LIV: "Lost Universe"

Lost Universe is built as a series around the Slayers franchise. Created by the same author, Hajime Kanzaka, Lost Universe is represented as one of the 4 worlds created by the Lord of Nightmares. While Slayers is classified as the Red World, Lost Universe is the Black World, and the anime primarily deals with space.

The protagonist is Kain Blueriver, the reckless trouble-contractor and pilot of the Lost Ship Sword-Breaker. He is an expert wielder of the Psi-Blade, a weapon that uses a great amount of mental energy to utilize in combat. Some people makes snobby remarks regarding the trademark cape he wears, apparently passed along by his grandmother, who is deceased before the story begins. Canal Vorfeed is the terminal of the Lost Ship, and has a personality that can relate to Slayers' Lina Inverse. She can be pretty petty at times, being selfish about jobs much to Kain's chagrin. Lastly we have Millie Feria Nocturne, though her first name is Millennium. From the first episode, we see her doing undercover work as a private eye, though she accompanies Kain and Canal from the second onward. She has very basic skills as a detective, and her shooting is clearly fearsome. She aspires to be the best in the universe, though routinely blows up the kitchen whenever she tries to cook anything.

Veteran seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara lent her voice for Canal, while she also did so for Slayers' Lina Inverse as well. Jessica Schwartz provides the English voice for Canal (though I can't verify if it's the same one providing the voice of Final Fantasy: Unlimited's Ai Hayakawa) Steve Metz is the voice actor for Cain. As it deals with the worlds created by the Lord of Nightmares, names of the Lost Ships may seem familiar. Unlike Slayers, this series WASN'T licensed by Funimation, instead by ADV Films and Nozomi Entertainment. The second, and most commonly heard complaint, is the production, as every now and then, viewers notice redrawn scenes. This is due to a studio fire that destroyed most of the raw work for the first few episodes. A Lost Universe film was proposed in 1998, but in favor of more Slayers films, this thought was brushed aside.

While it had some faults, I can't say that this was a bad idea, so 6 of 10 should be enough, though I still retain the title as something I would personally go back to. Having said that, this only leaves me curious to what the other 2 worlds are, and what anime revolves around them. Time will tell, I guess...