Uchu no Senshi Ep. 03 (OVA)
宇宙の戦士 Episode 03 (Anime)

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Johnnie writes a letter to Carmencita just before he’s deployed to the moon for training. As the Mobile Infantry trainees stand outside the transport, a group of naval officers arrives as well as some female officers. Johnnie recognizes one as Carmencita and calls out to her, causing her to wave back and for him to be the envy of his fellow troopers. She’s apparently going to the moon as well. When the Mobile Infantry arrive, they are given a briefing where they are shown video from the attack on New Buenos Aires, where this unknown alien force killed a million people before being dispatched. Thus, the training schedule has been accelerated as the Earth Federation is going to retaliate. Thus, the troopers train in their armored mobile suits for planetary assaults.

One day before roll call, Johnnie is with his squad mates in a mall when he sees Carmencita. He goes to talk to her and ultimately asks for her picture. One of his other teammates, Pat, emerges from a nearby barber shop and immediately asks Johnnie if he’s acquired a nude photo yet before realizing Johnnie is talking to Carmencita. Pat makes a hasty retreat but there’s no way Johnnie can recover from this as he takes a slap from an angry Carmencita while Johnnie’s other teammates punish Pat for his mouth.

Training continues with the team practicing assaults on a heavily defended fortification. Johnnie manages to get the first kill on one of the automated weapon installations (which pop in and out of holes like a whack-a-mole game), but dies in the process. Back at the barracks, he’s congratulated on the kill as the mail arrives. Pat gets a “Dear John” letter from his former girlfriend (whom he had a semi-nude photo of) while Johnnie gets a letter from his father, informing him of his mother’s death in the attack on New Buenos Aires. As a result, he is depressed by this and in the following day’s training, his distraction causes everyone to be killed in the simulated attack.

Sgt. Zim assigns them toilet cleaning duties as punishment and the squad is angry with Johnnie, who refuses to tell them what’s wrong. Pat starts to beat Johnnie until Greg stops him, revealing what happened to Johnnie’s mother. However, Johnnie’s attitude angers Smith, who punches Johnnie for not caring about the team’s survival on the battlefield. After lecturing Johnnie, the team prepares to head to the next bathroom as Zim, who’d been listening outside, leaves. That night, Johnnie and Smith make up and the team celebrates with a bottle of “the good stuff” that Azuma managed to score from the officer’s section.

Thoughts/Review:

Whoa! They sure put the “ugly” in Carmencita when Johnnie saw her and her fellow female officers. Its not that I found her character design attractive before, but with short hair, man, she was…*shudder*

One thing that seemed pretty obvious to me were the sound effects for the mobile suits. Having seen Aliens a might too many times, the sounds were identical to the sounds of the heavy lifter suit that Ripley wore in that movie.

As to the episode itself, ultimately not much happened. We have training. Johnnie learns of his mother’s death and Carmencita being on the moon. We learn that teamwork is important. The end. I would have liked for there to have been a meaningful conversation between Carmencita and Johnnie and not some, “can I have a picture of you to fap to?” moment. *_* I didn’t understand why Johnnie didn’t tell the guys his mother was dead. I understand he wasn’t looking for sympathy, but come on. If my mom dies, I’m saying, “My mom died,” not, “there’s nothing wrong.”

The biggest weakness of the series thus far is a serious lack of character development. There’s a lot of going through the motions, but no depth and that hurts. I don’t sense a real camaraderie between Johnnie’s team members, only a faked sense of it. In fact, I’m even more pressed to remember their names (and except for Azuma, they aren’t Japanese names) because they are so one-dimensional to me.

Well, we are half-way through. Assuming I can score the other three episodes, I’ll certainly watch them to see if there’s any improvement.