NOTE: THIS REVIEW IS OLD! IT WAS RECOVERED THROUGH ARCHIVED FILES!
Uchuu no Senshi (also known as Starship Troopers in English) is a 1980s Sci-fi Mecha OVA Anime created by Sunrise. Set in a futuristic setting where humanity finds itself in a conflict against aliens who pose a threat to the world and potential all of humanity itself. Johnny Rico who is the main protagonist of the show enlists himself in the military with his crush Carmencita enlisting herself in the military as his main reason to join the military. Together him with select crew mates are deployed into the most notorious training facility, and thus they work their way all the way through the pain and suffering from the notorious training. It is based on the actual 1959 novel written by Robert A. Heinlein, who died before the first part of the OVA was released. In other words, you can say this OVA is a tribute and dedication to him, as even the first episode of the OVA literally stated “in the memory of Robert A. Heinlein.”
Uchuu no senshi’s concept sounds interesting at first hand and sounds great on paper, and truth be told they did quite a good job with the concept and premise. Unfortunately, this Anime suffers greatly from too little and too late. What do I mean exactly? It’s very simple, you make the first 4 episodes to a very slow paced experience and then finally put all the action squeezed into the two last episode. This is an unfortunate issue with the Anime. An even harder problem is Sunrise tried their utmost best to adapt a very epic critically acclaimed Sci-fi novel into a modest budget OVA Anime with very extreme limits and budget problems for this already doomed project. While hardly a disaster and far from being a bad Anime at all, its legacy certainly speaks volume as here we are 3 decades and a half after its release, and it has mostly faded into obscurity.
story: 6/10
Uchuu no Senshi’s story is the example of too little too late. What do I mean? Let me explain. Because this Anime has 6 episodes, and it seems like Sunrise had a huge difficult problem trying to cram up a big story into only 6 episodes. The first part of the problem is that the Johnnie’s training session to successfully past through military takes up a majority of the show. At least not until episode 5 we actually see some progress of the story and nice action paced sequence. I’m not saying that episodes 1-4 were bad, but it would have been wiser if they accelerated Johnny’s training and get to the action. This causes a problem for the Anime as the eventual slow build up into the last 2 episodes makes the viewer feel that anything that happens in the Anime feels less impactful to the viewer and adds little emotional effect. Now don’t get me the wrong idea, the Anime did well when it came to showing a little more gritter side of military and war conflict such as the cold truth of war, that soldiers aren’t immortal, and just who are the humans fighting against? The deaths of some certain characters also leaves a slight lamenting feeling to the viewer. One thing I can also appreciate about Uchuu no Senshi is the topic of struggle and the importance of bonds and teamwork. This is something that the Anime does great. Example, the characters have their flaws, they stick together and realize that they are a team that have to support each other and are motivated by the goals they want to do in their life. They show that they are human and that soldiers can only do so much with heavy limits. While this is great, sadly there are parts of the positives of Uchuu no Senshi that is hampered by even more glaring flaws.
For example, the pacing is another issue. As I have stated before, half of Johnny’s training takes up most of the Anime’s time. Much of it’s sequence lacks the interesting clinch and it may probably leave the viewer bored. The action is lacking and combined with it’s slow pacing makes it feel like watching this Anime a chore rather then a fun and exciting experience to enjoy. The lack of intensity and action paced sequence do not really fulfill until the final 2 episodes. but even then the final 2 episodes don’t really deliver what’s needed and the viewer will probably realize that the build up of the first 4 episodes did not add any effect at all to the Anime and may have been non existent from the beginning. Another major flaw of Uchuu no Senshi is despite the conflict and danger of these unknown alien space creature, the ambience and atmosphere is weak in suspense and fear for a potential post apocalyptic doom pending to the world. The emotion and fear is mostly absent and sometimes the tragic moments is quite hard to feel and digest due to it’s weak portrayal of the premise. This is quite lamenting as Sunrise always do a great job when it comes to Mecha Anime plots. Seems like this wasn’t the case for Uchuu no Senshi’s plot.
The final part of the story had it’s both good and bad. The romantic execution of the finale was good in a sense of having a vibe of romantic liberation. Yes, the good old 1980s romantic vibes which I really like seeing a lot in Anime. But the big problem is lack of focus on the romance between Johnny and Carmencita. There was no emotional build up and not until the final scene do we see something slightly intimate happening with the both of them. But even then the ending was extremely underwhelming. The climatic finale of the show did not deliver, and instead rather ending with a bang, it ended more with a whimper.
Animation & Art: 7/10
The animation was moderately good, although the Anime suffers from having to compete with other 1980s Anime that have better animation quality. In fact, the underwhelming animation quality of this Anime is quite lamenting considering the fact that most Anime between 1986-1990 experienced an animation renaissance during that period, and it seems like Uchuu no Senshi failed to fit into that category. Take Macross as an example, this Anime was made 6 years before Uchuu no Senshi which was released in 1982 which still had a slight bit of a late 1970s animation vibe, but somehow it still looks better. That is very unfortunate, But at the same time, the animation also had its good points. I did like the animation quality that took place in space, and its opening and ending animation quality were really beautiful. The Anime’s animation quality also did well with the gritty edgy feel of the atmosphere, and the scenery of nature and the character’s animation design and the mobile suits in action were done right. Especially the action with Mobile Suits. In fact, that was actually the best part of the show’s animation quality. The detail of specific objects were also animated greatly as well. The animation overall was modest to good. It may not match other sunrise hits from the 1980s like Gundam Zeta or War In The Pocket, but the animation quality of this Anime wasn’t so bad either.
The character design also has its good and bad. The male characters were drawn with great detail. Johnny Rico seems to be based on the stereotypical American character design, but he is actually from Argentina. In the minds of sunrise, they seem to have based Johnny’s design on the Argentine people, whose ancestors came from northern or eastern European immigrants that migrated to Argentina and live there. This is extremely common in Argentine demographics and was a great part of Argentine history. This was quite pleasing, since rarely do Japanese studios have Latin American settings. The detail was done well including hair, eyes, and the face. Other characters who were part of his side in the military have the typical military look but hold some detail for themselves. There is one problem, however, and it is that the characters can look a bit better. What do I mean?
The female characters. The design of the female characters are not drawn well, and the bad part is that sometimes the female characters look too much like their male counterparts. It becomes quite difficult to tell apart who is the man or women. Take Caremencita who is Johnny’s crush as an example. Her flawed design made me confused on why she is considered beautiful and feminine. Truth be told, her design didn’t do her justice at all and at times she lacked the beauty vibes for a beauty model. Her design represents a major flaw for the female designs. For an Anime set in Latin America where beauty is a must, they certainly didn’t do justice for the female characters.
The best part of the designs are though… No doubt the Mobile Suits. The design of the robots were fantastic. The designs of the robots were slick, with cool features, and nice detail. It would have been pleasant if there were models of them to build. But of course, it seemed like these mobile suits were just experimental. That’s a shame, though.
Soundtrack: 8/10
The soundtrack for Uchuu no Senshi in my opinion was pretty good. Most of the soundtrack consists of American 1980s rock and roll songs. The opening song and ending song for the Anime were also nice. An impressive emphasis of emotion for the opening and ending as well as scenes that were used for the Anime were also great. As for the original soundtrack, it wasn’t too bad either. It’s typical normal OVA soundtracks that you would typically hear from an old, forgotten 1980s OVA. Aside from that, there is not much else to say.
Characters: 8/10
The characters of Uchuu no Senshi were the strongest part of the show and arguably the highlight of the show. The characters in my opinion were developed right and there were pretty interesting, never mind the Anime’s short 6 episode budget crunch. Here’s why.
Johnny is a protagonist that lacked having an intriguing background and having an in depth touch to his character development. But what made him an enjoyable protagonist for me was how natural he was. He wasn’t a wimp, a try hard, someone trying hard to be edgy, or a guy with overpowered abilities that make him invincible. Instead, this guy is a normal human being who actually believes that serving in the military can also help others as well, despite the massive consequences and his father’s cold warning to him about post military life. He has a heart, he felt pain when the people he was close to tragically died, and when times got though, he would not back down. His emotional changes were justified, and he acknowledged that he makes mistakes. His attitude towards successfully adapting to the harsh rules of the recruitment training was also enjoyable to watch. He didn’t whine, or get all fussy about it. He would show struggle and exhaustion, but never once complained about it. His calm approach to fighting against the Aliens while also showing human like reactions against these scary alien creatures with fear and confusion wondering if they are human or not was also an interesting part of him. Johnny also went all out for his crush, and that is Carmencita. Something that I notice a lot of protagonists don’t do, which is sadly a frustrating trait among a good deal of other Anime male protagonists. Also, the best is that it’s not just Johnny who excelled well in the character development section.
The other characters who are Johnny’s crew mates were also developed well. You could see the trust and care they had for Johnny. These guys weren’t an annoyance to watch. In fact, you would generally care for them, and as I said before, some of the tragic moments that happen to them is an important part of the show. They have this brother in arms like vibe and like Johnny, they too are human as well, and also have goals and desires they wish to achieve in their life. That too was a pleasant view to watch. Perhaps the most interesting was Sgt Zim, who made quite interesting philosophical remarks about war and the deadliness of humanity. His methods of training were appealing to watch. While I speak of praise to the character development, there were some flaws with the character development.
While Johnny and his crew mates excelled in the character development, not many others would enjoy the character development that was needed. Some exciting characters such as Johnny’s dad and Carmencita would be mostly skipped for the entire part of the story with a few cameo scenes and that’s basically about it. Another problem with the character development for Uchuu no Senshi was the lack of emotional reaction from the characters to some tragic moments of the Anime. I have seen more mental break-downs in some Anime for even the smallest issue going on. While in this Anime, we see the reaction of the characters on some tragic issues and to be honest, it was pretty subdued. This is a flaw of the character scenery in the Anime.
Enjoyment: 6/10
Either you will enjoy uchuu no Senshi for its cool mobile suits, moderate animation, interesting concept, premise, and strong character development. Or… You will probably remain having a subdued reaction for the entire Anime since honestly speaking, this Anime lacks having the dynamic punch to enjoy the entire show. As I have stated before, most of the time the show revolves around the long part of Johnny successfully passing the recruitment phase. There is little to no action with the Anime, so if you’re someone like me who loves action paced Mecha Anime, you may be in for a low to modest experience. Overall the experience was underwhelming and sometimes the enjoyment of the Anime itself became pretty riddled with a stale and dry feeling to it, and most of the time I just had a subdued reaction for most of the part. I did however enjoy seeing the Mobile suits in action and the enjoyable character development of the Anime. That, however, is mostly about it.
Overall Score: 7.4/10
Uchuu no Senshi is overall an Anime that lacks the basic qualities of what qualifies as a good Mecha Anime. The Anime has cool mobile suits, an interesting premise with a good theme and concept backed with strong character development and a good soundtrack with moderate Animation and art designs. However, the Anime is held back by a weak plot with flawed pacing issues, and the anti-climatic build up only worsened by little to no action sequence that would be eventually saved onto the last episodes. This turns the first part of the show into a chore and become plagued with a weak meaning on most of the emphasis on what’s going on. While Many explosive moments being met with underwhelming and subdued reactions from the premise with the show hampers it from being considered a quality Mecha Anime from the 1980s. While not a complete total disaster, Uchuu no Senshi’s overall legacy of being faded into obscurity certainly speaks volume for itself. While there are unpopular anime out there are masterpieces or high quality shows that exist as a diamond in the rough, Uchuu no Senshi is sadly not one of them. Sunrise tried their very best to adapt a legendary 1950s Sci-fi novel and cram it into a OVA with only 6 episodes, and they did their best and did what they could. Sadly, it didn’t turn out the way they were hoping it would have turned out. If you are one of those like me who love to watch every Mecha Anime that exists out there, then why not, you can try out Uchuu no Senshi. However, I warn you that you may not enjoy the Anime like how you are hoping you would. Overall, a 7.4/10, modest at best.
Animangemu 