ironhorse_iv
This might be the event horizon, as there is point of no return after you watch this film. You will find yourself, watching a very, very slow pace film where little happens, and the story takes forever to unfold. You might fall asleep while watching it. Directed by Toshio Masuda, Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight, also known as Odin Starlight Mutiny starts out in the year 2099, and humanity has taken unlimited advances in its development of space travel: people sail through space in ships powered by photon-laser engines, and parts of the solar system have been colonized. The newly-built space schooner, the Starlight is launched on a maiden voyage to undertake exploring the boundaries of the social system. The ship comes across a wrecked spacecraft, holding one lone member: a mysterious young woman named Sara Cyanbaker (Voice by Stacey Jefferson in English/ Keiko Han in Japanese). On the way back, the crew discovers a series of historic artifacts on a lonely asteroid that relations to ancient Norwegian mythology. Sara starts to have strange dreams of a planet called Odin. The crew leaded by reckless space cadet Akira Tsukuba (Voice by Edward Glen in English/ Toshio Furukawa in Japanese) betray the orders of the captain and start a dangerous journey to search for this long lost planet Odin, which could be the possible cradle of life in the universe. Without spoiling too much of the plot. The back-story is very interesting. The movie does have some interesting highlights action scenes. I love the almost endless swarm of mechanized attack ships attacking the Starlight. I do find the battle between the Belgel way disappointing. I can't believe, they pull a 'Tex Avery' by having a character pull out something need for the plot from behind their back. There is no way that guy should have had that weapon behind his back in the first place. It was really dumb. The movie doesn't even give us what we wanted to find in the first place when the search for Odin doesn't finish when the credits come up. I know they were going to try to make a trilogy out of this, but what a bummer because this movie bomb so most likely there wouldn't be a sequel to this. All those back-story of the planet scenes, only to be wasted when the crew doesn't end up seeing the planet. I hate unresolved endings. This movie came out in the wake of the popularity of Space Battleship Yamato which had two years earlier ended its run with Final Yamato. It has many similar directorial elements but it failed to gain any lasting popularity. This movie was also released in the U.S. by U.S. Manga Corps in both a dubbed format and an uncut subtitled format. This title has the distinction of perhaps being the anime movie which suffered the severest editing for length in its English release. The original uncut version runs 2 hours 15 minutes, the English dub runs only 90 minutes. I don't think it's a waste, because I watch both the 2 hour version and the 90 minutes, and I have to say, you're not missing much watching the 90 minutes version. I think I'm one of the few people that didn't mind the Japanese metal band Loudness being played in the background. I have to say the opening theme "Gotta Fight" by Loudness was interesting. I do think the ending theme 'Odin' wasn't too bad, too. Granted the late 1980's/early 1990's was not what I would call Loudness's best period since Grudge music came into the scene and kill hair metal. They may have been Hair Metal during the late 80s but these guys weren't some talent less poseurs like many American Hair bands. Akira Takasaki is one of the most underrated metal guitarists out there who mixes Speed, Thrash, Prog Metal, and Groove all into one with the rest of the band members as awesome traditional metal backbone. Did the scenes match with the songs? It did kind of works, to enhance the action scenes. The music score by Hiroshi Miyagawa was pretty good, too. The animation is a hit and miss. This film has a washed-out look that renders its color basically colorless, and there are long scenes with no fluidity of movement to be seen anywhere. The ship looks like it's barely moving in the animation. The ship basically just sits there while artists simply bathe it in a yellow or blue glow to act like its moving. Cheaply done. Overall: Odin can drag in some spots, but if you stick with it, you'll be pleasantly surprised that Odin is a clean, enjoyable Anime that hits any sci-fi fan's buttons just right. Just make time for yourself to watch it. Make sure to drink a lot of coffee before viewing it.
DarkMog
It's no Akira, but Odin: Photon Sailing Ship Starlight is entertaining, if nothing more. You won't find any deep themes or realistic, enduring characters- just some decent animation and an adequate story. Although it in no way compares to some more recent efforts in the field, it is ok in it's own right.
