Landlock
On the day that Luda, a young boy born with one red eye, inherits his father Moog’s ability to control the wind, their village is attacked by the overwhelming might of a mecha army led by a ferocious, white-haired young woman.
On the day that Luda, a young boy born with one red eye, inherits his father Moog’s ability to control the wind, their village is attacked by the overwhelming might of a mecha army led by a ferocious, white-haired young woman. She is Agahali the daughter of Zanark, the ruler of the militaristic state of Zaroas and it's floating city of Longinus, and her goal is to kill Moog and capture the red-eyed one.
Zanark has told her that the red eye can bring back the power of the wind and that will plunge their world into an era of frigid darkness that will see the world again controlled by the gods and the destruction of the culture they've taken many years to develop.
However, it's not all that straightforward and Agahali, herself born with one bright blue eye, discovers that Luda's sister Ansa has the same strange birthmark on her back as she does and suspects that they are all linked in some way. Escaping from Agahali, Luda begins a mystical journey that sees the powers of the ancient gods themselves pitted against the evil Zanark and the technology of Zaroas…
Review
Landlock, or Land Lock as it's sometimes called, is a story based on a never-released Sega Saturn role playing game and was originally shown as two episodes but what we get here is a seamless, single feature. The story is a fairly run-of-the-mill tale of a young hero fighting the oppressive tyranny of a technologically superior invading force that threatens to destroy all he holds dear. Anime stories like these are fairly common and this one is nothing extraordinary but it is quite watchable.
Director Yasuhiro Matsumura handles this fairly standard storyline quite well and enhances the experience by presenting some of the scenes from odd angles or lit from behind and all to good effect. It's quite a fast-paced, violent story but there are no fountains of blood or severed heads and limbs here as in some anime and, other the grand finale, there's only one quite graphic killing scene but even that's handled quite artistically. That said, there is quite a bit of violence involved but it’s not gratuitous and seemed necessary to the plot. The writer has also created a fairly rich world and mythos as a background to the main story and that all helps flesh things out quite well.
Unlike a lot of anime adapted from books or comic books, where it's assumed that the viewer already knows a lot of the background, Landlock is a story where we learn a bit about the world, who the main players are and enough of their history to be able to follow the plot. It even has some unexpected twists and a satisfactory ending and there's even some totally gratuitous nudity, which always helps too. Where the story didn't quite gel was how Zanark seemed impervious to sword blows for a man with so many scars and how did he get hold of the blue and red flows. Also the appearance of the giant arms and torso seemed a bit over the top, but we're dealing with god-like powers here so I suppose anything's possible.
Digitally remastered, the picture is presented in the usual 1.33:1, full screen TV aspect and the transfer is reasonably good with good colour levels and solid blacks. However, there is some evidence of aliasing and pixilation on finer lines when the image is panned or scrolled but it doesn't detract enough to be a problem and there's very little dirt or damage flecks and no obvious compression artefacts.
Masamune Shirow (Ghost In The Shell) is credited with the character design and his name is splashed across the back of the box cover but a bit of digging around and we discover that, while he was responsible for the original video game designs, he didn't have a great deal of involvement in the video. Not that the designs are bad, they're actually quite good but were done by Kazuto Nakazawa, a respected designer in his own right, in the style of Shirow and yes, we do like pneumatic breasts.
The animation is actually quite good and better than most other budget titles, with some good wind, water and lighting effects. The background artwork is also reasonably good, with the high level of detail adding a lot to the visual experience and helping the story immensely.
The sound is presented in basic stereo and it sounds decent enough. There's some reasonable directionality across the stereo field, the dialogue is clear throughout and the musical score is well handled and fits in quite well. Like most of these budget Manga titles, that's all you get and there's no subtitles. There are numerous inconsistencies in the translations of character and place names. For example, the box cover cites names as Lue'der, Aga'lee and Sana'ku but these translate to Luda, Agahali and Zanark in both the English dub and end credits. The best advice is to ignore the box cover and go with the disc content.
Extras
Pretty standard extras, or lack of them, for a Manga Collection title…
The Previews - Seven minutes worth of trailers. Includes The End Of Evangelion, Patlabor, Black Jack, Detonator Orgun, Vampire Hunter D, Virus, Kai Doh Maru and R.O.D.
The Collection - About eight minutes worth of trailers. Includes Bubblegum Crash, Sword For Truth, Vampire Wars, Ray Earth, Amon Saga, New Gall Force, Violence Jack, Dark Myth, Psychic Wars and Land Lock.
Overall
Landlock is a very watchable piece of anime and, given its longer than usual running time for a budget title, there's enough time to get immersed in the story, which has a decent if somewhat clichéd plot. It's even worth watching more than once to get some more out of it as it’s quite fast paced so it’s easy to miss something on a first viewing.
It’s a budget title and there are no extras worth mentioning but most anime fans will probably find it worth at least a rental if not a place on their own shelves.
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