A sprawling psychic galactic tale.
What They Say
When the villainous Lady Kahn starts building an army of super-powerful espers, Colonel Ryu Yamaki is dispatched to recruit the most powerful superhuman in the known universe to help oppose her. Unfortunately, the esper known only as Locke has either never heard the “with great powers come great responsibilities” speech or he simply doesn’t care, and he refuses to leave his peaceful civilian life herding sheep.
However, when Lady Kahn makes a preemptive move to take Locke and Ryu out of the picture, the irritated superbeing quickly changes his mind. Now the bad guys are about to learn that starting a fight with someone with super powers that include teleportation, a nearly indestructible force field and space martial arts was a very big mistake!
The Review!
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language track only in stereo using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The film is one that feels more center-channel based than anything else but wide enough so that it can cover fro it well through the stereo channel design. There are some big moments to it but there’s not much in the way of depth or directionality to it, rather the kind of classic full feeling with the effects and explosions. Dialogue placement isn’t much of an issue but how it comes across here works well enough and is problem free. This isn’t a mix that would wow anyone but it’s the kind of work that gets the job done and definitely makes out better through a lossless form in being cleaner and sharper.
Video:
Originally in theaters way back in 1984, the transfer for this feature film is presented in its original full-frame aspect ratio in 1080p. With its age, and without a serious frame by frame remaster behind it, this isn’t going to look pristine in general. But what we get here looks fantastic as there are some really great source materials being worked with for this. The main thing for some will be the grain – which always feels stronger at the start but you adjust to as you go along in this two-hour film – but beyond that, there’s little to really take issue with. It’s a very clean-looking source with hardly anything I saw on a regular basis with real scratches or problems. You get some dust and such that comes from moving around some of the cels during filming at times when it’s not terribly active but that’s not a flaw, that’s the heart of animation. The age of the materials is the only thing really working against it on a regular basis, but they’re issues that tend to fall off the more you adjust to it during viewing.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release brings us a pretty good visual with our core trio as we get Locke as the large central background piece. With a good yellow framing that really works well, we get the star-filled background here with Lock while below our supporting players stand out. It’s got a really neat illustration design and feel to it overall that hits that old-school mindset just right. The logo is kept simple and stylish to the upper right and it all flows together really well. The back cover goes for a dark piece with its overall background that’s not a surprise and we get some good illustration pieces throughout it. There’s a good summary of the premise and it lays out several solid shots from the show as well. The bottom goes standard with production credits and the technical grid that covers everything clearly and accurately. No show related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Menu:
The menu design goes for a simple approach with the static screen taking heavily from the cover. The right half of it uses a zoomed-in image of the cover to ensure that everyone’s faces are in it plus the station, which looks good and shows off the color detail really well. The left side is done in black for the background where we get the logo along the top – which looks sharp and slick – while below is the navigation. I dislike that it has the film name again as a selection instead of “play feature” or something while we also get the special features and scene selection sections. It plays to the theme song from the end of the film and overall has a good and colorful look that sets you for what’s to come.
Extras:
The only extra included is one of the Japanese promos for the film.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the original manga which began in 1967 as a five-volume doujinshi series but eventually started again in 1979 with one hundred and one volumes so far and still ongoing from Yuki Hijiri, Locke the Superman is one of those powerhouse titles that just hasn’t translated well over here for various reasons. The property has had a couple of OVAs and it saw a home video release ages ago in the US through three other distributors before ending up with Sentai Filmworks now. It’s crazy that the manga has been running as long as it has, and I understand the lack of pickup, but just looking through some of the story evolution of it all has me fascinated by the changes that it has worked through since its origins.
The premise for the film is fairly straightforward but it’s presented in a kind of convoluted way that comes from the time, the scale of materials, and just the way the 1980s ran. I’d seen this years and years ago as a dubbed VHS tape that left no impression upon me beyond some of the visuals and in watching it here I can still say that in some ways it’s nonsensical. It’s over the top in its visual and designs, so dramatic with what it wants to do, but at the same time is incredibly charming and engaging because of the animation, the depth of it that you’re trying to suss out, and the scale of it all. I have a real fondness for things that come from when it was all traditional animation work as I still think there’s a different kind of warmth to it and something magical about the hand-drawn aspect, and this film definitely scratches that itch.
Taking place as part of a large galactic storyline, it involves a super-soldier type named Locke that has gone and retired from things being drawn back into the galaxy at war. While he attempts to be a pacifist while at the same time being one of if not the most powerful psychic in the universe, the galaxy and the machinations of humanity just won’t stop. The latest is that Locke’s old foe in Lady Kahn is looking to change the nature of who rules mankind by gathering her own group of psychics to take down what’s out there. Kahn’s got some interesting players under their control but one of them is Jessica, a young woman who is intensely powerful that believes that Locke killed her parents years ago and is intent on destroying him. What’s been done is that she’s been put undercover with a mindwipe to get close to Locke in order to be present when she can reveal her true self and eliminate him, removing a major obstacle of Kahn and her organization. It’s particularly cruel in a way to rewrite Jessica into Amelia and set her on the path to love, but such is how they are.
That’s the film in the big sweep but it delves into so many smaller areas. I have to believe part of this is that it’s designed for the fans who will get all the various references. With the manga, it’s not done in any sort of chronological order for its stories so it’s all over the map there but this is one largely self-contained film. But it reminds me in so many good ways of so many 80s anime films in how it deals with its themes. This is the generation of animators and storytellers that were stridently anti-war and expressed that through animation heavily (with themes of war) and what kind of conflicts entail from it. It’s been a big part of my draw to anime in that it was something that, at the time, took a certain stance when most things with Western animation were just bland. It’s also why anime frustrates me in the modern sense in that so little is said anymore outside of a few limited projects. But this film engages in its themes well but gets bogged down in the details that may not connect well outside of its core audience. You can see a lot of familiar things to other works that were out around the same time and not long after with how influential this was as well, and it certainly came at a time when, worldwide, science fiction was at an all-time high thanks to Star Wars.
In Summary:
Locke the Superman is weird. It’s my kind of weird and I don’t claim to understand it at all. I think it has a solid base plot to it but so much of what happens and the true scope of it all involves so many other things that aren’t always clearly explained that it can just become a mess. There’s a lot to love with the animation and design work, there’s a kind of craziness I think that has been lost over time when it comes to these kinds of projects, and it delivers a strong “theatricality” that really resonates right here. It does have me wishing that the original manga was available and that you could immerse yourself in this world more because and understand the smaller pieces. That said, this is one of those things that I put in a must-see category just because it is a key part of anime history and Sentai has treated it well. The film shows off wonderfully here in high definition, giving us that beautiful film grain, the real variance in color, and a naturalness that scratches that old school itch of mine in a beautiful way. It may not be a deep release with bonus material and so forth, but this is a film that will stick with you for some time to come.
Features
Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 Language, English Subtitles
Content Grade: B+
Audio Grade: B+
Video Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Menu Grade: B
Extras Grade: N/A
Released By: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: November 24th, 2020
MSRP: $29.99
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Video Encoding: 1080p AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
