Anime Reviews (The '80s): Locke the Superman - Movie (1984)

What you get with the Sentai Filmworks version of the “Locke the Superman” release is the best version of the animated film to date which is on Blu-ray, uncut, remastered and for those clamoring for old school anime, it’s a title that I highly recommend!

Click here to Purchase This Blu-ray on Amazon

TITLE: Locke the Superman

MOVIE RELEASE DATE: 1984

DURATION: 120 Minutes

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English and Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0, Subtitles: English subtitles

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATING: TV MA VS

Release Date: November 24, 2020

Originally created by Hijiri Yuki

Directed by Fukutomi Hiroshi

Screenplay by Yamatoya Atsushi

Music by Awami Goro

Character Design by Shiraume Susumu, Hijiri Yuki

Art Direction by Kinbako Yoshinari

Anime Production: Nippon Animation, Shochiku, Shochiku Films

Featuring the following voice talent:

Nanba Keiichi as Locke

Han Keiko as Jessica Orin (Amelia)

Nakanishi Taeko as Lady Kahn

Fujita Toshiko as Cornelia Prim

Yasuhara Yoshito as Ryū Yamaki

Ginga Banjou as Lt. Bell

Gouri Daisuke as John

Yamada Eiko as Kim

Takashima Gara as Kei

Shibata Hidekatsu as Professor Ramses

Tanaka Hideyuki as Helmsman

Totani Kouji as Manu

Yada Kouji as Federation Surgeon

Shioya Kōzō as Cain

Tonguu Kyouko as Taku

Satō Masaharu as Luke Oh

Tomizawa Michie as Ann

Nobusawa Mieko as Lu

Terashima Mikio as Dionysus Captain

Tanaka Ryouichi as Orac Okura

Chiba Shigeru as Udo

Hirabayashi Shozo as Col. Hector

Takamiya Shunsuke as Commander

Muramatsu Yasuo as General

When the villainous Lady Kahn starts building an army of super-powerful espers, Colonel Ryu Yamaki is dispatched to recruit the most powerful superhuman in the known universe to help oppose her. Unfortunately, the esper known only as Locke has either never heard the “with great powers come great responsibilities” speech or he simply doesn’t care, and he refuses to leave his peaceful civilian life herding sheep.

However, when Lady Kahn makes a preemptive move to take Locke and Ryu out of the picture, the irritated superbeing quickly changes his mind. Now the bad guys are about to learn that starting a fight with someone with super powers that include teleportation, a nearly indestructible force field and space martial arts was a very big mistake!

It was back in 1967 when Hijiri Yuki’s manga series “Chojin Rokku” (Locke the Superman) was created. It began with “Locke” which was written between 1967-1971, followed by “New World Command” between 1977-1978 and an ongoing manga series since 1979 and is still being serialized today.

The manga series would lead to an animated feature film in 1984 and three OVA’s.

And while the animated film has been released in the US in the past, the HD remastered version was released by Sentai Filmworks.

The film begins with Yamaki Ryu of the Intelligence Agency of the Galaxy Federal Army who has been looking for Chojin Locke, an esper who is known as “Locke the Superman” and one who has many abilities but yet prefers to look much younger than his true age.

When Yamaki finds Locke, who is now a farmer, he tries to recruit him to help the Federal Army who has information that Lady Kahn, a leader of the Kahn financial combine, has created schools for espers. But is possibly creating an army.

Locke turns down Yamaki’s offer at first but decides to take it, as he was trying to be recruited by Lady Kahn at one time in order to build, Millennium.

When word reaches back to Lady Kahn that Locke is helping the Federal Army, she contacts the school in trying to recruit one of their top Espers and using hypnotizing technology to kill Locke.

A young woman named Jessica Olin has her memories restored and altered of when her parents were killed and the person who led the killing was Locke. She is introduced to these painful memories over and over again to the point that she wants nothing but to kill Locke.

To help train her, Lady Kahn sends her subordinate, Cornelia Prim, a soldier of the Millennium esper army to train her and to find a way to infiltrate the Federal Army.

But first, Jessica has been hypnotized and brainwashed and forgets who she is. The only memories she has are the painful ones given to her of her parent’s death and the hate she has towards Locke.

And she is eventually found by Yamaki and taken into the Federal Army’s spaceship. She eventually takes on the name Amelia and she and Yamaki grow closer together and eventually fall in love.

But what happens when Amelia eventually meets her boyfriend’s friend, Locke.

“Locke the Superman” is presented in 1080p High Definition and the film was no doubt remastered as the series is vibrant and colorful, no scratches and while it retains its original cel drawn animation and beautiful backgrounds, there were a few seconds that made me think, did they add new scenes to make it look a bit modern?

The film is presented in Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0. The soundtrack is front speaker driven and dialogue and action are crystal clear. Subtitles are in English.

The Blu-ray features the original Japanese promo for special features.

Overall, I absolutely love the fact that we are seeing more old school, classic anime being released in HD.

Back in 2012, the film was released by another company on DVD but when Sentai Filmworks was able to gain the rights to the film, they released it on Blu-ray in 2021 and I am quite impressed of how the film looks in HD.

The film was also nostalgic in the sense of how cel animation was used and the beauty of the painted backgrounds. But also the focus on storyline which I enjoyed.

This film has it all, action, romance, betrayal and a caution to parents who purchase this film as it does have quite a bit of violence, from people being trampled by giant robots to characters being impaled and also the common ’80s shower nudity that was prevalent in anime back in the day.

“Locke the Superman” is one of those titles that may have had a long run as a manga series, but unfortunately never had a long running anime series to go along with it.

When the film was released, many fans were thrilled, while those in the US who watched it on video for the first time were a bit dismayed of the censorship which removed all the nudity and violence from the film.

Click here to Purchase This Blu-ray on Amazon

Anime Reviews (The ’80s): Locke the Superman – Movie (1984)

More from my site