Spoilers for the first episode of Lost Universe!
I have a sneaking suspicion that Lost Universe, an anime that ran in 1998 and is based on a series of light novels by the author of Slayers, is meant to be an AU of Star Wars. Consider, if you will, the facts:
It has a Death Star.
It has light sabers.
It has the Force.
It has Jedi: special people with the power to wield the Force.
It has a lot of other stuff that look like shout-outs, too: a vaguely Rebellion-like ship (A-wing or X-wing, take your pick) flying inside the Death Star to blow stuff up, hacking into data terminals ala R2-D2, and even a close call inside a garbage collector.
But things are a bit different in this version of SW. Castle Dugole (the “Death Star”) isn’t a weapon of the Empire; it’s an auction house run by the equivalent of the Hutts. The roles of R2-D2, C3PO, Chewbacca, and the Millennium Falcon itself are all filled by a sentient spaceship and its holographic avatar (anyone remember Andromeda?); and the name “Millennium” belongs to the Princess Leia stand-in, a…detective who goes by Millie? And Luke Skywalker becomes Kane Blueriver (note the “1-syllable first name + 2-syllable last name ending in -er” pattern), who also absorbs the functions of Han Solo and a bit of Lando (I mean, check out that cape!).
Review: Well, as you can probably guess, this series looks to be a fun show that doesn’t take it itself too seriously. I mean, if you’re familiar with Slayers, you probably already have a bead on Lost Universe. And with that 90s vibe going on, it really does feel nostalgically like a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away. The humor and action are sometimes predictable but always stick the landing, and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next to our cast, who did not fly off into the sunset together at the end of episode 1!
As an aside, it was a happy coincidence that I picked this up: I had finally had enough of Sweet Reincarnation and was looking for something else to take its place, and someone recommended this on Mastodon. I’m glad I checked it out, and you probably will be happy you did, too!
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An anime Star Wars knockoff… wow. Never would I have thought I’d seen that coming now! If I had known about this series before it would have made a perfect one to compare/contrast with Star Wars!
Admittedly, that was only my impression after episode 1. Episode 2 has some similarities to Star Trek, as well as introducing some original (afaik) points like legendary lost ships. One thing it doesn’t have so far, much to my surprise, is ships transforming into mechas. I thought for sure at least the main ship would do that, but not so far.
Oh dear. If that happened, I’d reckon that would be a jumping-the-shark moment. Way too obvious and unwarranted especially for this show – the obvious similarities are already more than enough! XP
Good post! I am a big Slayers fan but never watched Lost Universe. Megumi Hayashibara does the intro for this one as well and I am also a fan of her work 🙂
Will check this one, the Star Wars comparison was fun to know.
I’ve watched a bit further and there’s a bit of Star Trek in there as well. Hope you like it!
I remember seeing the trailer for this with that epic theme song by Megumi Hayashibara. I definitely noticed the lightsabers around and some Star Wars imagery happening. Maybe some kind of comparison would be interesting. Don’t worry, I won’t make any jokes about Hollywood stealing from anime as well. Hahaha!