Customer Reviews

Martian Successor Nadesico Perfect Collection

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This is a nice release of the Martian Successor Nadesico TV anime series in a compact cardboard box. Unlike most of the ADV thinpak releases, this one actually contains some extras. Included are all 26 episodes from the TV series in english and japanese audio (2.0) and an english subtitle track. In my opion the dubbed version is quite good but the major flaw is that the Ruri character can not compare the its original counterpart (some flair of the series is lost). Extra features include 3 commentary tracks (from some of the english voice actors/actresses) of selected episodes which are quite funny, character bios, clean opening/closing and some ADV previews. Apart from the box you get 6 DVD thincases with nice artwork as cover and a Nadesico flyer (no booklets or other fancy stuff). But regarding the price no one should complain. I won't spoil a lot about the series itself except that Nadesico is a unique and intelligent mixture of different genres (and probably a bit underrated). Definitely a buy consideration for all those who are into anime and do not have this yet.

This is the recent 'thinpak' issue of the popular Sci-fi Action-Comedy Anime Nadesico. The 'thinpak' series is ADV Films' (the licensor for this series) way of giving it's customers cheaper boxsets of whole series of Anime, the cost being their small size and usually inferior (if not totally removed) extras compared to the old box sets. Typically a great value nonetheless.

This series focuses on the Nadesico, a highly-advanced space-faring battleship created by a private military company called Nergal for the apparent sole purpose of rescuing colonists on Mars from the threat of an alien race known as the "Jovian Lizards". Being the most advanced piece of military equipment man can create, no ordinary crew can successfully control it, so unique individuals from all walks of life are called to be it's crew.

Unfortunately, these individuals are "unique" in bad ways as well, consisting mostly of women who have little to no military experience and personality quirks. To begin with, their captain, Yurika Misamaru, a Japanese woman with a shrewd tactical mind, tends to act like an utter airhead and is thought of by Nergal as being little more than eye-candy the crew will blindingly listen to because she's pretty. Their chief engineer Seiya Uribitake is an atypical mad scientist who neglects his family to work on highly destructive and weird devices such as maid robots that fire missiles. Their science officer, Ruri Hoshino, is a genetically-engineered young girl who regards everyone around her as an idiot and is totally inexperienced at interacting with others. Most notably, their ace pilot, Akito Tenkawa, is formally a cook, not a pilot!

Akito Tenkawa is the main focus of the story, a Martian-born man who was close childhood friends with Yurika (who was also born on Mars) who struggles to understand how he ended up on Earth when his last memories were of him on Mars struggling (and apparently failing) to save a young girl from invading Jovian Lizards and staring death in the face himself, as well as his utter fear of the Jovians, and the mystery of the supposed murder of his parents. He also must struggle with the fact that absence has made the heart grow fonder with Yurika and she will not stop fawning over him, constantly trying to make him fall in love with her. Akito's romantic problems compound when other women on the ship begin to notice him as well.

The series both takes itself seriously and engages in self-parody, never allowing itself to partake too much in one over the other. The action scenes are usually quite serious, with the real worry of people dying in battle. Meanwhile when there are no immediate threats to life and limb, the characters deal with more comical problems on the ship. This is one of those series that actually manages to balance dramatic action and situational comedy.

The animation and artwork is highly detailed and smooth, with many surfaces having shines consistent with a bright sci-fi setup.

The voice acting is excellent in Japanese, spoken by veteran Japanese voice actors, though at points the characters will randomly speak partially or even fully in English, sometimes with hilarious results such as an early point in the series where Yurika addresses a large gathering of military minds completely in English, with a very thick Japanese accent.

The voice acting in English is more than passable. The voice actors clearly put effort into their roles, especially Spike Spencer as Akito Tenkawa, easily nailing the feeling of a anime-loving cook constantly thrown in ridiculous situations where his life may be in danger. Never the less, despite the effort and good work the actors put in, some of their voices don't always seem to fit the characters and the scripts they read from may differ a bit from what was originally said in the Japanese version though thankfully, it never strays too far to the point of ridiculousness.

The subtitled translation of the series is very faithful, apparently updated from previous subtitled translation of the series.

All in all, I highly recommend this series, it makes a great impression and is a great value with this set.

Let's go Gekigangar 3!

Whoa an anime inside of an anime, is what probably got me hooked on, what is probably Xebec's cornerstone. Simply put, you will start getting hooked on the series 3 episodes in the beginning. I say this because all three give you a brief sample on what's to come. When it comes to the mecha anime genre, Martian Successor Nadesico does something not even Neon Genesis Evangelion can remotely compare to...

First, the characters, what's kind of charming is that the ship that they're on reminds me of tthe Bebop, or Gekkostate. Which means that they're a lot of characters, with important(but not always relevant), screen time. Akito, and arguably Yurika are the protagonists of the series. Akito's backstory reveals very little, but provokes us to recall that scene every time something resembles it. Next is my favorite(well almost) character Jiro..er... Gai Daigoji! The first 3 eps explain his stereotypical obsession that we can whole or half-heartedly compare to. Akito himself has Gai as an example to him to provide him with drive to make Gai proud.

What's so haunting about Nadesico is probably Gekigangar 3. At first it's a(very funny)running gag, that we only view as we would respond to if we were watching Simpsons watch Itchy and Scratchy. But it is NOT the same! Midway they're people who view Geki, as medium for they're existance, as they're way of life. Many people do hobbies so much that they do everything they can to relate EVERYTHING to it. It's hard to believe but Nadesico pulls this off with scarily precise results...

Another thing about Nadesico is it's ability to mock or explain the stereotypes of anime. Since Gekigangar 3 is there, they themselves become hardcore fans, but Akito learns something about anime, and the reality, and the combination between the too. His experiences and revolutions remind me of Shinji from Neon Genesis(ironically since they're both played by talented Spike Spencer...).

The ending of Nadesico is also a mockery, but with "intention" so to speak, meaning that some will be accepting, others will not. The very atmosphere of Nadesico is meant to amuse you, with different angles of humor and drama, and wields them interchangably! They're had never been a series like this(at least not that I've seen) and this collection is a great buy to view it all with loads of extras.

Let's go Gekigangar 3!

The best part of this anime series, and where it stands out from some of my other favorites, is in its ability to make fun of anime and itself. It's a light-hearted series that is very well written. The setting is Sci Fi, but it is the kind of Sci Fi that doesn't require being a hardcore fan of Sci Fi. The one place I'm dissappointed is in the ending. It doesn't really wrap up the story very well. But the ride is very much worth it.

I'll be honest, I don't watch a lot of anime. Most of them aren't that great. Most of the things I watched, I like, but not love. Not like Nadesico.

If you don't know it, Nadesico is about a guy from Mars who wants to just be a cook, but ends up joining his childhood friend Yurika on the space battelship Nadesico, along with a bunch of other strange, but awesome characters.

It's a very fun series, with a lot of dorkiness (one of my favourite things in this anime was how Gekigangar changed from being just loved by Akito and Gai, to something that everyone loved, and how it became more than just an anime to them).

Packaging for this set is nice, good art, I especially love cat-Ruri on the third disk, although I wish there was more Yurika, she appears on one side of the box and on one disk, and both times, she's with a bunch of other characters. Ruri, on the other hand, appeared on both of the ones Yurika did, as well as one for herself alone (the cat one) and one with Megumi, which is also the other side of the box.

If you like the Full Metal Panic anime series this is another one for your collection. The series is very light-hearted an not very serious or very dramatic you also of course have the genius young male pilot as the love interest for the captain of the ship,the other female pilots,and of course some of the female crew. The video is standard format with 2.0 English audio and 2.0 Japanese audio the extras for the set are very slim just some trailers and textless intro and ending songs. The voice actors for the English audio are for the most part great there are some who they could do without the Japanese voice actors are great as well. So for any fan who is looking for a light-hearted sci-fi series with a romantic touch check this one out you will not be disappointed...

Story goes through phases of humor, sadness, courage, hope, survival instincts, fears, and heartaches. Drama at its fineness.

Very well done series, of the barely controled chaos style. i.e., screaming hero who doesn't want to be there, incompetant leaders, surprising revelation of villains, very funny. Only bad point is the Japanese style of ending, which apparently didn't quite go over, so they added a later movie to try to end it better.