Lensman: Secret of the Lens (1984)

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nLensman: Secret of the Lens (1984)

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nDirector: Kazuyuki Hirokawa, Yoshiaki Kawajiri

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nYou’ve probably never heard of Lensman: The Secret of thenLens because for whatever the reason, this film is very obscure, it’s notntalked about a lot amongst anime fans, or even science fiction fans, which isnstrange to me because this movie is so damn entertaining, so well animated,nthat it’s a pity it isn’t more popular. Even finding decent pics for this review was a small task! But whatever, I’m here to spread thengoodness and inform you lovers of anime out there that this is one of thosenmovies you’ve never heard of that you should give a chance to. Lensman was onenof the first anime movies that I watched, along with Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of theValley of the Wind (1984), that taught me that animation could be so much morenthan what we got in Saturday morning cartoons; something far superior and complexnthan a 20 minute episode of He-Man and The Masters of the Universe. Speaking ofnwhich, the animation was fantastic on this film! You could see the filmmakersnwere going for something special, which is something I always look for in animenfilms, it has to be something special. So, what’s Lensman all about and whynshould you take your time to check it out?

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nLensman is the story of a young boy named Kim, who lives anhappy life farming with his father on the peaceful planet of Mqueie. One day, anspaceship is about to crash land on their corn field, but Kim, being thenexcellent pilot that he is, boards the ship before it crashes and lands itnhimself! He quickly explores the ship and comes upon a dying member of ‘ThenGalactic Patrol’, who hands him a magical Lens which immediately adheres to Kim’snhand. Kim doesn’t know it yet, but the Lens will give him enhanced mentalnabilities and telepathic powers. Soon, Kim learns that the Boskones, an evilnrace of beings enemies to the human race, are after this particular lensnbecause it holds the location of the ‘Devil Planet’, home planet to thenBoskones. The film is a chase sequence, as the Boskones chase Kim and hisnfriends across the galaxy, trying to destroy the Lens. Will Kim unite with thenGalactic Patrol in order to hand them the location of the Devil Planet? Or willnthe Boskones destroy Kim and the Lens first?

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nBasically Lensman is this amazing property which has beennaround since the 1930’s when its creator Edward Elmer Smith wrote the firstnLensman story and published it in the legendary science fiction magazine ‘AmazingnStories’. Since then, there have been a whole series of novels, comics (from Eternity Comics) andnmanga. There was even an anime series entitled ‘Galactic Patrol Lensman’ and a couple of board games. At one point director RonnHoward was developing a film adaptation through Universal Studios and ImaginenEntertainment, unfortunately the project fell apart because it was deemed toonexpensive by Universal. But of course, it’s a whole universe were talking aboutnhere. This is a story that spans planets and many alien races. We’re talkingnspaceships and wars in space, of course it’s going to be expensive. If you asknme, this whole property has an amazing potential to become a successful franchise,nbut Hollywood has famously backed out of many a good opportunity, so it doesn’tnsurprise me. I guess they won’t take a chance with it because it isn’t an ultranpopular property like say Marvel comics and a film adaptation could go the waynof the dodo like say for example Ender’s Game (2013), a film based on a wellnestablished science fiction series of novels, that went nowhere. But thennagain, that movie kind of sucked anyways. But Lensman is all sorts of awesome!nWell, at least this anime film version is. I loved every second of it.

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nThe thing about this film is that it feels a lot like Star Wars.nThis film was released in 1984, so I think its safe to say that Star Wars fevernwas in full force back in those days (has it ever gone away?) so it doesn’t surprisenme that for every character in this movie we have a counterpart in Star Wars.nHell, even one of the characters has her hair made up like Princess Leia’snfamous hair do. But whatever, Star Wars rip off or not, where this film excels isnin its designs. The spaceships, the aliens, everything looks amazing! For example, the Boskones are all organic beings, so their spaceships, their armor, their everything looks organic and alive. This is a uniquenlooking universe that I’d love to see translated into a live action film. Yetnwhile live action films usually have to deal with budget limitations, the coolnthing about anime films is that they don’t rely so much on a budget. Everythingnis done on paper, with traditional animation. There is no limit as to where thenimagination of the filmmakers can take us because they don’t have to build setsnor costumes, all they have to do is draw and animate whatever cool idea pops into their heads! And in this respect, the animators behind this film really out did themselves. What Inloved about Lensman is that they focused a lot on doing these long takes ofnaction where they don’t cut and the camera moves all over the place, followingnour heroes around. Best example of this would be the amazing escape sequencenwhen they rescue Buskirk and the good guys escape on these hover cycles.nAwesome action! Wonderful animation. So be ready for a movie that has somenamazing animation techniques that were pushing what could be done inntraditional animation.

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nBack in those days, computer generated images where givingntheir first baby steps and so animators kept trying to mix computer animationnwith their traditional animation often times with bad results. Examples of filmsnthat tried this are films like Rock and Rule (1983) and Disney’s The BlacknCauldron (1985), not bad movies on their own right, but those computer animatednsequences just stick out. I personally hate it when they do this, but whatever,nlets chalk it up to experimentation. Lensman: Secret of the Lens opens withnBoskonian ships that look like giant pulsating brains, but rendered in computernanimation. There’s also some computer animation towards the end, but again,nthis sequence just doesn’t look as awesome as the rest of the traditionalnanimation. Thankfully, these CGI sequences don’t last long and the film revertsnback to the awesome traditional animation that Japanese are so good at. Thentraditional animation side of the film is what really makes it special for me. Thencomputer images seem crude and less detailed then the awesome traditionalnstuff. Obviously, animators where trying the next hot thing in animation and thisnis probably why we get some bits of crappy computer animation, which was inndiapers back in those days. Still, those scenes are a small hiccup in annawesome movie filled with fantastic moments of animation.  

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nLensman: Secret of the Lens is none stop action fromnbeginning to end. It never stops. It’s a huge chase sequence, we go fromnrescuing one character, to rescuing the next. From planet to planet, with allnthese crazy alien creatures! There’s this character who is also a Lensman thatnis just so cool, his name is Worsel, he looks like a man bat or something, coolncharacter, again, this movie is all about the uniqueness in its design. The story for this film is all about the proverbial ‘chosen one’, thenfarmer boy who becomes a hero, so you see why I make the Star Wars connection.nStill, the concept of the Lens and the Galactic Patrol is an awesome one withnenough original elements to them to keep you entertained. If you feel likenchecking out some cool sci-fi anime, with fantastic animation and awesomenaction, give Lensman: Secret of the Lens a chance, you won’t be disappointed.nOr bored.

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