Introduction

StarsStarship Troopers (宇宙の戦士, Uchū no Senshi, lit. “Universal Warriors”, “Universal Soldiers” or “Soldier of Space”) is a six-part anime OVA produced by Sunrise 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.

Outline

One of the final training simulations for the MI troopers is a massive force-on-force war game engagement on Mars against other MI troopers playing the OPFOR.

Johnnie is promoted to squad leader and worries about his performance in the upcoming training. One of Rico’s squadmates, Greg, attempts to reassure Johnnie and vows to support him in the field.

During this, alien spores attach themselves to a Martian sentry vehicle and attack the Martian Occupation base. At the same time that the base personnel are being slaughtered, the wargame unfolds with the armoured troopers slinging paintballs at one another.

When Johnnie’s squad hits the Mars Occupation base to reload, they discover bodies everywhere and are ordered to investigate. Once it is confirmed that the aliens are here, they request for Sgt. Zim to send armoured MI troopers to deal with the aliens.

Before they can follow orders and pull out, the ETs jump Rico and Greg. Rico orders Greg to get out and obey the recall order. He disobeys and attempts to rescue his comrade, but is cut in half and Rico was almost next until armed MI suits show up and deal with the pink angry aliens with a hail of lead.

After the rescue, Zim lectures the squad about following orders and that Greg will not be buried with military honours due to disobeying direct orders. He orders them to collect Greg’s gear and it is there that they learn that Greg had a girlfriend.

Starship Troopers Series

You can find a full index of the Starship Troopers anime series here.

You can find a full index and overview of the Starship Troopers franchise here.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): Tetsuro Amino.
• Producer(s): Hironori Nakagawa and Minoru Takanashi.
• Writer(s): Tsunehisa Ito and Sho Aikawa.
• Music: Hiroyuki Nanba.
• Cinematography:
• Editor(s): Takeshi Seyama.
• Production: Sunrise, Studio Nue, and Bandai Visual.
• Distributor(s): Bandai Emotion.
• Release Date: 25 November 1988.
• Running Time: 25 minutes.
• Country: Japan.
• Language: English.