Comedy, The Anime Way #1 – Martian Successor Nadesico

Comedy, The Anime Way...

For the first in this new column on funny stuff in Japanese animation and comics, I’ve decided to cover the first comedy anime series that I ever watched.

Martian Successor Nadesico isn’t the funniest anime around, really. This sci-fi comedy becomes more dramatic as it goes along, and much of it’s taken up with explanation of what’s actually going on. But it has its moments, there’s an intriguing group of characters to enjoy and it’s an award winner so it has some potential. But firstly, let’s deal the basics…

The Vital Statistics

Left-to-right: Ruri Hoshino, Yurika Misumaru, Akito Tenkawa and his “Aestivalis”.

English name: Martian Successor Nadesico

Japanese name: Kidō Senkan Nadeshiko (Mobile Battleship Nadesico) / 機動戦艦ナデシコ

Anime length: 26 episodes between 1st October 1996 and 24 March 1997. Followed by a feature film (Prince of Darkness) and a straight-to-video spin-off (Gekiganger III) in 1998.

Manga length: 4-part adaptation between 1997 and 1999.

Creators: Anime studio XEBEC.

The Basic Plot

2196 AD: Earth is losing a war between a race of aliens called the “Jovian Lizards” from the planet Jupiter. The enemy has taken over Mars, is bombarding the Moon, and attacks the Earth daily.

A private corporation called Nergal has decided to take things into their own hands with the creation of the most powerful battle space ship ever, the Nadesico (named after the Nadeshiko flower, which also happens to be a term for a beautiful woman). Rather than letting the military get their filthy hands all over it, two of Nergal’s staff, gigantic Goat Hoary and money-worrying Mr. Prospector (not his real name), decide to use only a handful of proper army recruits, and let the rest of the ship be staffed by expert civilians, even if they might have a few “personality problems”.

Foremost among these civilians is budding cook Akito Tenkawa, a former resident of Mars before it was invaded by the Jovians a year before and is still suffering from shellshock. After leaving his job at a restaurant, he has a chance encounter with the young, newly appointed female captain of the Nadesico, Yurika Misumaru, who just happens to be an old childhood friend of his.

In a desperate attempt to find out what is going on, Akito decides to join the Nadesico crew as a cook, but often ends up having to do the actual fighting as he’s one of the few people on the ship who’s able to pilot the Nadesico’s humanoid tanks, the “Aestivalis”.

This is just the star of Akito’s problems. Yurika is completely in love with him, and therefore makes various hopeless attempts to win his love. But she soon discovers that pretty much every other lady shipmate likes him too, and ends up battling for his affections as well as the enemy.

Some Anime Explanations

Before I go into the actual comedy, I should explain that there are other reasons for covering this show, other than the fact this was the first comedy anime I ever saw. For starters, this show covers two genres of fiction that we in the West don’t get.

The first of these is “Mecha”, which is a sci-fi genre which features people fighting in humanoid tank devices (not to be confused with Transformers which are strictly speaking robots). This genre is massively popular in Japan. The most prolific series of this genre is the straight-drama series Gundam which began in 1979 and is still going strong. In Nadesico the mecha are the Aestivalis. There are various other comedy mecha series too, and I plan to cover more of these in future columns.

The second genre is “Harem”, a more romantic genre in which someone (usually a man, in this case Akito) is surrounded by various members of the opposite sex trying to win their love. Again there are other comedic examples of this, and again I intend to cover more of these sorts of anime in the future.

Comedy with Character

Left-to-right: Akito Tenkawa and Yurika Misumaru.

In terms of the actual comedy, most of it comes from the characters. Let’s start with the lead, Akito Tenkawa. Most of his humour comes from pure frustration. Here’s a man who simply wants to become a cook and leave it at that. However, life’s nowhere as simple as that, especially in space and in the middle of a war. Akito has to go into space in his Aestivalis, battle against the aliens, and then has to put up with all these women try to win him over.

Out of all these, the most persistent is Yurika, whose name is I think is a bonus gag for us Brits, especially if you’re a fan of Shooting Stars. I can’t think of that name without going “Yuuuuuuuuuurika-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!” I know it’s childish, but I can’t help it…

Yurika is Akito’s childhood friend and she’s besotted with him. She will try anything to win him over, from taking an interest in his hobbies to cooking food for him, although her attempts are poor to say the least. Then, one after the other, the other women on board the ship begin to fall in love with him. Thus raises the tension and thus the comedic possibilities.

However, Akito and Yurika are just the main leads. The Nadesico has a vast crew, featuring their own peculiar traits. The chief mechanic Seiya is a womaniser who joins the ship mainly to escape his wife and child; helmswoman Minato seems to have no problems with altering her uniform to make it more revealing; and another fellow Aestivalis pilot Izumi Maki, is a woman who cracks puns so bad they would make the late Richard Whitely turn in his grave. The beauty of this is that because they’re in a foreign language the jokes translate even worse, which in a way makes it funnier I think.

But out of all the crew, the funniest of them all is the genetically modified “electronic fairy” Ruri Hoshino. She is an amazingly intelligent child, responsible for controlling the ship’s computer, and is so clever that she considers everyone else on the Nadesico to be fools and idiots. This is very pleasing to listen to in the original Japanese, because the word for “fool” or “idiot” is “baka”, which when said out loud (and again this is childish), sounds like “bugger” in English. The word’s to Japanese what “feck” is to Irish.

I’m fond of Ruri’s cynicism and rudeness, but there’s more to her than that. As the series goes along she forms a bond between the ship’s computer, the ship itself and the rest of the crew. She begins as someone who is grumpy and rude, but grows up and becomes ever so slightly friendlier. I like to think of her as being like Marvin the Paranoid Android, if someone had at least bothered to go to the trouble of replacing all the diodes down his left side. If someone had he might have cheered up a little the poor thing.

The Anime Within

Along with the characters, there’s something else which makes Nadesico an appealing watch. Surprisingly, it’s another anime altogether, but it doesn’t really exist.

One of the main plot devices used in the series is a fictional anime series called Gekiganger III, a rather camp mecha series that is meant to be a parody of similar shows, most of which were made in the 1970s in Japan.

When Akito joins the crew he meets a professional Aestivalis pilot who calls himself Gai Daigoji (although his real name is Jiro Yamada, a name as common as John Smith is in English) who is massive fan of the series to such an extent he often copies moves from the show when he fights. Akito is also a fan of Gekiganger III and the two soon become friends.

Now, the next bit contains spoilers, so if you want to skip, please feel free and go down to the next sentence in bold…

Sadly however, Gai is assassinated very early on in the series. This causes Akito to watch the series in his memory. Soon however, the series becomes somewhat infectious. Yurika begins to watch it in order to become closer to Akito, then more and more of the crew become fans until everyone on the Nadesico becomes devoted to it.

But the crew soon discover that Gekiganger III is even more important than they first thought when they encounter the Jovian Lizards for the first time. They are shocked to discover that the Jovian’s aren’t reptilian in any way. They’re actually human exiles who lived on colonies on the Moon and rebelled against Earth’s rule over them. To make things more bizarre, it turns out that the basis of their entire culture and way of life is Gekiganger III.

Everything, from their appearance, their gentlemanly and noble behaviour, their mecha, and their rather camp military uniforms, are all based on a TV show. To put this into some context that Brits might understand, imagine that you came across a bunch of people who had based their entire lives for a century on the supposed teachings and philosophy of Doctor Who, and everyone went around dressed as Tom Baker and Sarah Jane all the time. That’s how bizarre it would be.

Spoilers end now.

Gekiganger III proved to be very popular, not just with in the show, but with the fans watching it. In the end the series ended up being rather less fictional, as a straight-to-video release of Gekiganger III was actually made, so people can really watch it.

Final Round-Up

Left-to-right: Yurika Misumaru and Ruri Hoshino.

In terms of comedy, Martian Successor Nadesico is a series which starts of good, but as it goes on the drama takes over. Much of the show is taken up by characters going into rather dull speeches about the “science” of the programme.

After the series finished, a film sequel followed called Prince of Darkness, in which Akito and Yurika have disappeared while Ruri is now captain of the new Nadesico B. The film is mostly dramatic, but has the odd comic moment thrown in, the best example being Izumi and her nerdy friend Hikaru faking the experience of G-force.

One problem with the film is that it was a sequel not the actual series, but of a computer that was released after the series finished. To make things worse, the game never got released in English. But the film has some qualities, as is evidence by the fact it won the 1998 Animage Grand Prix award back in Japan. Also the film does explain what the “Martian Successors” in the title are.

However, this series is as good a place to start as any with regards to watching anime for the first time. It’s got a bit of everything. Comedy, drama, romance, science fiction, there’s something to please everyone. If anything, it should make you say: “Right, that’s made for amusing watch. but I wonder what else is out there?”

Funniest Moment

In the fifth episode, in which Yurika, Goat, Prospector and other senior members of the crew have to organise funerals for the people on board a destroyed space colony. As the colony was so large and diverse, they has to organise and conduct hundreds of different ceremonies, meaning they totally rushed off her feet. Nice bit of farce with a little bit of drag thrown in too.

How You Can Get It

The original anime and film were released in Britain by ADV Films, but this company has since folded and therefore the only copies available are second-hand. ADV were also responsible for selling the series in America, so the series is currently not on sale in English-speaking countries.

However, on 4th September 2012 a new collection is being brought out by the American company Right Stuf. This collection includes the original anime, the film, and Gekiganger III which was never brought out in the UK. However, as none of Right Stuf’s acquisitions have ever been released in this country, you’ll probably have to hack your DVD player to see it.

A four-part manga adaptation was published in English by CPM Manga, too, but it is also now defunct so you can only get it second hand. Best of luck!

In next month’s column, Ian Wolf covers a much more attractive prospect with the romantic comedy anime and manga Ouran High School Host Club.