Uchu no Senshi Ep. 05 (OVA)
宇宙の戦士 Episode 05 (Anime)

SPOILER Summary: It has been eighteen months since Johnnie and his comrades entered military training and now they are part of the 20% who made it through and are graduating. Sgt. Zim giving them one last piece of advice as a way of saying goodbye. Johnnie heads to Earth to visit his father and pay his respects at his mother’s grave site. He then joins with Smith to visit Greg’s girlfriend Laura, as it has been six months since he died. However, when they arrive at the local church, they discover activity. Johnnie wonders if the people are having a six-month service for Greg. However, it turns out that it is a wedding and Laura has just gotten married. Smith is very angry about this but Johnnie restrains him and they head off.

Sometime later at night, the car they are in limps into the parking lot of a diner and gives out. Smith orders food and beer for the two of them and after they are served, a gang of thugs enters the establishment and causes trouble, including bothering the waitress. Smith is ready to kick some arse, but Johnnie restrains him until the thugs start breaking glasses and causing more trouble. Johnnie and Smith stand up to the thugs and lead them outside, where a fight ensues and the two beat the entire gang. The local sheriff arrives with his deputy. He decides to let the two soldiers go, sending them walking to the nearby Park City where they can catch a bus to their final destination in New California. Smith isn’t happy about this, but a couple of beers helps the walk go by faster.

Johnnie, Smith, Pat, and Azuma reunite as members of Company K, 3rd Regiments, 1st Mobile Infantry Division, also known as Willie’s Wildcats. They are sent to a space station where they will be assigned to the ship Rodger Young, which will take them to battle. Here, they meet Sgt. Dan, their platoon sergeant. They learn that they are not to interfere with the navy personnel (the navy being the elite and the army being the scum). They also learn that their battle mechanized suits are referred to as “coffins” and that they apparently have to maintain their own suits. They also meet their fellow trooper, a big, bearded man named Cherenkov, steps on Azuma’s o-fuda (Japanese charm) after Azuma accidentally dropped it. Smith wants to start a fight, but Johnnie stops him after Cherenkov picks it up, brushes it off, and gives it back to Azuma. The four get to like Cherenkov after he uses a navy cadet toilet, making a female naval officer all angry.

Sometime later, after Johnnie has briefly seen and spoken to Carmencita, his platoon marches past Carmencita and some other navy officers where she passes him a note. The five army guys head to a bar on the station sometime after this. Johnnie finds an excuse to take off to read Carmencita’s letter. He reads it and finds that Carmencita still likes him and she even apologizes for behaving to harshly when they met on the moon. She mentions she is deploying to the training ship Saratoga on the following day, so they won’t get to see each other. However, she encloses a picture of herself in a swimsuit from their civilian days. Johnnie is very happy about this, and returns to the bar to discover Pat has been insulting the navy patrons. Naturally a fight breaks out.

When the group deploys to the Rodger Young, the navy guys that they fought with see them off, each side now respecting the other and both saying that they will be buying drinks for the other when the Rodger Young returns. As the five get settled in their berths, Pat notices Johnnie is trying to hide Carmencita’s picture from him. However, before he can get it from Johnnie, the ships captain reports that the Saratoga had been attacked and destroyed. Remembering that Carmencita had just transfered there, Johnnie drops her picture in stunned silence.

Thoughts: Smith’s single earing made me laugh, simply because that was the thing to do in the 80’s. Whatever. *lol*

Nice to see that in the future, Budweiser beer will still be around. YEEE!HAAAH!

The character designs are just as ugly as ever. Sheeze. I’m not sure that even in the 80’s, I would have found Carmencita’s look appealing (I doubt it since I didn’t even consider Kei’s look appealing from Dirty Pair back then).

Speaking of Carmencita, I was stunned that she’s apparently dead. Well, just when Johnnie scored a picture of her from her civilian days in a swimsuit, she’s gone. I suppose that was the theme of the episode — things don’t stay the same. Even Greg’s girlfriend got married 6-months after his death when Johnnie and Smith were expecting her to still be mourning. Johnnie’s father is dealing with the loss of Johnnie’s mother. Heck, even Johnnie and company graduating from training and moving to the real military. Things change constantly, and often in unexpected ways.

Speaking of unexpected, Cherenkov’s being the first to fall in the fight with the navy guys caught me off guard and made me laugh. To be honest, I should have seen that coming, but I didn’t.

With only one more episode to go, I’m stunned at the lack of action in this series. The character stuff hasn’t been that strong to me, so I ask myself what the writers are trying to accomplish here. I don’t have an answer.