Kidou Senkan Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness

Before I get to anything else, let me point out something: This movie isn't intended to be watched right after the anime with no information given. There was actually a video game made that takes place in between the television series and the movie where a lot of important things happen. You can watch the movie right after the anime and probably still understand it, but it might distract you from the story of the movie trying to figure out what happened. It's called Martian Successor Nadesico: The Blank of Three Years. I don't think it's necessary to actually play it (I haven't), but findingand reading a plot summary is helpful. With that out of the way, let's begin. It's obvious that this can be a very polarizing movie: Just take a look at the reviews on this page. An 8, a 10, a 4 and a 1. So there's definitely a big element of personal preference here. Personally, I think that it does have some pretty big flaws in parts, particularly in terms of some character development, but it's entertaining enough to make up for it. The story is fast-paced and exciting. The getting-the-band-back-together elements of the story, while cliche, are very entertaining, and the final battle at the end is typical Nadesico fun. That said, there are definitely some flaws. There's one in particular that stands out: The villains, the Martian Successors, have motives that are only vaguely defined - it's stated briefly in the movie that they want to control all aspects of society and life, and that plus some of their regimented attitude makes you think they might be a bit like Nazis or something, but you're never told HOW exactly they're going to change the universe for the worse if they come into power. Without this important information, they seem pointless and silly, and their whole plot just becomes kind of dumb. It's especially disappointing since for some reason the English version was named after these villains instead of the Jovians, and yet once you see them it doesn't take long to realize that there's no good reason to name the series after them. Most of the story, though, remains quite entertaining. I was especially interested in the way they built upon the sci-fi concept of the chulips that they had explored in the original series. The art is as good as ever, even better than the TV series. Admittedly, it was a 1990s series, so the animation was not always top-quality, and nothing much to write home about compared to some of the series of today, but I've always felt the more 90's style character designs had a lot of charm, and the animation was always perfectly adequate. It's improved upon, though, in the movie, since, you know, higher budget and all. The music is just as great as usual, with more of the orchestral type stuff that really energized the original series, and it energizes the movie as well. The voice acting is the same as it ever was in the dub, which is the version of the series I watched and so the version of the movie I watched, for consistency. I know some people don't like the dub at all, but I personally love it, and I felt it was just as good as it was in the original series. I liked especially how Ruri sounded older but still like herself. None of the characters we've already met are recast and the voices of the new characters fit in seamlessly, so all in all I'd just say that whatever you thought of the dub the first time around will be exactly the same as what you think of it here. The Japanese appears to be just as good, but I wouldn't really know for sure. Oh, and the sound effects are pretty good I guess. I wasn't really paying attention to that. Ruri pretty much takes over the helm of main character from Akito in this installment, as she's the captain of the Nadesico B and basically gets to do all the coolest stuff in the movie. Personally, though, while she definitely got a lot of the spotlight, I didn't think she took much away from the other characters. It's interesting to see where they've ended up and how much they have grown in three years, but they don't change so drastically as to be unrecognizable and there are still plenty of great character moments. Nearly every character from the series gets at least a few moments to shine here, and Hikaru and Izumi in particular provide some welcome comedy relief toward the end of the movie. A couple characters really get the shaft, though. Although she's plot-important, probably crucial actually, we also don't see Yurika very much during the movie - although admittedly some viewers might be glad to be rid of her. And Akito himself gets some pretty lackluster development. His character frankly becomes a lot less interesting. There are also a few new characters, mostly the crew populating Ruri's Nadesico B. They aren't quite as interesting as the characters from the anime, but they're likable enough and fit in with the rest of the cast. The new villains, however, have basically no real character whatsoever. Even the leader just seems like some random guy, and their whole group really isn't given much of a good reason for doing anything that they do. The most disappointing thing about the movie is probably the ending. By this I don't mean the resolution of the Martian Successor plot threads that began in the movie; that's fantastic. What I do mean is that there are a lot of things left hanging open-ended by the finish, and unfortunately it's the last Nadesico related thing that was ever produced before there were some disputes between the creator and the anime company. There was going to be a sequel in 2005, but it fell through. While I still hope there might be a continuation of the show someday, I'm not holding my breath. Knowing this is the last bit of Nadesico we'll probably ever get is a bit of a downer and it does make a lot of the ending unsatisfying. All in all, although I think it might have helped a bit more to consider character development and plot more, especially the matter of who exactly these villains are and why we should give a damn, but it's still a pretty good movie. Even though the story can be a bit ridiculous at times, it's still a lot of fun. And although it's disappointing that this is pretty much the end, you can always imagine what comes next in your mind. Or hell, write some fan fiction if you want. Frankly, it could be better than any continuation we might actually get.

(While I don't think there are any true spoilers here for Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness if you've seen all of the requisite prequels, there are heavy spoilers for the Sega Saturn game Martian Successor Nadesico: The Blank of 3 Years and one minor spoiler for extra context for the Sega Dreamcast game Martian Successor Nadesico: The Mission.) The Nadesico film requires a bit of context to appreciate, and this is one of those instances where even the initial theater-going Japanese audience of the time would have been bewildered and in the dark, not just an outside audience getting only select titles localized, asis so often the case. Prince of Darkness was released in theaters in 1998, evidently a month before the Sega Saturn game Martian Successor Nadesico: The Blank of 3 Years (B3Y). The problem here is that the Saturn game was a direct sequel to the original series and PoD was a sequel to the game. Like a lot of notable Saturn games, it wasn't localized in the west or elsewhere, so very few non-Japanese fans know what happened there and are forced to experience it vicariously through often lacking plot summaries. B3Y is also a multi-route game that could run around 10-30 hours, meaning it's longer and has more content than even the 26 episode series to cram in to the middle. Originally, it seems PoD was meant to be part of a film series or trilogy, but after the lack of success of the film, there was just one more sequel on the Dreamcast, called Nadesico: The Mission, which also seems to have an open ending of sorts in relation to a wandering Akito, who Ruri and Yurika continue to search for. I've read a few summaries that helped me work my way through the film somewhat, and the glossed-over plot details can mostly be filled in through intuition and a few lines of dialogue later in the film. While the film is mostly functional, it definitely feels like you're watching part 3 immediately after part 1, nevertheless, rather than a film that easily stands on its own. Many events are handled without much buildup to process anything well, often expressed in a few brief sentences or images. This can leave the film feeling tightly compressed, which it ultimately is because it's cramming in a fair amount without any backstory retreading in a mere 74 minutes (the running time is 79, but the credits roll for about 5 minutes). They really throw you right into the middle of the action with this arc, for one of the first few frames reveal Akito and Yurika to be dead! They don't even give a basic explanation of what happened in the past following this reveal, leaving you to piece it together over the course of the entire film. The focus goes from Akito and Yurika to Ruri, who is on a mission with two new sidekicks and her own ship, with the main antagonists being the Martian Successors (MS). Of course, the main couple aren't dead, and I doubt anyone believed they really could be, given their presence in the original series. B3Y involves a story centering around the Nadesico crew and an amnesiac man who has a mysterious link to the presumably deceased Kazama Itsuki (the girl who replaced Akito as a fighter pilot and got boson jumped out of the story). Given what we know about boson jumping by the end of the original, it's easy to fill in the blank that Itsuki is not dead. This amnesiac man is named Kaito, after Yurika's dog (LOL). Most notable here is that Kaito is an anagram of Akito and his unusual experiences and backstory clearly reflect aspects of Akito's character. While Kaito's story is worth reading into to better understand what happened in the time between these two anime stories, it's not overly important to PoD. After the original series, Akito and Yurika become a couple. Minato and Yurika have a custody battle over Ruri, which Yurika wins, leading to the couple becoming the guardians of Ruri. They open up a ramen shop. Whereas Nergal seemed to have been a core part of the Earth's military-industrial complex during the original series, their power declined once the Earthlings and Jovians unified, though Nergal still remains a sizable power, and Erina and Nagare play a role in foiling the Martian Successors plot during PoD. What's left out completely from this story, though perhaps hinted at when Ruri asks Nagare whether he is "good or bad," is that, despite being opponents in PoD, Nergal and the MS conspired together during B3Y on a project to make a powerful Aestivalis and ship, with the latter being controlled by a "cybernetic fairy," much like Ruri, but surpassing the need for a crew. The Aestivalis would be potent enough to compete against numerous mech units or even a whole army, and the ship could take out entire fleets. This corresponds with an expansion of boson jump gates, allowing rapid maneuverability over a vast amount of space and various planets. For this project, they engineer a girl called Lapis who can control the entire ship with her mind. She bears a resemblance to Ruri, is even more super-kuudere, and both were the product of genetic engineering and nanotechnology, allowing them both to directly connect to computers, such as how Ruri interfaces with the Omoikane (the Nadesico's computer) or the Martian technology, though Lapis is presumably more powerful. To consolidate their power, the MS turn against Nergal and abduct anyone who can control the Martian relic or boson jump. This includes Lapis, Akito, and Yurika. Ines fakes her death to avoid being abducted. Yurika is used by MS as a means of learning to control the relic, whereas Akito and Lapis are experimented on, resulting in his senses and her emotions being greatly reduced or removed altogether. Nergal manages to rescue the two, though Yurika remains with MS in the dormant state we see in PoD, integrated with the relic. Though not on good terms with Nergal, Akito and Lapis work with them to undermine MS. Lapis forms a symbiotic relationship with Akito; because Akito has lost his senses and she lacks emotion, the both of them makeup for a component that the other lacks. This isn't well portrayed in PoD, though it has a lot of untapped potential to make them far more interesting characters than how aloof and secondary they are here. Akito pilots the Aestivalis called the Black Selena, which is paired with a ship called the Eucharis, controlled by Lapis. Due to the symbiotic relationship of Eucharis, Black Selena, Akito, and Lapis, and the ability to boson jump on demand, they become an unstoppable power, easily wiping out the MS. Therein lies part of the problem with the anti-climatic feel of the film, which leads to the MS being a rather tepid antagonist and an unsatisfying conclusive battle, though it has the cinematic flair of a samurai duel when Akito squares off against one of the MS commanders. Even with a planned sequel, this doesn't feel sufficient. Pretty much the whole cast is featured in some capacity, the most important ones joining up on a new mission, while some others stay behind and help in other ways. One of the odder inclusions to me was the father of the deceased Munetake having a minor role, who isn't even identified as his father, though you can assume it's him because of the hair style. While there is some humor to be found here, especially with old crew members, like the female mech pilots, Jun, Yukina, and interactions between Hari and Saburota, quite a bit of it is clustered during the middle section. The most stark contrast is how the once-goofy Akito, who matured as a character by the end of the original series, is practically a different character, a bit of an emo edgelord, and a non-communicative husk. The development of the character here is understandable but because of the aforementioned problems, the tonal shift from series to film will be jarring for anyone lacking context (even with the context, I imagine!), and it might be challenging to see how such a parodic series could become so much more serious and darker. The villains are somewhat lacking in depth and don't get a lot of screen time. Kusakabe, the leader of the antagonistic MS, was a Jovian commander in the original and fought against the crew of the Nadesico on a few occasions in the original series. One thing I'm uncertain about is whether or not Earthlings are part of the MS at all; their origins were as a Jovian group, so it's likely the case that this is a plot for Jovian supremacy over the solar system and beyond, as the Jovian upper brass attempted before the peace treaty, but even this basic point is not especially clear in the film, making it obvious how the pace is too quick and the writing becomes vague as a result. I've seen some mention of fascistic imagery, and it's there, but they mostly resemble some kind of mystical cult with their matching outfits in this case, attempting to utilize boson jumping to travel through space-time instantaneously, which would allow them to centralize the entire solar system in a new order. The name Martian Successors is a nod to the aliens that briefly stopped at Mars and left some of their technology there, and the MS would be the inheritors of that legacy. Japan had a boom of UFO cults, just as many other countries did, and I reckon some of those were influence for crafting the antagonists, just cross them with Yukio Mishima's activism or something. Is it worth watching for fans of the original series? Well... with context, I think it is probably worth it, though it's a much different experience, plenty flawed, and difficult to view in a fully satisfactory way. I've hopefully provided all of the most important points for approaching and understanding PoD. From an audiovisual standpoint, it's vastly superior to the original. I tended to not even notice the OST in the series, other than the catchy OP and ED, but the orchestral score here drives the scenes along in a more memorable fashion than anything in the series. Many shots in the original are decent enough, but the cel animation in the film is often lovely to behold, featuring vivid coloring, more inventive angles, transitions, and far more creative sci-fi imagery. Mostly, it's just pleasant to see what happened to a cast that you spent so many episodes with already, now that many of them are older and more mature, trying to figure out what to do with their life, and with the hangover of Gekiganger having long passed.

One bit of advice when watching this movie: Don't Blink. Seriously, the plot turns on you like a bad crowd at Yannifest and if you don't pay absolute attention to it it passes you by, causing you to scratch your head and ask 'wtf'. It did have its good parts but they were sparse at best. They spent way too long trying to convey what everyone was doing post-series but then decided to just flat-out stop at a certain point and try to get the plot up and running... to no avail. the final battle follows closely with what the plot was doing and youhonestly have no idea how or why everything is happening. The dude who[SPOILER] shot Tsukumo in the series just shows up and tells everyone to stop fighting and they do, without hesitation or explanation as to why. They're just captivated by his hair, i guess. And they also succeeded in turning Akito into a mopey little bitch. Hooray for Shinji's Disease and its ability to grasp the heart of ANY mech protag. i was really hoping this would turn out as awesome as the show was, but i just felt sorry for it.

"Martian Successor Nadesico: Prince of Darkness" (or just "Prince of Darkness" for short,) suffers from a lot of the symptoms that made the original series so rubbish. While the production seems to have improved, being better dramatised as well as both looking and sounding better than the original series, it doesn't feel anything like a movie from the late nineties. Presentation improvements aside, this movie is even less impressive than the original series. It boasts an utterly confusing beginning where I've no idea what's going on, a build up to something that vaguely resembles a climatic showdown... only to follow up with an anti-climatic finish.It left me feeling that the movie had ended prematurely. The most glaring fault is that "Prince of Darkness" is simply too short. For a while the plot looked like it might be heading somewhere interesting, but the whole thing turned out to be stupidly simple - it's just a very straight forward old crew battles new threat storyline, but confusingly told and filled with incomprehensible technobabble. And of course, because the story has moved on since the series, there is no talk of "Genkiganga" which, for me, was almost the only source of entertainment in the original series. As far as I can tell, the only thing about "Prince of Darkness" that's of value to fans of the series is that it allows them to see how the crew have moved on since the end of the series, which admittedly is vaguely interesting in its own right. But apart from that, I struggle to think of any good reasons to watch this.

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