The Screening Room: Lensman - Secret of the Lens (1984)

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. 

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.

Kimball, along with his father’s friend Van Buskirk, takes the dead Lensman’s spaceship and sets out to find the Galactic Patrol.  Along the way, they are attacked by Boskone forces, and most of a Galactic Patrol crew sacrifices itself so that Kimball can continue on his quest to bring the Lens to the Galactic Patrol high command.  The one member of the crew to survive, a nurse named Clarissa MacDougal, accompanies Kimball and Van Buskirk on their quest.  Eventually, after all the other events of the movie, there is a confrontation between Kimball and the leader of the Boskone forces, Lord Helmuth.  Kim learns to use the power of the Lens, and the movie reaches its conclusion.

In North America, a dubbed version of the film titled Lensman: Secret of the Lens was released on VHS by Harmony Gold USA in 1988.  This version deleted some scenes from the original Japanese version, and also included an entirely new soundtrack.  A redubbed version was released on VHS by Streamline Pictures in 1990 that included the scenes that had been deleted from the previous North American release and that used the original soundtrack from the Japanese release.  Also, some of the same voice actors from the Harmony Gold USA release were used for the Streamline Pictures redub.  There has not been a DVD release of Lensman: Secret of the Lens as of the time of this writing.

Lensman: Secret of the Lens (1990)

Lensman: Secret of the Lens was one of the early wave of anime titles that was brought to North America, but it is not well known compared to titles like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and Vampire Hunter D.  It’s not even well known compared to titles such as The Venus Wars or Record of Lodoss War.  One reason for this is availability: the movie last saw a retail release in North America in 1990, as compared to releases after 2000 for the other titles mentioned.  Another potential reason is that the film deviates from the source material, which could have upset fans of the original source material.  Also, the Harmony Gold dub was not of extremely high quality, and the modified soundtrack imparted a different feel on the movie than the original soundtrack (and accompanying artwork and animation style) provided for.

Lensman: Secret of the Lens is an action movie with some modicum of story attached.  Its roots may be set in a science fiction space opera, but the story in the movie deviates from the source, and those epic events of the original material that are alluded to in the movie unfortunately remain allusions.  Character development is minimal, some of the characters’ logic leaves a bit to be desired, and some of the dialogue sounds like the English dub may have needed to fill space that was used for actual plot or character development in the Japanese version.

Lensman is notable in that it contained some of the first computer graphics to be found in anime, and this added a sense of futuristic technology to the aesthetics of the movie.  However, the CG scenes do not fit together as smoothly with the drawn animations as perhaps they could have, and the effects seem a bit disjointed when compared to later CG anime efforts.  In addition to this, there are several instances of repeated frame usage.  While such things are not exactly unheard of in anime, there is a difference between a multiple-episode television show and a 107 minute film.

Music in Lensman: Secret of the Lens was composed by Akira Inoue and Toshihiko Takamizawa, and arranged by Akira Inoue.  There were three official albums released in Japan.  A 13 track soundtrack was released in Japan at the same time as the original film, in July 1984.  Two months later, in September 1984, a 9 track Synthesizer Fantasy arrange album was released that was arranged by Osamu Shoji.  Three months after that, in December 1984, the Lensman Sound Fantasy album was released, containing 17 tracks.  SF Shinseiki Lensman also included two tracks by Japanese group The Alfee: Starship -Hikari wo Motomete- (Starship: Seeking the Light) and Ai no Kodou (The Beat of Love).  As mentioned before, the Harmony Gold USA version completely replaced the music from the original Japanese version, and used several songs from other films they had produced such as Robotech the Movie: The Untold Story, and Robotech II: The Sentinels.  The Streamline Pictures version reverted to the Japanese soundtrack in their release.

Lensman Original Soundtrack (1984)

SF Shinseiki Lensman Synthesizer Fantasy (1984)

Lensman Sound Fantasy (1984)

I was a fan of the movie when I saw it in the early 1990s and had fond – though vague – memories of it for over two decades before I was able to watch it again.  While the movie is not necessarily bad, I would be hard pressed to recommend that anyone new to anime, or even science-fiction or space-based anime, should watch this first instead of many other films.  The use of computer graphics in addition to hand-drawn animation is noteworthy, and the music from either version of the soundtrack is interesting enough to listen to.  However, the poor execution of telling a much greater story in the packaging of a one-off film led to a somewhat boring viewing experience years after initially watching the movie.  If you’re looking to kill two hours, I can think of worse movies you could watch.  If you’re looking for an epic, memorable film experience, I can think of better movies you could watch.  Finding a physical copy of the movie could be a rather difficult task, with the last North American release being on VHS in 1990.  Finding physical copies of any of the soundtrack albums could also be exceedingly difficult and/or costly.  The movie was not available for viewing on Netflix at the time that this article was written, although the Harmony Gold version was available on Youtube.