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

It has been six months since the events on Mars and it is graduation day for the 20% of the class that made through it the training and Rico is finally a Mobile Infantry trooper with a blessing from Zim.

With the unit getting a liberty before being assigned to their new unit, Rico and Smith go to meet Greg’s girlfriend and explain about what a hero Greg was. To their surprise, she is getting married and it leaves the two men depressed.

They stop at a local bar after their car breaks to down some cans of Budweiser (yes, they are actually cans of Bud), then some extras from the first Mad Max 1979 film show up and there is a rumble.

As the balloon is about to go up, the new members of Willey’s Wildcats are transferred to an orbital space station to meet their new squad and board their new vessels, the Roger Young.

It is here that Carmencita and Johnnie reunion again, and she gives a letter and a swimsuit photo. While Johnnie read the note saying that she will be posted to the training vessel Saratoga, the rest of his squad engage in a station-side barroom brawl with naval personnel.

It is also here on the space station that we meet Cherenkov, the machine gunner for their squad and big son of a bitch. However, he is sucker punched during the dust up with the naval guys.

As the episode ends, Willey’s Wildcats are boarding the Roger Young as news comes down that the Saratoga was destroyed, Johnnie drops the photo of Carmencita.

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: 17 December 1988.
• Running Time: 25 minutes.
• Country: Japan.
• Language: English.