Uchuu no Senshi

Whenever I watch a show that was made before the 90s, I try to make sure that I am viewing it through the lens of the era it was created in. Uchuu no Senshi is a decent production for 1988. That being said, I'm still a little indecisive about how I felt about the anime adaptation of Starship Troopers. I will preface this by saying that I have read the beginning of the original Heinlein novel but I didn't finish it. That said, the anime is certainly more faithful to the source material than Paul Verhooven's excellent film adaptation we got in the late 90s. Forthe things I enjoyed; while watching I really got the feeling that the creators were passionate for the original book and wanted to bring that to film, while taking a few creative liberties. The art direction on all the mecha scenes is really enjoyable, and the design of the mobile armor looks surprisingly like Halo's Master Chief, who of course would not be created for another fifteen years. The action scenes are great, though I would have liked to see more of the Bugs. The artists did a really good job making all the main characters distinct, easily identifiable, and memorable. Johnny Rico is your typical "All-American" look (though he's from Buenos Aires, Argentina), but his squadmates represent a range of ethnicities/nationalities and are drawn as such. It is really nice to see an anime where the characters dont suffer from "sameface", as many modern shows do, with having the same style of eyes and facial features and shape across the cast. I also thought the show was, on an episode by episode basis, paced really well. While it is a sci-fi show, it spends a lot of time on the characters and their struggle to become graduated members of the mobile infantry. So the action is balanced by downtime at bars, the dormitory, and with family. But, there are some shortcomings. While all the male characters look great, they reeeeally struggled with the female characters. Carmencita, Johnny's love interest and his motivation to join the military, even at her most attractive as a cheerleader looks androgynous. I think they knew she didn't look very female, so I think they just made her eyes really huge to compensate. The other female characters essentially look like clones of her, and for me with the rest of the show looking so reasonably well executed, it's strange to see how much they struggled to draw female characters. At only 6 episodes, it feels like it ends right as it starts to stretch its legs and run. The final episode is an action-packed climax, but it doesn't really resolve anything. When the end credits roll I felt myself thinking, "Oh, that's all?" It even ends on a pregnant pause. I'm left wondering what they were trying to say with this adaptation, or if they had planned on more episodes but they were cut short. Overall I certainly liked it more than I didn't, and if you are a fan of Starship Troopers it is definitely worth a watch. I just wish it had a few more episodes to really see out the conflict and let the characters develop a bit more.

“Starship Troopers” is watchable. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but the story is at least interesting. Partially owing to the fact that this OVA is based on an American novel, it also has a distinctly non-anime feel to it. The all-English soundtrack used throughout includes generic American-style upbeat rock songs that unsettlingly sound both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time, almost as if they’re from an ‘80s America in a parallel universe. The character designs bear more similarities to Western-style animation than the typical anime style. So this anime is a unique watch due to these factors. However, this OVA is lacking when it comes to technicalaspects. At times, the animation is limited and choppy. There are awkward moments, like when a character’s eyes are supposed to be welling up with tears, they just look like they’re vibrating. While some character designs are distinct enough, about half of the characters look like they have the same face, so it’s hard to tell them apart. The faces of the female characters (especially Carmencita) enter uncanny valley territory. The soundtrack, as mentioned above, consists of generic American-style rock music. Sometimes the insert songs are a little bit too upbeat for the scenes being shown. The openings and endings are okay, but the animation sequences are kind of strange — in one, we see Johnny surfing on a cloud, and in the other one, Carmencita becomes a seagull. The voice acting is nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done. The characters don’t stand out too much. There is a Japanese member of Johnny’s team who is supposed to provide comic relief, but just comes off as weird most of the time. In the first episode, Johnny’s friend Carl enlists in the army with him and Carmencita, and is set up potentially to be an important character, but he is never mentioned again afterwards. Characters often get into fights, but always punch each other in the cheek for some reason. Cheeks get slapped multiple times as well. (Did the staff have something against cheeks?) The story, as I said earlier, is interesting, but predictable. There are twists, but you can see them coming from a mile away. There is not much action in this series; in fact, they only get into actual combat in part of the last episode. The rest of the OVA focuses on Johnny and his team training. Characters make logic-defying decisions at times to advance the plot. Some characters die, but there isn’t much blood and gore. As for nudity, there’s a headless nude poster shown for a few seconds on screen in one of the episodes. There’s also a mildly sexist throwaway comment (coming from a female character, no less), but nothing too explicit or profane. The OVA ends at an awkward spot in the story, just when things are beginning to ramp up. Overall, while the technical aspects don’t do it any favors, this OVA is an engaging watch due to its non-anime-style elements.

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