Martian Successor Nadesico

Although mecha anime are usually not my cup of tea (after childhood, I think Gundam ruined the genre for me), Martian Successor Nadesico became one of my favorites of 2020. It has the great 1990s anime aesthetic (despite the overly large eyes of some of its characters, even by anime standards) with all of the quirks of a show intended as parody and homage to the genre. Inspired by and poking fun at mecha genre, Nadesico's entertaining tale of Earth at war with the alien Jovians (are they really aliens?) pits a young crew in command of a warship in a struggle for humanity's survival. Of course, as a parody, its full of laughable scenes and humor as several of the young women on the ship are in love with Tenkawa. There's even a hilarious show-within-the show based on older mecha anime that eventually turns out to be very important for the plot. As such, it follows all the standard format of 1990s anime but without taking itself too seriously. One can enjoy it without much familiarity with mecha anime. Indeed, with the exception of this, Macross, Gundam, Gunbuster and Evangelion, I am unfamiliar with most examples of the genre. It's even more of a pity this show never received a proper conclusion...