Any anime from the late 90s/ early 00s should remember Martian Successor Nadesico. It was a well known series for one that never aired on television over, and most people enjoyed it. Picked up by ADV films, it was brought over during the big boom, and recently rescued by Rightstuf, Nadesico is a series everyone should see, except for Seinen fags with no sense of fun.
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| From left to right Minato, Ruri, Megumi, Akito, Yurika, Then up is Jun, Seiya, and Gai! |
If you've ever seen Macross/ Robotech, the set up is very similar. "Aliens" from Jupiter appear and wage war on humanity. With superior technology, the Earth is outclasses, but Nergal Heavy Industries build a prototype ship to deal with the alien menace. Even better they create humanoid robots to fight in combat against the enemy's bug like robots. On board is a large cast of mostly females( yes, this is harem) and a bunch of wacky hijinks ensue. Time to get to know the cast!
Akito Tenkawa- Our reluctant hero, he grew up on Mars, and is an Aestivalis(the robots) pilot and cook. A Childhood friend of Yurika, every other female on board wants the D from him. He is a huge fan of Gekinganger III, a parody of Getter Robo/ Mazinger Z.
Yurika Misumaru- The Captain of the Nadesico and an airhead. She loves Akito, and isn't afraid to show it him, who of course won't reciprocate til the finale.
Ruri Hoshino- The moe Albino who runs the Nadesico's computer Omoikane. She was genetically engineered to be l33t with computers, and calls everyone baka (idiot).
Gai Daigoji- the hotblooded pilot we all love, he dies early on. The man loves Gekiganger III, to the point where he copied the leads hairstyle. Voiced by the master of hot blood himself, Tomokazu Seki.
Megumi Reinard- An anime voice actress who is also the communications officer on the Nadesico. The second member of Akito's harem.
Ryoko Subaru- an awesome green haired pilot who wants Akito's dick
Nagare Akatsuki- A playboy Aestivalis pilot, he's the chairman of Nergal. Shhhh big Secret.
There's more characters obviously, but they aren't important enough in the big picture.
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| Nagare Akatsuki on the left. |
The series is about the misadventures of the Nadesico. The story begins on earth where they clash with the United Earth Forces every step of the way. The Nadeisco is more powerful, so they basically do what they want. They escape to Mars to search for survivors, and pick up an know it all scientist along the way, with a mysterious connection to Akito. The fight the Jovians ( the bad "Aliens") and eventually join the Earth Forces. As the story rolls right along, we learn their is a secret about the supposed aliens: They are humans who were exiled from the Mars Colony to Jupiter. All along everyone was told they were alien lizards, but that obviously was not the case. Since Nadesico has plenty of humors, the only media the Jovians had were old episodes of Gekiganger III, so they all worship and dress like it, as if they were obsesses-ed fanboys, which they are.
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| Gekiganger III |
One of the main plot points of the series is Boson jumping. The Jovians utilize this technology early on, and eventually the earth forces manages to discover it's secrets. Only those born on mars can utilize it, and it involves jumping from anywhere in the universe, to another point. Akito and Yurika can obviously use it, and in the final stages of the war, they are able to work together to jump an entire ship, without killing anyone on board ( normal humans hadn't survived a jump til then). On Mars is the Boson Jump core, and the Nadesico takes in onboard, and this somehow ends the war. Yeah, whatever.
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| The Harem |
Chronologically next is the Sega Saturn Game Nadeisco- The Blank of Three Years. I have no idea why they felt a movie was a good gap filler for the time between the movie and TV series, but whatever. What happens is Yurkia and Akito try to adopt Ruri, Yurika and Akito get married, and supposedly die on their honeymoon. The truth is they were kidnapped by the Martian Successors to do experiments on involving Boson Jumps. Akito is rescued by Nergal, but he had changed, no longer caring, and deprived of most of his senses. Nergal gives him a ship and a new Aestivalis ( Black Sarena), along with a partner named Lapis ( think Ruri without any personality). Akito, with the backing of Nergal attacks the bases of the Martian Successors, hoping to find Yurika. Onto the movie!
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| The Aestivalises. |
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| Black Sarena (note the pink arms) |
Nadesico- The Prince of Darkness. Picking up after the game, Ruri and a new crew are in Charge of a brand new Nadesico, and are seeking out remnants of radical Jovians, The Martian Successors. They learn of a base keeping secrets, and infiltrate it. While there, they discover records of secret Boson Jumping tests, and the bases is attacked by Akito. After a series of unimportant events, it's time to get the Nadeisco crew back together for lame reasons, while Ruri discovers Akito is alive, and Yurika is too, being fused with the Boson Jump core. The good guys all team, up, Yurika is saved, and the bad guys are wiped out. Akito goes off on his own, he has his reasons. I think this is continued in Nadesico- The Mission on Dreamcast, but I can't find anything about the plot online.
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| Akito is the prince of Darkness! |
What makes Nadesico so fun is how many genres it covers. There's romance and harem, action and adventure, comedy, and tragedy. It somehow manages to balance it all well, that even genres you may not enjoy ( I hate Harem) don't seem so bad. I would honestly recommend it to anyone. The TV series that is. There is a manga, but it's nothing special. The artwork is off, and the story goes off in a unique, and not exactly good direction.
Opinions are divided on the movie, though most people hate it. Criticizing Ruri being the lead due to her popularity, and Akito's change of personality, in addition to the original cast barely being in it (aside from Ruri). I though it was a mess of wasted potential. I loved that Akito was now a bad ass, but he did very little. However I thought it was cool he went off on his own in the end, because something inside him was broken, and he couldn't stay with everyone.
So here's some rating's why not ?
TV Series- 9/10
Movie- 7/10
Gekiganger OVA-6/10
Manga- 5/10
So what are you waiting for ? Go check this out, you won't regret it. Maybe.
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