Landlock
Part One: Red Eye |
Part Two: Blue Eye |
| Part One: Red Eye and Agahali.
In the peaceful agrarian village of Zahl, a young man named Luda (who has the strange feature of having one red eye and one normal-colored eye) is about to take his father's place as Master of the Wind. Tragedy strikes when his ordination ceremony is interrupted by Zaroan forces, who burn the village to the ground. During the battle, the
leader of the Zaroan forces, Agahali -- a young, beautiful (and typical Shirow-esque) warrior with one blue eye and one normal-colored one, kills Mohg and attempts to capture Luda before his powers awaken. Luckily, Luda's sister Ansa manages to create a diversion which allows his powers to awaken and he escapes capture. | Ending up miles from Zahl, Luda is taken in by an entomologist named Nosaku. Sleeping in Nosaku's home, he has dreams of his past and premonitions of the future. Realizing that Mohg was not his real father, Luda's quest to find out why the Zaroans are after him leads him to a shrine at Icshen, with Nosaku in tow. There he is reunited with Ansa but soon captured by the Zaroan forces under Agahali's control. What is the Red Flow? Why does Agahali have the same birthmark as Ansa? Who is Elan? These questions begin to be answered in the first volume of Landlock. My major gripe is that this video is packaged by Manga Video as being from the creator of "Ghost in the Shell" Masamune Shirow when, in fact, it seems that he had little to do with this besides doing the basic design of the characters. He isn't even credited as the character designer of the film, rather its characters being based on his design (whatever that means). So one point off for deceptive advertising. But, if we leave that little bit of being chagrined aside, this is a good anime. Shirow's designs are obvious even if he isn't directly responsible, and it sure is refreshing considering the alteration of his design in Ghost in the Shell. The animation is crisp and well done...even though color does tend to get a little muddied during the night scenes. The direction is above-average for the most part with flashback and segue being handled with subtlety not commonly seen in anime. Music, however, isn't up to par and sounds as if it's being cranked out of a Soundblaster 16's FM synthesis chip (OPL3 Yamaha to be exact). The overall combination of mysticism and technology hearkens back to El Hazard, although a little heavier on the technology side, so if you liked that series you'll probably enjoy Landlock. With a generous blend of adventure, action, and tragedy Landlock is a rarer bird in today's anime, one that recalls the story-rich adventures of the past in contrast to today's sappy romantic or gadget-rich animes.
| Part Two: Blue Eye Elan and Luda.
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! | Now that Agahali has learned the truth of her own identity, she and her faithful lieutenant Volk rescue Luda, Ansa and Nosaku from Zaroas' floating fortress. While Zaroas sends a dead-or-alive order on their heads to his troops, they aren't as much of a concern since now he has obtained both the Red Flow and the Blue Flow. Returning to Zahl, he absorbs the power of the Red and Blue Flows, becoming a veritable avatar of the power of the Wind! However, Zaroas didn't count on the survival of Elan, Luda and Ansa who return to Zahl in order to foil his plans of deification. Zaroas' plans begin to unravel as he learns the true secret of the eyes, and inadvertently awakens the second Blue Eye (Elan was the first) and thus the power of the Goddess. Will the resurrected Goddess triumph over the evil Zaroas? Well, as for that last answer you probably have guessed what happens. And, as a result this OVA does end on a pretty tightly-wrapped up happy ending for all involved (remember Orguss 02?). Shirow fans won't be disappointed as a few brief gunbattles take place in this part, and there's even a dogfight between a jet fighter and three aero-mecha. The story however is much lighter as it seems that the bulk of the storytelling was done in the first part, and now this is just the denoument (wrap-up). Animation is less fluid than the first part as well, with some scenes of destruction moving the action down to a very annoying four frames per second (dust clouds settle at an even less fluid fps rate). Battle sequences are shorter than I'd have liked, and yes there are even points at which the action drags (a full six-second still shot of Luda and Elan on a desert island in the sunset? what the heck was that for?). The two parts would have been better released as one complete feature-length OVA and there is just no excuse for the drop in animation quality at the end. The music's still as annoying as before, but at least there's less of it. Due to the glitches that cropped up in this second part, I've deducted two points from the animation score for this OVA series. While Shirow influence still survives, the sheer disjointedness of events, the shortness of more interesting scenes, and the poorer animation results in a disappointing second part to what promised to be a good OVA two-parter. |