas goodbye and sending her on her way. For her

part, Emeraldas will never understand Maetel's motives during these two

encoutners, but she abides by Maetel's wishes. Maetel is eventually freed by

other means (which are never shown) and she once again resumes her journeying

aboard the Three-Nine.

[GE999a #022, "The Pirate Captain Emeraldas," and Special #3, "Eternal Voyager

Emeraldas." Emeralds tells Maetel on the train in the GE999 movie, "It's been

a long time [since we've met]." The only other tale in which the android crew

of the Queen Emeraldas appears is CHR "The Children of Eden (Parts 1-4)" - and

in there only Rowena, the chief android, is present. If its (apocryphal)

version of events is to be believed, Emeraldas obtained the rest of her

android crew at that time. This means that the flashback events of GE999a

#022 and Special #3 had to have taken place sometime in 2971, between CHR and

SSM. Previously I had noted this event has happening in 2953, but I have

never been able to confirm the one source I had at that time.]

- The wife of Boss Antares is killed during an attempted robbery at one of the

offworld villas of Count Mecha.

[GE999a #004, "The Great Bandit Antares"]

- Sabrina and her husband Gudara move to the planet known as the Idle One's

Mirror. They arrive a healthy, young, and vibrant couple. By the time the

Three-Nine drops by on its annual visit the following year, Sabrina weighs at

least 250 pounds and her husband 700 pounds or more ... and they are among the

lightest people on the planet. They have fallen victim to the planet's idle

culture, where machines do everything and people are left with nothing to do

but grow fat.

[GE999a #050, "The Idle One's Mirror." Date is an educated guess. It

couldn't have been too long before Tetsuro's visit, though - a year, probably

two at the outside, based on how big Sabrina and Gudara are in comparison with

the planet's native population. Sabrina tried and failed to leave the last

time the Three-Nine came by - the authorities wouldn't let her go, so it's

been at least a year-and-a-half since their arrival. I rounded it up to two

for good measure.]

- Kanae Hoshino, mother of Tetsuro Hoshino, is shot to death for the sole

purpose of being stuffed as a hunting trophy by Count Mecha, one of the

galaxy's most infamous human-hunters. Tetsuro will survive this encounter,

having been left behind as "not worth the trouble" ("He'll die anyway in the

snow," snorts the Count), and somehow makes his way to Megalopolis. Once

there, he will spend the next two years successfully fending for himself in

the city's poor underground shantytown district, and will also make a number

of friends in the process.

[GE999f, c.f. GE999a #001, "Departure Ballad." Tetsuro was ten when his

mother died per the original TV series. He is at least two years older in

the first feature film, since by the time of GE999A he has become a young

teenager and ends "his days of youth" and "becomes a man" at movie's end.

I defer to the film versions for the sake of better continunity. I note in

passing that, in the TV series version of events, the only reason young

Tetsuro survives the snow is because Maetel rescues him. He somehow does it

on his own in the movie version.]

- On Asteroid Number 33, in one of the major asteroid belts of the Andromeda

galaxy through which the Infinite Track runs, the parents of a young man named

Mikhail are killed during a bank robbery. The event will turn the young man

from a gentle and compassionate teenager into a rough-and-tough rebel - much

to the grief of his girlfriend Maria.

[GE999a #067 - "Dyruz the Space Monk" Maria gives the date in the episode,

telling Maetel that it's been two years since Mikhail lost his parents.

Armed heists seem to be a problem in this part of space; see GE999a #069,

"The Rebellion of Engine C62."]

- It is at this time that a group of highly advanced alien humanoids penetrate

the Dark Nebula of Andromeda and find the planet Kilimanjaro, which they

believe to be an ideal world on which they can settle. Against the express

wishes of their queen, they promptly exterminate most of the native humanoid

population and build a high-tech colony city. Their attempt to construct a

working triple artificial sun ends in disaster, however, when the artificial

construct malfunctions upon launch. All of them are instantly converted into

two-dimensional "ghost hoppers." They will spend the next two years seeking

any means to reverse the process - including radical experimentation on the

surviving humanoids and any unfortunate passers-by.

[GE999a #073, "Africa, the Great Dark Nebula (Part 2)." There are two

planets named Kilimanjaro in the Leijiverse. One is this world, located

between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. The other is in the Andromeda

galaxy, with a planetary culture similar to WWI Europe, per GE999a #107,

"The Birdman of Kilimanjaro."]

- The planet Rainy Pond blows up.

[GE999a #078, "The Woman Who Eats Souls (Part 2)"]

2972

- Construction begins on Directus Station - the newest, and consequently the

most modern, of its oversize crossroads junction stations. It is built in

the the same sector where Captain Wataru Yuki was killed. One of its rooms

is set aside as a chapel and memorial to him and his heroism.

[GR2 #11, "For Whose Pride"]

- Captain Yamanaka is the next space captain tasked with the difficult job of

bringing down Captain Harlock by the Earth Federation. He has at his disposal

the Braves, Earth’s newest and most powerful space battleship. Yamanaka and his ship prove no better at stopping Harlock as did Zero and the Karyu, and

they are soon defeated in pitched battle. Harlock allows Yamanaka to limp

away in his damaged vessel with his wounded rather than finishing him off.

Yamanaka never forgets this act of honor on Harlock’s part. [SPCHa #17, “The Skeletal Hero”]

- Professor Tsuyoshi Daiba stumbles across the existence of the Mazone during

his studies of ancient pre-Diluvial Earth civilizations. The more his

research continues, the greater his fear for humanity.

[SCPHa #02, “A Woman Who Burns Like Paper”]

- Tochiro Oyama is captured and held hostage by Siren the Witch. It is part of

her plan to draw out and kill the space pirate Emeraldas, lover of Tochiro and

an old enemy of Siren. The plan succeeds and Siren is successful in wounding

Emeraldas; however she herself is almost killed with Emeraldas shoots Siren

with her Cosmo Dragoon. The timely arrival of Captain Harlock puts an end to

the affair and Siren is forced to concede defeat. She neither forgives

Emeraldas nor how she was bested … nor will she ever forget the weapon that almost killed her.

[QEa #04, “Siren the Witch." Captain Harlock’s use of the other Arcadia (i.e. the SPCH version) in rescuing Emeraldas and Tochiro implies a date sometime

before the "heydey" Arcadia was returned to service. Another factor to

consider is that Emeraldas and Tochiro are together, as opposed to Tochiro

being in service with Harlock.]

- The newly upgraded original space pirate battleship Arcadia returns to service

and Captain Harlock wastes no time in putting the ship through a shakedown

cruise. Command of his other ship is handed over to Kei Yuki for the time

being. It is her first experience on her own as a starship commander. It

will also set a pattern for Harlock over the next few years during his fight

against the Machine Empire. Kei Yuki will command whichever Arcadia he

himself is not commanding - whenever both are in service.

[Implied by SSM, CWZ, HSa, HSm, and GE999f. Kei Yuki is conspicuously absent

in all of them. She had to get her command experience from somewhere if, she

is commanding her own pirate ship by the time CHEO rolls around. It also

conveniently gives her something to do during this period - thus setting up

any "Space Pirate Captain Kei" stories that M-san or his fans might cook up,

per CHEO.]

- The construction of Planet Maetel, the second Machine Planet, is completed.

It will become the new seat of power for the Machine Empire within the Milky

Way Galaxy.

[GE999f. It is implied that construction of the third Machine Planet in

Andromeda was also completed about this time, per GE999A.]

- This was the last time that Maetel had visited with the famously eccentric

Yayaball, prior to her finding Tetsuro Hoshino. They had met at the Seven

Stars Sea party, and Yayaball had instantly been smitten with her. Maetel

had agreed to dance with him, but his mother soon found out and broke them

up - being overprotective as she was. They will part company as Maetel

resumes her journey, but she will hear about him again not long after.

[GE999a #094, "Yayaball's Tiny World (Part 1)." Yayaball reminds Maetel of

this as soon as she arrives at his mansion.]

- Yayaball's mother dies in the summer of this year, due to an unfortunate

accident while aboard a spaceship. It explodes and she is badly burned.

She eventually dies from her wounds. Yayaball is able to copy her mind into

a massive computer bank, but is unable to come up with a Mechanoid body good

enough to be like her - in other words, he can't find one that can handle

her petty vindictiveness. Her mind remains in the computer - but she will

occasionally animate one of the Mechanoids bodies he tried to make for his

sake, as a puppeteer putting on a show for children, just to maintain her

hold over him even after her physical death. Because of her, he never grows

up, and thus never becomes the man he might have been.

[GE999a #094 & 095, "Yayaball's Tiny World (Parts 1 & 2)." Maetel later

refers to Yayaball's mother as one of the most selfish women she has ever

met in all of her long years of wandering - a mother who refuses to cut the

aprons strings with which she binds her son to her, even after her death.]

- Meeme the Nibelung sorceress reveals herself to Harlock, and joins the crew

of the Arcadia for a time. Her presence triggers a series of events that

will involve Captain Harlock in the legends of Valhalla and answer a great

many questions about the mysterious death of his father, Great Harlock.

[HSa, HSm]

--------------------------------------------------

2972 - HARLOCK SAGA: THE RHINEGOLD

HARLOCK SAGA: GOTTERDAMMERUNG (second half)

--------------------------------------------------

- Valhalla is destroyed when the Spear of Heaven is activated for the second

(and presumably final) time. With it go the ancient "gods" of old. Their

passing marks the end of the oldest known still-corporeal intelligent species

in the universe.

[HSm, Volume 11, "Gotterdammerung (Part 3)." This last volume of HSm has

yet to be published, and M-san himself said in a 2011 interview that it never

got past the drafting stage. The published manga in the series only go up to

Volume 10, but the direction the series was heading and the inevitable outcome

were made fairly clear in HSm Volumes 9 & 10. Only the finer details of

the conclusion of HSm are lacking, and this is what the unpublished Volume 11

would have provided. See also CHE0 #03, "The Voice Calling From Noo From

Afar," assuming that the inhabitants of Valhalla and the Descendants of the

Twisted Rope are one and the same.]

- Mimay of Jura is rescued by Captain Harlock from certain death from the

carnivorous plants that have taken over her homeworld. In gratitude, she

swears service to Harlock for the rest of her life. Mimay will become

Harlock’s chief companion and confidant as the long years pass during his lonely vigil on the Sea of Stars.

[SPCHa #06, “The Phantom Menace”]

- Meanwhile, back on Jura, a group of a hundred or so humans manage to find a

way to beat back the giant plants and claim one of the planet's ancient

cities for their own. They burn the jungle away for miles around, leaving a

wide desert belt around their city so the jungle will be unable to threaten

them again. Within a couple of years, the new human colony on Jura will have

grown to about 100,000 people, and their chief export will be Juran artifacts

and technology they have recovered from the city. The jungle will eventually

get its "revenge," so to speak, reclaiming the planet and killing all of the

human colonists within five years' time.

[QEm Volume 1; see also SPCHa #06, "The Phantom Mazone." Jura is depicted

as a jungle world in SPCHm and as a desert world in QEm. This is my way

of attempting to reconcile the two. This is just a guess, but the treasure-

seeking by the greedy humans who setted on Jura, per QEm, probably got out

of hand - and that was the opening the jungle needed to "reclaim its own,"

so to speak. That's why Jura is a jungle planet again by the time SPCHa

rolls around, with no sign whatsoever of the humans who briefly lived there.]

- Boss Antares leaves his home, a hollowed-out asteroid somewhere in the

outermost rings of Saturn, to embark on a year-long robbery spree in order to

support all of the orphans he's adopted.

[GE999a #004, "The Great Bandit Antares"]

- Sakura, the fiance of Tetsurgoro Hoshino, is abducted by the Boss of the

Spheres. He eventually kills her when she refuses to comply with his wishes -

just as he had done to all the other women like her he has abducted in the

past.

[GE999a #041, "The Boss of the Spheres (Part 2)." Tetsuro says that Sakura's

abduction happened "last summer."]

- The planet Curiosity claims its latest victim - a young intergalactic

cameraman named Mask. His girlfriend witnesses his abduction, and swears to

be on board the Three-Nine when it passes the planet again, so that she can

be reunited with him.

[GE999a #068, "A Planet Named Curiosity." Miru promptly got off at the next

stop, then waited a whole year for the Three-Nine to come back going the other

direction. That way, the first thing it would do after she re-boarded would

be to pass by Curiosity.]

- Professor Tsuyoushi Daiba attempts to warn others about the existence of the

Mazone and the danger that they pose to Earth. His warnings will fall largely

on deaf ears over the next five years. One of the few who believe him is

Captain Yamanaka, who has reasons of his own to suspect that a covert alien

force is at work on Earth. His suspicions are confirmed shortly thereafter

when he himself becomes the target of Mazone assassins.

[SPCHa #17, “The Skeletal Hero”]

- Professor Daiba gets the chance to visit with Captain Harlock about the Mazone

threat. Harlock is one of the few people who believes him, thanks to his

earlier encounter with the Mazone. The pirate and the professor soon develop

mutual respect for each other despite their disparate backgrounds.

[SPCHa #05, “To the Shores of Distant Stars;" see also KKA. In SPCHa, Miss Masu reveals that Professor Daiba had paid the Arcadia a visit on an earlier

occasion and that she had developed a lot of respect for him. It is possible

that Professor Daiba’s visit was arranged either by his younger brother Tadashi or possibly even Captain Yamanaka, but this is pure conjecture on my

part.]

- The Earth Space Patrol is reorganized as the Earth Garrison Forces. Goro

Otowara is appointed as the new organization’s first supreme commander. [SPCHa #33, “The Lone Man’s Charge”]

2973

- Tochiro Oyama realizes that the debilitating anemia he has fought all his

life will soon claim him. He abruptly leaves Emeraldas without saying a word

about his condition. He pays one final visit to Captain Harlock on the

Arcadia, and then another to his mother Setsuko on Titan. With her he leaves

his hat, his cloak, and his prized Cosmo Dragoon. Heavy Melder is where he

will eventually wind up, after hitch-hiking his way across part of the galaxy

over the next few months. Once there, he takes up residence inside the wreck

of the former Deathshadow. He gets one of the ship's old auxiliary reactors

working again, then rebuilds and reconfigures the ship’s computer for the last act it will ever perform. After that, he waits for his death, which

he knows is not long in coming.

[GE999f and QEa #02, "Eternal Emblem;" see also SPCHa #31, "The Origins of

the Arcadia" and QEm Volume 3. The fact that Tochiro had anemia comes from

CHQ1K. His illness is never specified in the various Japanese source

materials save in SSX, where it is attributed to a form of radiation

sickness.]

------------------------------

2973 - QUEEN EMERALDAS (manga)

------------------------------

- Death of Dark Shear, one of the most ruthless and notorious space pirates

(as in "true" pirates, the old-fashioned rape-and-pillage kind) in all of

known space. His executioner is none other than Emeraldas herself.

[QEm Volume 3]

- Emeraldas sees Tochiro for the last time, during a layover at the twin stars

of Vesperus. She does not recognize him due his wearing a different hat and

cloak - plus the fact that his deteoriating health has changed his voice

enough so that he doesn't sound the same. By the time she realizes her

mistake it is too late, and he has already moved on. She will never see him

alive again.

[QEm Volume 3. Tochiro had given his original hat and cloak, along with his

Cosmo Dragoon pistol, to his mother Setsuko Oyama on Titan - per GE999f -

and it is there where Setsuko will later give them to Tetsuro Hoshino.]

-------------------------

2973 - GALAXY EXPRESS 999

-------------------------

- Through a remarkable set of circumstances, the paths of Maetel and the young

Tetsuro Hoshino cross on Earth. He is exactly the iron-willed youth for whom

she has sought ever since the death of Nazca three years before. Maetel

offers Tetsuro a free boarding pass to the Three-Nine on the condition that

she accompany him all the way to its final destination: the Machine Planet,

where anybody can get a machine body for free. This chance encounter sets off

a remarkable string of circumstances that eventually results in the

destruction of Machine Planet Maetel and the breaking of the Machine Empire’s iron grip on the known universe.

[GE999f; see also GE999a and GROVA]

- During a brief layover at Pluto, Maetel visits the grave of someone she knows

in the planet's vast ice fields - known as the Ice Graves - while Tetsuro has

a bizzare run-in with Shadow, the Mechanoid who serves as the caretake of the

Ice Graves.

[GE999f; see also GE999a #005, "Shadow of the Planet of Indecision." Just

whose grave Maetel was visiting has been the source of endless fan speculation

ever since GE999 was first aired as a TV series, and even more so after it

was remade as a feature film. The most popular of the older theories was that

it was her original body, per GE999f, although this cannot be considered canon

anymore per the various "revival" Leijiverse materials - ML in particular.

GE999a stated that it was a dear friend of hers - which is as good a theory

as any, and enjoys on-screen support. The "revival" Leijiverse rewrites this

completely - the body in the ice fields is none other than the original

Yukino Yayoi, from whom Maetel's mother was cloned per QMf and SSM. The

visuals from GE999EFa make this fairly clear. When we first see it, the face

of the body in the Ice Graves is blurred - just as was that of Yukino Yayoi

inside her crystal casket at the end of QMf. Also, we are treated to a view

of the "double-face" image of Promethium's twin natures that ends the original

GE999m manga series. Maetel cries at the sight of the body in its icy grave,

remembering her mother - and also possibly recalling the legend of Queen

Millennia, and Yukino Yayoi's sacrifice to save the world she loved so much.

I could go on and wax poetic on this, but it's not appropriate to the nature

of this document. I'll let you readers take it from here.]

- Perfect Mechanization, a binary planetary pair, is destroyed when the machines

regulating its gravity fields are sabotaged by Maetel.

[GE999a #014, "Leila from the Double Planet"]

- About the same time that the Three-Nine is stopped at the Tombstone of Dead

Leaves, the notorious space pirate Emeraldas is badly wounded by a suicide

blast bomb while raiding a Machine Empire priority transport ship. She is

forced to turn over command of her pirate ship to Rowena, the senior android

among her crew, while she remains bedridden with her injuries. She will still

not have recovered by the time Rowena, pretending to be her, attacks the

Three-Nine and diverts it to the planet Jewel.

[GE999a Special #3, "Eternal Voyager Emeraldas." This explains why Emeraldas

is so weak and unable to fight in the episode proper. A different story is

told both in the original TV episode and the manga, where she supposedly has

an incurable illness. The revised story from the extended TV special is a

better fit for the later activities of Emeraldas, as depicted in both QEa

and the later GE999 related materials. The name of the android comes from

CHR "The Children of Eden (Parts 1-4).]

- The Three-Nine makes a brief stop at the planet Tabito. Tetsuro will

remember the tasts of the noodles at the Gingatei ramen shop two years later,

when Manabu Yuki cooks some ramen for him during their adventure together on

the planet Herise.

[GROVA Part 3, "The Rewritten Destiny." Tetsuro's description fits the

Gingatei ramen shop, which the Yuki family owns. Manabu learned how to cook

ramen for his mother while working at the shop in his youth - and anyone who's

watched GE999a knows Tetsuro is something of a ramen afficianado. He KNOWS

his ramen, folks, like wine experts know their wines. Comparison with GE999a

#009 and #079 to GR2 #01 would seem to imply that Tabito lies somewhere on the

Infinite Track between the planets Trader Junction and Heavy Melder - most

likely somewhere on the Trader Junction end of that half of the line.]

- The ignition of an artificial sun in the skies above what was once the Pitch

Dark Planet kills approximately 99.9% of the population within a matter of

minutes. The radiation from what is obstensibly ordinary sunlight proves

fatal to people who had lived in almost complete darkness for generations,

and whose bodies had adapted to being without it. As one observer sadly

notes, "It's going to take a long, long time to rebuild that world."

[GE999a #063, "The Pitch Dark Planet"]

- Death of Tochiro Oyama, brought about by complications resulting from a long-

standing illness.

[GE999f. This is the date most commonly accepted by Leijiverse fans, and its

version of events is widely conisdered to be the definitive account. SPCHa

#01, "The Jolly Roger of Space" gives a date of 2970 - albeit under entirely

different circumstances. The same goes for SPCHm Volume 5. The account

given in SSX #21, "Fight to the End! Farewell, Tochiro" is now generally

discredited as non-canon, since it is the one that is least in accord with

the other variations of the story. See also QEa #1 & #4, QEm Volume 4. This

version of the tale supersedes the events depicted in GE999a #079-081, "The

Pirate of the Time Castle (Parts 1-3)," (and the corresponding version of the

story in GE999m).]

- Emeraldas leaves her daughter Mayu in an orphanage on Earth and returns to a

lonely life on the Sea of Stars. She knows that hers is not the kind of life

that Mayu should live; also, she knows it was Tochiro’s wish that Mayu grow up on Earth. Harlock reluctantly agrees to play the role of Mayu’s godfather (and foster parent) even though he feels Emeraldas is shirking her

responsibilities as a parent. It is the beginning of a rift that will

estrange the two space pirates over time.

[CHQ1K, oddly enough, is the prime source for this important data point. It

appears nowhere in the Japanese source materials. The ship’s computer (Tochiro, i.e. “Roger Devlin”) reveals it was Emeraldas who put Mayu in the orphange - not Harlock, as one might assume at a casual glance. It was

against Tochiro's wishes, since he had wanted Harlock to adopt Mayu as his

own daughter. He knew from long years of friendship that Harlock would have

been a better single parent for Mayu than Emeraldas, as events eventually

prove. Sadly, there is no record of Emeraldas ever seeing Mayu again after

leaving her in the orphanage. Apparently, when Tochiro died Emeraldas put the

life they once shared behind her and everything that was a part of it -

including their daughter. Cold, yes, but not totally unexpected behavior

from a strong-willed woman who’s just lost the man in her life. The fact that Harlock and Emeraldas hardly spoke to each other after Tochiro’s death is one of the background themes of QEa, and also implied in QEm - where she's

always musing on the fact that's she's alone.]

- Emeraldas returns Tochrio Oyama’s body to Earth. She buries it on a lonely hill near the sea just outside of Megapolis City, within driving distance

of the orphange where she eventually leaves Mayu. She leaves Tochiro's hat

and Tetsuro Hoshino’s crude marker cross behind on Heavy Melder as a memorial. [CHQ1K. This is to date the ONLY source of how Tochiro’s body wound up interred on Earth instead of remaining on Heavy Melder. This is never

explained in the original Japanese sources. The image of Tochiro's grave

is a familiar one in both Leijiverse manga and anime.]

- The Time Castle is destroyed.

[GE999f; see also GE999a #081, "The Pirate of the Time Castle (Part 3)."

GE999f's version of events is considered by almost all Leijiverse fans as the

definitive one. The allusions and comments made to Maetel's past in the

three-part GE999a episode concerning the Time Castle can be retconned fairly

well as referring to the events of SSM, even thought the episode per se is not

the accepted version of the story of the Time Castle and its eventual

destruction.]

- The planets Maya and Zaba are destroyed when the fifth world in their system

explodes, due to the effects of a long-standing interplanetary war between

the other two. The only survivors are two couples who escape to the system's

third planet - a pair of Mayan deserters and two Zaba officers, Seth and Rei,

sent there to preserve their kind. Unfortunately, the planet's ecosystem

causes any humanoid life form on its surface to begin devolving within a few

months, forcing their bodies to revert to more primitive forms. The Mayan

couple had arrived months earlier and had already devolved, although they

still retained most of their intelligence. What happened to the new arrivals,

Seth and Rei, or if the four ever learned to get along and found a new world

together, is not recorded.

[GE999a #083, "Lifeform Number 3"]

- Tetsuo is reunited with his parents on the Wisdom Tooth Planet, thanks to

the last-minute intervention of a kindly Slave Planet agent.

[GE999a #086, "The UFO of the Planet of Forgotten Parents." See also TTB

Chapter 12, "UFO 2001." This is the original manga short on which this

episode is based. Tetsuo is a native of the Wisdom Tooth Planet and is not

to be confused with Three-Nine traveler Tetsuro Hoshino.]

- The last remaining city on the Planet of the Rainbow Sash is destroyed by a

massive earthquake - which collapses the dome that keeps the sea out. Tadashi

Yamada and his bride Kumiko are among a few hundred survivors who make it to

the escape capsules in time. Everyone else drowns when the dome collapses

and the ocean waters rush in.

[GE999a #092, "The Final Days of the Underwater City." See also TTB Chapter

14, which is the original manga short on which this episode was based.]

- Tetsuro kills what is left of Yayaball's mother, now a heartless computer,

purely in self-defense - otherwise, she would have killed him for being more

of a man than her own spoiled son.

[GE999a #095, "Yayaball's Tiny World (Part 2)."]

- By this time, the planet of the Loose Zone has become completely buried in

trash from a depth of anywhere from four feet minimum on flat, open spaces

to gigantic piles several hundred feet high across its entire surface. Great

mounds and piles of trash lines the shield tunnels of all space approaches

far out beyond the atmosphere. There is no sign anymore of the indigenous

humanoid population. It is commonly believed that, according to one wag,

"they all drowned in their own trash because they were too lazy to pick it

up for generations on end."

[GE999a #100, "The Planet of the Loose Zone." The episode evokes scenes

straight out of Shel Silverstein's classic children's short story, "Sarah

Sylvia Cynthia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out." Tetsuro is the one

who suggests this, albeit in different words. Maetel's own theory is more

kind - she suggests everyone moved away once the garbage problem got out of

hand. She doubts her own theory, though, after a monster materializes from

the garbage and attacks them. They barely manage to escape - which leads

Tetsuro to further theorize that, as with what just happened to them, the

trash itself wound up overpowering and wiping out all life on the Loose

Zone. NOTE - This is the only time in the entire GE999a series where the

Three-Nine actually slows down after a station stop. Its stay on the Loose

Zone was cut short by the situation there, so the engine has to "run slow"

in order to make up the difference at the next stop. This isn't as silly as

it sounds. Long-haul truck drivers are known to do this on occasion - even

though few will admit it - so their trip schedules aren't thrown out of

whack.]

- The former colony world of Macaroni au Gratin, second only to the Machine

Planets in its level of technical sophistication and integration, blows up.

Both Main and Sub Dendorum are executed by its overseer, the Mother Computer

for doing this so they would have an excuse to leave.

[GE999a #108, "The Destruction of Macaroni au Gratin."]

- A high speed warp accident en route to Machine Planet Maetel causes the

Three-Nine and everyone aboard to shift space-time continuums, and meet their

counterparts in one of the parallel Rings of Time. They eventually return

their own, but not before getting a different perspective on their own

journey on the Infinite Track.

[GE999a #109 & #110, "Maetel's Journey (Parts 1 & 2)." Remember my discussion

back at the beginning of this document about how the Leijiverse twists and

turns and loops in on itself? Remember me mentioning STAR BLAZERS rebirth

on the comics side, and both HSm and MIRAIZER BAN on the manga side with

with regards to the multiple Rings of Time in the Leijiverse? Well, here's

on-screen evidence of that very fact. Just as the STAR TREK multiverse was

proven on screen (in a way) with TNG's "Parallels" episode, so too this

episode provides one of the strongest on screen proofs of the multiple Rings

of time of the Leijiverse. They're only alluded to in the dialogue in other

sources, such as MYA - here you actually get a glimpse into one of those

"other Rings." The only other time this happens on-screen is in GR2 #24,

"The Eternal Vow." The episode shows that Redril's Three-Nine is somewhat

farther ahead in relative time than Tetsuro's - although his circumstances and

his "universe" in his Ring of Time have significant differences from Tetsuro's

own. Still, the implication is that one of Maetel's future companions will be

Redril - or somebody like him - that exists in Tetsuro's Ring of Time. This

fact comes as quite a shock to Tetsuro, and helps clue him in to the fact that

his journeys with Maetel - leastways his first trip - won't last forever.]

- Machine Planet Maetel is destroyed. The internal power structure of the

Machine Empire is thrown into chaos. Queen Promethium disappears and is

rumored to be dead.

[GE999f, GE999a #112 & #113, "The Vision of Youth! Farewell Three-Nine

(Parts 1 & 2)." Note that the anime TV series ending is a remixed combo of

the endings of both GE999f and GE999A - which shouldn't be surprising, since

it was produced after both of them! Yes, GE999 was on TV longer than it was

in the movies. The GE999f version is considered the "canon" version by most

Leijiverse fans.]

- At some point before the end of the year , the "Ghost Hoppers" of the planet

Kilimanjaro will accidentally exterminate themselves. Only their queen

survives - as she exiled herself as an interstellar wanderer earlier that

year, disgusted with her former subjects' obsession with science at any cost.

[GE999 #073, "Africa the Great Dark Nebula (Part 2)]

- Many interstellar and planetary economies will suffer a downturn as a result

of the apparent collapse of the Machine Empire and the subsequent Machine

War over the following few years.

[GR2 #05, "On the Edge of the Abyss." The nameless civilian mechanic who

helps Killian talks about this recession in brief, although he never names

the cause. He blames the recession on the loss of his job and subsequent

break-up of his marriage. The reasons for the recession are my conjecture,

based on contextual evidence from other Leijiverse titles - most notably

GE999f and GE999A.]

---------------------------------

2973 - GALAXY RAILWAYS (season 1)

---------------------------------

- Manabu Yuki joins the Galaxy Railways Space Defense Force (GRSDF) and is

assigned to his father's old unit, the Sirius Platoon.

[GR1 #01, "Setting Out"]

- The SDF Sirius Platoon has an interesting encounter with a businessman

named Toshiro Oyama, whose luxury Dreamliner space express train has been

shot down by space pirates, crashing on the toxic world of Planet Green.

[GR1 #20, "Sexaroid"]

- After his rescue, Toshiro Oyama is summoned to the planet Destiny by Layla

Shura. Together they discuss his family ancestry, both past and "future."

Layla reveals that the real reason Toshiro was pulled forward in time was for

the part he was to play in shaping the life of one Manabu Yuki - currently a

young officer in the GRSDF Sirius Platoon. It was a bit part, to be sure, but

one that will help Manabu become the great man he is destined to be. In

gratitude for his assistance, Layla gives him the ultimate of all Galaxy

Railways passes - the infinite pass, good for any space rail line and any

space train (even the military ones). Toshiro is reinvigorated by Layla's

words, and decides to resume adventuring again. He takes on a new name -

Nobotto, in honor of the black sheep of his family tree - who lived through

years of adversity before finally making good. He gives his entire fortune

to his current companion, grabs an old broad-brimmed hat and cloak, and leaves

to seek his own future aboard the new Galaxy Express #1000. The only thing he

takes with him is an old samurai sword he picked up from an antiques dealer on

Earth, not long after his arrival in the future.

[GR999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 4, "A Thought For The Sea of Stars;" retconned.

The retconning is necessary to make the story more compatable with other

parallel "revival" Leijiverse tales - GR1 and QEa in particular. In the

actual manga story, Layla also gives Toshiro the Cosmo Dragoon that used to

belong to Tochiro. This is impossible, since this is supposed to be in the

possession of Emeraldas at this time per QEa #1, "Departure" - and she gives

it to Hiroshi Umino instead. Nobotto Oyama is the star of 00, and other

Leijiverse manga imply that he was Toshiro's father.]

- Not long after leaving the planet Destiny, "Nobotto Oyama" runs into

Emeraldas. She is shocked by his likeness to her beloved Tochiro, and even

more shocked to learn that he is actually Tochiro's distant ancestor. He

impresses her enough that she decides to spend some time with this remarkable

man whom destiny has apparently placed before her ....

[GR999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 4, "A Thought For The Sea of Stars;" retconned.

Sadly, this is where the GR999EFm series ends. We don't know how long

Emeraldas and Toshiro (nee "Nobotto") journeyed together - only that they

eventually parted ways, per QEm.]

- Manabu Yuki, a young officer in the SDF Sirius Platoon, becomes the first

person in the history of the Galaxy Railways to turn down an offer to join

the Space Panzer Grenadiers (GRSPG) - one of the most elite fighting units

in the galaxy, and one to which his late brother Mamoru belonged. His

reasoning is that he can better serve the galaxy with the SDF than with the

elite SPG. The refusal does much to enhance his already growing reputation

among the ranks of the SDF, despite his youth.

[GR1 #20, "Choices"]

- The Alfort, a galactic power from a parallel dimension, attempt to invade

the Milky Way galaxy. Their stated reason for their invasion is that new

construction by the Galaxy Railways is starting to bleed over and have adverse

effects on their own dimension. The fight is long and bitter, but in the end

they are successfully repelled by the Galaxy Railways military forces. This

event will later be known as the First Alfort Crisis. Many lives and Galaxy

Railways military units are lost in the action - most notably Captain

Johannsen's SPG unit aboard the Three-Six and Captain Murase's Vega Platoon

of the SDF. Both are lost with all hands.

[GR1 #22-26. The Three-Six is the SPG's space train. You see it now and

again in GE999a, although it was never named as such. It is destroyed twice

(and rebuilt twice) in the history of the Leijiverse - the first time when

Mamoru Yuki's SPG unit was wiped out (GE999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 3, "The Army

of Destiny"), and the second time during the First Alfort Crisis (GR1 #22,

"The Merciless Wind"). The episodes in question name many more GRSDF units

lost than the two I list here; however, these two were part of the main plot

of GR1, and featured in one or more episodes. The reasons behind the First

Alfort Crisis in GR1 lead directly to the Second Alfort Crisis in GR2.]

- Bruce J. Speed, weapons officer of the SDF Sirius Platoon, dies in the line

of duty on the distant colony world of Sutherland, shortly after the beginning

of the First Alfort Crisis.

[GR1 #22, "The Merciless Wind"]

2974

- Queen Promethium revives for the third and final time. As soon as she is

strong enough, she relocates to Great Andromeda - the third Machine Planet,

located with the Machine Empire’s old holdings in the Andromeda galaxy - and begins to rebuild her empire again.

[GE999A]

- Tetsuro Hoshino returns, having ended his first journey aboard the Three-

Nine with Maetel. The exact particulars differ from account to account, but

all agree that he wound up back on Earth about two years after leaving for

Andromeda to get his machine body. His exploits have made him famous across

the Milky Way galaxy - with all sorts of consequences as a result. One of

these is that he is arrested by Earth Governor Bolkazanda not long after his

arrival back on his homeworld, and his beloved Cosmo Dragoon is confiscated.

[GE999a&m, GE999f, GE999EFm&a. He must have left in early 2973 and returned

in late 2974, since the journey to Andromeda took approximately a year. Per

GE999a&m, he made the return journey alone, with Maetel getting off at the

Bat Planet - the first stop on the return journey - and riding away with

another boy on the Three-Seven. Per GE999f, Maetel accompanied Tetsuro back

to Earth and that was where they parted ways - Maetel leaving alone on the

Three-Nine. Per GE999EFm&a, Tetsuro returned alone on the Three-Nine and was

arrested by Earth Governor Bolkazanda's security forces, on behalf of the

Mechanoids (and Metanoids), as soon as he set foot off the train. Like most

fans, I consider the GE999f account as canon - but I interpret his arrest per

GE999EF as happening soon after Maetel's departure from Earth. Thus, I

combine both the "heyday" and "revival" accounts as best I can for this

timeline. BTW, we know he became famous for defeating the Machine Empire.

In GROVA Part 4, "Pieces of Time." David expresses regret over not having

gotten Tetsuro's autograph. In GE999EFa, Iselle tells Tetsuro that "your

reputation preceeds you" during his visit to the planet Bright Ring Firefly.]

- Emeraldas seizes Tetsuro's Cosmo Dragoon from Governor Bolkazanda before he

can do anything with it. She will keep it for the time being, unti Maetel

eventually decides to rescue Tetsuro.

[GE999EFa, GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 1, "Railway to the Future." Remember,

Tetsuro's Cosmo Dragoon used to be the one that belonged to Tochiro Oyama.

That's reason enough for Emeraldas to get it back.]

- A hit animated movie, THE STORY OF A CAT, plays to audiences across the Milky

Way galaxy in the brief time before the Machine War. Its creator is a young

woman named Freia, a native of the planet Mariko's Firefly, and she goes on

to become a famous animation director in later years. Her assisting director

on the film is a young who also had dreams of working in animation, and who

was stranded for a time on the Bat Planet in the Andromeda galaxy. It opens

with a double dedication - both to her late cat, who inspired the story; and

to Tetsuro Hoshino, who helped both of them during the time she was trying to

have it made. "It is not known if Tetsuro ever saw the movie."

[GE999a #016, "Planet of Fireflies;" and #111, "The Planet of Bats." Tetsuro

thought it would be a good idea for these two to get together, since they

had similar interests.]

- Manabu Yuki is promoted, and takes over for the late Bruce J. Speed as

weapons officer of the SDF Sirius Platoon.

[GR2 series, implied. He filled in as weapons officer at the end of GR1

during the First Alfort Crisis, shortly after Bruce's death. He has an

extra stripe on his epaulets in GR2, thus implying the promotion.]

- Directus Junction is completed and begins operations.

[GR2 #11, "For Whose Pride"]

----------------------------------------------

2974-2975 - GALAXY EXPRESS 999 ETERNAL FANTASY

----------------------------------------------

- The Bitten Planet finally implodes due to overmining.

[GE999a #032, "The Bitten Planet of Suspended Space," implied]

- A young woman who has been secretly feeding the imprisoned Tetsuro is shot

and killed by Earth Governor Bolkazanda's security forces. Her body will be

left where it fell, and it quickly becomes encased in ice.

[GE999EFa, GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 1, "Railway to the Future." How the

young woman's body wound up inside the block of ice is explained in the

manga version of the story.]

- Tetsuro finds and takes care of a young cat he names Mii. The cat is his

only real friend - after the death of the woman who used to feed him - during

his imprisonment on Earth.

[GE999EFa; GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 1, "Railway to the Future." Mii

somehow sneaks on board the Three-Nine during the rescue of Tetsuro - just

how is never explained - and is eventually issued a pass so he can journey

with his master aboard the Three-Nine.]

- Tetsuro Hoshino is rescued from Earth and the security forces of Governor

Bolkazanda by Maetel and the Three-Nine. Reunited again, the two head for

the Eternal Galaxy on a set of new adventures.

[GE999EFa; GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 1, "Railway to the Future." Maetel

states that "it's only been a year" since she and Tetsuro journeyed together

aboard the Three-Nine. This best fits with the internal chronology of GE999a

- where she was not present on the return journey back to Earth, which took a

year. It can be made to fit with other interpretations, albeit with some

difficulty.]

- Tetsuro discovers, much to his delight, that Claire the Waitress has "been

pieced back together" and is once again working on the Three-Nine. Maetel

tells him that they will meet the person responsible for resurrecting Claire

"at the end of our journey."

[GE999EFa; GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Grand Epic Eternal." Sadly, the

manga series remains unfinished - so we never do find out who resurrected

Claire, much less how and why.]

- Another addition to the Three-Nine's crew is Kanon, its new sexaroid engineer.

Kanon is only one part of the Three-Nine's upgrade - which occured during the

year that has passed. Kanon is the humanoid embodiment of the Three-Nine's

personality - which Tetsuro only knew before as a disembodied male voice - and

was designed in her form to better serve the Three-Nine's passengers.

[GE999EFa; GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 4, "Infinite Orbit." There are other

changes to the Three-Nine's main engine, C62, as well - as the GE999EFm manga

documents. One of these are additional "snap-in" engine sections with extra

power reactors. These extend the length of the engine - almost as long as

GR's Big One - and provide extra power on parts of the Infinite Track that

previously gave it trouble. Just when these are required are among the many

functions that Kanon fulfills as the Three-Nine's engineer.]

- The planet Bright Ring Firefly is destroyed by the Machine Empire for

providing aid and shelter to "the renegade and criminal Tetsuro Hoshino."

[GE999EFa; see also GE999EFm Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Grand Epic Eternal." The

anime adaption, GE999EFa, skips the next three chapters of the manga.]

- Tetsuro kills Machine Knight Helmazaria, who has been following him and

Maetel ever since his departure from Earth. Helmazaria had received orders

from her superiors to kill them both, and attacked the Three-Nine so she

could carry out those orders. After a long and protracted pistol duel,

Tetsuro manages to put a Cosmo Dragoon bolt through Helmazaria's helium-3

heart - before collapsing from his own wounds from the fight.

[GE999EFa; GE999EFm Volume 2, Chapter 4, "Helmazaria." Maetel and Helmazaria

had met before, per HSm Volumes 4 and 5, where Helmazaria had helped a young

Maetel and her sister Emeraldas out of a tight spot. This explains her

remark, "I didn't want it to end this way," when she tells Maetel she has

orders to kill her - and Maetel's anguish look as she watches Helmazaria die.

In the manga version, Tetsuro kills Helmazaria later on in the story, during

a layover at Heavy Melder - and gets shot in the ass during the end of their

gun battle.]

- Near the end of his second journey aboard the Three-Nine, Tetsuro Hoshino

is taken by Maetel to the planet Destiny to meet with Layla Shura, chief

operating officer of the Galaxy Railways. She takes him through the rings

of time to 2968 and the cabin in which he and his parents used to live. He

also witnesses the arrival of Mamoru Yuki at Destiny, shortly before the young

GRSPG officer leaves on the mission that will eventually result in his death.

[GE999EFm Volume 7, Prologue Part 3, "Competing Destinies"]

- Cadet Killian Black is assigned to the SDF Sirius Platoon as a replacement

for the late Bruce. His is a "probationary" appointment for three months.

[GROVA Part 1, "The Tidal Wave of Time." This takes place no earlier than

a few weeks and no later than three months after Bruce's death. The length

of Killian's probationary period is translated in the fansub as "three terms,"

which I have taken the liberty of interpreting as months to better fit in the

timeline. He's a first-year cadet out of the SDF Academy, and I can vouch

from my own U.S. Naval Academy experience that such assignments are common

for senior cadets. Three months is about right for such an assignment, if

the SDF Academy is like service academies of our time. The reason for these

senior cadet tours is to break them in as to what "real life" will be like in

the service - in this case the GRSDF - is going to be like. All the

"executive" jokes probably mean that Killian has chosen to be a staff officer,

as we see him assigned later on in GR2 #06, "The Graduation" - as opposed to

being a normal line officer, like Manabu Yuki and the rest of Sirius Platoon.]

---------------------------------------------------------------------

2974 - GALAXY RAILWAYS OVA series - "Letter From an Abandoned Planet"

GALAXY RAILWAYS (season 2)

---------------------------------------------------------------------

- While visiting Duet, the habitable moon of the planet Herise, young Tetsuro

Hoshino is invited to the retirement party of Matthew, a local postal carrier.

As it turns out, Tetusro is the only one who can see the address on the one

letter Matthew has been unable to deliver in his long career. He cannot

decipher it, though, since it is written in a language unknown to him.

Matthew asks Tetsuro to attempt delivery of the letter, since only the boy

can see the address - and Tetsuro agrees to try. The letter turns out to be

for GRSDF cadet Killian Black, and was written by his late parents shortly

before all life was wiped out on the surface of the planet Herise.

[GROVA Part 1, "The Tidal Wave of Time" and Part 3, "The Rewritten Destiny"]

- The Sirius Platoon and Big One, its special space train, are given the gift

(as one might poetically put it) of briefly visiting the Master Ring of Time

by Layla Shura - where all possibilities - past, present, and future - exist

simultaneously.

[GROVA Part 4, "Pieces of Time." The end of this episode is what almost all

Leijiverse fans point to, with regards to an on-screen defintion of the

philosophy of "toki no wa" and the concept of the Rings of Time. FYI, the

brief scene involving the flyby of the Three-Six and Mamoru Yuki alludes to

a three-part GE999EFm side story that appears in Volume 7 (the final one) of

the manga series. The visuals at one point strongly suggest they were inside

the Master Ring, and at another that the Shura aspect of Layla Shura was

guiding them through their visit. See also GE999a #109 & #110, "Maetel's

Journey (Parts 1 & 2)."]

- SDF's Cepheus Platoon is formed to replace the Vega Platoon, lost the year

before in the First Alfort Crisis. It is headed by Captain Guy Lawrence.

[GR2 #02, "The Gap Between Calmness and Insanity"]

- The prelude to the Second Alfort Crisis is twenty-four small black holes

occuring simultaneously at multiple points on the Galaxy Railways space

rail network. Three space trains and hundreds of civilian lives are lost as

a result. The cause is later attributed to a failure of the space rail

system itself. It is the first clue that the Alfort might have been

justified, at least in part, for what they did the year before - and that

the problem with interdimensional faults along the space rail network may

be growing.

[GR2 #05, "On the Edge of the Abyss"]

- Killian Black's probationary tour with the SDF Sirius Platoon ends. Having

successfully completed his final cadet assignment, he graduates from the

SDF Academy. His first assignment is as a junior operations officer working

on the staff of SDF Headquarters.

[GR2 #06, "Graduation"]

- The Galaxy Railways is forced to sterilize the colony world of Eumenes in

order to prevent a level 5 viral plague from spreading beyond the planet. The

operation is accomplished by saturating the planet's entire atmosphere with a

highly flammible gas and then igniting it with a shock cannon blast. The

resulting surface-wide detonation destroys everything on the planet. Such

drastic action is justified by the fact that everyone on the surface had

already succumbed to and died from the plague first - leaving only their

infected and highly contagious bodies behind.

[GR2 #10, "The Abandoned Future"]

- Directus Junction is hijacked by cyberpirates, who successfully seize control

of not only all its functions, but those of all space trains (including two

belonging to the SDF) parked inside. It is the first time in the history of

the Galaxy Railways that a sector junction station has ever been successfully

hijacked. Only the actions of Captain Guy Lawrence and Lt. Manabu Yuki of

the SDF, who were the only two SDF officers not sealed inside their space

trains or the station control center when it was hijacked, prevent the

cyberpirates from succeeding in their effort.

[GR2 #11, "For Whose Pride." BTW, the hijackers valued the station's worth,

as well as that of everyone and everything inside, at five billion gables -

and that's probably on the low side.]

- The Night of Miracles occurs on the planet Emporium - when the spirit of the

late opera prima donna Adelle, who was killed in a stage accident eight years

before, returns in the body of a sexaroid built in her likeness for a single

night's performance. The event will become a legend on Emporium, and talked

about by lovers of the fine arts across the galaxy for years afterward.

[GR2 #12, "The Wings of the Soul"]

- A near-perfect duplicate of the SDF's "Big One" armored space train begins

making merciless attacks on civilian targets. As it turns out, it is a

customized and more heavily armed and armored version of Big One, built by

Heckler Industries and intended to replace the GRSPG's lost Three-Six.

Instead, its existence was discovered and it was stolen by a band of space

pirates led by Jack Bloom - a professional mercenary soldier and the most

wanted man on the GRSDF's list of top galactic criminals. Bloom and the

fake Big One are eventually tracked down and destroyed, but not before a

number of the GRSDF's best armored space trains are badly damaged and taken

out of action in the process. Unknown to all concerned, it is the next act

in the prelude to the Second Alfort Crisis.

[GR2 #13 & #14, "Crisis Within The SDF (Parts 1 and 2)." The GRSPG's

Three-Six was lost in the first battle of the First Alfort Crisis, per GR1

#22, "The Merciless Wind." The Three-Six had been rebuilt at least once

before, per GE999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 3, "Crossroads of Destiny." As stated

in this two-part story, the reason an improved Big One was built - instead of

building a new Three-Six as before - is because Big One had consistently

outperformed any of the Galaxy Railways' armored space trains, even those of

the GRSPG, over the past two decades. Captain Bulge attributes Big One's

performance to that of his crew, and not just his space train by itself.]

- GRSDF Commander Bloom, of the Galaxy Railways Intelligence Division, along

with many of the top executives at Heckler Industries are arrested for

complicity in arranging the theft of the "clone" Big One Train in order to

obtain actual combat data with live targets. Bloom's replacement is GRSDF

Commander Hoover - a man even more unscrupulous than his predecessor.

[GR2 #13 & #14, "Crisis Within The SDF (Parts 1 and 2)."]

- The Second Alfort Crisis is preciptiated by the arrival of a cryogenic

escape pod through a dimensional fault from the parallel dimension in which

the Alfort hold sway. The SDF Sirius Platoon goes through another such fault,

against the express desire of the Galaxy Railways Intelligence Division, in

order to return they little girl found inside the pod to her own universe.

Once there, they discover the descendants of previous space trains that had

fallen through earlier dimensional faults - as well as one of the darkest

secrets of the Galaxy Railways, which is the reason why all of the dimensional

faults have been forming in the first place.

[GR2 #16-24. Judging from the various episodes, and what data we are given

in GR1, the parallel dimension of the Alfort appears to be a pocket universe

of some kind. HS's Valhalla is another example of this, save that the one

of the Alfort appears to be natural, not artificial. More along the lines

of DOCTOR WHO's E-space, for example. It's a lot smaller than our own -

having no more than two or three dozen galaxies, for example - but still

plenty big enough for just about anything. Big One apparently crosses from

one side to another in only a few weeks relative time. The only things

within to which we can relate, apart from environments like those we know,

are things that have drifted into it from our own universe - like people,

other beings from our own universe, and various artifacts. Evidence of such

"drift" is first confirmed in GR2 #19, "Call of the Mist," although it is

hinted at as early as GR2 #17, "Departure to the Unknown." This event has

to happen before the Machine War, since at one point SDF Supreme Commander

Todo is advised to get the assistance of all interstellar and interplanetary

space fleets who will lend aid. He wouldn't have even been able to consider

that option had the Machine War been underway.]

- Big One finds the wreck of an old intersolar system passenger ship from our

dimension on one of the planets of the Alfort dimension. It had apparenly

fallen through a dimensional fault and crashed, killing everyone on board.

[GR2 #19, "Call of the Mist." Louise calls it "an old model," and it has

apparently been there for long, long time - but pinning an exact date is

impossible, given the limited data. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say

the 2400s or thereabouts - but that's just a guess.]

- The entire SDF travels to the Alfort dimension to assist Big One in resolving

the Second Alfort Crisis. All SDF platoons manage to return safely to our

own universe.

[GR2 #22, "A Labyrinth Named Destiny;" #23, "Through the Storm;" and #24,

"The Eternal Vow."]

2974-2975

- The Machine War is fought between a suddenly resurgent Machine Empire, with

additional forces being shipped in en masse from the Andromeda galaxy; and

the rest of intellegent life in the Milky Way, who desire no longer to live

under Mechanoid rule. Open warfare erupts on many major worlds - Earth in

particular - as well as many minor ones. Some go untouched, with neither

side deeming them worth the trouble; while others - such as Heavy Melder -

are completely devastated. Regardless of their backgrounds, species, creeds,

ages, or genders, every single intelligent life form is represented in the

fight to defeat the Mechanoids once and for all. Queen Promethium responds

with a scorched-earth policy. If she can’t claim a given world for her Machine Empire, then her forces have orders to destroy all of its life forms

as quickly as possible regardless of the cost. The fighting will not stop

until the final collapse of the Machine Empire the following year.

[GE999A]

- The planet Andorado is conquered by the Machine Empire.

[GE999A. Meowdar was from Androado. His parents were killed during the

Machine Empire invasion.]

- The mining planet Daibaran, once famed throughout the galaxy for its Daibaran

energy crystals, is laid waste by forces of the Machine Empire seeking to lay

claim to the last of those crystals. The once proud planet is quickly turned

into a world of slag and ash, with impoverished survivors crowded into shanty

towns as close to their former homes as the intense radiation permits. Only

the giant plastisteel slagpiles of nuked cities, ruined or tapped crystal

mines, and scrapyards full of wrecked spaceships and the debris of war remain

as a testament to the planet’s former glory. [Conjecture based on QEa #01, “Eternal Emblem.” We are given no reason for the ruined city we see in the distance beyond Rock Ridge Town at the start of

the episode, nor for the wrecked machinery we see scattered between it and

the spaceport. My best guess is that the ruined city was destroyed in an

attack by the Machine Empire during the Machine War. This would also help

explain why Daibaran has become, in effect, a giant junkyard with only three

tiny habitable towns on the whole of the planet, instead of the proud mining

planet it once had been.]

- Earth falls victim to the forces of Queen Promethium. Most of its major

cities, including Megapolis City, are destroyed. Savage street fighting with

fanatical Machine Soldiers will become a way of life with the surviving humans

in the long days to come.

[GE999A]

- The Machine Empire begins issuing “clean capsule energy” from the Machine Planet Great Andromeda in its bid to win the fight for control of the Milky

Way galaxy. In turn the grateful Mechanoids renew their allegiance with the

Machine Empire. Millions of fresh Machine Soldiers are thrown into

Promethium’s war effort against the rest of the universe. [GE999A]

- Claire leaves her duties aboard Galaxy Express #999 in order to reclaim her

original body. Her replacement is Metalmena, a Mechanoid with ulterior

motives

[GE999EFm. Claire’s original body was among those stolen when the Ice Graves of Pluto were looted. This was done by energy-starved Mechanoids looking to

stay alive by any means possible during the confusion within the Machine

Empire following the destruction of Machine Planet Maetel the year before.

In the "revival" Leijiverse, this supersedes the depiction in all GE999

sources of Claire actually having died aboard the Three-Nine.]

- One of the heaviest battles in the latter stages of the Machine War takes

place in the streets of Trader’s Fork on planet Heavy Melder. The Machine Empire’s attempt to seize control of the crossroads of the universe is stopped by a coalition of human forces led by the space pirate Captain

Harlock. Unfortunately, the intensity of the fighting coupled with the

devastating effects of the weaponry used results in the complete

contamination of Heavy Melder’s atmosphere. The surviving civilians are forced to relocate to LaMaetel, Heavy Melder’s moon. Heavy Melder itself will remain uninhabitable for years to come.

[GE999A; see also the second extra manga short in some printed editions of

QEm Volume 4. In GE999A, the Three-Nine’s conductor relays the story of the battle to Tetsuro as they pass Heavy Melder on their way to LaMaetel. It is

also the one planet on which Harlock does not stop in his search for Mayu

Oyama a few years later, in SPCHa. The dialogue says that it "had been

destroyed." In the extra short manga for QEm Volume 4, Emeradas visits with

two clone humans - a young man and a young woman - who have settled on Heavy

Melder long after the war, and who are implied to be its new Adam and Eve.]

- The Machine Empire successfully retakes control of LaMaetel, moon of Heavy

Melder and the original homeworld of Queen Promethium. Even so, they are

unable to root out all of the rebels who are hiding in the countryside and

mountains.

[GE999A]

---------------------------------------------------------

2975 - ADIEU GALAXY EXPRESS 999 - FINAL STATION ANDROMEDA

---------------------------------------------------------

2975

- Death of Faust Hoshino, last Machine Knight of Queen Promethium and father of

Tetsuro Hoshino.

[GE999A]

- Destruction of the Machine Planet Great Andromeda and final death of Queen

Promethium by the Witch Comet Siren. With the downfall of its ruler and

unifying force, the Machine Empire quickly collapses. It leaves behind two

galaxies devastated by years of war.

[GE999A]

- The rebuilding of Earth begins yet again. Most of the planet’s major cities are piles of rubble from over three decades of war and bombardment by various

alien invaders; also, Earth’s food supplies are dangerously low. A series of star farms are set up on nearby colony planets to provide enough food to feed

the hungry masses. It will not be enough, but the Earth government strives to

conceal this fact from the people.

[SPCHa and SPCHm. The establishing shots for the first few episodes (and

parts of the manga) depict the plight of the Earth - and how the government

was using subliminal mind control techniques to keep the population docile.

Captain Harlock himself reveals that he has been hoarding stolen food for some

time because he knows a planetwide famine is imminent.]

- A number of regional powers vie for galactic dominance in the aftermath of

the Machine Empire’s collapse, in addition to the refusal of Earth to retake the reins of power.

[QEa and CHEO, implied]

- Founding of the short-lived Afressian Empire.

[QEa, implied. The sudden and rapid collapse of the Machine Empire would have

left a power vacuum across two galaxies - perfect for any regional power

brokers to go into shop for themselves. Such appears to have been the case

with the Afreesians. They also appear to have had a major naval base in their

sector of space at the time of the Empire's collapse - which might account for

how they got such a big space fleet so fast as depicted on screen. With a

tool like that at their disposal, empire-building aspirations would follow

naturally. It's a shame that the background story of the Afressians was given

short shrift in QEa. It sounds intriguing, given the scant clues we have.]

- Slavery is reimposed by the Afressians as they expand their still-growing

interstellar empire.

[QE#1, "Departure."]

- Tobacco is outlawed on Earth planetwide by the current Earth government.

[SPCHa #28, “The Ulysses Nebula.” Professor Aihn, an old friend of Great Harlock and onetime mentor to his son, reveals that this was the reason why

he abandoned Earth.]

- The government of Earth concerns itself with its own affairs and turns inward,

abandoning all thoughts of galactic power for the more immediate concerns of

survival and self-satisfaction. This action marks the coup de grace for Earth

insofar as having any effect on interstellar affars. It will become a

backward world from this point on - a place to dump the old, infirmed, lazy,

ignorant, and those just too stubborn to abandon their planetbound mentality.

It is yet another major milestoned passed in Earth's long slide from dominant

galactic power to eventual barbarism.

[SPCHa #01, “The Jolly Roger of Space”]

- The seat of the Galactic Government relocates from Earth to the artificial

planet of Panotpicon. Earh, as well as the entire Sol System, is left to its

own devices.

[CHEO #01, “Tears for a Star-Filled Sky”]

- In at least one of the Rings of Time, Tetsuro Hoshino dies young before the

end of the year. Once again, Emeraldas seeks out and reclaims his Cosmo

Dragoon - which used to belong to her lover, Tochrio Oyama.

[GE999a #109 & #110, "Maetel's Journey (Parts 1 & 2)," death implied; see

also QEa #02, "Eternal Emblem." We know about the gun, since the GE999a

episodes establishes that it changed hands and the QEa episode shows that

Emeraldas got it back for a time. Otherwise, she couldn't have given it to

Hiroshi Umino. Besides, Tetsuro wouldn't have given up claim on "his" Cosmo

Dragoon unless he were dying, as would any "real" man or warrior - and per

the end of GE999A, he was heading to Earth to help reclaim it from surviving

Machine Empire forces that were still holding out there. He almost got killed

by the same at the start of GE999A, so maybe his number finally came up?

Seems likely. Maetel herself might be alluding to this in GROVA Part 3, "The

Rewritten Destiny" - where she seems to be implying that Tetsuro will soon die

in a possible future.]

[ASIDE - I'm gonna get pilloried for this, just like I did concerning the

death of Mayu Oyama in the second edition of this document, but how else

can you explain the same gun changing hands - aside from ignoring the data

completely?]

-----------------------------------------

2975 - QUEEN EMERALDAS (anime OVA series)

-----------------------------------------

2975

- The short-lived Afressian Empire is conquered by the Metanoids.

[QEa #3, "Friendship"]

- The homeworld of the Mazone is destroyed when its sun goes nova. They decide

to return to their former colony world of Earth, the one world of all their

old holdings in the Milky Way galaxy closest in environment to their former

homeworld, and claim it as their own.

[SPCHa #41: “Duel! The Queen Vs. Harlock.” Queen Rafelisa tells Captain Harlock that the migration of the Mazone began five years before the duel

they were now fighting - which takes place in 2980, at the end of SPCHa,

per ARA.]

2975-2976

- In at least one of the Rings of Time, the Cosmo Dragoon that was in the

possession of Emeraldas comes back into her possession - and she in turn

gives it to Maetel, who will give it to her next traveling companion.

[QEa #02, "Eternal Emblem," and GE999a #109 & #110, "Maetel's Journey (Parts

1 & 2)." Maetel's future companion Redril is the one who eventually gets it,

per the relevant GE999a episodes. The how and why concerning Hiroshi giving

it up is unknown. Perhaps he simply didn't need it any more, or ...?]

- The Mazone begin staging forces and supplies at strategic points in the Milky

Way galaxy in preparation for their planned invasion of Earth.

[SPCHa, implied. This apparently involved linking up with all of their

garrison forces they had left behind millennia, perhaps aeons before, in

addition to conquering other worlds for new bases. The Mazone were

apparently taking advantage of the intergalactic turmoil that followed in the

wake of the Machine War and the collapse of the Machine Empire.]

- The planet of New Tokarga is conquered by the Mazone on the outer fringes of

the Milky Way galaxy. It is a world where the few surviving Tokargans from

the Earth-Illumidas war have found a new home, living and even interbreeding

with its indigenious humanoid lifeforms. All are enslaved by the Mazone.

The males are forced to work in whatever capacity their skills dictate, with

their women and families held as hostages in order to keep them in check.

[SPCHa #21, “Ghoram! The Tragic Soldier” and #40, “And Then The Angels Sang” despite certain inconsistencies. The series was produced before the Tokargans

were reinvented for MYA. Even their depiction within the series itself is

inconsistent between these two episodes, with the latter implying the "two

species" notion.]

- Earth Garrison Forces Supreme Commander Goro Otowawra is dismissed for

shooting his wife, whom he claimed to be an undercover agent for an alien

race called the Mazone. His adjutant Mitsuru Kiruta is named to replace him.

[SPCHa #33, “The Lone Man’s Charge”]

- Captain Harlock captures Jojibel, a Mazone soldier. Mimay intercedes on her

behalf and convinces him to let her go. It is a decision she will later

regret.

[SPCHa #20, “The Dead Planet Jura”]

- Captain Yamanaka shoots and kills “Wheeler” Maji’s wife Aki in self-defense. Maji’s wife was actually a Mazone disguised as a human who had recently received orders to kill Yamanaka. Maji refuses to believe Yamanaka and

almost kills his commanding officer out of grief. He is stopped at the last

minute by Captain Harlock, who confirms Yamanaka’s story. The Mazone retaliate by “kidnapping” Maji and Aki’s daughter Midori - who are also both Mazone in disguise.

[SPCHa #17, “The Skeletal Hero.” The source for the exact date is CHQ1K. In that, Maji (aka “Wheeler”) says that his daughter was kidnapped the year before the Mazone sphere landed on Earth.]

- “Wheeler” Maji resigns his commission in the military. He will eventually join Captain Harlock’s pirate crew aboard the Arcadia. His avowed purpose in doing so is that he will be better able to search the Sea of Stars for his

missing wife and daughter.

[SPCHa #17, “The Skeletal Hero.” The source for the exact date is CHQ1K. In that, Maji (aka “Wheeler”) says that his daughter was kidnapped the year before the Mazone sphere landed on Earth.]

- Acting on his own authority, Captain Yamanaka sets out to find and destroy

the Mazone before they can attack Earth in force. His ship, the space

battlecruiser Braves, is subsequently lost in the vicinity of the Horsehead

Nebula and is never heard from again.

[SPCHa #17, “The Skeletal Hero.” The source for the exact date is CHQ1K. In that, Maji (aka “Wheeler”) says that his daughter was kidnapped the year before the Mazone sphere landed on Earth.]

- A number of Earth’s astronomers note with alarm a large dark object on approach to Earth at high speed from beyond the Outer Rim of the Milky Way

galaxy. Among these is Professor Tsuyoushi Daiba, who correctly interprets

it as the first sign of the impending return of the Mazone. His warnings,

plus the less ominous ones of his colleagues, fall on deaf ears. The only one

left who does listen and is willing to act is space pirate Captain Harlock -

especially once Earth's astronomers begin to be assassinated one by one.

[SPCHa #01, “The Jolly Roger of Space” and #02, “A Woman Who Burns Like Paper”]

2976

- Maetel picks up her next traveling companion. He is a young 12-year old boy

named Redril, whom she rescues from a tenement camp on the planet Kiades,

sixth planet of the star Liberator, somewhere in the Algol Star Cluster.

She rescues him from the local police after he tries to steal some bread,

and not long after his mother starves to death.

[GE999a #109 & #110, "Maetel's Journey (Parts 1 & 2). The circumstances

surrounding Redril's joining up with Maetel in "our" Ring of time are going

to be somewhat different than those depicted in the episode, in which that

Redril is from a parallel Ring of Time. Most likely, in "our" Ring, Redril's

situation and that of his mother is due to the aftermath of the Machine War -

although Redril still has to deal with Mechanoids and their various prejudices

(perhaps they survived the war?). Maetel comments near the end of the episode

that her journey through space and time has already been long, and looks like

it's going to go on even longer. FYI, per the episode both her new "run" and

her reasons for journeying will be different than they were back in the bad

ol' Machine Empire days. We also know, per the episode, that Redril's trip

with Maeteil happened some years after Tetsuro's - and Redril's Maetel

refrains from speaking throughout most of the story. "No spoilers," as the

revived DOCTOR WHO's River Song might say?]

----------------------------------------

2977-2980 - SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK

----------------------------------------

2977-2980

- A major invasion by the Mazone to conquer the Earth and claim it as their new

homeworld is thwarted by Captain Harlock. The Mazone are forced to return to

the Sea of Stars in search of another world to claim as their own.

[SPCH]

2979

- Tetsuro Ilita, chief of the Pluto Observatory within the Solar System,

dies in the line of duty. His death away from Earth is considered a disgrace

by his tradition-minded father on Earth. He is buried inside a crypt at the

Pluto observatory.

[CHEO #05, 05, “Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet." Given the date, he may have died in a Mazone attack per SPCHa.]

- Yukihito Ilita is enrolled in a military academy at his own request despite

his youth. He buries any sorrow he might have had for his father in an

overachieving effort to become disciplined and self-sufficient.

[CHEO #05, 06, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory”]

2980

- A worldwide famine strikes the Earth, due in part to the recent ravages of

the Mazone and in part to a severe shortage of food from poor government

planning. The resulting crisis almost topples the current Earth goverment,

but somehow the prime minister survives (and will be elected to several more

terms, amazingly enough). Large numbers of people almost starve to death

until Captain Harlock releases the food stores he has been saving for just

this occasion.

[SPCHa #06, “The Phantom Mazone;" see also CHEO]

- Death of Mayu Oyama, cause unknown.

[CHEO #06, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory;” #11, “Trembling Universe;” and #13, “Final Chapter.” When Mayu appears on Earth to Harlock, Tochiro, and Kei almost two decades later, she is still very much the same little girl from

SPCHa. The late Professor Hiltz tells Kei during her out-of-body visit to the

dimensional plane that both visitors and residents take on the appearance of

their bodies at the moment they lost them. This is typically at the moment of

death, as in the case of Professor Hiltz and his colleagues, and with

Professor Daiba when he visits his son Tadashi. If Mayu Oyama were still

alive, then she whould have been a 22-year-old young woman by the time CHEO

takes place. This indicates beyond any reasonable doubt that Mayu Oyama is

dead - and that her death took place not long after the events depicted in

SPCHa occurred. ADDENDUM - Most fans have come to accept this rather shocking

conclusion regarding Mayu's fate, after having thought it through, even

though I was royally flamed for it at the time I first proposed it. The only

argument against it that has any strength is twofold: first, "the girl" (Mayu)

doesn't appear to Tochiro's shade until the moment Earth enters the

dimensional plane; second, Tochiro doesn't recognize "the girl" for who she

is, so she may not even be Mayu at all. Unfortunately, this is rather easy to

debunk. First, "new" shades on the plane tend to wander in the "forest," per

the late Professor Hiltz and his late friends, until they find their way - so

Mayu could have easily been wandering in there until Earth - a place that had

strong memories in her short life - suddenly appeared. She would have been

drawn to it like a magnet; hence her sudden appearance to Tochiro. Second,

even though Tochiro doesn't recognize his own daughter, Harlock most certainly

does - because he's the only one of the two who spent significant time with

her as she was growing up. He never says her name out loud; but the look in

his eyes and on his face do all the talking for him. Mayu was only a year or

two old, at most, the last time Tochiro saw her before his death. The

appearance of a child can change a lot in just a few years, and Tochiro was

so involved in his work trying to get Earth back to where it belonged that he

didn't pay much attention to "the girl." If he had taken the time to look

close, he might have known her for who she was - as Harlock did, the first

time HE saw her. Harlock recognized her at first sight - plus there's the

ocarina music playing in the background whenver she appears. That's the

biggest "dead giveaway" of all, if you'll pardon the pun. Whether or not

Tochiro ever recognized Mayu, we'll never know. One can only hope he did -

for he had all of eternity to realize his mistake.]

- Captain Harlock, having now lost his last reason to intervene in human

affairs, turns his back on Earth and disappears into the Sea of Stars. He

will not be seen again within the Solar System, save for the infrequent

commerce raid, for decades. The look on his face during this time scares the

living hell out of the few people who are unfortunate enough to cross him.

[As a young and brash Ilita found out, while serving as a junior officer, in

CHEO #08, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory.” He later recalled that it was the only time he could recall that he ever feared for his life. See

also CHEO #13, "Resolution and Finale: I Had a Dream."]

- The Three-Seven disappears without a trace in this year and is never seen

again. No clue is ever found as to its fate or that of its passengers.

[GR1 #13, "Train Bound for Fate;" see also GE999a #109 & #110, "Maetel's

Journey (Parts 1 & 2)," and #113, "A Vision of Youth! Farewell, Three-Nine."

Layla Shura predicted in 2973 that the Three-Seven would be lost, although

then she added, "it is not yet time." There is a slight possibility that

Maetel was aboard when it disappeared, since she does not appear in any

Leijiverse tale past this date and she is known to have ridden the Three-

Seven on occasion. This is conjecture on my part; however, it would fit with

the common fan-held notion about her sister Emeraldas dying alone - with not

even the equally long-lived Maetel around to give her comfort and keep her

company. Maetel disappearing with the lost Three-Seven is thus an unsettling

possibility - in at least one of the Rings of Time of the Leijiverse.

Perhaps, if you'll pardon the pun, it was her time?]

2981-2998

- The Space Sheriffs are formed. They are an intergalactic paramilitary police

force headquarted on Panopticon that are even more ruthless than were the

Earth Garrison Forces in their heyday.

[CHEO #02, “For Whom the Friend Sleeps” and #04, “Yattran’s 30­Second Bet”]

- The last of Earth's youth, along with most of its remaining skilled people,

leave for better places in the Sea of Stars. The only humans left behind are

those too old, infirmed, or too poor to relocate, along with a token

government presence.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky.” Harlock calls Earth “the forsaken world” for this reason later in the series in CHEO #05, “Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet.” This was the same thing that had happened to nearby Mars over six centuries earlier, per GE999a #003, “The Red Winds of Mars."]

- Doctor Zero and many members of Captain Harlock’s last pirate crew leave Earth and relocate to the Planet of the Rubbish Heaps. There Doctor Zero

opens the Bar Arcadia. It is a place where he, his former crewmates, and

other former space pirates and mercenaries can drink to the memories of the

glory days of their fading past.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky”]

- Kei Yuki also becomes disgusted with the recent turn of events on Earth. She

recruits her own crew and resumes a life of piracy on the Sea of Stars aboard

her own ship, the space pirate cruiser Flourite - modeled after the smaller

of Captain Harlock's two pirate ships. It is one of the few ships in the

history of space piracy to rightfully bear the skull and crossbones as its

emblem, as defined by both Harlock and Emeraldas years before.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky”]

- Sabu and Yasu are recruited as part of Kei Yuki’s pirate crew. [CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky”]

- Concerned about steadily declining world population numbers, the Tourism

Department of the Earth Space Management Agency mounts its “Let’s Head Back to Earth” advertising campaign. It quickly proves to be a colossal failure. [CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky.” You can see one of the posters mounted on a wall inside the Bar Arcadia, and the barflies are always joking

about going back to Earth.]

- Captain Harlock receives a summons from Mello, a powerful being living in a

parallel universe. She needs Harlock’s help in securing the future of the Earth in her reality. Harlock accepts the mission and is given a full

briefing by Mello as to what he will be facing. Harlock asks for and

receives the assistance of the GRSPG and the venerable space battleship

Yamato, one of the few ships aside from the Arcadia suited for the task.

Together, the Arcadia and Yamato activate their Time Sweepers and jump into

Mello’s universe on this most unusual of missions. This will also prove to be one of the last of Captain Harlock’s documented adventures on the Sea of Stars

[DNA. I know a lot of people have issues with Captain Harlock’s cameo and that of the Yamato at the end of this OAV. Still, it helps in part to

explain what Harlock was doing in between his defeat of the attempted Mazone

invasion of Earth and his reappearance during the Noo crisis some two decades

later.]

- Tadashi Daiba, son of the late Professor Tsuyoushi Daiba, gets married and

follows in his father’s footsteps as an academian. He eventually earns a position as professor of space physics at the Universal Comprehension

University. On the side he becomes a lecturer on ancient galactic

civilizations - a hobby he first took up after the events surrounding the

thwarted Mazone invasion of Earth. He eventually moves to the Planet of the

Rubbish Heaps along with his son, the third in the family line to bear the

name Tadashi Daiba.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky.”]

- Professor Daiba is given an AI assistant to help him with his research in the

virtual library of the Universal Comprehension University. He programs her

in both the mood and likeness of the late Shizuka Namino, former secretary to

the Earth Prime Minister and onetime Mazone spy and assassin.

[CHEO #02, “For Whom the Friend Sleeps”). The real Shizuka Namino was featured in SPCHa #35-37 and Volume 1 of SPCHm. The reason why she has black

hair instead of red (per SPCHa) is that her hair was black in the manga

(SPCHm).]

2983

- Tadashi Daiba, the son and namesake of his father, Professor Daiba of the

Universal Comprehension University, is born. His mother dies not long

afterwards, cause unknown.

[CHEO #01, “Tears for a Star-Filled Sky.” This date presupposes that young Tadashi was 16, the same age as his father, when he first encounters

Harlock.]

c.2985

- At some point around this tme, the original Arcadia receives its third

and final upgrade. It gets new computer subsystems, data displays, and

improved sensors and scanners. The power and range of its main pulsar

cannons is improved significantly. Yattaran’s new dimensional gravity engines replace Tochiro Oyama’s older wave gravity engines. Perhaps the biggest upgrade, in visual terms, is the addition of a bow trencher ram -

similar to but much larger and of a different design than the one originally

fitted on Harlock's other pirate starship. As before, Harlock will trade

ships and use his other, somewhat smaller "Arcadia" while the bigger one

is getting its refit.

[CHEO #04, “Yattran’s 30-Second Bet” and #06, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory.” We know the "Studio Nue" Arcadia was being upgraded because Harlock is using the SPCH Arcadia during his first encounter with

Yukihito Ilita.]

c.2987

- Yukihito Ilita graduates at the top of his class from the Space Sheriff

Academy. His ill mother, who had contracted a long-term space disease during

the family’s stay on Pluto, is unable to attend. She dies at home from her illness even as her son’s graduation ceremony is taking place. [CHEO #06, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory”]

- Lieutenant Yukihito Ilita, now an officer on a Space Sheriff patrol cruiser,

has his first encounter with the legendary Captain Harlock. It is one he

will never forget, and he later describes it as “the only time I have ever felt fear in my life.” [CHEO #06, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory”]

2994

- The Ninth Solar System Expedition, led by Professor Gustav Karl von Hilz and

based aboard the scientific survey vessel Fata Morgana, undertakes a study of

the aeons-old ruins of the Rainbow Planet in the Ulysses Nebula - along with

studying other remains of the long dead civilization that once dwelt there.

Among the team’s carefully chosen members is Professor Daiba. Extensive research by the team of those ruins causes them to deduce the existence of

even older artifacts, possibly intact, within the heart of the nearby

Hourglass Nebula. An anti-psychotropic drug developed by one of the team

members allows them and their ship’s crew to withstand the nebula’s unusually strong mental energies as they seek to unlock its secrets.

[CHEO #07, “The Moon Waits in the Promised Land” and #08, “In the Depths of the Shadow of the Soul.” The date of the recovery of the Fata Morgana from the Hourglass Nebula is part of its Space Sheriff investigation file.

Professor Hilz later tells Kei in the dimensional plane (per the subtitles,

not the spoken dialogue) that they were studying the ruins of an ancient

civiliation in the Ulysses Nebula. The only planet on record in the Ulysses

Nebula in any iteration of the Leijiverse with ruins like the ones described

in CHEO is the Rainbow Planet, per SPCHa #29, “Struggle for Survival on the Rainbow Planet”]

- The Fata Morgana discovers the Gate of Yedar at the exact center of the

heart of the Hourglass Nebula. Professor Hilz, Professor Daiba, and the

other members of his team debark to conduct a close-up personal inspection

of the Gate. What happens next becomes a mystery that will remain unsolved

for the next five years.

[CHEO #07, “The Moon Waits in the Promised Land” and #10, “Kei: Illusion”]

- Captain Harlock is passing through the Ulysses Nebula on his own business

when he chances upon the spacesuited and unconscious Professor Daiba drifting

in open space. Harlock retrieves his old friend, who is near death, and once

revived is obviously scared out of his wits. Slowly, after he has had time to

recover, Professor Daiba shares the mystery of what happened at the Gate of

Yedar to his old friend. He makes Harlock promise that if he ever acts to

awaken the evil he found there, then Harlock will find and kill him - no

questions asked.

[CHEO #03, “The Voice Calling Noo From Afar” and #10, “Kei: Illusion”).

- Not long after Harlock finds Professor Daiba, the Space Sheriffs find the

badly damaged Fata Morgana adrift near the planet El Alamein. All of its

crew and the research team, save the missing Professor Daiba, are apparently

dead from severe shock. The mystified Space Sheriffs promptly impound the

Fata Morgana and reassemble it as best they can for forensic analysis. They

also store the bodies of the crew and the research team in stasis inside a

warehouse not far from the area where the ship is being stored.

[CHEO #03, “The Voice Calling Noo From Afar.” A translation goof renders the location of the discovery of the Fata Morgana as “the El Aramein cruising area, located in the 9th Ulysses star system.”

- Professor Daiba mysteriously reappears, alive and well, some months after

the discovery of the wrecked Fata Morgana. He refuses to divulge where he

has been and how he was able to survive both the deaths of everyone on his

team and the destruction of his ship - despite repeated and often intense

questioning by the Space Sheriffs. Chief Ilita finally lets him go, but

correctly suspects that Captain Harlock was somehow involved.

[CHEO #05, 10, “Illusion”]

c.2995

- Yukihito Ilita is promoted to Chief of the Space Sherriffs.

[CHEO #05, 01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky” and #06, “A Gentle Smile on the Skull of Memory.” He must be middle-aged (at least in his mid-30s) by the time the series takes place because it is uncommonly rare for anyone in their

20s to be head of any kind of law enforcement agency. “Mid-30s” is pushing it a bit - but then again, in comparison, Captain Kirk was supposedly 34

when he took command of the Enterprise in the original STAR TREK television

series. I've chosen to err on the side of caution.]

- Chief Ilita begins rounding up anyone and everyone who ever served on any of

Captain Harlock’s pirate crews, are still alive, and who still claims to live the life of a space pirate. His long-term plan is to use them as bait in an

effort to capture Harlock himself. Every former crewmember they find is

arrested on outstanding warrants, some dating back to the days of the

Earth-Illumidas War. Yattaran, the Arcadia’s former First Officer, is the first to be apprehended and is promptly deposited in a maximum security cell

inside Panopticon to await the arrest of the rest of his comrades - no matter

how long it takes.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky”]

-----------------

2999 - DIVER ZERO

-----------------

2999

- Megapolis City on Earth is completely destroyed by an antimatter bomb - as

is Tokyo Bay and the surrounding countryside for miles in every direction.

There are no survivors. At least 8-10 million people die in the blast. The

explosion is soon blamed on the android terrorist known as Diver Zero.

[DZ Chapter 1, "The Birth of Diver Zero" and Chapter 2, "Escape From

Megapolis. So ends perhaps the most famous city on Earth in Leijiverse lore.

It wasn't Diver Zero's fault, and he was actually the lone survivor - but to

learn more, you'll have to look up the story for yourself.]

- The adult Revi Bentselle is crushed to death by the Barst, a giant

sphere-shaped tank that her bounty hunter husband Yanma is using for his

latest job. She manages to unlock the access hatch on the Barst before

falling under it, though, so that her husband's mad rampage though the city

streets while chasing Diver Zero, his latest bounty, can be stopped.

[DZ Chapter 5, "City of Angels." The adult Revi in the DZ manga could very

well be the child Revi from SSX - given the timeframe, location, and relative

ages of both. As I see it, this is one way - kinda twisted, yes, but a way -

of redeeming for what most fans is the most annoying character ever to appear

in a Leijiverse anime. This is retconning on my part, yes, but as you know

by now I like tying up loose ends - especially in a way that makes some kind

of sense.]

--------------------------------------

2999 - CAPTAIN HARLOCK ENDLESS ODYSSEY

--------------------------------------

- Death of Professor Tadashi Daiba at the hands of Captain Harlock.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky”]

- Kei Yuki, the last member of Harlock’s original crew still living the life of a space pirate, is successfully captured by the Space Sheriffs.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky”]

- Captain Harlock reunites as many of his former crewmembers as he can round up

to deal with a new threat facing humanity. Most of these are rescued from

imprisonment on Panopticon, much to the irritation of Chief Ilita and the

Space Sheriffs.

[CHEO #01, “Tears For a Star-Filled Sky;” #02, “For Whom the Friend Sleeps;” and #04, “Yattaran’s 30-Second Bet”]

- The Earth disappears.

[CHEO #02, “For Whom the Friend Sleeps]

- The combined forces of the Earth Space Patrol and the Terrestrial Independent

Fleet are practically wiped out in attempting to stop the agents of Noo

within the Sol System. Every single base, every space warship and space

fighter, every space station or observation post, is either destroyed or

wrecked beyond repair. There are only a handful of survivors from among the

hundreds of thousands that are dead - and almost all of these, save for a few

strong-willed exceptions, have been driven violently insane. Some historians

will later point to this event as the final end of the long slide, from

decadence through impotence and finally insignificance, which has affected

Earth's prominence in the stars over the past three decades.

[CHEO #05, “Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet.” Fleet names come from HSa

(the Earth Space Patrol) and CWZ (the Terrestrial Independent Fleet). Earth

was already a backwater world by this time per the beginning of CHEO.

Now she's without any interstellar military capability AT ALL, thanks to the

Noo. You can just as easily see the political and cultural ramifications of

that as can I.]

- Destruction of the Pluto Observatory - along with an Extra Solar space fleet

sent to investigate the disappearance of the Earth, the destruction of its

interplanetary defense forces, and the sudden reappearance of the Fata

Morgana within the Solar System. The only sane survivor is Chief Ilita, who

is eventually rescued by a passing civilian freighter responding to his

distress signal.

[CHEO #05, “Battlefield: The Tombstone Planet”]

- At last, Captain Harlock sees with his own eyes the aeons-old evil that

threatens the Earth - and has the force of will strong enough not only to

survive, but triumph in the encounter.

[CHEO #09, “In the Depths of the Shadow of the Soul”]

- Kei Yuki receives her own facial scar.

[CHEO #10, “Kei: Illusion”]

- Death of Chief Ilita.

[CHEO #10, “Kei: Illusion”]

- Captain Harlock is reunited with both his late friend Tochiro Oyama and

Tochiro's daughter, little Mayu Oyama, before finally defeating the Noo and

restoring the Earth to its proper place in the Sea of Stars.

[CHEO #13, "Resolution and Finale: I Had a Dream"]

- Death of Captain Harlock. He is shot to death by the young Tadashi Daiba with

his own Cosmo Dragoon for killing the young man’s father. [CHEO #13, “Resolution and Finale: I Had a Dream.” Harlock’s death is never shown, merely implied. The last full scene of the series, before the credits

roll, leaves little doubt as to what happened to him - thanks to the position

in which he had placed young Tadashi Daiba (kill or be killed).

- Kei Yuki assumes command of the Arcadia and departs the Planet of the Rubbish

Heaps with all who will go with her. She assumes her late mentor Captain

Harlock’s role as the champion of freedom on the eternal Sea of Stars. [Implied by the end of CHEO. One might argue for Yattaran's sake, but it

would have been completely out of character for him and the Space Sheriffs

had taken Kei's own vessel. This would be in keeping with the Harlock legend

as originally developed, per the short manga GPH - save that in this case,

the young man walks away, leaving his memories of Harlock and the Arcadia

behind him as shown in the closing credits, and Kei is left in the perfect

position to assume command and move on.]

3000-3999

- The radiation bathing the surface of Heavy Melder finally reduces to the

point where humans can once again live on its surface.

[QEm Volume 4]

- Death of Emeraldas.

[GE999a Special 3, "Eternal Voyager Emeraldas;" see also QEm Volume 4.

Leijiverse lore has it that Emeraldas supposedly died from an unspecified

illness she had suffered for many years, alone and without aid on the Sea of

Stars, with no one to comfort her in her final hours and still grieving over

the loss of her beloved Tochiro Oyama. Fixing an estimated date is

impossible given,the fact that Emeraldas had an extended LaMaetelian

lifespan of at least 20,000 to 30,000 years by conservative estimate, and

perhaps as much as 100,000 years (but not much more) at the extreme.

Remember, the LaMaetel and aged one year for every 285 or so human years per

continuity analysis - or "1000 years," if you insist on going strictly by the

rather poetic dialogue in QM. The simple fact is that even though her death

date is not known, Emeraldas drops completely off the Leijiverse radar after

the undated second short story in QEm Volume 4, regarding the rehabitation

of Heavy Melder. Occam's Razor dictates that she must have died, given what

scant evidence we have - unless M-san comes up with another tale to the

contrary.]

- By this date, humans and Mechanoids have learned to live together in perfect

harmony.

[DYZG # 2, "Great Yamato vs. the Shadow Fleet." There are a number of

Mechanoids among the crew of the Great Yamato - and none of the humans on

board so much as bat an eye at this, as did Warrius Zero's crew aboard the

Karyu over a millennia before in CWZ. Support Systems Officer Hongo Yuki

explains the situation in a brief aside to the view about 1/3rd of the way

into the episode.]

- An extragalactic alliance known as the Seven Star Clan forms. The Metanoids,

longtime foes of humanity, are among their number. The goal of the Seven

Star Clan is to conquer the Amanogawa galaxy - their name for the Milky Way.

[DYZG # 1, "The 7000-Strong Fleet vs. the Metanoid Dragon"]

3813

- The famous human philosopher Hora da Vinci will make one of his most famous

quotes in this year: "Nothing is more frustrating than a life in which one

knows everything in advance, because dreams are born of uncertainty."

[GE999EFm Volume 7, Chapter 1, "The Army of Destiny"]

3199

- Almost life on Earth has moved below its surface to vast underground cities -

not unlike humanity's situation a thousand years earlier. Few of its great

above-ground cities and landmarks survive, and nature is slowly reclaiming the

surface for its own - overgrowing the scrap and rubble of countless past wars.

What humans remain above ground - either by choice or by need - have largely

abandoned the sophistication of past generations for a simpler, more rural-

or outdoors-oriented lifestyle. What advanced technology remains on Earth

can only be found in the underground cities, or at the surface access points

that service them.

[DYZG # 2, "Great Yamato vs. the Shadow Ship"]

- The Great Yamato is reawakened from its icy berth under the Arctic icecap

on Earth.

[DYZG opening titles; see also GY Volume 1. Hongo Yuki's viewer aside in

Episode 2 appears to say that the Great Yamato was built on Earth; however,

I have as yet to discern (or get a translation of) the exact details. If

this is true, then the Great Yamato might represent "old Earth's" last great

technical triumph.]

- All the worlds settled and ruled by humanity pool their resources to create

the Galactic Fleet, in order to oppose the galactic invasion by the Seven

Star Clan. The last ship to join the fleet is the "Great Yamato" (Dai

Yamato), the oldest ship in the fleet, commanded by Captain Ozuma. She was

modeled after the original Yamato (Argo) but is much larger, with far more

armaments and a radically altered appearance. Even so, she is dwarfed by the

smallest capital ships in the Galactic Fleet, and most of its captains refer

to the Great Yamato as "the flying wreck" - due both to its age and antiquated

appearance. The only reason the Yamato is even permitted to take part in the

upcoming war is that humanity needs every capital ship it can muster against

the strength of the Seven Star Clan - even a "flying wreck" such as the Great

Yamato.

[DYZG # 1, "The 7000-Strong Fleet vs. the Metanoid Dragon"]

-------------------------

3199 - DAI YAMATO ZERO-GO

-------------------------

- The Seven Star Clan's Metanoid Rakken - a twenty-kilometer-long spacegoing

Metanoid dragon - makes mincemeat of the Galactic Fleet, which takes heavy

losses. The Great Yamato is forced to observe the battle from afar, since

had earlier been denied permission by Fleet Commander Rigel to join the fray;

however, Captain Ozuma has not been idle. He and his crew devise a plan to

save the remnants of the Galactic Fleet by detonating a nearby planetoid

and totally converting its mass to energy. The resulting mini-sun is more

than enough food for the ravenous, energy-hungry Rakken, and it turns away

from the Galactic Fleet. Fleet Commander Rigel and his surviving ships thus

escape, and he is forced to begrudge that "the flying wreck" might not be so

impotent after all. Rigel then joins his fleet in fleeing though a nearby

warp portal, which Ozuma - correctly sensing how the battle might go - had

his crew conveniently prepare for such a contingency.

[DYZG # 1, "The 7000-Strong Fleet vs. the Metanoid Rakken"]

- The Galactic Fleet comes under attack from an invisible enemy and is wiped

out, for all intents and purposes. Only seven ships survive - including the

Great Yamato, which was not on the scene of this latest battle.

[DYZG # 2, "Great Yamato vs. the Shadow Ship"]

- Captain Ozuma brings the Great Yamato to where the Galactic Fleet was

destroyed, in order to assist the surviving ships with search-and-rescue

operations. A Shadow Ship attacks during its attempt to rescue any

Galactic Fleet survivors, causing additional casualties among its medical

teams and shuttle pilots. Even the Great Yamato itself comes under attack

for a time, before Captain Ozuma deduces that the Shadow Ship is homing

in on the wave motion engines of the human ships. He has his ship cuts its

main engine and switch to his remaining auxiliaries - after which the attacks

on the Great Yamato cease. After that, it is just a simple matter of his

crew working out a means of detecting and then defeating the Shadow Fleet.

They are eventually successful; however, their effort comes too late for the

tens of thousands of lives lost with the Galactic Fleet - including that of

Fleet Commander Rigel.

[DYZG # 2, "Great Yamato vs. the Shadow Ship." BTW, the same dozen or

so battle and search-and-rescue clips get repeatedly recycled during this

episode - almost to the point of nausea.]

- A suicide ship taking the form of a giant white comet targets Earth. The

Great Yamato is too far away and has suffered too much damage from the

Shadow Ship attack to come to Earth's aid in time. The salvation of Earth

must come from a spacegoing colony of "tin wit" robots (apparently

descendants - somehow - of the original IQ-9) and a vessel even older than

the Great Yamato - the ancient super dimensional space battleship Mahoroba,

which fought its last battle with the Metanoids almost a century ago.

[DYZG # 3, "The Tin-Wit Fleet vs. the White Comet;" see also UTSM and

GE999EFm Volume 2. IMHO, this is the one episode that pretty much nailed

the lid shut on DYZG's coffin. It's the single dumbest piece of Leijiverse

anime I've ever seen, and not even the cameo by the Mahoroba can save it.]

c.1 million (?)

- Almost all of the most human-looking half of the population of the planet

Salus, located in the Seselaselarium Natria Herania Lasu-Ulpana Sol System

of the Etus nebula is exterminated by the Heds, a competing humanoid species

with tails and whom they had been fighting a war lasting "thousands of your

years. The survivors use space-time travel technology to travel to Earth

in the late 20th century. Their compatable biology permits them to quickly

assimilate into the native human population, and within a few generations

they cease to exist as a separate species. The Heds are left as rulers of

a war-wasted and barren planet, and eventually resort to the same technology

themselves in a attempt (that ultimately fails) to exact their final vengenace

on the survivors among their foes.

[ME Volumes 1 & 2. This is the backstory that drives both volumes of this

manga series.]

"Billions of years" in the future

- By this time, all humans still living on what is left of Earth have de-volved

into carnivorous primitive humanoids of limited intelligence. They are also

cannibals, and frequently attack any beings that attempt to approach them or

blunder into their midst. Fortunately, this de-volution has not affected the

vast majority of humanity, which is now scattered widely among the Sea of

Stars. Mankind thus survives, but his original homeworld is now lost to him.

It has become a primitive backwater world sparsely populated by savages, and

with only the faintest of traces remaining above ground of the proud beings

who once lived there, broke the bonds of their world, and went on to spread

themselves across the Sea of Stars.

[SR Volume 3, ME Volume 2; see also SBD]

"The End of Time"

- The Enforcers come from this era. They are a race of extremly powerful

transdimensional beings, whose job it is "to ensure that Fate and Destiny

remain unchanged." In other words, they act like DOCTOR WHO's Chronovores,

correcting (or thrwarting) any efforts to change the predestined flow of

events in the particular Ring of Time assigned to them.

[GROVA Part 4, "Pieces of Time." Layla Shura, the chief operating officer

of the Galaxy Railways, is aware of them. She even summons them on occasion,

as events require.]

- Layla Shura is finally allowed to relinquish her task of watching over

destiny.

[GROVA Part 4, "Pieces of Time."]

----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X----x----X

COMMENTS REGARDING SPECIFIC TITLES IN THIS TIMELINE

---------------------------------------------------

GUN FRONTIER

An exact date for GFa is never given but can be derived from numerous clues

in both the anime and manga. It is post-Civil War, and there has been enough

time for both the Colt Peacemaker SAA (single action automatic) revolver and the

Winchester .44 caliber lever-action rifle to become common. That pretty much

pegs a date no earlier than 1868. I favor a date not long after 1873, after the

introduction of the Winchester '73 - the first model that could use the same

kind of bullets as the Colt Peacemaker SAA. My choice of 1876 allows for events

referenced regarding the founding (and subsequent massacre) of the Yellow Creek

settlement, along with events in Japan that appear to have precluded it -

namely, the political turmoil and samurai wars leading up to the ascension of

Emperor Meiji, and his reconciling with the surviving Choshu samurai. I

strongly believe that the available evidence points to Yellow Creek being

founded by former Choshu samurai and their families who emigrated to the United

States in order to start their lives anew. It also ties in fairly well with

what Tochiro says regarding his relationship with his friend Harlock: "We've

been hangin' around together for a long time now."

One fan has pointed out that if M-san would have ever given this a date, it

might very well have been 1888 - based on how he assigns dates to other stories.

In my opinion, this is too late given what few and sparse historical clues we

have - in particular the first encounter flashbacks. Still, I'll concede the

possibility, especially for GFm - which doesn't have the first encounter story,

as it was derived from another of M-san's manga shorts. We know the manga can't

take place any earlier than 1873, though, because the Winchester '73 is used in

the manga per GMm Volume 2, Chapter 1, "Rubtown and Poketown."

One final observation regarding Franklin Harlock. In GFm #01, "To the Gun

Frontier," Tochiro describes his Western friend's ancestry. "His father is

half French and half English, his mother is half Russian and half German. His

grandparents have Finnish blood, Italian blood, and who knows what else?" This

makes it pretty clear that Franklin Harlock is at best a distant relative of

Phantom F. Harlock I of MYA through his mother, and not part of the same branch

of the family as I presumed in the previous edition of this work. My bad at the

time, and I've sinced fixed my timeline references accordingly.

"Duel: Emeraldus vs. Harlock" manga short

This fine bit of comedy really doesn't belong in the Leijiverse proper, but

I'm providing a date for three reasons. First, it could be easily rewritten and

retconned into a proper Leijiverse tale, as I did - in a way - in the earlier

edition of this work, years before I was able to get a proper translation. Thus

"Death Herlock" could be Phantom F. Harlock I and "Emeraldus" could be Selen,

elder sister of La Andromeda Promethium. Second, the technology - battling

zeppelins, machine guns too large to conveniently carry, modern-looking pistols

and rifles, etc. - fairly fixes the timeframe as being between the two World

Wars - as does the dominating presence of a British air fleet, indicative of a

strong British Empire still very much present in the world. Third, fan

opinion - most fans who read the earlier edition of this work appreciated my

listing of it, and some even looked it up for themselves. That's how I was

finally able to get my hands on a proper English translation (thank you, Red

Rabbits!), and I am indeed most grateful.

THE COCKPIT (BATTLEFIELD) manga series

It should be noted that all of the stories in TCa take place in 1944-45,

but that the original manga series, TCm proper (and its spinoffs - HARD

METAL, BLUE METAL, CASE HARD, and COCKPIT LEGENDS), covers the whole

timeframe of World War II and even dabbles a bit in other conflicts - such as

World War I, Japan's various pre-WWII Chinese campaigns, some comtemporary

military-themed stories, and even a few sci-fi combat-related tales. Anyhow,

for the curious, here is where to look in the bunkoban TCm release for the

original manga shorts on which the three episodes of TCa are based:

"Stratospheric Air Currents" - Volume 3, Chapter 3, pp. 89-103

"Sonic Thunder Attack Unit" - Volume 1, Chapter 12, pp. 359-390

aka "Onsoku Raigeki-tai"

"Steel Dragoon" - Volume 1, Chapter 13, pp. 391-426

aka "Tetsu no Ryukihei"

There's a lot of M-san's WWII and combat-themed stories that don't appear in any

of the manga collections - such as "Pilot 262," which you can find as an extra

at the back of the CAPTAIN HARLOCK ANTHOLOGY by Play Comics. I also in passing

that some of the stories from TCm and its related manga shorts might have wound

up in SSX as the series was originally planned, if the two brief scenes shown in

the KKA pilot film are any indication.

"The Fangs of an Aurora," aka "Aurora no Kiba" in the original Japanese, is

noted - although not discussed - because it is one of the many proto-Harlock

stories mentioned in most write-ups about M-san's famous space pirate. In this

case, the Harlock-like character is a German U-boat commander playing a deadly

game of tag with a British Nelson-class battleship in the North Atlantic. He

wins the game, but the exploding battleship causes a nearby iceberg to start

"calving," smashing giant chunks of ice into his U-boat and quickly sinking it.

This is the title story of the old Shonen Sunday SENJO (aka BATTLEFIELD)

tankoban collection of the same name, and was eventually reprinted for the

bunkoban release of the later TCm collection, Volume 2, Chapter 9. The

character in question is featured in a color print by M-san on the cover of the

old tankoban release. By the way, Chapter 2 of the TCm tankoban is also a

proto-Harlock story - this time about a Focke-Wulf FW-190 pilot who gets shot

down by a faster Allied plane and eventually exacts his vengance with a brand

new Me-262.

The first part of the manga short "The Owen Stanley Witch," aka "Stanley no

Majo," served as the basis for the opening of the MYA feature film. I don't

know in which of the BATTLEFIELD manga it first appeared, but it was later

reprinted as part of the TCm wideban collection, Volume 1, Chapter 9. That is

from where my copy comes.

The manga short "Eternal Arcadia" is also known as "Waga Seishun no

Arcadia." This was first released in tankoban form as part of the SENJO

(BATTLEFIELD) series, in the tankoban collection that bears the same name.

The cover features an M-san color portrait of Harlock beside his airplane, and

is a frequent sought-after prize of Leijiverse collectors. The story was later

reprinted for the bunkoban TCm collection, Volume 2, Chapter 12. This too is a

prized target by Leijiverse collectors - in particular those who cannot get the

older tankoban release. It was supposedly the first volume of the TCm set to

sell out, and has yet to be reprinted as of this date (2012).

QUEEN MILLENNIA

All timeline entries in this document for QM are a mixture of events as

described and depicted in the four main sources for the story of QUEEN

MILLENNIA. These are, in no particular order, as follows: the original manga

(QMm), the original 1980 Japanese television series (QMa), the oft-criticized

1986 English reversioning of the television series by Carl Macek (CHQ1K), and

the original Japanese feature film (QMf). Where events among the sources are

contradictory I have tried to pick the version that is both internally

consistent and coincides with events depicted in stories that take place

farther down the Leijiverse timeline, most notably ML and SSM. If there are

any errors in my entries, then they are entirely my own.

STAR BLAZERS: THE CALLISTO CRISIS

SBC1 takes place shortly after the end of SB2, but some time passes before

the events of YNV. In SBC1 itself, Colonel Fenalon says “weeks [have] passed” since the destruction of Gatlantis." It is safe to say that at least a couple

of weeks have passed due to the extensive damage to the Argo. This would give

an approximate date of 28 November 2201 for the start of SBC1, which is just

enough time for the EDF to make the Argo spaceworthy again per the story. They

are finishing repairs on the Argo as the story begins.

YAMATO: THE NEW VOYAGE (YNV)

The dates are derived both from internal evidence in the movie and SBC3's

"Icarus" comic book story arc. Upon arrival at Icarus, Sasha writes in her

diary that she is eleven months old. The implication is that the destruction

of Iscandar took place on 25 December 2201, three days after Sasha was born and

one year to the day of the invasion of Earth by the Black Nebula Empire (BFY,

although this is never explicitly stated). YNV itself never gives any firm

dates of any kind, although there are three instances of roundabout dating.

First, at the start of the movie, the narrator says that it begins “one month after” the end of the Earth-Cometine War. Second, a Christmas 2201 date for Iscandar's destruction also reconciles reasonably well with Desslok’s own comments at the start of the movie. He tells his people that it has been two

years since the destruction of all life on Gamilon. The Battle of Gamilon took

place on 23-25 April 2200, nineteen months prior to YNV. Third, Desslok

himself makes the "ninteen months" statement later in the movie. Thus, the

Christmas 2201 date for the destruction of Iscandar fits quite well with the

three roundabout dates given in YNV itself.

STAR BLAZERS: THE EURYTHMIA AFFAIR

The date is set by Leader Desslok’s discovery of the location of Galman, the original homeworld of the Gamilons, near the end of this story. The story

of his battle with the Bolars over possession of Galman is recalled in a

flashback during SB3. Desslok’s conquest of Galman is generally accepted as having happened about the same time as or shortly after the events depicted in

BFY.

BE FOREVER YAMATO

SBC3's partial BFY adapation (Part 2, “Invasion: Earth!”) fixes the date that the Black Nebula successfully penetrated the EDF’s defenses in the Sol System - 25 December 2202 (Christmas Day). This is the scene that opens the

movie. The action in the movie appears to take place across several days;

however, no “last day” is ever given for the defeat of the Black Nebula Empire. My dates are conjecture, based on the way events appear to flow within the movie.

STAR BLAZERS: THE BOLAR WARS

We don’t know the exact dates for events in SB3, but one can make a good guess based on the events that bracket it. The events depicted in BFY started on

25 December of 2202 and lasted through the first week of January 2203. FY takes

place somewhere near the end of 2203. Allow a couple of weeks to a month for

events that take place immediately prior to SB3, and one ends up with dates

ranging from mid-January to 1 December 2203. The dates I give for the events

of SB3 are based on this spread, and may be off by as much as a week in either

direction.

FINAL YAMATO

This movie, the final in the original Yamato drama, takes place shortly

after the events depicted in The Bolar Wars. How shortly we do not know;

however, the background materials make clear that all events in the story take

place in 2203. The only thing we know for sure is that the Dinguil’s Uruku space fortress needed 20 days to force-warp Aquarius to Earth and that they started

almost as soon as they made that determination. All other date references in

the movie are pegged to this event. This, plus the fact that the entire movie

takes place “in 2203” fairly well limits the possible dates involved. The dates I give are conjectural and may be off by as much as a week in either

direction.

YAMATO RESURRECTION and STAR BLAZERS REBIRTH

There is a major continuity faux pas with this movie insofar as the

Leijiverse goes - Pluto gets swallowed by a black hole and destroyed. So why

does it reappear again, apparently intact and whole, in later stories? I don't

the hell know! Maybe another Guardian Spirit restored it, as the Guardian

Spirit of Arishna did with Earth's moon in SBC1. Who knows?! YR was primarily

Nishizaki's vision and effort, not M-san's, so at least we know HOW this

happened. I have little choice but to ignore this data point for continuity's

sake - just like I've had to ignore or retcon such things in other Leijiverse

tales. That's why I didn't note Pluto's destruction in the timeline, insofar as

the events of YR are concerned.

I have gone ahead and included every bit of data I can mine from Eldred's

SR without directly contradicting the events of YR. This includes the ill-fated

maiden voyage of the Andromeda-II and what I call the Separatist Crisis - which

would actually be a bigger event in my timeline than what Eldred depicts.

Retconning to take YR into account requires this. It also requires me to rework

the disappearance of the Andromeda-II so that something else was the cause - in

the case, a freak wormhole. How that happend I do not say. An wave motion

engine imbalance is the first thing that comes to mind, but it could very well

be something else. I'll leave this up to Eldred if he ever wants to revise his

story in light of YR; otherwise, I can but pick and choose, and leave the rest

open to specuation.

THE LEGEND OF MARINE SNOW

The date I have assigned is a best guess, based on the look of the

technology as seen in the movie - which evokes a near-future MACHINERS CITY

sort of feel. It was made as a TV special during the “heyday” period of Matsumoto-san in the 1990s. One might supposed that the Dr. Oki featured in

this movie is a direct ancestor of the Dr. Oki in CWZ. Same goes for the

character of Hiroshi Umino, whom Matsumoto appears to have recycled from the

original QEm for this movie. I am open to suggestions (along with supporting

evidence) as to a better date.

SUBMARINE SUPER 99

A date of “20XX” is given in the various background materials of the anime version of SUBMARINE SUPER 99. Its technology doesn’t look too far removed from our own and it had to happen before the Gamilon threat to Earth was discovered.

By the way, the original manga had a date of "19xx."

KASKEI RYODAN DNA SIGHTS 999.9

Date as stated at the beginning of both the anime feature and manga

original. This takes place in an alternate continuity, with the surface of

the Earth being destroyed by a massive meteor shower early in the 21st century

and the remants of humanity being quickly subjugated by the surviving mega-

corporations and their private military - the so-called "Trader Forces."

Captain Harlock's presence at the end of this tale, as well as that of the

space battleship Yamato, raises a number of chronological and continuity issues

which are not easily resolved - unless both vessels had been fitted with Time

Sweeper technology at some point (UTSM; see also HSm Volume 4, "Gotterdammerung"

and HSm Volume 2, "The Valkyrie"). This appears to be the case in the "revival"

Leijiverse, of which DNA is a part.

AREI NO KAGAMI

The date for AREI NO KAGAMI is an educated guess, based on the visuals and

technology involved. This has yet to be translated for Western audiences, and

more information would be appreciated.

YAMATO 2520

This show is very well documented with regards to dates and such, so all

I'm going to talk about here are the unproduced episodes. Eldred has done

Leijiverse fans a big favor by posting an English translation of the original

plot outlines and notes for the unproduced episodes on the official STAR BLAZERS

web site. My entries for the rest of the story are based on this outline. I'll

admit to doing a fair amount of rewriting the farther I got into the outline,

as it became less and less a plot draft and more a collection or discussion of

various ideas. I hope what I came up with is fairly consistent with what was

actually produced ... and I hope Eldred or somebody else will at least adapt

this as a web comic someday. Y2520, for all of its faults and differences, is

intriguing enough a story that it deserves to be told in full. Here's hoping

that will eventually happen.

MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA feature film

The date for MY YOUTH IN ARCADIA comes from various published materials

that came out in Japan at the time the movie was originally released. Oddly

enough, it is the one date that doesn't show up in the timeline presented in

the ARCADIA ROMAN ALBUM (the four that do are for QMf - 1999, GE999f - 2973,

and the start and end dates for SPCHa - 2977 to 2980).

There is also another way to determine the date for MYA. In SSX #7, "X =

Emeraldas," Green Izma says he's been hunting for Emeraldas for six months.

We know that this takes place no later than the fall of 2967, because the crash

of the Death Shadow on Heavy Melder happens on Christmas Day, 2967 (year

adjusted) - per SSX #10, "Snowfall in the Sea of Stars." Six months prior to

the fall of 2967 is the end of winter or early spring of 2967. This date

matches with the MYA produduction and press materials.

KAIZOKU KIKAN ARCADIA

Translated "The Great Pirate Ship Arcadia," this is the fandom name for

the short pilot film for what would become the ENDLESS ROAD SSX anime TV series.

The reason why it's treated apart from SSX is becauset the series it proposed

was VERY different from the way SSX turned out. It would have played a lot

closer to the actual Harlock mythos as M-san had developed it in his older

mangas. Of course, all of this is what was originally intended. If the pilot

film is any indication, KKA would have had more of a classic GE999a feel to it,

given its many sources - with Harlock and company voyaging and exploring new

worlds and having new experiences, while only occasionally running into the

Illumidas. In short, it wasn't what we eventually got. SSX turned out to be

quite a different show than what was first proposed with KKA. Nevertheless,

both because there is at least six months open for it, per SSX #7, "X =

Emeraldas," and because it was supposed to be set in Harlock's first year as a

space pirate, I have included KKA in my timeline. I'll let the other fans and

true Leijiverse scholars argue about the who, where, why, and how. As for me,

I'm documenting it as best I can and moving on.

ENDLESS ROAD SSX

The date for SSX is based on Tadashi Momono's statement that his parents

"died two years ago during the war" (SSX #01, "Arcadia Blast Off!"). This still

leaves a sizeable gap of at least a half-year between MYA and SSX, which the

proposed (but never produced, much less scripted) tales of KKA might fill rather

nicely. I date the death of Tadashi's parents to 2966, the same year as the

Last Battle - which is the same line of reasoning that most fans accept, give or

take a year.

CAPTAIN HARLOCK RETURNS comic book series

While the CHR stores are self-admittedly apocryphal, having never received

official approval from either M-san or Toei, they are the only source for

certain things in the "heyday" universe - such as the origins of the Illumidas,

for example. There is just enough room between the events of SSX and SSM for

their inclusion, and they do in fact provide a bridge of sorts for Harlock's

fight with the Illumidas slowly transforming itself into his later fight against

the Machine Empire ... which naturally leads into the events depicted in SSM,

despite certain inconsistencies. This is the main reason why I have included

these stories in my timeline. I leave it up to my fellow fans to revise and

retcon accordingly. Rest assured that if M-san or his authorized heirs ever

properly address this gap in the tales of the Leijiverse, and I am around for

it, then I will adjust this document accordingly.

SPACE SYMPHONY MAETEL

According to the official Avex Mode press release, this “revival” Leijiverse anime OVA series takes place two years after the events depicted in

ML. The series is designed this way, featuring a still-youthful Maetel and a

Captain Harlock who still has both his eyes - not to mention CWZ's "green

SPCH Arcadia" - er, I mean HSm's "Deathshadow II." Oh-kay, 'nuff said there,

moving on. It is an obvious prequel to Cosmo Warrior Zero given the fact that

the Machine Empire as such is still in the process of building itself. It's

also the last "revival" Leijiverse anime to have been produced, taking all

previous such efforts since HSa into account.

SSM appears to have been designed to replace the flashback depicted in

SPCHa #31, “The Origins of the Arcadia.” It can be successfully retconned into

both the "classic" and "heyday" Leijiverse viewpoints once you understand this.

The show starts three months before LaMaetel settles into orbit as Heavy

Melder’s moon (per SSM #08, “A Funeral March for Mother”) and ends about a month later (implied by SSM #10, “Lightning Titan”). It also does a beautiful job of resolving the issues surrounding the building of Great Andromeda and the “exile” of Queen Promethium, as depicted at the end of GE999A and implied in at least

one of the scens of GE999EFa. All told, this is one of the rare instances of a

“revival” Leijiverse story that actually fixes existing continuity issues instead of causing more, and I applaud both M-san and SSM's production staff

in this regard.

COSMO WARRIOR ZERO

This isn't all that hard to date, given so much internal evidence. It's

definitely a "revival" story - a patch-less young Harlock is flying his first

pirate ship, the Deathshadow II (nee SPCH Arcadia, per HSm Volumes 3 and 9),

so this is a few years after his father's death in 2964 (per HSm Volume 3).

The Machine Empire is now very much on the scene, so this is after 2968 and

SSX - in fact, it's even after Gibson's CHR, too - but not by much. Can't be

after HSa, though, because that's when Harlock switches ships (or switches them

back, if you're a "heyday" fan like me). So, CWZ happens somewhere between

2969 (end of CHR) and 2972 (HSa). There's only one other major Leijiverse

anime title in that gap, so the real question is this: does CHR come before or

after SSM? The answer is in CWZ itself. It happens AFTER the Big Galaxy War,

where humanity and the Machine Empire clashed for the first time. The Machine

Empire had yet to become a real threat - leastways in the Milky Way galaxy - in

SSM, so that must have happened before the Big Galaxy War. Thus, CWZ follows

SSM, and not the other way around.

QUEEN EMERALDAS manga series

While there is no date ever given in QEm, there is one major theme running

throughout the last three volumes: Emeraldas is searching for Tochiro. She

never finds him, but the search and her recollections of Tochiro comprise

several stories - especially in the later volumes. That means this takes place

shortly before GE999f - where her search for Tochiro ends rather abruptly, once

Harlock tells her of his death.

Unless you want to cherry-pick, like me, the events depicted in QEm and QEa

are mutually exclusive. QEm is a "classic" period manga that also fits quite

well in the "heyday" period, given the GE999f tie-in (intentional or not). QEa

is quite clearly a "revival" period work. I supposed it might be possible to

gandy-dance through both and come up with a sequence of events that works

either way, but for me it's more trouble than it's worth. See my discussion on

DIVER ZERO as to why I feel this way.

GALAXY EXPRESS 999

The adjusted date for GALAXY EXPRESS 999 is given in the timeline presented

in the ARCADIA Roman Album. This is actually for the feature film adaptation of

the series. Since this date is part of M-san's "heydey" continuity revisions, I

have accordingly adjusted all date references given in the TV series per the

Roman Album dating.

GALAXY RAILWAYS season 1

Like everybody else at the time, I was misled by the silhouette of Maetel

and Tetsuro in the window of the Three-Nine during GR#1, "Departure Ballad."

That's why I dated GR1 to 2980 in the second edition of this document. Since

that time, however, GR2 and GROVA have been released - and the dating evidence

they contain, as well as some of their press materials, blew that theory

completely out of the water. To make a long story short, GR1 is supposed to

take place in 2973, the same years as GE999, and GROVA begins not long after

Tetsuro's visit to GRSDF headquarters on the planet Destiny, per GE999EF, and

then GR2 follows. That's because GROVA happens during Tetsuro's second journey

aboard the Three-Nine (GE999EF) as both the various GR sources and the final

volume of GE999EFm make clear.

So who were the couple in the window of the Three-Nine as Mamoru Yuki was

leaving his homeworld of Tabito to enlist in the SDF? How can we explain away

this obvious bit of fanservice (at the time)? Two ways, and both are equally

valid. One, they're people who resemble Maetel and Tetsuro. This situation

occurs a few times in the original GE999. Another equally valid theory, again

backed up by the original GE999, is that the woman is Maetel, but the boy is

somebody else. Another one of her "living Machine part" recruits over the long

years. Most fans will probably favor the latter theory, but either one will

work in explaining who we saw in the Three-Nine's train window as it left the

station on Tabito.

GALAXY EXPRESS 999 ETERNAL FANTASY

Dating the GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY stories is rather difficult, because the

information provided in both the anime OVA and the manga is contradictory.

Tetsuro is still a young boy, so this couldn't have happened much longer after

events depicted in the original GALAXY EXPRESS 999 storyline - within a year or

two, at the most. At the same time, however, there are several references to

events that happened in the second feature film, ADIEU GE999. The most notable

of these is when Tetsuro describes how the Mechanoids of Earth eventually shut

down en masse one their supplies of "clean capsule energy" (from the second

film) were cut off. Throwing another monkey wrench into the works is GALAXY

RAILWAYS. The departure of Manabu Yuki to join the GRSDF is supposed to have

happend about the same time as GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY. Thus, I have tried to

follow the path of least contradictions in assigning a date for my artifical

timeline.

In my opinion, putting the tales of GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY between the

events of the two feature films - thus taking place a year after the original

TV series, once its date is adjusted - is the best fit. The eventual failure of

the Metanoid actions against Earth thus serve as a natural lead-in for the

second feature film, where a resurgent Machine Empire once again threatens the

galaxy. Almost all second feature film references in GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY can

easily be explained away (it wasn't "clean capsule energy;" it was another

source of power; et al). Finally, GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY works better with the

"between" date, with regards to other revival Leijiverse tales (HARLOCK SAGA,

GALAXY RAILWAYS, et al), than following the natural tendency to place it after

ADIEU GE999. To be fair, many "revival Leijiverse" fans advocate another

approach, which is far more simple. They eliminate ADIEU GE999 entirely and

replace it with GE999 ETERNAL FANTASY. Toki no wa, I say.

Of course, there is the slight problem of Sol going supernova and

destroying Earth - a story element that is present in both the anime and manga

versions of the tale (GE999EFa; GE999EFm Volume 2, Chapter 3, "The Shattered

Solar System." Fortunately, its destruction is only imminent in GE999EFa, and

can be conveniently hand-waved away - but it actually happens in GE999EFm

Volume 2, right before Tetsuro's fight with Helmazaria. This catastrophe was

supposed to have been set right and the Sol System completely restored at the

end of GE999EFm. Sadly, like so many other major Leijiverse manga series,

GE999EF was left uncompleted - and thus the deus ex machina for this event is

never revealed. How was it to have been brought back? I suggest the Sol System

could have been restored by another almost identical version being

"ring-slipped" from a parallel dimension - like what happens to Earth in the

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE stories by Douglas Adams. Then again, the mysterious entity

in the Eternal Galaxy we were supposed to meet at the end of Tetsuro's second

voyage (but never did) could have also rolled back time itself prior to the

event, so Tetsuro could prevent it. That's something like what is implied in

the version hinted at in the end of GE999EFa - the mysterious entity would have

intervened somehow to keep Sol from going supernova. The impending destruction

of the Sol System gives GE999EFa an almost "STAR BLAZERS" feel - one that sadly

went unrealized, since the anime was never continued (like the manga). In the

end, we just don't know - and since there's no way to know for sure what M-san

intended, I've ignored the event in my artificial timeline. You can reinsert it

if you like, if you're going strictly by GE999EFa, but that's up to you.

By the way, GE999EFa only covers the first volume of the manga series and

two chapters from the second. It ends with the Three-Nine landing at the

planet of Technologia (CWZ), where the second volume of the manga begins. The

first five volumes of GE999EFm are available in a page-flipped English

translation by Viz Media. The complete seven-volume set is available in a

non-flipped French translation by Kana Press.

GALAXY RAILWAYS OVA - "A Letter from an Abandoned Planet"

This appears to take place at some point after Maetel and Tetsuro visit

planet Destiny, and pay their respects to Layla Shura - per GE999EFm Volume 7,

Prologue Parts 1-3. The three main data points here are the presence of Layla

Shura herself in the episode, the fact (alluded to by Tetsuro in Part 1) that

the Three-Nine actually has an engineer this time around (the female android

Kanon), and that the ultimate destination of the Three-Nine on its current

trip is the Eternal Galaxy - just as in GE999EF. This would make it the next

"story" in the GE999EFm series to involve Tetsuro and Maetel (which the last

five stories of GE999EFm do not) - but just how long after their visit at

Destiny this happened is anybody's guess.

One other thing. The OVA as such has no individual titles for its four

parts. The ones I use came from fans of the GR series, and might change should

this ever get a proper English dub.

GALAXY RAILWAYS (season 2)

This takes place several months after the events of OVA series, based on

the status of SDF cadet Killian Black in both shows. He has begun serious

training with the Sirius Platoon at the start of the OVA, and has since been

assigned to it at the beginning of GR2. Manabu states in GR2 #04, "Stardust

Blues," that a year has passed since the First Alfort Crisis.

QUEEN EMERALDAS OVA series

Per the official OVA press release kit, the QUEEN EMERALDAS anime takes

place two years after the first GALAXY EXPRESS 999 feature film.

SPACE PIRATE CAPTAIN HARLOCK

The dates for the start of the series, as well as the year in which Mayu

was abducted, are given in the series itself. ARA lists Captain Harlock as

having returned to Earth in 2980, after defeating Queen Rafelisa, for the events

depicted in the last episode of the series.

DIVER ZERO

This "classic" early manga series is set in 2999. It's best described as

a trial run for many of the story ideas that eventually wound up in SPCH. Its

most important contribution to the Leijiverse is that Mimay of Jura appears in

its pages for the first time, albeit with an appearance and mannerisms more

like those that were eventually given to Kei Yuki. By the end of the series,

however, you already see that Mimay is starting to morph into the form by which

she is more familiar. The other key dating factor is the appearance of a young

woman named Revi. It is my belief that this the adult Revi Bentselle from SSX,

given the dates and contexts of both stories. Of course, it could be two

completely different characters with identical names, to be sure - but just such

a twisted loop, given "Revi's" DZ story, is the kind of thing you would expect

in the Leijiverse. Another factor to consider is that Harlock and Mimay are

alone aboard Harlock's ship (in this case the Deathshadow, since this is a

"classic" manga) - which is exactly the way the pair are depicted at the end

of SPCH and at the start of CHEO. In other words, there's all kinds of factors

pointing to this being a nice fit, in my artificial model of the Leijiverse, as

a set of adventures taking place between SPCHa and CHEO - in fact, probably the

last one, given the 2999 date. IMHO, I think it should be backdated at least

a decade (2989) for a better fit, since it and CEHO are almost on top of each

other timewise. Still, for the sake of you readers, I'll go with the date as

given and let you develop you own personal timeline interpretations as you see

fit.

The only real problem with accepting the 2999 date is DZ's curious tie to

another "classic" era manga, QEm. One of the revelations in QEm that didn't

make it into QEa (the "revival" anime adaption) is that Hiroshi Umino might be

DZ's title character, Diver Zero, under an assumed name. It would neatly

explain a lot of the strange things surrounding Hiroshi's character in QEm -

such as how he could take so much abuse and survive events that would kill any

normal human. All of this was dropped for QEa - which meant that Hiroshi

became a distinct character in his own right. This is a connection of which

most Leijiverse fans will be unaware unless they have either read about it just

now or have already read QEm Volume 3. Thus, since QEm's DZ connection was

dropped for QEa, and for the sake of maintaining some kind of coherent

consistency among the majority of my sources, I've had to reluctantly set aside

this connection and date DZ by its stated date - instead of dating it as a QEm

prequel, where it probably belongs in any attempt at a "classic" dating scheme

(regardless of the stated date in the manga itself).

CAPTAIN HARLOCK ENDLESS ODYSSEY

Okay, I'll try to keep this simple. The original Japanese production

staff intended this show to be set in the year 2999. This is a well-known

fact, and there is multiple evidence both within and without the show to back

it up. The stated age of Doctor Zero, for example - sixty - which tallies with

his apparent age in SPCHa. The apparent ages of Harlock, Yattaran, and Kei -

which tally with HSm Volume 3, CWZ, and SPCHa respectively. The flashback

of SPCH's Arcadia (aka the second "Deathshadow" from HSm, SSM, and CWZ). The

mention of the fight against the Mazone - which by Mimay's implication is still

a somewhat recent event. I could go on and on, but just about every data point

you want to pull points to a 2999 date.

So ... from where the hell did the 3079 date come that I used before?

That comes from the English subtitles of CHEO #5, "Battlefield! The

Tombstone Planet. Chief Ilita's father is listed as having died in 3059 -

some 80 YEARS after the events depicted in SPCHa (2977-2980). Corn Pone Flicks,

my opposites on the timeline debate, made a very good case for CHEO being set

in 3079, based on that data, and I saw no reason to oppose their logic at the

time. I have since gone back and looked at ALL of the relevant data, as well

as re-watching ALL of CHEO. I now know better.

The subtitles in Pioneer's release of CHEO for the Western markets are in

error. They have to be. They must be. ALL of the other data points to a 2999

date for CHEO. Furthermore, the bumped-up dates only appear in that one scene,

and nowhere else. Now where they got those dates, I don't know. I suspect, and

I even said as much back then, that somebody with the original production may

have decided to bump the date up after CHEO had already started production.

Why? The dates in question do NOT appear on the tombstone of Chief Ilita's

father in the actual episode! I have gone back and freeze-framed the scene in

question - the funeral flashback. His framed picture is obscuring the dates on

his tombstone, and all we see are the numbers "00" at the end of his death date.

The same goes for the crypt to his left - its date is also cut off, and only

"00" can be seen. What this tells me is that the animators didn't put in a

specific date, or that's not a date at all - and that somebody came up with

one when they did the English subtitles. Thus, the dates given in the English

subtitles are BOGUS, and should not be considered in dating this story. That

is why I have gone with the apparent original intent and changed the date for

CHEO in my timeline to AD 2999.

Now I know some wiseass is going to come along and say, "Well if the date

of death for Ilita's father is wrong, then so is Doctor Zero's age. That's in

the subtitles, too!" Granted, it is - but it's also consistent with every

other data point that is NOT in the subtitles. That date reference is correct.

It's the one in the funeral flashback that's wrong. Why? I dunno. I just

report what I've researched, correct it accordingly, and move on. Personally,

I like the correction, since it's a damn better fit for the Leijiverse than

the bad situation I was forced to incorporate before. Once you think about it,

and examine the data yourself, I believe you'll agree with me.

DAI YAMATO ZERO-GO and the GREAT YAMATO manga

The earlier GY manga, on which DYZG was partially based, has been called by

others "380 pages of cut-and-paste artwork with 20 pages of story." Having seen

the manga, I agree with them. It's essentially the same as YR and SR, but set

centuries later and with the Metanoids behind the cascading black hole in

M-san's version of the story. The only thing one might mine out of this is that

DYZG's Great Yamato appears to be a rebuilt and modified version of the Yamato

that appears in the GY manga. Other than that, I see nothing else I can cull

from it for my timeline model. That pretty much sums it up.

My entries are limited on these because there is not a whole lot of

translated material available - and frankly, judging from what little has been

done, it's not worth the effort. Eldred calls DYZG "awful" and that's putting

it mildly. I managed to sit through the first three episodes (all I could find

without paying an arm and a leg for this overrated show), but I went through a

whole case of Jolt cola trying to stay awake to the end. I got what I could,

but it's not much - and frankly, wasn't worth the effort. I'll probably

include more as it becomes available, but I'll also be sure to lay in more Jolt

cola before I do.

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Until the next update!

- REM