Anime: Lost Universe

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Let me begin by saying that I am a big fan of the Slayers series. I loved the original Slayers, I loved its sequel, Slayers Next, and I loved Slayers Try, the sequel to Slayers Next. So, how does Lost Universe fit into the picture? The voice of Canal, one of the main characters in Lost Universe, is performed by Megumi Hayashibara, who is also the voice actress for Lina Inverse from the Slayers series. The director of the Slayers series, Takashi Watanabe, directed Lost Universe. Many of the characters, villains, and side characters in Lost Universe share names with characters, villains, and side characters from the Slayers series. The story arcs of the Slayers series and Lost Universe share a similar outline. How can it go wrong?

Takashi Watanabe’s Lost Universe is to the Slayers series as Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park II is to Saving Private Ryan. All good directors have at least one major screw-up in their filmography, and that is what we have here: Takashi Watanabe’s screw up.

So, what is wrong with Lost Universe? For starters, the character base is far too small for a 26 episode series. There are 3 main characters, only two of which are of any importance. The male lead, Kain Blueriver, whose name reminds me of one of my weirder friend’s insistence on naming all of his online characters Reaper Deathwind, is pretty standard fare for a series like this. While Lina Inverse was an original, with her eating habits and quirky personality, Kain Blueriver is just another “Super Duper Good Guy” who’s saving the galaxy because, well, he’s just such a swell guy!

Canal is the name of the ship’s computer, who appears as a Star Trek: The Next Generation style hologram that can interact with her surroundings. Unlike in Star Trek: The Next Generation, however, Canal is not limited to appearing only on the holodeck, able to project herself and interact with the worlds that the ship orbits. Canal’s existence as an indestructible hologram that can affect the world around her would make her the perfect partner in battle. Sadly, this is left completely unexplored. Canal is interesting enough, but not near enough is done with her.

Millie is the tag along on the ship, who cooks for Kain, and makes a nuisance of herself. She spends a great deal of the series whining about this and that, or proclaiming herself to be the best cook/shootist/bounty hunter/etc in the Universe.

And… that’s it! For 26 episodes, there are only 3 main characters, none of whom have particularly interesting personalities. The Slayers series had half a dozen main characters, all with character traits that help fuel the comedy in the series. In Lost Universe, we have Kain’s fascination with wearing a cape, Canal’s obsession with newer and better missiles, and Millie’s blowing up the kitchen whenever she cooks, ho ho ho!

Then there’s the animation. The Slayers style is here, but not the budget. Many of the action scenes are done so cheaply that they fail to keep with the standard 12 frames per second, becoming a 4fps slide show as jarring as the horrifying middle episodes of Tsukiyomi Moon Phase.

Many scenes, situations, and gimmicks in Lost Universe lend themselves to discussions on how they could have been done better. For instance, Lost Universe employs the most boring use of psychic powers I have ever seen. You see, Swordbreaker, the spaceship that Canal acts as the operating system for, is a “Lost Ship”, running on the psychic energy of it’s Captain rather than conventional methods. A nifty idea, but poorly executed. Kain sits in the Captain’s chair, orders Canal to load up the psychic cannon, or open up a psychic portal, and then… it happens.

What’s missing from this equation is a reaction from Kain. Where are the sound effects and strained expressions, such as those that appear in Scanners? Where are the waves of translucent auras representing psychic energy, such as those used in Dark City? Kain talks a lot about the “strain” on his body, but we never see it until it becomes a plot point later in the series. Even then, there’s no interesting sound or animation. Just Kain acting crazy all of a sudden from the “strain”. Kain also has a psychic lightsaber, which, just like piloting the ship, seems to take no toll on his mental strength.

The story is the biggest black mark on Lost Universe. Try to imagine the storyline of Slayers Try, but without the magic and fantasy to give the Good versus Evil elements credibility. Imagine replacing battling Gods of pure good and pure evil with conscious battling space ships of pure good and pure evil. Now add in a villain with no charisma, charm, or appropriate menace, and characters that flip flop between acting like morons or geniuses based on nothing more than the whim of a flimsy plot.


Animation

Not very good, with an over-reliance on still frames and “below 12fps” movement. The character designs are attractively drawn, and fit with the signature style of Slayers. Background animation is sparse, with most episodes taking place in space.

Sound

The opening song is a catchy techno/rock tune, reminiscent of the music from the original Slayers. The ending theme is a soft rock beat with a female vocal. Forgettable, but not annoying. Background music during the series does not fair so well, with rather blasé and cliché tunes playing during the action, comedy, and dramatic scenes.

Characters

If I had to sum up the characters in Lost Universe in one word, it would be “boring”. The early storyline reminded me of Cowboy Bebop, but with mundane and unoriginal characters and character interaction.

Story

Boring, and filled with holes. A fantasy storyline injected into a sci-fi anime without the requisite changes to the plot outline to explain the magical happenings in a sci-fi universe.

Enjoyment

I finished the series only so I could write this review, and warn away those who might think that Lost Universe is a sequel to the Slayers series. Same director, same seiyuu, same plot, but without the grace, beauty or originality. I would not recommend this to even the most die-hard science fiction and/or Slayers fan.

If you're a Slayers fan watch this!
The story is the same as Slayers (it's creator is the same guy), although it happens a lot of time before, in another universe/parallel world (the Almaice, Volfeed and DarkStar world)

The animation is mostly bad, due to low budget. The art is really nice, though.
Keep in mind this anime was released in 1998... There is some nice CGI, specially for the space scenes. However, the cell animation went pretty bad, specially in the beginning of the series. The production went through several budget constraints (google "Yashigani"), which even resulted in an official apology from TV Tokyo. However, try to bear with the animation, as the story will make up for it.
On the other hand, the art style is really nice!

The background music is the best in the universe!
Very similar to Slayers's background music (there are songs in the OSTs from both series with equal parts), it's mostly orchestral, but there is also some nice jazz and rock sounds.
The voice cast is great, and it's almost the same as Slayers's cast.
Also, the opening and ending songs are really good, both sang by Megumi Hayashibara.

Story: Space sci-fi, lost technology, past generations, fate!
Lost technology from old civilizations is the main theme.
In the first 10 episodes the story doesn't evolve much, with some filler episodes, but it's necessary to introduce the characters. After those episodes (and starting with episode 13) the story takes a big turn, and gets a lot more than the trouble contractor job to a sci-fi darkness vs. light story.
Think of Star Wars and dark vs. light, hatred, fear, and fate. Full of slight hints about what's really going on behind the scenes, leading you slowly into understanding that there is a very deep history behind everything that is going on.

The characters are good, each one with a different personality, very similar to the characters of Slayers (Rail is just like Xellos, Nina like Ameria, Canal like Lina, etc...)
We can see the characters evolve a bit along the series, mainly the relations between them. However, there isn't that much character development as we may see in other shows, nor a big amount of characters.

It's very worth to be re-watched if you enjoyed the deep story. Watching a second time will remind you of all the hints about the deeper history I mentioned above.
The fact that you'll want to know the whole story will make you watch it again (and pray for some day the Novels and Manga, which tell the story in a different way, be translated)

For me, this (along with Slayers) is the best anime in the universe. I really like the comedy in it, and specially all the past, hidden history of the characters.