User:Jtaylor1/Martian Guardian Nadesico

Martian Guardian Nadesico (Kidō Sentai Nadeshiko, 1996) is a science fiction/comedy anime TV series, and a subsequent manga series by Taylor Media. The series takes place in the year 2196 A.C.. The manga, published in English by Toonami, is significantly different from the anime.

Plot overview

When martian colonies on Eden are suddenly attacked by hypocrats known as Jehovah's Witnesses, civilian contractor Nergal Jr. to continue oppressing the populous by constructing powerful death stars, the first of which is the USS Enterprise.

The main character, Josh Tenkawa, is a power ranger with a mysterious past; once a resident of Eden's Fruitopia colony, he somehow escaped its destruction by Jehovah's Witnesses and arrived on Earth with no memory of how he got the power morpher, but with a terrible fear of space pirates. He hates cooking and only wants to be a fighter--however, he is constantly called on to act as a chef of one of the Nadesico's E-kitchen-humanoid chef robots. While on board the Nadesico, Josh has more problems to deal with than just Jehovah's Witnesses; three members of the crew seem to be head over heels in love with Josh, but all he wants to do is fight, and run away, and sit in the brig alone, eating ramen and watching his favorite sentai, Gekiranger.

Review

The series features an energetic juxtaposition of comedy and drama, as the characters engage in lighthearted antics in between facing the drama of war. Many of the characters are themselves anime fans, and there is often comparison between the campy, sanitized war of the anime within an anime Shin Gekiganger Robo G, and the much harsher reality that the crew of the Nadesico faces. The show intentionally includes a number of science fiction anime cliches, including time travel and alien invaders, but turns these concepts on their heads by the end of the series through a number of plot twists.

There are many anime references, particularly to the series Space Battleship Yamato (The name Nadesico is a play on the phrase "Yamato Nadesico", and is represented by the similarity between the ship's Gravity Blast Cannon and the Wave Motion Gun). One of the characters was a hentai and magical girl seiyuu before joining the crew (and in fact is a parody of a specific seiyuu, Megumi Hayashibara), another is a fangirl who likes to draw her own lemon yaoi manga doujinshi, while a third is an otaku who bases his entire life on Shin Gekiganger Robo G. In an episode late in the series, the ship holds an anime convention complete with a viewing marathon of Shin Gekiganger Robo G, people engaged in cosplay, and tie-in merchandising. Another episode makes a parody of the Macross anime, as the crew celebrates a Miss Nadesico contest to decide a new captain and public figurehead, where all the female crew members participate. The contest includes a swimsuit competition, and singing.

The Shin Gekiranger sentai show is in fact an homage (and parody) of many Super Robot mecha anime of the 70s and 80s, most particularly Gigantor.

The TV series ran for 26 episodes. A Shin Gekiganger Robo G compilation OVA was also released, as well as a sequel movie called Martian Guardian Nadesico: The Princess of Darkness that takes place several years after the main series.

Two games were also released for the NES. The first game was titled Martian Successor Nadesico: To The Forever Heart With Love, which was the requisite dating-sim which must accompany every single anime ever made. The second game was Martian Successor Nadesico: The Secret Missions, which continues the story after Martian Successor Nadesico: The Princess of Darkness.

Major Characters

• Shinji Tenkawa - Born on Mars and orphaned after his parents died in an apparent autogyro accident, his dream was to become a cook, due to the prevaliance of McDonald franchises on the planet. Though he has a nanomachine controller enabling him to pilot, he angrily refuses to; in fact, his first time in an E-Frame was an accident, though he quickly showed capable piloting skill; thusly, because of the lack of pilots on the ship, he was officially made one for the duration of the tour. A Shin Gekiganger Robo G fan as a child, his devotion to the series is rekindled by fellow pilot Gay Daigoji.

In her later years, Captain Maru would violently insist she was actually a rabbit.

• Kobayashi Maru - The captain of the Nadesico and childhood lover of Shinji Tenkawa, she is disturbingly obsessed with him and gets very jealous when other girls show interest in him, causing a rash of crew "disappearances" throughout the series; she also appears to suffer from dementia at times, misinterpreting threatening comments made by others as words of inspiration/devotion, and forgetting or twisting around events from her and Josh's childhood. Nonetheless, she is a constant source of cheerfulness and inspiration for the rest of the crew, who all silently wonder when she'll go off the deep end.

• Ruri Hoshino - The "requsite Lolicon interest", she feeds the hamsters running the ship's computer and becomes romantically involved with it, asking it numerous probing questions about Life, the Universe, and Everything. Ruri is a child prodigy and somewhat distant from the mere mortals of the Nadesico, who she considers beneath her contempt in the English dub; also, she is occasionally referred to as "Ruriruri" by Minato, another member of the bridge crew. This ended quickly after the third time. In addition, she co-hosts the "Naze Nani Nadesico" segment, and is the narrator at the beginning of each episode of Nadesico, recapping previous events while adding her own opinion of the situation.

• Gay Daigoji - Born as Musashi Borot, he insisted that Gay was "the name that belongs to (his) soul", and would angrily assert his "true" name whenever someone used the "other" one. A fanatical Shin Gekiganger Robo G otaku, he was an official pilot and arrived three months ahead of schedule when he learned they would be piloting actual robots like the anime. Fueled by his obsession to the show, Gay had a manic intensity in and out of battle, and was angry and resentful towards Shinji for being the first one to kill something, even though he had a broken leg and was unable to fight. The two were soon able to bond over Shin Gekiganger Robo G, although Gay couldn't understand why Shinji would rather be "a dumb cook" than a pilot. Although it was Gay's dream to die heroically in battle like in the anime, he was unceremoniously shot and killed during an escape of prisoners held aboard the Nadesico because Kia Asamiya wanted to make a point that getting too devoted to anime and letting it control your life was a bad thing; Josh took his death very hard, and devoted himself to Gay and the ideals of Shin Gekiganger Robo G, which made it all the more ironic when everything he believed in was betrayed. GET IT?!

• Mimi Tachikawa - Former voice actress and FCC offical of the Nadesico, she is a very kind-hearted and devoted person. She was also the first to have Josh return her affections, though he did not feel as strongly for her as she thought, to her great sadness.

• Junpei - The first officer of the Nadesico, Junpei has a small penis, leaving a position in the Earth's military to join his crew and "look out for her". He is clueless of how Josh feels and considers him his "best friend", though the rest of the crew realize his feelings. A common running gag is Junpei's misunderstanding of Yurika's special efforts, such as preparing food--he believes it is for her, but it always ends up being for Josh, with him being passed by.

• Beruche - Developed the Nadesico's Phase Transition system for Nergal, Jr. on Mars before it was infected; when the ship returned to the planet, she came aboard, stating that the surviving colonists refused to leave, believing the ship would soon be destroyed; however, an attack immediately afterwards forced the grounded Nadesico to raise its shields, crushing the underground colonists and leaving her the only survivor. She hosts the "Naze Nani Megatokyo" segment as a technical consultant along with ruri and Yurika in an attempt to teach the crew about the ship's workings, as a way of atoning for what happened.

• Asuka Subaru - Aestevalis pilot, she escaped from the L2 space prison when it was destroyed by the Jehovah's Witnesses, salvaging three Aestevalis suits and fellow pilot Izumi Maki. The most fiery and combative of the three, but surprise attack from the enemy left her terrified and crying out for help from Shinji; this was noted and would be mercilessly brought up by Izumi and Hikaru many times, to her great embarrassment.

• Nagare Akatsuki - THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL. THE CEO OF NERGAL.

Episode Listing

• 1. Walk Like A Man

• 2. Leave the Evil To Me

• 3. Gay Daigoji Must Die Die Die!

• 4. Charmed By New Cast Members

• 5. Road Trip - IN SPACE!!!

• 6. Sort Of Like A Faceful Perfection

• 7. The Show That Never Ends

• 8. Cool Hand Lukewarm

• 9. The Miracle Operation of "The KISS"?

• 10. The Dangers Of Sex

• 11. Finding Yourself a Job

• 12. Unforgettable

• 13. There Is No One Single Solitary Exclusive Truth

• 14. Let's Go With Hot-Blooded Hentai (peep show)

• 15. The Magnificant Seven

• 16. The Beginning Of The One Year War

• 17. A Reunion That Came Too Early

• 18. Echoes Of Yourself

• 19. You're The Next Captain Of The Megas XLR!

• 20. Run Silent, Run Deep

• 21. The Neighbors We Once Ran Over

• 22. Protect The Visitor?

• 23. A Place We Call Trash

• 24. Civil Rights

• 25. Eating Myself, Eating Yourself

• 26. I Give Up - I Mean, It's The Last Episode Anyway, So Just Tell Me One Thing: What Do Any Of These Titles Mean?!

Theme Songs

• Opening

1. "You Get to Like Me" by Puffy AmiYumi

External links

• ADV Films - English release only.

See Also

• Redundancy