Monday, January 2, 2017

Martian Successor Nadesico Part 1 Episodes 1-5

2196 A.D.  It has been one year since the invaders, known as the Jovian Lizards, began their relentless campaign against Humanity.  Mars has already fallen and Earth is poised for the taking.  With the Earth Military unable to stand against them, the company of Nergal creates the Nadesico, a battleship capable of taking the fight to the Jovians.  It’s crew are…an unorthodox choice at best.  There’s the beautiful but dim witted Captain, a pilot who just wants to be a cook, a 12 year old techno prodigee, a mecha junkie, a voice actress and that’s only a few of the characters.  Humanity is on it’s last legs and this rag tag group of random individuals is the planets last hope…God help us all.
 
Ah the neglected classic, Martian Successor Nadesico.  This show was Gurren Lagann before Gurren Lagann was even a concept.  Like that series, Nadesico is both parody and respectful nod to all of the giant robot shows that came before it in the 70’s and 80’s.  Is Nadesico as good as Gurren Lagann turned out to be?  Well for the month of January, that will be our little quest to find out as I kick off 2017 in the Anime Corner.
 
First, while not flawless, this show is still incredibly gorgeous.  Nowadays, it’s hard to find an Anime that hasn’t been touched up with or created entirely using digital artwork or heavy CG.  Nadesico showcases hand drawn scifi Anime at its finest.  Even if some of the action feels a little clunky, it makes sense given the mass of the mechs and their movements too.  It gives the series a ton of charm…and theres something about handdrawn beauties that really stands out.
 
Yep Nadesico isn’t just mecha battles, it’s very much almost a Harem Anime too.  Save for Akito, Jun, Hoary and the Prospector, this ships crew is made up almost entirely of beautiful women.  Minato is one of the finest, those who like their women curvy and sultry will be fine there.  But the two stand outs among the female cast are, of course, Yurika and Ruri.  Yurika is the energetic five year old spirit of this series.  She is a brilliant tactician and can get serious when the need calls for it…buuuuut more so than not she’s giving orders with cheerful optimism and crying about just about everything else.  Her obsession with Akito is both terrifying and entertaining.  Yes, there’s a war on but damn if Yurika isn’t going to spend most of it trying to get Akito to date her and confess his love for her…a very one sided love at that.  As for Ruri…well she is pretty much the voice of most people who would walk into a situation like this.  While Yurika endlessly throws out the “V” for VICTORY pose, Ruri is content to break the fourth wall and say, “Idiots…” without so much an emotion, save for maybe a twinge of annoyance.  It may seem a little one note, but it actually balances things out pretty well.
 
At the center of this madness, the war and life on the ship, is Akito Tenkawa.  I like Akito.  He has some of the old Gundam reservations about wanting to fight.  However he never comes off as whiny as Amuro Ray in the original Mobile Suit Gundam.  If anything, his outbursts and overreactions are some of the shows best moments, especially the moment where everyone thinks he’s screaming because of the Jovian attack but it’s actually because Akito burned some food.  He doesn’t want to fight but he will if he has to and will do a bang up job living the dream of being the pilot of a giant robot.  Part of that comes from the “Kamina” (Gurren Lagann Reference) of this series, Giro Yamada aka GUY DAIGOJE.  He’s only in the first three episodes but he gets the fire lit under Akito’s butt to live the dream of kicking ass with robots.  It sucks he got killed off but could he have served much more purpose than this…and to introduce us to the Anime within the Anime, Gekiganger 3?  Maybe but it’s kind of criminal he just gets ignored by everyone besides Akito after he dies.  It’s kind of rude and mean spirited.
 
I want to give a shout out to a character while also noting a particular problem with the Dub of this Anime.  The shout out is to Ryoko Subaru, the bad ass leader of the Nadesico’s Aestivalis squadron (the mechas of the universe).  She’s feisty, gung ho, and kind of what Akito should aspire to be.  If there’s anyone on the ship id rather Akito ended up with after these first five episodes, it’s her.  That being said, some of Ryoko’s lines in the dub show the age of this Anime.  When I heard the line “Can you smell what Ryoko’s cooking?” I had to groan a little.  This dub was done by the same group that dubbed Golden Boy.  And while hearing “I had to open up a can of whoop ass” made me laugh, hearing another American wrestling joke in a dubbed Anime felt off to me and very dated.  Was the translation from Japanese not a good enough line? 
 
The age might show a bit but Nadesico has the good stuff where it counts.  The cast is large but incredibly diverse and memorable.  The action isn’t Macross but is still a lot of fun.  A lot of the animation and music just invokes the good old days of daring space adventure, excitement and romance.  Plus the main theme, “You Get to Burning” is the perfect tract to get you pumped up for whatever zaniness lies ahead.
 
“V” pretty much sums it up and in this day and age, we could use a bit more pretty faces giving us this symbol more often than not.
 
“V” everyone.  Let’s kick this year off right.  ONWARD NADESICO!!!


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