They Call Him Captain Future: Space Opera with a Funky Beat
The Adventures of Captain Future is an anime series based on pulp sci-fi stories from the 1940s. The anime stays fairly faithful to the original stories, with groups of episodes covering various plot arcs. These plots are classic space opera of a type I like to call Space Hero, due to its focus on the lead protagonist’s heroic exploits and the use of a superhero-like alter ego. This is the kind of character that inspired the TV Tropes term “Captain Space, Defender of Earth!”
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Captain Future is a young man named Curtis Newton. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by his scientist father’s creations: a robot named Greg and an android named Otho. His teacher is Simon Wright, whose brain is housed in a robotic body. Together, they fight against evil. There’s even a space emperor bent on conquest and destruction, because, of course, there is.
The Captain Future stories initially had a four-year magazine run, followed by a series of books, but never achieved the same level of popularity as Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. Despite its relative obscurity, Captain Future still belongs to the pantheon of Sci-fi stories that helped inspire the legendary Star Wars films, which in turn, most likely contributed to the anime series being greenlit. Radio Archives has created a series of audiobooks for the franchise that are worth checking out if you're interested in the history of sci-fi. Unfortunately, most of them no longer seem to be available through Audible. You can see if they are available through the Radio Archives Website.
The front cover of one of the Captain Future VHS releases.
“They Call Him Captain Future” is the theme song from the English version dubbed by Ziv International around 1980, and released on home video in 1982. Only four episodes were released in 2 volumes. Most people probably found them through video rental stores, back when it was common to rent both the VCR and the tapes. Another English dub was created by Harmony Gold, known for Robotech, in the late 1980s. What’s odd is that Ziv released the second story arc first, while Harmony Gold later dubbed the first story arc.
My History
Not much to say. I first encountered this theme song when searching for videos on YouTube, and it has been one of my favorite obscure anime themes ever since.
Captain Future English Opening
Review
“They Call Him Captain Future” is clearly inspired by disco. The theme has a danceable beat and the potential to infect your mind
with its catchy earworm qualities. The lyrics sing the praises of our hero, “a
visionary man,” and ask us to remember that “there are men like Captain Future,
dedicated and strong,” who “right the wrongs.” This song does what a good space
hero theme song should do: build up the protagonist to get us on his side and
cheering for him throughout the adventure. This theme always leaves me with a
grin on my face. It is pulp, it is catchy, it is awesome.
The popularity of Star Wars sparked a resurgence of interest in pulp sci-fi heroes in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Another space hero to get a revival was Flash Gordon, who appeared in a movie adaptation in 1980. A comparison can be made between the Captain Future theme and the one by Queen for the Flash Gordon movie. Of course, Queen is Queen and writing in a different genre of music, but both themes focus on bolstering the reputation of their respective hero. Flash is “the savior of the universe” and will “save every one of us” after all. They have different styles but roughly the same idea.
By the time the Captain Future theme had been written, disco was falling out of favor with the general public. The advantage, however, of sitting here in the 2000s is that we don’t have to worry about that. Disco has been largely accepted back into modern dance music. I personally thank Daft Punk for helping with this endeavor. They helped to repopularize the genre by listing disco as one of their inspirations and by borrowing elements of it for several of their tracks. In fact, it would be fun to hear a modern remix of “They Call Him Captain Future”. Let’s keep giving “life back to music”.
Production and Releases
Mark Mercury used the name Bullets to write the themes and score to many early anime dubs, including Angel, Captain Harlock, and a compilation film of The Adventures of Pinocchio. In 1880, a “soundtrack” for Captain Future was released on vinyl, but it follows the pattern of other Ziv vinyl releases, consisting of stories from two episodes and the short version of the theme song, making it more of a radio dramatization than a true soundtrack.
This record is an unusual release because it covers the Dark Emperor arc, rather than the Wrecker arc, as seen on the VHS tapes. This means that Ziv likely had a dub for the first episodes in the series, but never released them on VHS.
In 2009, Mark Mercury (as Bullets) released several of his themes on the album Captain Future and Other Anime Themes. This version of “They Call Him Captain Future” is longer, clocking in at 2:21, compared to the title sequence version, which was under 2 minutes. The longer version sounds great and likely comes from the original stereo masters.
According to Mark Mercury’s website, he has received several requests over the years to release his soundtrack work. In a letter he posted to fans, he asks that people not contact him for copies. He says he does not have the originals and will let people know when and if he gets hold of any.
Keeping in theme for someone who worked on music for space operas, one of the areas Mark Mercury went into after writing anime soundtracks was composing music for planetarium shows. Some of these tracks have been released on CD, and you might want to check out some of that additional outer space sound.
Availability
Captain Future and Other Anime Themes is available digitally from many online sources, including iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify. Unfortunately, the English-dubbed version of The Adventures of Captain Future had only a handful of VHS releases, all of which appear to be the same four episodes. The Harmony Gold dub release is also hard to find. For that version, they used a different theme tune reminiscent of their RoboTech theme rather than the more distinctive Bullets theme song. There are DVD box sets of the Japanese and German language dubs if you want to track them down.
And speaking of the German version, I recommend checking out the German soundtrack. The theme reminds me of the original Star Trek TV theme, only with a disco beat, and the background music sounds like it would fit right in with Mark Mercury’s theme song. The German soundtrack gained popularity in its home country and is available for purchase.
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Music:
Captain Future and Other Anime Themes
This album has "They Call Him Captain Future" among other songs written by Bullets.
Space Science
Buy this album and pick up one of those home star projectors to create you're own planetarium experience.
The Art of Space
More Mark Mercury music for your home planetarium.
TV Friends Forever
This German cartoon theme compilation has the Captain Future theme.
Audiobooks:
How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise
An excellent overview of the rise of Star Wars and its continued popularity.
Avengers of the Moon: A Captain Future Novel
This audiobook is an origin story written by a different author. Allen Steele is the author of the Science Fiction novel Arkwright.
The Death of Captain Future
This is a truly bizarre take on the character. The novel is a kind of parody or deconstruction of the early space opera genre.
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