A First Impression: Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu Episode 1

This is Subaru. He seems like your standard mecha protagonist…

War has broken out between Earth and the various space colonies. Earth’s greatest hope in the war is the massive space battleship Tiramisu and its onboard combat mecha. One of these mecha, Durandal, is piloted by the young genius Subaru Ichinose. Because he is so much younger than the other pilots, Subaru has become a bit of an isolated loner who prefers staying in the cockpit of Durandal as much as possible.

First, he tries to eat a meal of fried pork skewers while in the mecha, but accidentally spills everything and has to win a fight while covered in bits of sauce, breading and cabbage. Next, he rushes to battle straight from the showers and accidentally takes off with his shirt on backwards. Irritated by the shirt pressing against his throat, he strips down entirely and fights – and wins – an entire battle fully naked.

….but is actually a total goof who eats fried foods in his cockpit

Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu is a 7-minute short which seems to have one purpose: to parody the tropes present in many classic space and mecha shows and movies. For example, there’s a serious, dramatic narrator announcing what is going on during the space battles – except, instead of the actual combat, he’s narrating things like Subaru eating his pork skewer or realizing that his shirt is on backwards. Backstory, world building and the actual space battles are mostly skipped in favor of focusing on Subaru’s various quirks (although we did get to see that the mecha have designs which are as stereotypical as possible and fight one another with what are basically lightsabers).

It was hard to find good screenshots because Subaru spends so much of the episode naked

This show will probably not be for everyone, as 1) it is basically a series of short gags on the subject of Subaru’s various misadventures and 2) there is actually quite a lot of nudity, as Subaru is shown showering and later discovers a love for fighting naked (although no genitalia are shown). However, as a fan of space shows, I actually found myself loving this. Subaru’s overdramatic reactions to little things paired with the monotone seriousness of the narrator made for an amusing 7 minutes. While this gimmick might get boring if future episodes of the show don’t branch at all, I found the first episode thoroughly enjoyable, laughed out loud several times in its very short run, and definitely plan on watching more.

Out of 5 Dios for this quirky but humorous gem:

The only other really prominent character this episode was Cody the dispatcher. He was kind of bland but it was cute how much he tolerated Subaru’s antics.