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   series still hasn't been announced as licensed yet (and it's hard to   
   say if it ever will, since it's over 100 episodes long and its pace   
   and puns make it difficult to translate), TOKYOPOP is now releasing   
   Miho Obana's manga under the name KODOCHA.   
      [Entry by David Watson]   
      
      KOKO WA GREENWOOD:  see HERE IS GREENWOOD   
      
      KURENAI NO BUTA:  see PORCO ROSSO   
      
   L   
      
      LAIN:  see SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN   
      
      LANDLOCK:  Firstly, this is *not* a Shirow story.  It merely uses   
   some character designs.  A typical brother and sister eventually find   
   that they have more to them than meets the eye.  Or two eyes; each one   
   a different colour!  This story is a typical quest to save the world   
   against insurmountable odds and evil mentors.  Available from Manga   
   Video.   
      [Entry by Chika]   
      
      LAPUTA, CASTLE IN THE SKY:  A great fast-moving action adventure   
   by children's film-maker Miyazaki, and features designs Jules Verne   
   would approve (not to mention Swift.)  Two kids flee pirates, the   
   army, and other parties in a race to find the legendary Laputa.  Great   
   soundtrack, too.  A Must See.   
      [Dubbed to English by Streamline, and again by Disney - the latter   
   is available on DVD in North America.  - Rob Kelk]   
      
      LAST EXILE:  A steampunk Sci-Fi/fantasy epic, this is a lavishly   
   beautiful series that once again has a strong director who restrains the   
   worst inclinations of Studio Gonzo.  Set in an alien environment of   
   islands floating in the sky, the main characters of this world are a   
   pair of impoverished orphans who dream of crossing the boundary of the   
   world but wind up caught in the middle of a war for control over a key   
   to immense power.  With more than a few nods to old Miyazaki features   
   involving flight, this is series look at a world that's in the early   
   stages of an Industrial Revolution in the shadow of a futuristically   
   advanced political faction.   
      LAST EXILE treats the "punk" in steampunk as more than just a token   
   word as it looks hard at the idea of chivalry in battle and the schism   
   between the elite nobility and the working poor while staying tight with   
   the story.  The series often carries itself in a larger than life way,   
   especially with the bombastic military march music and grandiose "ship   
   of the line" battles, but it also takes the time to flesh out the   
   characters and peer into their microscopic stories behind the macrocosm   
   of the great war and power plays.  Also, one of the major characters   
   gets time by herself, and the animation sequences involving that are   
   strongly reminiscent of ones seen in old Disney shorts.   
      This is a beautiful series that strings together a lot of strong   
   moments and doesn't rely on its considerable visual flash.  It may be a   
   shonen adventure, but like KALEIDO STAR it doesn't exclusively pander to   
   that crowd.  This series may be the closest thing so far to an heir of   
   ESCAFLOWNE.   
      Available in North America from Geneon, and in Australia from Madman.   
      [Entry by Michael Lo]   
      
      LAUGHING TARGET:  Another serious story from Rumiko Takahashi (in   
   her "Rumik World" series), this takes many of Takahashi's favourite   
   cliches (unwanted engagements, a love triangle, teenaged protagonists,   
   etc.) and puts them into a supernatural-horror story.  Was available   
   from USMC.   
      [Entry by Rob Kelk]   
      
      LEGEND OF GALACTIC HEROES:  A far-future SF epic in which two vast   
   space-faring governments, the Empire and the Federation, vie for   
   supremacy amid the sea of stars.  Against this backdrop two young   
   heroes on the opposing sides wage war with each other and politics   
   with their peers.   
      
      LENSMAN:  Loosely based around the E.E. "Doc" Smith stories, an   
   ex-patrolman suddenly finds his planet being ripped apart, but all is   
   not lost!  His son inherits a "lens", which because of the nature of   
   the info on it, the enemy would really like it back, hence its   
   destruction of the planet and relentless pursuit of the boy from that   
   point onwards through all sorts of weird scenarios.  However he   
   gathers allies on the way, so the enemy doesn't get it all its own   
   way...   
      [Entry by Chika]   
      [Chika is understating matters - this anime uses little more than   
   some of the names from the original series of novels.  It isn't a bad   
   story, but don't expect it to be anything like "Doc" Smith's   
   masterpiece.  Lensman was available dubbed from Streamline when   
   Streamline was still in business.   - Rob Kelk]   
      
      LOCKE THE SUPERMAN:  An intergalactically famous superbeing lured   
   out of voluntary seclusion helps save Earth from a group of elite   
   ESPers bent on galactic conquest.  The design sense is rather   
   primitive but the story line is lean, exciting and propulsive,   
   revolving around the title character, a powerful female ESPer, and an   
   evil conclave.  Admittedly, these are simple premises, but the action   
   & storytelling are first-rate.   
      
      LODOSS WAR:  see RECORD OF LODOSS WAR   
      
      LOST UNIVERSE:  Lost Universe is done by all the same people who   
   did SLAYERS, and it's pretty much SLAYERS in outer space.  It's a   
   Sci-Fi comedy which follows the adventures of Kain Blueriver, a   
   psychic troubleshooter that hires himself out to solve problems and   
   looks like he could be the child of Lina and Gourry, and his ship the   
   Swordbreaker, which is one of the lost ships belonging to a highly   
   advanced lost civilization.  Joining him is Canal, the holographic   
   image which the ship projects to communicate, and Millie, a dead shot   
   who blows up kitchens cooking and wants to become the best something   
   or other in the Universe (exactly what changes with every episode).   
   Despite some not so great animation, those fuzzy dots that move around   
   are not because of a bad TV, the series is an enjoyable comedy done in   
   SLAYERS fashion, and although it doesn't quite live up to its parent   
   anime it's the closest thing out there to a fourth season of SLAYERS   
   right now.  Available from ADV Films.   
      [Entry by "Sultan Of Swing"]   
      
      LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER:  see RUNE SOLDIER   
      
      LOVE YOU BABY:  see AISHITERU ZE BEIBE   
      
      LOVE HINA:  Keitaro Urashima, a 20 year old "ronin" (student who   
   has failed his university entrance exams) gets a job as the caretaker   
   at his grandmother's old hot springs inn.  What he doesn't know is   
   that she has turned it into a girls-only dorm.  The girls aren't   
   pleased at first to have him there, but eventually accept him, and   
   Keitaro starts to fall in love with one of the girls, named Naru.  But   
   Keitaro is haunted by the vague memories of having promised, when he   
   was young, to go to Tokyo U with a girl whose name he has since   
   forgotten.   
      What develops is a romantic comedy, with a fair amount of surreal   
   humor, and a number of fun, memorable characters.  This was a big, big   
   hit in Japan.  Non-Japanese fans of the manga version tend to have   
   real problems with the anime version since it varies a lot from the   
   manga.  I saw the anime first, then read the manga, and tend to like   
   the anime more.   
      Available from Bandai in North America, or Madman in Australia.   
      [Entry by Anthony D. Baranyi]   
      
      LUPIN III:  A semi-modern series of (TV & OAV) stories about a   
   stylish thief with a heart of gold and his gang.  My personal favorite   
   installment is CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO (directed by Miyazaki), although   
   THE FUMA CONSPIRACY is one of the most action-packed and entertaining   
   anime around.  Most LUPIN III is not by Miyazaki, but by a fellow who   
   calls himself "Monkey Punch" (I'm not making this up, you know).   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)