![[EX-CLUSIVE]](/file/35716/EX CD Rom.iso/issue3_1/images/section_feature.gif)
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—by Charles McCarter
As we looked back over our feature coverage of anime over the last two years
of EX, we realized that while we had given significant attention to much of
the "newer" anime, some of the older titles had been somewhat neglected.
This was even further evidenced by our readers writing in and asking us
about older shows. So we decided that perhaps it was time to widen our
focus and include shows that have appeared more than two years ago.
Our theme for this year is, "A Look Forward, A Look Back," and we will try
to balance our coverage accordingly. We do this because we believe that
anime made ten or fifteen or even twenty years ago is still relevant, and
still worthy of our attention. We also feel that we should attempt to
broaden the horizons of anime fans. Indeed, many of you have written asking
us to put together some sort of "Anime Primer" or a guide for new fans. We
hope that covering these older shows will also help fans to discover
something they previously weren't interested in or of which they were
unaware.
And to launch a year that straddles both the future and the past, there is
no better place to start than MOBILE BATTLESHIP NADESICO
(or MARTIAN SUCCESSOR NADESICO if you prefer the
English title). While at first glance this title may seem to offer nothing
new, it synthesizes old standards in such a way as to create a different,
and very entertaining, vision.

Captain Yurika and the Strike Cruiser Nadesico. |

The Aestevalis mecha in action. |
The Story

In the future, Earth is being invaded by an unknown enemy from Jupiter
called the Jovian Lizards. These foes began their assault with Mars and
then moved on to Earth's moon. At the beginning of the show, Earth was in
the process of being invaded.
Of course, the Earth's military forces were next to useless. (Has there
even been an anime where the alien invaders were repelled successfully by
Earth on the first attempt?) As a result, a private company, Nergal Heavy
Industries, as part of the secret Scaparelli project, constructed the
Nadesico, a state-of-the-art battleship equipped with a gravity blast, a
distortion field, and positron engines, none of which was standard equipment
on other Earth ships.
But this new ship seems to create more problems than it could potentially
solve. Originally, the Nadesico would be under the command of Nergal and
would be used to protect Nergal's interests both on Earth and in space.
They would operate in cooperation with the military but would be a fully
independent force. Upon seeing the true power of the Nadesico, however, the
military attempts to strong arm Nergal into handing it over, saying that
such a powerful weapon should be utilized by the military to help defeat the
enemy. The Nadesico and her crew find themselves in the odd position of
being hunted by both the Earth military and the alien invaders. And you
just know that Nergal has their own secret agenda.
And those are just the immediate political and military problems.
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