Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture – Prince of Darkness (機動戦艦ナデシコ 劇場版 Kido Senkan Nadeshiko: Prince of Darkness) is an anime film produced in 1998, and it is a sequel to the series Martian Successor Nadesico. It was directed by Tatsuo Sato. The story is a direct sequel to "Nadesico: The Blank of Three Years", a video game for the Sega Saturn that takes place immediately after the TV series ends, and before the movie begins.

Three years have passed since the end of the original series. The Earth and the Jovian Federation have come to an uneasy peace. However, Akito and Yurika have both vanished, presumed dead, and a new threat to peace is rising. A grown-up Ruri Hoshino, as the new captain of the highly-mobile battleship Nadesico B, set out to solve the mysteries.

Much of the original cast returns (in fact, one part of the movie has Ruri and her two subordinates traveling around specifically to rally the old Nadesico crew) in order to put a stop to the threat. Some of the crew have undergone slight changes; the Aestivalis pilot Ryoko now has purple hair as opposed to the original green, but others (such as the pun-loving Izumi) have not changed at all. The only new cast member of note is a young boy named Enzan Makibi (Hari), who like Ruri is a genetically engineered prodigy and has exceptional control over machines (actually being able to single-handedly control the Nadesico). Hari also serves as comic relief thanks to his tendency to let his emotions get the better of him (in one incident, he flees a restaurant in tears after Ruri ignores his concerns about their mission).

This film, in the style of many anime films based off series, is a "get together" of the original cast of characters at a later date doing what they did best. As such some believe that this film is lacking in plot, and that it also lacks almost all of the comedy elements of the original series (instead being for the most part deadly serious) lacking among other things, almost any reference to Gekigangar III and making the characters do things that would have never happened before. However, others believe it is an improvement on the series for that precise reason.

It should be noted that the movie was meant to be viewed along with "Nadesico: The Blank of Three Years", a video game for the Sega Saturn that takes place immediately after the TV series ends, and before the movie begins, filling in on details that leads up to the plot of the movie. However, the game was never translated and released outside Japan.

Another criticism linked to the first is that the creators seemingly ignored all other factors in favour of promoting Ruri, with constant screen time, fanservice and the lead role. The character was extremely popular in Japan at the time and many fans feel that pandering to this hype has dated the movie in this respect.

From Wikipedia