Space Pirate Captain Harlock by Medicom

Didn't really follow the manga or anime series but Captain Harlock stands out coz he's a Space Pirate - how cool is that! Created by Leiji Matsumoto, he is responsible for both Space Battleship Yamato (1974) and the debut of the highly popular series Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 (both 1977) which made him one of the most popular artists in the entire manga-industry.

Captain Harlock had a cool spaceship too, the Arcadia. On a recent episode of Mythbusters, one of the myths was that pirates wore an eye patch so that when they had to go below deck after storming the ship, they simply switched the eye patch so that the eye that had been accustomed to the darkness (being shut under the eye patch) could immediately adjust to the dim light and said pirate would not suffer any vision loss from going into a dark area after having been in the bright lights on the deck of the ship. This was proven to be true - an old-fashioned night vision device!

Captain Harlock without his cape

Captain Harlock's Weapons - Gun & Sword