Lost Universe

Retro time. Need something funny. Maybe a bit of some sci-fi action too. Let’s see. Aha. Lost Universe. And so that is how I came to pick up this anime. What? Don’t believe me? I’m trying to be the best anime viewer in the universe. Apparently even though I have never watched the Slayers series or having any intention to watch that show, while watching this series something in me hinted that this is so Slayers-like. Subsequently I found out that indeed that Lost Universe had some connection with Slayers since they are written by the same author. As I said, I am not familiar with the Slayers universe so I can’t really compare nor will I spot if there are Slayers references throughout the series. Though, from what I read that certain characters in Slayers do have some sort of appearance in this world. For this anime concerned, our hero and his mini team work as Trouble Contractors. Call them the odd job workers of the future who take on anything from finding your lost cat and fighting off space pirates to earn a living. Of course, having that as the premise itself won’t be interesting to last 26 episodes so along the way, they discover some sort of super evil that is bent on spreading darkness throughout the universe and take it upon themselves to stop it. How is that for originality? No? Just watch it anyway.

Of course being such a retro anime, there is this thought of mine too that there is a chance I may find Megumi Hayashibara on board this anime. True enough, she voices one of the main characters! It got me thinking that she is truly the ‘queen of voice acting’ in the 90’s and early 2000’s because it seems that almost every major anime needs to have her in it. It is like they need to have her or else the anime won’t be good. Aside Slayers, there is Ranma 1/2 , Shaman King, Nuku Nuku, Detective Conan, Cowboy Bebop, Evangelion, Love Hina, Saber Marionette J, need I go on? And do you know she is also the voice of the titular character in Hello Kitty as well as Musashi in Pokemon? Musashi who? Well, the English version named her as Jessie, the other half of the dim-witted Team Rocket. Yeah. I don’t know how Lost Universe fared as compared to Slayers or any other animes that Megumi Hayashibara voiced but it is sure fun to hear her voice in such retro animes. You can’t ‘run away’ from her. Although you may have thoughts that having hearing her in almost every old anime would be boring that you would go, “Oh no. Not her again. Dang”, but since I don’t watch retro animes that often, you can say it’s just the right tonic for me. Oh yeah. Now I can add another anime with Megumi Hayashibara to my list. Lost Universe. Check!

Episode 1
In Dugole Castle, there is a secret illegal auction organized by the Dugole Connection crime syndicate run by Darles. Anything illegal and stolen is auctioned here. Millennium Feria Nocturne AKA Millie is a detective wannabe so she is recording the illegal activity secretly in hopes this will make her the universe’s greatest detective. Counting her chickens? Then dropping in to ruin her big moment is the idiotic duo of Kane Blueriver and Canal Volfied. Their petty argument attracted the attention of the guards so the girls pretend to be lost show girls. They could have gotten away if not for Kane who started picking a fight because the guards started mocking his beloved cape as lame. The fight their way through and escape via dump. More petty arguments between Kane and Millie especially how the former ruined her chance at stardom. Yeah. Blame everybody else. She is not thrilled that he somewhat knew her because he ‘stole’ her ID card she dropped. Their argument is put on hold when more guards come into the fray. Canal disappears when she goes out of range. Yup. She’s just a hologram. Then down the duo go when the dump empties. Millie continues to remind us why she wants to be the best detective in the universe. She hates being second. Oh? I thought there was a more complicated reason to that. And yeah, after blaming him, they part ways. Because she was so obsessed in thinking to become number one, she didn’t realize she got slapped unconscious by one of Darles’ men! WTF?! Kane uses Canal to hack into the system and sees Millie captured and being auctioned off. Millie is resigned to her fate and at least want to be sold off expensively. But she is started off with a paltry 10 credits! Insult!

Kane doesn’t care about her but since he’s found what he want, he returns to his ship and begins the operation. Part of it looks like turning this place upside down because a single battleship can cause so much damage. Or the baddies are just useless. After saving Millie, one of Darles’ men without permission uses his mecha to tear the place apart. He is bragging about the high tech equipment this and that, blah, blah, blah. All Kane did was just unleash his light saber and slice him in half! So much about big and strong, eh? Millie notes Kane is using a psi-blade, a sword of light powered by psychic energy but those only with strong spiritual energy can wield it. She is baffled this idiot can use it. Maybe he’s not an idiot after all. Soon the intergalactic police arrive and apprehend everyone. Kane leaves so the police wonder why Lieutenant Rail Claymore isn’t going after him. It’s because he is a Trouble Contractor and he will take on any job and is good at it. Millie wraps up her investigation and yes, she definitely wants to blame him this time. It is included in her report too. Because she’s sitting in prison! How did this even happen? Kane returns the stolen tea set heirloom to his contractor. Canal is relishing this part because this is where they get paid for their services. However Kane only takes a meagre 100 credits (I guess he wants to play the cool hero) and this upsets Canal. So she threatens to half his oxygen, meal, washing his cape and no using the bathroom!

Episode 2
The scientists revel in the completion of some phase drive that allows spaceships to jump at the speed of light without something. And then it goes berserk and out of control with the spaceship disappearing. As I expected. Canal buys some big weapon and makes a great bargain with her cutie act. Then she has Kane haul it back to their ship, Swordbreaker. Along the way, they see Millie getting fired as a cook. Bad day for her, huh? Then she continues to blame them. Oh God. She got fired from the detective agency after the police arrested her thinking she was part of Dugole Connection. There goes her dream. However her scolding has to be put on hold when there are more pressing matters to attend. Rail contacts Kane about one of the spaceships going out of control and lost in hyperspace. Kane initially doesn’t want to do it but since Rail threatens that Dugole Connection and that they are on collision course with Lilienthal (the lost spaceship), they have to get their ass moving and do it for free. Why not Rail and his police do it themselves? Something about busy with space pirates. Millie wanted to continue her scolding (goodness gracious, is there anything else she can do?) but she panics upon hearing Swordbreaker is going into overdrive or something. She is surprised that everything is stable and with Canal as the master computer, she calculates where Lilienthal will reappear. They almost collide into it and Canal sarcastically blames Millie that her weight may be the extra factor that threw them off. I’d like to see her complain about that.

So the plan is for Kane to enter Lilienthal and take out the main computer to stop its acceleration. They need to be careful because it’s filled some micro black hole energy and any shockwave can cause many nearby planets to be destroyed. Canal tries out her new weapon to make a hole in the airlock. Can you believe it, she missed! Millie is more precise and only needs one shot. Oh, the irony. As Kane makes his way inside with Canal providing directions, Lilienthal begins to accelerate and warp. Millie wants them to get out (complain, complain, complain…) or else everything blows up but Kane reminds her that they are Trouble Contractors. They do jobs that nobody else could. Kane uses his psi-blade to disable the main computer. Now it’s Canal’s turn to latch Swordbreaker onto Lilienthal and control its path. She missed colliding into a colony by a mere inch. Not over yet. There’s an asteroid before them. No problem. Canal shoots her leap railgun to make a big hole and they barely avoid collision. Must be a scary ride for Millie, huh? Now that Lilienthal is safely disengaged, they’ll leave it up to Rail to pick it up since they’re not getting paid to do extra anyway. But Millie wants to hear some explanation. Observing how Swordbreaker works and the way it can alter the path of a big ship, she deduces Swordbreaker is a Lost Ship, legendary spaceships said to be relics of a superior ancient civilization. Kane admits this is indeed a Lost Ship and hopes she will keep it a secret. They are about to send her home but Millie changes her mind and will stay here. They are after all responsible for the lost of her job. And now that she knows their secret, it’s safer that she hangs out with them. Here’s the start to the best partnership in the universe. Oh no…

Episode 3
Suddenly an internal explosion rocks Swordbreaker. Kane rushes to the scene and as reported by Canal, Millie is believed to be in the area. Upon arrival, he sees Millie fine and smiling. She was just cooking and proud of the meat pie she just made. So… Every time she cooks, the place goes boom? Yeah. I wonder. Canal is upset this ruined her kitchen and to piss her off even further, Kane is enjoying her pie! Millie’s reaction? This is a pretty damn good hologram programme because it has emotions! Soon, Rail boards the ship to request them of a job. For 5000 credits, they are to escort a witness to a trial before a deadline. Wow. That’s generous. Sign me up, says Millie. But Kane is cautious and knows the deadline is just a ploy to throw him off because such escort mission is only about half the prize. He wants to know the person on trial. Ripp Rogers of the Dragon Bombers organization. If this witness testifies, he won’t get out of prison and his men are of course will be trying to intercept this witness. Swordbreaker is known to be the fastest known ship. Kane doesn’t want to accept this dangerous job but Millie has already signed the contract! You bimbo! Kane argues Millie is not an official crew but it seems Canal already registered her to avoid problems with the customs. Looks like they have to fulfil their contract. And so it is Kane’s turn to lecture her about contract this, contract that. Of course Millie isn’t going to take all this lying down and is going to do the job and prove she is the universe’s best bounty hunter.

Millie picks up the little girl witness but Dragon Bombers men are hot on their trail. It’s mind boggling that all their shots missed and Millie can even shoot one while not looking back! WTF?! Then she even has the girl take the wheel as she stands up and fire! WTF?! Shouldn’t crouching do a better job?! Kane comes to help and slices the back half of the car to take out a big bunch of those stupid guys. And they’re not even tailgating. So this car is front wheel drive? WTF?! They end up at some plant so Kane’s plan is to distract those guys while Millie takes the girl to the court since it is her responsibility as she signed the contract. Because those baddies are dummies, Kane can best them with his psi-sword and steel bars around him despite the villains having unlimited ammo. WTF?! I guess Millie and the girl ran too slow so they got captured. They then bring them to Kane and are going to blow the brains of the girl in front of his eyes. However the girl suddenly unleashes space cockroaches and scares the daylights out of them. The girl turns into Canal! WTF?! Then the police surround the place and arrest those goons. As explained the witness was escorted by Rail and should be at the trial giving her statement now. After Millie signed the contract, the duo came out with this decoy plan with Canal masquerading as the witness to capture the baddies. It worked like a charm and they even get the reward. Millie is so pissed that everything (including the cheesy lines she said) were for nothing that she takes out her frustration via cooking! BOOM! And she’s going to eat her heart out! Oh Canal, you can’t kick her out because she’s your official crew member…

Episode 4
Millie shows off her several trophies from the numerous contests she won. Don’t even ask what kind of contests are those. The point is, she wants to participate in some contest called Miss Coconut Crab on planet Sanzania. Don’t ask. Here is Canal’s analysis: Thanks to a certain freeloader using up their resources, they are running low so it’s a big no. Eventually, Millie’s ‘best in the universe’ attitude wins over her and here she is on this resort planet trying out her swimsuit. She tries to help fix Kane’s psi-blade by putting in a lot of guts but couldn’t handle the recoil. Kane senses somebody targeting but brushes it off as his imagination. True enough, there is this sniper lady, Kali who backed off because she felt Kane sensed her. As the contest begins, Kane sees Rail there. The police are being called by the organizers to protect the place. But why is Rail happily filming away? Especially Millie. Yeah, you can say he is really watching on his job. A fireworks distraction attracts attention of everyone. Kane goes to put it out but he hears a rocket launcher heading away and slices it in half with his psi-blade! No sweat. Sniper girl notes he isn’t going to be an easy target. Millie wins the contest by collecting the most crabs (don’t ask) and qualifies for tomorrow’s finals. At the bar, she is having her fortune read when Kali sits by Kane (drowning his sorrows in liquor?). She offers to read his fortune but Millie grabs Kane to hit the next place.

Kane and Millie get into an argument who should sleep in this single room. Well, there won’t be a place to sleep since small assassination drones start to blow the place up. If not for Kane’s quick intuition, they could have been fried meat. They make a run since there are too many of them. Kane wants Millie to do a diversion and lead it to some building. Why must she do it? He uses the best line that will get moving: She is the best in the universe. Inside the building, Kane realizes the drones are not to kill him. Like as though it was to lure him into a trap. He realizes Kali is the culprit when she shows her face. There are lots of easier ways to kill him but she finds it a thrill that he possess a challenge. She’ll kill him with her electric whip. Kane is no match for her. Even with Millie trying to be a hero since she is so bloody convinced she is the best in the universe, Kali is still superior. I don’t know why Kali just put her aside and begin her whip spinning move to kill Kane. Shouldn’t she take her hostage or kill her? Kane gets the idea of using his psi-blade as propulsion. With the speed, Kali cannot react as he slashes and injures her. Her whip breaks and she escapes. She wants him to remember her name, the woman who will send him to hell next time. Thanks to this incident, the contest is cancelled so looks like Millie’s quest to add another trophy is put on hold. However there are a few more contests she would like to participate. Canal is not thrilled and the women end up arguing with Kane telling them to shut their pie hole. Meanwhile, Rail uploads the recorded video to an eager client. Is he moonlighting?

Episode 5
A carpenter blaming his tools. That is what is happening for Millie. She blames Canal’s kitchen not good enough for her cooking. Canal is interested in buying a new weapon and bugs Kane but he is busy sewing his cape. Then the kitchen explodes. Aha. It’s time for dinner. Kane seems to have accepted this but not Canal. The girls end up in some argument (as usual) over kitchen and weapons. Because the next job has them to be security guards on an arms factory while the system is being shut down for repairs. Millie doesn’t want to do it as she doesn’t see how it can make her the best thing in the universe. Kane has the final say because they’ll do it. On the factory planet, since the panel is not working, Kane kicks it to get the door open! Must have watched too many TV. They meet their hirers, an old couple and it seems they are hard on hearing. Or are they just pretending? Because it seems they can’t hear their discussion for compensation… Anyhow, they have to get the job done. Canal can’t follow the duo underground and gives an excuse it will be out of range. In actual fact, she wants to take some weapons… I guess this will do as compensation. And after she loads one, she is going back for another when a laser beams fires down and destroys their mini ship! Kane and Millie get trapped underground when the lights go out. Seems the security system has turned back on and Canal is trying to hack into in but still can’t access it.

Kane sees an old guy on the monitor. He is Glen and is the one responsible for setting up this trap. Kane thinks he is here to steal the arms while the system is down but in actual fact, Glen wants to see if Lost Ship will save him. Everything will go as planned. Kane and Millie fight their way through the security lasers. Kane is distraught his cape got torn. No time for sewing! When they eventually reunite with Canal, she vanishes back to Swordbreaker. Glen has begun the next phase of his plan. He traps Swordbreaker in a barrier and is going to drop the big satellite on where Swordbreaker is anchored. The satellite will also crush the planet below. Kane realizes that Glen is after Swordbreaker when he sees their mini ship destroyed. His next move sees him suiting up in a space suit and riding a missile back to Swordbreaker. Thanks to this planet’s low gravity, flying back up will be easy. Millie is worried if his body can take all the force. He assures her he is an immortal. He’s joking, right? So when Kane gets back to Swordbreaker, he and Canal begin their process of amplifying their psi-energy and fire at the satellite. Glen is dismayed that he didn’t foresee that pale blue light and his plan in ruins. When the duo go back down to pick up Millie, the old couple would like the pay them as much as they want. However they fear them and insist doing it for free and flee back to Swordbreaker. Really? They don’t want to get paid? Then the old couple realizes why… The satellite is gone! I guess with their poor financial status, they can never replace that in a million years.

Episode 6
Psycho shower reference? Anyway she didn’t get killed but is traumatized and the word “Bitch” written across her forehead. Victim number 8. So the teacher of the nursing school Stella contacts our Trouble Contractors to guard the students. Since there will be a graduation exam soon, she only wants females to do the job. I thought it was to keep lecherous men away (although Kane doesn’t look that kind) but it seems it’s for their own good and not to get distracted. Is she saying the trainee nurses are deprived of men? Canal accepts the job because it pays well. However suddenly she refuses to come. Due to some holographic error, she has become fat. And since they have received the advance and can’t turn the job down, I guess Kane will have to do it. Oh God. I knew they were going to make him dress as a woman and name him Francois but he looks so manly! Just putting a hair band and a skirt makes him a woman? Heck, he sounds like his usual manly voice!!! The nurses must be that dumb to be fooled… Anyway even among the nurses there are rivalry, especially between Julie and Rumy’s group as they’re both accusing each other for everything. When Millie’s nose itch and sneezes, all the nurses become alerted and think she has got some influenza. They compete with each other to do lots of analysis and experiments. Yeah, they look like crazy desperate sadistic nurses who really want to operate on somebody. Say your prayers, Millie. Kane sees a nurse trying to get rough with Rumy’s group so he goes teach that nurse a lesson. Late that night, he notices Julie studying hard but she is attacked by unknown assailants. Kane saves her and notes whoever the attackers were, they’ve gone too far. Throwing scalpel knives to kill? Both groups continue their animosity (I suppose they are the ones responsible for the attack on each other) and Stella is at her wits end to stop them. Heck, she can’t even intervene. Then she gets this idea. For the exam, she has hired an outsider to judge them: Francois!

Kane confronts Stella about dragging him into this. She explains that Julie and Rumy were once best friends, kind and good girls. Before she knows it, they turned out like this and it’s like they’ve both forgotten who they really were. After hearing such heart warming statement, I guess Kane is going to have to complete his job. The nurses will have to perform their nursing skills in real-life simulation. Both Julie and Rumy have set up traps and can’t wait to see the other’s face when the time comes. Kane observes the nurses performing their life saving skills on the dummies. They make lots of comical blunders… How the heck did Millie end up being one of the dummies? They also have to make haste because as more time passes, the air becomes thinner just like in reality. In the last room, Julie and Rumy want to let the others to do the honours. Yeah. They both somehow set their trap there. While arguing, the bomb traps explode causing the system to break down. To Kane’s dismay, there are injured nurses and those who aren’t are doing nothing because they have never done this on a real person before! Worse, Julie and Rumy are fighting each other! Kane had to tell them off the kind of nurses they have become and takes control. He uses his psi-blade and whatever resources to manually activate the sprinklers. The nurses apply what they learn and it seems they can do it if they put their mind to it. In the end, the nurses decide to stay back for another year and learn everything from scratch. They have also put aside their rivalry and work for the better. They aspire to be a brave ‘sister’ like Francois. But Kane has no time to correct his true identity because all the nurses now are in love with their onee-sama! Kane doesn’t like those loving nurses? I take it… Kane is gay…

Episode 7
Kane loses another chess match to Canal. What do you expect? She’s a computer, right? The gang take up a request from Mr Lassen to find his old friend, Bobby. This leads them to Planet Gambit. They split up to ask around. Seems the bar Kane went to ask people about Bobby, they just get scared and run away. Canal on the other hand impersonates as a beautiful woman or handsome man to get her information but eventually hacks a computer database for leads. Kane and Millie are being attacked by snipers and are completely surrounded. I don’t know how they turn the tables on them so when everyone is taken out, Kane interrogates one of them. They were being hired by some mysterious guy under Nightmare to take out those looking for Bobby. Before he can reveal more, he experiences some sort of seizure and dies. Kane very well knows this is Nightmare’s work because he sacrifices his own pawn for his own goal. When Canal finds Bobby, he is already dead but in his hand are a diary and a disk. Seems he has found something during his archaeologist stint but decided to abandon it for humanity’s sake. He has no regrets for what he did otherwise he would have helped those who wish to spread their nightmare across the galaxy. It made Canal remember about Alice. Canal is attacked by the snipers but she’s a hologram so she’s okay. Canal deduces those guys were digging for a Lost Ship and when Bobby found out about this secret, he ran away and they tried to kill him. Since they can’t kill her, they’re going to destroy the disk. Canal uses some microwave to zap them but due to some radioactive magnetic waves, she is on the verge of disappearing. She tries her best to protect the disk but is cornered. An antenna relay booster is dropped by Kane and this returns Canal’s power to normal and zaps the baddies back at full force. They want to interrogate this last guy left and Millie seems to have this trauma about Nightmare, a huge criminal organization that runs rampant throughout the galaxy and not even the Universal Guardians police can stop them. However the guy starts screaming in pain and seeking forgiveness as this failure wasn’t his fault. He becomes a vegetable spouting about spreading nightmare across the galaxy. The gang deliver the disk back to Lassen as Canal relays Bobby’s last words to him. The disk contains chess moves as Lassen plays with it. He uses the same moves that Canal used on Kane. He mentions Bobby learnt everything about chess from someone who loved reckless moves: Alice. It’s as though Bobby has come back and continues to live on.

Episode 8
Kane waits for Rail’s arrival on an airport on Planet Chicken Earth. Because parking in space is prohibited, this is the only way but parking is very expensive. They hear a loud crash through a glass window. Turns out to be Nina Mercury, Rail’s assistant. Was she excited or something? I guess so. Because this is her first mission ever. Their job is to escort Minister Blanco Magma back to his home country of Trevin. If you’re wondering why a low officer like Nina is on this important job, it’s because she is the only one in Universal Guardians who speak the Trevin language. Why doesn’t a super computer like Canal even have this language in her database? At first they thought this is going to be an easy job. Till they learn all the annoyance that come with it. Call it culture… Like how Swordbreaker must have horns due to Trevin’s culture not to ride anything without the sacred horns. Canal feels insulted and breaks down… So they have to take the normal airplane and go through security check. Kane has to take off his cape and all weapons are handed over to Nina for safekeeping. Nina is not good with machines so Canal starts having a bad feeling. Nina and Blanco fly first class unlike the Trouble Contractors as they’re on a budget… Discrimination! Millie also can’t eat chicken since it is the second most sacred thing on Trevin. Yeah. The plane feels like a chicken coop with all the chickens running around freely. Canal understands why Rail left them this job because Trevin is in tumultuous state. Tribal wars, anti-government movements, terrorists, VIP kidnaps, economic collapse… Big trouble indeed. Once the plane is in the sky, the Red Cock’s Comb faction forcefully takes everyone hostage. Chicken headgear? They want to make the comb the official sacred headgear instead of horns?! Oh yeah. This is what tribal conflict is all about.

Kane’s plan is to have Canal dress up in a chicken suit to head to the first class to get their weapon from Nina. I guess all those Red Cock’s Comb members are dumb. Just seeing one of them even in a full chicken suit, they think she’s one of them. Nina is tied up but she doesn’t want her precious handbag destroyed. She bought it with her first pay cheque. The key is in her cleavage so Canal had to get rough with her. Feels like ecstasy? Before Canal could go back, the lone hijacker in the first class feels suspicious of her. He wants her to do the Amore dance that all members are taught. She searches the database to pull off a close one. Once she returns, she throws the weapons back to Kane and Millie as they neutralize all the hijackers. They thought of impersonating in a chicken suit but the lone hijacker knows they are fakes. Why? Because cape is a sign of worshipping the devil! Damn culture… The pilot captain is also a member as they want Blanco to relay his message to claim the comb’s supremacy. He won’t do it. Nina needs to do something quick and crawls into the cockpit but gets roughed up. Accidentally she touches the control panel and it causes a short circuit. In this commotion, Nina bites off Blanco’s horns to throw it to the pilot while Millie bites Kane loose (was her bite this strong?) so he can take out the other hijacker. But what about the falling plane? Don’t worry. Let Nina touch it again and everything goes back to normal. See? Fixed. Although the plane lands safely, Blanco is furious because Nina bit off his sacred horn. This could become an international issue… Nina is so worried that she touches Canal. Fatal error! Error! Error! Error!

Episode 9
Kane has a beautiful dream of his grandma. And then he gets involved in a stupid race with Millie to use the toilet. Millie the cheater wins of course. Say, a big ship like this and it only has one stinking toilet? Well, Canal doesn’t need to use it and it was fine before Millie came aboard, right? They receive a signal that they are entering a restricted zone that contains a Lost Ship that has been missing for many years. Millie didn’t want to investigate it but after hearing that best-in-the-universe title, she’s all for it. They investigate the strange structure of the ship. Toilet in the ceiling? They extract the data and leave while Millie is so infatuated with best-in-the-universe this and that so much so she names a crystal she thought she discovered. Millie Stone? Canal brings back the crystal for analysis when suddenly it works up and disappears. As explained, her analysis concludes the crystal is some sort of ancient weapon that can rearrange space. In short, the rooms in Swordbreaker are being rearranged as they speak. Yup. It’s like a random room generator. So this booby trap weapon is must what have caused the weird layout in the ghost ship and the crew panicked and caused an accident. They are worried in trying to catch this crystal which is believed to be in some hyperspace cage. But Millie is more worried about the toilet… Because the humans have to hold it in. Must be feeling like an eternity, eh?

They’re playing shiritori to pass the time? But Canal seems to be unintentionally making them say synonyms of toilet… They really think of doing it right now but Canal warns she’ll self destruct! Don’t do it! Then the power goes out. This means Canal is no more to nag them and the duo rush off the find the toilet. But did Kane find it? Because it’s just the toilet door that leads to another room. Frustrating! Meanwhile Millie finds herself in a strange room with a large orb before entering a room she has never seen before. On the table there is a recorder. She plays it and the incomplete sentences don’t make sense to her. Lost Ship, 6 Demon Lords, fear, nightmare across the galaxy, Canal as their only hope and a boy named Kane. In the corner of the room are toys. She picks up the orgel before the crystal appears and absorbs her into hyperspace. Kane is tired but he could hear the orgel. He remembers about grandma asking him what he wants to be when he grows up. A space pirate. He wants to be strong and cool like her. Using his heart to find the location of the orgel, he unleashes a powerful blast from his psi-blade in that direction to strike the crystal. Millie is freed when the crystal is destroyed and the rooms return to normal with power back online. Millie asks Kane about the orgel and he puts on a sullen look when he learns she entered that room. But no time for that now because they start fighting to use the toilet.

Episode 10
On a colony ship aimlessly drifting in space, Kane watches a few young boys play basketball in the slums but are challenged by some teens over the usage of the court. The winner of tomorrow’s game gets right to use it. Kane is reminded by Millie that they’re on a job so he heads back to her and protects an old guy who was watching the ship’s neutron anti-matter from the Rando family punks who want to steal it and sell it for a high price in the black market. They chicken out when they see Kane’s psi-blade and plans to head for the main computer control room. However due to population spurt and over building, no one seems to remember where it is. The old man laments how he has seen this ship from its glory days to a pitiful state. Perhaps they should have given up and sell the anti-matter for everyone’s sake and the best course of action. Those teen basketballers continue to taunt the little ones. The kids hate to admit that those teens are good and don’t stand a chance in tomorrow’s game. When Kane throws a shot, the kids become impressed and beg him to be their coach. He agrees but in exchange they must give it their all. Kane is a decent coach and the kids figure he isn’t from this ship because he is different. They wonder if they’ll be able to leave this ship too because it has been drifting for 40 years in search of an inhabitable planet to settle down. You won’t know if you don’t try. Rando contacts his boss and he seems impatient but wants him to do what is needed. Next day, as the basketball match begins, the Rando family is going to make their move for the control room which so happens to be under the basketball court. Kane and Millie fight them and won’t let them interfere with the match. Rando’s boss also launches an attack on the colony ship but thanks to Canal and the superior Swordbreaker, they’re driven away. As Kane beats up every Rando guy there is, the kids win their basketball match by a mile. Hope those teens learn their lesson. This is what happens when you’re cocky. So it’s a win-win situation for our heroes. The colony ship then changes course and lands on an inhabitable planet. Everybody gets out of the ship, some amazed and some stunned. What will they do now? Are they cut out for this after 40 years? It took the kids to hint to them about never knowing if you don’t try. And Canal too wonders if they can settle down. Same answer from Kane… Oh yeah. Quote of the episode, “If you don’t shoot, you can’t score”.

Episode 11
Kane and Millie are relaxing down on a resort planet before their escort mission in 3 days. However Canal contacts them that there has been a change in assignment from their client, La Guld Company and that the mission will start tomorrow with reinforcements from Universal Guardians. This doesn’t sit well with Millie since she can’t do her fishing as planned. So I guess this means going out for a meal to compensate for it. At a bar, a group of guys seem interested in Millie and the boss, Jess goes up to her to ditch this effeminate guy with a cape. Seems he said the taboo word, Kane is going to fight with him. Millie expects the worst but their punch stops halfway. Turns out it was a greeting and they know each other as they work for the same client. They have too much drink and even bet on switching their escort jobs. So when it is time for departure the next day, Kane has a bad hangover and Millie has to drag him back to Swordbreaker. Don’t say she didn’t warn him. Jess contacts him and looks like he too has a hangover. All the new missile gifts that Canal got was from him so it means that Jess had contacted Canal prior to Kane’s meeting with him. Kane wants an explanation so she conveniently goes into system error mode. Since they have switched jobs and their escort distance is the same, Jess suggests a bet to see who can finish their mission first. Drinks will be on the loser. Rail then contacts Kane about a particular band of pirates usually targeting La Guld’s ships and to be careful. He has also sent some patrol ships for reinforcements.

Right after that, they receive signal of an unknown ship. They think it’s a space pirate since it is not responding to their hail or ID identification. Plus, this cargo looking ship looks fishy. True enough, the ship turns hostile and is preparing to fire at them. Kane and co go into action to do what is best to protect the ship and cripple it. Meanwhile, Jess’ fleet is under attack by some unknown enemy. All the patrol ships got wiped out. He makes an emergency call to Kane. He knows he is done for and laments he couldn’t have one last drink with him. Kane wants to turn around and rescue him but Canal calculates they won’t make it. All communications from Jess go blank soon after. Seems the unknown enemy that killed Jess was Glen. He was pretty sure Swordbreaker would have turned up but vows to get him next time. I guess you can say the job switch saved Kane. Later Kane meets the director for the Space Cargo Safety Division, Marigan Howell. He congratulates him on a fine job and hopes he could continue working with them. He views him better than the other useless Trouble Contractors. Suddenly a hot chick comes up to Marigan and slaps him! WTF?! Kane is probably drowning his sorrows at the bar when he sees that hot chick running into trouble with a group of punks. Since he is in a bad mood, he goes to beat the crap out of all of them. But the hot chick isn’t grateful. She doesn’t want help from a friend of murderers like La Guld.

Episode 12
Canal’s investigation reveals that woman is Merina Concense. An ordinary woman with no criminal record. Kane is still reeling from Jess’ death but he isn’t going to sit around and mope. He wants Canal to investigate further La Guld since it is suspicious that space pirates are only targeting the company. Kane finds Merina but she doesn’t say anything. So he has to gather information from others. Asort, Merina’s boyfriend was killed by space pirates 2 months ago while riding in a cargo ship by La Guld. Also, there are rumours that La Guld and the space pirates are in some sort of deal. When Canal comes back with shocking information, Kane rushes to go save Merina in hopes she hasn’t done anything stupid. Seems La Guld didn’t suffer any losses from the space pirate attack. In fact they are benefiting it from the insurance money paid out. As for the space pirates, they get the cargo so it’s a win-win situation for them. Merina has found out where the pirates are holing up and tries to take them on. Dumb move trying to be the hero. She got captured and even if she now knows the pirates’ boss, Alzas and Marigan are in cohorts, it won’t change a thing. They’re going to kill her when Kane arrives like a hero to save her. Alzas and some of his men flee. Kane won’t allow her to go after them and throw away what is important so she throws a tantrum what he is going to do. Seek revenge for her? Expose their wrongdoings? Kane has got support from Rail so the Universal Guardians’ patrol fleet are moving in. What is Merina going to do? Kane gives her a diskette containing all the illegal records from La Guld. What she does with it is up to her.

The Universal Guardians hail the space pirates to give up. No response? Fire at will! Unfortunately the space pirates disappear from their radar and then exterminate every one of them out from radar range. Yup, Alzas and co have a Lost Ship, Death Cloud in their hands. Handy. When Swordbreaker enters the scene, Death Cloud vanishes before their beam can hit them. Kane guts tell him that this retreat was too easy and his guts were right as he commands Canal to dodge the incoming laser from afar. To Canal, Death Cloud is just an ordinary Lost Ship. Convinced they are the ones who killed Jess, they are going to ascertain its coordinates and jump there by letting it fire at them. The space pirates fall for their bait and hit their psi-barrier with their laser. Swordbreaker hyperjumps to Death Cloud’s location and activating their plasma blaster to the max, Kane fires and blows away Death Cloud for good. Jess’ death avenged. Kane receives message from Rail that Merina has handed him the diskette and with the evidence they have arrested Marigan. But right after that, a mobile exterminator Lost Ship, Nezard turns up to greet Canal. It’s a sign that Nightmare is moving and will meet again. Seriously, he just showed his face just for that? But it left Kane and Canal sweating in their pants. Meanwhile Glen reports to his boss, Alfred Stargazer about the destruction of Death Cloud as planned although it is unfortunate they couldn’t do the same to Swordbreaker. Stargazer feels the need to take out Kane and Swordbreaker who are always in his way to claim the universe.

Episode 13
Some hot villain (only known as Spreader of Darkness) just wakes up after 87,000 over hours in sleep! That’s what you call beauty sleep! Haha! He plans to pay a visit to that woman. Meanwhile Kane has obtained some Holy Drink of Heaven that made Millie cry because of the unbelievable price he whispered to her. It’s just some booze but don’t let those Arabs hear you or else they’ll blow off your head! Kane bought the drink because he is going to visit grandma on his home planet. They bump into an old man, Jill (a man with a woman’s name?) whom Millie recognizes as the legendary space pirate that gave the Universal Guardians the run around. Outside Kane’s home is the grave of Alicia, his grandmother. He’s going to drink with her now that he’s back. Millie felt so bad for not understanding him so she runs away before she can get emotional before him and talks to Jill instead. Kane also revisits his house and this brings back lots of childhood memories. Jill is now retired and works as a gravekeeper. He recounts his meeting with Alicia a long time ago. During his heydays as a space pirate, he was undefeatable. Nobody could stand up to him till Alicia came along. The psi-blade user put this legendary space pirate into his place. He didn’t kill her because he fell in love with her. But one day Alicia rushed off into some doomed battle and put Kane in his hands. That was the last he saw of her. Kane was mad because he failed to protect her. Just like Kane is now fighting a battle, there will come a time he cannot win. He hopes somebody like her will be there by his side when that time comes. That night when Jill’s life support system is about to go offline forever, he is visited by Canal (in her mature form). Seems she hasn’t told Kane about it yet. She hopes he will forgive her. Meanwhile Kane faces off with Darkness. The latter can tell he is Alicia’s descendent due to his psi-blade stance and smell of blood. Kane is mad with him and wants to kill him since he is Alicia’s murderer. However Darkness’ aura was too overwhelming that Kane starts weakening and can’t maintain his composure. Darkness isn’t here to kill him but pay his respects to Alicia. He hopes her soul will dwell in eternal death and despair. Back on Swordbreaker, Kane is one upset guy because he ‘lost’.

Episode 14
Kane is still reeling from his face-off with Darkness. At the bar, he meets his old partner, Atlas McMahon. They remember the good times they had together as he was once the best Trouble Contractor that every rookie looked up to. But an accident that left him a vicious scar on his arm forced him into retirement and he’s been drinking ever since. However he thinks now is the chance of starting over again because some abandoned plant 3 years ago is showing up. Kane teams up with him to complete this job. Their job is to retrieve the rare chemicals that the automated underwater plant collects from the acidic sea to resurface and launch it into space. Though, it has lost its ability to launch. They enter the tumultuous weather on the planet and had a hard time locating the plant’s location. But it’s no smooth ride inside the plant as the security system still works. They also have to finish their job fast as the plant will only be resurfacing for 40 minutes before going back into the sea. More woes because everything in the plant is old, explosions start happening and this cut off their only escape route. Atlas has an idea to do something and overflow the buoyancy tank and make the plant float. It’s a dangerous job that requires precise timing. Atlas reveals he chose this job to overcome his fear. To conquer it, he came back to the place where it all started. Although Kane does his part well, Atlas still has the jitters and his trauma comes back to haunt him. Kane gives him the much needed push so he regains the confidence to finish the job. Kane goes back to Swordbreaker and he has some explaining to do to the ladies. Millie is less forgiving but Canal knows he did a good job in overcoming his own fear.

Episode 15
Glen is being chided by the bigwigs of Gazer Konzern Corporation for failing to produce results after putting in so much money. Of course he is not going to take it sitting down and has a trump card that he has perfected over 3 years. At Gazer Konzern’s head office, the president, Kali gets a call from Glen. She knows he has been backed into a corner that’s why he’s asking for help. He shows her a matter transporter that can teleport to any coordinates using one’s will. He has stole data from the ToAru Company and perfected it. His favour is that he wants her to hack into the ToAru’s system to get a boot programme but since their main computer is isolated (not connected to internet), he cannot access it from his place. In exchange for this, Kali will get the best prey ever: Kane. Meanwhile in ToAru, Millie has infiltrated the company in pretence to install a new updated OS system. Yeah, the guys are so trusting to leave her to her own device. Seems that their aim is also the matter transporter. Canal hacks into the system to tamper with the data because there will be no point if the unrivalled psi-barrier can be penetrated. A short while into it, a blackout occurs. Canal detects an extraordinary hacker has hacked into the system. The jamming system causes interference. Kane and Millie are on the run because laser beams are firing at them. Thank goodness they all miss. From the tactics, they deduce this must be the work of Gazer Konzern who was planning a takeover on this company. Of course Gazer Konzern as the biggest corporation in the galaxy is just a mask for Nightmare so it won’t be any surprise if they are after the matter transporter.

Kane and Millie rush to the space port to get back on Swordbreaker but everywhere they go, bad guys are waiting to take them on. Safe to say, those goons aren’t even on par with them. They come face to face with Kali. Glen and his men get ready to make use of the matter transporter which uses a life source. Although Canal has set up a psi-barrier around Swordbreaker, the matter transporter exactly transport the missile within Swordbreaker and makes an internal explosion. Kali and Kane’s fight has to be abandoned because Kali realizes Glen has set her up as a bait when the place starts collapsing. I don’t know how but Canal manages to upload a virus of herself into Glen’s ship and wreck havoc by destroying lots of systems. Glen does a desperate move to teleport a missile but the missile exploded in his ship. Canal destroys all the small fries but Glen gets away. Kane and Millie get back on their ship as Canal assures them that she has tampered with the data so much that it will take years for ToAru to find the changes. Just years? Millie wants to know why Nightmare is after him so he says he inherited his battle from grandma. Meanwhile Kali confronts Glen about setting her up but he feigns ignorance. They are surprised to see Darkness awakened. He will have them work for him as he needs more power to spread darkness throughout the universe again.

Episode 16
Canal gets another bargain buying weapons. Yup. Kane acting as her mule again to bring it back to Swordbreaker. Can’t even afford a cart? You’ve got to save while you can so we can buy more weapons! Millie also wants Kane to buy her a huge cannon. He refuses. She sulks. He ignores. She decides to test the cannon after being assured it isn’t loaded. Too bad that dude forgot it was and it nearly destroyed the market. Millie gets scolded for acting like a kid so Kane tells her off if she really wants it, charge it to her own ship. What does this suppose to mean? It means he wants Millie to get out! Serious? Yes. Serious. Millie acts tough as she packs her stuffs and leaves. But we know she wants some sympathy from them. No tears from Kane although Canal is more sympathetic. When she returns home after a long time, she is shocked that her entire place is cleaned out. Empty. There’s a letter saying that all her stuffs are auctioned to pay for the rent she defaulted. And the balance to be paid into this bank account before this deadline. This sucks. She tries to call her friends for help but nobody answers or this line is not in service. All too familiar. She only has her recording with the ‘arguments’ with Kane and she keeps playing the one Kane tells her she is the best cook in the universe. Oh yeah. With nowhere else to go, she heads back to Swordbreaker. As Kane is servicing his ship, he thinks Canal came in and tells her he doesn’t feel wrong in his decision to unload Millie as he doesn’t want to get her involved in their upcoming battle. It’s heartbreaking for her so she goes back into the ship and waits till Kane pops up. Blaming him for turning her into a Trouble Contractor, now she has no home, this is the only place she can return to. Besides, she can fight too and can help him take down some Nightmare battleships. I guess they have to give in because they saw the cleaning tools Millie made for them. To welcome back, Kane has her make the best dinner in the universe. For once Canal isn’t complaining. He even buys her that cannon and as she happily tests it out, her trigger happy ways might get them into trouble because she just shot down a patrol ship! What now? Run! Meanwhile the top brass in Universal Guardians think there is a traitor among them leaking information to criminals. Investigation reveals the culprit to be… Rail!

Episode 17
A planet is being declared martial law and a city has its city evacuated by Universal Guardians as there is a suspected bomb. But it is just a cover up as a Lost Ship is discovered. Oddly, the Universal Guardians has called Gazer Konzern to head this expedition. Meanwhile Nina is being called by the higher ups of Universal Guardians and she cannot believe Rail is the mole. Kane has also caught wind of this Lost Ship and heads down to inspect. He confirms those Nightmare people excavating the site and is about to relay it to Canal but Kali attacks him. It’s like she’s been waiting for him. She doesn’t care about the Lost Ship and just wants to finish her prey. Soon, electricity at the site goes out. Rail notes leaking information has paid off as he makes his way into the Lost Ship. Nina is being given a mission to keep an eye on Rail since she is quite close to him. She is of course in a dilemma. When Rail is inside the main deck, the Lost Ship awakens and starts flying off. The excavation is abandoned and so is Kane and Kali’s fight. Kali still wants to hunt him down even if they’re dragged to hell because she wants to prove something to Darkness. Millie saves Kane and Darkness informs Kali to withdraw. They will settle their score another time. Once the duo return to Swordbreaker, Canal recognizes this Lost Ship as Ragudo Mezegis. She isn’t too thrilled to see him. Swordbreaker initiates the first attack but Ragudo had some sort of legendary barrier and had no scratch. It took all of Swordbreaker’s power to shield from his beam that even destroyed the asteroid nearby from the ricochet. Kane is surprised to see Rail onboard. Is he working for Nightmare? When the other small fries of Universal Guardians arrive, Rail is going to show he too can get serious. Swordbreaker puts up the most powerful barrier and within a second, all the small fries are vaporized. Swordbreaker is the only survivor of this massacre. Kane believes Rail is acting on his own considering Kali’s behaviour. What is he up to? Thanks to that, the inhabitants of Swordbreaker are now on Universal Guardian’s most wanted list. Meanwhile Nina is acting some solo play about believing in Rail. I don’t even know what to say about this.

Episode 18
Swordbreaker changes its ID to land at some port. Millie goes down shopping for ingredients and decides to use her secret account. She couldn’t understand why the machine rejects it till the alarm is sounded. Looks like Universal Guardians have frozen all their accounts and this gave them away. Millie runs away from the guards till she is cornered. In great timing, Kane saves her and brings her back to the ship. As Universal Guardians is on their tail, they can’t do anything to attack them back as they’re just doing their job and will just have to shake them off. Intelligent homing missiles are fired and Swordbreaker will have to outrun them before their hyper dimension jump is activated. Meanwhile Glen is upset he is not part of the assassination team to kill Kane. Then he realizes it could mean he is no longer of use and will be disposed. He tries to get away fast but before him is Kali and that Stargazer wants to see him. He is brought before Stargazer and Darkness. The former feels disappointed he failed to complete a simple mission and have no longer use for him. He lets Darkness to take care of the rest. Glen is running scared and he should be because now he is fused with some machines. Once Swordbreaker is in a safe distance, they hear another explosion. Don’t worry. It’s Millie in the kitchen. She has cooked Kane an extravagant meal. Tastes great too and he finishes plate and plate. This is part of Millie’s plan to cheer him up. But ice cream dessert is interrupted when Canal detects many Nightmare ships locked on them. There are no Lost Ships among them but strangely there are no strategic movements too. Kane isn’t taking any chances and fires all they’ve got to wipe out the fleet. Seems too easy that it’s fishy… Suddenly a heavy artillery Lost Ship, Gorun Nova appears before them. This is the ship that spreads darkness.

Episode 19
Kane begins his attack. Sounds like he is desperate. Yup. He is. He thinks Darkness is onboard. But every beam they fire has no effect on Gorun Nova. Whatever he does, the big mother Lost Ship is still there. Gorun Nova only needs one single big blast just to disable a lot of things on Swordbreaker and if they get hit the next time, they’re toast for good. Then the stress got to him. He got a heart attack. Okay, some sort of mental attack as Gorun Nova was just a decoy to exhaust him. In the deep dark recess of his mind, Kane becomes paranoid and fights some blob creature while his real self is just screaming like a maniac. Millie is left to pilot Swordbreaker’s defence while Canal tries to bring back Kane. Gorun Nova attacks, the situation becomes even dire, lots of things aren’t working, Millie panics and doesn’t know what to do, Kane is still screaming. This is a fine mess we’ve got into. Darkness appears before Kane and wants him to make a choice. Be baptized by the darkness by drinking from this chalice or die by his hands. Kane throws the cup away and gets ready to fight. He has decided. But can he really fight Darkness in such a weak state? He is no match of course and Canal who has dived into his mind, brings him away in the nick of time. Canal then relays to Millie to use the leap railgun to send Swordbreaker into hyperspace jump to escape. Although badly bruised, they arrived safely far away. Everyone is picking up the pieces. Swordbreaker is getting fixed. Kane tells Millie this is what a battle between Lost Ships is about. He stands no chance. But all Millie cares about is her cooking that he finds delicious. I guess no use moping on something gloomy so they replenish their food supply. While Millie is down shopping for ingredients, she suddenly sees Swordbreaker leaving before her eyes. I suppose this was Kane’s plan all along. For her own good?

Episode 20
Nightmare is rampaging throughout the universe. They even boldly cast away their Gazer Konzern image. If this is the quality of Universal Guardians or Universal Forces, they deserve to get owned. I think Kali even takes control of the Universal Guardians HQ. Millie has to sell her favourite gun to get some cash. She has a makeover to hide her fugitive status. I think this make her more suspicious. She sees a big traffic jam and pile up and turns out Nina is having a hard time controlling traffic. The girls talk things out about how their man ‘dumped’ them. Nina has been moved from department to department ever since Rail’s betrayal and hasn’t been doing well. Instead of complaining, they decide to do their own investigation. They find a ship to leave this planet and Millie has brought with her all the files pertaining to her investigation. It may be a crime, but at this time, who cares? Swordbreaker is still in the midst of self repair when Nightmare forces including Nezard appear. Stargazer is pleased with the chaos spreading throughout the galaxy as they will become Dark Star’s sustenance. In order to gain even greater power, they will devote all their energies in destroying Swordbreaker. Kane continues to fight recklessly. Till Canal had to really tell him the situation he is in so Kane is forced to retreat. But they are faced with Ragudo Mezegis and Rail is serious in attacking them. Ragudo Mezegis and Nezard make some encrypted communication with each other. Rail’s vision starts to blur at the crucial time so he is forced to retreat since with his current mental state, he cannot chase Swordbreaker. Kane also uses this time to escape although Swordbreaker has taken quite some damage. Stargazer talks to Darkness that Ragudo Mezegis has obtained quite a good sustenance in Rail. And Nezard is getting his from Glen.

Episode 21
While Swordbreaker is taking refuge on some icy planet, Kane wants to shut the main system and this means Canal will go offline. They can’t fight nor can they escape so it’s best to get some rest while auto repairs are being done. Meanwhile Millie and Nina land themselves on some space port. Millie is devastated all the documents she snuck out were just police salaries. Nina is worried about Rail but at a distance they see a fleet battle and Nightmare is overwhelming the pathetic Universal Forces. Kane packs his bags and leave Swordbreaker. He causes an avalanche to bury it under the snow and sets up false tracker and jamming devices all around. Maybe he’s just fooling himself. Nightmare drones drop in and Kane tries to get them as far away from Swordbreaker. Nezard has discovered Swordbreaker’s location and fires down. Due to interferences, Nezard cannot confirm if Swordbreaker has been hit but is sure it cannot survive. Yeah. Big mistake baddies always make. Kane’s leg is injured so he prepares his mini artillery and bombs to fight the drones. Darkness comes down to duel him and he likes the hatred and anger in him (it’s making his psi-blade power big as hell). He is worth fighting now. Swordbreaker’s repair has finished and it’s time for Canal to wake up. Seriously, she needs an alarm clock? Swordbreaker comes to pick Kane up and as they blast into space, they have a dogfight with Nezard. With Swordbreaker functioning at 100% and a psi-energy at full capacity (possibly powered by Kane’s hatred), Kane gets aggressive in making all those reckless moves. Nezard takes a direct hit and gets destroyed. Kane really wanted to finish Nezard off for good but is exhausted. Darkness now understands why Dark Star is interested in him. After witnessing this, it is only a matter of time he will give himself over to darkness just like him. Now that he has recognized that power, he will withdraw for now. Canal hopes Kane won’t repeat what Alice did. Millie and Nina have discovered Ragudo Mezegis and Rail’s coordinates. Even if that place is under martial law, they’re heading there to find Kane’s whereabouts and ultimately what he is up to.

Episode 22
Stargazer is surprised Nezard is defeated and must make haste to destroy Swordbreaker. Meanwhile Canal puts Kane to sleep. No, she did not kill him. Can’t have him running around and lose energy like that again, huh? Elsewhere, Rail seems to be having some sort of ‘confrontation’ with Ragudo Mezegis. He claims Lost Ships are troublemakers and his quest is supposed to destroy them. He thought some corrosive metal gas would do the trick but Ragudo Mezegis analyzes it quickly and uses a counter agent. There, back as new again. I don’t know what secret password Rail whispered but it actually paralyzes Ragudo Mezegis! WTF. Can that really happen? He escapes in a pod but not long before Ragudo Mezegis regains control of himself although his systems are still a little off. Rail has been floating in space for who knows how long and is close to being dead. Luckily Nina and Millie were passing and pick him up. Nina is so glad and would like to see his handsome face before he dies! Is that all he is worth? The ladies nurse him but he is like in some vegetative state, only talking about Lost Ships and Swordbreaker being destined to fight. No matter how much Millie questions, she’s not going to get an answer from him at this state. He continues spewing about darkness and light which is represented by Dark Star and Volfied respectively. They’re always locked in some eternal battle. Also about Dark Star’s goal of spreading nightmare throughout the universe. In exchange of giving those in contract temporary powers, in return fear and rage result. He adds about Lost Ships devouring human minds, bodies, lives and are like death gods. Becoming one with a Lost Ship means the death of the master. Canal remembers Alice’s final attempt to sacrifice herself to protect Kane. She was running away from Darkness and has taken all the blows she could. They then combine and become one and blow Darkness away. Canal had sad emotions programmed in her and she’s crying hologram tears? When Rail finally wakes up, he is going to finish his task. Devastated Nina shows Millie about the letter he left behind. But Millie knows which planet he is going from his speech. The twin stars of Tora Alpha and Beta. Meanwhile Kane has awakened and he is ready to get into the final battle. He is already at the Tora planets and the scanners reveal the processing plant of Gazer Konzern on it is actually Dark Star. Inside it is lots of unusual energy. Canal asks one more time to change his mind but it’s already too late for that. He knew about the memory bank and that Alicia took her enemy with her. He is bent on winning this despite it will cost him his life for this is the fate of those involved with Lost Ships. Ragudo Mezegis returns to Darkness.

Episode 23
Darkness gives Ragudo Mezegis to Kali. Swordbreaker hitches on an asteroid to get to Tora Beta. Meanwhile Nina and Millie steal a junk cruiser since security has been lax thanks to Nightmare as Universal Guardians focused all their attention on them. Millie might not be smart enough to get the ship going but as long as she has Nina touch the machine, it goes into operation. She’s so bad with them that she makes them work? Heck, they even shoot the gates open with their missile. They’re really getting good in stealing ships, aren’t they? Kali destroys a planet and transmits this footage all over the universe. Then she relays a message to a certain man she is chasing down. In short, if that man ignores this message, she’ll continue destroying planets. So what is Kane going to do? Because Ragudo Mezegis is away from Nightmare’s HQ, defence there is basically weakened. It could be their chance to destroy Nightmare although Kali will be going on a planet destroying spree. I guess being heroes, destroying the big boss can always wait. So they head to Kali’s position to face off with her. However she is hiding among the rubbles and out of Swordbreaker’s radar. Swordbreaker is being like a sitting duck and barely miss all her beams thanks to the gas clouds slightly throwing off Kali’s target co-ordinations. Then Swordbreaker puts up its strongest psi-barrier and takes a direct hit. Kali thinks she has won but to her surprise, Swordbreaker still lives and fires back to destroy her graviton cannon. Kali doesn’t think she can win but Ragudo Mezegis reminds her about his power that can turn the battle tide as long as she opens herself to his will. Because she wants to stay by Darkness’ side, she is willing to give Ragudo Mezegis her soul. That’s basically fusing with the Lost Ship, right? Since Kali is taking too long to make her move, Kane fears she might have done just that. An energy anomaly is detected inside Ragudo Mezegis.

Episode 24
Swordbreaker makes quick attacks but Ragudo Mezegis has a few tricks up their sleeve. Just when Swordbreaker cannot dodge a direct shot from them, they divert all their energy to the shield. But they are surprised when the beam bends and becomes a light whip to grapple and bind them. Meanwhile Millie and Nina are on their way. Nina must be scared to death of Millie’s horrendous piloting. Anything that doesn’t work, Millie just let Nina touch it and everything is authorized. Simple. When the psi-system is overload and won’t respond, Swordbreaker takes a direct hit and Kane is blown off his chair. He dreams of the first time he met Canal and became Swordbreaker’s master. Kane gets back up and continues to rage. His hatred makes him continue to attack Ragudo Mezegis. Darkness explains to Gorun Nova that Kane’s hatred that is flowing out of him is what is making him being able to fight on par with Ragudo Mezegis and overcome fear of death. Kane will soon understand that it exists in every human mind and once he accepts that, the real battle begins. Kane wants to initiate a self sacrificing move that Alice did. Canal is against it but Kane doesn’t listen. After this, he wants her to find a new master and go defeat Dark Star. Ironically, it is the machine that is getting emotional and desperate. Kane is cool while Canal is so traumatic. Millie and Nina just arrive. They get onboard Swordbreaker and desperately try to stop the countdown to the death move. Everything they do cannot work. They should go back to basics. Yeah. Let Nina touch it! System error! Countdown aborted! WTF?! Oh heck, nobody has to die. After some scolding and encouragement from Millie, Kane is calmer now as he exudes pure psi-energy. It fills Swordbreaker and this power destroys Ragudo Mezegis in a blink of an eye! Darkness is not worried because the more energy he has means the more easy it will turn negative. All the conditions have been met. The one with the key to it is someone of his bloodline. He wants that person to come back where she belongs: Millennium Feria. That’s Millie, right?

Episode 25
Rail hijacks a pod to head to the final showdown. Stargazer is preparing his army when suddenly Dark Star starts shape shifting into something else. Swordbreaker blast through several small fries without sweat. Nina wants to help but Canal prefers her not to do and touch anything! Oh, Canal becomes a cheerleader to give our heroes a morale booster. Is this necessary? Kane sees a vision of Darkness again. Once more he tries to persuade Kane to join his dark side. This time Kane has full control of himself and he won’t join him nor throw away his life. Because the best meal in the universe is waiting for him if he survives. Then he repels Darkness out of his mind and they make their way to Tora Beta. Stargazer finds out Darkness is the one responsible for making Gorun Nova one with Dark Star. However Darkness kills Stargazer as he is of no use. Old geezer tries to fight back but it’s useless. He thought Darkness was his clone but to his surprise he is actually the embodiment of Dark Star and used this body as a good vessel. Darkness then ‘melts’ Stargazer for good. All that is left now is for Kane to come and set Dark Star in motion. When Swordbreaker arrives, they are shocked to see Dark Star in its awakening form. Kane is going to go alone inside to disable the energy barrier or else they can’t even touch it. Kane faces off with Darkness and they have a light saber dual. Meanwhile Canal talks to Millie and the former knows she is related to Stargazer, though Millie asserts she never met or seen him. She doesn’t care about her past family. Wondering if Kane knows about this, they receive a message from Rail. He is a moment too late because he reasons Kane must not meet Darkness because Dark Star will be fully awakened with the clash of strong negative psi-energy. Canal believes is different now and understands. Once the time is right, Darkness summons Millie and teleports her into Dark Star. Swordbreaker takes direct hit from Dark Star.

Episode 26
Darkness throws Millie a gun. Against her will she fires at Kane each time he tries to get close to Darkness. He wants Kane to unleash his anger and hatred. Rail informs Canal that there is no such energy barrier device. The energy source is Dark Star itself. He knows all this since he was almost eaten alive by a Lost Ship. You somehow gain some sort of knowledge in exchange for your devoured soul. He wonders how Canal has been feeding off Kane and this has her slap him. She objects she is not like other Lost Ships and will prove it. Canal can’t wait for the barrier to be disabled so she makes some adjustments and forces her way in. After Rail tells her the secret chant words to paralyze the Lost Ship (the reason he came here), Canal ejects him and Nina. She does a kamikaze taking direct attacks from Gorun Nova before crashing into him. Her memories are being affected the more damage she takes. Gorun Nova thought he had won but he didn’t see this coming as Swordbreaker fires point blank. Gorun Nova is destroyed. A very badly damaged Swordbreaker trudges forward to find Kane. I’m not sure if Millie can’t take it anymore that she jumps off. Luckily Kane saves her. Kane seems like he is going to resume his fight with Darkness. Millie quickly gets up and holds him back. She pleads it wasn’t her fault to deceive him. She knows she can’t be trusted anymore but please don’t hate her. Kane believes her because her bullets missed his vital parts despite under Darkness’ control. It proves that she is indeed the best sharpshooter in the universe. He isn’t going to fight for revenge or hatred but to protect those he loves. Kane and Darkness enter the final showdown. Just in time for Rail and Nina to join in and watch. Their stances are the same since it was Alicia’s brother who taught her that move. In the final strike, Kane emerges victorious because he predicted Darkness’ move. Kane made this move by himself because if he had followed the textbook, he would have been dead instead. Darkness disperses into thin air. Dark Star tries to activate despite not fully awakened. Now Swordbreaker comes into the picture. Canal truly believes Kane is the true light for he has defeated Dark Star himself without her help. The duo then go off to finish Dark Star. Rail chants those lines to buy them some time and also for themselves to escape. I don’t know what Kane and Canal did but Dark Star is effectively destroyed. Who cares? 6 months later, Nightmare’s spread has stopped. Rail and Nina note that the search for Swordbreaker has been called off. They are missing. But Rail is confident Kane will be back because there are still 2 Lost Ships out there. As for Millie, she waits and leads a simple rural life on Kane’s home planet, waiting patiently and believing they will return. All that waiting paid off because Swordbreaker returns!

Trying Their Best In The Universe
Hmm… Because this is such a retro anime, I always tend to forgive whatever shortcomings the series have because I’m basing and comparing it to today’s standards. Therefore you can’t really complain and might even think good of it like as though it was ahead of its time. Since I am not a fan of the Slayers’ series, I am not sure if watching this one separately as a standalone would affect my comprehension and appreciation of the connected universe. But solely on this anime alone, I think everything was pretty okay. The first half of the story felt like little fillers because you see the gang taking on random jobs with little developments on the real storyline that can be seen more prominently in the second half. That is whereby Darkness has awakened and things get more serious with the introduction of other Lost Ships and Kane’s past. Though, I thought the ending felt a bit rushed. Darkness felt like an untouchable supreme villain. He is cool and calm and always a step ahead of Kane. But to have him lost in the final fight in just one strike, somehow that felt cheap. I know I shouldn’t be hoping for battles that lasts for episodes after episodes but just when I thought there was going to be a decent light saber showdown between the guys, here our Kane uses his original unconventional move (which I see nothing special in) to seal the victory. And then we have a slight cliff-hanger whereby Kane and Canal went missing for a while probably to tease us viewers whether our heroes are coming back to Millie who has been waiting for them. Ah well. Thanks for the ride.

It is amusing to see the interaction between the characters especially Kane, Millie and Canal. I suppose the first half establishes their relationship and you know how it will grow and bond when you stick with each other for so long. What else can I say about Kane? Your typical hero with his own brand of justice, a tragic past and responsibility to shoulder on a universal scale. So in the end, it is just a simple story of good triumphs over evil, no? Although he loves his cape a lot, in later episodes I don’t see him harping so much about it. Maybe it doesn’t get messed up as much. Not that we noticed anyway since perhaps it has become like part of his body. Millie is amusing herself too. Initially annoying because of her penchant to complain and her aim of becoming the best in something in the universe, the more she gets deeper with Kane’s past and mission, the more solemn she becomes. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not. Then revealing her as some sort of relative to Stargazer somewhat felt unnecessary. She could have been some runaway princess of some kingdom planet but it won’t change a thing. I don’t know what history she’s got with the old family since she said she haven’t meet them for so long so perhaps it isn’t as important. Probably that revelation is to give us some tension to see if Millie would go to the dark side and ultimately lead Kane there too. Or that she is some sort of spy planted and planned all along by Darkness. This kind of retro anime? With this kind of plot? What are the chances?

I am not sure if there are any romantic feelings harboured between them although it could be just me who is feeling something like that. But then again, it could be because they’ve been together long enough that they develop that sort of bond. Besides, so far I think Kane is the only one who appreciates her best cooking in the universe. Because if there were really feelings from her, then I can guess her final goal is to be the best wife in the universe! Haha!

Then there is Canal whom I feel is so much more human than a computer. She might be some super computer programme and her hologram is installed with the highest technology that allows her to feel and touch and others to do the same, but that is the reason why I think she feels more human than a machine. So much so I thought she would be better off being casted as the ship’s human assistant. So real Canal is (in terms of this anime, of course) that it never occurred to me she is machine except maybe she is about to go offline and you can start to see those interference lines. In terms of her character, I think she did play a good job in supporting Kane through thick and thin. After losing Alicia, she doesn’t want to lose anymore of those she holds dearest. See? What did I tell you she is so human-like? Another odd thing about her is her penchant to buy more weapons and missiles to load it onto Swordbreaker. I suppose as a battleship, your worth and pride is in the weapons you invested in, right?

Other characters feel okay too but I don’t see them having a great impact on the overall. Like Rail, some hot guy in the Universal Guardians who eventually betrays them just to destroy Lost Ships he detests? Then when he found one, it’s like he crossed over to the dark side for a while before realizing he can’t handle the pressure and that his life is more important and goes back to our heroes’ side. I don’t know how he got that paralyzing chanting spell because I am pretty sure the Lost Ship would not have something that reveals their weakness if those they suck the life force from are going to know everything. But then again, if they’re going to die and become one, does it really matter? So maybe, that is just Rail’s little part but honestly I think even if Canal doesn’t know this trick, I believe Kane can overcome the darkness himself. The antagonists of Nightmare are okay too but nothing that would make them sound like nefarious villains by today’s standard. They just want to spread darkness across the galaxy but you don’t see the intensity and how evil their ways. Partly Universal Guardians are such wimps too. Stargazer who thought he should be the big final boss got killed off by his clone, Glen outlived his usefulness and was killed off by putting him into Nezard, Kali who is somewhat obsessed with Darkness and hunting her prey eventually gets killed off in this method too and Darkness the coolest of them all as explained in my earlier paragraph.

I feel that Nina’s character is some sort of a comic relief and what her role is usually for I consider it to be a running gag of the series. When Rail was in Universal Guardians, she used to serve hot coffee or tea to him but each time she ends up spilling them all over his lap or clothes. After Rail’s betrayal, her bad relationship with machines becomes the running joke. All she needs is to give the slightest touch and the machine will either work or malfunction, a total complete opposite of what it is supposed to do. So people, if you need somebody to fix your TV or your home computer that is being stubborn and not working, you should just call Nina and she’ll just give the ‘Midas touch’ and get it working again. No need to spend hundreds on technicians. So you see, Nina? You still can get some sort of a job if you’re fired from Universal Guardians. And of course, the final episode shows her still hasn’t lost her touch in spilling tea all over Rail for nothing. Best spiller in the universe. The other running gag I feel is Millie blowing up the kitchen on Swordbreaker every time she cooks. It’s like each time she is making a bomb. I can’t remember if the explosion gets less frequent as she improves but Canal doesn’t seem to mind it anymore even if such explosions occur. Come to accept it as part and parcel of Millie?

Action wise, I don’t think it is fair to compare it by today’s standard but I have no choice since it is my only way to best describe it here. The action feels a little lame although not entirely. Partly because of the animation too. Sometimes when Kane fights with his light saber, the action can be a little lame but as I said, this is a retro anime so it is forgivable in that sense, no? Well, at least the space battles between ordinary battleships and Lost Ships seem to fare better although I won’t go so far to say it is awesome. Just okay at the most. Although the Lost Ships are CG rendered, it isn’t the coolest in terms of graphics since it’s you know, dated. On a little side note, the thing that turned me off was the jargon and terminology that Kane and Canal communicate to just activate barriers, fire beams, etc. It’s like they pulled out those words from thin air and made that up to make it sound really high tech. Maybe my sci-fi interest and knowledge are low but I thought by saying “Activate all shields” or “Load up those beams!” would just suffice. The comedy factor is also okay and is mainly between the interactions of the characters and their quirky traits as mentioned above. It’s funny that they are Trouble Contractors out to solve troubles but get into some sort of trouble themselves. Thank goodness things work out in the end.

The art and drawing style are of course retro style with the characters having that kind of look from animes of that era. Heck, you may say they look closely from Slayers too. Duh? The so called high technology stuffs seem dated from where I watched now but at that time it was really cool to see space ships and futuristic equipment. Especially the Lost Ships they give it some unique design of their own although other non-important ships like those from Universal Guardians feel uninspiring and sometimes just look weird. During battle and action sequences, the laser ‘light show’ and other beam effects seem cool. Only if you were watching during that era. Of course like I have said, it feels so dated but I am not complaining. But it sometimes feels funny too to see that certain futuristic items are now obsolete. Uh huh. Can you believe the mode of carrying or transferring data in a compact device around in this anime is a diskette? A DISKETTE!!! Not even a CD! That’s how retro this anime is. Yeah, 1998 feels so long ago. Also, you see all those funny charts, graphs and diagrams on the screen in the main bridge of Swordbreaker, I can’t help think somebody just designed them in a rush. Or just simply design. Who is going to decipher and understand all those, right? You’re not working on Swordbreaker either. So when Canal analyzes the energy of this and that, calculates the projection of some incoming this or that, it felt a little funny that those ‘diagrams’ really tell something.

As usual with Megumi Hayashibara on board, it would be such a waste not to take advantage of her singing abilities. Just like in some of the other animes she voiced, she does both the opening and ending themes and well, erm, it’s so like Megumi Hayashibara-like. It’s so like her style. Really. Brings back nostalgic memories of the kind of anime songs I used to hear when I was young while watching the anime she voiced in. Infinity as the opening outfit isn’t bad with blazing electric guitars and synthesizers and its similarity somewhat reminds me of that Slayers song she sung, Breeze and Don’t Be Discouraged or even Saber Marionette J’s Successful Mission. Extrication on the other hand is the ending theme and plays to a slower pace. This song isn’t bad too and has this funky and jazzy tune to it. Makes me want to sing along with sexy passion just like her Shaman King’s Omokage.

In the end, I believe that fans of the Slayers series would appreciate and understand this anime better than casual viewers. Ultimately, that is what almost everybody will tell you if you ask their opinion. Provided if they know about Slayers too. Yeah. Space version of Slayers. If you also love sci-fi and not into a very deep plot, then you should check out this series as well. For a casual viewer like me, to be fair and give this old anime its dues, I still find it fun and enjoyable in the overall, though. Even with a few drawbacks, I still think this is a pretty decent anime. It is not like I didn’t like this anime nor regretted watching it. Oh, I don’t know. I’m just trying my best to be the best otaku and anime viewer in the universe. Looks like I have got a million more light years to catch up.