The original Martian Successor Nadesico television show was pretty popular when it aired in Japan, and it found a number of fans on this side of the Pacific, as well. The show was popular enough, in fact, that a follow-on theatrical movie was produced. Many popular television shows get movies. Sometimes movies try to retell the story of the television show in much less time (i.e., Escaflowne), sometimes they simply re-write the story to fit the boundaries of a theatrical film (i.e., Rahxephon), and sometimes they use the movie to tell a new story, set within an open chronological space within the show's timeline (i.e., Cowboy Bebop). The Nadesico movie takes the third option, setting the action roughly three years after the end of the original television show.

Interestingly, the very first thing we learn in the film is that the main characters in the television show, Yurika Misumaru and Akito Tenkawa, are dead. This isn't the only thing that is different, however. In the short time span between the television show and the movie, the Jovians and the Earth Federation have declared peace and joined forces. Some of the old strains are still there (during a parliamentary debate, one of the Earthers refers to a Jovian as a "lizard," for example), but for the most part things are unified, at least on the surface.

With the combining of governments comes the combining of armed forces, which is reflected in the primary characters in the movie. In the starring role is everyone's favorite under-age super genius, Ruri Hoshino. Now 16 years old, Ruri is the captain of the Nadesico B, a space battleship which is the successor to the original Nadesico, and part of the human space fleet. Ruri has two main officers, a Jovian womanizer and a little kid. I guess it can't be the Nadesico without a young super genius as the operations officer, can it? Anyway, these three get involved in a plot by a co-Jovian and Earth splinter group that is trying to control Boson-jumping and thereby control the universe.

Fan favorite Ruri Hoshino is back in action, this time with some new crew members.	Akito Tenkawa has undergone the most change from the television show to the movie.

If you are a fan of the original television show, you will enjoy the fact that all of the original characters (well, those that survived) make at least a token appearance in the movie. A number of the original crew members are brought back together to man the new battleship Nadesico C. Those that aren't in the crew have other appearances, such as Megumi Reinard, the old communications officer. She and the Howmei girls (woohoo!) are involved in the final "battle" against the splinter group. Aoi Jun is back, too, and he is still everyone's favorite whipping boy. Even the splinter group is headed by the old Jovian vice-commander. Yep, the whole gang is here.

Unfortunately, even the whole gang can not save this movie from poor scripting. Because there is a lot going on, the fact that this movie is only around 80 minutes long means that there is little time for character development. For existing characters, only Ruri and Akito get any real development of their characters, and that is minimal. The new characters get short thrift, and you don't really have any reason to care about any of them. This is especially true in the case of Lapis, another "artificial being" like Ruri, who may or may not have been important to the plot. After seeing the film, I really couldn't say if she was important or not; she was just there.

Truth be told, the entire movie could have been done with Ruri and a handful of the old crew. I get the distinct impression that the only reason the old folks show up is to entice their fans to see the movie. Because, let's be honest, you aren't going to watch it because of the fantastic plot (because there isn't one). Yeah, it looks pretty good, but that pretty shell is like a Faberge egg surrounding a hollow interior. The story doesn't really add anything to the Nadesico universe, other than letting you know that the Earthers and the Jovians didn't end up killing each other. Also, the heavy humor of the television show is almost non-existent. There are a few humorous moments (often at Jun's expense, I noticed), and the obligatory scene where the world is understood by reading comic books, but outside of that this film takes itself too seriously. Because of this, while it looks like a Nadesico film, it doesn't feel like a Nadesico film. At least the voice acting is pretty good across the board, but even that can't save this film from itself. In the end, as a fan of the original television show, I can't recommend this film to anyone other than other Nadesico fans, and even then you should rent, not buy.

Distributor: ADV Films
Creator: Kia Asamiya / XEBEC
Released: 2003

Video Quality: A-
Audio Quality: B+
Presentation: B
Content: D
Overall: C-