Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster

Gunbuster starts with a fairly simple formula. Monstrous alien life forms are threatening the Earth, a young and inexperienced pilot must rise to the occasion and use a super-powered mecha to lead humanity's counterattack against the enemy and save the planet. The execution of this premise, however, is among the best in the genre, and the seamless way this merely 6-episode OVA covers the main character Noriko's growth from student to hero while escalating both the stakes and scale of her battles is nothing short of masterful storytelling. From schoolyard bullying, to losing loved ones in battle, to shouldering the responsibility of the entire humanrace, we follow Noriko's development as a character, and the strengthening of her resolve to fight is likely better handled than in any other anime of this sort, relying on both subtlety and moments of sheer emotional power. One impressive thing about Gunbuster is its general commitment to maintaining a setting based on hard science in many aspects that don't concern the Gunbuster itself. Ships travelling at sub-light speed undergo time dilation as per Einsteinian physics, meaning that time on a relatively stationary body like the Earth passes faster- many of the more emotional moments in the show are based on this difference in the passage of time between those fighting in space and those left behind on Earth. Furthermore, a good portion of the show centers not around the mechas but the space fleet, grounding the setting in procedure and a more realistic, wartime feel. This, in turn, makes the comparatively unrealistic mecha battles all the more triumphant for being special, unique among a setting dedicated to the relatively mundane. In fact, these moments have real power- not simply because it's cool to see a giant robot fight gigantic alien insects, but because every important fight is built up to, set up with real tension and high stakes while carrying the entire emotional weight of the characterization and conflicts. In other words, it's literally and physically exciting: something that can be said of very few things in the entire medium. Not only that, but the climax of the show along with its ending are incredibly powerful emotionally- the final episode is nothing short of moving on an inspirational, triumphant level. Personally, Gunbuster is one of my all-time favorite series, and there are few things in anime that I ever enjoyed more. It's far from perfect though, most notable among its flaws being that there are moments when the budget of the show cannot catch up to its vision. Furthermore, the pacing in the first half is slower than the second, which allows for good and thoughtful characterization but alienates the first three episodes from the last three in terms of general quality- episodes 1, 2, and 3 only exist to build up episodes 4, 5, and 6. Being made in 1988, its style may put off some younger or newer viewers, and if you're not already somewhat familiar with the genre you may find it hard to suspend your disbelief in the initial episodes. In fact, it can only be fully appreciated by one already somewhat familiar with the super robot subgenre, Nevertheless, I implore anyone who considers themselves an anime fan to watch this short series. It might lack the artistic or literary value of a select circle of masterpieces, but it is a superb piece of work that does nearly everything better than almost anything out there.

First and foremost, I should mention this is my first review for MAL. Secondly, I am surprised it took me so long to see this Anime through to completion. The story itself was well done. While the actual content can be summarized to "Giant Robot destroys an army of aliens," it is multitudes deeper than that. But just as important as the content itself, the pacing to this Anime is wonderful. It zips right along with just about nothing that seems like it could have been omitted, and yet never felt too fast. It was the perfect length to keep myself fully engrossed into the plot.What really made the plot matter was its wonderful depiction of the characters it entangled. They were all well detailed, and I felt no character was robbed of screen-time despite the shows brevity. Again, like the plot, I also felt no character wasn't needed as well. Even the weakest of characters get returning air-time, and prove to be an adequate drive for the main-characters to perform their duty. The art is outstanding for the 80's, in typical Gainix fashion no less. Even the direction taken in the final episode ended up being amazing to actually watch in motion. However, the sound, while good, seemed to have some balancing issues with the BGM. The voices were amazing, and the VAs conveyed a lot of emotion in their performance, but at very stressful times they seemed to overly shadow the BGM and even sometimes the SFX as well. Overall, I'd say Gunbuster is easily one of my favorite Mecha Anime ever produced. If you are even in the least bit interested in this show, I'd say give it a shot. Its short enough that you can spend a single rainy night finishing it, like I just did today. Anyways, thanks for reading my review of Gunbuster!

[Spoiler Warning] Gunbuster, or Top Wo Nerae! (Aim For The Top, in English), is considered to be the first thing the in/famous studio Gainax put out that is still known of today, and is often credited for putting them on the map. There are many people who consider Gunbuster to be an unprecedented classic, and a shining example of how mecha anime should be done, even 22 years later. And as was the case with another immensely overrated, 6-episode OVA made by Gainax that I shall not name, I'm sure I will hear no end of flak for this review, but let's make this clear rightnow: Gunbuster is fucking awful. There is so much wrong with this anime I don't even know where to start. But much like that other OVA series I don't care to mention, I am absolutely dumbfounded by the popularity it commands. There isn't a single good thing I can name about this show, aside from maybe the fact that Hideaki Anno learned from his mistake and made Neon Genesis Evangelion, which was obviously extremely flawed in of itself. But let's begin with one of the most glaring faults this show has: the science. This show has so little respect for physics that it makes Newton cry. This is especially prevalent in the first three episodes, having such faults as training for space missions on normal earth conditions, using objects to increase the gravity on them (because obviously, increased gravity is going to be a big concern in space), several occasions of objects seamlessly entering and leaving space without any damage to the surroundings (for example, a mecha coming in from space and landing in a forest clearing, which would probably devastate a large portion of the forest in real life), sound in the noiseless vacuum of space (though this is by no means the only offender for this), as well as several other chunks of absolute scientific nonsense. There are also several logical mishaps not involving science, like how the girls' bathrooms are in clear view through a large glass panel for all to see. Which, of course, provides us with a [i]hilarious[/i] fanservice moment. Next up for the chop, the characters. While the characterisation was shaky in Evangelion, here it is nothing short of awful. The main character, Noriko, stands in the tradition of Gainax in having their main characters be whiny, over-sensitive, and frequently completely useless. Noriko fits the bill for the most part, being a clear building block in Anno's later protagonist Shinji Ikari. And Noriko manages to give me a new appreciation for Shinji, because at least Shinji was well-written. Noriko is poorly written and completely unlikeable, and the rest of the cast is even worse. Her mentor is so worthless that I honestly can't even remember her name. You could replace her with a magical chipmunk that knows how to pilot a mecha, and the plot probably wouldn't change in the least, aside from the spousal abuse shifting to the animal variety. The worst character, however, is probably Jung Freud. I defy you to name a single thing she does in this show. She doesn't have the remotest significance, but Anno makes it clear we're supposed to know who she is. As far as her personality, she seems to flip from being the Action Girl to being The Rival, depending on what Anno wants her to be in whichever particular scene, but ends up completely insignificant regardless. Next is the plot. Everything about it is very badly written. Everything about it is basically a cheesy 80's movie turned mecha, and the results are as bad as they sound. Noriko is a student at a school training mecha, and is chosen to go into space because her father saved the life of a man who wound up with authority on the matter. In short, he allows a girl with absolutely no piloting skill into a major military division. ...Yeah. In space, Noriko meets a boy named Smith who she may or may not be in love with. I might be more clear about it if he hadn't spent all of 5 minutes, if even that, on screen. She then winds up completely depressed when he dies, despite them having known each other for like, 5 minutes. Not long after, we are introduced to the antagonising force, which mankind has somehow found out thinks that we are destroying the universe. Considering these alien creatures never show any sign of intelligence or communication whatsoever, it is a mystery how people came to this conclusion. Not long after, in a climactic battle which sees Noriko go into Shinji-mode, angsting and staying away from the battle, she eventually comes to and winds up piloting the titular mecha for some reason. Again, why a talentless teenage girl would be allowed to pilot something like this is a mystery. Nonetheless, she goes out and kicks a large amount of ass. Also, as shallow as this may be, there is one compliment I can give this series: the Gunbuster looks pretty damn awesome. Moving along, the last two episodes are commonly hyped up to be absolutely fantastic, but this is absolutely untrue: There's nothing remotely good about them. Annoyingly, they had the potential to be, especially the finale. The last episode is made in black and white for no particular reason. The only likely reasons I can give are that they were either trying to be artsy and pretentious, or it was to save animation budget. Seeing how this is Gainax, the latter is rather likely. And to add to the damning evidence, what should have been an amazing moment, a battle of epic proportions where robots explode, heroic sacrifices are made, and aliens die, winds up being compressed into a few animation-saving frames. To make this even more infuriating, those frames make it look like something you'd actually want to watch. It's like a friend going to a concert you weren't able to go to, who then raves about it to you, bragging about what you missed. Add to all this the most pretentious, cheesy, godawful, and all-round irrational ending, and you have the formula for a truly terrible anime. I can't name a single thing I like about this, aside from it having spawned an infinitely superior sequel, Diebuster. I mean, for fuck's sake... as much as I hated FLCL, this has truly dethroned it as the worst thing Gainax have produced. At least FLCL had some good concepts and production values behind it. If anything, it was just horribly executed, whereas Gunbuster is just a weak, amateur production in every single way. Final Words: Bad physics, bad logic, bad characterisation, bad writing, bad animation, bad plot, bad directing, bad concepts, bad everything. Animation/Graphics: 2/10 Story/Plot: 1/10 Music/Background: 7/10 Overall: 1/10 For Fans Of: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I watch anime for many many years, i had stages of my life that i watch mostly anime and stages that i pass years without seeing any anime. And someday, when i was searching on the net, i found a recommendation for Gunbuster, Top wo Nerae! (Aim for the top). It was aired on 1988, but on the first time i saw, i didnt noted, i think it was proposital to have old look style, and only later after seeing the first episode that i got to know that was from 1988. It only has 6 chapters, and in the first chapter, it is kinda cliche-styleof the stupid-girl-discover-that-is-very-good-and-bypass-all-difficulties. But when the aliens pop in, and the main characters go to space, everything changes. And based in REAL teories from Einstein and other famous physics, it explains everythings that happen in the episodes. The battle sequences are overpowered, it has tension, emotion, you start thinking how a anime with a cute opening song and a lame 1st ep turns to be tense like this. Pure Gainax style, one of the firsts animes of the studio, pure masterpiece. It is so inteligent in the end that makes you feel like stupid, thinking in time-space-travel teories. I recommend this classic to anyone that love animes, it has all the elements of anime in one: Pretty girls, nudity, fight, mechas, love, death, science, sadness and happiness.

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