Let me be blunt. By any objective standards, "Lost Universe" is a poor anime. The animation ranges from mediocre to awful, and primarily cliché characters that garner little interest populate the story. An average episode of "Lost Universe" consists of the main characters yelling at each other, solving some problem in a silly way, then yelling at each other some more.

And yet this show is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Why, I've never been certain. Every episode has at least one moment that makes me roll my eyes at how bad it is. But then, nearly every episode has at least one other moment that makes me laugh out loud. The show's writers manage somehow to squeeze a surprising amount of humor out of what should be a tired cast. On top of that, there's undoubtedly an aspect of camp throughout the anime. Whatever the reason, I enjoy watching it. And I enjoy watching the dub, even though it suffers from many of the same problems as the anime itself.

The star of "Lost Universe" is Kain Blueriver, young captain of the ship Swordbreaker. (Fans have referred to him as "a male Lina Inverse," but that's unfair to Lina. Yes, he has red hair and wears a cape, but the similarities end there.) Kain is played by Steve Metz, who portrays the character as a boy who never really grew up - not an inappropriate portrayal of someone who wears an inconvenient cape simply because it looks cool. This becomes clear in flashback sequences where we hear Kain as a boy. Metz plays little Kain almost exactly the same as adult Kain with only a slightly higher pitch in his voice.

Although Kain is supposedly in command, Canal, played by Jessica Schwartz (Iris in "Sakura Wars"), bosses him around. Canal is a holographic representation of the ship's computer, and is firmly in charge when it comes to her ship "body," as evidenced by a scene in episode 9 where she briefly chucks Kain out an airlock after an argument. I'd love to have something analytical to say about Schwartz' performance, but more often than not, she doesn't seem to be acting at all. Schwartz portrays Canal by making her voice cute and heaving her lines full-force at the microphone. I swear I've heard fandubs with acting as well performed. Schwartz's Canal is pure camp. Mind you, it often works! When Canal is supposed to be funny, she's really funny! The problem is that when she's being serious she's still funny. A scene in which she announces that a rival ship "serves the forces of evil" is supposed to have an ominous tone, yet I was nearly on the floor.

Millie, a girl who longs to be "the best in the universe" at something, rounds out the trio of characters. She joins Kain and Canal permanently in the second episode and becomes part of the crew for no apparent reason other than her simply not going away. Larissa Wolcott (Natsuki in "Sakura Diaries") plays Millie in what is undoubtedly the best of all major performances in the dub. Millie spends a great deal of time yelling at Kain, yelling at Canal, and boasting about being "the best [whatever] in the universe." Wolcott gives her the perfect voice for it, spunky and confident. Wolcott also does an admirable job of toning down her performance for Millie's few introspective scenes.

Two "secondary" characters on the side of good are Rail Claymore (Bill Wise) and Nina (Camille Chen), both of whom work for the Universal Guardians, a law-enforcement service. Wise does well in his role, playing Rail with a relaxed air of authority. I thought Chen was a bit miscast. Nina is shown to be a ditzy but eager go-getter, and therefore I found Chen's voice slightly too low, the performance too mature. To be fair to Chen, however, I checked her scenes against the Japanese version and heard the same problem there.

The voices for the villains, I'm sad to say, are uninspired. It's hard to blame the actors as they have so little with which to work. Roy Glen (Edwin Neal) and Kali (Sarah Richardson) aren't the most original of bad guys. Glen is essentially an old guy with a beard, and so Neal gives him the standard "old-bad-guy-with-a-beard" voice (I kept expecting him to say "by cracky!" between his lines). Kali is a woman with big breasts and a whip, and so Richardson provides her with the stereotypical "sexy dominatrix" voice. Both roles are competently voiced, but are uninteresting. This is especially true for Kali, who is made all the more annoying by the fact that the writers clearly intend this female cliché to impress. That being the case, I would have appreciated any attempt by Richardson to add something to this character. It would be unfair for me to expect such an attempt, however.

The one villain I did like, for the short period of time I got to see him, was Dark Seeder (David Stokely). Dark Seeder is the top villain and seems to be yet another unoriginal character, the type of villain who is so powerful that he is utterly confident and holds everyone else in contempt. Stokely improves on that a bit by offering a restrained performance, making the character seem all the more evil by the gentleness in his voice. It reminded me somewhat of Kagato from "Tenchi Muyo."