Nadesico The Movie - The Prince of Darkness

5 reviews - 15.0 total score (Explanation of the rating system)
avg. score: (3.0)

5. Olmanek

A serious Phantom of the Opera complex in Akito and some weird insistence on creating an entirely independent film (to such an extent that even people familiar with the Nadesico series don't have a damn clue what's going on until it is explained half way through, in all its glorious stupidity) makes it real hard to enjoy this film. Everyone is older, which I'm sure had a lot of Ruri fans crying. And yes there is something of a story to this, actually the story itself isn't so interesting as what occurred between the end of the series and the start of the movie is, and as such, I'm going to spend the rest of the review voicing my main complaint, oh but before I do I should say that the production qualities are quite good.

When a movie is made after a series, the fans main interest is to see the characters again, they are watching it almost purely for the characters, because realistically the Nadesico storyline was nothing spectacular, it was a bloody parody so how much depth could it possibly have, regardless of this though the majority of storylines in all anime series are quite elementary when you take time to think about them, so my point still stands for a number of other cases. It is kind of an established 'rule of thumb' that the main draw for a person to a movie sequel is to get reacquainted with the characters, and this is where Nadesico lacks, because a decent majority of these characters are nowhere to be seen, and some only have cameo appearances, whilst others manage to say four or so words during the entire movie and others are inanimate or wearing masks. It's just stupid. And not in the good way like the series was. Bad movie from a fan's view point but still one you'll see if you get the chance because you are a fan, don't bother watching it if you're not familiar with the Nadesico series though.

4. Cross Scars

The Nadesico movie takes place some years after the TV series finished. The war against the Jovians has come to an end and the Earth and Jupiter are now at peace. However a renegade ex-Jovian general and his group of Martian Successors now threaten the universe in their attempts to establish a new order.

This movie happens to be fairly different from the TV series that went before in it in several ways. The most notable aspect of this is the cast. The lead character of the movie happens to be Ruri and many of the main cast from the TV series are given very small roles. To compensate for this some new characters are brought in but they're really quite shallow, after all how can they take over from characters that were built up and established over 26 previous episodes? The best example of this being Lapis who we only ever see on screen a few times and barely says anything. The general tone of the movie is also more serious than the TV series ever was. The start of the movie is especially like this and although the comic elements creep back in as the movie progresses, the same time as members of the original cast are reintroduced, the movie is noticeably more serious than what we've seen of Nadesico before.

Having said things that are different, the plot of The Prince of Darkness is nothing new to Nadesico. There's the same kind of war theme and interest over Boson jumping that focused so heavily in the TV series. This means that there's also still plenty of mecha fighting and being a movie it all looks a lot better than the action we saw on TV.

Fans who enjoyed the original TV series will most likely enjoy this movie as well although some will no doubt be disappointed by the slightly more serious tone and lack of time devoted to the characters they already know.

3. hakootoko

First, don't watch this if you haven't seen the series; it's a sequel movie, not a compact version of the series. There is also some story lacking between the end of the series and the movie that I have been told can only be found in Nadeshiko video games released only in Japan. The movie is beautifully crafted, but it has a different tone than the series and only gives us a couple of glimpses of the humor we loved in the series. The characters have become darker and not at all comedic, and they do not get much screen time to introduce them. The villains die spectacularly, but don't achieve any personality before that. For me, not a rewatcher, so I won't be buying it.

2. weasl

First off the only people that are really going to enjoy this movie at all are those who have seen the series. If you haven't seen the series stay far away, all watching this will do is confuse you. While I did enjoy the movie, it still had some fatal flaws that left me with a high annoyance rating when it was over. The story for example is interesting but was very rushed and in addition I felt that the ending was incomplete. This incompleteness left a bitter taste in my mouth. There was simply too much information introduced in too little time. Past the major story and pacing annoyances the movie is fairly enjoyable. The animation is excellent, and the battle sequences are stunning. Also I really liked the new character designs that Keiji Gotoh did, as well as the more sleek sci-fi art style of the ship. These two elements did an excellent job of giving Nadesico a nice visual update. It's a fun, though often frustrating, film.

1. Jeneki

This is a movie that could live on eye candy alone. Both the beginning and ending are filled with jaw-dropping combat sequences. The middle slows down a bit, and is more character oriented. The downfall of this movie is the amount of content they try to fit in. Scenes jump from one extreme to the next, changing gears very quickly. While this technique may work for some 'insanity' titles, it doesn't work well when there's a real plot to be told. Also, very little time is allowed per character, given the huge cast of characters included. This movie can be hard to follow due to the intense pacing, but the coolness factor makes up for it nicely.