Either a Spiritual Successor to or a ripoff of Space Battleship Yamato made by the same company, Uchū Kūbo Burū Noa is a 1979 anime series by Office Academy.
The year is 2052. A great truce among warring nations has been formed, and peace has finally descended on the world. In this time of prosperity and harmony, scientists from all over the globe have formed nine different firms of scientific investigation around the world. Peace is interrupted when the Death Force, aliens searching for a new home after leaving their decaying solar system, rain surveillance cameras hidden among a meteor shower onto Earth to check out how fitting it is for colonization. However, one of these scientists finds the camera and calls a meeting in Hawaii. The aliens attack, and the scientist gives his son, Shin, the key to the eponymous submarine. Collin gathers a small team of students and finds the crew of a detachable sub along with the space carrier, and it's up to them to fight the Death Force.
Shown briefly on American TV in 1985 as Thundersub, the show has faded into obscurity. It just never caught on as Star Blazers did.
Tropes related to the series:
- Alas, Poor Villain: All the gothamites wanted was a planet to settle on. They invaded Earth only because they ran out of fuel and can go no further.
- All-Encompassing Mantle: Zaitel wears one.
- Bittersweet Ending
- Blood Knight: Colonel Lupus. Even when Zaitel's treachery is revealed and the gothamites have no more reason to fight the humans, Lupus still challenges Thundersub to a fight - only to satisfy his hunger for revenge.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: All of Zaitel's followers.
- Brawn Hilda: Doctor Gonchev.
- Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Noah and Grogan, who is more like XO rough.
- Compilation Movie
- Daddy Issues: Anna
- Death from Above: Subverted in that the aliens make it appear to be this, but are actually monitoring the world.
- Dirty Coward: Both Earth Governor Galt and Zaitel. Galt tried to run rather than accept responsibility for the loss of the gravity control centers, while Zaitel tries to run when his lies are found out by Hegler.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Grogan appears this way initially, but very quickly transitions into a Sergeant Rock type. Oddly enough, he is an officer.
- Ending Theme: The standard slower kind, this one oddly Caribbean-inspired.
- General Ripper: Lupus, who refuses to believe that Thundersub has been sunk.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Woman: Colin has to slap Anna out of her Heroic BSoD.
- Heroic BSoD: Anna has a major one after finding Tara and Capilla seriously injured on their home island. She was the one who had guilt tripped The Captain into letting them leave the safety of Thundersub and settle there.
- Hot Sub-on-Sub Action: For a show about a submarine, this happens only once.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Captain Noah, and earlier Grogan. Domingo also pulls one off, and so does Chef.
- Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Shin has them.
- It's Up to You: Grogan hands over command of Tempest to Colin just before his sacrifice, ordering him to somehow get the ship out of danger and rendezvous with Thundersub. Also in the finale a dying Noah hands Thundersub over to Colin and implores him to somehow stop Terror Star from colliding with Earth.
- Monumental Damage: Used in the first episode.
- Nuke 'em: How Captain Noah deals with the defenses around the space elevator. The nuke is called an X Missile, but the careful protocols for launch, and the mushroom cloud leave no doubt.
- Number Two: Grogan at first, then Colin.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: The key to the Thundersub.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Both Thundersub and Tempest seemed to unveil a fancy new gizmo every episode to save themselves from impending doom.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Captain Noah on the humans' side. Oddly enough, Admiral Zoegl and Hegler on the invaders' side count as well.
- Repetitive Name: Shin is Collin Collins in the English dub.
- Science Fiction
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: A major one for the gothamites. They travelled the stars for thirty years, searching for a planet to settle on, because their home world had been swallowed up by a black hole. They run out of fuel and must invade Earth. Their forces are obliterated and are facing total defeat and extinction. And then The Dragon finds out that it was all pointless - everyone aside from military personnel had died in cryogenic stasis because Zaitel's spaceship had major design flaws. He tries to slingshot away, but only ends up plunging into the sun.
- Grogan was having marriage problems and badly needed to take some leave to resolve them. However, the only way he could do that was if Noah cancelled his leave. Noah was using his leave to visit his seriously ill wife. Noah cancelled his leave and returned to work, as he thought his wife was on the road to recovery, allowing Grogan to fix his relationship. Unfortunately, Noah's wife dies while he is away, and Grogan's marriage breaks down anyway.
- Slouch of Villainy: Zaitel
- Space Sailing: It is a space submarine, after all.
- Terraform: The aliens will terraform Earth to suit their needs.
- The Hero Dies: Captain Noah
- Too Dumb to Live: Tara and Capilla decide to leave the safest possible place for a human to be, and go plant trees on an island. Did it ever occur to them that they couldn't in any manner protect themselves against a hyper advanced spacefaring race that has already wiped out 90 percent of the human population?
- Through His Stomach: Collin finally convinces the crew to let Anna on by saying, "She's a good cook! She's willing to cook!"
- Wave-Motion Gun: The antiproton gun.
- Worthy Opponent: Hegler is the only alien commander who inflicts a defeat on the Thunder team - by clever use of the gravity control center's artificial gravity generation capability against them. The only other one who comes close is Admiral Bork who attacks Tempest under the auspices of a truce, so he doesn't count.
