Gunbuster (Top o Nerae)

C

Cheeky

School Idol
Well, I've just finished watching this blast from the past, and I must say it's a brilliant OVA series - perhaps even more likeable than Rahxephon and Evangelion (dare I say it?!).

The basic premise is your normal loveable heroine, Noriko, who wants to be a mecha pilot in the memory of her father. There's obviously a lot more to it than humans versus aliens - remember Hideaki Anno made his debut directing with Gunbuster.

It's slightly old school but the quality of how the character's relationships and situations are dealt with are much above 'old school' quality - think Voices Of A Distant Star.

The animation's quite good for the late 80s, though not at the level of say Akira. Character designs are again old school but likeable - especially the Gunbuster, a quality mecha that!

You'll certainly see aspects of Hideaki's future work in this, but without the hit or miss 'love it or hate it' debacle that Evangelion was. All in all, a top OVA!
 
Cheeky said:
Well, I've just finished watching this blast from the past, and I must say it's a brilliant OVA series - perhaps even more likeable than Rahxephon and Evangelion (dare I say it?!).
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Actually, I think Gunbuster really is better than NGE in some aspects...a shame it's only six eps long really!

The R2 release has been on the cards ever since Bandai picked up the licence for it but there's still no sign of a release date yet.
 
First couple of episodes are wasted. Giant insects aren't scary. Forgot about it the next day.

I didn't dislike it but I did find it pretty mediocre. Also I think it is hard to cram an epic story into 3 hours.
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
Comparing it to Voices of a Distant Star? That makes me want to give it a miss.
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'Voices...' borrows quite a bit from Gunbuster I think...imagine how muchmore Voices would have been if it was six times longer. I reckon you'd like it.
 
Martin said:
WTFDaveMustaine said:
Comparing it to Voices of a Distant Star? That makes me want to give it a miss.
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'Voices...' borrows quite a bit from Gunbuster I think...imagine how muchmore Voices would have been if it was six times longer. I reckon you'd like it.
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I was bored of Voices after the 15 minute mark. I honestly thought i'd already been watching it for over half an hour by that point. If it's like Voices times six in length then I don't think that it would really do anything for me. I thought the relationship between the characters was pretty poor in that and the only thing that really stood out was the artwork and the fact that it was made by one person.

I'm going to need more convincing.
 
The series is better towards the end (last three episodes).

The reason for comparing it with Voices of a Distant Star is the whole space travel/time lag thing (time dilation, to be scientifically correct). Gunbuster deals with that a lot more effectively, because the characters actually come back finding how the world has changed in their absence and there's more complex relationships between a wider range of characters. Basically, Gunbuster is not Voices. It's just they share the concept of time dilation.

Giant insects... you don't actually see that much of them, thinking about it. I guess that's not really what the story's about. We see Coach more than the aliens (I'm not complaining though, he's cool!)

It is harder to appreciate some of the aspects of this as countless series since then have plucked ideas from it, but you've got to watch it knowing that it's an older anime. And, of course, the moment when the Gunbuster appears is utterly cool =)
 
Watched this series a few weeks ago and loved it! Very entertaining. The first episode is totally different to the rest of the series, which was unusual.

It's also quite easy to make out some of the characters as being blueprints for characters in Evangelion, which was awesome!
 
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