Spoiler alert: it sucks. Prince of Darkness sucks hard. It's become such a punchline that it doesn't even feel worth a professional stripping-down of how it fails on nearly every level. This is particularly saying something coming from me, as I consider the original Nadesico TV series one of the best mecha anime.
First things first, it's widely circulated that Prince of Darkness turns so many people off because it relies on information only presented in a Japanese-only Sega Saturn visual novel. However, "The Blank of Three Years" has had its story shared and revealed that this is hyperbolic apologism for Prince of Darkness. According to the most detailed explanation I've found (https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/junk_guild/martian-successor-nadeisco-the-blank-of-3-years-t383.html), the Sega Saturn game's details are largely superfluous and explain only everything we don't need. It explains how the cast generally ends up where they are, but we don't need to see how Ruri Hoshino became a captain before the events of Prince of Darkness. You would logically assume that due to her accomplishments in the TV series that she would reach a higher position in the military in three years. Minor details like these were never the question. However, the entire central plot to Prince of Darkness? Akito and Yurika's tragic accident and the explanation of the Hokushin Six and the Jovian Federation's maneuvers since the end of the TV series? Strap in, because the visual novel doesn't explain shit and your only narrator is the Prince of Darkness film.
And what a narrator it is. I wish I could say PoD's only narrative problem was the lack of explanation for critical character-altering events, but it pales in comparison to the movie's absolutely dreadful pacing. It feels appropriate that watching this movie corresponded with me beginning medication for my ADD. This is one of the most cramped storylines I have ever borne witness to. The scenes cut at a breakneck pace, everyone speaks a mile a minute, and the exact second any information is finished presenting in this blitzkrieg format another scene assaults you with a bevy of new visual and expository information. Keep in mind that all of this ecstatic presentation is dressed by the TV series' particular irreverence and you find this tidal wave takes on a practically psychedelic hue as fourth-wall breaks, bizarre framing and camera angles that don't logically connect, non-sequiturs, slapstick and absurdist comedy, and an assault of colorful visuals tint what's already an obscured and flimsy narrative into something hideous and amorphous.
With regards to unpleasant surprises, I was pleased to see that the movie's tone wasn't quite as bad as I'd been led to believe. I was expecting a ton of contrived darkness that contrasted heavily with the TV series' parodical light-hearted nature, and while that absolutely exists here, it's confined within certain aspects of the plot. If anything, this is worse. Maybe you'd adjust to the movie over time if it initially started out with a darker tone and kept it consistent the entire way through, but instead the atmosphere is largely ridiculous and carefree. This becomes a problem when the entire emotional thrust of your plot is built around the tragic kidnapping and torture of Akito and Yurika. You're supposed to sympathize with how these innocent characters were brutally broken down off-screen, but you only have Akito's anecdotes about the experience to share (because the visual novel was worthless, ) and every single time they're surrounded by bright, bouncy, silly anime characters. It completely undermines the choice to take the characters in a darker direction, taking what was already an insult to the original series' spirit and then reaping none of the possible dramatic benefit from it. Akito's new vengeance-fueled, silent and mysterious persona is a personality 180 and cliche to the point of seeming like an utter joke. And a joke it may very well could be, considering how much of the series was, but here's the difference: it's a bad joke. By not fully committing to the tonal change it’s impossible to parody the whole “grimdark” shtick.
Any implication of irony with regards to Akito’s characterization and plot is only gathered from good faith based on the TV series and not within the context of the movie itself. The light-hearted tone of the rest of the movie doesn’t feel like it’s meant to highlight Akito’s newfound cynicism because it never directly interacts with him. The tone of Akito’s plot and Ruri’s plot are switched between constantly but never mixed. Sure, everyone’s still completely in love and obsessed with Akito for no reason as usual and desires to help him throughout the movie, but in the extremely rare instances Akito gets to interact with the rest of the cast, the surrounding cast always adjusts themselves to his tone and get super serious. By doing this there’s never any implicit criticism of the way Akito’s behaving, it’s accepted as is and there’s no punchline or payoff as a result. Something I might expect the original show to do is that Akito is eventually broken down by the Nadesico crew’s indominatable irreverent spirit that he’d forgotten and reverts back to his old self in the final moments, thus the movie acknowledges the ridiculousness of Akito’s new persona and therefore the trope itself. Instead, nothing happens. Akito accomplishes his revenge and flies off to nowhere, showing us no signs of further change as he abandons Yurika and undoes all character development from the series by doing so, never to be seen again. In other words, even if we give the writing staff all the good faith we can and assume the awkward tonal shifts are a gag, they’re still pulled off in an ineffective way that gives no commentary to what they might be parodying. They’re simply doing it and leaving it at that. And at that point, what’s the difference between parody and a genuine presentation that’s just handled poorly?
Well, Prince of Darkness looks great, I’ll give it that. The TV series is probably one of the nicest looking shows of its decade, showing off vibrantly colorful painted animation at its peak, right before the industry made a hard swing towards more digital techniques. It’s almost worth seeing for that alone and experiencing that visual warmth of the series one more time. On the other hand, the on-screen action is so utterly chaotic as described earlier that you’d better keep the pause button constantly on the ready if you want to gawk at any frame’s level of quality. It almost feels like a waste in that regard. The whole movie has the feel of being an OVA chopped to pieces to fit into a film with no new transition scenes added to facilitate the cuts. Likewise, if this sequel was an OVA it would probably improve dramatically. Not only would it strengthen the impact of its visuals, but it would at least make the storyline itself go down smoother. It wouldn’t necessarily fix the mishandling of Akito’s storyline, but the whiplash would diminish, and viewers would have more breathing room and time for the contextual reconstructing of the events that happened before the movie instead of constantly being bombarded with new distractions. I can’t think of a good way to end this review, but Xebec couldn’t think of a good way to end the series, so there. Fans of the TV series, you’re not missing anything. Just assume everything worked out in the end and everyone lived happily ever after. We’re all better off that way, and not simply because it’s a happier ending.
