Lost Universe
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Lost Universe (Japanese: ロスト・ユニバース; Rosuto Yunibâsu) is a series of Science Fiction novels, running 1992 to 2000, by Japanese author Hajime Kanzaka. It was later adapted into an anime that ran throughout the summer of 1998 on TV Tokyo during the time slot that Kanzaka's previous work, Slayers, ran. It lasted 26 episodes.
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Plot Overview
In Slayers, it was mentioned that the main characters of that series live on a world that is one of the four created by an ultra-god, called The Lord of Nightmares or simply LoN. This world was known as the Red World. Lost Universe, however, takes place in a different world, known as the Black World. Whereas the demi-gods of the various worlds such as Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo and Dark Star Dabranigdo (Dubranigdo using ADV's translation; see later) had physical presence in that world, they appear in the Black World as 'Lost Ships', or space ships that have mystical or somewhat magical powers. Kane Blueriver inherits one such ship from his grandmother and from there, the rest of the story unfolds.
Series Media
When the first volume of Lost Universe was released in 1992, it was considered 'the next big thing' from Kanzaka, who already had negotiations in the works for the Slayers anime. During its first few volumes, there was great popularity. However, with the release of the Slayers anime, the popularity waned as fans saw an 'overload' of Slayers material. Unlike the Slayers anime, which lasted 78 episodes, Lost Universe only lasted 26 episodes, and was plagued with numerous production problems which came to be called Yashigani. A Lost Universe movie was rumored in 1998, but was cancelled in favor of more Slayers movies.
Worldwide Releases
Lost Universe was dubbed and released in the United States by ADV Films in late 2001. Lost Universe also aired in dubbed form on the International Channel starting June 2003 and concluded January 2004. The anime was also dubbed into French and Italian and aired on TV in said countries. Currently, the novel and manga versions are exclusive to Japan.
Translation Discrepencies
Kanzaka took many of the names of the gods from Slayers and subsequently applied them as names of the Lost Ships when he wrote Lost Universe. However, there were differences in the spellings of the names (and, indeed, pronunciation) when both series were distributed in the United States. This was because one company, Software Sculptors, secured the rights to the Slayers television series, while another, ADV Films, secured the rights to Lost Universe. While Software Sculptors had many mistranslations that went against the official romanization (such as a character named Ameria being renamed Amelia, the kingdom of Saillune was renamed Seyruun, etc.) they were accurate in the naming of the gods throughout all three seasons and the weapons introduced in the final season. However, ADV went against both the official and Software Sculptors translations, creating completely new ones. Ragudo Mezegis, a weapon introduced in the third season of Slayers that became a Lost Ship in Lost Universe, was now the Rag D' Mezegis. Dark Star Dugradigdu was now Darkstar Dubranigdo. Kane, the main character of the story, originally had his name written as 'Kain', which can actually be seen in a letter in Episode 26. This, coupled with the fact that the intro sequence was altered by editors at ADV, and that Episode 6 was, in fact, edited, has had many in the anime community speculating as to whether or not they will release new versions of Lost Universe, presumably under their Anime Essentials line.
Yashigani
The 4th episode Yashigani Hofuru (ヤシガニ屠る), lit. feasting on Coconut crab, which aired on April 24, 1998, was initially worked on by a South Korean animation company, San Ho Studio. They only had basic manuals of the characters. The result was so dismal in quality that it was later reworked for the LaserDisc releases. An anime with extremely poor animation came to be called a Yashigani.
There were several reasons for this breakdown. With the megahit Neon Genesis Evangelion, other stations rushed to make anime series of their own which resulted in 60 to 70 new works being aired in a week. Around 30 works is widely considered to be a maximum output from companies without reducing qualities and what resulted was that works went unchecked until the last minute.
External links
- "What happened to the episode 4? (http://homepage1.nifty.com/home_aki/lost4.htm) (in Japanese) - With scenes before and after being reworked
- Yashigani Special (http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani1.htm) (in Japanese) - [1] (http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani2.htm)[2] (http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani3.htm)[3] (http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani4.htm)[4] (http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani5.htm) A nearly complete scene by scene detailing of everything wrong about the episodeja:ロスト・ユニバース