Introduction
When talking about mecha anime, it’s hard to overstate its popularity and impact in Japan. The late 70s and early 80s gave birth to several influential mecha series that fundamentally shaped not only the genre but anime as a whole during that time. Even in the West, series like Code Geass, Voltron, and Neon Genesis Evangelion have become cultural mainstays in many anime communities, remaining popular among fan artists, general anime discussions, and cosplayers to this day. While it might be fun to dive into a deep discussion about my opinions on some of these more well-known series, I instead want to shine a light on a slightly more underrated series from the late 90s. Today, I’m going to talk about a particular series I watched a few years ago that I’ve come to deeply appreciate: a quirky, authentic, and unique hidden gem known as Martian Successor Nadesico!
Martian Successor Nadesico was actually one of those series I discovered through Super Robot Wars. Specifically, I discovered it through Super Robot Wars W, as around the time I started playing that game, a fan translation had recently been released. Very early on in my playthrough, the Nadesico crew showed up, and compared to a lot of the units I had been using from other anime series, the Nadesico characters were much more vibrant and quirky. I found them pretty funny, I liked their designs, and they stood out even against the general silliness of the SRW series.
Eventually, I decided, “Okay fine, let me take a break from this game and see what Nadesico is all about,” and proceeded to watch the entirety of Martian Successor Nadesico as well as its movie. It quickly became one of my favorite anime series, and I’ve wanted to talk about it for a while. I made an older blog post about my thoughts on the series, but as I mentioned in my last post, it was so bad that I deleted it—I hated it a lot. As such, this write-up aims to bring the series and my thoughts on it more justice! So sit back, relax, and prepare to Boson Jump into this blog post where I geek out and gush about one of my personal favorite anime series!
I never did end up finishing SRW W though…😔
History
Martian Successor Nadesico (also known as Mobile Battleship Nadesico, 機動戦艦ナデシコ, Kidō Senkan Nadeshiko) is a mecha space-opera comedy series produced by TV Tokyo, Yomiko Advertising, and Xebec. The series was directed by Tatsuo Satō, with manga artist Kia Asamiya providing the original character designs. Keiji Gotō served as the chief animation director, while our good friend, Mika Akitaka, contributed as the main mechanical designer. Takayuki Hattori composed the series’ music, and Shō Aikawa handled the overall writing. Martian Successor Nadesico was initially released on October 1, 1996, and concluded with a total of 26 episodes on March 24, 1997, after which its time slot was given to an underground and little-known series called Pokémon.
Martian Successor Nadesico parodies, deconstructs, and pays homage to many tropes, set pieces, and concepts from classic robot anime, including both Super Robot and Real Robot series. I’ll discuss this more later, as it’s a significant part of the anime’s plot, but the series wears its love for the mecha and space opera genres on its sleeve. This is evident even from the name of the series itself, with the Japanese title Mobile Battleship Nadeshiko being a play on both Mobile Suit Gundam and Space Battleship Yamato. The names of the two ships combine to form the term “Yamato Nadeshiko” (大和撫子), a Japanese term that describes the ideal Japanese woman.
This name choice is particularly interesting to me, as much of the lead cast of Nadesico is comprised of women, and the show overall has a softer and more feminine feel compared to other mecha series. In fact, the ship's name, Nadesico, as well as many other mechs in the series were specifically chosen to give off a softer edge, as their names are pulled from various types of flowers. “Nadeshiko” in particular refers to the Japanese name of the Dianthus barbatus, which is commonly known as the "sweet William" flower in English.
Prior to becoming an anime director, Satō originally went to school to study law. However, he was always drawn to filmmaking and made short films on the side, focusing specifically on visual arts. In a 2012 interview with Anime Expo, he mentioned that the short film Powers of Ten significantly influenced his interest in visual art, as he viewed visual details as almost more important than storytelling. He was also invested in anime, as he grew up watching Mazinger Z and Getter Robo, but he didn’t actively pursue animation. Satō wanted to get into the film industry, but he eventually decided to go for animation, finding it easier to break into with the help of a senior colleague already in the field, and he began his career as an animator at Ajia-do Animation Works Inc.
Image taken from Power of Ten
Interestingly, before Nadesico, Satō was not very confident in his ability to direct a sci-fi story, as he wasn’t cognizant of a lot of hard-core science fiction topics. Apparently, this was pretty common for many mecha and sci-fi anime writers in the industry as well, which eased Satō’s nerves. And while working on Nadesico, he essentially did research on many sci-fi topics and learned as he went. Additionally, the team had a science fiction supervisor who worked on the show, who Satō affectionately describes as “The Brain.” He had many associates who were all well-versed in science fiction concepts, so they also made a lot of suggestions.
Before Nadesico, Satō directed the anime series Soar High! Isami. The series was about a fifth grader named Isami Hanaoka who happens to be a descendant of the Shinsengumi. Together with fellow descendants and classmates, they go on a series of wacky adventures. Like Nadesico, this was a more light-hearted series that featured a lot of action, comedy, and romance elements. In Isami, you can see a lot of the groundwork and set pieces that would later be seen in Nadesico.
Images taken from Soar High! Isami
Even after Nadesico, a lot of the future series directed by Satō would follow similar beats whether they be comedy-focused, romance-focused, or in the space opera or mecha genres. These can be seen in series such as Stellvia, Bodacious Space Pirates, and Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne.
When Nadesico was released in the US, it went through several releases. First, ADV Films announced they had licensed Martian Successor Nadesico in May 1998 at Project A-Kon 9, and released the series on 12 VHS tapes. Then, when the industry shifted to DVDs, the show made its way to audiences via six DVD releases which were labeled the Essential Anime Collection Series. Then, in 2002, ADV released a comprehensive box set containing all the DVDs, aptly called "Martian Successor Nadesico: Complete Chronicles," which was remastered, with better audio quality and picture. This version also came with some extra content, like translation notes and character bios. Even later, on January 1, 2008, a collection of all the episodes was released once again under the name "Martian Successor Nadesico: Perfect Collection," which also came with bonus content including voice actor interviews and character artwork.
In 2011 at Anime Expo, Nozomi Entertainment stepped in, relicensing the series after ADV's closure in 2009. They re-released the series along with the movie and the Gekiganger 3 OVA, in 2012. This version was once again remastered, with a few scenes reanimated and as such, the English dub may desync in some moments. This version also featured interviews with VAs, an extra documentary called "Welcome to Belle Equipe,” and a "Nadesico Sorekara" special. Lastly, in 2017, Anime Limited acquired the series, once again, for release on Blu-ray.
Let’s Watch the Show
Before starting with the show, I wanted to briefly talk about the OP, You Get To Burning. It was the debut single of Yumi Matsuzawa, a Japanese singer from Fujimi, Saitama. Her discography spanned from the late ‘90s through 2012, and she released various other singles that were used as OPs for other series, such as Saint Seiya: Hades - Chapter Sanctuary and Gate Keepers. She was also part of a judging panel at the Animax Anison Grand Prix, with fellow prominent anime singers such as the late Ichirou Mizuki and Mitsuko Horie.
The original release of You Get to Burning was very well received to the point where it reached #9 on the weekly Oricon chart. Not only that, but it stayed on the chart for a total of six weeks, selling 109,100 copies. It was popular for good reason too, this song is a certified banger. It’s legitimately one of my all-time favorite anime OPs, only slightly being beaten out by We Are! and the Pokémon Theme.
Anyways, the story takes place in the year 2196, three years before the events of Space Battleship Yamato. Earth is at war with a race of alien invaders from Jupiter known as the Jovian Lizards. The Earth’s military has proven so ineffective at combating these attacks that a secret civilian-based organization, Nergal Heavy Industries, takes matters into its own hands. They design a space battleship, the ND-001 Nadesico, and recruit top civilian experts in various fields—ranging from pilots to engineers to communications officers—to serve as the ship’s crew. While many members of the crew are highly skilled professionals, they are also notable oddballs, each quirky in their own unique way.
Fun fact, the ships' layout was designed to resemble early concepts of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek.
The story follows Akito Tenkawa (JPN: Yūji Ueda | ENG: Spike Spencer), a somewhat introverted young guy who was once a resident of the Martian Utopian colony. After the colony was attacked by the Jovians, he inexplicably found himself on Earth with no memory of how he escaped. The only thing he recalls is being the sole survivor of the attack, leaving him deeply traumatized.
About a year later, Akito is working as a fry cook with aspirations of becoming a chef. During one of his shifts, explosions outside trigger a post-traumatic meltdown. This, combined with the fact that Akito bears a brand on his arm signifying he had been implanted with cybernetics like many Martians—which leads people to mistake him for a deserting soldier—causes him to lose his job.
Things take a turn when he briefly encounters Yurika Misumaru—or Yurica as it’s sometimes romanized as—a super energetic and ditzy young girl who Akito later learns is the captain of the Nadesico. After she leaves, Akito recognizes that they were childhood friends back on Mars, and she had left for Earth around the same time his parents died.
(JPN: Hōko Kuwashima | ENG: Jennifer K. Earhart)
Determined to reconnect with her for answers, he chases after her, and through a series of unfortunate events, ends up aboard the Nadesico. Initially forced to join the crew as their cook, Akito is later additionally made to pilot and fight using the Nadesico’s fighter mechs, the Aestivalis—which gets its name from the adonis aestivalis genus of flower, also known as the summer pheasant's-eye. Many people often speculate that Akito’s shift from cook to pilot reflects director Satō’s own career shift from law to animation.
During this time, he reunites with Yurika, who ends up remembering him, and quickly falls madly in love with him, much to his dismay. Aside from Yurika, he meets a lot of the other crew members, like the jaded but intelligent child prodigy, Ruri Hoshino (JPN: Omi Minami | ENG: Kira Vincent-Davis). She’s characterized by her deadpan and more serious nature, as well as her signature catchphrase "Baka Bakka" (TL: “Nothing but idiots”). Ruri is actually a fan-favorite character and is almost seen as the series’ unofficial mascot. She stars as the main protagonist of the series’ sequel movie and does all the opening narrations at the start of each episode.
Fun fact, Dan Kanemitsu, the English translator for Martian Successor Nadesico, notes that Ruri's phrase of "baka bakka" was one of the hardest lines in the show to translate from its original Japanese form. Since there’s no real way to retain the wordplay in English.
There’s also Gai Daigoji, also known as Jiro Yamada, the best character in this show (JPN: Tomokazu Seki | ENG: Brett Weaver). He’s an anime otaku who fulfills his dream of becoming an anime protagonist by joining the Nadesico as a pilot, much like the protagonist of his favorite series, Gekiganger 3. He’s very loud, passionate, and always vocal about the way a hero should fight.
There’s a point in the series where his name is seen written in English, and it’s hilariously romanized as “Gay.”
There’s also the sleazy engineer, Seiya Uribatake (JPN: Nobuo Tobita | ENG: John Swasey), a douchebag who has a penchant for inventing, building plastic models, and embezzling money from the war funds, I love this guy. This dude quite literally joined the crew for the sole purpose of getting away from his wife and kid.
Then there’s Minato Haruka (JPN: Maya Okamoto | ENG: Kelly Manison) who works as the ship’s secretary, navigator, and helmswoman. While she might come off as a shallow flirt at first, but beneath that surface she’s actually a very kind and compassionate person who’s always looking out for others and always looking for ways to brighten people’s day. For example, during the series, she starts to give Ruri the cutesy nickname “Ruriruri” in an attempt to help her feel included.
And lastly, there’s Megumi Reinard (JPN: Naoko Takano | ENG: Jenny Strader), who also has character traits. She’s a former seiyū who worked for anime and animated commercials before she was recruited by Nergal to be the communications officer. She is actually named after the renowned seiyū Megumi Hayashibara, who’s famous for voicing numerous iconic characters. She was even the voice of Popful Mail.
At first, the crew’s personalities grate against one another, especially Akito and Gai, as Gai develops a one-sided rivalry with Akito after Akito steals his thunder in the first battle. However, over time, Gai discovers that Akito is also a fan of Gekiganger, and the two start to form somewhat of a bromance with one another, and it’s honestly really cute. At first, they only really bond over their shared love for the series, but over time, their respective characteristics show to complement each other very well. Gai’s overwhelming bravado helps Akito feel more confident in himself, and Akito helps Gai in the sense that he’s someone he can relate to and mentor about battle strategies. This is one of my favorite dynamics in the show, and I really enjoy watching these two together.
After certain events, Akito starts to feel increasingly dejected by the war. His shared lack of interest in fighting garners the attention of Megumi, and the two begin to form a bond. This bond eventually blossoms into a relationship, much to Yurika’s chagrin. This effectively starts a love triangle subplot between the girls, which will eventually become a love quadrilateral as a few other pilots join the Nadesico.
These pilots include the beloved tomboyish girl, Ryoko Subaru (JPN: Chisa Yokoyama | ENG: Tiffany Grant). She’s the daughter of a scramjet fighter pilot and initially carries herself with a very stern demeanor. However, over time, her character develops a bit more, revealing her softer side and insecurities about her perceived lack of talent in anything unrelated to piloting.
Then there’s the glasses-wearing dweeb, Hikaru Amano (JPN: Shiho Kikuchi | ENG: Cynthia Martinez). Like Gai, she’s a big otaku and a fan of Gekiganger 3. She is also a self-proclaimed mangaka who enjoys drawing Boys’ Love doujinshi featuring the Gekiganger characters. She’s very bubbly and hyper, loves talking about herself, and is primarily used for comic relief alongside her fellow pilot, Izumi Maki.
Izumi (JPN: Miki Nagasawa | ENG: Tamara Lo), despite what her appearance might suggest, is just as eccentric as Hikaru—maybe even more so. She’s a serial punster who enjoys making various puns, jokes, and innuendos, although they’re not particularly funny and they barely translate well. She is highly overdramatic, prone to theatrics, and a fan of playing the ukulele—though she’s terrible at it. But hey, at least she’s not making YouTube apologies with it.
From left to right: Sega Logo, Izumi, Hikaru, Ryoko, and Nadesico Logo.
Anyways, with the new pilots in tow, the series progresses as the events of the war begin to escalate. Crew members argue, go on missions, battle the Jovians, and so on. One of the biggest turning points in the series, however, is when Akito and the crew start to learn more about the Jovian Lizards. Up until this point, both the audience and the crew were led to believe that the Jovian Lizards were essentially mustache-twirling reptilian aliens from another planet, bent on conquering the world—similar to the alien races seen in many classic mecha anime like Getter Robo, Combattler V, or even Neon Genesis Evangelion.
However, this illusion begins to crumble when Megumi and Minato are taken to Jovian territory and discover that the Jovians are actually humans who had been castigated from the Moon and later from Mars for harboring political ideologies that clashed with Earth’s government. On Jupiter, they developed their own technologies and machinery, which they eventually used for warfare against Earth in an act of vengeance, not unlike the Zeon seen in Mobile Suit Gundam. This event was largely covered up by the Earth’s government, with the Jovians being labeled as “aliens” to keep Earth’s citizens in the dark.
Amongst the Jovians, we meet Tsukumo Shiratori, a mild-mannered and chivalrous man who, like Gai, is a big fan of Gekiganger. In fact, all of the Jovians are fans of Gekiganger, basing much of their culture, ideologies, and even the designs of their mechs on the ones seen in the show.
This is actually where I want to take a break and nerd out a bit about Gekiganger and how much I love its implementation in the show. Previously, I mentioned that Satō worked on a show called Soar High! Isami, and in that show, they featured a fictional anime within that series that many characters are fans of. This idea was reused in Nadesico, as Gekiganger fills that role of an anime within an anime—in the form of a spoof of classic '70s and '80s mecha anime.
The name Gekiganger comes from "Gekiga," a manga art style adopted in the '70s characterized by sharp angles, hatching, and gritty lines, and which featured more realism, social engagement, and maturity in response to the assumption that anime and manga were "just for kids." The "-ganger" part likely comes from Astroganger, a 1972 Super Robot anime similar to Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28-go. Astroganger is notable for being the first Super Robot series to debut in color, airing before even Mazinger Z.
Through the small scenes of Gekiganger within Nadesico, you can see how much the artists and writers did their homework. These scenes feature notably thick, charcoal-like outlines and colors resembling anime from the '70s. It’s so accurate that it’s hard to believe they were drawn in the '90s. They even replicated the two-frame explosions of these classic shows and used the same sound effects.
They even got Isao Sasaki, the renowned vocalist behind the openings/endings of Getter Robo, Grendizer, and Danguard Ace, to sing the Gekiganger V opening. Gekiganger V, being the sequel to Gekiganger 3, similar to how Great Mazinger is a sequel to Mazinger Z. While I love Sasaki’s singing, I prefer the original Gekiganger 3 theme, Let’s Go Gekiganger. Like You Get to Burning, Let’s Go Gekiganger is also a certified banger that I listen to frequently.
The design of the three pilots from Gekiganger very much resembles the ones seen in Getter Robo, with the lead character Tenku Ken’s name being a reference to Voltes V's Heaven Sword (which is also called Tenku Ken). The material that Gekiganger is made of, Gekigan Super Alloy, is a reference to Mazinger’s Super Alloy Z. Additionally, the various attacks used by Gekiganger reference several attacks used by other Super Robots like Mazinger, Getter Robo, and Voltes V. Within the clips shown throughout the series, Gekiganger 3 also pays heavy homage and tribute to a lot of the iconic scenes seen in these classic shows and it’s just… chef’s kiss.
Within Nadesico, Gekiganger is initially played mostly for laughs, but when the crew formally meets the Jovians, the fictional anime takes on a much more significant role. Once the Nadesico crew discovers that the Jovians are actually humans, many of them lose their will to fight. Some want to leave the crew, while others begin to question whether they might be the bad guys. After a while, some of the crew bond with Tsukumo over Gekiganger, and after Tsukumo realizes that not all Earthlings are bad, he joins Akito and several of the Nadesico pilots in an attempt to negotiate a treaty with the Jovian higher-ups.
Unfortunately, the Jovian leadership—led by a man suspiciously resembling Gihren Zabi—doesn’t want to sign a treaty, and only wants Earth's complete surrender. Believing that Tsukumo has been brainwashed by the Earthlings, the Jovians assassinate him and disguise his death as that of a martyr slain by the "evil Earthlings," using it as propaganda to further fuel the war.
Something I really like about this moment is how the Jovians justify their actions. They believe there is only one absolute path to justice: completely crushing their opposition by any means necessary. They claim this ideology reflects the message of Gekiganger. Meanwhile, Akito is deeply torn, as his own upbringing and circumstances have led him to interpret Gekiganger differently, focusing on themes like the power of friendship and cooperation. This serves as a fascinating think-piece about how people interpret media differently based on their perspectives and how those interpretations can profoundly influence their actions and beliefs.
Similarly, the show also explores how media affects us more subtly. Beyond the outward appreciation characters like Gai represent, there are deeper implications. After many of the crew members return to Earth, having lost their will to fight the Jovians, Megumi, in particular, becomes uncomfortable realizing that many of the anime and shows she voices could be seen as subliminally derogatory toward the Jovians, who she now knows are just humans. It’s a really good series to look at to observe how fiction can affect reality, and how our beliefs, confirmation biases, and experiences can warp the way we let that fiction affect us.
While Gekiganger and Nadesico are meant to parody Super and Real Robot anime of old, it feels a lot more authentic and sincere about its parodies than anything that would come out today. Like, I feel that nowadays, it's rare to find series that actually love the media they set out to parody and don't feel overly mean-spirited or condescending. While Nadesico pokes fun at these tropes, it also has an interesting deeper message about them. Within the late 80s and 90s, there was somewhat of a cultural shift when it came to the production of these anime. Around this time, more and more anime that were being released were being made by people who directly grew up with the anime of the previous era, like Satō, and this was when otaku culture was first starting to really bloom.
At this point, a lot of these tropes were more established and audiences were becoming more aware of these plot points and twists. In this era, with the concept of paying homage to these older anime in mind, many series either parody these tropes and series and avoid taking themselves too seriously, or they craft a deconstructive narrative that aims to break down these pieces of art and its influences. Nadesico on the other hand aims to do both and manages to do so very well in the way of providing an energetic juxtaposition between light-hearted self-referential comedy and a devastating war drama that aims to analyze and deconstruct.
One episode might be a silly romp where the girls on the ship are fighting one another for Akito’s affection, while the previous episode dealt with the crew coping with a failed mission that resulted in the untimely deaths of thousands. The series has its share of serious moments, but it also includes plenty of light-hearted episodes. These lighter moments serve as effective character-building opportunities, revealing more about each character’s personal troubles, flaws, and home lives beneath the layers of quirky anime humor.
One of my favorite episodes is the talent show episode, where Yurika organizes a contest among the crew to decide who will temporarily take over as captain. Beyond the idol-themed aspect being a clear Macross reference, the episode provides excellent character development for Ryoko. Through this episode, we learn about her backstory and inner conflicts, giving more depth to her character.
While I’m not particularly invested in the romantic aspects of the show, Ryoko x Akito is my personal favorite ship. Ryoko has an obvious crush on Akito, but she’s too scared to really show or admit it. Additionally, it’s always really cute to see her get all red and flustered when Hikaru and Izumi tease her for it. Akito does a great job of melting Ryoko’s cold exterior, and I just personally find it moé as fuck for the normally tough and brash tsundere tomboy character to get all mushy and stumble over her words over a guy she likes.
Fun fact, Ryoko’s seiyū also voices Sakura Shinguji from the Sakura Taisen series
Another episode I really liked was the one where the Nadesico’s supercomputer, Omoikane, starts to malfunction. While most of the crew want to reboot the system, Ruri, who is attached to the system, is against this, as she’s worried that Omoikane's personality and memories will be rebooted as well. She asks Akito’s help to go into the system and get to the bottom of what’s wrong. While in the system, Akito is drawn in a cutesy chibi-style while a mini Ruri sits on his shoulder guiding him, it’s pretty cute.
In this system, Omoikane’s defense system is represented as Gekiganger, as the talk of the series around the ship resulted in the computer interpreting that as the vanguard of justice to protect its system. And at the end of the episode, it was Akito’s love and passion for Gekiganger, which resulted in him stopping the defense system and saving the computer. The episode is overall a lot sweeter than one would expect—Ruri rarely shows her emotions, so seeing her show so much concern for the ship’s supercomputer, whom she sees as a friend is heartwarming.
I won’t get a chance to mention this later, but Ruri’s quieter and coodere tendencies often lead people to compare her to Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Also, a fun fact, her seiyū, Omi Minami, is married to Yūji Ueda, Akito’s seiyū.
However, my absolute favorite episode is Episode 14, Let’s Go with Hot-Blooded Anime, the recap episode. This episode takes place in the world of Gekiganger, where the characters from Gekiganger are watching an episode of Martian Successor Nadesico to learn more about the Nadesico universe. It’s so silly and nonsensical, but it’s also one of the most creative ways I’ve seen a series handle a recap episode.
However, some of my criticisms pertain to the romance element of the show, which I felt was a bit rushed and an overall mess. I thought Yurika and Akito had some pretty funny moments, and Ryoko’s moments were adorable, but I felt that a lot of the girls fell in love with Akito way too fast. I had moments when I was scratching my head wondering what these girls even saw in Akito, considering how few interactions they had with him at that point. I’d probably say the most egregious case is with Megumi who falls in love with Akito as quickly as she eventually falls out of love with him. I’m not a big fan of romance series to begin with, so my opinions may be a little biased, but from other people, this doesn’t really seem like much of a hot take.
Speaking of things that aren’t hot takes, I was also very dissatisfied with the ending. It felt very rushed, anti-climatic, and didn’t feel like it provided any closure. Like, I really love the series overall, but if someone told me they hated the series because of the ending alone, I would fully understand. It felt like they wanted to have a similar ending to Mobile Suit Gundam 0079, but couldn’t fully commit to it. There’s a line in the last episode where Akito is talking about the last episode of Gekiganger, talking about how it was the worst episode in the series, and I’m just like “Bro, this is exactly how I feel about this series.”
That said though, some of my issues with the ending are kind of addressed in the sequel series. Well, kind of… I’ll explain a bit more in the next section. Believe it or not, things get a bit more messy when we get into the topic of sequels, additional media, and supplemental material.
Additional Media
This series has gotten a lot of additional media, if I were to cover it all, I'd be here until 2196. So instead, I'll go over some of the most notable ones, starting with the movie. Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture – Prince of Darkness was the movie sequel that takes place three years after the events of the original series. As I mentioned before, the movie follows Ruri as the main protagonist who is now the captain of the new NS-955B Nadesico B. The story takes place with the Earth Federation and the Jovians in a bit of a Cold War-esque state. At this time, Akito and Yurika have both vanished and are presumed dead. Additionally, an organization called the "Martian Successors," a splinter group of the original Jovians, plans to continue the war and take revenge on the Earth and Nergal.
While the movie is fine in a vacuum, the overall tone and themes are a lot darker, more serious, and less comedic than the original series to the point where if the cast was different, you wouldn’t be able to tell this was from the same franchise. Because of this, the confusing plot points, and the similarly rushed ending, the movie was seen a lot less favorably than the original series.
I heard rumors that allegedly this was supposed to be a movie trilogy, but because of certain issues, movies 2 and 3 were never released.
Additionally, there was also the Gekiganger 3 OVA series. The first half of this OVA is just a compilation of the Gekiganger clips that appear throughout the Nadesico anime series. The second half was a short animated movie that pays homage to the Go Nagai crossover movies that aired back in the day, such as UFO Robot Grendizer vs. Great Mazinger, Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo, and Great Mazinger vs. Getter Robo G: Kuchu Daigekitotsu.
The robot on the left is a reference to the Texas Mack that appears in the anime version of Getter Robo G
Additionally, there were plans to make a sequel series, or a season 2, to the original Nadesico anime at one point. However, in 2005, Sato revealed, on his blog, stating that plans for Nadesico 2, as well as Stelvia 2, were cancelled. He stated that production for these two series was now impossible, but didn’t elaborate further on what he meant by “impossible.”
Moving away from animation, there was also a manga series that was loosely based on the anime series. The manga was written by Kia Asamiya and published by Kadokawa Shoten for the magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace. The manga is described as having a completely different storyline and written with a more mature audience in mind. Unfortunately, only the first two chapters have been translated into English. The translation was done by a group called Koten Gars Manga.
There were also a few video games created based on the series, with the first one being Martian Successor Nadesico ~ In the End, 'Love Wins' After All, releasing for the Sega Saturn back in 1997. This was a dating sim where you played as Akito and built relations with the female cast members aboard the Nadesico. The wiki describes this game as having some “light mecha elements,” but I wasn’t sure what the hell that meant in the context of gameplay. So after three extensive minutes of hard research, and watching some gameplay footage, my questions remain unanswered.
In 1998, Japan got Martian Successor Nadesico: The Blank of Three Years, also for the Sega Saturn. For those who aren’t aware, in Japan, the Sega Saturn was an extremely popular console for a lot of these anime tie-in games and visual novels. Anyways, this game came out a month after the release of the Prince of Darkness movie and acted as a midquel to bridge the gap of what happened between the original series and the movie. Which, y’know, would have been nice if it was ever translated into English. Luckily though, there’s a little summary I found online that briefly explains the timeline of events between the series and the movie. In any case, this game was also a visual novel that allegedly also has some combat sequences.
This handsome man is a character I didn’t get the opportunity to talk about in the previous sections. You may be asking, “Who is he?” well, you’re going to have to watch the anime series to find out.
After that, the series of games moved to the Sega Dreamcast with Martian Successor Nadesico: The Mission. This was an SRPG game, similar to Super Robot Wars, which continues the story after Prince of Darkness. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot for me to say about this game.
Lastly, we have the best game, Martian Successor Nadesico: Ruriruri Mahjong for the Gameboy Color. This game is everything it says on the tin, you play a game of Mahjong against the various characters in the series.
Furthermore, Nadesico has appeared in, and has mostly been kept alive by, the Super Robot Wars series, as the series, its pilots, and mechs have appeared alongside others throughout the games. As I said in the introduction, the characters from Nadesico appear in Super Robot Wars W, but they also appear in Super Robot Wars A, Impact, A Portable, R, MX, J, BX, Gakuen, and Card Chronicles. Additionally, Prince of Darkness has been featured in W, R, V, T, DD, and X-Ω.
Fun fact, in SRW W, there’s a certain point in the story where you can unlock the Gekiganger theme to use as a pilot’s battle theme in place of their normal themes.
Nadesico has also appeared in the crossover series, Another Century's Episode, a third-person shooter series published by Banpresto. Nadesico’s mechs and characters have appeared in the first three games as well as the Portable game for PSP.
Image taken from SteelSeven Playthroughs on YouTube
As for books, there are various, starting with Martian Successor Nadesico: Ruri Story From A to B. This was a novel co-written by Satō and the novelist Ichirō Ōkouchi. Like The Blank of Three Years, this novel aims to relay the story of what happens between the original series and the movie. Unfortunately, since I can’t read Japanese, at least not very well, I can’t comment on this or even confirm if it follows the same story as Blank of Three Years.
Additionally, there are also several art books, such as Martian Successor Nadesico Perfects, Nadesico Plus 2D & 3D Visual Book, Martian Successor Nadesico Art Book (2021), and Keiji Gotō Illustrations. These all just showcase a lot of the character art and sketches from the series. The latter though also includes illustrations for series which Gotō also did character design for, such as Double Cast, Hyper Police, Sorcerer Hunters, and Those Who Hunt Elves.
“Those Who Hunt Elves” what a terrible name for a series. Who would want to hunt innocent elves?
There are also a few film books and guidebooks. I haven’t looked into them, so I guess I can’t say much, but it’s weird for me to imagine needing a “guide” book for an anime or movie. Aside from that, there is also the Nadesico Girls Only Post Card Collection, which features postcards that include the art of the various characters in the show.
Ruri is on the cover of most of these books. Actually, fun fact, Ruri is so popular as a character that she’s made cameos in other series, such as appearing as a figurine in episode 8 of Rockman EXE Beast+ (also produced by XEBEC), as well as episode 9 of the anime adaptation of MM!
Conclusion
And that’s everything you need to know about Nadesico! I hope I did a good job of providing decent background information, context, and trivia about this series while also piquing any potential interest. As I said, it’s a favorite of mine, despite all its flaws, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is a big fan of mecha anime. Even if no one who reads this goes on to watch the series, just making others aware of it is good enough for me, as it deserves more attention—at least in the West. In Japan, it was decently popular, to the point where it won the Animage Grand Prix of 1998.
Anyway, as always, I have nothing particularly insightful to leave you with today. But if you like this type of content, don’t hesitate to check out my other material, where I similarly ramble about niche Japanese games, discuss translations and localizations, and reminisce about the good ol' days. With that, I’ll bid you farewell for now and leave you with a funny clip from episode 2 of Japanese voice actors speaking English.
References
Tatsuo Sato Interview – All the Anime. (2019, July 25). Alltheanime.com. https://blog.alltheanime.com/tatsuo-sato-interview/
AnimeDiet. (2012, August 7). Tatsuo Sato Interview (Anime Expo 2012). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUJapu04U58
Martian Sucessor Nadesico. (2025). Animenewsnetwork.com. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=42
Stellvia 2 Cancelled. (2025, January 24). Anime News Network. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-08-10/stellvia-2-cancelled
Martian Successor Nadesico Wiki. (2016). Fandom.com. https://nadesico.fandom.com/wiki/Martian_Successor_Nadesico_Wiki
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