... would surely smell as sweet
You say Herlock, and I say Harlock....
Harlock. Herlock. What’s the diff? Well, at some time in the late
1970s, the Captain Harlock franchise was curiously transliterated into 'Captain Herlock'.
Although it does seem that
Matsumoto himself used the English spelling 'Herlock' in his earlier manga
(which could be what began the confusion in the
first place) 'Captain Herlock' was the English subtitle of the manga of the
1970s, and was also used in the title of the Cosmic
Corsair Captain Herlock Roman Album of 1980, so this alternation between 'Herlock' and 'Harlock' has been ongoing for
some time now.
The katakana for Harlock is plainly ‘Harlock’ (in case you don't believe me, the katakana is reproduced below in really big letters),
and that is also how it is pronounced in both Japanese and English (listen carefully if you
possess a subtitled version), so there is no logical explaining of the transliteration of ‘Harlock’ to ‘Herlock.’
During the 1980s it seemed that the ‘Herlock’ promulgated by the Roman Album Syndrome had been dropped in favour of
‘Harlock’ again. Alas, the more recent release of Endless Odyssey has, in one fell swoop, wiped out
'Harlock’ in favour
of ‘Herlock’ once more. Sigh. Never mind. A rose is a rose is a rose…
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