Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Space War (Johnsonverse)

Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Space War is an American space opera series. It was developed by Tim Johnson (who also directs this series) and premiered on Cartoon Network on October 1, 2017, through Toonami's Midnight Run block.

Premise
A 125-episode sci-fi epic divided into five 25-episode chapters (each episode being 45 minutes each), the series serves as a direct sequel to the 2015 Hyperdimension Neptunia anime. The series is a rather blatant rip-off of Star Wars, using the logo, opening crawl, ships, weapons, and the Death Star; however, this is the entire joke: that the Star Wars movies are repeating themselves with different characters, in a different universe, just in different ways; the series has no fourth wall, and characters call attention to the Star Wars parallels on a regular basis, becoming increasingly irritated with them as the series progresses. Starting in Episode 33, the cast of RWBY was added, with the Imperials intervening in the Battle of Beacon and starting a three-episode arc known as the "Remnant Civil War" arc. The series utilizes a rather novel approach of putting animated characters on scale model sets, with various objects being manipulated either by pushing them over with a blast of air, hydraulics, or stop motion (if a character has to pick up or manipulate a live-action object, a close-up of a live-action hand is shown doing so, and in the next shot, the object will be animated; occasionally, an animated character is shown holding up an object using a live hand in the foreground, while the rest of the character is out-of-focus in the background; these hands belong to uncredited Johnson employees, though Tim, Chloe, and Belle's hands have all been seen at various points). In fact, everything is either animated or a practical effect, such as stop motion, go motion, suitmation, puppetry, live pyrotechnics, remote-controlled vehicles, and matte paintings; even the missiles are real, usually being small white smoke flares; the only CGI effects are lasers and the occasional nebula.

Plot
One year after what has come to be known as the Tari Insurrection (the last two episodes of the 2015 anime), Gamindustri is no longer divided. While the four nations (Planeptune, Lastation, Leanbox, and Lowee) are still independent nations, they are united under the Gamindustri Treaty Organization (GTO), formed to counter the growing threat of the PC Pact, a rival military alliance comprised of the PC Continent nations of Crosoft, App, and Nux.

One day, the PC Pact launches a crushing invasion of Gamindustri. Although the combined GTO forces inflict extreme casualties on the invaders, the Goddesses (Neptune, Noire, Vert, and Blanc) find their forces overwhelmed due to the PC Pact using mass assault tactics. They enact a top-secret protocol dating back to the period following the Sundering of Gamindustri (also known as the Crash of '83) to evacuate themselves, their sisters (Nepgear, Uni, Rom, and Ram), their Oracles, the Makers they have befriended over the years, and any civilians who can make it aboard an armada of interstellar spaceships; even the Goddess' old enemy, Arfoire, now a humble farmer, chooses to come with them. All who make it manage to get aboard, except for RED and Tekken, who are killed when Linda ambushes them in the launch bay.

After their escape, the fighting in Gamindustri continues for three long, grueling months, as the citizenry puts up a stubborn resistance that ultimately results in a pyrrhic victory for the PC Pact. Wilhelm Scholz, Kaiser of Crosoft, declares victory and makes a grandiose speech to the people of the PC Pact, only to be assassinated mid-speech by Rei Ryghts, the fallen goddess Blue Heart who led the fallen nation of Tari (on which Planeptune was built following the Sundering). She, along with Linda and the Gold Third, consolidates power by backstabbing App and Nux, then taking over any remaining independent nations on Earth (mainly small upstart nations formed in the wake of the formation of the GTO and the resulting end of the use of proxies in the various Console Wars over the years). Using the plans for Gamindustri's evacuation ships, Rei declares herself empress and declares the creation of the First Galactic Empire.

Meanwhile, the refugees from Gamindustri use pre-programmed coordinates to hyperjump to a star system in the Outer Rim known as Pimsuts. Landing on the planet Sindir, the Gamdindustri Provisional Government is established, with Neptune named leader in a snap election. As the ships are reassembled into a city, the protagonists begin plotting their next move, only to find that there's nothing they can do at this point.

30 years pass, and Rei's Galactic Empire has come to encompass most of the galaxy, trampling lesser civilizations underfoot and enslaving or exterminating non-humans. After an Imperial survey ship happens upon Sindir, the protagonists are shaken from their peaceful isolation into action, and Neptune declares the formation of the Gamindustri Freedom League (GFL), with the goal of not only freeing Earth from Rei's iron grip, but all of the galaxy from Imperial rule.

Characters
As is typical for a Johnson series, Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Space War has a massive cast that can be hard to keep track of.

Gamindustri Freedom League
The Rebel Alliance of the series, the Gamindustri Freedom League (GFL) is hard to pin. Nobody is sure if it is a military junta, a group of freedom fighters, a terrorist organization, or a legitimate government. All that is known, though, is that the GFL's tactics are rather questionable, tactics such as interdicting and destroying unarmed convoys, bombing space stations, destroying civilian infrastructure, and assassinating key targets. As the organization matured, they switched from guerilla tactics to open warfare, able to field vast clone armies and large fleets against the Empire's seemingly-infinite resources. Despite their image as brave freedom fighters, the GFL is, in fact, rather morally-grey, which can be attributed to how depraved the Goddesses have become during 30 years of exile.

GFL Leadership

 * Neptune/Purple Heart (Melissa Fahn) - Leader of the GFL, and Console Patron Unit of Planeptune. After the Tari Insurrection and the discovery of a portal to the Ultradimension, something changed in Neptune. Gone was the lazy, insensitive, but ultimately heroic girl, replaced by a workaholic who began affording herself less free time in favor of becoming a better leader for her people. This worried everyone, none moreso than Noire, who felt she was to blame for Neptune becoming someone she wasn't. After the Invasion of Gamindustri, Neptune changed again, falling into a deep depression that led her to attempt suicide before Noire stopped her. She remained semi-catatonic for the next 30 years until an Imperial survey ship arrived on Sindir and Neptune discovered Rei had created a massive empire, at which point her depression was replaced with unyielding rage. Neptune is now a cold, calculating military leader who nevertheless cares deeply for her friends, especially her sister Nepgear and her best friend (and, by Episode 19, girlfriend) Noire. She commands the First Fleet, the top-most fleet in the naval chain-of-command, aboard the Guardian-class star dreadnought Guardian (the lead ship of her class). Weapon of choice: swords.
 * Noire/Black Heart (Erin Fitzgerald) - Second-in-command of the GFL, and Console Patron Unit of Lastation. Once upon a time, Noire was your typical tsundere, always annoyed by Neptune's antics but secretly loving them, and viewing Neptune as her best friend. She also had a secret cosplay hobby, but was, overall, the hardest-working of the Goddesses. That's not to say she was all work and no play, as she often found her work tiring thanks in no small part to how many bureaucratic roadblocks she had to make to curb Avenir's power in Lastation politics. After the Tari Insurrection, Noire was incredibly worried by Neptune suddenly becoming a workaholic, especially when she tried to get her away from her work for some rest and relaxation. Upon Gamindustri's fall, Noire became Neptune's main anchor to sanity, an emotional crutch, a role Noire felt compelled to fill since Nepgear was spending more time with Uni. She was named second-in-command of the GFL upon its formation, often accompanying Neptune on various missions. While aboard an exploding Imperial research station, Noire confessed her feelings to Neptune, but they weren't able to act on said feelings until after the Death Star's destruction, at which point they became an official couple, a major step towards the globalization of Gamindustri. She commands the Second Fleet aboard the Guardian-class star dreadnought Emancipator. Weapon of choice: shortswords.
 * Vert/Green Heart (Tara Platt) - Fifth-in-command of the GFL and Console Patron Unit of Leanbox. Vert was an oddity among the Goddesses, in that she had no CPU Candidate. She was also rather lazy like Neptune, only she spent her days playing MMOs in a dark room and collecting manga. Despite this, Vert was also the nicest of the four, a sort of team mom; she was so nice, she rarely got Leanbox involved in the Console Wars (simply because she didn't care) unless her nation's sovereignty was threatened, and even then, she went to war almost exclusively with Lastation, acting as a sort of diplomatic channel between Planeptune and Lowee. After the Tari Insurrection, Vert largely went about her life until the PC Pact invaded, at which point she buckled down and personally led her soldiers into battle. After the fall and evacuation, Vert sealed herself off from the world so they wouldn't hear her cry, but opened up after Blanc reached out to her, sparking something between them that eventually blossomed into a full-on romance in Episode 53. She commands the Third Fleet aboard the Guardian-class star dreadnought Patriot. Weapon of choice: spears.
 * Blanc/White Heart (Wendee Lee) - Fourth-in-command of the GFL and Console Patron Unit of Lowee. The shortest of the Goddesses, Blanc is a complex girl. A Goddess by trade and a bibliophile by choice, she is usually quiet and stoic. Underneath her cold exterior, though, lies the hairiest of hair-trigger tempers, as she is liable to explode into a violent rage, her biggest trigger being anyone making insensitive remarks about her breasts (or lack thereof). She was also the Goddess most likely to swear, usually dropping cluster f-bombs if sufficiently angered, and having absolutely no filter in her Hard Drive Divinity (HDD) form. After the Fall of Gamindustri, Blanc was utterly livid at having to abandon her people, but understood that for every PC soldier they killed, a thousand stood ready to take his/her place. She now gets her jollies slaughtering Imperials, military or otherwise, and has developed a reputation among Imperial units as "The Butcher". Blanc voluntarily bowed out of the chain-of-command, mainly because her brilliant mind was needed in developing weapons of war; her greatest contribution to the war effort is the GFLs primary multipurpose starfighter, the SF-93 R-Wing. She commands the Fourth Fleet aboard the Guardian-class star dreadnought Independence. Weapon of choice: warhammers.
 * Nepgear/Purple Sister (Christine Marie Cabanos) - Third-in-command of the GFL and CPU Candidate of Planeptune. Neptune's younger sister (who is actually taller, a phenomenon known in Gamindustri as "Mario Bros. Syndrome") tended to be more active than Neptune, but not by much. A natural-born genius, Nepgear was the one who got Uni hooked on guns, and has developed many different inventions that made Planeptune the most technologically-advanced nation in Gamindustri (while the others were seemingly stuck in the Late Industrial Age, as while Planeptune had a vast monorail system, Lastation had passenger trains pulled by diesel locomotives, Lowee had horse-drawn streetcars, and Leanbox had no publicly-funded transportation services, relying on privately-owned bus companies that engaged in price-gouging). Upon the Fall of Gamindustri, Nepgear basically took charge of the situation while Neptune became semi-catatonic, establishing Sindir as a desirable home away from home for the evacuees. Upon the formation of the GFL, Nepgear was a bit disappointed Neptune had named Noire second-in-command, but deep down, knew the reason why. She was content being third banana in the operation. Her relationship with Uni grew until they, too, became a couple in Episode 24. She commands the Fifth Fleet aboard the Guardian-class star dreadnought Liberty. Weapon of choice: beam swords.
 * Uni/Black Sister (Sarah Ann Williams) - Sixth-in-command of the GFL and CPU Candidate of Lastation. Noire's younger sister was also a tsundere, but to a much lesser extent. As a result, her relationship with Nepgear was much friendlier than the contentious one between their sisters. Uni is an absolute gun-nut, thanks to Nepgear, and spent much of her freetime collecting, disassembling, and kitbashing guns, and firing them either at the gun range or enemies. After the Fall of Gamindustri, she found comfort with Nepgear, just as Noire was anchoring Neptune to what little sanity she had left. As sixth-in-command of the GFL, Uni doesn't expect to actually lead unless things get incredibly dire. Uni was responsible for reverse-engineering Imperial weaponry to create the GFLs small arms, chief among them the A200 Blaster Rifle, which has a leg-up on its Imperial counterpart, the E-11, by being more accurate and having a better rate of fire. She commands the Sixth Fleet aboard the Guardian-class star dreadnought Freedom.
 * Rom and Ram/White Sisters (Carrie Keranen and Shelby Lindley) - High-ranking GFL military officials and the CPU Candidates of Lowee. Blanc's younger twin sisters were a cause for celebration when they were born, as she had led her nation so well, the Shares had created two candidates instead of one. Despite this, they couldn't be any more different. Rom is quiet and shy, while Ram is loud and boisterous, yet their personalities complement each other rather nicely. After the Fall of Gamindustri, Ram did her best to comfort Rom while Blanc was brooding over their defeat. Of all the Goddesses, the twins were not made part of the chain-of-command due to Rom taking herself out of contention on account of her shyness and Neptune not trusting Ram to take charge in a situation dire enough to warrant her being leader. In the early days of the GFLs existence, Rom and Ram were often used for commando missions, as their small size allowed them to fit into places regular commandos couldn't; one such mission involved turning a Hypervelocity Gun on a commercial space station instead of a rejected prototype for a carrier, a prototype that ultimately became the GFLs Endurance-class fleet carrier and also formed the basis for the highly-successful Nebula-class star destroyer. Rom commands the Seventh Fleet aboard the Nebula-class star destroyer Spruance, while Ram commands the Eighth Fleet aboard the Nebula-class star destroyer Farragut.

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