Martian Successor Nadesico: The Complete Chronicles

Martian Successor Nadesico: The Complete Chronicles

DVD
Episodes:  26 
Approx:  650 min.
ADV Films

On the planet Mars we find a young man, Akito, who is talking with a young girl, when Mars is suddenly attacked by robots sent by aliens called the Jovians!  The building that Akito and other civilians are in is being attacked by the robots and comes crashing down, while he tries to defend everyone.  As the robots surround him and he starts to scream in terror, the pendant around his neck glows and bright light engulfs the entire screen.  After a year has passed, we find out that Mars and the Moon have been taken over by the Jovians. 

 

On Earth, Nergal, an independent arms manufacturing company, recruits an unorthodox crew to pilot their newly designed ship named Nadesico. The Nadesico is the most powerful ship capable of space flight ever built, equipped with gravity cannons and phase transition engines.  Their mission includes looking for survivors on Mars and defending the Earth from the Jovians. We find Akito still alive and cooking at a small restaurant.  Anytime there is a battle near, he tends to freak out causing him to loose his job.  He then rides away on a bicycle.   Yurika, the newly appointed captain, being late to arrive to the Nadesico, hurryingly packs her suitcases in the trunk of her car.  On her way, the trunk popped open and her baggage fell out nailing Akito!   She stops to help him up and asks if they had ever met before, but he says no.  As she left, he finds a picture on the ground of both of them as young children!  Akito remembers who she was and has to know if it really is the Yurika he once knew as a child. He then follows her to the ship.  He is captured by security and after an interrogation, they make him a cook.

 

The Jovian robots attack the Nadesico while trying to launch from the docks. As they are attacking, Akito steals an aestivalis (mobile suit) to escape, but accidentally volunteers to be a decoy instead.  While defending himself from the robots, he realizes that he is actually having fun.  Doing a great job piloting the aestivalis, they appoint him to be a backup for the real pilots (which they have to retrieve from a space colony).  Akito accepts his new job, also continuing to be a part time cook for the crew.  Now able to get their mission under way, the Nadesico heads towards Mars. 

 

As you put the DVD’s in, you first see the previews which include anime from various genres, and even a couple for American shows.  When the title menu comes up, you have the choice to either: choose an episode to play, scene selection, select language, and view extras.  The extras included with the DVD’s are as follows: ADV Films Previews (included on all 6 discs at startup), Character Biographies (on discs 1 through 4), Textless Open & Close (on discs 1 through 4), and Nadesico Trailer (on discs 1 through 4).
Sound:  9

 

            Nadesico sounds nice, and is stated on the back of the box to be in Dolby Digital.  The music sounds great, and has plenty to compliment the scenes.  Also they left the music in Japanese as well as some of the songs that the characters sing (yes there was a little bit of singing).

 

The English voice actors did a great job and put a lot of feeling into their characters, although a few of the voices didn’t seem to fit at times.  The Japanese voice actors seemed to portray their characters in a more serious tone.  At times, some of the side characters seemed to be a little bland with their lines in both versions.  The English and Japanese voice actors put a lot of emotion into their characters, making it enjoyable to watch either way.    

 

Subtitles:  7

 

The DVD only provided subtitles in English for the Japanese version.  In the Extras menu were translation notes, written by Dan Kanemitsu, with explanations for some of the script editing.  There were obvious differences between the English and Japanese versions:  seasonal references; restructured sentences (to make it easier for people to understand); jokes (as stated in the translation notes).  They used yellow subtitles for the foreground voices, and white for the background voices.

 

Video:  8

 

            The animation was pretty good, except for the small amount of jittering.  The coloring had a lot of variety in it, working well to the backgrounds and characters while still easy on your eyes.  Nadesico used couple different styles to portray different aspects of the story.  Overlays were used to make some of the signs and computer screens readable for the English viewers.

 

Overall:  8.5

 

            Martian Successor Nadesico has a nice mix of comedy, action and romance.  The characters are introduced quite early on.  Most of the back story and development for the side characters are revealed in the middle of the series, while showing some here and there for the main characters.  There were a few references to other anime as the story progressed.  Nadesico also had some suggestive humor and a little bit of profanity, yet nothing over the top.  The back of the DVD box stated a suggested rating of 12 years and up.

Written by: Blue Ghost