"Lost Universe"

The best way I can describe "Lost Universe" is "Outlaw Star" meets 
"Slayers". "Lost Universe" was created by Hajime Kanzaka the creator 
of "Slayers". Basically "Lost Universe" is what could be know as  
"Slayers in Space". Most of the team that was involved in "Slayers" 
is also involved in "Lost Universe" This includes producer, Yumiko 
Yazaki, Director Takashi Watanabe, and character designs by Naomi 
Miyata. The series also consists of most of the old cast as well, 
including Megumi Hayashibara, Hikaru Midorigawa, Masami Suzuki and 
Mifuyu Hiragi.

The plot to "Lost Universe" is fairly typical to a lot of anime with 
a Sci-fi genre. The main character Kain Blueriver, is what's known as
 a "trouble contractor". Meaning that he's a freelance mercenary and 
a jack of all trades. Most of the jobs that he gets however, are the 
ones the no one else will take. He is accompanied by Canal, a 
holographic image of the ships main computer. (Shades of Star Trek 
Voyager, in here). Kain is an easily likeable character. He wears a 
cape that seams to be a running gag on the show. (Everyone makes fun 
of him for wearing it and he is extremely sensitive about that) and 
carries what's known as a psi-blade (cought*starwarsripoff*cough) a 
light sword that apparently requires a good amount of mental strength 
in order to use. His ship is known as the "Sword Breaker" and is 
apparently a "Lost Ship" meaning that it breaks all laws of psychics 
and comes from a lost civilization. (According to Kain it was his 
grandmothers). Kain and Canal then run into Milly, a young detective 
whose main goal in life is to be "The best in the universe". Milly is 
later on fired from her job and she insists that she be allowed to 
travel with Kain and Canal. (Much to Canal's dismay). The other main 
characters so far in the series are Rail Claymore a member of the 
universal guardians (aka space police), who looks like a reincarnation
 of Xelloss. And his assistant Nina, (she's mostly there to spill hot 
beverages on him). 
The interesting part about "Lost Universe"" is how the characters bear
 a strong resemblance to the characters in "Slayers"" Kain is a male 
version of Lina Inverse with Gourry's sword of light, not only does 
Rail look like Xelloss but he tends to act like him as well (he's 
usually is responsible for putting the Sword Breaker's crew into most 
of the messes that their in.) 
So far "Lost Universe" seams like a good catch, the plot is fairly 
interesting, the characters are funny and the animation is decent. 
On one note however, I noticed that ADV has reconstructed the opening 
credits. Personally I see no real reason for them to do this. True in
 "Brain Powered" they changed the opening credits on the dub, but that's 
probably because the original opening credits had a bunch of naked women 
flying around. (This is "Brain Powered" don't ask) Having seen the 
original opening to "Lost Universe", I can assure you that there are no
 naked women flying around and there is no good reason to alter it. 
(The didn't even bother to have a "Clean" version like they did with 
"Nadesco" or "BGC 2040").
There is however on major problem. The dubbing. I'm not a typical dub 
hater and at times I don't have the money to shell out an extra ten 
bucks. Don't get me wrong though, I LOVED the seiyuu from "Slayers", 
Even though Software Sculptors has made a lot of mistakes, I am forever
 grateful that they released "Slayers" subtitled at the same price as 
the dub (only 20 bucks! Yippee!). Unfortunately "Lost Universe" was 
picked up by ADV and they're a bunch of meanies who charge $30 for a 
subtitled episode. I didn't have the money to buy it subtitled (I has 
used it to by the "Revolutionary Girl Utena" DVD). But I've always liked
 the ADV dubs and so I figured it couldn't be that bad (my worst fear 
was that they'd use Spike Spencer as Kain). Unfortunately the video 
had been dubbed by Monster Island, and it was pretty bad. 
(Monster Island seams to be connected with ADV now). Personally I 
liked Kain's voice, he had a lot of energy and sounded young but not 
whinny. As well as very friendly. Kain however has the only VA that 
is actually decent to listen to. Milly's VA was extremely annoying, 
she has THE most screachest voice sense Lisa Oritz and I DON'T mean 
that in a good way. The way she kept screaming about being the "Best 
in the Universe" was quiet painful. For Canal I have mixed feelings, 
her voice was fine (she sounds a lot like a little girl when she talks)
, but the way she presented it was what fell short 
(She-would-take-in-this-sorta-monotone-voice-with-no-protral-of-emotions)
 There are some good moments in there though when Canal does sound very
 cute and at times funny. Nina was on for to short a time to actually 
get a good opinion of but she sounds alright. Rail however was one of 
my major disappointments. I figure it would be typical that if Xelloss
 had a horrible VA then his look-a-like would have a bad VA as well. 
First off let me get one thing strait. I LOVE Hikaru Midorigawa's 
voice. He talks in this very soft but not unemotional tone. He did 
Zelgadis in "Slayers" and he also does Rail in this show. The VA's 
version of Rail is just bad. He has this Texas accent, and while I'm 
not usually against the VA's with accents (Andrew Klimko has an obvious
 Texas accent and he's quickly becoming one of my favorite VA's), 
this one is just bad, he lacks any character for Rail and make it sound 
like he got lost on his way to the "King of the Hill" recording studio. 
Personally I think maybe Software Sculptors should've grabbed this one.
 They could've released the subs as the same price as the dubs and they
 also could've had the "Slayers" VA's do the same characters as the 
"Slayers" seiyuu did. Rachel Lillis could do Milly, Veronica Taylor 
could do Nina, Crispin Freemen could do Rail (I actually think he'd be
 good at him) and Lisa Ortiz could do Canal *shudders upon that idea* 
then again... 
At least they could've done the ADV studios for the VA's at least that 
way it would be listenable; I had even planned out a list of VA's for 
the group. Bret Weaver could do Kain. Tiffany Grant could do Milly, 
Kira could to Canal, Jason Douglas could do Rail and Jessica Calvalo 
could to Nina. There, ADV I spared you some time, get out there and 
re-cast everyone. In conclusion I'd only recommend "Lost Universe" if 
you get the sub, even with the sub its no "Cowboy Bebop" or anything 
revolutionary like that, but it is a lot of entertaining fun.
Grade: B (with dub C+)