English Dub Season Review: Lastman Season One

The animated prequel to one of France’s biggest comic book franchises should hopefully blow the doors open for more like it sooner rather than later.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Slowly but surely internationally-produced animation is moving away from being simply from Japan. In the next five years expect an increase in animation imports from South Korea, Europe, China, Australia, and Latin-speaking countries that are then dubbed in English and then presented to American audiences for our viewing pleasure. It used to be that those international productions didn’t have a chance of being seen here in the States but with the rise of independently owned streaming apps, it won’t be up to simply a company like CBS or FOX or Turner Broadcasting if we get to see something.

VRV/Mondo is interesting because the Six Point Harness/Crunchyroll collaboration has become by far the most impressive of the VRV-exclusive channels when it comes to adult animation. From Academy Award-nominated films to animated comedies and French-produced series like Lastman, VRV/Mondo is like a mini-Netflix for animation nuts looking for alternatives to just straight animated comedy.

That’s not to say Lastman doesn’t have some hilarious moments, but at the end of the day, it’s a series that revolves around a powerful force trying to get their hands on a girl that is being protected by Richard Aldana. During the course of the 26-episodes, our heroes are getting attacked by mutated beings known as Rens that are tasked with retrieving a young lady named “Siri” who is also a Ren. This whole thing really is coming to a head because one-time roommates Rizel and Howard were fucking around with a book that they should not have and it causes a rift between the two because of Siri who is actually the most powerful of her kind on the planet. The means to save Siri (or so we thought) mostly revolves around a fighting tournament where the prize is the antidote. Along the way, we get a litany of character types in which we sometimes waste our time with, pop stars, gang leaders, hostage takers, and others, but the crux of Lastman is keeping Siri safe.

Our Take

Lastman definitely has its drawbacks. We get introduced to a BUNCH of characters that really don’t matter much (though one or two would in a sequel series serving as an adaptation of the Lastman comics series as opposed to this instance which serves as a prequel). Casualties occur for bit characters that maybe you spend an episode or two and there’s really no tug at the heart and instead, you’ll find yourself rooting for the bad guys because they bring with them gratuitous violence and action sequences that have about as much finesse as anything you’re gonna get from Tokyo.

The real hero, even with his chauvinistic personality, Richard Aldana is a  character that you want to go to war with as he fights for his life against all odds. I don’t know if I’ve seen another animated character with as many dimensions as Richard Aldana. He’s in a fight he has no business being in but he does it anyway and comes out victorious. Richard is one-part Rocky one-part Jedi and the producers do both his and other fight scenes so much justice and it all ends with an enthralling final battle.

Lastman is the real deal.  Michael Sinterniklaas does a fantastic job at helping produce the English dub of the series, as he usually does, and should get special commendation for casting THIS many characters, and there seemed to be quite a few, correctly. Jérémie Périn’s directorial efforts should also help introduce him to an American fanbase that may not know who he is. Fortunately, it sounds like 2018 is gonna be a good year for him to fix that, and if you want further proof of that, Lastman should be on your list of things to watch.

Score
8.25/10