Those of you who know a few things about Japanese might notice that Nadesico is not just simple battleship, but a kidou senkan.  Senkan is easy enough as it means battleship or warship.  But kidou is not a word commonly attached to battleships.  Kidou means "highly maneuverable," "mobile," "task force ready," and other concepts related to fast mobility and rapid deployment.  This was why I translated kidou senkan to "high mobile battleship."  Basically, the idea is to have a fast battleship that can hit hard and hit fast, not a ship that is meant to occupy and hold an area.  "High Mobile" is a term that came from Vietnam and was used to describe the nature and tactics of the 1st Air Calvary Division.
 

アニメの中のアニメ (続)
Animation in Animation (continued)

    This episode marks the first time we see Gekigangar, the infamous animation series of 2096, is depicted in Nadesico.  The Nadesico time line takes place in 2196, so Gekigangar would have been 100 years old when Akito and Gai was watching it inside Nadesico.  What will anime fans be watching 100 years from now?
    This was also the first time the spelling of Gekigangar came up.  Those of you who have learned some Japanese realize that sometimes it is very frustrating to spell out Japanese words in English.  The Japanese language does not differentiate between the "l" and "r" sound, and there are others issues regarding conflicting linguistics that come into play.  What made the job worse for me was that the crew in Japan was spelling Gekigangar in two ways; one with the "ar" ending and another with the "er" ending.  If you look very carefully, you'll notice the December 2096 issue of Toon Magazine with the "ar" spelling, but other documentation has the "er" spelling.  In the words of Bill Hicks, "It was a judgment call, and I made it."  I went with the "ar" spelling simply because it sounded better for me.  If I only new that they would plaster the spelling of Gekigangar all over the screen in the preview to episode 24 with the "er" spelling at this point, I might have spelled it the "er" way, but it's hard to say.
    This also marks the first time that Omi Minami plays a part completely unlike Ruri in Nadesico.  In addition to the popular portray of Ruri, Minami was the voice for Nanako in Gekigangar.
 

ありきたりな名前
Ordinary Names

    This is an issue that comes up in the first episode but I'm bring it up here instead.  Gai, who's real name is actually "Jiro Yamada," goes to lengths to point out that he wasn't happy with the name he was given upon birth.  While there is nothing wrong, strange, nor peculiar with the name "Jiro Yamada," it's hard to appreciate for Americans just how "boring" this name is in Japan.  Some names in Japanese are considered to be dated and mundane.  Well you really can't get any more mundane and boring than with a name like "Jiro Yamada."  To be frank, until recently, the names of most anime characters were just that, the names of anime characters.  They used Chinese Characters that were bold and guttural, just like how the name "Gai Daigoji" is, or impressive and smelled of elite status.  Most people don't have names like that, and that's what makes this joke work in Japanese.  Unfortunately, the significance of this reference cannot be translated into English adequately short of changing the names of all the characters into English, which is something I was not prepared to do.
 

賞賛のスタンプ
Stamp of Approval

    At the very end of Nadesico/Omoikane (Nadesico's main computer) "bootup," a strange stamp like image is projected.  This image, which was replaced with a smily mark in the ADV release, is based on stamps that teachers use to grade the work of their students in grade school.  If the seal is literally traslated into English, it would be "You did a great job!"