Wait A Minute!!!
Influences and Parodies in Martian Successor Nadesico
Any discerning, intelligent, well-informed anime otaku may already know all this, but for all the fools out there like myself, this is for you: some of the basic ideas the people behind Nadesico used in their parody of mech shows and all the rest!
Warning: There are some spoilers here. Do not read this unless you want to spoil the surprises in store for you!
Also, I am gathering episode information and other things, so many things are tentative right now until I have the facts. Sorry if what I say here seems not very intelligent or direct. That hasn't influenced substantially the arguements and examples, however, I assure you.
If you think there's something else I should consider besides the points I made here, let me know, ok?
For easy navigation:
Nadesico and the Big Mech Shows : Nadesico
and Evangelion : Nadesico and Macross : Nadesico
and Gundam and Yamato : Nadesico and Star Trek
: Nadesico and the Magical Girl Shows : Nadesico
and Studios : Nadesico on Nadesico Nadesico
and the ship of fools : Nadesico and Names : Nadesico
and the Otaku-Nation : Sources
Nadesico and the Big Mech Shows
I don't know how I can stress this enough times, This Is a Parody of Big Mech Shows! There, I think I drilled it into you head enough times. Maybe it'll stick there ^_^. Seriously, though, this is a big thing with the show. The main way it appears in the series is the show-within-a-show, Genkigander III (3). This mini show, the favorite of Akito Tenkawa and Gai Daigoji, is a seventies-esque (as in it looks like it was drawn in the stone age of anime, and no offense to those who like stuff from that era (oy, Lupin Gang Anime guys, gomen nasai...)) big robot show of three guys in mecha colored in with primary colors and all the rest. Very Go-Nai. It becomes a pivotal point for the crew later on in the series (see Nadesico and Macross, below). It is also a source of battle cries for Gai and Akito in the second episode, with a few more references the Genkigander attacks near the end.
Speaking of battle cries, one of the funniest lines poking fun at this
genre comes from Gort Holy in episode 2:
"They yell out the names of weapons. I wonder if it's got voice
recognition."
Ok, basic fact-Evangelion was a parody of mech shows to begin with. It wanted to show a darker side of what the stuff the folks before it were doing. The reluctant hero, Shinji, is a far cry from the "I want to FIGHT!!!" attitude that many mech pilots/controllers/et cetera have shown and been portrayed. Akito, in this way, is a loony Shinji, with the same "leave me alone to live my life" attitude and the same "no parents, really" past. The difference is, of course, Akito is, like I just said, loony, just like all the other crewmembers of the Nadesico.
Ruri Hoshino and Rei Ayanami also seem to be cut from the same cloth. Both young ladies have undergone all sorts of tests and training. Rei has been trained since the early phases of the Eva project to pilot one of them. Ruri have been trained from birth to be super-intelligent and has a nack for computers. Both quiet, shy, and really popular, Ruri is the Nadesico Rei.
Also, Nadesico was meant to be a parody of Evangelion in the first place, not just a parody of mech shows. The reluctant hero, the big mechs. Evangelion is a very popular, if confusing, show in Japan. Many people have been imitating its designs and characterizations in hopes of repeating its success. Nadesico does this too, but they make sure that it looks somewhat obvious, and allow the watcher to think, "Hey, that's funny because such and such is like such and such in Eva ...," or something similar.
As an added plus, fans of both shows will be able to pick up on jokes in the Eva-parody episode with the Mah-Jong Memory Game (a later episode I haven't seen again, so give me a few weeks for the title).
Recently, I saw a fan music video that really puts my words in a video format. It is basically images from Nadesico in the big part. In the small part is the opening film from Evangelion. The song is the opening for Eva. If this was a VCR tape, I would be burning it from playing it so much. The song is just too cool and images are so well-done, matching completely. When I am finally able to, I will upload it for all of you. Because of the place I am currently a guest at, I don't have the ability to do so.
Ps. If you are the person who originally made the movie I am refering
to or have it on your site, let me know, please?
Yep, not only does it take on the modern King of Mecha Shows, it also takes on a Legend as well, Macross! Macross, as many good, old-school or well-educated otaku know, was of an Earth-based military fighting against aliens without a culture. When these aliens accidentally heard a certain idol singer named Lynn Minmay, they were hearing something they never knew before, music. Soon after that, many of the alien warriors defected to the humans, to know more of the culture and to develop a sense for one of their own.
That war, in the end, is said to have ended due to the love influenced by a song.
The war in Nadesico ended in a similar fashion. It ends because of love, but this time it's influenced by the show Genkigander III. How's that for alluding?
Speaking of idol singers, we actually have one of the later episodes focusing on a idol singer contest on the ship! Negral, the company that made the ship and hired the crew, allows a contest to go on the ship and all the ladies on the ship (and there are so many, see below) to participate. The original prize was a contract to be the future's next big star, but after a silly announcement by Yurika stating that the winner can be the captain of the ship for a day. The news came across as a statement that the winner will be the next captain, permanently. This episode just too funny to me, and it does show that many of the ladies onboard can moonlight as idol singers if they really want to.
Macross was also the show that influenced Nadesico's use of "bridge bunnies", or cute young girls commendeering the vessel and stuff. The ship's nearly all-female crew is most definitely influenced by Macross, and this development is obvious in all the hard work done on the female characters. Hell, even one-shot characters like Aqua had some work done her.
And we're not done yet! Both Macross and Nadesico
have love triangles abound. Only, in Nadesico's case, it's
more of a love polygon of some sort.
Nadesico and Gundam and Yamato
Yes, even these giants of the space opera shows can't escape Nadesico's search for influences and parody.
Great mecha designs and major air battles have been the major cornerstone of all the Gundam series. Nadesico, as an offspring of the same genre, obviously drew inspirations from the elder series.
In the parody department for both of Gundam and Yamato, check out the name. Any observant watcher would notice in the opening credits the English words forming underneath the Chinese characters (better known as kanji, for all of you planning to study Japanese in the future) say "Martian Successor Nadesico". That, of course, is not the translation of the kanji, whch actually spells out "Mobile Battleship". Although I really don't want to go into the sillyness of assuring a show's viewers that the battleship involved is indeed mobile, I do want to point out that this is a poke at the titles of Mobile Suit Gundam and Space Battleship Yamato.
As for Yamato, in one episode, the crowd on the surface, looking
up watching the action, wondered what was the name of the big ship kicking
ass up there (the Nadesico). Someone blurts out, "Isn't it the Yamato?"
That's right. There are influences showing up on Nadesico that, for the Star Trek fan, would make them say, "Hey!"
First, the ship itself. The engines are away from the rest of the ship, like two extendsions of the ship. This is a directly visual manifestation of Star Trek influences. Whoa, big words there. This is how you can see Star Trek is a favorite to the mech designer and the creator.
Another manifestation, I mean, way of seeing Star Trek influences: the
uniforms. The dark colors used, in particular the dark pants and
skirts used by all the crewmembers, is the dead giveaway.
Nadesico and the Magical Girl Shows
There is a slight reference to magical girl shows in Nadesico.
Megumi Reinard, the voice actress works on a show called uh, Natural Laich,
a show that is just like all the other magical princess shows that currently
populate the Japanese airwaves and spread their sugar-coated sweetness
over the land. Ruri, when she asks the ship's computer, Omoikane,
what is a princess, it quickly brings up the opening credits to this show.
She, of course, did not mean the anime kind.
In one episode, which is one of the stranger, and self-parody, ones
in the series, has, in a hilarious switch, the folks from Genkigander
III watching Nadesico (for more on this, look at "Nadesico
on Nadesico", below). One of the things the folks were refering
to was the fact that the studio in charge of the shows is having some trouble
at the moment.
Any show willing to parody others must be willing to parody itself, correct? Nadesico is not above making sly jokes about itself and its characters routinely address the camera. One episode, after an unfortunate accident, Jun lost his voice. His response, in thought form, "No more dialogue for me today."
In the "Genkigander Watches Nadesico" episode (which,
ironically, is called "Let's Make This a Fiery Anime" and starts up as
an actual episode of Genkigander III before opening up the Nadesico
opening credits), Nadesico, which has its characters influenced
by Genkigander, becomes the influence. The three pilots of
the big mecha of that show have to face their enemy, who just happened
to have been watching the same episode of Nadesico and had an idea
on how to beat his human counterparts. Both sides, in fact, used
attacks drawn out of Nadesico, such as a distortion field and a
gravity blast.
Nadesico and the ship of fools
Yup. There are of course plenty of shows that have a group of incompetent fools thrown together to save the world. I can't name one particular show that this can be illustrated in (maybe because there's too many?), but I will mention one show, a contemporary of Nadesico) that has a similar thought to hilarious affects: Irresponsible Captain Tylor. On a leaky ship, a bunch of kooks and morons, not the least of them the captain himself, are going to save the world? Don't know yet, 'cause we're only up to Ep. 8 of 26 in Anime Club at the moment. But you understand, right?
But no comments on a connection between Yurika and Tylor. She
can actually do her job with skill, despite the fact that she can be just
as clueless as Tylor.
What's in a name? Many of the names thrown around in Nadesico
point to many things. First, the very ship's name. All the
mecha (the ships, the fighting armors, et cetera) are named either for
plants or parts of plants. That's right, "nadesico" is a plant, or
rather, the Japanese name for the Sweet William plant (nadeshico,
which is the way the ship's name is pronounced, if you wanted to know).
Other flower illusions include: daisy, cherry blossom, gladioli, balsam,
crocus, tulip, cosmos, buttercup, digitalis, pansy, iris, peony, amaryllis.
"Aestavalis" is a term for flower arranging.
That's right, the Otaku-Nation. Not only does it make fun of its parent genre, Nadesico also pokes fun at fanboys and girls. Gai Daigoji lives for Genkigander III, while Akito becomes a hard-core fanboy from his exposure to the show and hanging out with Gai. Hikaru Amano, the silly Aestivalis pilot with the red hair and the glasses, considers herself a "proffesional otaku" and is the creator of some rather saucy doujinshi mangas. Seiya Uribatake not only owns a Macintosh (and what anime concerned with computers in some way has no reference to Macs, anyway), but he is also a very skilled model maker (mecha and people, though he did mix up the bodies of Yurika and Ruri together) and rather wacky to boot.
There are plenty of times when otaku are considered idiots and fools one moment only to bring honor to themselves the next in this show. There are also a few characters that don't mind making fun of either otaku (Nagare versus Akito) or the shows they worship (all the constant disses on Genkigander III).
Also, there is in fact an Otaku Nation in the story-line: the Jovian
Lizards. Their entire civilization is based on, drum roll please....
Genkigander
III!!! The show is everything to them. They are the Otaku-Nation,
hell, Otaku-Planet.
Sources:
My brain, no dah. Most of these things I came up with after watching
the show.
Other/supplementary sources:
Manga Max, Vol. 1, Num. 12. Pages 12-16
Animerica, Vol. 8, Num. 3. Page 6-11, 18, 32-34
These people pointed out some stuff and expanded on it and also made
light of stuff I didn't even think of.
More will appear later, if there are more things that should be said.
