"The Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are..."
In 1988, the anime studio Sunrise produced an unauthorized 6-episode Starship Troopers OVA.
No relation to Starship Troopers: Invasion, other than both being made by Japanese studios and based on the same source material.
Tropes seen in this version:
- Adaptation Expansion: The Forest Fire was only mentioned in the novel; it takes up the latter half of Episode 2.
- Adaptation Personality Change: In this version, Johnnie's mother is the one who is most upset about his decision to join the military; she even slaps him at the end of the first episode before saying goodbye. While Johnnie's father isn't in favor of his son's decision, he's far more reasonable about trying to argue against it, and less scornful about the military.
- Adaptational Species Change: The Bugs are no longer bugs, more closely resembling bipedal jellyfish.
- Fatal Family Photo: Well... more of Fatal Girlfriend Photo. Greg becomes victim to one, leaving Rico to deliver his note to his girlfriend upon returning to earth from training... only to find out that she has moved on since his death, if not since he enlisted. Averted with Pat, whose girlfriend breaks up with him, causing him to tear up her photo in anger. Inverted with Rico himself, after Carmen gives him a photo of herself. The ship she is assigned to for a training mission is destroyed by the bugs. This is subverted when after Operation: Bughouse, it is revealed that Carmen was able to get away with an escape pod.
- Gecko Ending
- Phenotype Stereotype: Juan Rico becomes a blonde, blue-eyed Argentinian.
- Powered Armor
- Race Lift: Rico was Filipino in the book; here he's blonde and white.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The OVA uses peppy, cheesy '80s pop music during two separate bar brawls, among other things.
- Training "Accident": The fourth episode has Johnnie's squad sent on a simulated combat drop to Mars, only to discover the aliens had infiltrated and destroyed the base there. Greg dies trying to free a captured Johnnie before Zim can lead a squad with actual weapons to the rescue.
