A guy who wants to cook gets conscripted into a mecha war because he followed the wrong girl off a space colony. The show knows this is absurd and never pretends otherwise, which is exactly why it works as both comedy and legitimate commentary on every mecha trope it's riffing on. Nadesico parodies the genre by taking it seriously, then takes itself seriously by treating the parody as real stakes. The tonal whiplash should destroy it, but instead the show balances on that knife edge by making you care about people who live in a world that knows it's ridiculous.

Akito wants nothing to do with war. A cook at heart despite growing up obsessed with the mecha anime Gekiganger 3, he's content to stay out of the fighting until his home on Mars is destroyed. Mysteriously transported to Earth with questions nobody can fully answer, he follows Yurika, a girl he met by chance, hoping she can help. She turns out to be captain of the private battleship Nadesico, so he signs on as its cook. Because he carries the nanite implants needed to control mecha, he also makes a useful backup pilot. The crew looks like a collection of misfits, otakus and ditzes, but each member was carefully chosen for their expertise, and all of them want to avenge Mars. As they carry their private war back to the red planet, they learn that real combat is nothing like a giant robot series. Action, comedy, romance and science fiction come together in this mecha story.