Legend of Lemnear

Original Title: LEGEND OF LEMNEAR 極黒の翼バルキサス
Romanized: Legend of Lemnear Gokukoku no Tsubasa Barukisasu
Literal: Legend of Lemnear - The Pitch Black Wings Valkisus

Plot Synopsis

Lemnear is an attractive young woman in one of those armored bikinis who seeks revenge for the destruction of her village and the death of her family. She was formerly known as Silver, one of three powerful guardians of the people, until an evil mage captured Bronze, killed Gold, and caused untold havoc. Problem: This mage (the bad guy, in case that wasn't clear), aside from having really huge shoulder armor, also has a hefty army of minions. Bigger Problem: He is an underling of the lord of evil, a guy who floats around in a big, scary castle bringing darkness to the land and wearing even bigger shoulder armor (meaning, according to the laws of fantasy anime, that he's even tougher). But, before Lemnear gets down to vengeance and all that world saving stuff, she's going to have to deal with the local slave trader, and becoming part of his harem...

Quick Review

Rating: 0.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-12-05

Legend of Lemnear is sleazy fantasy at its worst. Filled with gratuitous nudity, wanton violence, and a complete lack of plot and characterization, there's none of the pretty art and mindless fun usually associated with Urushihara's name to be found. At least there's a heap of action--the entire last third of the film is a big ol' fight--but the animation is cheap and the visuals bland. Even the Japanese acting is bad (the dub sounds good by comparison).

A low-minded, nudity-strewn, fantasy action fest only likely to be worth the time for fans of bad action movies and diehard Urushihara followers.

US DVD Review

The all-region DVD (one of USM's early efforts) has both English and Japanese stereo soundtracks, an English subtitle track, and for an extra tosses in introductions to the characters linked to illustrative scenes. It's not bad for its era, but there are a couple of rough spots. First, though the transfer is generally good, there are a couple of scenes with a subtle transition between two shades of black in the background that produces a sort of shimmering line right down the middle of the screen. Second, if you're watching it with the Japanese audio, when the credits are about to start, the sound just... stops. They obviously froze the final shot just before the Japanese credits rolled, so they could overlay the English ones on that image, but they apparently neglected to keep the audio rolling in the Japanese soundtrack (it is still there in the English one). Finally, as with all early USM DVDs, there is no translation of the Japanese voice cast.

Content Guide

Definitely qualifies as 16-up. Has absolutely no redeeming qualities, either.

Violence: 4 - Plenty of blood and bodies.

Nudity: 4 - Several gratuitous harem scenes and a lot of barely-on costumes.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Threatened rape.

Language: 1 - Surprisingly mild.

Notes and Trivia

Legend of Lemnear is based on an even more nudity-strewn 2-volume comic of the same name, drawn by Satoshi Urushihara and written by Kinji Yoshimoto. Yoshimoto wrote and directed the movie, Urushihara supplied character designs and acted as production supervisor. The comic is (or was) available (in three volumes) in English from CPM Manga.

Availability

Available in the US from US Manga Corps on hybrid DVD. Was originally available on subtitled and dubbed VHS.

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