“Starship Troopers” is watchable. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but the story is at least interesting. Partially owing to the fact that this OVA is based on an American novel, it also has a distinctly non-anime feel to it. The all-English soundtrack used throughout includes generic American-style upbeat rock songs that unsettlingly sound both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time, almost as if they’re from an ‘80s America in a parallel universe. The character designs bear more similarities to Western-style animation than the typical anime style. So this anime is a unique watch due to these factors. However, this OVA is lacking when it comes to technicalaspects. At times, the animation is limited and choppy. There are awkward moments, like when a character’s eyes are supposed to be welling up with tears, they just look like they’re vibrating. While some character designs are distinct enough, about half of the characters look like they have the same face, so it’s hard to tell them apart. The faces of the female characters (especially Carmencita) enter uncanny valley territory.

The soundtrack, as mentioned above, consists of generic American-style rock music. Sometimes the insert songs are a little bit too upbeat for the scenes being shown. The openings and endings are okay, but the animation sequences are kind of strange — in one, we see Johnny surfing on a cloud, and in the other one, Carmencita becomes a seagull. The voice acting is nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done.

The characters don’t stand out too much. There is a Japanese member of Johnny’s team who is supposed to provide comic relief, but just comes off as weird most of the time. In the first episode, Johnny’s friend Carl enlists in the army with him and Carmencita, and is set up potentially to be an important character, but he is never mentioned again afterwards. Characters often get into fights, but always punch each other in the cheek for some reason. Cheeks get slapped multiple times as well. (Did the staff have something against cheeks?)

The story, as I said earlier, is interesting, but predictable. There are twists, but you can see them coming from a mile away. There is not much action in this series; in fact, they only get into actual combat in part of the last episode. The rest of the OVA focuses on Johnny and his team training. Characters make logic-defying decisions at times to advance the plot. Some characters die, but there isn’t much blood and gore. As for nudity, there’s a headless nude poster shown for a few seconds on screen in one of the episodes. There’s also a mildly sexist throwaway comment (coming from a female character, no less), but nothing too explicit or profane. The OVA ends at an awkward spot in the story, just when things are beginning to ramp up.

Overall, while the technical aspects don’t do it any favors, this OVA is an engaging watch due to its non-anime-style elements.