Kidô Senkan Nadesico

It's quirky, way ahead of its time and surprisingly relevant. It's a fun time. The intro song is amongst the best.

When I first saw the boxes to Nadesico I thought it was nothing more then an Evangelion rip off, I found out later that it was actually a comedy and a parody of Eva and checked it out, I was not disappointed. Nadesico is a very funny anime series that parodies Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the old cheesy 70's mech shows (think Voltron). It has amazing characters and some of the funniest episodes I have seen in an Anime series. The series does sort of wander near the middle and kind of has an open ending but other then that I recommend it.

There is an OAV that is basically a 30 minute long version of the Mecha show they watch in the series which is very funny and a surprisingly dark movie that is decent, but could have been much better (too much build up not enough payoff)

If you like Nadesico Check out Vandread (very similar to Nadesico but with a lot of CGI and much better animation) or the fantasy comedy series Slayers

Though it only had 26 glorious episodes this show was able to fit more plot twists, great characters, knee-slapping comedy, exciting action, powerful drama and even political intrigue. The characters are given great depth that you like them so much that you want to be apart of their crazy world. It also depicts a war in which both sides are guilty and the soldier are not evil. It is both (in a contradictory sense) intensely believable and laugh out loud ludicrous. If you can try to pick up all 26 episodes. You won't be sorry (especially if you an anime fan). Note that the non-existant anime that the characters watch in the series (a take off of giant robot anime like macross) was actually given a little mini-movie. I got to find that!

The only thing that really compares to this show is the movie "Scream." Both incorporated the knowledge all fans of each genre (horror for 'Scream' and mecha for MSN) to make something original and funny.

"Funny" being the prime word here. This thing is a riot! The entire crew of the Nadesico is made up the the biggest bunch of weirdoes this side of Jupiter. You've got a super-perky, dim, but, for no apparent reason, capable captain, a pilot obsessed with a cheesy 70's mecha show, a engineer who joined up just to get away from his wife, another pilot who just want to be a cook and for the captain to not be in love with him, a genius little girl you thinks everyone around her is an idiot (she's right), a beancounter, a former secretary, and a voice actor. Think 'Hogan's Heroes' meets 'BattleStar Galatica.

While the show is great, the US version has some flaws. The subtitled version is hard to read. For some reason a light blue color is used at times that's almost impossible to see. The dubbed version has screens that have had the kanji glaringly replaced with English.

On the plus side the VA in both versions are all very good. You also get the song lyrics in English and phonetics. That's a rather nice bonus.

MSN is a great parody of the mecha genre and to a greater extent anime fandom as a whole. The story is funny, but with enough serious stuff to keep things from getting to silly.

Overall, this is a good series to invest your anime-buying money in.

Having received the first volume of this series on DVD for christmas, I only had one thought. 'Can I sell it on e-bay if I don't unwrap it?'

This will teach me to judge a book (or DVD in this case) by the cover.

2 weeks later I figured I might as well put it on and have a good laugh at this potential garbage. How wrong could a man be. Not only did I have a GREAT laugh but I've been turned onto anime a second time. The animation is stock standard but the script more than makes up for this. Well paced, peppered with loads of laughs.

Lets hope the boys and girls in Japan keep cranking out more series like this. *** out of ****