Impact Alberto wrote: I have also noticed that he is not even remotely very cool in this series, as opposed to his "best villain EVER" in Giant Robo.
Toughest or coolest?
Have you thought that perhaps you're wrong, and he based both characters off an earlier idea, perhaps an aquaintence, like Matsumoto did with Harlock?
Matsumoto says that Harlock was based on his own best friend, who was tall and handsome and got tons of love letters in school. Matsumoto himself got no love letters, and hence served as the dumpy "Tochiro" to the handsome "Harlock." (He claims, though, that he was better in fights.)
Yeah, Alberto's creator probably knew a guy like Alberto, complete with eyepatch and moustache.
By the way, the quote is from
http://stuff.mit.edu/people/rei/MANGA/Harlock.html.