Wasteland Wednesday: Lensman Laserdisc

Something of a forgotten anime release, here is the Lensman laserdisc from Streamline Pictures. 

I originally remember reading about Lensman in an old issue of Comics Scene magazine (I posted about that particular issue last month) and the article promoted the so-called 'Anime Invasion,' though the only two films primarily discussed were Akira and Lensman. And, speaking of Akira, I'll post some images of my Akira Criterion Collection laserdisc in the near future. Akira is one of my favorite U.S. LD releases, Criterion did an amazing job on that edition -- especially considering it was released at a time when anime received little fanfare in North America. That thing came loaded with special features in a pre-DVD age. 

Anyway, back to Lensman...the laserdisc includes both the English dub and Japanese language tracks. Surprisingly, Lensman still hasn't received an official U.S. DVD release. But, in an odd twist, the film was released on VHS twice with two different dubs. The first dub was produced by Harmony Gold in 1988 and featured voice actors from Robotech, and a soundtrack culled from Robotech II: The Sentinels and Robotech the Movie: The Untold Story. The 1990 re-dubbed Streamline Pictures version (featured on this laserdisc) uses the original Japanese score.