It's the year 2195, and Earth has started to colonize the solar system - but disaster strikes when Jovian forces attack the colonies on Mars and the moon. Next stop: a nearly defenseless Earth.

Nergal Heavy Industries Corporation, a civilian company that has designed the most advanced battleship ever constructed, hires a bizarre cast of unstable characters including 20-year-old tactical genius Yurika Misumaru, as captain.

Meanwhile, a young ex-pilot named Akito Tenkawa, deeply affected by the Jovians' attack on Mars, tries to start a new life as a fry cook. Akito's destiny changes when he literally runs into childhood playmate Yurika on the way to her new assignment. He chases after her desperately to Nergal, where it turns out the aforementioned new battleship, Nadesico, needs a cook.

Akito soon meets Gai Daigouji, the flamboyant pilot for the giant robot Aestivalis. Sent into the cockpit to retrieve Gai's toy, Akito just happens to be in the Aestivalis when Jovian forces arrive. He manages to keep the aliens at bay until the battleship arrives, using the robot's great cannon to obliterate the enemy. All this just so Akito can ask love-struck Yurika a question - but it's not the one she wants to hear.

Nergal officials reveal that the Nadesico's top-secret mission is to travel to the moon and Mars to look for survivors rather than help defend Earth - a mission of which Mars native Akito wholeheartedly approves. But the United Earth Forces doesn't think such a powerful ship should be in the hands of a civilian company, especially with the Earth's military so weak and useless. Desperate for heavy artillery, UEF attacks, boarding the Nadesico in an act of piracy. Meanwhile, the UEF's Admiral Misumara pleads with his daughter Yurika to turn the Nadesico over to the people who can really use it.

The ploy seems to work when Yurika takes the keys and goes to meet her father, although the Admiral doesn't realize she has ulterior motives for being so compliant - she wants information. Uncertain of their fate and guarded by UEF soldiers, the crew members of the Nadesico wait in the mess hall - where Gai re-introduces them all (mostly to their chagrin) to the campy wonders of hundred-year-old anime classic "Gekiganger 3."

When a Jovian chulip ship, until now dormant underwater, suddenly attacks, Yurika slips away from her father to command the Nadesico in battle. There, her ship once again shows its formidable powers while Gai and Akito merge their ships into a bigger, more powerful giant robot. And once the chulip is defeated, the Nadesico finally starts its mission to Mars - leaving a fuming UEF behind.

Realizing that Yurika and Nergal Industries will not turn over the Nadesico, the UEF decides to destroy the ship instead.

Jun Aoi, Yurika's best friend, yet also a loyal member of UEF, finds himself in turmoil as he leads the mission against the Nadesico. As Earth launches four missiles toward the Nadesico, Jun despairs - his choices have run out. The UEF has proven itself the enemy of the woman he loves, and Yurika refuses to see reason. At least Jun thinks he can save her life and plans a stunning self-sacrifice. But fate has different plans about who lives and who dies.

The Nadesico travels to the Satsuki Midori 2 colony to pick up three new pilots, but the colony mysteriously explodes as the battleship approaches. The pilots - Ikaru Manu, Ryoko Subaru and Izumi Maki - however, have survived the disaster and soon introduce themselves to the crew.

As Akito and Megumi talk, a romance starts to blossom. With Megumi's support, Akito finds strength to help him overcome his fear of piloting. To prove his newfound mettle, and to conquer his panic once and for all, he follows the three pilots back to the colony where they hope to salvage the last valuable Zero-G Frame robot. When they do find it, however, it is under the Jovian's control and attacks them.

Bursting with newfound energy and determination, Akito takes the robot head-on. He returns to the Nadesico in heady triumph - not only has he beaten the Jovian-controlled robot, he has also defeated his own demons.

"Nadesico's" story is simple. Jovians have attacked Earth and its colonies, and Earth's military has proved itself so utterly useless against the invaders that a civilian company builds a battleship. Most of the conceptual technology of "Nadesico" is culled from familiar anime series -the Aestivalis ships are no different from other giant mecha; the Nadesico itself is protected in part by a large cannon, an oft-used anime weapon; the girl-dominated crew is full of unstable characters. Most of the narrative devices - love triangles, waning courage, the death of a friend - are also familiar. The uniqueness of "Nadesico" comes from its ability to turn such overused themes as loyalty, justice, war, friendship, love, and of course lust, into a substantive, engaging story - and to do it without heavy-handedness or pedestrian portrayals.

"Nadesico" does this through its characters, which director Tatsuo Sato endows with traits both empathetic and unabashedly quirky. Every episode contributes to the narrative arc of Jovians versus Earth - but the relationships and inner conflicts that arise within the story make "Nadesico" more than just an average sci-fi vehicle. Each characters' uniquely idiosyncratic motivations drive the plot just as much as anything UEF or the Jovians throw at them.

Akito, who hasn't flown since the Mars attack, denies and then struggles to overcome his fear of piloting. Gai, the flamboyant Aestivalis pilot, finds inspiration to be a hero in his favorite anime, "Gekiganger 3," and is cut down by the enemy - just like his hero in "Gekiganger 3." Jun Aoi strives to reconcile his romantic feelings for Yurika and his belief in the UEF. Yurika, ebullient, passionate, brilliant and clueless, loves Akito passionately, yet she commands the Nadesico with a firm, unerring hand.

In fact, the "main story" takes a back seat to the emotional revelations in "Nadesico." But each of the soap opera-like twists creates an emotional tension that would be considered over the top - that is, if they weren't so much fun. Intended in part as a tongue-in-cheek satire, the humorous side of "Nadesico" dispels any unwieldy intensity created by emotional conflicts even as it grafts its own dramatic dimensions to the tale.

The satirical aspects of "Nadesico" invite comparisons with classic anime, holding the medium up to worship and ridicule simultaneously the way good parody should. Most of the characters are huge anime fans. Megumi was actually an anime actress before being tapped to serve aboard the battleship (she was named, by the way, after anime actress Megumi Hayashibara). And the characters that aren't fans get their two cents in as critics. When the crew is captured by UEF soldiers and have nothing better to do than watch anime, certain crewmembers spend their time making snide remarks on the quality of the show they're watching. That show is "Gekiganger 3," a hundred-year-old, over-the-top anime series deftly designed to spoof anime fandom. "Gekiganger" features popular anime clichés - the same ones, actually, in which "Nadesico" revels.