Martian Successor Nadesico Vol-2: Mission to Mars (1996)
Animation Production: Xebec/TV Tokyo/Yomiko
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 5-8
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Time to get back on the deck of the mighty space battleship Nadesico!!! The flagship of Nergal Industries and a testament to the engineering skills of the private sector.

In our last review we were introduced to the core cast of Martian Succesor Nadesico and given some background information on what it is that made it necessary to design and launch the Nadesico under the flag of the private sector. When we left our crew in the last episode they were headed for the red planet, Mars, but once they arrive there…what will they find? Join us as we take a closer look at the second DVD volume of this popular TV series.

Story

"As the Nadesico heads for Mars and a deadly encounter with the Jovian menace, new recruits, a tragic death, an enemy ambush, a budding romance and a frantic battle all spice up the plot as the action really begins to heat up. Is it a recipe for disaster or mankind’s last hope for salvation?"-- ADV's Martian Successor Nadesico Page

Review

This DVD begins on a lighter note as episode five (Ruri's Navigationa Logs) focuses mostly on Yurika’s duties as Captain, specifically, funeral services. Throughout most of the episode we see her running back and forth with other crew members in an attempt to fulfill the last wishes of the many people that had perished in the previous battles. Needless to say that there are some great comedic moments to it.

From there the story takes a somewhat of a more serious tone as the crew arrives to Mars, where among other things they discover that a large group of humans has managed to survive the Jovians onslaught. The survivor group we learn, includes several members of the Nergal scientific research group that helped design and create the Nadesico. Unfortunately the situation turn for the worse as several hundred Jovian forces appear suddenly to take on an ill-equipped Nadesico. Will they manage to escape!?

Not bad at all! I had a lot of fun watching this group of episodes as they started moving the plot into a much more interesting direction. With the arrival to Mars, the door opened to several revelations about Akito and the Nadesico’s past, which although prove to be mostly teasers to what is sure to be elaborated in much more detail in subsequent episodes, do add some interesting layers to their background

I also enjoyed the “what it means to be a captain of an advanced spaceship” subplot as it dwelled into Yurika’s psyche, and what her value to this crew is in this day of self-running space ships that barely have a need of human input and direction. Personally I just thought this was an interesting subject to look at within the context of the show.

Probably the best moments in these episodes are the science lessons (Yurika and Ruri put on a show for the crew to explain the science behind the Nadesico, which results in some nice laugh-out-loud moments) and the more dramatic Martian battle episode, which did a nice job of taking the series away from what had been mostly comedic episodes, thus providing some much needed balance.

The one thing that I was surprised by this time around was the lack of Gekiganger scenes. To me these really give Nadesico a nice break and add to the overall parody factor that the writers were shooting for, thus they were solely missed. Hopefully there’ll be many more in the next DVD.

The animation as before was very good, especially during some of the mecha battle scenes. Some consistency problems exists in with some of the drawings, but it was something that didn’t detract at all from the overall presentation. The music soundtrack was solid throughout as well.

The Nadesico: Mission to Mars DVD included the following episodes:

Episode 5: "Ruri's Navigationa Logs"
Episode 6: "Sort of Like a Fateful Decision"
Episode 7: "The Song That You Will One Day Sing"
Episode 8: "The Luke Warm Cold Equation"

This DVD came with various extras including character biographies, textless openings & closings, a Nadesico trailer, and previews for other ADV products. Overall it was a very high quality package. The video transfer was sharp and colorful and the audio came through perfectly on both the Japanese and English soundtracks.

Conclusion

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

The wacky antics of our courageous crew, mixed in with dramatic and explosive moments make for some fun anime entertainment. This one is recommened to all anime fans, especially those of you who enjoy space opera action and drama (with some humor thrown in for good measure).

Jeffrey Couto