Nadesico Vol. 3 |
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It hasn't been that long since the
Nadesico's maiden voyage, but already problems are
starting to occur. After a display of inadequacy by the
captain, the United Forces decide the Nadesico is indeed
too powerful to let roam without control. Enter Erino
Katsu Won and the sadistic Sadaki. Two United Forces
staff members looking to raise hell on the Nadesico by
incorporating their own procedures on the ship. Political
problems aren't the only thing causing tension on the
ship. Akito, our main protagonist, has got his own
problems. They range from a cocky pilot who takes every
opportunity to embarrass him, to his two love interests,
fighting desperately to win his heart. Poor Akito usually
gets caught in the crossfire, no matter what the odds. The first episode, "The Miracle Operation of the Kiss," fits its strange name. Immediately after joining the Nadesico, Sadaki starts throwing his weight around and orders the Nadesico to rescue an "ambassador" from a downed ship on Earth. The rescue isn't the main part of the episode, though. We finally see Megumi and Yurika confront Akito about their feelings in a strange virtual reality recreation device featuring the locale of a school from our time. Short skirts aside, I was finally happy to see Akito stop being such a whiny little boy and take some action. By the end of the episode, it seemed to me like Akito was leaning more towards Yurika, though some may have their doubts after seeing more of the episodes on this disc. One little bone the producers of Nadesico threw us was Yurika's memory when it came to remembering her first kiss with Akito. Were Akito's memories false or did Yurika forget this for some strange reason? Hopefully, we'll find out in the future. The second episode, "The Dangers of Femininity," is a fun episode, but not a very important one. Once again, Akito gets an idea from the Gekigangar anime series(his idea of an ideal woman) and tries to adapt it to real life. Yurika and Megumi, now rivals, begin to torment him, this time with cooking. I'll just say that if you've seen Ranma ½, these two girls make Akane look like Julia Child. The crew eventually gets assigned to an island off of the coast of Australia to investigate a Chulip that is in the area. The cooped-up crew uses this opportunity to get a little fun and sun on the beach. Plenty of opportunities to see some of the Nadesico girls in sexy swimsuits... Anyway, Akito does meet his "ideal woman" while on the island, and she's a bit... special. Chaos ensues. Like I said before, this was a fun episode, but lacked character or plot development. Since we got to see some swimsuits, however, I'll forgive the show just this once. "Finding Yourself in a Routine Plot" is the self-depreciating title of the third episode on this disc. Once again, the Nadesico is be-bopping around earth when they get a mission to destroy a new Jovian weapons platform, the "Walking Stick." After being blasted by its weapons once, the Nadesico learns that they have twelve hours until the cannon will fire again and destroy them. A team is selected for this mission, with Akito being the pack mule. Carting around all of the supplies is not his only problem. Yurika and Megumi both want to move their relationship to the next stage... With Akito not being too enthusiastic about either one. The team uses the power of teamwork(once again an idea Akito got from Gekigangar) to solve the problem and Akito and Akatsuki finally settle their differences. The whole episode was really well done, although I feel that the ending was a bit rushed. Probably the most action-packed episode on the disc, with tense moments abound. Strangely enough, this episode has a musical number. You must see it to believe it. The last episode on the disc, which shows us a different side of Ruri, is "Those Unforgettable Days." It's no surprise that Ruri relates the most to the ship's computer, seeing as she thinks that the entire crew are a bunch of idiots. It is a surprise, however, when the ship starts attacking the friendly UEAF forces along with the Jovian lizards! It turns out that the computer is staying loyal to the crew, and is bitter about the United Forces(UEAF) takeover. This obviously angers the UEAF, so they plan on wiping the computer's memory clean. Not a good thing to the crew, because the memories of the computer hold the vital data of their battles with the Jovians. Ruri has a special place in her heart for the computer, and when her objections are met with no changes, she has to go to Akito for help in protecting the computer's memory. This episode had many touching moments, along with some cool virtual reality scenes that let us see Akito as a super-deformed hybrid robot and in a 1970s style anime design. It was a treat to get into the mind of Ruri, to see what she values, and how beneath that wall she puts up, she actually cares about some of the crew. The episodic nature of this disc gives it more of a laid-back feeling than the other two. While I admit that this change is good in some ways, the main plot of Nadesico seems to be drifting. None of the episodes on the disc really advance the story, plot-wise. The Nadesico's main mission was to investigate the Mars and Moon colony attacks, but on this disc their missions on the earth seem rather aimless. Character-wise, we do see some maturation of Yurika, Akito actually confronting his crazy suitors, and Ruri actually showing some emotion besides disgust and disdain. There are still many characters that need fleshing out, but with Nadesico focusing on the main characters so much, I don't see it happening too soon. It's easy to pick out the faults of this disc, but I must say that I still loved these episodes and they were over far too quickly for me. Call me a Nadesico-holic, but I'm already craving the fourth volume. One thing I was going to pick out was the fact that Nadesico has something I call "Tenchi Syndrome." Tenchi Syndrome, which mainly happens in anime, is when we have a male protagonist that has many girls after him but somehow doesn't like any of them and tries his best to stay away. An anime cliche, at best. I was all ready to rip into this aspect of the show until a character of the show did it for me! Smooth-talker Akatsuki has a great speech on the third episode on the disc. I'm not going to copy his oration on Tenchi Syndrome, but you should find it highly enjoyable if you watch a lot of anime. You gotta give it to Nadesico for not taking itself so seriously. Akatsuki is no Guy Daigoji(see volume one of Nadesico), but he's a welcome addition to the roster, in my opinion. Speaking of Guy, one thing I'm glad they tackled in the first episode of volume three was his untimely death. Guy was one of my favorite characters from the show, and it sort of angered me that there really wasn't an investigation about his death and that not much was said about it since early on the second disc. We do get a little more information on his death, and I've heard it actually gets resolved in future episodes. We shall see. This disc, like the past two, had some above average video quality. Nothing that will make your jaw drop, but very solid and a lot better than many anime titles out there. Overlays are still here, but not as prevalent as in the last two discs. I don't like to be redundant, but the animation was really solid but nothing that was too out of the ordinary. The sound was good, although a bit tinny in some parts of the English dub. I did enjoy the dub a tad bit more than the original Japanese. I might be burned at the stake for this, but for some reason the dub really appeals to me. However. lots of things in the dialogue are changed in the English dub, so if you consider yourself a purist I recommend watching it with subtitles on. The packaging was alright, but I preferred the character-oriented packaging of the past two volumes. At first I thought there were three Aestivalis robots on the cover, but upon further examination, there seems to be two. Hmm. The extras are exactly the same as the second volume, with a creditless opening and ending, a trailer, and character profiles. I admit that the character profiles sure came in handy for learning the names of some of the crew, especially for writing this review. We still don't get those awesome translation notes that made the first disc stand out. ADV, why did you give us such an awesome extra and then take it away in our time of need? I had a blast watching these four episodes of Nadesico. I didn't even mind watching it twice in a day to get a better-formed opinion of the series. One of my favorite things about Nadesico is that it's a giant robot show with more than giant robots. We've got love triangles, mysterious plots *and* space battles. If the quality of the show keeps up the way it has been, I'll be mourning the end of this series. - Bob Mackey |
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