Starship Troopers (OVA)

Starship Troopers (宇宙の戦士, Uchū no Senshi, lit. "Warriors of Space") is a six-part anime OVA produced by Sunrise and Bandai, and released in 1988. It is based on the 1959 book Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. The OVA was dedicated to Heinlein, who died before the first part of the series was released.

Starship Troopers
Cover of official handbook on the series showing Johnny Rico inside the power armor design from the OVA.
宇宙の戦士 (Uchū no Senshi)
Genre	Mecha, military science fiction
Created by	Based on Starship Troopers 1959 novel by Robert A. Heinlein
Original video animation
Directed by	Tetsurō Amino
Produced by	Hironori Nakagawa Minoru Takanashi
Written by	Tsunehisa Ito Shō Aikawa
Music by	Hiroyuki Namba
Studio	Sunrise
Released	October 25, 1988 – December 17, 1988
Runtime	25 minutes
Episodes	6

Plot

Johnny Rico, who was a very ordinary high school student, hears that his longing classmate Carmencita will join the army upon graduation, and he himself also decides to apply. Rico learns from his best friend Carl that the Earth Federation is at war with an unknown alien life form, but his determination only grows stronger. Rico says goodbye to his parents and joins the military.

Rico, who is being trained as a soldier while facing the reality of his fellow soldiers being discharged during the training process, not being praised for violating orders even if he saves a friendly army, and the death of his mother, is undergoing simulated combat training as a platoon leader. Unexpectedly, he engages in a battle with an alien life form, experiences his first actual battle, and is officially recognized as a soldier even though he has lost his comrades-in-arms.

However, as soon as he deepens his exchange with Carmencita, who reunites with him after the difference in temperature between the military and civilians and the friction with the navy, her ship collides with the ship of the enemy alien life and sinks. As a result, Rico descends to the enemy's base planet Kurendatsu, and is confronted with the fact that his friends who died in battle and the enemy are also living like themselves, and eventually he arrives at the answer that he fights to live.

On his way home after a fierce battle, Rico reunites with Carmencita, who was thought to have died in action, at a military hospital. The story ends when he speaks of his feelings for her, which he has been unable to convey for a long time.

Cast

• Juan "Johnny" Rico: Yasunori Matsumoto
• Carmencita Ibañez: Rei Sakuma
• Emilio Rico: Shinji Ogawa
• Maria Rico: Kazuko Yanaga
• Sergeant Zim: Akira Kamiya
• Greg Patterson: Hirotaka Suzuoki
• Alphard "Kitten" Smith: Kazuhiko Inoue
• Thomas Azuma: Shūichi Ikeda
• Pat Leivy: Show Hayami
• Carl McGuinness: Yūji Mitsuya
• Theodore C. Hendrick: Kazuyuki Sogabe
• Corporal Claire: Saeko Shimazu
• Sergeant Dunn: Shingo Hiromori
• Captain Frankel: Tomomichi Nishimura
• Captain Deladrier: Mika Doi
• Sergei Cherenkov: Masahiro Anzai

Mecha design

Kazutaka Miyatake of Studio Nue originally designed the mobile infantry powered armors in the OVA for a Japanese edition of the novel (published by Hayakawa Publishing, Japan's largest science fiction publisher) in the early eighties. A mecha based on this design also appears on the DAICON III and IV Opening Animations from 1981 and 1983, a few years before the OVA was released.

Episode list

1. "Johnny"
2. "Hendrick"
3. "Maria"
4. "Greg"
5. "Cherenkov"
6. "Carmencita"

External links

• Starship Troopers (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Starship Troopers at Gears Online
• Uchu No Senshi (1988) at IMDb
• Armored Fighting Suit (Archived)
• Armored Fighting Suit Cont.. (Archived)