The Story: The evil Lord Zanark rules over Zoro Eath from his flying fortress, suppressing the 'old gods' and constantly searching for power. One night, a young man with one brown eye and one red eye named Luda finds his village attacked, decimated by Lord Zanarks forces, which are led by Zanark's daughter Agahali, who murders Luda's father, the villages Master of the Wind. In a rage, Luda finds the power within himself and escapes. Now Zanark is determined to capture Luda and harness his wind power, and Agahali begins to have suspicions about her father. She too has one red eye and one brown eye. After discovering the secrets of their past, soon Luda, his sister, a scientist, a soldier, and Agahali all unite to stop Lord Zanark before he takes the power of the Gods and becomes impossible to defeat... Contains brief nudity and violence, not recommended for children.

The Film: The thing about animation is, it is a medium that is nearly boundless. Perhaps more than any other cinematic medium, it has the power to go nuts and do whatever it wants; its only limitations are that of the imagination, so it is a real shame when animation comes along that is lackluster and imitative. Landlock is an appropriate title, because the story goes nowhere. Technology Vs Nature. The destruction of culture. Family secrets. Ecological fantasy. Seen it before, and Landlock falls short in every area, characters, action, and imagination.

As it is, you can see it all coming from a mile away. We see Agahali has one red eye too, an instantly we know she must be Luda's sister (not to mention the fact that in design their faces are the same except for skin tone and hair). Lord Zanark claims that he wants to suppress the 'old gods' because it will ruin the culture he has created, yet we never see any evidence that he has created any culture beyond his floating city and robo-exoskeleton warriors and fighting ships. On the Earth, everything is quaint villages and lush landscapes. But, any plotholes can be forgiven if you have good action and fresh, interesting characters. Sadly, we get Luda the young, innocent kid thrust into a confusing situation. Agahali the hard sister raised by an enemy, finding out she was just a pawn. Zanark the typical maniacal tyrant. A goofy scientist, a bland sister, a bland soldier. And the action and fantasy are a letdown too. The godlike wind powers are a giant green/blue glowing hand... Did you say hand? That's right, a big ol' hand, that moves really slowly and doesn't do much, swipe a few soldiers. When Zanark harness the powers its bigger, a torso and arms, without a head, and its just as silly as it sounds.

Is Luda, at first, going to hate Agahacklalali becasue she killed his father? You betcha'... Will they come to an understanding? Will we get a convienantly placed scene where they are magically transported to a remote island so they can come to an understanding as bother and sister? Why of course... Will Agahacklalali confront her mentor Lord Zanark in a reverse Empire Strikes Back moment ("I'm not you father" instead of "I am your father")? What do you think?

The designs are credited to Ghost in the Shell's Masamune Shirow, but from reading up on this title, Shirow did the character designs for the video game the anime is based on, not the actual anime itself. I wasn't particularly too impressed with the character designs anyway- when we first see Agahali, she is dressed in a g-string leotard, attire that combined with her gravity defying bosom and a pair of leg warmers, would make her ready to do a porno Jazzersize workout video. But the gravity defying bosom is a big seller; no doubt there are Agahali pin ups on Japanese boys bedroom walls.

The DVD: Manga Entertainment. Picture- Fullscreen, 1:33:1. Overall, and perhaps this was intentional, the contrast is very stark blacks, almost too deep. The director throws shadows in the corner of the images form time to time, like an iris on a camera, leading to an even darker tone, so the sharpness and color hues seem to suffer from all this black. Sound- Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese and English tracks. Both tracks are fine, average/good, nothing to write home about, but not flawed. Curiously, the difference between the English subs and dub is one of the most glaring I've seen. Names are pronounced differently than the subs read, like Wolk/Volk, Eran/Elan, Luda/Ruda, Zaal/Zaar. And witness the extreme difference in dialogue: Subs-"Glad to see you, Red Eye."/ Dub- "So we meet again, Master Red Eye." and, Subs-"Bastard!"/Dub- "Okay guys, lets try something else." Extras- 16 Chapters--- Character bios for Luda, Agahali, Nosaku, Ansa, Wolk, Zanark---Photo Gallery (10 stills)--- The rest is just assorted Manga Promos: Trailers for Magic Night Rayearth, Black Jack, X, Ghost in the Shell, Perfect Blue, Ninja Scroll, Streetfighter 2 and Streetfighter Alpha. Manga DVD Catalog, text and covers for 19 Manga titles. Manga Catalog Contact info and Merchandise montage. Weblinks

Conclusion- I found it to be pretty tedious and predictable with little spark to it. The DVD presentation is fair enough, but I would suggest a rental for most anime fans. Huge fans of the video game it was based on, may want to take a blind shot at a purchase, but otherwise approach with caution.