Starship Troopers

Verhoeven's movie was utter and complete garbage. He's a disgusting hack of a director and should be ashamed. By his own admission, he read 2 chapters of the book, got bored, and decided to make the whole thing up from scratch.

Heinlein would have NEVER supported that trash if he'd been alive to see it. It basically steals the name, mocks politics of the book (which is a good portion of it), and throws in some T&A so the average idiot American moviegoer doesn't get bored.

This anime isn't perfect, but it's at least mostly accurate, as best I can tell.

This depiction of Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" is interesting mainly for its portrayal of the mobile infantry. Without the benefit of English subtitles, the story appears simple; focused on Johnny Rico's training and integration in a mobile infantry unit, and quest to win the affection of a young woman he attended school with. The animation is good but modest.

The scenes with the mobile infantry's powered armor suits are where this anime production shines. The design of the powered armor fits Robert Heinlein's vision with the soldiers able to move rapidly and fight under intensive combat conditions with substantial firepower, and the series adds autonomous track-wheeled robots that fight alongside the armored soldiers. The series also features the mobile infantry's capability for atmospheric entry via individual protective capsules, as described by Heinlein, when they fight the bugs in the final episode.

Overall, the series is okay. The combat scenes with the mobile infantry are worth watching, though the tactics appear less than sophisticated for a force equipped with advanced technology, and the battle with the bugs in the final episode is somewhat anti-climactic. Nonetheless, this anime production remains an interesting portrayal of Heinlein's mobile infantry.

Note: I've only seen the first two episodes (out of 9)

The Anime version of Starship Troopers is alot closer to the original book by Robert A. Heinlein than Verhoeven's film. However, the Social and Political commentary from the novel was toned down in this version (whereas in Verhoeven's film, it was exagerated into Nazi Symbolism). But hey, they kept the Powered Suits. Now remember, I've only seen the first two episodes. But I will post a full review once I see the rest.

I love Starship Trooper from 1997 directed by Paul Verhoeven since i never read the book the movie based on so i can't really compare how good or how bad the anime version to the live action version but honestly i enjoy both.The mini series follow the main character Johnnie Rico like usual but this time it focus not on the battle with the alien bugs but the hardship he and teammate been though in the military.The characters actually flesh out well and a very cool version of Powered armor which is a shame when it not featuring in the movie.The animation is old and it end too rush just about 6 episode but if you love the movie definitely give this series a chance

I enjoyed Starship Troopers (1997), it was one of those fantastically dumb take your brain out movies which really succeeded in entertaining. The sequels failed to live up to it however and were highly hit and miss.

What I didn't realise though was that it wasn't a Hollywood creation, not even close. It's origins go back to the late 50's where it was a book by Robert A. Heinlein, the first time it was adapted for the screen was right here in 1988. Sadly it cannot have met expectations because it had a limited release and is an extremely hard to get hold of anime!

If you're expecting something resembling the Hollywood adaptation you will be sorely disappointed. From mech suits instead of traditional grunts to an odd pink lifeform instead of bugs this a very different creature.

It tells the story of Juan "Johnie" Rico who most will know as played by Casper Van Dien and his story as he joins the military just before the alien threat kicks off and attacks earth.

It's an incredibly slow burn and focuses more on character development than action, in fact if it's action you're wanting you'll struggle to find enjoyment.

It's passable stuff but feels incomplete because of its pacing. I think it would have worked better as 30+ episode series.

What confused me was the setting/ethnicities. Wasn't this the US? Most characters look caucasian and have names like Pat, Greg and Smith! Yet they speak Japanese, it was certainly a bit of an odd choice. Why is a man called Juan Rico a blonde haired white dude exactly?

This was a minor gripe, my major one was the pacing.

Regardless it has a lot of charm, one of the best soundtracks from an anime I've ever heard and has it's moments............just not enough.

The Good:

Amazing soundtrack

I'm keen on the animation style

Great character development

The Bad:

Ethnicity/language confusion

Pacing issues

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Mechs would have made the Hollywood version better, right?!

Soldiers are scumbags apparently