Lensman

I first saw this film long ago with my father. It was the first anime film that either of us ever saw. My father was even more amazed by cartoons swearing than I was.

I was completely captivated by it, trying to draw the charas for months.

That was years ago.

I now hold a VHS copy of Lensman in my hand.

I watched it again. I watched it again with my father.

Lensman starts out with a CG battle between a Galactic Patrol vessel and an alien squadron. The CG is needless and actually painful. In today's world of B5 and TPM, the crude geometric shapes of Lensman's CG world will make you keel over in pain. Still, if it were not for early CG like the example found in Lensman, we would not have WhiteStars and battle droids today.

The cel animation is incredibly clean and well done. It's timeless. As I sat in darkness watching Kimball dart about in his zero-g skiff, a single thought went through my mind... "I want one of those." It's the exact same thought I had so long ago.

The movie moves along, Kimball inheriting his Lens from a dying Lensman. His father dies, and he is thrown into a struggle between good and evil.

Various CG effects are scattered throughout the film. They range from tech readouts to stellar maps to cosmic knowledge to virtual drones. They fit. They are simple vector images. They could not have been done better today.

Soon enough, Kimball encounters another Lensman. He's a green insectoid lizard with wings for arms. I sat there, thinking... "Wow! That guy's cool." It's the same thought I had when I first saw this film. I can remember trying to draw him again and again.

The film moves along, the nature of the Lens revealed.

Kimball decides to accept his destiny.

If the film had ended here, I would gladly rank it up with Wings of Honneamise, Mononoke Hime, and Vampire Hunter D, but the film keeps going.

It is about now that we move on to the alien disco part of the movie. Yes... an alien disco. The entire final third of the movie takes place in and around an alien disco. The novelty of it wears off in all of five minutes, leaving you quite some time to remember the zero-g skiff and cool lizard guy.

The alien disco really is needless... and ugly. Yeah, it's fun to find Boba Fett in a mosh pit, but it's only fun the first three times.

Eventually, we leave the disco.

Kimball faces the Universe's ultimate evil. During the fight, the all-purpose evil overlord subjects Kimball to a variety of nasty CG nightmares. Ingenious, Kimball shoots himself. The pain of the fresh wound shakes him from the hallucinations.

Kimball, Lens glowing bright, uses the power of love to destroy the evil.

The end.

It's a good movie. Get rid of the hour in the alien disco, and it's a great movie.

EE "Doc" Smith's tale is a beautiful anime. Why? The story. It is the story of a Lensman. What is a Lensman? A Jedi. A Ranger. An Etone.

They are all kindred... All born of the Lens.

Surrender to Destiny.

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Peter Tatara
3.26.2000

Dairy Farmers For Quebec's Independence