SF Shin Seiki Lensman: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hollywood...

Born on May 2, 1890 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Edward Elmer Smith was studying food chemistry at George Washington University in D.C., where he'd get his masters degree in 1917 & a PhD in 1918, and it was during his time at GWU that Smith would start writing his first serialized science fiction story. With the help of Lee Hawkins Garby, the wife of an old University of Idaho classmate-turned-neighbor, Smith would write the majority of what would later be 1928's The Skylark of Space, which is now often considered to be the very first space opera; Smith wrote the sci-fi adventure bits, while Garby handled the romance bits. Smith would write two sequels to Skylark in the first half of the 1930s (& a fourth entry would be Smith's final work before his passing in the 60s), but in 1934 a story by Smith titled Triplanetary was serialized in Amazing Stories magazine, the same place Skylark had been serialized in. A few years later Smith would then serialize the story Galactic Patrol in Astounding Stories in 1937, which would mark the start of the sci-fi series "E.E. 'Doc' Smith" would be most known for: Lensman. Three sequels to Galactic Patrol would get made between 1939 & 1948, followed by Triplanetary being reworked to act as the official start of the Lensman series in 1948, with a straight-to-novel story written in 1950 that acted as the link between Triplanetary & Galactic Patrol, and the entire series (as well as Smith's catalog, in general) has been cited as major influences for everyone from "The Dean of Sci-Fi Writers" Robert A. Heinlein to George Lucas to J. Michael Straczynski. It's even the inspiration for two Boston-based sci-fi cons, Boskone (which dates back to 1941) & Arisia (which started in 1990).

After E.E. "Doc" Smith passed away on August 31, 1965, at the age of 75, his family & estate has continued to manage Smith's literary rights, and there have been numerous attempts to adapt Lensman into film, most recently one that died in 2014 (due to Universal Pictures balking at the costs) that Straczynski himself wrote a couple of script drafts for. One attempt got extremely close to truly happening in the 80s... only to be beaten to the punch by Japan.

As detailed in a post from 2019 based on information sourced in large part by the late SF writer Frederik Pohl, a close friend of the Smith family, after the success of Star Wars in 1977 the Smith family was eventually able to make a deal with "a major studio" to produce a series of big-budget Lensman films, and everything was seemingly ready to start entering pre-production... until a video tape showed up on the Smith family's doorstop. You see, back in the 60s publisher Kodansha got the rights to republish the Lensman novels in Japan, having acquired those rights from the US publisher at the time, Berkley Publishing Corporation (now Berkley Books), which was given permission by the Smith family to license out international rights on their behalf; everything checks out, so far. The people at Kodansha, in turn, were interested in producing an adaptation of Lensman themselves, and according to how Japanese copyright & licensing worked at the time Kodansha felt that it had the right to make such an adaptation, at least as long as it stayed in Japan. Apparently, most non-Japanese companies didn't question this at the time, since such adaptations were Japan-only & wouldn't make their away abroad, similar to how big name actors used to secretly take Japan-only commercial gigs. Now, to Kodansha's credit, they claimed to have informed Berkley about their intention to produce an adaptation... but apparently Berkley never bothered to let the Smith family know about this; whoops! Therefore, right as everything was set to be signed for a big-budget "Hollywood" production of Lensman to get started, the Smith family (allegedly) suddenly got a video tape showing early work that was being done for a feature-length anime film adaptation of Lensman, which Kodansha had seemingly sent over as a courtesy; a similar thing allegedly happened with Alexander Key & the Future Boy Conan anime back in the 70s.

Needless to say, according to this version of events, everything blew up in the Smith family's faces. The major studio immediately backed out of the deal, as it wanted full control over the Lensman IP when it came to adaptations & felt that the anime film (which was looking very promising, visually) would be competition that it didn't want to deal with. While the Smith family was understandably furious about the loss of their big Hollywood deal, they tried to make lemons out of lemonade by at least giving the anime film their blessing & allowed it to see completion & release in Japan, with it premiering in theaters on July 7, 1984 (about six months after Triplanetary's 50th Anniversary) as SF Shin Seiki/Sci-Fi New Century Lensman; they even allowed the production of a 25-episode TV anime reboot... but that's for next time. In the end, the Smith family was not really pleased with the end result, feeling that neither anime was accurate to the original stories at all, but had hoped that all of this would simply be an errant blip that'd stay in Japan, would never be seen again, and after a little bit they could try again for that Hollywood deal; an annoying rough patch, sure, but live & let learn. Unfortunately, it was now the mid-80s & the idea of recording to VHS had become ubiquitous, so copies of the Lensman film & TV anime were starting to appear at American sci-fi conventions throughout the 80s (i.e. places were the earliest form of American anime fandom gathered), having made their way over from Japan, which in turn allowed word of its existence to spread. Not only that, but Kodansha (or possibly co-producer MK Company) would then later make a deal with Harmony Gold to allow both the film & TV anime to see official English release outside of Japan, all seemingly done without the Smith family's knowledge or approval; that's not good! Harmony Gold would produce an edited dub version of the film under the name Lensman: Secret of the Lens, while some of the early episodes of the TV anime were edited together into a dubbed film titled Lensman: Power of the Lens, & both seemingly only ever managed to see release via some TV broadcasts around 1988/1989, similar to the Galaxy Express 999 TV special dubs HG produced in 1986.

Taken from the TV anime, but definitive proof of
Berkley licensing Lensman out to Kodansha.

According to Pohl, the Smith family filed a lawsuit over all of this, feeling that they had outright lost control over their own IP, and in the end a settlement was made. To be fair, though, no one has ever found any proof of a lawsuit ever being filed, as it would be public record, so it's entirely possible that it was maybe only threatened & was settled in private. Regardless, while Harmony Gold's dubs wouldn't see any physical release (though they've since been preserved by fans), the late Carl Macek & Streamline Pictures were allowed to license only the film for English release, with a brand new uncut dub, which came out in 1991 via dubbed VHS & in 1993 via dual-audio LD (with help from Lumivision). Sadly, Macek's long-form interview with ANN months before his passing in 2010 (the most comprehensive interview he ever had) didn't bring up Lensman at all, so we never got to hear Macek's side of that whole story. Eternity Comics were also allowed to produce 18 issues of a comic book, after initially sub-licensing from Harmony Gold, but were prohibited from referencing the original books at all, not even book-only lingo, & could only adapt from the film & TV anime; artist Tim Eldred has since shared the entire run on his website. After all of this the Smith family seemingly put their collective foot down & took back absolute control over the Lensman IP. Kodansha's publishing deal was renewed in the early 90s, but film & TV rights were specifically not included this time around. Streamline & Eternity's respective rights expired in the mid-to-late 90s, & neither were renewed in any way, though both companies were effectively dead by then. Finally, before Verna Smith Trestrail ("Doc" Smith's oldest daughter & then-literary executor of the Smith estate) passed away in 1994 she apparently declared that as long as her father's copyright & IP rights continue to remain legally binding neither Lensman anime can ever be licensed out again by the Smith estate. In other words, unless the Smith literary estate (now currently executed by Verna's son, Kim Trestrail) decides to go against Verna's seeming decree neither anime can ever legally see re-release anywhere in the world until at least after August 30, 2040, when E.E. "Doc" Smith's works enter the public domain, as per current copyright rules in the US for anything prior to 1978 (which looks to be "life of author, plus 75 years"). Even then, though, there's still no guarantee due to things like trademarks, like how the first 12 Tarzan books are currently in the public domain, but the Tarzan character itself is still trademarked by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.

Now, to be fair, this story is being told from a third-party who wasn't directly involved in what happened, so some details likely got mixed up & shaved off in the game of telephone that was played here. Hell, I had to make some "fixes" of my own here, as the story I'm going off of didn't even mention Harmony Gold & instead thought that Streamline was the only company to license the Lensman anime productions. But I think the general idea of "Kodansha overstepped in what it had rights for & caused a bunch of headaches for the Smith family" is likely about as reasonably accurate of a basic throughline as we need. After all of that introduction & preamble, though... how did the two Lensman anime productions actually fare, when all was said & done? Sure, they may not be all that accurate to the books that they were based on, but that doesn't inherently mean that they're necessarily "bad"... right? Therefore, to celebrate this blog finally reaching 300 "traditional" reviews, I'm going to cover both Lensman anime & we'll be starting with Review #299: SF Shin Seiki Lensman, both in its original Japanese as well as the two English dubs made for it.

Kimball "Kim" Kinnison is the 18-year old son of Gary, a corn farmer on the planet Mqueie, who's just a day away from taking a trip to Earth with Buskirk, an old friend of Gary's. While looking over the spacecraft that Buskirk will be using for the trip they all see a craft hurtling from interstellar space towards Mqueie, with Kim managing to get inside & assure that it crash lands as safely as possible. The ship turns out to be the Brittania of the Galactic Patrol & the sole person on board is dying & asks for Kim to deliver a message to Commander Haynes of the Galaxy Alliance, or else the Alliance will be destroyed. Also, the dying man gives Kim his Lens, an object that can only be wielded by Lensmen, the most powerful warriors in the galaxy, as the information held within that Lens can show the Galaxy Alliance how to properly fight back against the seemingly invulnerable Boskone, lead by the mysterious Lord Helmuth, an intergalactic force that rules over various planets & can reduce others to rubble with little trouble... such as Mqueie, with Gary sacrificing himself to act as a distraction to allow Kim & Buskirk to escape with their lives. Eventually, though, Kim & Buskirk find help in the form of the Galactic Patrol's Clarissa "Chris" MacDougall, fellow Lensman Worsel, & techno-hermit/dance party host DJ Bill.

SF Shin Seiki Lensman's lack of proper accuracy to "Doc" Smith's stories is often cited as the most infamous aspect of the film, and because of that I really shouldn't judge it on that side of things; after all, there's an entire TV anime where that can be better done. However, probably the biggest complaint fans of Smith's stories have with the film is with the Lens itself, both in how it's portrayed as well as how Kim gets one. For the latter, the main difference is that in Galactic Patrol Kim had to earn the right to use a Lens through hard work & dedication, i.e. he needed to prove that he was worthy of its massive power. That being said, Chapter 1 of the book starts with Kim literally being awarded his Lens, & the reader isn't told of anything Kim actually did to be considered worthy of it, outside of simply being one of the best of his graduating class. In the film, though, it's simply passed down to him by the "Blond Lensman" (as the film credits him as) as a last act before dying, with the Lens itself telling Kim that he was "chosen" to be a Lensman; OK, that's a fair complaint. Meanwhile, the Lens itself is more or less nothing more than a MacGuffin for the vast majority of the film, providing Kim with no extra abilities outside of being able to psychically communicate with Worsel (which is only done two or three times, max) until the very end when Kim faces off with Helmuth during the climax... and even then the actual power of the Lens is vaguely defined & only really amounts to seeming energy blasts & wireless data transmission; in other words, the Lens is pretty much a futuristic smartphone in the film. So, yeah, while I'm currently in the midst of reading some of the Lensman saga myself for the first time while writing this review (Triplanetary & Galactic Patrol, specifically), that'll be for the sake of being able to compare to the TV anime for Review #300, since that was meant to be a more "direct" adaptation, at least in theory. For SF Shin Seiki Lensman, though, I'll have to judge this solely on its own merits, as while there are scenes, characters, & elements taken from Galactic Patrol to be seen here they're really more "inspired by" than "directly adapting" in any way.

In that regard, then, the Lensman film is... I think the best way to put it is "interesting". A common complaint from those familiar with the novels is that it feels more like the original Star Wars trilogy than it does Lensman, and that is a fair point as the film is inundated with moments, plot beats, & even some character traits that are undeniably influenced by George Lucas more than E.E. "Doc" Smith. Kim is an inexperienced young man who's suddenly thrust into an adventure to deliver top secret information to what's essentially a "resistance" against a massive & seemingly unbeatable villainous force, and soon finds that he has access to powers completely unbeknownst to him previously; hello, "Not Luke Skywalker". Meanwhile, Kim's father Gary is also revealed to be a legendary Galactic Patrolman, though an injury to his right arm made him ineligible to become a Lensman, & it's Gary's sacrifice that allows Kim to escape the destruction of Mqueie with Buskirk; hello, "Fusion of Uncle Owen, Anakin Skywalker, & Obi-Wan Kenobi". Buskrik is admittedly not a direct correlation to someone like Han Solo, though his burly build & attitude can make one think of Chewbacca, instead coming off more akin to a C-3PO who's replaced his highfalutin attitude with one that's ready to fight, if need be. Then there's Chris, who is absolutely the counterpart to Princess Leia here but, sadly, becomes a non-factor in the entire second half, as any indication of her looking capable is removed when she's not involved at all in the events on the planet Radelix in the second half, & she's a straight up damsel in distress for the climax. As for Worsel, he's technically meant to be the Obi-Wan equivalent but in reality he's more of a living, breathing Deus ex machina, suddenly appearing when all hope looks lost to rescue or assist our heroes. Finally, there's DJ Bill... who admittedly has no real direct Star Wars counterpart, but (looking things up) might be based on William "Wild Bill" Williams, a pseudonym Kim disguises himself as at points in the original stories by "Doc" Smith(?).

As for the villains, that's actually where the Lensman film gets kind of odd. Really, the only villain worth pointing out would be Lord Helmuth, who has a very Darth Vader-esque visage but is really more like Emperor Palpatine in execution, though the final confrontation between him & Kim at the end is a unique one. There are three subordinates under Helmuth (Greedle, Blakeslee, & Zwilk), but none of them actually ever interact with our heroes whatsoever throughout the film, and instead are disposed of by Helmuth himself one by one for their inability to deal with "The Lensman", similar to how Darth Vader repeatedly disposed of Empire subordinates throughout The Empire Strikes Back for their inability to kill Han & Leia. Hell, it's the villains who actually wind up having a real R2-D2 equivalent in the floating creature Gigi, as the more obvious droid equivalent (Soll) dies with Gary early on. Anyway, because of how the villains are handled in this film the end result is that it really feels more like Kim & his friends aren't really contributing much as "heroes", and instead are more akin to simply finding themselves in dangerous situations that they have to escape from, but never really "fighting" back against the Boskone until the very end. For example, even when Kim & Buskirk escape from a labor camp on Radelix, which gets destroyed in the process, the actual destruction of the labor camp is clearly shown to be the cause of the incompetent Boskone soldiers that are chasing Kim & Buskirk, rather than our heroes actively destroying it themselves. In fact, both the escape on Radelix & the events on the planet Delgon in the first half actually wound up feeling more like I was watching a perfect play of a laserdisc arcade game, a la Dragon's Lair or Time Gal, than I was watching a traditional movie; it's just the way they felt in action, really.

"Ahhh! Early 80s CG!!!"

And, really, while the various sequences that remind one of Star Wars Episodes IV to VI don't make the Lensman film feel wholly like a Star Wars knock-off, as it's still unique enough in its own right, they are so blatantly obvious that you can't help but notice & remember them the most. The events on Mqueie are pretty much a fusion of Tatooine & Alderaan in A New Hope. The stuff on Delgon are a mix of the living asteroid in The Empire Strikes Back & Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi. Radelix, while having the most unique bits when it comes to DJ Bill, still has elements of the Mos Eisley bar in Hope, Bespin in Empire, & the speeder bike chase in Jedi. Finally, the climax between Kim & Helmuth pulls bits directly from Luke's conversation with Palpatine from Jedi. Without a doubt, Star Wars was definitely on the mind of writer Soji Yoshikawa (Lupin the 3rd: Mystery of Mamo, Panzer World Galient) when he wrote the script to Lensman, and while it by no means ruins the film it does result in anyone with even a passing familiarity of George Lucas' original films noticing the similarities to no end, sometimes to the film's detriment. As for the visuals, which is allegedly what got the Hollywood deal axed, that's where the Lensman movie is an deniable triumph. Done by Madhouse & co-directed by the legendary Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, X TV) & the late Shuichi "Kazuyuki" Hirokawa (Space Warrior Baldios TV, Tattoon Master), this is an excellent animated film for its time, with tons of fluid character animation, wide & sweeping shots to show scale, & an excellent usage of color & lighting to showcase the various planets & locales showcased throughout. If that test footage was indeed enough to make the major Hollywood studio get cold feet due to what it perceived as "competition", then the final product would have definitely been just that, at least from a purely visual perspective.

It is very interesting that Kodansha & MK Company seemingly made the Lensman anime productions for Japan first, though, as the character designs here by Kazuo Tomizawa (who would return for the TV anime) & Kawajiri are very "Western", by & large, with only characters like Buskirk, DJ Bill, & the more "alien" creatures (Worsel, Helmuth's subordinates, etc.) really emphasizing a more "anime" visual aesthetic. I understand that this is based on stories written by an American, but the entire visual style seen here really does seem to indicate that international distribution was always, at the very least, in the periphery, which just makes it all the more astounding that (again, allegedly) Berkley never told the Smith family of Kodansha's intent to make adaptations of Lensman from the start. This is even more astounding when you consider the CG, which at the time was still relatively a new thing for films (Tron was just two years prior, & Golgo 13: The Professional was only the previous year), & was a two-part effort involving both Japan and America! Namely, it was a collaborative effort by the Japan Computer Graphics Lab/JCGL (Japan's first CG studio) & the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab, with all of the animation being made on Cray-1 supercomputers; today that tech has since been outdone by even modern smartphones, but at the time this was high-tech. The Japanese LD included a 30-minute making-of featurette that focuses primarily on the CG (though only showing the JCGL side of things), including how it was composited with the hand-drawn animation, and it is interesting to see the process of making the film from that perspective. Today the CG is obviously pretty basic, though still leagues better than the infamous helicopter scene in Golgo 13: The Professional, but by keeping it straightforward I think it's actually aged somewhat gracefully 41 years later.

As an aside, one of the people credited with doing animation for this film's CG over at NYIT was Francis Glebas, who would later go on to work at Disney during its most iconic era of animated features, including on Aladdin (where he created the original designs for the Genie), The Lion King, & The Hunchback of Notre Dame, before eventually directing some sequences in Fantasia 2000 & then later solo directing the film Piglet's Big Movie in 2003. Glebas doesn't list Lensman in his own filmography, but he was a Masters student at NYIT around that time, so it's likely he did provide some animation assistance for this film, giving him his first ever(?) professional film credit.

As for the music by Akira Inoue (Lily C.A.T., The Cockpit: Sonic Boom Squadron), it's very much of the era, i.e. immensely 80s. By that I mean that the score here is very obviously influenced by progressive rock of the time & is focused primarily on more subdued & moody tracks than really emphasizing stuff like the wonder & magnificence of space, the power of the Lens, or anything like that. There's also a heavy reliance on the mix of piano alongside some of the more electronic and/or rock beats, which only gives the score even more of a unique sound to it. Inoue's work is also only used sparingly throughout, mainly for major plot beats or the occasional action sequence, instead letting the scenes to live & breathe on their own ambience, for the most part. The film also features two songs performed by prog rock/folk band The Alfee, which both really do fit the feel of the film's generally slower & more methodical pacing. The main attraction is "Starship -Hikari wo Motomete-", a fun & upbeat song that actually has an alternate version used during the film itself (the full song is only heard during the end credits), with this alternate version being much slower-paced, sung mostly acapella, & really works extremely well whenever the Lens is actually being made the focus of a scene. The other song by The Alfee is "Ai no Kodou", which is played after Gary's sacrifice & works well with the scene it's used in to add to the emotion of the moment. There's also one last insert song, "Space Shake" by Yuiko Tsubokura (about a year before she made her official debut as a singer), which is heard during the parties on Radelix that DJ Bill hosts & is a fun little English-sung song, in its own right, & is just as 80s as any other song heard in the film; I feel like fans of Bubblegum Crisis would maybe like this song...

Leading everyone for the Japanese voice cast is the legendary Toshiro Furukawa as Kim, who actually plays the role rather straight by delivering in a mostly realistic fashion, i.e. he sounds like a natural young adult who's put into situations often beyond his understanding. To be fair, it kind of results in Furukawa maybe sounding a bit bland at points, but it's not unrealistic by any means; Furukawa would reprise his role for TV. To balance things out, though, we have the late Chikao Otsuka as Buskirk, who is 100% bluster & emotion all throughout the movie, generally acting as the funny man to Furukawa's straight man more often than not; Otsuka would not return for TV. Then there's Mami Koyama as Chris, and overall she does a decent enough job with the character... but, since Chris is barely in the second half, Koyama only gets so much to really showcase her talents in this film; she did reprise her role for TV, though, so hopefully she gets way more to do next time. As for Worsel we have the late Nachi Nozawa, and while he similarly gets only the occasional moment to shine Nozawa made every single moment work, giving the character a lot of personality with only a little time; sadly Nozawa would not return for TV, so his replacement has big shoes to fill. For DJ Bill we have Katsuya Kobayashi, who's probably the most fun of the cast by just being at 150% at all times, even when the character's not partying & instead is pretty serious. Finally, for the major roles, there's the late Seizo Kato as Lord Helmuth, who does a fine enough job with the role, but it's really nothing more than sound large, imposing, & showing only the tiniest bit of emotion; he reprises for TV, so hopefully he gets more to do there. The rest of the Japanese cast features the likes of Yuko Saito (Soll; does not return for TV), Koji Yada (Greedle), Yasuo Tanaka (Blakeslee), Shingo Kanemoto (Zwilk), Hidekatsu Shibata (Haynes; he reprises for TV), Tadashi Nakamura (Gary), & Eiji Kanie (Narrator).

The actual title splash for this movie is still shown,
so Harmony Gold adding this title splash was redundant.

So let's move on to those English dubs, and we'll start with Harmony Gold's effort, 1988's Secret of the Lens. Unfortunately, while the cast list for this dub is known the seeming only existent preservation of an original recording of this version (all others you can find online are re-edited from Streamline's LD release, so it doesn't have HG's credit slates) doesn't have the actual end credits, so the only staff for this Harmony Gold dub listed on that recording are the late HG USA founder Frank Agrama as executive producer & his son Ahmed Agrama as producer. However, since this was produced alongside the dub for the TV anime, Power of the Lens, I would imagine the staff was mostly be shared between the two, so it's more than likely that this edited dub was written & directed by the late Tom Wyner (Teknoman, Streamline's Zillion). This dub cuts out about 13 minutes of footage from the film, but rather than cut out entire scenes (the only one of real note I could notice was when Soll insisted on staying with Gary until the very end early on) it's a series of nips & tucks made throughout the entire thing. However, while a bunch of smaller cuts doesn't sound like a bad thing, the end result is a massive change to the pacing of the film. One could certainly make the argument that the original Japanese version of the film could be a little slow at points, but at the same time it never felt like it dragged, instead feeling like it was 100% intentional in its methodology so as to allow scenes to simply breathe. HG's dub, in comparison, is edited to the point where it's constantly on the move, never really allowing itself to take a breath before the next scene or shot begins, and in fact I noticed a couple of moments where HG very obviously cut a shot early, which only made the pacing feel more fast. This is only enforced by the new musical score, likely composed by the group of Arlon Orber, Jack Alan Goga, Michael Bradley, & Steve Wittmack, which is heavy on electric rock & (outside of one or two songs) is all about sounding dynamic & exciting, to match the faster pace; the recurring main theme heard at points is really catchy, though. This dub also includes at least one usage of terms like Tellurians (the books' term for Earthlings) & Arisians (the race that created the Lens & the concept of the Lensman itself), which probably irked the Smith family, since they specifically forbade Eternity Comics from using book lingo.

At the very least, since it was a Harmony Gold production, the voice cast for this edited dub is really solid & helps a lot. Kim is voiced by Kerrigan Mahan (Mark Landry/Johnny Winters, a.k.a. Shogo Yahagi, in Robotech the Movie/Megazone 23 Part II International) and he does a rather good job with the lead, giving him a nice & youthful performance that matches with this obviously alternate interpretation of Lensman's iconic lead. Chris is played by Melanie Macqueen (Lisa Hayes in Robotech), and much like Mami Koyama she does a good job with what little she's given, due to Chris being mostly absent from much of the second half. The legendary Michael McConnohie voices "Buzzkirk" (renamed as such mainly so that everyone can just call him "Buzz", for short), and he gives Kim's bulky sidekick a lot of fun personality, resulting in probably the best overall performance in HG's dub. For Worsel we have the late Jeff Winkless (Captain Nemo in Streamline's Nadia dub) who overall delivers a more than fine performance... but it's kind of ruined slightly by the decision to modulate Winkless' voice, with the end result making Worsel sound more like a robot than a dragon-like humanoid alien; the original Japanese version simply echoed Nachi Nozawa's voice, to emphasize psychic communication. Then there's Gregory Snegoff (BD in Robotech the Movie & Streamline's Megazone 23 Part I dub) as DJ Bill (though simply called "Bill" here), and Snegoff must have really paid attention to Katsuya Kobayashi's performance as he does an immensely similar one in English, with maybe a touch of Wolfman Jack for flavor. Finally, Tom Wyner himself took up the mic for Helmuth, and he did a good (if kind of standard) deep voice for our mysterious villain.

Overall, Harmony Gold's Lensman: Secret of the Lens is a very good dub from the perspective of the voice cast itself, but the edits made throughout the entire film result in it feeling like it's stuck in at least third gear from start to finish, in terms of pacing. The end result is a film that rarely gets a chance to simply settle into a proper groove, unlike the original Japanese version. A good dub, but a rough edit.

As for the uncut Streamline dub there's actually a decent amount of the cast who reprise their roles here, seeing as Streamline did utilize a lot of the Harmony Gold regulars, but this time around the dub was directed by Steve Kramer (90s Gatchaman OVA's Urban Vision dub, Blue Dragon TV). In terms of the cast we have Kerrigan Mahan, Michael McConnohie, Gregory Snegoff, & Tom Wyner returning to voice Kim, Buskirk, DJ Bill, & Helmuth, respectively, while Michael Forest & the late Mike Reynolds amusingly swap roles, as in the HG dub Forest was Gary Kinnison (for the first half, at least) & Reynolds was Haynes, whereas in the Streamline dub Forest is now Haynes & Reynolds is Gary. Personally, I think Reynolds' iconic older voice better fits Haynes than Gary, but beyond that the swap is fine. As for the rest of the reprisals, Mahan does sound like he's trying to maintain a little more of a subdued voice for this uncut dub as Kim, rather than sound quite as boyish as he did in the HG dub, but overall is understandably similar. Likewise, McConnohie's Buskirk (who is now refereed to by his proper name at all times) isn't quite as boisterous as before, but overall sounds the same as in the HG dub. Even Wyner's performance here as Helmuth is a bit different than in the HG dub, now sounding maybe a bit more Darth Vader-esque than simply a deep-voiced yet standard villain. Finally, for the reprisals, Snegoff's DJ Bill (now also using the "DJ" part of his name) is pretty much a note-for-note duplication from the HG dub, right down to the Wolfman Jack-esque sound of his voice; Snegoff even seemingly snuck in a random S-bomb into the dub, which I feel like was accidental.

As for the new voices, Chris is now performed by Edie Mirman (Gatomon & Angewomon in Digimon, Fujiko Mine in Streamline's Lupin the 3rd dubs), who gives the character a much deeper & more mature sounding voice, & I think it actually works rather well for Chris; I honestly prefer Mirman over Melanie Macqueen. Meanwhile, Worsel here is now voiced by Steve Kramer himself (who had voiced Thorndyke, one of Haynes officers, in the HG dub), and while his voice is also modulated due to Worsel's need to communicate psychically it's nowhere near as heavy as it was for Jeff Winkless in the HG dub, so Worsel's voice here doesn't sound quite as robotic as in the prior dub. As for the rest of the cast we have the likes of Doug Stone (Blakeslee), Robert Axelrod (Soll), Dave Mallow (Thorndyke), & Milton James (Zwilk), among others. The Streamline dub also includes more book-sourced terminology, like referring more often to the Arisians when it comes to the Lens, calling the place Helmuth is hiding in an "Eddorian base", Buskirk actually introducing himself to Chris as "Van Buskirk", Worsel calling himself a Velantian (& referring to Buskirk once as a Valerian), etc.; I imagine these uses were all approved of by the Smith estate. However, wildly enough, only the original Japanese version sees Buskirk pray to his race's god, Noshabkeming, during moments of distress. Overall, the Streamine dub for Lensman is a definite improvement over the Harmony Gold dub, with the reprisals mostly being about as good as before, if not a little better, while the new performances wind up being improvements, on the whole; the fact that it's also uncut is just the cherry on top, really.

Taking aside all of the hubbub & hullabaloo when it comes to the production of this film, & the apparent major headache it gave E.E. "Doc" Smith's family (that seemingly continues on to this very day), SF Shin Seiki Lensman is not a bad film by any means. Is it accurate to the original Lensman stories in anything beyond the most basic of ways? Not at all, and it's easy to see why the Smith family hated it for that reason, but when taken as its own thing it is a good time to be had. It's certainly a flawed film in some ways, and the plot can often feel more like a succession of circumstances than a proper escalation of stakes, but the staff at Madhouse that drew the animation clearly put a ton of work & effort into making the Lensman film look great, while the teams at JCGL & NYIT (among other studios helping out) wanted to make sure that the first anime film that heavily utilized CG actually looked good in doing so; again, Golgo 13: The Professional used CG for just one scene, and even back then it looked rough. In some ways SF Shin Seiki Lensman is honestly a landmark film in the anime industry, especially when it comes to CG usage, but it was unfortunately produced in a way befitting an era that had already passed, and went into production without the full blessing of the family of the original creator, who still had clear rights over the IP.

Is it a travesty of justice that this film is stuck in such legal limbo that it still requires at least another 15 years for it to possibly be "freed", if ever? No, I wouldn't go that far, and the Smith family & estate certainly has its reasonable justifications for continuing to honor the (seeming) last request of the late Verna Smith Trestrail. However, SF Shin Seiki Lensman is a film that should be allowed to be judged on its own merits, despite its association to a trailblazing & iconic SF franchise, and I think this film would honestly shine ever greater if it was given an HD remaster, along with both the uncut Streamline dub & a reproduced Harmony Gold edited dub to show the wild, crazy, & ambitious path this film took over the course of nearly a decade, in both Japan & abroad.

However, as mentioned earlier, this movie wasn't the only bit of Lensman anime that was put into production, and for the longest time that other side of the coin was effectively (but maybe not literally) a "lost" production... until the end of 2024, when not only was the entire show finally publicly preserved but it was also fully fansubbed into English. So join me at the end of November when (~5.5. years after the last milestone review) I finally reach Review #300 when I cover all 25 episodes (plus the Harmony Gold-dubbed movie edit) of Galactic Patrol Lensman!

Anime © 1984 E.E. "Doc" Smith・Kodansha