Bad Idea Train Part 4: Landlock

In the final installment of Bad Idea Train we visit a land full of oddly named places, wind power, mistaken paternity, and a villain with an ocular fetish.  Your last look at a character making a bad decision comes from the oddly named:

Background:
Released By: Manga Entertainment
Length: 90 minutes
Year of Production: 1996
Language: Sub and Dub both included, Dub reviewed
Available on Netflix: Yes
If you're anything like me, you may be disappointed to learn that Landlock is not a documentary detailing the historical difficulties Bolivia had establishing trade partners due to its lack of access to sea routes.  The title of the OVA seems to have no relation to the contents of the show itself.  You could say the first bad idea here came when Landlock was named.
I came across Landlock in the anime section of a Movie Trading Company.  The bizarre title and striking cover art grabbed my attention right away.  I turned the case over to read the description on the back.  The annoyingly long names of people and places combined with the very generic sounding storyline made my eyes glaze over.  I tried reading it twice.  I retained nothing.  I bought it anyway.  It had been a while since I purchased a title I knew nothing of before seeing it on the shelf.  I love that feeling but, sadly, as my collection grows it is a feeling that occurs much less often.

Characters:
Luda - Luda is our main protagonist.  He has trained to become a master of the wind, like his adopted father Mohg.  He has a unique fashion sense and two different colored eyes; one Red, one Brown.  At the start of the series he is confirmed as the next inheritor of the wind.

I really like the design of this shirt.  I would wear that.

Notice the all powerful Red Eye

Agahali - The deadly beauty of the series, she is the daughter and right hand man of Zanark.  She is competent with swords, mechas, and hand-to-hand combat.  Agahali leads the Zaroan armed forces in their most important endeavors.  She has a mysterious birthmark on her back as well as two different color eyes; one blue and one brown.  Agahali has a lackey who is hopelessly in love with her named Volk.

Agahali and Volk on the hunt

Notice the less powerful, but still impressive, Blue Eye.

Nosaku - A desert dwelling entomologist.  Nosaku is especially interested in beetles and their fossils.  He is outraged that the Zaroan army uses beetles in their machines of destruction.  They never explain how this works.  Like any proper mad scientist, Nosaku is capable of making his work station explode and lacks common sense.  He has a beetle analogy for any occasion.

I didn't know that beetles and their fossils were combustible

His beloved fossils

Zanark - Leader of the Zaroan Army, Zanark is a buff and burly man with a thirst for power.  He is Agahali's father and commander.  He believes the power of the Wind and the Red Eye will destroy his empire.  Zanark is trying to obtain the Red Flow and Blue Flow in order to gain even more power.  He travels freely in his floating fortress to terrorize the world.

Master of all he surveys

The flying fortress, presumably powered by trillions of beetles

The Bad Idea: There is a prominent prophecy that is repeated often in this OVA.  Not a single character claims to know what it means.  The antagonist in Landlock, despite not completely understanding the prophecy, decides to stab himself in the eyes with two crystals.  This, to me, is the height of stupidity.  Possibly blinding yourself to fulfill a prophecy you don't understand seems like a terrible trade-off.

An early Lasik prototype

Story:
"Wars are started by the ego and ambition of one person" - Mohg
With this quote, we enter the war torn world of Landlock.  Just to make sure the audience doesn't get bored with the political banter right off the bat, the following scene features Luda's sister, Ansa, dancing naked in front of a group of priests.  This is the ancient ritual to confirm Luda as the inheritor of the wind.

Why do so many religious rituals involve half-naked women?

While the ritual is taking place Agahali and Zanark's forces attack Luda's village.  The army uses flame-throwing mechas to attack the Wind Master and Agahali finishes him with her blade.  Luda tries to to avenge his master and gets beat down.  Ansa tries to fight Agahali and does a slightly better job, but still gets beaten.

Battle of the scantily clad women

 Ansa's back is exposed in the fight, and Agahali notices her opponent has an identical birthmark to her own.  The attack on his sister enrages Luda causing him to awaken his wind powers, which manifest as a giant green hand that slaps the enemy command ship.  Agahali manages to subdue Luda, but he becomes a beam of red light and flies off to the desert.  This is where he meets the Entomologist Nosaku.  They travel to a nearby shrine where they are ambushed, again, by Agahali and her men.  When it seems like there is no hope, Ansa discovers her ability to transport between shrines, which proves somewhat useless as she is immediately captured as well.

Ansa teleports directly into danger.

Our three protagonists are taken captive and held in the floating fortress while they wait for their execution.  Luda is taken to a medical facility where the scientists talk about extracting his "Red Flow."  I'm going to avoid the obvious jokes here.  Agahali, meanwhile, is pondering the significance of the prisoner with a birthmark identical to her own.  She asks Ansa directly, and learns that they are long lost sisters and her name is actually Elena (which makes the rest of this summary much easier to write).

Nothing brings sisters closer than being naked in prison together

Agahali/Elena and Volk decide to stage a breakout during the middle of the scheduled execution. Instead of escaping with the rest of our heroes, Elena confronts her "father" Zanark.  Zanark revels in telling Elena how he ordered her to kill her own father, and laughs at her for not realizing her true parentage sooner.  A sword fight ensues, resulting in Elena falling from the balcony of the flying fortress.  Fortunately Luda and company stole a plane and are on hand to save her.  This is all well and good until their plane gets shot down.  Luda and Elena eject from the plane and land on a deserted island.  The rest of our team is recaptured and placed once more in the fortress.

If you have to be stranded with no hope of rescue, this is the place to be

It is at this point in the OVA that Zanark stabs himself in the eyes with the two crystals.  These are the Red and Blue Flows mentioned several times.  Apparently they are the extract from Elena's and Luda's eyes.  He is absorbed in a blinding flash of light and disappears.   

Ooooooh......Shiny

While the fortress is thrown into chaos over their leader's absence, Volk, Ansa, and Nosaku make their escape.  Despite being very high off the ground, the Volk assures them that jumping will be no problem because there is a forest beneath them.  I'm assuming it was a softwood forest.  Down in the forest a firefight breaks out and Volk volunteers to stay behind.  We never see him again, so presumably he dies.  Ansa and Nosaku flee to a temple and meet up with Luda and Elena who figured out how to use Ansa's trick of teleporting between temples, having found one on their island.  As it turns out, Zanark is there as well, using his new found ocular powers to summon the wind god.   He takes the time to reveal that he killed Luda's real father, and that Luda is not actually related to the Blue-eyed girls.  The heroes try to fight him but just get slapped around by the same green hand Luda used in the first battle.  Zanark is able to summon a green energy giant(presumably the wind god) which he plans to use to crush opposing cities.

Head not included, some conditions may apply

Just when all hope seems lost, Ansa starts screaming and one of her eyes becomes Blue, just like Elena's.  This doesn't surprise Nosaku who claims it makes perfect sense because 3 points make a full circle, refering to the kids' eyes.  I don't know what geometry class entomologists are required to take in this world, but I thought three points either made a triangle or possibly a line segment.  For some reason, the revelation of a second Blue Flow cause Zanark to start hemorrhaging red and blue energy.  He seems as good as dead.

IT BURNS!!!!!!

Even though Zanark appears to be dying just fine on his own, Elena take this opportunity to throw a dagger into his neck.  Not to be outdone, Luda shoots him once in the temple, and then three times in the face.  Zanark burns up and the green giant vanishes.

Revenge is a dish best served medium-rare, with a large knife

With danger now absent from the world, Luda, Ansa, and Elena lose the color in their eyes of power.  Ansa decides to shack up with Nosaku, presumably to stop him from blowing himself up with beetle fossils.  Luda and Elena decide to hook up as well and spend the rest of their days farming. The End.

Local farmers are the real heroes

Why Watch?
 1.  The Architecture - The premise of this show relies heavily on the backdrop of an ancient culture with a deep religious heritage.  The temples and statues add a lot to the ambiance of this show.  Someone clearly put a lot of talent and time into the designs.  I just wish this was more of a focus in the show.

2. The Villain's Death Scene - I enjoy the occasional simple death.  The fact that even after all of the mystic, prophetic mumbo jumbo our heroes put a knife through the bad guy's neck and then shoot him in the head multiple times made me smile.  The fact that he was glowing like a defective disco ball the whole time in no way lessened my enjoyment. 

I bet this gave some people seizures

Why not to watch?
1. Predictable and Truncated Story - Has anyone ever been surprised by a paternal revelation after, "Luke....I am your Father"?  The story depends on all of the parent/sibling revelations to keep the story moving.  It really doesn't work for me.  It also felt like a lot of the plot was either underdeveloped or left out completely.   

"Agahali, I am NOT your Father!" Doesn't have quite the same impact.

2. Volk's Civilian Clothes - Most of the outfits in this show are fantastic.  The clothing is different enough to be interesting, but not so much as to be absurd.  The one article of clothing I have a problem with is Volk's shirt.  The way it clings to him is just bizarre.

Kinda hard to tell the wrinkles from the muscles.

Should you be watching?
Probably not.  Landlock has a decent premise but it suffers from a lack of adequate time to develop properly.  This type of story could probably be stretched into two or three full movies.  With that time the character relationships, politics, prophecy, gods, and technology could be explored in sufficient depth.  There is potential here, and clearly the staff had talent.  I'm assuming there simply wasn't enough funding to give this title the treatment it deserved.