Martian Successor Nadesico

Martian Successor Nadesico, often shortened to Nadesico, is a Japanese anime series, and later a manga series created by Kia Asamiya. The Martian Successor Nadesico anime was directed by Tatsuo Sato and produced by TV Tokyo, Xebec, and Yomiko Advertising, Inc. The series aired in Japan on the Bandai Channel and TV Tokyo from October 1, 1996 to March 24, 1997.

Episodes 1, 6, and 25 of Martian Successor Nadesico aired, edited for content, during Toonami's Giant Robot Week in 2003.

Plot
The series takes place in the year 2196. Earth is at war with a race of alien invaders called the "Jovian Lizards". A company called Nergal designs a space battleship, the ND-001 Nadesico. While the ship is powerful and its crew consists of the top civilian experts in their fields, these individuals tend to have "some slight personality disorders".

The primary protagonist, Akito Tenkawa, is a boy with a mysterious past; once a resident of Mars' Utopia colony, he escaped its destruction by the Jovian Lizards and arrived on Earth, with no memory of how he got there but a terrible fear of the invaders. He hates fighting and only wants to be a chef. However, he is constantly called on to act as a pilot of one of the Nadesico's Aestivalis - humanoid combat robots. While on board the Nadesico, Akito has more problems to deal with than just the Jovians; nearly all the female members of the crew, especially the vessel's captain Yurika Misumaru, seem to be head over heels in love with him, though all he wants to do is cook and watch his favorite anime, Gekigangar III.

Nadesico Crew Members
Akito Tenkawa — Born on Mars and orphaned after his parents died in an apparent military coup, Akito's dream to become a cook stemmed from the quality of the raw food available. Though he has a nanomachine controller enabling him to pilot machinery, he refused to become a military pilot; his first time in an Aestevalis, a humanoid combat robot, was an accident, though he quickly showed capable piloting skill. Due to the lack of pilots on the Nadesico, Akito was officially made one for the duration of the tour of duty. A fan of the anime Gekiganger, his devotion to the series is rekindled by fellow pilot Gai Daigoji. Akito is romantically adored by nearly all the girls aboard the Nadesico, especially the ship's captain Yurika Misumaru.

Yurika Misumaru — Yurika is the beautiful but ditzy captain of the Nadesico and childhood friend of Akito Tenkawa. Though he considers her crazy, Yurika has romantic feelings for him. Yurika is shown to be very scatterbrained at times, misinterpreting comments made by others as words of inspiration and devotion, and forgetting or twisting events from her and Akito's childhood. Nonetheless, she is a very capable captain, and a constant source of cheerfulness and inspiration for the rest of the crew.

Ruri Hoshino — The "Electronic Fairy", she keeps the ship's computer (Omoikane) running and slowly bonds with it, asking it numerous questions about society and human interaction. Ruri is a child prodigy and somewhat distant from the rest of the crew, whom she considers "nothing but idiots". She is occasionally referred to as "Ruriruri" by fellow bridge crewman Minato and Aestivalis pilot Hikaru. In addition, she co-hosts the "Naze Nani Nadesico" segment, and is the narrator at the beginning of each episode of Nadesico, recapping previous events while adding her own opinion of the situation. Ruri is very cold and extremely knowledgeable of many things and doesn't like getting into the things that most crew members do. Rather she enjoys sitting back in front of the monitor regulating the Nadesico, playing video games and communicating to Omoikane. She does have her spontaneous moments like when during the pageant she dresses up in a bathing suit and sings (however, out of embarrassment, she drops out of the standings).

Gai Daigoji — Born Jiro Yamada (an average name, similar to John Doe or John Smith in English), he insisted that Gai Daigoji was "the name that belongs to (his) soul", and angrily asserted his "true" name whenever someone used the "other" one. A rabid Gekiganger otaku, he was an official pilot and arrived three days ahead of schedule when he learned they would be piloting actual robots like in the anime. Fueled by his devotion to the show, Gai had a fierce intensity in and out of battle, and was angry and resentful towards Akito for being the first one to engage the enemy, stealing "(his) destiny", even though he had a broken leg and was unable to fight. The two were soon able to bond over Gekiganger, although Gai couldn't understand why Akito would rather be "a dumb cook" than a robot pilot. It is Gai's wish to die heroically in battle like one of the characters from Gekiganger.

Megumi Reinard — Megumi Reinard is a former voice actress who did work for anime and animated commercials. She is recruited by Nergal to be the communications officer aboard the Nadesico. Megumi has no love for war or killing in general. This is why she has a lot in common with Akito Tenkawa, who only wants to be a cook, not a pilot/soldier. She is also Yurika Misumaru's main competition for Akito's affection, though she is not really worried since the captain is oblivious to just about everything. Megumi is the first to officially be classified as Akito's girlfriend, beginning around episode 4.

Jun Aoi — The first officer of the Nadesico, Jun has a large infatuation for Yurika, leaving a position in the Earth's military to join her crew and "look out for her". She is clueless of how he feels and considers him her "best friend", though the rest of the crew realize his feelings. A common running gag is Jun's misunderstanding of Yurika's special efforts, such as preparing food--he believes it is for him, but it always ends up being for Akito, with him being passed by.

Inez Fressange — Developed the Nadesico's Phase Transition system for Nergal on Mars before it was invaded; when the ship returned to the planet, she came aboard, stating that the surviving colonists refused to leave, believing the ship would soon be destroyed; however, an attack immediately afterwards forced the grounded Nadesico to raise its shields, crushing the underground colonists and leaving her the only survivor. She hosts the "Naze Nani Nadesico" segment as a technical consultant along with Ruri and Yurika in an attempt to teach the crew about the ship's workings, as a way of atoning for what happened. Her name comes from real-life French model Inès de La Fressange's name.

Ryoko Subaru — an Aestivalis pilot, she escaped from the L2 space colony when it was destroyed by the Jovians, salvaging four Aestevalis suits and fellow pilot Izumi Maki. She is the most fiery and combative of the three from the L2 colony, but a surprise attack from the enemy left her terrified and crying out for help from Akito; this was noted and would be mercilessly brought up by Izumi and Hikaru many times, to her great embarrassment. Over time, she began to accept her feelings for Akito, but for the most part refrained from public displays of affection.

Izumi Maki — an Aestivalis pilot, brought in a storage container from the L2 colony by Ryoko. Quiet and reserved, though an incurable punster, cracking up at her own jokes. In the later episodes she reveals she had two fiancees, both of whom died. One of disease, one of an accident.

Hikaru Amano — an Aestivalis pilot and rabid Gekigangar III fangirl, she was ejected from the L2 colony in a capsule which crashed into the Nadesico; making her way through the air ducts, she was directly over Akito's room as he was watching a tragic episode of Gekiganger. Moved to tears, her wailing could be heard through the overhead vent, right before she fell out of it and onto him. She is a rabid Gekigangar III fan and one day wants to publish her own manga about the series with herself as the lead female, and two of the male leads in a shōnen-ai relationship. During Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness it is shown that Hikaru becomes an actual manga artist, but is overstressed due to her profession.

Nagare Akatsuki — Nagare came into the picture after the Nadesico escaped from Mars; a skilled Aestivalis pilot, Nagare rescued Akito during battle as the latter was in a state of panic and unable to move. He was soon assigned to the Nadesico, bringing along Erina Won, who he had a mysterious relationship with. Nagare disparaged Akito for his devotion to the simplistic ideals of Gekiganger and the fact that he hates Japanese Anime altogether, but the two were still able to get along well enough.

Minato Haruka — The main helmswoman for the Nadesico. She gave up her job as the secretary for a large company's president so she could join the Nadesico crew. Her reason being that it sounded much more interesting. She has a mixed-up relationship with Goat Hoary. She helps Tsukomo and falls in love with him after a fight with Goat that ended their relationship.

Erina Kinjo Won — Erina joins the Nadesico at the same time as Nagare and proves to be just as irritating to the other characters. Her official post is co-helmswoman, but she ends up pushing orders onto everyone around her and even the captain. She has a great fascination with Akito because of his boson jumping abilities and constantly confronts him to become an experiment guinea pig. In episode 22, she seems to cry when Akito leaves which may hint at her feelings for him.

Mr. Prospector — Mr. Prospector's real name is never revealed, but he seems to not only be some sort of Nergal accountant, but the recruitment officer for the Nadesico. He is most known for agonizing over the loss of expensive equipment.

Seiya Uribatake — Ace mechanic Seiya joins the Nadesico to get away from his wife and child, at the same time chasing around various young women. Most noticeable among them is Hikaru, who he almost has a relationship with.

Goat Hoary — A serious man of few words, Goat seems to be the crew's guardian. He also has a relationship with Minato Haruka for a time. He is very big and very strong, capable of carrying Megumi and Ruri, one on each arm, and is a skilled marksman.

Howmei — Head chef on the Nadesico, Howmei is responsible for making sure everything gets cooked correctly, even if it involves teaching Akito about the variety of spices and flavourings available on Earth. Given the very nature of the Nadesico's mission and the fact that some of them might not live to see another day, Howmei wants to make sure that every meal the crew eats is as good as they want because it may be their last meal.

Howmei Girls — A group of girls who are Howmei's main cooking crew. They are often seen together either cooking or singing. In the movie they went to work at an amusement park. They are Sayuri Terasaki, the tallest one who wears her black hair in a ponytail. Junko Mizuhara, she has short blue hair. Mikako Satou, the shortest one who wears her brunette hair in two low buns. Harumi Tanaka, she has red hair worn in two braids. Eri Uemura, she has brown hair tied in a ponytail.

Itsuki Kazama — Itsuki came on as a replacement pilot when Akito left the ship with Megumi during the Christmas return of the Nadesico to Earth. She is known as a great team player and an excellent pilot, but was killed in her first battle with the team. During production, she was unnamed, so she was referred to in-series as "Newbie" and "Seelie" (by Ryoko both times).

Aqua Crimson — The rich daughter of the Crimson family, Aqua appears briefly for one episode, as an analogue to Aquamarine: a character from Gekiganger III. Much like her namesake, she initially appears as a caring, beautiful, and respectful teen, only to later be shown as somewhat of a psycho, wanting to die along with Akito. She believes that by doing so, she will escape from her rich and boring lifestyle, and become a tragic heroine. Aqua also seems to be a remarkable cook, though it is implied that she always includes in her food a powerful paralyzing drug, making this point somewhat moot.

Episodes
Only episodes 1, 6 and 25 of the series aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami block. In North America, the series was licensed by ADV Films who originally released the series on 12 VHS tapes. The series was later released on DVD in six installments, followed by a complete boxset released on September 24, 2002. At Anime Expo 2011, Nozomi Entertainment announced that they had re-licensed the series, following ADV's closure in 2009. They re-released the series, along with the movie and the Gekiganger III OVA, in 2012. In February 2020, Funimation began streaming the series along with the sequel film.

Broadcast History
Martian Successor Nadesico was first broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo between October 1, 1996 and March 24, 1997. In 2002 ADV created the Anime Network, and offered Nadesico as part of its initial offering with Comcast Cable's video-on-demand (VOD) initiative in the Philadelphia area in mid December.

Episodes 1, 6 and 25 of the series made their North American premiere on Cartoon Network's Toonami block as part of Giant Robot Week from February 24-26, 2003.
 * Japan (TV Tokyo) — October 1, 1996 - March 24, 1997
 * United Kingdom (Sci-Fi) — July 6, 2002 - 2003
 * United States (Cartoon Network) — February 24, 2003 - February 26, 2003
 * Latin America (Animax) — 2005 - 2006

Toonami Broadcast History

 * Toonami (United States) — February 24, 2003 - February 26, 2003