Martian Successor Nadesico

Genre: Sci-Fi / Comedy / Mecha
Parental Guidance Recommended
1996-1997. Kia Asamiya (creator). Satoh Tatsuo (director). Xebec. Screenshots courtesy of DVD Emporium.

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Cover Description:
The aliens have destroyed our base on Mars, wiped out our space fleets, and now, only one ship stands between Earth and total annihilation! Disgusted by the incompetence of Earth's military, the independent arms manufacturer Nergal has built its own space battle cruiser. But due to the shortage of trained soldiers, they've had to assemble the most unorthodox crew to ever launch into orbit. With a cook who's also a pilot and an Admirals's daughter in command, the new starship is the most formidable fighting vehicle ever conceived. But before it can see action against the Jovian invaders the crew must win their first victory against their own species as they fight off a ruthless attempt by Earth's military to seize the Nadesico! Get ready for the wildest space adventure ever in the amazing new series that was voted the 'Best Anime Show Of All Time' by Japanese animation fans, MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO!

(26 episodes)

The Anime Industry Comes Together At Mars. >>> by Kenryoku Maxis
If you want to talk about good writing, this is one of them. One of the hardest things to think of when writing a story is comedy. It's even harder to somehow add that to a well developed plot. Some shows do it right and some just slave along, but Nadesico was one of those rare times when comedy writers and major drama writers came together.

More like a large group of OAV's joined together, the one season show of Nadesico had many writers and sub-directors. Some of the biggest names in Anime came to take their turn at the script, writing 2-3 episodes each and giving their own feel to the concept that was Nadesico. One that comes to mind is the writer for Saber Marionette. Now, I'm not a huge fan of the guy, he's a tad perverted to me, but he does have good concepts and this was one of his best, even if he only wrote 3 episodes (note: I do like Saber Marionette and Sorcerer Hunters, but the manga is pretty dojin-like if you catch my drift). Anyway, with all the joining of writers and people working on specific parts of the show, it's amazing to me how it all came together so well. From their melding of Space/Ground Mecha and Babylon 5/Star Wars fighters, they did a great job of displaying action with plenty of character involvement. This, added with the fact that they took a hilarious turn at making fun of mecha in certain ways and many times took you away from predictable plot devices and situations, the story both in the way of characters and concepts are topnotch. Just what I would expect from so many of
Animes best.

But when you try and mix comedy with mecha, one thing ultimately happens, very strange sounds. No, there not like transformers or an all space episode of G-Force, but they don't strike me as too realistic either. But these sounds are few and far between. The voice actors and great mixing of sound well outdid them (Just think how long it would have taken to edit the voices onto the finished product....they talk so fast...). I love this show and think that anyone who has the amount of money to shell out to ADV should buy it.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 9; Story 10; Characters 9; Sounds 8