I had been reading the first 'Lensman' book at around the same time I watched this (which is based loosely on the third book) and it is quite strange but still very enjoyable. There is a lot of humour, and it is really cool. (though slightly strange).

The friend who I borrowed the film of had been led to believe that this anime had had a strong influence on the original Star Wars film, mostly this was a case of misinformation. The early drafts for Star Wars seem to suggest an influence from Smith’s original work, not the anime.

The fact of the matter is, that the anime was made a little after Return of the Jedi was released, sci-fi would have seemed a popular route to go down. While the original Japanese version may be different I have to go with the English version that I’ve seen. And when watching Lensman, it is a pretty much impossible task not to start thinking of a certain science fiction film series.

The comparisons aren’t good.

While Star Wars is not, nor has ever been, the best thing ever written, it did play like the rollercoaster of the film industry, with the thing it did have, impressive special effects the like of which had never previously been thought possible in cinema. The other thing it did was provide a uplifting narrative in a depressed world.

The Lensman is a partially incoherent, episodic romp that goes for the cliché. The hero is a naïve fish-out-of-water, the main villain kills those who fail him after one incident and there is a plot concerning top secret information critical to the survival of the galaxy’s defenders.

When the basis story is nothing new, it doesn’t help that the plot meanders aimlessly and new characters get introduced throughout, to add little to proceedings. Clarissa is the bland love-interest who falls in love with main character Kim far too easily. Kim is the stereotyped hero in this type of film, an innocent abroad with a golden heart, a desire for adventure and a thirst for vengeance. The Power of the Lens is virtually reduced to a believe-in-yourself clause and as a deus ex machina.

The animation is standard for anime during the Eighties, which means that it doesn’t stand up to much today, the CGI even more so. Even the backgrounds, generally a strong point in anime, are so-so at times and being that the majority of the film is set in space the colour scheme is generally blue and black or red and black.

In the end though the film is just dull, thanks to slow plotting, scenes in which the word action means simply running away from the enemy a lot and a distinct lack of anything to really grab an audience’s interest. Unless you're a big fan of science fiction anime, this isn't a great place to start.