Customer Reviews

Martian Successor Nadesico - Mission to Mars (Vol. 2)

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nadesico is a fantastic mecha/sci-fi/comedy story with a little bit of tragedy. You could almost say it's Evangelion meets Ranma meets Gundam Wing. It takes the best out of those series and turns it into this great anime! The animation is very nice, especially for a TV series. The color is very nice, especially. The characters are very good, however *pauses* my favorite character, Yamada-san....well, that's a semi-spoiler. Even the most minor characters get a little depth, although...What can I say? They are minor characters, after all. The music is very good-the opening is excellent, and the ending is good, and the BGM's didn't particulary stand out but were well suited and very pleasing to the ear. Overall, Nadesico is a great parody with some seriousness that will leave you in awe of this awesome anime series.

Now, ADV markets this as "Japan's most popular anime series", however, I tend to doubt this. However, I don't live in Japan either, so...It's certainly good enough to be the most popular series! The packaging was pretty nice, and the DVD was pretty nice, no problems with sound. The subtitles were a little large, in one part they use a smaller subtitle, however, that was only for that certain situation. The extras are nice, I thought the idea of translation notes was a nice extra, because that's something you only usually find on fansubs. The character bios were a little on the corny side, but overall the extras were pretty nice. The setup was nice, I little to no difficulty moving around. The DVD and the extras were good, overall. Now, if only ADV would include a picture gallery or interviews with the seiyuu...

Nadesico is one of the best anime TV series avaliable, and definitely worth the money. I suggest watching the subbed version, the dub was alright but not great. It truly deserves 5 stars. The characters are good, the animation is great, the comedy is excellent, the music is well-suited and nice-you simply can't go wrong with this title!

ADV Flims markets this series in the US as something like "Japan's Most Popular Anime Series". While being very popular in Japan (and for good reason), it's not even the most popular anime title they've ever brought over - by a long stretch. That's fine, though. Nadesico is a series that doesn't even take itself too seriously.

Nadesico blatantly parodies not just mecha-genre anime, but shojo romantic comedy and classic anime of the 1970s and early 80s. It does it with such style, though, that it's terribly easy to forgive its occasional lack of subtlety.

The basic premise of the series is that roughly two hundred years in the future, the Earth gets invaded by aliens from somewhere out around Jupiter. After being pushed back to the boundary of Earth, one of the major corporations of the planet decides to retake some of the valuable technology left on Mars. Most of the capable people left have been drafted into the military. Left with the choice between intelligence and stability, they take the former.

The series eventually ends up reaching beyond this premise, but for the first four episodes - the first DVD - we see the crew working it's way to Mars and all of the troubles this presents. The action and comedy are fast and the plot definitely follows a "take no prisoners" sort of approach with your attention.

ADV has done a decent job with the DVD here. The one continual complaint - I find it a valid one, but many see it as nitpicking - is that much of the on-screen Japanese text has been replaced by English overlays. This does have the advantage not fracturing your attention. However, people like me can sometimes be purists who would rather slow down and watch everything frame-by-frame. This issue should not, however, stop you from buying the DVD.

"Nadesico" is a solid, funny series with some very clever parody. ADV should be congratulated for bringing it to the US is not for some of the liberties they've taken with both the advertising and the video itself. I definitely recommend the DVD and the series.

Sci-fi anime has a well-deserved reputation for being violent, dark, and angsty. Depending on your tastes, this isn't necessarily a bad thing; but it certainly gets tiring. Somewhere on the way, a wonderfully underrated series named Martian Successor Nadesico came along with an opposite approach, choosing to take a comedic stab at the sci-fi genre. And it works...extremely well.

On first glance, Nadesico seems to operate on same rather unoriginal premises. A young man (Akito Tenkawa) is forced to pilot a mech and fight for others in spite of his feelings to the contrary; a seemingly air-headed captain (Misamaru Yurika) takes the helm; and half a dozen girls swarm around a single love-interest. But instead of succumbing to some stock anime stereotypes, Nadesico plays off of them, utilizing them to great effect. And it's not all smiles and laughter; when you least expect it, Nadesico comes up with some emotionally wrenching moments, as well as some truly inspiring ones. Whether it's pathos or comedy, this series has it all. And let's not forget the intentionally campy anime series within the series, Gekiganger 3, which serves as an emotional focal point for the characters-- as well as providing some hilarious in-jokes about mecha anime.

All in all, Nadesico is an outstanding series. Volume 1 introduces the characters extremely well, while providing some surprises which hint at just how deep the series is. Although some of the latter filler episodes, which have guest directors and writers, vary in quality, these first episodes are pure gold. A very entertaining watch; see for yourself why the series was voted "Best anime" in Japan.

Well, I've seen this in Japanese and I just want to let everyone know this is a MUST HAVE! It's got everything--mecha, romance, comedy... all the great types of anime rolled into one fabulous series! Whatever kind of anime is your favorite, you will probably like Nadesico!

Prepare to be addicted! You've been warned. This really is the ultimate Anime. Wonderful humour, detailed art, huge mecha action, beautiful girls, and the dubbed voices are excellent. Akito Tenkawa, a fry cook turned unlikley pilot, must help the battleship Nadesico and her quirky crew defend the Earth from the evil Jovian invanders. It's so funny to watch Yurika Misamuru, the 20-year-old captain of the most effective weapon in Earth's aresenal, go from bubbly love-struck airhead to brilliant tactician in a moment's notice. Don't let the serious-looking box art fool you, this is a relatively light-hearted anime. I mean, the main character spends most of the battles in a cooking apron. You can't go wrong with this series! A MUST BUY! Enjoy!

Ciao, Greg

"I'm not a pilot, I'm a damned cook!" -Akito

Content: In volume 4, the Nadesico returns to Earth, and Akito is fired from Nergal both as an Aestivalis pilot and a chef. Boson Jumping tests of humans continue as Jovian forces attack and take everyone by surprise. Akito saves everyone by seemingly sacrificing himself. The result, it seems, is that he successfully Boson jumped to the Moon, and to 2 weeks ago. Also in this volume, we get a truly original recap episode with the cast of Gekigangar III watching Martian Successor Nadesico and saving the universe between commercials. The identity of the Jovian Lizards is also finally revealed to us... But you'll have to see that for yourself. Overall a great volume, as things really start to heat up as the series goes into the second half...

Animation & Video: The animation continues to be strong, but I had some real problems with the transfer, namely the huge amount of artifacting. It was most noticeable in the opening animation, but every 5 or 10 minutes in the episodes there was at least one bit where you could see huge amounts of pixelation during explosions or other fast movement.

Audio: The audio sounded terrific with no problems to note.

Translation: The translation continues to be strong, especially in the subtitled version. The English dub continues to have some annoying changes every now and then, but I still the dub's script. As for the dubbing, I still like it for the most part. It certainly isn't the greatest dub ADV has ever produced, but I can't complain. I still especially love Ruri's voice. It doesn't live up to her Japanese counterpart, but it fits well.

Menus: Identical to the previous volumes-- Easy to use and fairly fast. No complaints here.

Extras: Basically the same as with all the previous discs... Textless opening and ending theme, trailer, and some character profiles. Actually, the profiles were quite humorous this time, with information on all the Gekigangar III characters.

This is volume one, which introduces the viewer to a vast majority of the crew and sets the foundations for the rest of the series. The Earth is at war with another planet. To combat the enemy's limitless robot army the privately funded Nadesico is sent on a research mission, against the wishes of the military. The crew is top notch, if not insane.

Nadesico is one of Anime's best. While it is true that much of it is based on cliche, the way it takes cliche to its natural conclusions while mocking the entire process has turned it into one of the most beloved of all anime. Blending comedey, drama, and action together, it succeeds where so many others fail.

While the show does tend to become more melodramatic, and admitedly more compelling, towards the later episodes volume one, which contains the first four eps, tends to be more of a mix between comedey and, yes, okay, melodrama. There's a lot of comedey. A lot. The kind that causes millions of geeky anime fans to go ballistic with laughter. Never has simply saying the word "baka" gotten so many laughs.

The extras are excellent: the opening and closing videos unfettered by credits, crew bios, and a note from the translator defending his translation of the dialogue, which at times conflicts with fan translations.

In this next set of 5 episodes, Ruri finds out her past and her parents, something she seems to have been wondering about ever since she joined the Nadesico team. To make things a bit more interesting on this illustrious ship, they decide to have a beauty contest for the rank of captain. I personally think that Ruri should've won, but it ends up the winner being...well, you'll just have to watch it now, won't you? We also find out other secrets, memories of all the crew members that have been kept away until a very crucial moment in the series. Don't miss this exciting 5(that's right, 5!) episodes of Martian Successor Nadesico. And as always, they know how to keep you hanging until the next episodes come out. A definite must have!!!

I've seen all of Nadesco's episodes up to episode six and I can tell you that I didn't just buy those videos to waste money, no surey Bob. I like this anime so much I can't wait to buy the rest of the series! You shouldn't just stop at this though, once you watch this anime you have got to watch others. I can give you tons of other anime series for you to watch that are so addicting(Fushigi Yugi) that you'll buy the whole series, but that's not my job. I'm here to tell you what a great anime Nadesco is, so I'll begin. This movie does not contain any graphic stuff(you know what I'm talking about) and it's the kind of movie that's best when watched alone or with a fellow anime lover. That's what makes Nadesco so cool. Wait, there might be something in there referring to you-know-what, but I wouldn't worry about it. It's a really good anime so you should buy it.Toodles!

It has comedy, drama, and romance. The captian is beutiful. Can't even get it out of my head. I recommend this to anyone that is an anime fan. I'd give it 99 stars if it was possible.

I give it 5 stars.
Go Nadesico!

=)