However, all of this is what Yuki Hijiri did after going pro in 1971. Prior to that he had already made a name for himself in the doujinshi world for a few years with the manga that will truly be his legacy: Chojin Locke/Locke the Superman.
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| Just a small selection of Locke volumes, from the OG to more modern ones. |
Founded in 1962 by a junior high school student named Yoshiaki Baba, the Sakuga Group was a doujin circle that continued to exist all the way until July 2016, a month after Baba himself passed away on June 21 at age 68. During his second year of high school, a young Yuki Hijiri came across an ad promoting the Sakuga Group in an issue of Boy's Life that he had borrowed from his local rental bookstore, and with dreams of making manga in mind he got into contact with the circle. The end result of this was the publication of the first Locke the Superman story, later titled "Nimbus & the Negative World", in October of 1967, detailing the journey of a mysterious esper named Locke who helped people all around the galaxy. Locke the Superman was so instantly successful that the Sakuga Group became inundated with new applications, at one point maxing out at roughly 1,000 members! Hijiri would make five volumes worth of Locke the Superman until 1977, even making one doujin story after going pro, before finally doing Locke professionally, first via a story in Minori Shobo's Monthly OUT (Japan's first anime magazine) before starting a proper serialized run in Shonen Gahosha's Weekly Shonen King in 1979, which would run until the magazine ceased publication in 1988, totaling 37 volumes.
After that, Hijiri would continue to make Locke the Superman manga via various publishers, before finding two consistent homes from 2007 on with Shonen Gahosha's Young King OURs (yes, Locke ran alongside the likes of Hellsing, [maybe] Trigun Maximum, & Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer) & Media Factory's (now Kadokawa's) Monthly Comic Flapper. As of his death, there is close to 100 volumes of Locke the Superman manga published, in total, & according to the official timeline take place over the course of a little less than 1,400 years of time! Granted, some of these later runs retold early stories in more detail, but Hijiri literally kept making Locke (mostly) consistently from 1977 to 2020 (only missing 1990, 2003, & 2018!), and his last hiatus was only because he was recovering from a chronic sinus infection, cardiac arrest, a coma, & needing to be resuscitated! Yeah, he actually continued making manga after that, & only seemed to stop in 2020 after getting diagnosed with Parkinson's disease; otherwise, I imagine Yuki Hijiri would have continued making Locke manga until his death. However, with so much manga out there for this franchise (almost none of it being translated into English, fan or officially), I want to honor Yuki Hijiri by taking a look at something more reasonable: The anime adaptations of Locke the Superman. From 1984 to 2000 there were four anime produced based on Hiriji's life work, so let's go over all of them & see what made Locke the Superman so special that it was able to last for over half a century.
OK, so the truth is that there are technically five adaptations, but that's only because the very first adaptation (much like the manga's origins, in a sense) wasn't an official one. Back in 1979, an aspiring animation student named Takeshi Hirota produced a 10-minute silent anime on 8mm film based on Hijiri's manga, though due to the fact that there are no intertitles to accompany the lip flaps for when characters speak, it's possible that he had planned to record voice work for this fan film, and simply never got the chance to do so. Eventually, Hirota would actually become part of the anime industry, and even got to be a part of most of the Locke anime we'll be going over, and in turn this 10-minute student production would retroactively go from a "fan film" to a full-on "pilot film", even getting remastered for DVD release in 2001. However, since it was produced on 8mm, it can only look so good, as it's still immensely soft & more than a bit fuzzy on DVD.
If you want more details regarding this fan-turned-pilot film, I actually covered it back in 2018 as part of Volume 13 of Demo Disc, so you can just go there for that. In short, though, it is extremely well animated for a student production, showing Hirota's skills even that early on; this also was seemingly 100% silent at first, as the following anime's musical score was put over the entire thing for the remaster. Overall, nothing but major props to Takeshi Hirota, who I had also previously covered back in my review of the 1991 Sukeban Deka OVA (which he directed), but now let's move on the actual focus of this overview: The OFFICIAL Locke the Superman anime productions.
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| Got to admit, this is an awesome looking title splash. |
We start off with 1984's Locke the Superman, a theatrically-released feature film that adapts the Majo no Seiki/Millennium of the Witch storyline that ran in 13 issues of Shonen King back in 1980, and some re-releases of this movie in Japan use the story arc's name as a subtitle on the packaging; Takeshi Hirota's pilot is also based on this same storyline, so the 1980 story may have been a re-telling of an old doujin story. Co-produced by Shochiku & Nippon Animation (the studio's first theatrical production), this film directed by Hiroshi Fukutomi (Galactic Patrol Lensman, Flint the Time Detective, Suzuka) marks the first official adaptation of Locke, and is also the only one released in theaters, as the remainder will all be OVAs. Yuki Hijiri himself even got involved by helping adapt the character designs to animation, making this the only time he would directly be a part of any of these adaptations; he would act as a "Supervisor" for one or two others, but nothing as "hands on" as this. Debuting on March 11, 1984 (the same day as some no-name film titled Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind... ouch), this movie was originally shown as part of a double-feature with Future Boy Conan: Kyodai-ki Giganto no Fukkatsu/Resurretion of the Giant Robot Gigant, a 45-minute compilation movie focusing on a three-part story from the iconic 1978 TV series.
In 1987, Celebrity Home Entertainment licensed & released this movie on dubbed VHS under the title "Locke the Superpower", though this was also edited down to just 92 minutes. Best Film & Video then re-released this dub, though now uncut, on VHS sometime in the 90s, ala Macross: Do You Remember Love?'s dub; as for the dub itself, it looks to come from Omni Productions over in Hong Kong. Then, in 2012, Discotek Media license rescued this movie for release on dual-audio DVD, including remastered footage in proper widescreen (the Japanese DVD was letterboxed), the Omni dub, as well as Hirota's pilot film (the latter two of which were not actually advertised on the packaging, for some reason). Finally, Sentai Filmworks would then license re-rescue this movie in 2020 & release it on Blu-Ray with HD remastered footage, though this was a sub-only disc without either the dub or the pilot film; it's also still available via streaming on Hidive, as of this overview. I imagine the pilot film was never remastered in HD (again, 8mm can only go so far), while Discotek's inclusion of the dub might have been allowed in 2012, but the Japanese licensor possibly changed its mind come 2020; rights to old dubs can be weird & inconsistent, after all. Going forward I'll be basing my judgments of any of these anime off of the original Japanese versions, so let's see how the first (official) Locke the Superman anime came out.
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| A shot from Takeshi Hirota's pilot vs. how it was done in the movie. |
Locke is recruited by Colonel Ryu Yamaki of the Galactic Federation to help deal with Lady Khan, an esper whose Khan Foundation claims to work for good, but in reality is a school to train an esper army that she aims to rule with a "Millennium Kingdom", where espers get to reign supreme over humans, and she already has over 200 espers at her command; she even tried to recruit Locke himself early on, but he refused. To combat them, Lady Khan has Jessica Orin, one of her students who she had subliminally "remember" that "Locke" was the one who killed her parents & physically scarred her as a child, as it was previously a suppressed memory. Complete with her ability to negate any esper powers used on her & even "neutralize" espers themselves, Jessica is the only "Esper Killer" in the universe & by way of hypnotic amnesia is put into a situation where she falls in love with Ryu, as that will mean interaction with Locke at some point or another, upon which her amnesia deactivates & she goes on the offensive.
Millennium of the Witch is a very good story to introduce newcomers with, as it starts off rather quickly with establishing the general idea of who Locke himself is. He's an esper who has been alive for at least hundreds of years by this point (if not even more), yet still only looks like a teenager due to his powers actively holding back his metabolism. Not only that, but he's also already been a part of various moments in history, pretty much always on the side of good & helping those in need, which is why Ryu comes to him for help. As for powers, the movie shows Locke being capable is just about anything you can think of (telekinesis, telepathy, mind reading via eye contact, teleportation, energy weaponry, etc.), though he still has his limits, like not being able to teleport between entire planets or exerting too much energy to the point of him tiring himself out; he also isn't precognitive, so you can catch him by surprise. He's also extremely resilient during a battle, though not impervious. However, Locke is also unwilling to sacrifice others, making himself open to traps that restrict his actions, which can make him more vulnerable in certain situations. Finally, and I imagine this is a common thing over the entire series, Locke is a tragic figure, as while he is more than willing to help others find their happy endings, he is the one who can't seem to ever get one of his own, outside of being able to return to his quiet civilian life on his farm, where he raises sheep & has a little Irish terrier as a pet.
As the ending theme for this movie says (in full English), "You are lonely, more than the loneliness".
As for the movie itself, it's a slower-paced plot than you might think at first, with the first major "fight" between Locke and an esper happening halfway through. No, instead of action (though there is some of that to be found), this is more of a drama, with the first third focusing on Locke & Ryu trying to locate where Lady Khan is, while we get a lot of scenes focusing on Jessica, who winds up under the tutelage of Cornelia Prim, Lady Khan's best (& most loyal) soldier. During the middle third of the film we see Locke & Ryu separated, so while Locke is still on the hunt (& occasionally dealing with Lady Khan's espers) Ryu comes across "Amelia" (the name Jessica takes while under amnesia) & we see their relationship grow. Finally, the last third of the film deals with Locke & Ryu managing to find where Lady Khan is & take the fight to her, though in a nice touch the movie essentially has two climaxes, one with Lady Khan herself & one with the aftermath, and it's actually very nicely done. This is roughly a two-hour movie, and the late Atsushi Yamatoya (of various Lupin the 3rd productions) does a great job making fun use of the entire runtime to script out the plot, even including a good bit at the end that showcases how the Galactic Federation is actually more of a dystopia in some ways, almost giving a slight justification as to why Lady Khan wanted to reign over a galaxy where espers ruled over humans; it also helps explain why Locke otherwise isn't always out saving the day.
Likewise, the animation itself directed by character designer Susumu Shiraume (Pygmalio, Maya the Bee) is very well done, with a handful of first-person sequences that hold up extremely well, too. As for the music by Goro Awami (Grander Musashi, Ginga -Nagareboshi Gin-), it's a solid orchestral score that works when it's heard (& there are one or two semi-memorable tracks), but I admittedly only recall it when I actually hear it, like when re-watching the pilot film. As for the voice cast, the main one to bring up is for Locke, as our titular hero will get recast more than once across these productions. For the movie we have Keiichi Nanba, who does a great job, generally keeping Locke sounding nice & calm, and even when in battle he tries to keep his cool by only going to up a consistent "stern & straight-to-the-point" tone; it's only during the climax that Nanba really has Locke start to sound more abjectly angered.
Overall, Locke the Superman: Millennium of the Witch is an extremely good movie & makes for an excellent introduction to Yuki Hijiri's life work, telling a solid story with characters you care about & featuring some very nicely done animation. Let's just hope that all the anime that came afterwards can carry the baton well.
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| Fusing together the two title splashes for this one. |
Up next is 1989's Locke the Superman: Lord Leon, a 3-episode OVA (each ep is ~30 minutes) released between that October & December that adapts the storyline of the same name from the manga that came right after Millennium of the Witch & ran in 10 issues of Shonen King in 1980. Directed by the legendary Noburo Ishiguro (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Megazone 23 Part I) & animated once again by Nippon Animation (though this time with Bandai producing), Lord Leon also marks Takeshi Hirota's debut on an official Locke anime, as he was in charge of the writing. In 1994 (at least, according to the copyright on the English release) Bandai & Nippon Animation worked with L.A. Media Group to produce an English dub for Lord Leon, one that would then see release on VHS by Central Park Media in 1996 or 1997 under the name "Space Warriors", though there was no subbed VHS tape; also, I believe this edited the OVA into a single, 75-minute "movie". Around the same time as CPM's release, Manga UK had licensed both the 1984 movie & Lord Leon for release in the UK & Australia, but due to financial issues at the time neither release ever happened. So how does a Locke the Superman anime fare the second time around?
The notorious space pirate Lord Leon has just attacked a branch of Astoris Concern, the company that took over the Khan Foundation & is run by business magnate Great Jorg. This branch in particular was run by one of Jorg's grandsons, his head posted on a spike to send a message to Jorg himself. This was the fifth of such attacks related to Jorg & his family, with some wondering if maybe a rival business has hired Leon, though most of Jorg's other grandchildren don't think much of it, since it doesn't directly affect them, & they're sure the Federation will take care of things should they get too bad. However, Jorg takes this last attack personally & decides to take matters into his own hands to get revenge on Leon. Meanwhile, the Federation sends Major Carian, an associate of Ryu Yamaki, to recruit Locke to help with their own investigation, since Leon is also believed to be an esper. Locke immediately accepts after seeing a photo of Leon, since he recognizes Leon as the older brother to Flora Lane, Locke's blind neighbor who he recently befriended.
In some ways, Lord Leon is the more "traditional" story than Millennium of the Witch, as the story deals more directly with the antagonists (Leon & Great Jorg) than the prior story (Lady Khan was only directly seen a couple of times prior to the climax), there are more actual confrontations between Locke & espers (both Leon & a quintet of espers that Jorg hires), & it ends with a properly climactic battle between Locke & Leon. There's also the occasional bit of continuity, as those espers that Jorg has on his side are actually ex-Millennium soldiers, seeing as Astoris took command over Lady Khan's organization; that said, this story apparently takes places 35 years later, but the OVA doesn't really indicate that. However, there's also a quick call back to an unadapted story during the finale, as Locke references an "Amazona", though I understand why this bit couldn't have been altered; Cornelia Prim also makes a quick cameo during this bit, and even had her Japanese seiyuu reprise the role. As for the characters, Leon makes for an interesting one as while he's technically an antagonist he's also an outright deuteragonist alongside Locke, as his past involving Jorg that made him into the vengeful man that he is today is the main crux of the plot, and as much as he believes himself to be beyond hope of saving, Locke (& Flora) feels otherwise, wanting to find a way to relieve him of his anger. Meanwhile, Jorg is a completely unrepentant villain, wanting nothing more than to finally be done with the last remaining piece of his past that can ruin his luxurious life. As for Carian, while he's nowhere near as memorable as Ryu was before him, he's still a fun & really reliable ally to Locke, showing that even if the Federation itself is more of a dystopia there are still honestly good people that are a part of it. Finally, while Flora herself doesn't do all that much in the overall plot, she's still a very friendly & kind character, with small indications that she also has some slight ESP (it's never directly stated, but her ability to sense people does pop up every now & then), and when given the chance to stay at home while Locke & Carian head out to confront Leon, she joins them, knowing the risks. While the overall plot itself may be a bit standard & "traditional", it's buoyed by a strong cast that you really want to see be given their proper dues, both good & bad.
Understandably, while Nippon Animation returned to produce the animation itself, it doesn't look anywhere quite as nice as the movie did five years prior, but that's just the difference between making a movie for theaters & an OVA for TVs. Still, the late Noboru Ishiguro was a legend for good reason, so Lord Leon still looks & animates rather good, overall, and the moments where the animation is more limited are still executed nicely by making up for the lack of fluid animation with style & visual panache. While I have no experience with the original manga version of this story, Takeshi Hirota does a great job scripting it for a three-episode OVA, giving it a constantly flowing pace that never gets boring or tiring, and even some of the more out-there bits (like explaining Leon's ultimate fate) are handled in a way that help make sense for the viewer. The music by Keiju Ishikawa (The Sensualist, Kekko Kamen) is also more kinetic & exciting when compared to Goro Awami's movie score, though one could also call it more (again) "traditional". However, while OP theme "Try to Believe" by Toshiya Igarashi is an absolute banger, the actual animation featured in it (also lead by Hirota) has absolutely nothing to do with the Lord Leon storyline, instead featuring a bunch of unrelated characters; I guess Takeshi Hirota just wanted to reference a bunch of Locke stories with it. Finally, for this OVA we have Nobuo Tobita voicing Locke, who also does a great job with the role, showing the never-ending care & compassion that makes the green-haired esper so easy to like. There's also a 22-year old Takehito Koyasu here, super early into his career, as one of Jorg's espers, plus a handful of background voices; if you're familiar with his voice then you can't help but notice him in this OVA.
Overall, Locke the Superman: Lord Leon is another great Locke anime, though due to the occasional bit of minor continuity I would recommend watching the Millenium of the Witch movie first; it won't make a major difference, but you'll appreciate the call backs more if you do.
Following that is 1991's Locke the Superman: Shin Sekai Sentai/New World Command, a 2-episode OVA (each ep is ~50 minutes) from that August & October that adapts the 5-chapter Monthly OUT story from 1977 that I mentioned earlier as being Hijiri's first Locke storyline as a professional mangaka. Also, that manga original is actually a remake of a never-made doujin-era storyline that Hijiri first manuscripted back in 1970, making this (by far) the oldest Locke story adapted into anime; that said, this takes place 39 years after Lord Leon, in-universe. Animated by Nippon Animation for the last time, New World Command sees Takeshi Hirota not just return to handle the writing but also now direct, bringing himself full circle 12 years after making that 8mm pilot film. Not just that, but this was originally intended as a two-part project, as the initial plan was to adapt the 8-part 1981 story Hikari no Ken/Sword of Light, due to a fan poll, but since it featured the return of two characters who first in appeared in New World Command (& the staff felt that it was important to properly introduce them), it was decided that they would instead adapt both stories, only to not have enough time in the end to actually get to Sword of Light; double oops. Unlike the prior anime covered, New World Command has never been licensed for English release before, so let's just jump right in & see how a storyline that wasn't even originally meant to be adapted fares!
Locke has been summoned by a nameless woman alongside four other espers, all of them having their memories blocked off for the time being, as those would be considered a hindrance to the mission; they have all also been given a simple command: "Kill". Said mission is for them to find & destroy "Tsar", which is deemed "a threat to mankind" & nothing more; if they want their memories back then they have to finish the mission with nowhere to start. Joining Locke for this mission are Eno, who has control over electronics & can sense other espers' powers; Azalea, who has touch telepathy; Nia, who can teleport herself & others for a distance; & Umos, who can see through objects. Unbeknownst to this group, though, is that said nameless woman is actually Elana, the humanoid visage of ELANA/Earth Luminary Advanced Neuron Automated, the most powerful supercomputer system in the Galactic Federation, and that they're actually following the orders of Lan, a computer genius in the Federation who thinks of Elana as his perfect lover. What exactly is Locke & the others being sent to do, and does it have any relation to a giant square bipyramid that suddenly appeared from out of nowhere in outer space... and might actually be alive?
New World Command almost immediately gives off a distinctly different mood & feel from the two Locke anime before it. Specifically, there's a general sense of unease to almost everything going on, making the viewer feel just as clueless to just what the truth behind everything is as our heroes are. They don't even know their own names, with Azalea only knowing hers because of the date she was seemingly on prior to her memories being locked away saying that name, while Elana says Eno's name as a way to convince him to take on the mission; Eno simply refers to Locke, Umos, & Nia as "Kid", "Beanpole", & "Princess" in Episode 1. In fact, Locke's name is initially only ever stated twice in the entire OVA, like during a fishing trip he was taking with an elderly Carian (ID-ed only via the credits) at the start of Episode 1, who even states that barely anyone in the Federation even knows who Locke is after all this time, a neat thematic relation to the idea of lost memories (& a clever line to remember for the ending). The only reason I even bother to give all of their real names, as some do die before ever remembering who they are, is for simplicity's sake. The concept of our five espers having their memories blocked off is a neat touch, as it helps de-power Locke to some extent, so that the other four feel just as important with their own psychic powers, whether it's disabling the ESP sensor as a casino so that they can cheat at the games & make a ton of money, or Umos & Azalea combing their powers in order to find what they're looking in a base, and then telepathically relay it to Locke & Eno. Then there are the moments with Lan & Elana, who just constantly feel like the puppeteers to the grand scheme that everyone is playing right into, including Lan's own boss (the nameless Director of the Federation), who herself thinks of Lan as her lover. There is essentially no action whatsoever until the second half of Episode 2, and even then it's rather basic, turning this into more of a slow burning mix of character drama & mystery, which makes it very unique when compared to the two prior anime adaptations.
As mentioned earlier, Takshi Hirota is now in the directors chair, and while the animation itself is without a doubt some of the least impressive in terms of sheer visuals, it feels even more limited in places than Lord Leon, Hirota does make up for it a bit with some interesting decisions. Probably most interesting is that this OVA actually goes with realism when it comes to space by not having any sound play whenever a shot takes place in middle of space; sometimes you get music playing over it, but just as often it's 100% silent. Hirota takes advantage of this dichotomy at points by sometimes alternating between a shot which would have sound & a shot of space, helping enforce the feeling of unease found throughout most of the OVA. Another choice is by limiting the use of the musical score by Tomoki Hasegawa (NANA, Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei), which is generally a very orchestral score, instead having many scenes happen with no music at all, once again enforcing the feeling of unsease. While limiting Hasegawa's score does make the moments when it is used feel more impactful, it also kind of makes the score less memorable, in my opinion, as I now have less of a chance to really hear it; it's not bad, by any means, though. As for the script by Hirota & Eisuke Oyama, the slower, more methodical pace of the first 3/4 of the entire OVA may turn some people off if the general mood & feel doesn't work for them, while the more action-oriented climax can feel a little like some plot developments & moments come a little out of nowhere, admittedly, but I would argue that it still manages to all come together for the ending, where the various plot revelations all work & help give context & explanation to everything that's happened in a way that makes sense. I can certainly see why some may not be as big on this OVA as the two before it, but I certainly found myself enjoying it once it ended. Finally, we have Nobuo Tobita reprising Locke, the only seiyuu to do so for anime, while Masahiro Sekino returns for the character designs, allowing this OVA to feel like a proper follow-up to Lord Leon. We even have another early appearance from a future seiyuu legend, in this case Nobuyuki Hiyama in just his third anime ever, as a nameless "Operator" for one of the Federation ships in Episode 2; again, once you hear him speak you can tell who it is.
Overall, Locke the Superman: New World Command is truly a unique anime in this franchise. While some of the storytelling might be a victim of it being from relatively early on in Yuki Hijiri's career (again, this was his first professional Locke story), and the animation itself isn't exactly anything to write home about, I think Takeshi Hirota managed to convey its themes & concepts very well, in the grand scheme of things. That said, I'd still recommend watching the first two anime before this, though, as Episode 2 does include a variety of references to those two stories, plus a couple others that were never adapted into anime. For example, it's revealed that Ryu Yamaki eventually became Director of the Galactic Federation (before eventually passing away, I imagine) in the 74 years since the events of Millennium of the Witch; good for him!
Following the New World Command OVA, Locke the Superman would see two more adaptations in 1996, Cosmic Game (based on a doujin story from 1974) & Hi no Tora/The Flaming Tiger (based on the first Shonen King story from 1979), but both of those were radio dramas featuring Hikaru Midorikawa voicing Locke; these both predate any of the anime adaptations, chronologically. However, in 2000 we'd see one last anime adaptation, Locke the Superman: Mirror Ring, a single 65-minute OVA which adapts the titular story from 1995 that ran for 12 chapters in Byblos' Megu magazine (the successor to Monthly OUT), making it the most recent story adapted to anime, both in terms of release & in-universe (though had Hikari no Ken been adapted, it would have been the latest, in-universe, by just one year). In an interesting change of pace, Hijiri actually conceived of Mirror Ring as a multimedia project, with the OVA adaptation first advertised in Megu for release in 1996, but continual delays resulted in the five-year gap between manga & anime. Just as with New World Command, the Mirror Ring OVA has also never been licensed for English release, so let's at least see if this brought any sort of "finale", or sorts, to the Locke the Superman anime adaptations.
Locke infiltrates a small space fortress, only to find himself captured by a man who his ESP can't affect... and before he passes out, Locke sees the image of Elana in a monitor. It's been a year since the Tsar incident & the Galactic Federation has taken what remains of ELANA & implemented it into the Pan-Galactic Network, which connects all of the online systems of the Federation together. However, the Elana AI itself had a backup of the personality that Lan Svendsen had created, and now that backup wishes to have full command of the entire Federation, and helping Elana are Stan Berkoff & Cassandra, the two people inside the space fortress. To combat this, the Federation hypnotizes a new group of people, similar to what happened to Locke before, to locate Elana & stop it, while Lan & Nia are trying to locate Elana themselves in order to help Locke out with the original plan they had: Destroy Elana once & for all. Unbeknownst to everyone, though, Elana's original personality has survived, now taking a male personification & calling itself Neon, has convinced Cass to follow its own scheme, & together they have managed to hypnotize Locke into thinking that he's actually Tsar, who will help create a new "ESP Sanctuary" so that espers can finally live in peace.
Simply put, Mirror Ring is a weird one. First & foremost, unlike the prior three Locke anime, this one will make absolutely no sense whatsoever if you go into this one completely blind, as while there has been an overall through line of continuity between all of these OVAs, Mirror Ring is (for all intents & purposes) best thought of as "Episode 3" of the New World Command OVA. There is barely any explanation as to the events of that story, outside of quick mentions early on at some parts, and the entire point of this story is to act as a finale to Lan's history with Elana. While there are new characters original to Mirror Ring, they get literally no actual explanation as to who they really are, and their overall relevance to the plot varies from "somewhat relevant" to "they might as well be nameless", depending on the character. The quartet of new anti-Tsar espers (who have names but aren't worth mentioning) barely make any appearances & are quickly swayed over to helping "Tsar" anyway to protect the fortress from Federation attack during the second half. Then there's the duo of Ernest Abel & his assistant Ariel Grant from the Federation, who only really exist in the plot to establish the idea of a cyberworld in which Neon can be fought in, which makes up the climax when Locke, Nia (both of whom can apparently just teleport into cyberspace?), & Lan take it on, and everyone but Neon is naked throughout it all; also, the "Mirror Ring" itself is brought up just once by Grant at the very end, having had no relevance at all. Finally, there's Cass & Stan, who have the most relevance overall, but it's really hard to care about either of them as they get next to no development until the climax, when Stan's feelings for Cass come into play & Cass realizes how she's being used by Neon; Cass isn't even mentioned by name until almost halfway in! In fact, Locke himself is barely in this OVA (though he naturally is focused more on for the climax), with Nia & Lan (who are quickly shown becoming a couple by the end, slightly from out of nowhere) getting way more focus.
This is all compounded by the fact that while this is the shortest Locke anime of them all, it's easily the most packed with story, as it might actually be the longest story adapted to anime. I'm sure writer Katsuhiko Koide (Shaman King [2001], Asura Cryin') did his absolute best to convert 12 chapters of manga into just over an hour, but this OVA starts at full gear from the moment the opening credits end & pretty much never lets up for even a single second until the end. The end result is a constant stream of stuff happening, characters doing things with only the most basic of explanations early on, & it truly feels like the entire OVA starts in media res. It's never to the point of feeling impossible to follow, and things get better in the second half, but I really get the feeling that a lot of stuff had to get cut out from the original manga plot for it to fit within the short time limit, resulting in things like the new characters not getting any sort of notable development. Another thing that makes things a bit awkward is the change of character designers, with the legendary Junichi Hayama handling things here, and while Locke himself is still easy to identify, Nia, Lan, & Elana look so different that it takes a few appearances from them to get used to; Hayama's distinctive style definitely takes precedence here. As for the animation itself, we have Takeshi Hirota's studio Sido Limited taking command this time around, as well as it being (very obviously) digitally animated, with the end result being this OVA having aged the roughest, arguably; Hirota doesn't even credit himself as "Director", instead using "Creative Producer". That's not to say that it looks terrible, as the experienced Yuji Moriyama was the animation director (& Hayama's character designs are always on point), but it definitely is "limited" & the panning is all too smooth in that very blatantly digital way that can kind of feel fake at points. The music by Masashi Hayashi (who has no other anime credits, apparently) has its moments, & the ending theme is actually really neat by being a new wave song, but overall is easily the most forgettable of them all, while Kenichi Suzumura feels slightly wasted as Locke, since the character is barely shown for most of the OVA, and aside from the very beginning & the climax is arguably not even Locke, due to the hypnosis; at least they kept the interesting touch of having Nia & Elena voiced by the same person, just like last time.
Overall, Locke the Superman: Mirror Ring is a mixed bag, to say the least. I don't hate it by any means, as I do like some aspects of it, but at the same time it's definitely the weakest of the four Locke anime. While I can understand if New World Command didn't click with some people, Mirror Ring really feels like something is literally missing, as while I obviously can't read the original manga version of this story, I do feel like the OVA had to cut out a bunch of parts so that it could be adapted as a one-off OVA; ironic, considering that Yuki Hijiri designed the manga version to be adapted into anime. Still, as a "finale" of sorts to all of these anime adaptations, it does actually kind of work, as it continues directly off of the previous OVA & has a small bit of finality to it, in that regard.
In the end, & much like their manga counterparts, the four Locke the Superman anime adaptations that have been made (so far, at least) only cover a minute portion of the entire history of Yuki Hijiri's life work, both in terms of real life (it's only 4 stories out of a total 105, & this isn't counting spin-offs & some OG stories that later got remade!) & even in-universe (these anime only cover Space Calendar 0301 to 0376, while the furthest out manga story takes place in 1380, a literal millennium later!!). Also, there is more to Locke the Superman adaptations than just anime, as even taking aside the two 1996 radio dramas I mentioned earlier there was a "Continuous Radio Comic" adaptation by Nippon Columbia that ran from October 1983 to March 1984 (following an occasional run on All Night Nippon Special from 1982 to 1983) that starred a variety of voice actors as Locke (including Toru Furuya & Taiki Matsuno) & seemingly adapted multiple stories. After that is a variety of image albums by Nippon Columbia released throughout the 80s that adapted Millennium of the Witch, The Flaming Tiger, Lord Leon, Cosmic Game, Sword of Light, & even 1980's The Ronwell Storm, the 10-part story that was serialized right after Lord Leon; it's the earliest story, chronologically, that's ever been adapted. Finally, January 13, 2012 saw a "comic drama" adaptation of 2009's Nirvana (a 24-part/2-year-long Young King OURs story which has no known time frame, chronologically) that was broadcast on BS-11, with Tatsuya Kakihara voicing Locke, making it the newest Locke story to ever be adapted.
As for the four anime adaptations, I was honestly shocked at how they really are best watched in production order, as they really do show how Yuki Hijiri maintained a solid level of chronological consistency, despite the manga stories not necessarily being serialized in that order. If you were to ask me which of these four are the best, I would easily answer with Millennium of the Witch & Lord Leon, but I did wind up enjoying New World Command, while Mirror Ring still kind of works, despite itself. With the idea of more Locke the Superman stories likely not being a possibility anymore, unless Hijiri's estate starts allowing other mangaka to tell their own stories, I would certainly love to see something like a TV anime adaptation that follows the actual chronological order of Locke's life, as these four OVAs show that Yuki Hijiri created an interesting sci-fi world filled with its own history, one in which Locke himself gets to live throughout, his actions influencing things in various ways. Again, with a little over 100 stories to adapt, there's plenty of content out there to work with. Until that happens, though, we do have these four Locke the Superman anime, and while some are certainly better than others, I feel that they definitely should be checked out, and maybe one day we'll finally get all four of them licensed & released in English, officially.
RIP Yuki Hijiri
Locke the Superman (Pilot & Movie) © 1984 Shochiku Co., Ltd./Nippon Animation Co., Ltd.
Locke the Superman: Lord Leon © Yuki Hijiri・Shonen Gahosha/Emotion・N.A.
Locke the Superman: Shin Sekai Sentai © 1991 Yuki Hijiri/Emotion/N.A.
Locke the Superman: Mirror Ring © 2000 Yuki Hijiri/Byblos
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