In the second installment of The Screening Room, we’ll
travel a bit further back in time and look at an anime movie from 1984,
SF Shinseiki Lensman, also known in
other parts of the world as
Lensman:
Secret of the Lens.
The film was
directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri & Kazuyuki Hirokawa, animated by Madhouse
Inc., produced by MK Productions, Ltd., and distributed by Toei Co., Ltd. in
Japan.
Both the movie and an anime
television series,
Galactic Patrol
Lensman, were based on the Lensman novels written by E. E. Smith.
Four original Lensman novels were written
between 1937 and 1948, and then in 1948 an earlier novel from 1934,
Triplanetary, was re-worked to fit with
the Lensman series.
In 1950, a sixth
novel,
First Lensman, was written to
bridge the gap between
Triplanetary
and the four original novels.
Finally,
in 1954, the original novels were re-written to remove remaining
inconsistencies, and the full Lensman canon was established.
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| SF Shinseiki Lensman (1984) |
The plot of the movie differs greatly from that of the
original novels, although the TV series was closer to the original source
material. In the film, a young human
named Kimball Kinnison is living on an agricultural world with his father. He is preparing to leave the planet to apply
to the Galactic Patrol when he encounters a dying Lensman, and the Lensman’s
Lens is transferred to Kimball. This
Lens holds special powers, and it contains information that is vital to the
Galactic Patrol in its struggles against the Boskone Empire. Kimball’s father, Ken Kinnison, who had
helped form the Galactic Patrol and had himself aspired to becoming a Lensman
before losing his arm in an accident during his younger years, understands the
importance of the situation and sacrifices himself so that Kimball can bring
the Lens to the Galactic Patrol.
