History Anime / VanDread

*** The ''Vandread Extra Stage'' light novel later reveals that both Jura and Barnette later got engaged to ''men from Taraak''.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: Episode 12 of ''Second Stage''

* ConspicuousCG: All the space scenes are done with computer graphics, mixing animation in surprisingly well.

All of a sudden, Hibiki's the focus of [[TheUnwantedHarem three girls with different personalities]] who all want to try and "merge" with him. Of course, [[HetIsEw none of them have any concept of heterosexuality]], and Hibiki doesn't even seem to know about ''any'' sexuality. They clumsily rediscover their biological imperatives as they fight a mysterious shadow enemy across the universe.

* HetIsEw:
** In the ChristmasEpisode, everyone except Dita and Hibiki had this reaction to the video showing a man-woman couple and their daughter.

Mejale is the AwesomeButImpractical planet of women. All things are polished and shiny. All military uniforms are [[{{Stripperiffic}} excessively flattering]]. Appearances are all important. The citizenry form couples, of the lesbian [[{{Seme}} top]]/[[{{Uke}} bottom]] variety, called the "Oma" and "Fama" in the native vernacular (probably derived from ''homme'' and ''femme''), and make babies by merging two eggs and implanting them in the Fama. They eat real food and celebrate real holidays, like Christmas.

Most of the crew fit dual roles for both a madcap, romantic-comedy and a military story. TheCaptain is also [[CoolOldLady a wise grandmother]], the medical technician's a naughty [[TokenMiniMoe loli]] nurse, the local WrenchWench is a [[NerdsAreSexy Meganekko]] and a GadgeteerGenius, while the communications officer is friendly and pregnant. The first officer's essentially the HaremNanny, and the quartermaster's the wise CoolBigSis.

** The rulers of Tarak and Mejale [[spoiler:were in on Earth's harvesting operation the whole time.]] It is later revealed that [[spoiler:they were not willing to lose any ''natural'' children (i.e. conceived and delivered the traditional way) of the rest of the original colonists -- the vast majority of whom still remain secretly secured in cryo-stasis, guarded over by the man who raised Hibiki -- hence, the reason for the genetically-engineered sons and daughters of Megere and Talark respectively, who were secretly considered to be merely {{ExpendableClone}}s, and thus sacrificeable to the Harvester Fleets of Earth.]]

* {{Oranyan}}: Hibiki.

* TouchedByVorlons: Hibiki, Dita, Jura, Meia and Pyoro, due to the influence of the Paksis.

* ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: The Paksis, both the one on the Nirvana and [[spoiler:the one controlling the Harvester fleet]]

* CoversAlwaysLie: Adverted for the most part but that DarkSkinnedRedhead on the complete boxset? She appears in the last two episodes despite it looking like she's a main character.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: At the end of the final episode, as the shuttle is preparing to leave, Misty drags Dita up to Hibiki, insisting that Dita has "a favor" to ask of Hibiki. [[spoiler: What Dita wants is for Hibiki to call her "Dita" again, like he did when she came to his aid against the Big Bad.]] Hibiki develops a ''LuminescentBlush'', gets flustered, and turns her down flat, telling her he can't do that "for no reason." Hibiki trudges up the gangplank to the shuttle. Dita turns away with tears in her eyes, [[spoiler: and suddenly Hibiki shouts, "Dita!" Dita stops, turns around, and there's Hibiki grinning, with his hand outstretched toward her. "Come on!", he shouts. Dita blinks away her tears, shouts back "Yes!", and runs up the ramp to join Hibiki, jumping the final distance to grasp Hibiki's hand as the first opening song, Trust, swells and the credits roll.]]

* BirthdayHater: Meia. Episode 21 is entirely devoted to the rest of the crew's efforts to lure her into attending the birthday party they throw for her, which she skillfully evades (like in all her previous years in the crew). Needless to say, said episode gives her a great deal of characterization beside that.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: In Episode 1 of Stage 1, Hibiki uses a false palmprint copied off a person with the right clearance to sneak into the Ikazuchi's Vanguard bay in order to take his 'partner'. It almost failed because he forgot to moisten the copied prints, which he manages to do at the last second with some spit.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Jura's slinky black dress.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Jura's daily costume.

The story follows a young man named Hibiki Tokai, a factory worker from Tarak who wants more than anything to be a mecha pilot. When his attempt to steal a HumongousMecha get him thrown into the brig of reconstructed battleship, things seem to be looking down...until the ship gets attacked by SpacePirates, and Hibiki, a {{bishonen}} doctor, a cowardly officer and a malfunctioning robot wind up as prisoners on a ship full of women. [[RockBottom Things couldn't possibly get any worse]].

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The men from Tarak are generally portrayed as this: the commander of the Vanguard unit even goes out of his way to say "It is a good day to die" [[spoiler:before drawing first blood in the most {{badass}} way during the final battle]]

* {{Fanservice}}: While there was indeed quite some fanservice due to the shapely pirate ladies from Mejale, the biggest does of fanservice is in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGu8UKD0kR0 first credits sequence]], that had Dita, Jura, and Meia posing sensually in the background to the sultry, throaty vocals of [=SiLC=] singing the song ''Himegoto''.

** But not subverted when [[spoiler:Gascogne pilots her ship into the side of an enemy mothership, a suicide run that creates a hole in the ship that they use to attack it from within in the following episode.]]
** [[spoiler:Actually, it is subverted, she survived and repaired the defeated ship, now under her control.]]

** In the ChristmasEpisode, everyone except Dita had this reaction to the video showing a man-woman couple and their daughter.
** Everyone except Dita and Hibiki. Hibiki was more subdued than Dita, but you can tell he liked the idea.