History Anime / LostUniverse

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lost_universe.jpg]]
Often considered the sister series to ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'', ''Lost Universe'' is Hajime Kanzaka's take on the Sci-Fi genre. Following Kane Blueriver, Millie Feria Noturne and Canal Vorfeed, the anime (and novels) explore the trio's job--Trouble Contractors, who anyone can hire to solve their problems. These problems range from getting a witness to a trial on time (and alive) to tracking down stolen tea sets.

As the series progresses, the [[TheSyndicate Nightmare Syndicate]] comes to light; led by [[BigBad Albert von Stargazer]], this organization is out to conquer the universe, and Kane and Canal seem to have a personal problem with them...can Millie and Kane unravel the mystery of the Lost Ships and the Syndicate before it's too late?

The series is very much a Kanzaka series; it's 60% humor and 40% serious. It pokes fun at the genre and has various shout outs throughout. The {{Light Novel}}s ran to five volumes. The anime's 26-episode run was supposed to have been followed by a 2nd series that would have given it a more conclusive ending, but the funding didn't appear.

Creator/ADVFilms licensed and dubbed the show before they went out of business, and it was recently rescued by Creator/NozomiEntertainment along with several other titles. The light novels were never released overseas.

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!!This series provides examples of:

* BerserkButton: Several of these in this series.
** Kane is very proud of his [[BadassCape awesome (in his own mind) cape]], and is easily enraged by people calling it stupid-looking.
** Canal is very proud of how clean a ship she runs. Don't get her hallways dirty.
* BeyondTheImpossible: Deconstructed. Because Vorfeed can ignore things like 'inertia' Millie figures out that's it's a Lost Ship. Because it can do things that are impossible for normal ships, it therefore can't ''be'' a normal ship.
* BigBad: Albert von Stargazer, leader of the Nightmare syndicate and [[spoiler: Millie's grandfather]].
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: The anime version ends with the death of Darkstar and the end of his EvilPlan. Millie is living peacefully while waiting for Kane and Canal to return. The final scene is her running to greet them but there is an implication that she's dreaming. Regardless, there's currently no one to stop the remaining evil Lost Ships, as is noted by Nina and Rail, who are on vacation together.]]
* CassetteFuturism: Despite taking place in THE FUTURE!!!, computers are stuck with original MAC-OS operating systems
* ClothingDamage: Kane shreds and/or loses his cape regularly; good thing he has a closet full of them...
* CoolOldLady: Kane's grandmother was definitely this because all of his Trouble Shooter wisdom comes in the form of things she used to say all the time.
* CoolStarship: The Swordbreaker. Though there are a few other starships to be found here.
%% * DoomDoors: In episode 3, as the Swordbreaker docks at the space station.
%%* DramaticWind: Darkstar
* {{Expy}}:
** Millie looks like she could be [[{{Literature/Slayers}} Amelia's]] {{Elseworld}} counterpart, and Kane is more or less a male version of Lina. [[spoiler: Darkstar in human form is basically Gourry's evil twin. See his picture [[http://kanzaka.wikia.com/wiki/Spreader_of_Darkness#Lost_Universe here]]. They're even voiced by the same voice actor!]]
** Two secondary characters, Rail Claymore and Nina Mercury, have a relationship and personality traits that parallel [[ShipTease Zelgadis and Amelia's]], and they even have the same voice actors in the anime (Creator/HikaruMidorikawa and Masami Suzuki respectively).
%% * FollowTheChaos: It's how you know dinner's ready; explosion!
* GenkiGirl: Canal is a very energetic and expressive girl. [[spoiler: She was more stoic pre-series, implying that the new personality is a result of living with Kane.]]
* ImmortalImmaturity: Canal can be very child-like, despite the fact she's a centuries-old super-computer.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Millie plans to be the [[RunningGag Best Shot In The Universe]] and she's well on her way there. She normally nails her target in space even if she has no targeting computer; if she is on the ground, she can take out targets with a pistol that are [[OffhandBackhand behind her]] while looking in a mirror while driving at high speed with her other hand. With a targeting computer online? ''She can wipe out entire fleets'' with nothing but a basic set of cannons and missiles.
* KarmaHoudini: Despite the demonstrated lack of competence and professional ethics in the medical students all that happens to them is that they voluntarily retake their last year of classes instead of the expulsion and/or criminal charges that should have resulted.
* LaserBlade: Kane's primary weapon is a sci-fi version of the Sword of Light.
* LethalChef: Played with. Millie is a very ''good'' chef but she [[StuffBlowingUp blows up the kitchen]] every time she uses it and one time by literal application of OvenLogic. This is one of the reasons why Canal doesn't like her.
* LimitedWardrobe: Kane's closet is nothing but the exact same cloak.
* LostTechnology: The Lost Ships have super technology but no one knows how to make them anymore.
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler: Albert von Stargazer is Millie's biological father, and she had no idea.]]
* MagicFromTechnology: The Ships have EnergyWeapons that look a heck of a lot like magic. The commands used on Dark Star at the end that disrupts him is part of the [[Literature/{{Slayers}} Giga Slave]]...
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Rail is a spy inside the galatic police to find a Lost Ship and destroy or control it so it doesn't hurt anyone.]]
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Yami o Makumono (lit. He Who Spreads Darkness; "Dark Seeder" in the ADV Translation)
* OnlySaneMan: Despite his goofy antics and fixation on wearing a cape (something that everybody mocks him for), Kane Blueriver is the most intelligent and mature out of the ship's crew.
* TheParalyzer: Millie often uses plastic rounds, which are played more like a less permanent InstantDeathBullet than a painful blow.
* PlotAllergy: In the manga, Milly is, for some reason, allergic to men, but she's not allergic to Kane. [[spoiler:This is because they are second cousins.]]
* SchizoTech: Canal, a [[SpaceshipGirl Sentient Computer]], has to do some calculations in the second episode, so she forms a holographic human body which then pulls out a holographic ''slide rule'' to do the math. As if that wasn't enough, she gets the math ''wrong''. She calculates out a position to get ahead of another ship by five minutes and instead gets so close it appears before she can finish her sentence. She excuses herself by claiming that her math was off because Millie was too fat. [[note]]She often uses a holographic body to manipulate manual controls, but at at least one point when under pressure, she "goes to direct control", implying that Canal uses this method of control essentially for fun.[[/note]]
* ShoutOut: In Episode 3, Kane name-drops Manga/CaptainHarlock.
-->'''Milly''': You read way too many comic books!
* SpaceshipGirl: Canal is the CoolShip's AI and a solid hologram.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: According to Canal's personnel dossiers (shown during the eyecatch), Nina Mercury's name is spelled "Neena Marcury".
* ToBeAMaster: Millie wants to be the best in the universe - at ''everything''.
%%* {{Tsundere}}: Millie.
* WalkingTechBane: Nina destroys any computer she touches. Canal is rightly terrified of Nina coming on board.

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The series is very much a Kanzaka series; it's 60% humor and 40% serious. It pokes fun at the genre and has various shout outs throughout. The anime's 26-episode run was supposed to have been followed by a 2nd series that would have given it a more conclusive ending, but the funding didn't appear.

* DoomDoors: In episode 3, as the Swordbreaker docks at the space station.

* FollowTheChaos: It's how you know dinner's ready; explosion!

* LightNovels: It began as a light novel series, five volumes in total.

* SchizoTech: Canal, a [[SpaceshipGirl Sentient Computer]], has to do some calculations in the second episode, so she forms a holographic human body which then pulls out a holographic ''slide rule'' to do the math. As if that wasn't enough, she gets the math ''wrong''. She calculates out a position to get ahead of another ship by five minutes and instead gets so close it appears before she can finish her sentence. She excuses herself by claiming that her math was off because Millie was too fat. [[note]] She often uses a holographic body to manipulate manual controls, but at at least one point when under pressure, she "goes to direct control", implying that Canal uses this method of control essentially for fun. [[/note]]

%%* ShoutOut: Kane's LaserBlade.

* SchizoTech: Canal, a [[SpaceshipGirl Sentient Computer]], has to do some calculations in the second episode, so she forms a holographic human body which then pulls out a holographic ''slide rule'' to do the math. As if that wasn't enough, she gets the math ''wrong''. She calculates out a position to get ahead of another ship by five minutes and instead gets so close it appears before she can finish her sentence. She excuses herself by claiming that her math was off because Millie was too fat. [[note]] She doesn't have any computer interface with her own systems. In order to fly around or fire her weapons she can't simply send a mental command, she has to form a holographic body that then manually controls the systems using joysticks. There's no explanation why the ship's computer has to type on the ship's keyboard to do basic tasks. [[/note]]

* BigBad: Albert von Stargazer, leader of the Nightmare syndicate and [[spoiler: Millie's grandfather]].

%%* OffModel: The original broadcast version of episode 4, "Yashigani Hofuru", had numerous animation errors.

Often considered the sister series to ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'', ''Lost Universe'' is Hajime Kanzaka's take on the Sci-Fi genre. Following Kane Blueriver, Millie Feria Noturne and Canal Vorfeed, the anime (and novels) explore the trio's job--Trouble Contractors, who anyone can hire to solve their problems. These problems range from getting a witness to a trial on time (and alive) to tracking down stolen tea sets.

** Millie looks like she could be [[{{LightNovel/Slayers}} Amelia's]] {{Elseworld}} counterpart, and Kane is more or less a male version of Lina. [[spoiler: Darkstar in human form is basically Gourry's evil twin. See his picture [[http://kanzaka.wikia.com/wiki/Spreader_of_Darkness#Lost_Universe here]]. They're even voiced by the same voice actor!]]

* MagicFromTechnology: The Ships have EnergyWeapons that look a heck of a lot like magic. The commands used on Dark Star at the end that disrupts him is part of the [[Anime/{{Slayers}} Giga Slave]]...

* CluckingFunny: The cast is on a flight that gets hijacked by religious fanatics in chicken suits.

* AwesomeMcCoolname:
** Millennium Feria Nocturne [[spoiler: or Stargazer]]
** Kane Blueriver.

* RecycledInSpace: Lost Universe is Anime/{{Slayers}}, IN SPACE.[[note]]Almost literally. It's one of the four known universes encompassed by the golden sea of Chaos(I.e. the Lord of Nightmares)[[/note]] The gods, for instance, are instead super space ships that humans don't know how to replicate.

* StunGuns: Millie often uses plastic rounds, which are played more like a less permanent InstantDeathBullet than a painful blow.

* OffModel: The original broadcast version of episode 4, "Yashigani Hofuru", had so many animation errors that ''yashigani'' became a FanNickname for bad animation.

* CluckingFunny: The cast is a flight that gets hijacked by religious fanatics in chicken suits.

* RecycledInSpace: Lost Universe is Anime/{{Slayers}}, IN SPACE. The gods, for instance, are instead super space ships that humans don't know how to replicate.

* NotSoDifferent: Millie and Canal, from each other. Both are capable of being extremely childish, selfish and immature. In episode 9, for example, Canal dismisses the fact there is only one bathroom on the ship as unimportant because she, personally, doesn't need to use it and she refuses to install another one because she "hates bathrooms".

* BerserkButton: Kane is very proud of his [[BadassCape awesome (in his own mind) cape]], and is easily enraged by people calling it stupid-looking.