Locke The Superman

21 Years Later - Locke the Superpower - Remastered and Uncut
In October 1991, when anime fandom was just geting of the ground with new US distribors cropping up to cash in on a potential unknown market. Companies like Animeigo, US Renditions and Central Park Media, were setting the trend. Fan favorites like Gunbuster, Bubblegum Crisis and Project A-ko were anime staple back in the day. In the midst of this new wave of Japanese anime, Locke the Superman was released as was one of the first, dubbed anime for commercial VHS. It was releases by the now defunct, Celebrity Home Entertainment. In order to avoid any potential lawsuit from association with the The Superman franchise, it was renamed to Locke the Superpower. It's price point was $29.95 to $39.99 depending on the retailer you bought it from, these prices were staple for anime back in the early 90's, and fans shelled out their precious dollars as they were just grateful to get any anime at all, not knowing if any of these titles or anime fandom itself, would get just a small limited release...

More Classic Anime from Discotek.
I watched this so many times as a kid. I've memorized it scene for scene, or at least I thought I did until I bought this DvD. The version I watched as a kid was the "Celebrity Kids" version on vhs where they cut out a lot of the violence and nudity. It was also much shorter. This DvD includes the same English dub as well as the original Japanese with subtitles.

One thing I would like to point out is that the Japanese track is in better shape than the English one. The English track sounded a little garbled, airy, poppy and sometimes the sound would cut out for a split second. Still bearable. It doesn't sound much different from the vhs copy I remember seeing. I never thought I would see this movie come to DvD so it keeps that 5th star. I'm very glad a company like Discotek is willing to go the distance to bring us this classic anime feature and many others back.

More Japanese Anime Esper Action
This is yet another anime about espers, human beings who possess strange psychic abilities, of whome Locke is the most powerful. The plotline is one that X-Men fans will recognize as espers are generally feared and hated by humanity. Somewhat epic in scale, the story is about a female esper who is trying to lead younger espers in a war against normal humans who fear and hate them. Sound familiar?

Anyway, I don't believe the plot was directly stolen from the comic book. Relatively old for an anime, the similarities are probably just a coincidence. However, there are certain scenes that really make you think, and the animation is good for its time.

I recommend this film, and if you happen to be a big fan of esper anime, then this is a must see. Your knowledge of the genre will be sorely incomplete without it. :o)

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