To bring you up to speed; the year is 4699 and a young girl by the name of Lucky Luck seeks out Captain Ahab and his band of whale hunters. In the fringes of outer space are abandoned space ships from generations gone by that are called whales. They pose various dangers to shipping lanes and space stations, with some of the larger ones even endangering colonies thanks to their powerful defensive weaponry. Space salvage is a deadly business and the competition makes it even more so but so do the authorities for various reasons. Ahab commands a small but loyal crew consisting of 8 actual hunters, far fewer than most crews, that work in unison to assist each other through thick and thin; making them legends in the space faring community. Lucky wants to join them in order to save her planet from destruction but meets initial resistance due to her age and lack of skill. Circumstances change that a bit as time progresses, including the addition of an android to the crew. The android lacks a memory but there are elements about that want to keep it that way so in the second chapter of the saga; it comes as no surprise that the Captain and crew meet with all sorts of resistance as they prepare to take on the Moby Dick.

The comic misadventures included a bit of fighting with mobsters as they threatened an old friend of the Captain's, the difficulty with obtaining supplies for the lengthy voyage on short notice, and a Federation crackdown that nets the Captain as being something of a notorious criminal. Like the Firefly series, Ahab is the center point of a band of people who have been pushed around by those in authority to the point that they just want to live freely and outside of the federation's influence. To do that, they live the dangerous lives of whalers on the fringes of civilized space in hopes of leaving the multitude of modern regulations behind them; making profit when they succeed and potentially dying when they fail.

This is different than the Melville classic then since the most dangerous threat to man is actually other men (even the Moby Dick was made by other men) rather than the forces of nature. Exactly how Dew (the android) fits into the bigger picture was as yet unclear but the thematic issues remained the same with the Captain and crew doing their best to protect their interests and the interests of their friends while making a living. I don't want to spoil it for you but the plot thickens long before Moby enters the picture with the secondary characters providing a good means by which to learn more about the past of the captain and the circumstances the crew has put up with in order to flee to the rim of the galaxy.

So, this sophomore volume had a lot of character exploration and prepared for the coming battle(s) with the titular villain of the show but it did so with increasing nods to other source material outside of the Melville book. In that sense, for all its minor faults, the series seems to offer a lot of potential to expand on various concepts and I'm keeping my rating as Recommended on it; with the warning that you should watch the volumes in order to make the most sense of them. There was a lot going on and if you blink, you're likely to miss out on something that'll come back in later episodes so check it out closely when watching it.

Picture: Hakugei: The Legend of Moby Dick 2: Across the Galaxy was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as made by Japanese director Osamu Desaki for distribution on Japanese broadcast television. It was an older styled anime with a focus on darker textures and a color palate that belied the usual cartoonish nature in favor of keeping the modernized theme of the material. There was some grain and a touch of minor defects from time to time but overall it looked pretty good to me. There were no compression artifacts and I can't say for sure how many of the minor problems were caused by the nature of the screener rather than the original material that'll be in the final product.

Sound: The audio was presented with the standard choice of the original Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital track with optional English subtitles or the English language dub presented in a richer 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. The last time I saw the show (Hakugei: The Legend of Moby Dick 1) it was a screener copy without the original language track so I was pleased that ADV Films provided a real copy of this volume in order for me to compare the original versus the dub. In general, I thought the dub actually sounded better in terms of the way the voice actors handled the material as well as the usual technical improvements ADV Films' audio engineers use to enhance the listening experience. The bass was deeper, the separation (particularly between the special effects during the action sequences and the musical score) more interesting, and the dynamic range improved on top of the better voice acting. The original track wasn't without it's merits though and I encourage fans to listen to both versions when watching the DVD.

Extras: The extras included a paper insert with a short second part interview by the Japanese director, Osamu Desaki, on one side and artwork on the other side. There was also the usual clean opening and closing animation, some sketches, character biographies, artwork, trailers, and a Space Whalers' lexicon that defined some terms. If you go to ADV Films' website, you get to see other extras, including some interviews and a picture of hotty Kira Vincent Davis but those weren't included on the DVD (which had five episodes).

Final Thoughts: Hakugei: The Legend of Moby Dick 2: Across the Galaxy was not the type of anime that will win over fans based on the technical merits alone since it looked far older than the nearly ten years it has been around yet there was something drawing me into the story ever so slowly on a deeper than usual level. I noticed fewer tie to the original Hermann Melville classic as the story progressed and more original ideas popping up so in that sense it worked better for me with time. This is definitely one of those titles that I'd rather be watching all at once (ADV Films has taken to releasing full series of past releases in full season sets for lower cost) since the time between volumes causes me to forget some of the details but I hope to see it through nonetheless. With five episodes per DVD though, I'm willing to sit this one out and take it as it comes in; I just want to see the crew interact with the spaceship known as Moby Dick!

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.