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...

Review

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

A low-minded, nudity-strewn, fantasy action-fest with a complete lack of plot and characterization, Legend of Lemnear is lame fantasy at its worst. Seeing Satoshi Urushihara's name attached to it might give you the idea that it's a good kind of sleazy (ala Plastic Little), but no--it even fails badly in the fun department.

Like the comic it's based on, there's no shortage of action--at least the last third of the show consists entirely of one fight, and there's plenty more in the preceding two thirds. There's also plenty of nudity to go around--Lemnear's costume would embarrass the women on Baywatch, and there is, of course, a harem. Sadly, the story manages to be both convoluted and non-existent at the same time and neither the action nor the cheesecake look good enough to be worth sitting through it for.

The characters, despite following a tried and true formula, are another area where Legend of Lemnear doesn't cut it. The overall mediocrity of their designs, personalities, and acting left me not caring much about any of them. And, when you don't care about the main characters, there'd better be something pretty darned interesting going on to make up for it. There isn't.

Based on Urushihara's talent for pretty art I was expecting at least some nice visuals, but Lemnear doesn't even have much to offer in that department. The character designs are ok, but not noteworthy and nowhere near the level of Urushihara's more recent work. The art, likewise, is passable but entirely unimpressive. The animation, at least, has a few brief bright spots, but for the most part is rough and cheap-looking.

I was a bit surprised at how bad the Japanese acting is. Not awful, but despite a couple of recognizable names in the cast it's well below par even for lame fantasy. The dub is surprisingly good. Ok, not really, but it's decent, and in comparison to the striving-for-mediocrity Japanese it seems praiseworthy.

Put together, the whole thing is so sleazy, mindless, and plotless--all in a bad way--that it just isn't much fun to watch. The entertainment level is about equal to the no-budget fantasy slasher flicks on late night cable, worthy of heckling at best. If bad action movies and/or bad fantasy action movies are your cup of tea you'll probably have a ball, and diehard Urushihara fans might want to give it a shot. Otherwise, just stay away.

Related Recommendations

Your best bet for quality B-movie action and lots of skin is either the anime adaptation of Urushihara's Plastic Little (even though it's still bad and sci-fi, it's much more fun) or the semi-serious handiwork of the (in)famous Go Nagai: Devilman, Shuten Douji, and more. If you really want fantasy, there are plenty of choices as well: Bastard!! (relatively similar), Record of Lodoss War (much less sleazy), Rune Soldier Louie (less sleazy and less serious), and more.

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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