Gunbuster

Gainax's first classic

 

Review

Early Gainax works fall somewhere on a scale with sci-fi on one end and storytelling on the other. Honneamise was overly obsessed with sci-fi elements, Nadia placed story and characters first, but Gunbuster struck a perfect balance, giving equal weight to both.

Gunbuster, a six-part OVA released in 1988, is Gainax's first classic. In the wake of Honneamise's box-office flop, Gainax knew it had to take a different tack, so director Hideaki Anno stepped up to the plate to direct and co-write a story set in Earth's future, when our world is under attack by a mysterious alien force. Episode 1 begins with Noriko Takaya at a training camp in Okinawa for giant robot pilots. Although the worst student in the class, Noriko is special because her father was captain of a space ship destroyed in a battle with the aliens. Although seemingly talentless and clumsy, Noriko strives to become the best, and just like its lead character, Gunbuster aims for the top, raising the stakes and taking bigger storytelling risks as the episodes progress.

Gunbuster is not perfect. Problems of plausibility exist in the later episodes (how could Earth build thousands of more ships, but not another Gunbuster? how is the Gunbuster so damned powerful?), and even though this is sci-fi, the best science fictions are those that convince you thoroughly, that envelop you completely in their fictional set of rules. Toren Smith, a key character who appears in episode 3, is lamentably named after an American comic book artist, jarring the viewer out of the story each time his name is spoken (imagine if Kaoru had been named "Todd McFarlane").

But mistakes withal, Gunbuster set the tone for years of classic Gainax shows and remains essential anime viewing.

 

Links

The Gunbuster Index - the best and most extensive Gunbuster fanpage with info on everything about the show: characters, story, mecha, merchandise, etc. Highly recommended.

Gunbuster Top o Nerae (Italian and English) - another excellent fan page. In addition to media, pictures, etc, this site features commentary on the morals of Gunbuster and the way the show evolves throughout its six episodes.

Gunbuster.net - another all-round fan page

Official Page (Japanese) - updated with Gunbuster remastered DVDs, new books, etc

Official Page (English) - basic info

Gears Online - unique site with galleries of Gunbuster's mecha and vehicle designs

Carl Horn on Gunbuster - some insightful comments

Gunbuster PS2 videogame trailer (streaming Windows Media Player)