The cast is wacky but lovable, balancing humor and developing relationships that give "Nadesico" its ultimate strength. The series thrives on satire, but also provides a sharp-witted, nicely dialogued story with beautifully realized art.

The main story itself gets relegated to "Nadesico's" periphery, with new technologies and aliens introduced almost as an aside. The subplots and sometimes-wild allusions (as in the Admiral's incestuous comments about his daughter Yurika) provide the real meat of the plot, adding intelligent twists and turns, emotional conflict, humor, action and pathos.

All of the characters, even ones who don't get much screen time, have clear personalities after just a few lines of dialogue. Akito, the best developed of the group, makes for a reluctant, very human hero. The others provide an amusing look at individual foibles and vanities. Even characters only briefly acknowledged, like Gai, enhance the plot and add dimension to the other characters.

Rendered in bright, cheerful tones, "Nadesico" has a style suited to its lightheartedness. Artists use some amusing techniques, such as when Gai describes Operation Gangar Cross and childishly drawn crayon illustrations flash across the screen to explain his plan.

No major translation problems, although the English overlays are sometimes annoyingly hard to read. Idiomatically, "Nadesico" is fairly accurate and the humor comes through without a hitch, a difficult job, given Izumi's numerous bad Japanese puns.

This version has helpful character profiles, a trailer and music additions, plus language choices. The translation notes add context. Informative, but nothing outstanding.

A few naughty words and situations a five-year-old should not understand, but no more than the average prime-time television drama.

Whatever your neurosis, you'll find one to match in the seven anime girls of the Nadesico's crew. Ryoko, for example, shows some The Rock-like tendencies when she yells, "Can you smell what Ryoko's cooking?" while Science Officer Ruri just rolls her eyes and calls everyone an idiot. Akito could be considered insane for ignoring cute, bubbly Yurika, until viewers see what he's got going with lovely Megumi.

The evil aliens from Jupiter use bug-like robots and pod-like ships. They don't have much personality, other than hating humans. Hopefully this will change in the future so these Jovian lizards get a little more depth (why are they called lizards, anyway?).

Love it? Hate it? Buy it.