Lost Universe

Lost Universe (Japanese: ロスト・ユニバース lit. Rosuto Yunibāsu) is a series of comedic science fiction novels, anime, and manga created by Hajime Kanzaka. The various incarnations of the franchise follow trouble contractor Kane Blueriver and his companions Millennium Feria Nocturne and Canal Vorfeed as he uses his spaceship, Swordbreaker, to battle the Nightmare Syndicate and Dark Star Dugradigdu.

While the series is generally considered a comedy, it has an underlying serious plot that puts Kane's world in grave danger that he must fight to rectify.

=Media list=

Novels
Lost Universe began as a series of five books published in Japan from December 1992 to April 1999. These books became the basis for the anime series and manga, although both spin-offs added, removed, and changed material from the novels, sometimes drastically altering plot details.

Lost Universe
The Lost Universe anime aired on TV Tokyo in Slayers TRY's old timeslot from April to September 1998.

Lost Universe 2 (tentative)
A second Lost Universe series, entitled Lost Universe 2 (a tentative title) was originally planned to air in 1999, but was cancelled due to insufficient funds. The ending to the original Lost Universe anime series set up the premise of the sequel, but the new series will most likely never be produced.

Lost Universe
Lost Universe was made into a three-book manga series illustrated by Shoko Yoshinaka that was published in Japan from April 10, 1998 to December 1, 1999. It was based on the novels and anime series, but changed several key plot details, including the addition of a main character, Anise.

Lost Universe Special
Lost Universe Special was a one-book story featuring Kane and the Swordbreaker crew. It was published in Japan in December 2002.

Main Characters

 * Kane Blueriver
 * Millie
 * Canal Vorfeed
 * Anise (manga only)

Police Officers

 * Raily Claymore
 * Nina Mercury

Villains

 * Albert von Stargazer
 * Spreader of Darkness
 * Kali
 * Roy Glen

Lost Ships

 * Main article: Lost Ships


 * Swordbreaker
 * Dark Star Dugradigdu
 * Death Cloud
 * Gorun Nova
 * Nezard
 * Rag D'Mezegis

Connections with Slayers Universe
The Lost Universe novels take place in the universe in which Dark Star Dugradigdu was the ma-ō. Kanzaka addressed the relationship between the Slayers novels and the Lost Universe novels in an afterword to the last book of the Lost Universe series. As translated by QP/Diana, this afterword says:

Dear readers, it has been a long time since I wrote the previous book. Here I brought the last book of the Lost Universe, "Yami Owaru Toki". From the beginning, this story had such words as "Dark Star" or "Nightmare", and those words easily reminded the readers of another novel series that I'm writing. I know that many many people are wondering how this story is related with Slayers. Now, I give you the answer! The correct answer is, "there is little relationship between the two stories." ................. ....Ouch! No! Please! Don't throw stones! .... Well, to tell the truth, I liked those names Dark Star or Gorunnova, and I used those names in two different stories. That was the beginning, and nothing more. Basically, Lost Universe and Slayers are different stories, so, even though they have some common names or common words, it's no good to let those characters be the same things. If I let Gorunnova in the two different stories the same thing, it would be unrifined for an Edokko. (Citizens of Edo. An "Edokko" is stylish and don't stick to things.) Anyway, I was born in Hyogo, and live in Osaka...

The source can be found here.

QP/Diana also provided a summary of the battle between AI ship Vorfeed and the battle station Dark Star as they appeared in the Lost Universe novels. This summary is reproduced below:

There once was a civilization in one galaxy. The aliens of this galaxy parted in two groups and fought each other for a many years. Finally, one of two groups created a critial offensive program; "System Dark Star". It uses the "fear" of the victims to kill themself. When this system works, the victims feel fear and this emotion affects the brain and checks the exchange of living energy. This system works without any distriction, so the creators of this system made an automatic battleship (spaceship Dugradigudo) to load this system on. As spaceship Dugradigudo was filled with the devices of the System Dark Star and there was no room for the deffensive weapons, the creators of the system made five escorting battleships; the spaceship Nezard, the spaceship Garveira, the spaceship Gorrunnova, the spaceship Ragdo Mezegis and the spaceship Bordigar. They were all automatic battleships and their energy was the power of human mind (in LU world, there is a technology which uses the power of human mind as energy, for example, psyblade). There are many patterns of human mind wave, and these battleships used the pattern of fear, for fear is always available at the battle. These six battleships ate fear and spread destruction in the whole universe. The first victim was their creators and their home-planet.

When System Dark Star worked, people saw a huge pentagram (upside down) appeared in the sky. It can kill all the living things on one planet during a few hours.

Then there came spaceship Vorfeed with erasing system for those six demonic spaceships. Vorfeed's energy was hope of human. When it irradiated its enegy at Dugradigudo and its guardian ships, their energy (fear) was erased by hope and those six battleships became enable to work. They fought each other a long time ago, and finally, Vorfeed succeeded in erasing the energy of the enemies, but it lost its energy, too. These seven battleships fell down on to the nearby planet.

Many years passed by, and those battleships repaired themselve automatically. Then there came a boy. The AI of Dugradigudo found the boy and influenced his mind with its energy. This boy became human Dugradigudo, and when he was grown up, he named himself as Nightmare. Dugradigudo affected the mind and body of Nightmare so as to survive in the System Dark Star. He managed a powerful crime organization Nightmare to ready for another annihilation.

Dugradigudo and Nightmare thought that Vorfeed would come back again, and it begun to ready for that. It repaired its escorting battlships, and made a huge fortress Hecatombkale. And finally, Dugardigudo and Nightmare found spaceship Sword Breaker with AI Canal Vorfeed. So the battle begun again. The source can be found here.

Making matters more confusing is that, while the novel continuities for each are clearly officially not connected, the anime continuities of them are officially connected. In the DVD release of the Lost Universe anime, one of the bonuses is a set of Translation Notes, which explains some of the wider background behind Lost Universe.

According to these notes, the anime versions of both Slayers and Lost Universe are part of the same multiverse, with Slayers taking place in the "Red World" and Lost Universe taking part in the "Black World".

Night Dragon Volfied and Dark Star Dugradigdu, as they are named here, are described the primary Deity and Demon Lord of the Black World, respectively, and are explicitly compared to Flare Dragon Ceiphied and Ruby Eye Shabranigdu.

A segment on Symbols and Diagrams notes that "Since Lost Universe and Slayers share the same lore, there are also many symbols that you can see in both series", and goes on to explicitly reference that the same hierarchical depictions of demons and dragons appear in both the end credits of each Lost Universe episode and in the opening and ending credits for each episode of Slayers TRY.

The chant that Rail Claymore uses to impair first Ragudo Mezegis and then Dark Star Dugradigdu is explicitly stated to be part of the Giga Slave incantation, and explained as working because even the mere mention of the Lord of Nightmares strikes terror into any demon.

=External links=
 * Lost Universe 3D CG Part presented by DōGA
 * Wikipedia entry