The overall plot of the six part OVA is a coming-of-age story centered on Johnny Rico and his quest for identity and destiny via service in the Mobile Infantry. All of this adds up to Uchu no Senshi having some of the best in the mecha anime business…which makes the history of the 1988 SST anime even more bittersweet and odd. The iconic power suit design was done by Kazutaka Miyatake while the OVA was directed by Tetsurō Amino with the iconic anime studio Sunrise behind the entire production that released the original Gundam! Added to this was Bandai Visual being the publisher of the SST anime. Uchu no Senshi included some big names in 1980’s anime.

Two episodes of the OVA were released per disc and it was never made available in the West nor was aired on Japanese TV. In 1988, Sunrise and Bandai Visual would release Uchu no Senshi (or “Cosmic Warrior” in English) in a three part Laserdisc release-only format that was based on Starship Troopers the book more closely than other work to the then date. In this latest installment of Future War Stories from the East, FWS will be FINALLY examining this mysterious SST work in all of its 1980s anime glory. One of the relatively unknown works based on the 1959 novel is the Bandai Visual/Sunrise 1988 six-part OVA called: Uchu no Senshi ( 宇宙の戦士). In some ways, the entire genre of military science fiction is dominated by this single book…but it does not mean that every adaptation of SST has met with global acclaim and widespread influence. While the original book was adapted into a tabletop war game by Avalon Hill in 1976, it was the 1997 Paul Verhoeven film adaptation that propelled the world of SST into a whole new level of popularity and influence. It is one of the founding works of the entire genre of military sci-fi, pioneer of armored power suits, and one of the works that spread the insect-type alien enemies.

There are few military science fiction works that equal the impact and popularity of Robert Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers.

Starship troopers fan art