Martian Successor Nadesico

Martian Successor Nadesico is a sprawling Space Opera with a subversive sense of humor about its own genre.

Several centuries in the future, Earth is at war with an alien species — propagandists take advantage of the fact that no one has ever seen one by dubbing them "lizards," and everyone knows that Reptiles Are Abhorrent — that fights entirely by remote controlled robots and ships sent from Jupiter via immense hyperspatial gateways. The war is going badly for Earth when a defense contractor, the Nergal Corporation, decides it's going to cut out the middleman and field its own space battleship, the Nadesico. Of course, it crews the ship almost entirely with a classic oddball gang of civilians. As captain, Nergal selects Genius Ditz Yurika Misumaru, daughter of Earth's head admiral.

Yurika's childhood sweetheart, Akito Tenkawa (a burnt-out, traumatized ex-mecha pilot who can't remember how he got to Earth after the fall of the colonies on Mars) joins the crew mainly by accident. Although he wants only to be a chef in the ship's galley, he is repeatedly forced to use his piloting skills in defense of the Nadesico.

Over the course of the series, the ship and crew go through bright times and dark, joy and sorrow, defeat and victory. Conspiracies are uncovered, secrets are learned, and the true nature of the war—and of man's destiny in the solar system—are revealed.

While it revels in being a classic "space war with giant robots" story, it also parodies the genre, both overtly and subtly. One of its most famous devices is Gekiganger 3, a classic 1970s-style Super Robot anime Show Within a Show. Although G3 seems at first only a device for cheap laughs, it slowly becomes not only a sly commentary on the main action, but also a major element of the plot in and of itself.

Originally licensed by ADV Films, it was recently^[when?] re-released by Nozomi Entertainment.

Tropes used in Martian Successor Nadesico include:

• The Abridged Series^[context?]
• Action Girl: The female Aestivalis pilots.
• A Day in the Limelight: Episode 18 focuses on Ruri and her past.
• Affectionate Parody: Of space-battle mecha series
• Aliens and Monsters
• All There in the Manual : If you want to understand The Movie in one go-around, or have any sort of satisfactory conclusion to the series, you're going to need to find a copy of some tie-in video games. Synopsis of the game can be found here.
  • Also shows up in-story when Akito uses his knowlege of obscure bits of the Gekigangar V manga that were never animated to defeat a security program based on Gekigangar 3.
• Amazon Brigade: Both the bridge crew and the pilots as of episode 3 are almost this.
• Anachronic Order: Episode 21's chronology jumps all over the the place. Thankfully we're given a timeline of roughly the order the sequence happened, although it can be confusing when seeing it for the first time.
• Another Century's Episode: Games 1-3 and Portable; 2 focuses on the TV series while everything else uses Prince of Darkness.
• Armed Farces
• Armor-Piercing Slap: Ruri delivers one to the scientist in episode 18 upon learning about her early life.
• Ascended Fanboy: Gai Daigoji, and the Jovian colonists.
• Badass Mustache: Mr. Prospector.
• Barrier Warrior: "Gekigan Flaaaaaaare!"
• Beach Episode: Episode 10.
• Beam Spam: The Cosmos fires seven of the Nadesico's Gravity Blast Cannons.
• Big Damn Heroes: Several of the characters have at least one of these.
• Bridge Bunnies: Megumi, Ruri, and Minato.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: The crew of the Nadesico. The captain crosses the line into Genius Ditz, who actually wears a bunny suit in one episode.
  • Taken literally with Goat Hoary.
• Calling Your Attacks: Akito and others calling Gekiganger 3 attack names while piloting mecha. Lampshaded in an early episode when Akito asks Gai if they really need to do this and Gai, being the way he is, responds "Of course!"
• Chaste Hero: The Jovians as shown are all male warriors who put women on a pedestal and are frightened by the idea of sex or even romance. It's quite possible they reproduce asexually.
• Chef of Iron: Akito cooks as well as he flies.
• Chick Magnet: Akito, much to his lament. The male crew members often wonders how he attracts them while they don't seem to get any action.
• Christmas Episode: Episode 13.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: At least one person on each side.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Akito attracts at least three of these, one actually homicidal.
  • Yurika gets really jealous when she sees or hears about Akito being alone with any woman other than her.
  • This trope ends up causing Ryoko to save an otherwise incapacitated Akito from a crazy lady who seemed to be getting a little too friendly with him.
  • Megumi displays this early on, especially when it came to Yurika.
• Clip Show: Episode 14. They make it more interesting by making it seem like an in-universe show that the Genkiganger characters watch as if the Nadesico is a TV show, and at least in the English dub, the characters lament about how it's just a clip show. Then it's inverted again at the end when Yurika is watching it and wondering about watching it.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Izumi.
• Colon Cancer: Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture - Prince of Darkness
• Comedic Hero
• Cool Ship: The titular battleship
• Conspiracy Redemption
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Nadesico is a starship example, able to wipe out swaths of Jovian weapons with its Gravity Blast Cannon The Aestivalis squadron also manages to fend off large numbers of enemies. Averted when the Nadesico first arrives on Mars, only to find out they're heavily outgunned and outnumbered, and barely make their escape.
  • In one episode, they manage to destroy several manned ships of greater cost than the Nadesico by firing missiles from the Aestivalis units. One has to wonder what the ships are made out of.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive^[context?]
• Cosplay: Among other things, the Jovians wear Gekiganger 3 cosplay as uniforms.
• Crew of One: The One-Man One-Ship project from The Movie
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Yurika, in spades.
• Crystal Ball Scheduling: Akito sure seems to watch a lot of Gekiganger episodes that have events that coincidentally happen to them in that very episode.
• Cut Short: There were meant to be three movies.
• Deconstructive Parody
• Deconstructor Fleet: The Nadesico is the flagship of this fleet.
• Deflector Shields: Distortion Fields.
• Dirty Old Man: Yurika's father has an... unusual obsession... with his daughter's maturation into a woman. Seiya Uribatake is just generally obsessed with young women, at least until he reunites with his wife.
• Disney Death: Admiral Fukube
• Don't Explain the Joke: Subverted of course. Many of Izumi's puns need to be explained due to their reliance on Japanese wordplay, especially in the dub.
• Doomed Upgrade
• Dynamic Entry: Hikaru does one in episode 22 to help save Akito.
• The End of the World as We Know It
• Engineered Public Confession: Twice.
• Everything's Better with Princesses: ...or not.
• Expies: Dozens of them.
• Fan Service: Viewers are encouraged to watch the next episode with promises of this.
  • Pretty much the entire point of episode 19
• Falling Into the Cockpit: Akito was just trying to escape, but ends up being an Accidental Hero.
• The Federation (Mildly averted, in that the UEAF seems to have little influence on the Nergal-owned Nadesico and its crew for the first half of the series. Although the characters get drafted in the second half, they don't become any more militaristic or patriotic.)
• Festival Episode: A Gekigangar convention. On board the ship.)
• Fist of Enthusiasm: Jun introducing Yurika's singing.
• Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: The Nadesico had the Gravity Cannon, which was sandwiched between two forward protrusions. It later gets a Mid-Season Upgrade.)
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Episode 17 has one, right after Yurika breaks Uribatake's figure.
• Friendly Enemy: Yukina doesn't seem to be a very effective assassin, passing out and being rescued by her target in the bath, who then tells her how lucky and special she is to him for coming out to their ship. The talk of hope for an end to the fighting by several crew members also confuses her, since she believed that all Earthlings were Exclusively Evil.
• Genius Ditz: Yurika
• Genki Girl: Yurika. Hikaru borders on this frequently.
• Girl in a Box: Izumi. Technically, Yurika in The Movie.)
• Good All Along: Admiral Misumaru, despite serving as an obstacle at the beginning, wants nothing to do with Nergal's conspiracy. There was something entertaining about him hitting Manipulative Bastard Akatsuki with a pan.
• The Government
• Government Conspiracy: Practically the whole series.
• Gratuitous English: In the epic opening. The title is "You Get to Burning!". (Yes, that's really the title.)
  • The second episode has a completely arbitrary announcement from a politician or general to their UN equivalent in English. It serves no purpose to the plot to have it delivered in English. Neither does the English speech to the same group by Yurika.
• Gundamjack: First-episode Aestivalis Jack!
• Hair Colors
• Handsome Lech: Nagare Akatsuki.
• Harem Hero: Akito is a type 2A.
• Have We Met?: Said by Yurika to Akito in the first episode.
• Heroic BSOD: Happens a few times. The first instance of it happens after Gai's death, which results in Akito sitting in his room watching the same Gekiganger episode over and over.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jun attempts one in the third episode.
  • Subverted to deconstruction in the seventh episode by Akito's reaction when Admiral Fukube attempts You Shall Not Pass.
• Hero of Another Story: (Itsuki "Seelie" Kazama, the replacement pilot from the Christmas episode is a major character in the spinoff game Blank of Three Years.)
• High School AU: Parodied, like everything else, by the "Early 21st Century High School" virtual reality program in the Nadesico's recreation room.
• Holographic Terminal: Everywhere.
• Hot-Blooded: Gai Daigoji, and it's a major theme of Gekiganger 3
• Hotblooded Sideburns: Gai Daigoji, who else? And at least one cast member from Gekiganger 3.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The main motivation behind why the Jovians are attacking.
• Humongous Mecha
• Hypocritical Humour: "If only the humans appreciated life as we do, I would not have to kill so many of them." Man, the Jovians are wearing irony blinkers the size of the moon.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Akito. "Goddammit, I'm a cook!"
• Improbable Age: Used, lampshaded, and deconstructed
• Indecisive Parody
• I Will Protect Her: Akito says this almost word for word in episode 22 regarding Yukina.
• Jumped At the Call: Gai Daigoji, who arrived three days early and broke his leg.
• Karma Houdini: Kusakabe.
• Killed Off for Real Gai, Admiral Munetake, and Tsukumo Shiratori
• Knight Templar: The Jovians act like this at times. Especially Genichiro Tsukuomi, who kills his best friend Tsukumo for trying to peacefully negotiate with the "evil" Earthlings.
• Lampshade Hanging: Any mecha tropes that don't get subverted, justified or outright deconstructed get this treatment.
• Large Ham: Gai Daigoji. GAI'S. SUPER. UPPER!!!
  • Yurika fits this trope from time to time, particularly when dealing with Akito.
• Latex Space Suit: The Aestivalis pilot suits. Conveniently color-coded for gender, too!
• Left Hanging: Twice!
• Lethal Chef: Yurika and Megumi (and probably Ryoko) nearly kill Akito trying to impress him with their cooking, the real tragedy joke being that Akito himself is a restaurant-quality chef.
• Lightning Glare: Yurika vs Megumi in episode 10.
• Little Miss Snarker: Ruri - former Trope Namer.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: The dub's director claims there were over 120 continuing characters. Needless to say, in a 26-episode series, most didn't get a lot of screen time.
• Love Triangle: Almost a Love Dodecahedron. At least a septagon, by Ruri's count.
• Macross Missile Massacre: A standard attack of the unmanned Jovian drones. The Nadesico also uses one during episode 20 against a pursuing Jovian ship.
• Male Gaze
• Manly Tears: Gai is especially prone to these and his death is prone to invoking them, but they're often sported by Akito or Uribatake as well. Also the king of Peaceland.
• Mecha Expansion Pack: The Y-Unit for the Nadesico, and the shield-defeating Field Lances for the mecha.
• Mecha-Mooks: The vast majority of the Jovian invasion fleet are unmanned units.
• Mega Corp: Nergal. So powerful, in fact, that they're able to construct their own warship, the Nadesico, able to hold its own against the UEAF. Also counts as an NGO.
• Meganekko: Hikaru. She's spunkier than most of the Meganekko types, though.
• Melee a Trois: UEAF vs. Nergal vs. the Jovians.
• Mildly Military: Justified in the Nadesico‍'‍s case as they're fielded by a corporation and not the actual military.
• Mission Control: Various characters on the bridge often take this role for the Aestivalis missions.
• Mondegreen: In episode 20, Yurika is singing the opening song, and mis-sings the lyric "yume no kakera sa" as "yume no Takeda-san". She even gets called on it In-Universe.
• Mood Whiplash: The series turns it into an art form.
• The Movie: Meant to be a Grand Finale, the planned trilogy was Cut Short.
• Ms. Exposition: Inez Fressange. Lampshaded, of course.
• Nanomachines: Used to terraform Mars. Also allows the Aestivalis pilots to, well, pilot, and Ruri to interface with Omoikane.
• No Fourth Wall: Here and there.
• No Name Given: During production, female Aestivalis pilot Itsuki Kazama was unnamed, so she was referred to in-series as "Newbie" and "Seelie" (by Ryoko both times).
• No Sex Allowed: Nergal company policy - after all, the Nadesico doesn't have a daycare centre. The crew seem to ignore said policy towards the end of the series.
• Only Sane Man: Ruri seems to be the only one who doesn't seem to overreact to every little bit of gossip, battle updates, or news. Often makes snarky comments about how idiotic the crew is.
• Oracular Urchin: Ruri. Lapis does this a bit in The Movie.
• Otaku Surrogate: In addition to all the just-plain-Otaku, you have Hikaru Amano, who is also a Yaoi Fangirl as well.

Hikaru (upon seeing Akito and Nagare Akatsuki shaking hands): "This gives me an idea for my next Doujinshi".

• Paper-Thin Disguise: Akito takes a page from Lieutenant Quattro's book in The Movie. It lasts all of fifteen minutes, or rather, two minutes of actual screentime.)
• Proud Warrior Race Guys: The Jovians
• Perky Female Minion: Inverted by Yurika - she's the one in charge.
• Pervert Dad: Yurika's father, Admiral Misumaru.
• Please Don't Leave Me: Yurika towards Akito during times where he either seems to be leaving the ship, or spending too much time with another woman. Later Erina says this towards him while also crying.
• Pungeon Master: Izumi.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The natural result of putting a together a crew of the most skilled individuals with no regard for "minor character flaws."
• Real Men Wear Pink: Akito's Aestivalis is a rather bright red.
• Recap Episode: In which the characters of Nadesico watch the characters of Gekigangar III watch a Nadesico episode and try to figure out the ramifications of such a paradox.
• Red Shirt Navy: The UAEF seems to be easily defeated by the Jovians most of the time. When the Nadesico makes its appearance, they can't even stop one ship from escaping Earth, although to be fair, the Jovians do attack in multiple areas at the same time, forcing them to divert their troops.
• Theme Tune Cameo
• The Red Planet: Much of the plot revolves around what happened on Mars, and several of the main characters were born/raised there.
• Rocket Punch: The ground-type Aestivalis is one of the few Real Robots to use this.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Akito and Yurika's relationship tends to fall into this at times, even lampshaded in universe.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Gai Daigoji, although he lasts until the second episode. He's even shot by his own side. Also, Joe Umitsubame in Gekiganger 3 - his death scene foreshadows that of the aforementioned character in the same episode, even though it occurs in the penultimate episode of Gekiganger 3.
• Selective Obliviousness: Yurika, with regards to Akito's feelings for her... possibly done strategically.
• Serious Business: See below.
• Shoryuken: (Gai! Super! Uppaaaaaaaaaaah!)
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Akito seems to repeatedly say this to Yurika, although she doesn't believe him.
• Show Within a Show: Gekiganger 3!
  • For the Recap Episode it was a show within a show within a show within a show within a show.
  • There was another, less prominent Show Within a Show called Magical Princess Natural Lychee.
• Smarmy Host: In one episode, the various female characters on the show participate in a fashion show to be the captain for a day, with Jun and Nagare acting in the role of commentators. The latter fits into this role like a glove.
• So Last Season: The Nadesico‍'‍s Gravity Blast Cannon, as of about the sixth episode. Possibly a record.
• Sobriquet: After a certain point, Yurika is officially known to the Jovians as "the Daring Man of Action"...much to her chagrin.
• Space Navy: The UEAF for Earth, while the Jovians also field one, largely unmanned due to their smaller population and space factory.
• Space Opera
• Spell My Name with an "S": Gekiganger/Gekigangar/Gekigengar.
• Spider Sense: Inez can sense when any other character attempts to deliver exposition.
• The Spock: Ruri.
• Spoiler Opening
• Stay in the Kitchen: While Earth is definitely an equal opportunity employer, the Jovians are... less egalitarian.
  • Inverted on the Nadesico - Akito desperately wishes to stay in the kitchen himself and let the girls do all the robot fighting.
• Stepford Smiler: A particularly tear-jerking sequence reveals that the Hurricane of Puns Izumi constantly spews are a coping mechanism for her grief — one that isn't really working.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: A particularly large-scale example - early in the show we meet Gai Daigoji, who has modeled himself after Gekiganger III, and think he's crazy (possibly Crazy Awesome). Then we meet the Jovians, who have modeled their entire civilization after the same show.
• Stuffed Into the Fridge: Itsuki Kazama, who was killed on her very first mission.
• Super-Deformed: Tenkawa and Ruri are represented as Super-Deformed versions of themselves when they interface with the Nadesico‍'‍s computer in episode 12.
  • There's also a chibi Gekiganger doll in episode 6.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Pretty much Ruri's Catch Phrase. The Jovians aren't exactly the sharpest mecha-sized knives in the arsenal compared to their leader, either.
• Theme Naming: The Nadesico and the Earth Forces ships are all named after flowers, including the ND-002 Cosmos which uses the English name.
• Theme Tune Cameo - Yurika sings the ending song in episode 19.
• There Are No Therapists: There is one, actually... but you'd have to be really crazy to go to Inez Fressange for counseling. And the counseling is a one-time, throwaway bit anyway.
• Time Travel
• Token Mini-Moe: Ruri.
• Took a Level in Badass: Akito in The Movie
• Tragic Hero: As above.
• Tsundere: Ryoko Subaru is a classic example. Yukina Shiratori pretty much drops the tsuntsun once she stops wanting to kill Minako. Akito might count as a male example, especially where Yurika's concerned.
• Unusual User Interface: The Image Feedback System, via Nanomachines.
• The Unwanted Harem: Akito hates having it.
• Warrior Poet: Kinda. Warrior Chef, anyway.
• Wave Motion Gun: The Nadesico‍'‍s Gravity Blast Cannon. Later, its upgrade, the Y-Unit's reality-warping Phase Transition Cannon.
  • The Cosmos manages to Beam Spam the first version.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Gai Daigoji.
• Who Is This Guy Again?: This series is really bad about making the names of key characters clear...
• Worthy Opponent
• The Worf Barrage
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Most of the Ascended Fanboys seem to think they're in an idealistic Super Robot show, rather than a Real Robot series where Anyone Can Die, etc. It helps with the Mood Whiplash.)
• Yandere: Akito runs into one in episode 10. It takes a jealous Ryoko to rescue him.
• Zerg Rush: Due to their smaller population, the Jovians have to rely largely on unmanned drones for attacking. Interestingly, the humans seem to have trouble fighting against them early on, but later in the series the Nadesico‍'‍s crew seem more competent in destroying them.