"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... However...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..."
As was established in Review #299, while the exact details of what happened may be obscured with time & a bunch of games of telephone, the basic concept was that Kodansha had the rights to publish the Lensman books in Japan during the 80s, via a license made through then-current English publisher Berkley Publishing Corporation. Through a mix of simple assumptions made by Kodansha, & what was more-than-likely vague terminology in the contract (see: All of the madness that came about from the initial licensing of Tetris & what defined a "computer"), an anime film adaptation was put into production without the family & literary estate of original creator E.E. "Doc" Smith's knowledge, which in turn seemingly killed a Hollywood deal that was all but finalized. Since the film was already well into production the Smith family decided to give it their blessing & let it see completion, with it debuting in Japanese theaters on July 7, 1984. That much seems to be generally agreed upon when it comes to the production of the film, but aside from later licensing history nowhere near as much is really known about why what came next, production-wise.
A mere three months after SF Shin Seiki Lensman debuted in theaters in Japan the first episode of a brand new Lensman anime debuted on TV Asahi on October 6, 1984 at 7:00 pm. It was titled Galactic Patrol Lensman & would run for 25 episodes, but aside from some returning staff & a smattering of returning voice actors (plus once again being co-produced by Kodansha & MK Company) it wasn't treated as a continuation of the film. Instead, this TV anime was a complete redo that seemingly intended to be more accurate to the books than the film was, complete with characters who weren't in the film now being here. If I had to make a guess, when considering pre-production lead times & the like, I'd say that Galactic Patrol Lensman was likely Kodansha's way of appeasing the Smith family during the film's production. I'm sure it was plain to see (even prior to release) how little SF Shin Seiki Lensman actually resembled "Doc" Smith's books, so offering to produce a more "accurate" TV series was likely an attempt to make nice with the people who actually owned the Lensman IP itself. However, it seems as though the Smith family was still not pleased with how Galactic Patrol Lensman came out, and after the show fully aired in Japan only the first six episodes ever saw a home video release on VHS & LD over there. There was also a "Lensman Video Special" offered as a bonus VHS tape for anyone who could provide proof of purchase of all six VHS tapes, with the special apparently being two extra episodes that never aired on TV. Unfortunately, the Lensman Video Special looks to have become lost with time, or at least highly inaccessible (because who knows if Kodansha still has the masters), as I imagine few bothered to actually send in their proofs of purchase for it, and while I've seen some state online that they've watched "Episodes 26 & 27", there's never been any visual proof of it.
As mentioned in the last review, after Galactic Patrol Lensman finished up in Japan the Smith family apparently hoped to let all of this be forgotten with time, and they'd never have to think about these two anime ever again... until around 1988 or 1989, that is. Somehow (whether it was through Kodansha or MK Company isn't fully clear) the company Harmony Gold managed to license both Lensman anime & had produced two edited, English dubbed, made-for-TV movies, with the one for the TV anime (titled Lensman: Power of the Lens) using footage from five of the first six episodes, i.e. the ones that saw home video release in Japan; the copyright for this dub says 1987, but it likely didn't air until 1988/1989. A lawsuit was alleged to have been made, though there's no proof of one actually being filed, but in the end Harmony Gold's license for both anime was seemingly made null & void, while Streamline Pictures wound up being allowed to license the Lensman film... and only the film. Streamline's Carl Macek, though, did state during a panel at Anime America in 1993 that he had intentions of licensing Galactic Patrol Lensman, dubbing it, & airing it on the Sci-Fi Channel, but that obviously never came to pass. The claim is that the Smith estate has since barred any & all licensing of either Lensman anime following Streamline's license, but a Catalan dub for the entire show (well, the 25 episodes that were shown on TV, at least) was broadcast via TV3 in Catalonia, Spain in 1994, well after Streamline got the license to only the film, so go figure.
For the longest time having access to all 25 episodes of Galactic Patrol Lensman was considered a bit of an anime holy grail, as while everything beyond Episode 6 was no doubt recorded by people in Japan back in the day the chances of any such recordings surfacing was considered highly unlikely, and especially for the entire show. However, back in 2016 a group of anime fans within the fansubbing scene (which was now focused mainly on older titles, due to simulcasting removing the need for fansubbing new shows) were actually able to collect complete footage of Episodes 7 to 25, and alongside LD captures of the first six episodes started working on fansubbing Galactic Patrol Lensman into English. They relied on mostly Betamax recordings, with some VHS recordings, including a multi-gen VHS source for Episode 15... and, somehow, a 16mm film print for Episode 23, with film preservation group Kineko Video being hired to scan the film into HD, before finally having the entire series subbed into English at the end of 2024. In fact, the last two episodes' video was apparently so rough that they had to sync the Japanese audio to rips of the TV3 Catalan dub footage just to for them to look good enough to release. Without a doubt, the rescuing of Galactic Patrol Lensman from the deepest depths of inaccessibility is an amazing achievement that was only really possible by the fan community, since it's still stuck in legal limbo officially. However, with all that out of the way... is this series even any good? So, for Review #300, it's time to see how Galactic Patrol Lensman came out, both in its original Japanese form as well as that compilation movie edit from Harmony Gold.
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| I love how Tregonsee is showing off his long tentacles. It's how he knows he's better than Kim or Worsel. |
In the far future the Galactic Patrol is in the midst of a battle with the Boskone, a collective of seeming intergalactic pirate ships that are far more powerful than they should be. One of the members of the Galactic Patrol is the young Kimball "Kim" Kinnison, who is currently a new crew member of the space ship Brittania when it comes under attack by a Boskone vessel. Kim takes control of the ship & starts escaping, but the captain orders him to turn around as they were on the verge of entering the gravity well of Arisia, a mysterious planet where all who tried to visit it suffer immense psychological damage. In an attempt to fool the Boskone the crew of the Brittania let the ship self-destruct while they escape in pods, though the Boskone continue to chase them, so Kim (alongside the robot Soll) decides to head toward Arisia to escape capture. The Boskone chasing him, in turn, are hit with horrific illusions that make them turn around, while Kim is put into a psychic encounter with an Arisian called "Mentor". Mentor, seeing the potential in the young human in front of him, awards Kim with a Lens, an object grafted onto the back of his left hand that can provide all manner of abilities, like being able to see far distances, psychic communication, & even some telekinesis, and says that it's up to Kim to help put an end to the Boskone's ambitions, as the Boskone fight on the side of the Eddorians, who have been the eternal foes of the Arisians since time immemorial. Luckily, Kim doesn't have to do it alone as he winds up with the help of Van Buskirk, a mighty Valerian who's been with Kim since the start; Worsel, the dragon-like Velantian Lesnman; & Clarissa "Chris" MacDougall, a Galactic Patrol nurse who's more than willing to show her skills when needed.
Before we move into how this series works as an adaptation of Smith's books, plot-wise, let's first go over the cast, which themselves have changes from the books but are also notably different from the film for many. Where Kim in the film was essentially "Not Luke Skywalker" in most regards, the Kim here is definitely more interesting by being a bit of a snarky & sometimes lackadaisical guy, though he is trustworthy & immensely dedicated to his friends & allies. This does make him a bit of a far cry from his book counterpart, though, as the OG Kimball Kinnision is very much an idealized hero (i.e. contemplative, resourceful, tough, etc.), with even the biggest foul up he makes in the original Galactic Patrol book not even being that bad for him, in terms of injuries (some fractured bones, but no major cuts, burns, or lasting scars). Most amusingly, though, is the general complaint in the film of Kim doing nothing to earn his Lens... when in literally the first chapter of the book Kim is simply awarded his Lens upon graduating, and all the reader is told is that he was simply the best in his class & a perfect candidate to be a Lensman. In comparison, while Kim in this anime series doesn't do much to really earn his Lens the viewer is at least shown that Kim is brave, quick-to-action, daring, & willing to take risks when necessary by way of his attempt at escaping the Boskone attack & then deciding to head toward Arisia as a last-ditch effort. Simply put, Galactic Patrol Lensman's Kimball Kinnison is visibly shown to do more to earn his Lens than Galactic Patrol's Kimball Kinnison, so I find it hilarious that hardcore Lensman fans harped on the film for having Kim simply be awarded his Lens... when that's literally what the book did, too; they have absolutely different context, sure, but the book didn't show diddly.
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| Episode 23 really lets the visuals shine the best, & shows what an HD remaster could look like. |
As for the rest of the cast, Van Buskirk is a little closer to his book counterpart (even getting more of his original name back, with some calling him "Van" for short at points here), i.e. more ready & willing to just start swinging away with his axe & a super proud Valerian, he is still overall more or less the comic relief in the show, similar to how he was in the film. Chris is now straight up just a nurse here, as she was in the book, but is still fully capable of standing up for herself, both against Kim's snarky attitude & in battle, and at least here she's actually a regularly-featured member of the cast, unlike in the film. Unfortunately, we don't get to see Chris eventually become a Lensman in this show, like she does later in the books, but she's still way better here than in the film. Worsel honestly isn't too far off from how he was in the film, i.e. a living Deus ex machina that helps save the day when necessary, but at least in his introduction he does show weakness by being fully susceptible to the mind control that's plaguing his kind, similar to the book. Then we have Tregonsee, who wasn't in the film at all & is honestly probably the closest of the cast to their book original in terms of character by being a bizarre, cylindrical alien being with tentacles who talks in a very matter-of-fact fashion; also, much like in the book, he's barely in this show, only appearing in Episodes 3, 4, 17, 24, & 25. As for the supporting cast side of things we have Admiral Haynes (who does appear way more here than in the film), the robot Soll (who is now the true mascot-style character you'd think he'd be, but is honestly rather enjoyable as a character), Dr. Lacy (Surgeon-Marshall of the Galactic Patrol & a close friend of Haynes', just as in the book), & finally the duo of Henderson & Thorndyke (effectively Kim's next-in-commands), who are often around to act as support for the gang on missions; Henderson is a straight-shooter ace pilot, while Thorndyke is more of an awkward genius.
As mentioned, Galactic Patrol Lensman was seemingly a make-up for SF Shin Seiki Lensman's general lack of accuracy to "Doc" Smith's original Lensman books, and while this TV anime isn't exactly accurate as a direct adaptation to any of the books, most notably 1937's Galactic Patrol, it most definitely does put forth a much stronger effort from the get-go. Right from the start the conflict between the Arisia & Eddore is established, something that the film never even bothered to bring up (but the two dubs for it did make sure to at least reference), and there are all manner of concepts, weapons, planets, alien races, & whatnot from the book that are mentioned & seen here. The primary gun of choice for most is the DeLameter gun (though here it's something that the Boskone have first, rather than something the GP already utilize), the Brittania [II] uses a Bergenholm engine after Kim captures a Boskone ship & brings it back for research purposes, the Lens has more practical uses here than in the film, and even the concept of space ships having defense shields is utilized (somewhat) here. The anime even utilizes concepts that weren't fully defined back when the books were first written, like the usage of hyperspace in place of inertia-less drives, as hyperspace didn't really become a thing in science fiction until at least the 1950s, i.e. a few years after Smith had finished writing Lensman stories. Without a doubt, though, the production staff here made sure that this second go around would be closer to Smith's books... at least from a general perspective.
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| Meanwhile, Episode 15 is literally a case of "This was the best we could find", but still better than nothing. |
I say "general perspective", though, because from a story perspective Galactic Patrol Lensman is still very much its own thing first & foremost, though it does at least take from its namesake book for certain plot points & stories. However, I have to admit... I think that's arguably for the better here. It's not that Smith's books are bad or anything (I read both Triplanetary & Galactic Patrol for this review, and I very much did enjoy both), but when it comes to Galactic Patrol it's admittedly a story that wouldn't really work that well if the anime had simply done a straight adaptation. In essence, the original book is best split up across around five or six arcs, if you will: Kim's graduation (where he gets his Lens) & initial data retrieval mission, Kim & Buskirk landing on Delgon & helping Worsel free his people from the Delgonian aristocracy, Kim & Buskirk's return to GP's Prime Base with the data (which includes a short stop at the wild planet of Trenco), Kim becoming a Grey Lensman (i.e. free to do what he wishes) & his failed attempt at infiltrating a Boskone base, his recovery from his injuries & receiving special training from Mentor to give him new Lens-based powers, & infiltrating another Boskone base (with some help from a captured Chris), which leads into Kim's climactic encounter with (seeming) Boskone leader Helmuth.
In comparison, this anime covers both the Delgon & Trenco events (though Delgon is replaced with Valentia, Worsel's home planet), but alters both into one-off stories, namely Episodes 2 & 3... and then promptly veers off into simply telling its own overall story, though keeping the occasional bit of Lensman lore or continuity here & there. However, similar to how the Galactic Patrol book (& the later Lensman books, to my knowledge) was made up multiple shorter arcs, Galactic Patrol Lensman also focuses primarily on telling short mini-arcs, either two or four episodes long. Episodes 1-4 are all standalone stories, though the first three do at least introduce the recurring cast of Kim, Buskirk, Chris, Worsel, & (technically) Tregonsee, plus the supporting cast, but from then on out we get multi-episode arcs. Episodes 5 & 6 deal with Admiral Haynes needing to reach Dzoara to be a part of the 30th Anniversary celebration of the Galactic Patrol's founding, making him a perfect target for the Boskone. Episodes 7-10 see Kim & his crew head over to Valeria when it's invaded by the Boskone, only to come across a human woman named Zelda who has a connection to not just how Valeria became populated by buffalo-like people (in the books Valerians are simply stocky-but-strong humans, due to the increased gravity), but also the composite monsters that the Boskone are looking to create.
Episodes 11 & 12 involve Haynes' young granddaughter Lily & a mercenary group hired to kill Kim. Episodes 13-16 have the crew of the Brittania visit Kiriland, an legendary ice planet where electronics have problems working, and they become involved in stopping a coup against the beloved royal family that currently rule over the planet; due to electronics having problems, the cast mostly ride on literal flying horses. Episodes 17-20 see Kim hunt after "Wolf", a pirate who has stolen some beryllium that can be used to create a new weapon for the Boskone, a "Light Beam Cannon" that's powerful enough to instantly destroy small planetoids; also, Wolf himself has a past with both Admiral Haynes & Chris' deceased grandmother. Episodes 21-24 involve Kim & crew discovering that the Boskone have their hands on a "Super Space Wave Cannon" that's powerful enough to destroy the Earth, so they work with the small scientist Flick from the planet Albit in order to rescue Dr. Toll, the man behind the initial Space Wave Cannon that was kidnapped by the Boskone. Finally, Episode 25 sees Kim & his fellow Lensman take on Helmuth in a climactic (though not final) confrontation.
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| The Galactic Patrol book doesn't have "Kung Fu Master" Kimball Kinnison. Point goes to the anime. |
Yes, much like with SF Shin Seiki Lensman before it, Galactic Patrol Lensman isn't really focused on being a "proper" adaptation of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman books... but, in this case, I kind of actually can defend the decision. While I certainly had a good time reading Galactic Patrol, and I can see why it continued on with sequels to become the iconic & influential early sci-fi series that it is today, I don't think it would really work all that well when adapted into another, more visual-focused, medium. The main reason for that is because the only real character that's given any real attention in the original book is Kim, so if the Smith family truly wanted an "accurate" adaptation then this anime would mainly be about Kim & almost no one else. To be fair, Buskirk is around for the majority of the first half of the book alongside Kim, but he's given only the occasional bit to work with before pretty much disappearing completely shortly into the second half. Meanwhile, Worsel is only seen in the first third for his stuff on Delgon, Chris (originally nicknamed "Mac") doesn't debut until literally 2/3 into the book, & Tregonsee only appears in two chapters (near the end of each half of the book); yes, there are other books, but this TV anime was specifically titled Galactic Patrol Lensman. Truly, the original Galactic Patrol is really more about Kim showing his talents & eventually becoming a Lens-fueled psychic powerhouse of a Lensman, showing the first signs of the absurd levels of power escalation that Lensman would become legendary for. In fact, the book's narration states that Kim doesn't even need the Lens after his extra training with Mentor, as he's become so powerful, but it does still boost his abilities. For those unfamiliar, this is a series where, eventually, entire planets would be launched through prototype Boom Tubes so that they can crush other planets between them, while the Lensmen themselves would be capable of mind controlling entire legions of people to their will, barring the usage of mental barriers, & combining their mental capacities to send mental bolts at their foes.
Truly, there is no kill like overkill when it comes to the Lensman books.
Still, unlike the film (which was very much only Lensman in the most basic of senses) there really was an effort made to make Galactic Patrol Lensman at least feel like it was imitating Smith's books in some ways, and especially in the sense that, much like the books, the story is made up of small adventures than a larger, singular storyline. Remember, outside of 1950's First Lensman (which was the first novel Smith ever wrote), the Lensman books were originally serialized on a monthly basis in Astounding Stories magazine (which is still around to this day as Analog Science Fiction and Fact), so it made sense for Smith to have these stories be about a series of individual adventures that overall created a larger overarching storyline, and the same is true of this TV anime. While something like the two-parter featuring Lily is easily the most notable departure, there's no doubt that the writing staff here made sure to stay true to the style of how Lensman's overall plot was told, even if the actual stories themselves were mostly wildly different. To go with that, there actually wasn't anyone in charge of "Series Composition" for this series, & instead each major arc was given to a different writer; Yoshio Takeuchi was credited with "Setting", but not a writing role. Masaki Tsuji handled Episodes 1-6 (the initial one-offs & the Dzoara Arc), Soji Yoshikawa returned from the film for Episodes 7-10 (the Valeria Arc), the late Haruya Yamazaki wrote Episodes 11-16 (the Lily & Kiriland Arcs), the late Ko Takashina did Episodes 17-20 (the Wolf Arc), Mitsuru Majima was on board for Episodes 21-24 (the Flick Arc), & finally Seiko Watanabe wrote the final episode. The end result is an interesting variety of styles, environments, & ideas that honestly reminds me more of the first half of Galactic Patrol, which was the half I enjoyed reading most; it's also more similar to Triplantary, which was mainly about humans being brought to an alien world.
Leading this TV anime as "Chief Director" was Hiroshi Fukutomi (Suzuka, the Locke the Superman movie), and this must have been an interesting production to head up because rather than rely mainly on a single animation studio this series instead split things up between various studios, similar to how the writing was handled. Because of that, just as how there isn't a "Series Composition" position, there is no traditional "Animation Production" credit, but rather each episode has its own "Anime Production Cooperation" credit. Madhouse is generally looked at as the "main" studio, and it's entirely possible that Madhouse was the place where each episode was given final approval by Fukutomi & company, but in reality that studio was only directly involved in animating Episodes 1-6, and even then they had help from ACT & Anime Torotoro for the first three episodes. Instead, the remaining 19 episodes were handled (mostly) in batches by other studios, with Episodes 7-10 coming from Magic Bus, Episode 11 from AIC, Episodes 12, 13, & 16 from Studio Bogey (with help from Anime R [12] & Anime Torotoro [13 & 16]), Episodes 14, 15, & 17-20 from 8x10 (read as "Eight by Ten"), Episodes 21-24 from Studio Furumi, & the final episode by Artland (with help from AIC). If most of those studios don't sound all that familiar, that's because aside from Magic Bus, AIC, & Artland the remaining studios were known primarily for assistance work when it came to things like in-between animation, backdrops, & the occasional bit of key animation, if needed.
While the end result remains more or less consistent when it comes to visual style, with character designer Kazuo Tomizawa returning from the Lensman film to keep everyone more or less looking like they did there, there can be a noticeable difference in animation fluidity & feel on an episode-by-episode basis, depending on which studio did the animation itself. I wouldn't say that the differences are major, but even I could tell that there was a difference between episodes animated by Madhouse & episodes animated by, say, Magic Bus. However, this also allowed a wide variety of animators to work on the show, including the likes of Yasuomi Umetsu (Kite, Mezzo, Virgin Punk), Keizo Shimizu (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Cobra the Animation), Yuki Kinoshita (a highly respected animation director), & Moriyasu Taniguchi (founder of anime studio Anime R). The episode director list also has some people who'd later direct notable titles, namely Tsuneo Tominaga (They Were 11!, Souten Kouro) & Tetsuya Endo (Hikaru no Go's second half, One Piece: Episode of Skypiea). Even respected animator Koji Morimoto was hired to do the animation for the OP sequence, so there's no doubt that Kodansha & MK intended for this to be a true "group effort", if you will.
As for the music, Galactic Patrol Lensman went in a neat direction by bringing in COSMOS, a synthesizer keyboard trio comprised of Keiko Matsui (neé Doi), Roman Kaieda, & Yumiko Tanaka that all came from the Yamaha Music Foundation's Junior Original Concert; the legendary Michiru Oshima was also a member of COSMOS at one point, but that was post-Lensman. The end result is a very synth-heavy score, though with some traditional piano mixed in, that I feel actually works extremely well for a sci-fi series like this. COSMOS really knew how to take full advantage of the keyboard & delivered a damn good score for this series, one that's easily superior to SF Shin Seiki Lensman's & a score that I seriously would love to see the full version released one day, as the OST that did see release doesn't look to be complete. To compliment the excellent score would be the OP theme, "On the Wing" by Eri Kojima, which is seriously just an outstanding theme song in & of itself, and had this series not been stuck in the legal limbo that came about from it I think there's a fair chance that "On the Wing" could have gone down as an all-time classic anime theme, not just from the 80s but of all time. Interestingly, there are actually two versions of the OP sequence, with the first one featuring more of Koji Morimoto's animation (& showing off the cast properly), but starting with Episode 9 the first 30-ish seconds were altered to simply show off some of the CG work done for the film, namely footage from the opening; the OG version also has some CG in it, but it's all wireframe work. I can understand why this was done, as the CG was rather impressive for its time (& showing it technically made Galactic Patrol Lensman the first TV anime to use CG), but I really do prefer the first version overall. That being said, Tregonsee is barely in the show so maybe they also didn't want to keep showing him in the OP if he almost never appears. Unfortunately, the first six episodes that got released on home video use the CG-filled OP sequence for the VHS/LD release, so now only two episodes from the fansub actually use the (superior) original OP sequence. As for the ED theme, "Paradise" by Yudai Suzuki, it's certainly a catchy little song in its own right that slowly wormed its way into my brain, but it's still not quite on the level of "On the Wing".
As for the voice cast, there are some reprisals from SF Shin Seiki Lensman, but they tend to either just get more to work with here or are actually handled somewhat differently. For example, Toshio Furukawa returns to voice Kim, but this time around plays the character with both a little more snark & relative assuredness in who he is, compared to the young man suddenly thrust into adventure that Kim was in the film. Mami Koyama also returns to voice Chris, but now gets a hell of a lot more to really make her character shine, whether it's in showing how confident & talented Chris can be in action, her occasional penchant for getting jealous when Kim gets (innocently) friendly with another woman, or her caring nature that makes her worry about Kim when he puts himself in danger. Finally, for the reprisals, both Hidekatsu Shibata & Seizo Kato reprise their film roles of Haynes & Helmuth, respectively, and both more or less deliver the same solid performance as before. Shibata gets a little bit more to work with due to Haynes getting some extra character development here & there, while Kato essentially has the same exact character when it comes to Helmuth. There are also some people who return in new roles, like Eiji Kanie going from the film's narrator to the minor role of Romulon, one of Helmuth's generals, but none of them are really notable.
In terms of the new cast we now have the legendary Banjo Ginga as Van Buskirk, who delivers a fittingly gruff & boisterous voice, but can also handle the comic relief bits with ease. For Worsel we now have Keiichi Noda (Tetsuya Tsurugi in Great Mazinger), who does a great job giving the character a similar reliably stalwart ally vibe, since Worsel is admittedly not too far off from his film portrayal; a good replacement for Nachi Nozawa. Beyond that we have the people who voice the recurring supporting cast, namely Tomiko Suzuki (Soll), Hideyuki Hori (Henderson), the late Kaneto Shiozawa (Thorndyke), Naoki Tatsuta (Trengonsee), & Ichiro Nagai (who pulls double duty as both Lacy & Mentor), who all do well with their roles. Due to the vast amount of secondary characters from the various mini-arcs there's honestly a rather large cast to Galactic Patrol Lensman, but overall it is a well-acted & performed show, in the original Japanese, and even the re-castings are arguably stronger overall than those in the film.
Then there's Harmony Gold's edited compilation movie dub, Lensman: Power of the Lens. Written & directed by the late Tom Wyner (with Joe Ellison co-writing), this made-for-TV production utilizes Episodes 1, 2, 3, 5, & 6. Episode 4 was left out completely, though it was admittedly a wholly isolated one-off that contributes nothing of note beyond Kim, Worsel, & Tregonsee briefly meeting Helmuth via hologram for the first time at the very end. This also means that only the episodes that Masaki Tsuji wrote & Madhouse animated were the ones that were adapted into English. In terms of adapting this early part of the anime into English, Wyner & Ellison certainly made some odd changes right away, as the dub removes all mention of Kim trying to escape in the original Brittania (& later his escape pod) by heading towards Arisia, thereby kind of removing part of what made Kim worthy of earning his Lens, while the psychic message of Kim getting his Lens goes from something that only Haynes sees in Episode 1 to something everyone in the meeting he's holding sees together; they're not major changes, admittedly, but they do change some of the context for no real reason. Also, the Boskone are now stated as working under the command of the "Overlords of Delgon" from Eddore, which makes no sense from any perspective since the Delgonians were the guys that Worsel & his kind were under subjugation of & were dealt with by Kim & Buskirk relatively early on in Galactic Patrol. This change just makes it sound like no one at Harmony Gold ever read the books & just learned key words, and then later the fact that the planet Trenco is renamed "Presettia" (or, at least, that's what it sounds like) just makes me believe that even more, since the Trenco episode was one of the few actual direct book adaptations. Kim & Chris are also instantly established as a couple right from the start, which just feels odd. Finally, the transitions from episode to episode are just kind of done rather cavalierly, so even if you didn't know better beforehand you could easily guess that this was simply compiling episodes of a TV series, which it obviously was. Then there's the music by Arlon Ober, Jack Alan Goga, Michael Bradley, & Steve Wittmack, which is fittingly synth-focused but nowhere near as memorable & catchy as COSMOS' original score; hell, even that catchy as hell theme from Secret of the Lens got changed for this production.
In terms of the English voice cast, I also noticed that all of the cast used pseudonyms here, even if they were reprising a role from the film; maybe it was a union restriction, as I imagine both of HG's dubs were produced together. Kerrigan Mahan (as "Ryan O'Flannigan") returned as Kim, and he's more or less about what you'd expect from Mahan if you're familiar with his work, i.e. solid & believable, if maybe a little stock in some ways. Michael McConnohie also returns here (as "Jeffrey Platt") for Buskirk, though still nicknamed "Buzz", and he likewise delivers mostly the same performance as he did in the film, so no real complaints here. Melanie Macqueen (as "Aline Leslie") also returns as Chris, but since Chris actually doesn't get too much to work with in the initial standalone episodes she actually encounters the inverse of the film, i.e. she only really gets stuff to work with in the final third, i.e. the adaptation of Eps 5 & 6. The late Mike Reynolds is another return (as "Ray Michaels") for Haynes, and he's just as solid as ever. Tom Wyner himself also (sort of) "returns" for this dub, as while his main role is as Mentor the character now speaks whenever Kim gets a warning from the Lens, so it's kind of like Wyner is also reprising his role as the mysterious voice of the Lens from the film. The late Ted Lehmann also returns (as "Leonard Pike") for Soll, though amusingly enough most of Soll's involvement beyond the very beginning is actually cut out, so it's almost as if Soll dies early on... only to then reappear for the two-parter in the last third. I can't verify if Jeff Winkless reprised Worsel for this dub, though he is in it in some way as "Philboyd Studge", but the character suffers the same much-too-robotic sounding modulation for his voice here as in the film. For new actors easily the most notable would be the late Bill Capizzi (as "A. Gregory"), who voices Henderson with WAAAAAAAAY more snark & disdain towards Kim than in the original Japanese; there Henderson's dislike of Kim goes away after only Episode 2. Finally there's Tregonsee's actor (who I sadly can't ID, as the dub only lists names in the end credits, not specific roles)... who does the exact opposite of Naoki Tatsuta's high-pitched voice & delivers an uber deep & even monstrous voice that simply made me laugh my butt off anytime Tregonsee spoke.
Overall, Power of the Lens is honestly the weaker of the two Harmony Gold Lensman dubs, as while Secret of the Lens' various cuts wound up messing with the film's pacing too much, the dub performances themselves were honestly generally solid. Here, though, the changes to some of the terminology & lore are things that I think would actually be reasonable for the Smith family to complain about, as they directly contradict book stuff, rather than just mostly ignore it. However, what really hurts this dub is the writing in general, which features some utterly baffling & just plain bad lines, like Worsel literally saying "The power of the Lens compels you!" at one point; how could Wyner and/or Ellison think that line could ever be taken seriously, even in the late 80s?
Once again, we have a situation where an anime adaptation of E.E. "Doc" Smith's iconic Lensman series is almost anything but an actual "adaptation", at least when it comes to directly telling the same story that Smith himself had written decades prior. However, I will at least defend Galactic Patrol Lensman to some extent, in this regard, because while the stories told in this TV anime (by & large) are not the stories told in the original books (let alone just Galactic Patrol) I feel there is still something in this series that maintains the heart & soul of Lensman, though admittedly just the earliest parts of it. Having read both Triplanetary & Galactic Patrol for this review there definitely is a devil may care, freewheeling attitude to those two books, one where Smith doesn't really sweat the details all that much & instead just allows his characters to find themselves in scenarios & worlds that often remind them little of "Tellus" (the series' word for Earth), and I honestly got that feeling a number of times while watching Galactic Patrol Lensman. Also, to be perfectly blunt, if what the Smith family & estate wanted was as much book loyalty as possible then it'd honestly be a bit of a boring adaptation, as Kim is so much the focal point of Galactic Patrol that it honestly comes at the expense of the rest of the supporting cast, who either are only barely in the "first" book, appear for a portion but then disappear later on, or debut so late into the book that they really don't contribute much. If anything, the Smith family should have always focused more on adapting Triplanetary specifically as a standalone adaptation first, as that story actually would work far better as something like a movie or mini-series; anything else would require lots of alterations to work better, I feel.
Does that mean that I prefer Galactic Patrol Lensman over Smith's OG story? No, not at all (especially since I haven't read the later books), but I will say that I think what the staff for this anime, & in particular the group of writers, did was figure out a way to turn Lensman into something that really does work more as a TV series, one that tells its own set of original stories but still manages to maintain a bit of the sense of wonder, excitement, & simple zaniness of early Lensman. The anime also does make use of some specific plot points from the books, though with altered executions, like Kim nearly being killed when a mission goes wrong, the early destruction of the Brittania & the creation of a second ship using the same name (all from Galactic Patrol), or the usage of the alias Cartiff for Kim (from Second Stage Lensman), though Kim's Cartiff disguise is pretty much just a Captain Harlock cosplay in the anime. Also, since this TV anime doesn't bring a conclusive end to the Boskone threat, it's easy to see that Kodansha likely hoped to continue making more Lensman anime. Therefore, it's entirely possible that (now with the Galactic Patrol aspects out of the way), they could have later made future seasons that did adapt the later Lensman books, which do seem to feature more of a proper recurring cast & would likely be easier to more directly adapt; however, this is nothing more than mere speculation.
Regardless, my hat goes off to the people at /m/subs & The Skaro Hunting Society for managing to rescue Galactic Patrol Lensman from the depths of sheer inaccessibility, plus Kineko Video for the film scan, as while I generally don't mention fansub groups by name on the regular here this is a notable exception I can make. As mentioned in the prior review the earliest we have to wait for either of these Lensman anime to theoretically become eligible for re-release looks to be after August 30, 2040, when Smith's works should enter the public domain (& even then there's no guarantee due to things like trademarks), so the fact that both can continue to be seen by those who are willing to be like Tregonsee & "turn zwilnik", a la the penultimate chapter of Galactic Patrol, is at least something to be celebrated.
Anime © E.E. "Doc" Smith·Kodansha
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