In this animated adaptation of E. E. Doc Smith's groundbreaking science fiction serial "Grey Lensman" from the 1930s-1950s, Kimball Kinnison, a young man from the agricultural planet Mquie and his Valerian companion, Buscirk find a dying man with a legendary crystal lens embedded in his hand. As the man was dying, he mysteriously passed on the Lens to Kim. With more companions to come by, Kim must find out the purpose of the Lens before the Boskone dynasty does.
SF Shinseiki Lensman, Lensman: Shadow of the Lens, Lensman: Power of the Lens, Lensman: Secret of The Lens, Η Δύναμη του Φακού, Λένσμαν: Το Μυστικό του Φακού, Το Κρύσταλλο των Άστρων, The Power of Lens, 天眼急先锋, Poder do Cristal, העדשאי -סודה של העדשה, Poder Cristal, Человек-линза, SF shinseiki Lensman, 透镜人
Japan
USAPG-13
Japan
USA
So putting this on front, sci-fi and space opera and related content are entirely not for me. So right away, in terms of its story, I personally didn’t find it as engaging, but I can see how people who love more this type of stuff may enjoy this more.
With that out of the way, visually and in terms of the animation, this was really great. Plenty of stunning shots, like the explosion and the character designs are pretty memorable and distinguishable. Also, as I mentioned in some of my previous anime reviews last month or so, these 80s and 90s 2D animated films had a charm and look to them that felt unique; a lot of it has to…
#AniMay
I’ve never read the classic ‘40s/‘50s Lensman books so it’s hard for me to say how much this movie is borrowing from Star Wars as opposed to Star Wars borrowing from the original 1950’s novels - the cross-pollination between this and New Hope/Jedi is unmistakable and seems to go both ways (and is probably how this got greenlit - I’ve seen a metric ton of Japanese Star Wars ripoffs). Though the influence on Silver Age Green Lantern premise is more unmistakable.
As it is, this is decent space opera, but lacks the normal insane Kawajiri touch (with a couple of exceptions, like the heroine inexplicably getting attacked by tentacles not once but twice - it’s not EXPLICITLY sexual, but…
Another really obscure space movie where finding it exists and watching it felt like finding slightly rusted buried treasure. I always get excited when I find a little known 70s/80s space movie inspired by the success of Star Wars but it’s rare to find an animated one, much less an anime that’s this fucking gorgeous to look at and is based on some other source material. The plot is a mess and the protagonist is a joke but there’s kind of this endearing charm to how much effort is put into something so derivative yet simultaneously working out its own identity through that. Was not expecting the early 3D animation either which heavily added to the visual insanity (part of the final encounter ends up being a blatant recreation of Tron too which I kinda loved!). Also the villain’s name is Dark Helmet, what can you not love?
Animation 2019 Challenge--Week 26: A Science-Fiction Film
I enjoyed Gandahar enough that I probably should have just counted it as the challenge being met for the week, but I'm stubborn about little meaningless things sometimes, and I'd planned to watch Lensman, so by gosh I was going to watch Lensman, and I watched Lensman, and it was certainly........................ a film. Notable for being an early film worked on by Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Lensman is allegedly based on E.E. 'Doc' Smith's pulp sci-fi, but it has a LOT more in common with Star Wars, right down to the final space battle/exploding evil base with the hero's spaceship jetting away with it (and a space princess and big hairy dude on the ship…
The big boss baddie is named "Dark Helmet".
The synopsis reads that this film is based on an old serial and the story is interesting, but I find that every other character is more engaging than our hero who is constantly being saved by others. In the animation you will recognize Star Wars and Tron, but there is a difference between referencing other properties and being disappointingly derivative, which this slides into in the third act. The English dubbing is good.
About 15 years ago, digging through a pile of ancient belongings that hadn't been touched in years, I came across an old VHS tape of stuff that was recorded to placate child-me back in the 80s. Along with episodes of Transformers and Gobots, a random anime film I hadn't heard of- Lensman. This movie, dubbed by Harmony Gold (the bastards that held Macross hostage for three decades), was oddly complete- no commercial breaks, no editing for time or content- so maybe it was recorded from a premium channel? Or pirated from a different video platform (you could get around Macrovision protection back in the day by recording from a Laserdisc or Betamax source).
However it got there, I kinda struck…
1984 In Review - July
#1
A farmboy stumbles upon the Lens, an artifact which grants him fantastic powers and contains vital information that may allow the Galactic Fleet to defeat the evil Boskone Empire.
The above synopsis sounds very familiar doesn’t it, sounds like a certain film starring Luke Skywalker, a farm boy who discovers a great power that could help him take down the powerful yet evil Empire. Lensman is an anime based on E. E. Smith's Lensman novels, which were written in the 1930s. The characters are not very well developed and the plot is something akin to Star Wars, only without the complexity: evil empire, rebels, boy with super powers that can save the world, helpless girl,…
TRON/Golgo 13: The Professional style primitive polygonal computer graphics always make me smile so imagine my delight when I realized this would in fact be a significant portion of the climax here
Definitely a bit overlong (has too much hangtime with these admittedly unmemorable characters) but on an action-adventure setpiece level this is something really special - constantly visually inventive in that fleet-footed Dragon's Lair/Space Ace arcade way, all the chases and fights are breathlessly fun and breathlessly animated. Once the last act kicks into gear this is basically perfect imo - also I think the main song on the soundtrack is pretty good!
They forgot to include colors beside blue in the palette.
you ever watch something and think “the person behind this really thought this was gonna be something”
Maybe this was something I’m not sure, but it still has the feeling of floption
It was fun none the less
Weird ass poster of a minor side character tho
80's anime Star Wars that has some good concepts but flows weirdly and feels way longer than it is.
worsel is hot imo. i mean thats why they have him on the front right there.
-dyna soar film reviewer
