The long war between the planet Earth and the machine men is finally over, resulting in a peace that is more a victory for the machine men than the Earth. Warius Zero lost his family in the war to the machinemen but despite this he still is a member of the Earth fleet that is now working in concert with the machine men. His ship, made up of both humans and machine men, has been given a near impossible task: capture the space pirate Captain Harlock. While Zero struggles to accomplish this task, evidence begins to surface that the peace between machine men and Earth may not be as it seems.

Captain Warius Zero

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese); Crispin Freeman (English)

After having his wife and child disappear in the battle between the humans and Machine men, Zero has no choice but to serve Earth's government as a Captain of second rate ships. After a run-in with the legendary Captain Harlock, Zero is given the new task of hunting down the space pirate. With his new controversial crew of machine men and humans and his old ship, the Karyū (Fire Dragon), Zero sets out to complete his mission and to keep his crew from fighting. After meeting Harlock, Zero has more of an appreciation towards him and stills believes in him even after he sees him attack civilians. Later on in the series, Zero and his first officer Marina Oki grow feelings for each other and end up falling in love.

Harlock

Voiced by: Eiji Takemoto (Japanese); Steven Blum (English)

Marina Oki

Voiced by: Aya Hisakawa (Japanese); Lia Sargent (English)

Lady Emeraldas

Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue (Japanese); Julie Thornton (English)

Tochiro

Voiced by: Tomohiro Nishimura (Japanese); Marvin Lee (English)

Grenadier

Voiced by: Hidenari Ugaki (Japanese); Tom Wyner (English)

Silviana

Voiced by: Kaori (Japanese); Mia Lee (English)

Nohara

Voiced by: Kouhei Owada (Japanese); Dave Mallow (English)

Umihara

Voiced by: Nobuaki Sekine (Japanese); Bob Papenbrook (English)

Ishikura

Voiced by: Souichiro Hoshi (Japanese); Terrence Stone (English)

Rai

Voiced by: Tadashi Miyazawa (Japanese); Michael Sorich (English)

Dr. Machine

Voiced by: Takashi Matsuyama (Japanese); Lex Lang (English)

Battlizer

Voiced by: Yoshiaki Matsumoto (Japanese); Kirk Thornton (English)

Yattaran

Voiced by: Yoshiaki Matsumoto (Japanese); Kirk Thornton (English)

Axelater

Voiced by: Yoshikazu Nagano (Japanese); Lex Lang (English)

Phase Breaker

Voiced by: Yukinobu Kaneko (Japanese); Lex Lang (English)

Helmatier

Voiced by: Yuri Shiratori (Japanese); Karen Strassman (English)

Zess Voder

Voiced by: Zenichi Nagano (Japanese); Michael McConnohie (English)

Leiji Matsumoto's other older works were referenced in this series.

• First Officer Marina Oki's home has marine snow, a direct reference to Leiji's 1980 television special The Legend of Marine Snow.
• The main weapon of the Karyū is the "Saint Elmo", a reference to the 1987 Saint Elmo – Hikari no Raihousha.

Helen McCarthy in 500 Essential Anime Movies praised the screenplay and commented that "very few writers handle doomed heroism as well as Matsumoto".^[1]

• Leiji Matsumoto page
• Enoki Films Cosmo page
• Cosmo Warrior Zero (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Cosmo Warrior Zero at IMDb