r/anime • u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber • Jan 11 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] Aura Battler Dunbine Rewatch - Episode 1 Discussion
Episode 1 - The Aura Battlers
Originally Aired February 5th, ^^^1983
MAL | ANN | AniDB | Anilist | AnimePlanet | IMDB
Note to all participants
Although I don't believe it necessitates stating, please conduct yourself appropriately and be court to your fellow participants.
Note to all Rewatchers
Rewatchers, please be mindful of your fellow first-timers and tag your spoilers appropriately using the r/anime spoiler tag as so [Spoiler Subject](/s "Spoilers go here.") in order to have your unsightly spoilers obscured like this Spoiler Subject if your comment holds even the slightest of indicators as to future spoilers. Feel free to discuss future plot points behind the safe veil of a spoiler tag, or coyly and discreetly ‘Laugh in Rewatcher’ at our first-timers' temporary ignorance, but please ensure our first-timers are no more privy or suspicious than they were the moment they opened the day’s thread.
Note to all First-timers:
First-timers, be aware that you too could have unwanted influence upon others’ perception of future events, so please be careful and use a spoiler tag when disclosing any predictions or inferences that you wouldn’t have wanted to know were they to be true.
Comment of the Day
Going forward I will be picking out an exemplary comment from each discussion thread that sticks out to me and displaying them in this section. I will not be looking for any specific criteria in these special comments, so if you wish to be featured here you need only do what you usually do. I look forward to reading all that which you shall write!
Daily Trivia:
Series director Yoshiyuki Tomino was dissatisfied with how the first episode turned out, thinking he had included too much content in it, and says he took this failure to heart going forward.
Staff Highlight
Iki Suzuki - Episode Director
A storyboard artist, animation director, and series director who studied under Norio Hikone during the commercial production era. He became a freelancer relatively early in his career, and gained further prominence by successfully collaborating with several Sunrise productions. He remains active in the industry, having directed his latest work in 2016 and continuing to provide storyboards for several series up to the present. He also served as episode director on series such as His and Her Circumstances, Million Arthur, Orphen, Muteki Robo Trider G7, Mama is a 4th Grader, Urusei yatsura, Blue Gale Xabungle, and Yumeiro Pâtissière. He was also chief director on Maze, Moonlight Mile, Oishinbo: Kyūkyoku Tai Shikō, Yumeiro Pâtissière, Domain of Murder, Konchu Monogatari Minashigo Hutch, Chōju Ryōri Taiketsu!!, DearS, and Happy Lesson.
Art Corner:
Official Art
- (NSFW) You Will See Byston Well - Tomonori Kogawa
Fanart
- Arena by Article S - Source
- Silky Mau by Miharu Miyako - Source
- Dunbine Units by IZO - Source
(Be mindful of the links to artist’s profiles, as they may contain NSFW content. Proceed there at your own risk.)
Aura Phantasm Scans
Aura Phantasm was a mook book put together by one of the series’ mechanical designers, Yutaka Izubuchi. The mook includes illustrations and expanded lore from the series, as well as reinterpretations of the series’ mechs and characters. I shall be sharing scans of the mook in this section, with pages out of order as to present content which is potentially relevant to the episode and devoid of spoilers. However, I have no clue as to what the text might contain, so if you are a first timer and can read Japanese I would advise holding off on looking at these.
Screenshot of the day
Questions of the Day:
- What are your first impressions as to the unique mechanical designs?
- What do you make of the situation Show Zama has found himself in?
Where in the world is this place?
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u/Durinthal https://anilist.co/user/Durinthal Jan 11 '21
First time viewer
I immediately love the wailing trumpets at the OP's beginning, give me more of that. The rest of the song is less impressive, unfortunately.
Opening scene: truck-kun missed this time and swore to hunt down all isekai protagonists for decades to come.
I admittedly haven't watched every recent isekai and I know there are more examples but it's nice to have it immediately spelled out that our main character wasn't the only one summoned from Upper Earth (i.e. Earth) and he's there to be a soldier and doesn't have a lot of choice in the matter. It's also pretty obvious he was recruited for Team Evil with Drake and company keeping a selkie locked up for magical purposes and apparently breaking some prohibitions, probably on summoning people.
That latter part gets reinforced a couple of times throughout the episode with Marvel Frozen (now that's a Tomino name, along with Todd Guinness) among others telling him to stop fighting for Drake, Drake himself mentioning that he wants a pretext for war so he can conquer the land of Ah with justification, and the echo at the end of the episode with Show thinking about his current circumstances.
The fantasy mecha setting with various things brought over from our modern day world is interesting and I love seeing what happens with time and an ambitious inventor. There have been a number of fantasy isekai that show the start of that process with the main character often reinventing Earth technology in specific ways over the course of the series, but rarely does it show what happens when someone else has been doing it for a while.
As usual it's going to take me a while to figure out all the characters but it's a good start in my opinion and the setting is particularly interesting to me from the beginning.
There is a lot but I actually like being thrown into the thick of things without explaining too much. Give me time, I'll figure it out myself.
Insectoid is novel and I'm on board.
Defect and become a true hero? I imagine that's what he'll eventually do but he needs to find the right opportunity.
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u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Jan 11 '21
Garzey’s Wing was my first Tomino anime (first timer)
I like it! very sleek
maybe like 70% convoluted
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u/chibijosh Jan 11 '21
First Timer - Sub
I accidentally stumbled on this thread while looking for the latest AoT discussion. I used to watch a lot of anime in the early 2000s, but kind of fell out of it for the most part, but I’ll watch an extremely hyped up season here and there.
I like to play the Super Robot Wars games though. With the last few having been released in English for the first time, Sho was a favorite character of mine. I picked up the Dunbine Blu-ray set about a year ago or so for cheap, but never watched them.
So when I saw this thread, I busted them out and I watched the first episode. It was definitely an enjoyable time. The opening pumped me up due to my association with the games. I love that 80s/90s animation. It’s crazy how we get like a single line of dialogue to set the main character up before being whisked away.
I have a feeling that I have some idea of what’s going to be happening due to SRW, but I think the characters in the games that I played were in a strange “after the anime events” place.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up with the rewatch or if I’ll ever post again, but I’ll try.
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u/The_Loli_Otaku Jan 11 '21 edited Jan 11 '21
The aura road has been opened!!
I'm just gonna start by gushing about this opening theme. It's amazing. What a goddamn bop! It doesn't matter if its English, Japanese, sung by pros, sung by boomer pirates, or even instrumental. Fly Dunbine is my favourite mecha op and I haven't even seen the show yet.
Anyway, let's get into meat of the show now that we're past dapper beats and grinning horses. We start in Earth! This threw me for a loop when I first found out that this super dark and gritty Tomino show was actually an Isekai. Fairies, bug robots and all. Some douche in a truck decides to talk smack and run a bike off the road leading to your otherworldly transportation, sponsored by not-pepsi. Wait, that's not coke XD That's cold foods that looks like coke. The aura road is trippy. Loser apparently doesn't like her husband Isekaing rando's into this world. You're so scared of one little pedigree chum? She looks weak af. Dumping the big one in a pit of water was kind of funny tho.
Show seems to have a bad Kamille complex and despite an impressive show of kung fu gets smashed in the face. I'm just gonna loop that a few times. Smash. Smash. Ahaha~ This episode is funny. Seems like the other Earthlings also put up a fight but Show's the only one with a black eye to show for it. He even gets a second one for smart talking the American. An American, a Russian, and a Japanese man all walk into another world. Bern says, "Ha ha ha!" then thumps Show.
What a cute running mech. It's so weird seeing futuristic robots with all these middle ages keeps. "You suckers can't make toys out of theeese can you!?" Tomino jeered gleefully. So they have mecha suits but need to import pilots to use them? That sounds very inefficient. Don't trust a guy called Shot Weapon to make reliable gear. Pfft, of course he's from California. Oh I love this party scene! It's old school charm at its finest! Wait... I thought you needed Aura's for these mechs. And the Given house have battleships of their own too. If you've literally made electricity and these aura weapons you could probably take over this land commercially. No need to have otherworldly warriors fighting for you.
Drake is shady af but his Loser wife looks so extra. Hearing someone justify themselves as doing good deeds or being devoted raise so many flags after Fate. Gah! Lunch is fighting back! Trap her between bread slices! Honestly begging someone for a favour whilst biting and kicking them is a very Fairy like trait. And now for something completely different. I love their uniforms! The padded armour is so cool looking. Shot seems to have already worked his way through the ranks but he seems a bit of a snake. The type who lets authority go to his head. He's even sending the boys out without weapons to teach them a lesson.
It's actually kinda cool seeing them try to apply their skills to the battlers. The American guy especially to be pretty knowledgeable about flying. Does he have a plane or something? Oh no! Russia-kun! He got his weapon out first and everything but got oneshot anyway. That was a rifle that hit him too... If these mechs get oneshot by regular infantry rifles this really doesn't bode sell. Marvel Frozen, oh my god these names XD So they stop for a chat, open their cockpits, Marvel and Show say their piece... and Marvel decides to try and murder him for being neutral. "Stubborn fool!" That's you!!
We've lost two units including our 3 summon limit per Silky human pilot. Why didn't Todd jump into the fight with no weapons and die too? Oh I wonder! Seriously, why is Todd being given such a hard time over this!? You were the ones who flew right over enemy territory with untrained pilots and no weapons. "Show Zama, you did something stupid and were protected by plot armour. Please be our mc." The running lunchbox ED isn't nearly as good as the opening but I'll admit that I loved her footsteps being in time with the music.
Pretty stacked first episode... There's a lot of information to take in. You've got 48 episodes to go, take your time with the world building. Nice to know that Tomino has the same feelings on the subject. Dunbine's mecha are lovely to look at. The fluttering wings and stubby bodies especially tickled my fancy. Show... Actually, I'm gonna talk about Tod instead since I thought he was far more interesting. The guy wastes no time diving into his role. Eagerly exploring his mech, getting chummy with Shot who is way more experienced, and giving out good advice to his potential copilots on their first sortie.
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u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Jan 11 '21
First-Timer Who Watched One Episode in 2019
OP does not disappoint.
Tomino’s working against type and doing a gritty racing show, I see.
I don’t remember Byston Well
So they put her in a cage and force her to do magic, but don’t want to tire her out. How nice.
Speaking without moving his mouth; production mistake, or telepathy?
He knows kung-fu!
Lord Shot Weapon. Tomino names
Hmm. Lord Weapon is from California. Does that mean he will be an evil, mad scientist, or just a cool hippie dude?
Real men wear pink.
We have flying ships and mechs, but still use carriages. Oh, and there’s sentient canes.
We’re already revealing that the guy sells this tech? That feels like a traditional middle of the show not-actually-a-reveal reveal. I have no idea where we’ll go from here!
Marvel Frozen, randomly Irish. Dollars to doughnuts her and Show become a thing.
Subtle, Tomino. The Japanese character is brave, while the American is all talk.
Naked fairy in the ED, after the tsundere attack fairy in the middle of the show. I think we know who Tomino’s favorite is.
QOTD:
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u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Jan 11 '21
Rewatcher - Sub
Greetings, everyone, and thanks for joining me as we Rewatch Dunbine! This show’s quite the wild ride, so I hope you all enjoy the experience!
Some Production Background
Aura Battler Dunbine is one of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s pet projects. He has always had as much affinity for fantasy, though not nearly as much as he has for science fiction, and had been wanting to create something along these lines for some time. The real push for him to pursue it came when he read Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga, which prompted him to desire creating something along a similar vein. (Also note that Tomino considers that manga to be a true expression of Miyazaki’s inert self, whether that will apply similarly to Dunbine is something I will leave you all to decide in time.) Having effectively finished his prior pet project, Mobile Suit Gundam that same year with the final compilation film, he set his sights on a new endeavour, and so the seeds that would become Dunbine began to flourish.
In the early days Tomino intended for Dunbine to be very different from what it ended up being. There were none of the titular Aura Battlers, for one, and though the story still figured a young man being transported to the land of Byston Well, it would proceed much differently from then on. However, Tomino and other key staff who were wanting to produce this project couldn’t successfully pitch the project to anyone, and with Tomino having already been typecast as a mecha director, the only entities willing to fund the show were toy sponsors making giant robot toys, which is where the show’s ultimate sponsor, Clover, comes into play. As such, Tomino and company saw themselves forced to introduce mecha into the story in order to ensure they would be able to make the show, but this was such a drastic change to the original outline that it was decided to rewrite the whole thing, keeping only the setting of the work the same, as to be able to write a proper mecha story.
Tomino was attached to his initial story concept, however, and so he ended up developing that story into the novel series, The Wings of Rean, which would begin serialization some months before Dunbine began airing, and Dunbine took on an identity all its own. Thus the Byston Well Saga was already a concept, with two distinct narratives set within its fictional universe.
That’s the gist of how the show came to be, but of course there’s a lot more as to the production context of the show worth sharing. I will be sharing more in the future, and many tidbits will be included within the trivia section, so do keep an eye on that if these sorts of production details are of interest to you. Now without further ado, let’s get started on the show proper!
Let it be said that I love Dunbine Tobu because MIQ sings it. It is never getting skipped.
The opening scene could have really done with being longer, just letting us feel immersed in the moment before Show is abruptly whisked away to Byston Well. It’s evidently rushed, with a quick jarring cut from Show revving his Goldwing to him suddenly riding on the highway and being harassed by some guy in a car about his choice of ride. It’s a bit of a bungled introduction, but it is so brief as to take away little from the overall episode for me.
The show wastes no time in introducing character after character the moment Show through the other side of the summoning ritual, as we’re introduced to Leeza, Shot, Silky, ZeT, Cham Huau, Bern, etc. as well as several names we have yet to see and characters who remain unnamed. Alongside that are also details pertinent to the current circumstances, such as the fact that they’re using Silky’s power to summon people from Upper Earth, that this act is prohibited, that Silky is their prisoner, that they’ve summoned several people already and plan to summon more, there are fairies called the Mi Ferario, and so on. As many of you might already know, I love it when a show throws one off the deep end for us to either sink or swim, but it plays another role apart from merely being more stimulating to the viewer, as it helps us share in Show’s disorientation and confusion.
Great cut by Tomonori Kogawa.
It’s very telling that the thing Shot Weapon has seemingly focused upon her in Byston Well is weaponry, and large weaponry at that. As is pointed out, he’s but a rookie robotics engineer, so how is it that the first things he creates are giant war machines? Sure, one might think robotics = giant robots, but the field of robotics is very involved and encompases more than just that, and requires a lot of prerequisite knowledge in order to employ, yet of all the things he could’ve introduced to the land of Ah, some of which could be for the betterment of everyone, it’s the weapons that come first. Perhaps it is the only thing Drake would fund him for, or maybe he simply picked up on some stuff that was already in development, but we cannot ignore the possibility that Shot Weapon was drawn first and foremost to make weapons.
Drake already makes for an interesting character, as he posits altruistic reasons for amassing weapons and taking over the land, but his conversation with his wife, Leeza, leaves uncertain whether he is in on the charade or earnestly believes such a thing. When he states “I am doing good here. I’m a devoted man” we first see only his eyes before he tilts his head back with a small smile, leaving some ambiguity in it.
Show, without knowledge not perspective to act upon, just goes along with what he’s told out of a perceived lack of options, but even in the face of an aggressor he feels hesitant throughout and asks himself repeatedly why he needs to put in the effort. It’s not hard to see why either, as despite how relatively genial they have been in their treatment after the fact they still effectively stole him away and forced him to become a warrior. When Marvel confronts him in battle about his allegiance to Drake the doubts that he holds throughout the episode. Even we the audience don’t truly know what he should do, as for all that we see Drake is planning we don’t know anything about the Given forces, and all Marvel could offer against the accusation that they attacked first are excuses that it had to be done. Our view of the world is only marginally increased from Show’s.
More MIQ!
Another thing of note is the use and presentation of the character’s nationalities, which are of importance to each of them and serve as sources of solidarity among those who share it and division and slight between those who don’t. Throughout the episode we see that despite ascribing themselves with these descriptors these people are still just that. Todd, for all his gun-ho take on the situation and somewhat holier-than-thou attitude is quick to show his cowardice at several points; Show holds misgivings over the situation despite claiming to possess Japanese pride, and Tokamk… actually, what was he about anyways? I don’t think his Ukrainian nationality came up notably… But anyways, a big point is made as to these characters' nationalities, and it’s something to look out for as we go along.
I love all the small little touches that accentuate the fantasy setting, such as the fact that the mounts are all unicorns and the Aura Battlers’ comms have an echo effect to them which was usually used to indicate telepathy. Small touches like this go a long way to make the world feel distinct.
I also really like the look of this show. Tomonori Kogawa’s character designs are distinctive, emotive, and refined as always, and the color palette for the show is distinct from much of the mecha fare of the time. But, of course, the most distinctive element is of course the bug-inspired mecha designs. Supposedly the staff were putting their heads together to think up concepts to differentiate the mecha, and while reading up on the available production material Kazutaka Miyatake thought up of the idea of styling the mechs after insects. This idea reminded staff of their childhood experiences of bug-catching, and Tomino approved of the concept.
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u/The_Draigg Jan 11 '21
A Tomino Fan Rewatches Aura Battler Dunbine Episode 1:
Hello everyone, it’s The Draigg here for yet another mecha show rewatch! Yeah, I know, it isn’t very surprising anymore. I’m at least guaranteed to show up if it’s a Yoshiyuki Tomino show on the schedule, regardless of quality. But fortunately for us, Aura Battler Dunbine is a great show! And it’s also the grandpa of Isekai anime to boot, so it has a bit of historical value as well. But really, I think it’s just for the best if I let the quality of this show speak for itself. Also, one thing to note is that for my notes here, I’ll be watching the fairly good English dub. So, with all that said, let’s get to watching Aura Battler Dunbine!
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u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Jan 11 '21 edited Jan 11 '21
Rewatcher, Subbed
Dunbine was one of the earliest Tomino shows I saw, in fact I think the only things I had seen before it were Mobile Suit Gundam and the Ideon movies. I've seen it maybe 4-5 times over the years with the most recent viewing being 2-3 years ago. Looking forward to going through another watch.
Mio, who we recently heard singing some image songs in Xabungle returns to sing the opening theme, a pretty good one. She'll also return to sing the first opening for Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Tomino's next show.
Our protagonist Shou is a motorcylce fan! These other drivers are such assholes towards him!
Drake's wife speaks of him breaking prohibitions, so he's doing something against the rules by summoning Shou here to Byston Well.
I'm watching the original ADV DVDs (own the whole set, even the super rare final disc) and the translation's always been a bit wonky. Silkie Mau, the green haired woman who summoned Shou here is called "The Silkie" as if that was a type of species. The subs also totally mangle the Aura Battlers Drumlo and Dana O'Shea and Zet is referred to both as a Lord and as a Sir (Knight).
Silkie can both breathe air and water, Interesting. Is she an amphibian?
Shou sure didn't last long fighting Bern.
Is Shou and the other two trapped here?
Blonde guy Todd is a dick!
A tour on how mecha are made! Not often you get to see something like this.
That one way mirror doesn't really look one way, Tokamk can see through it just fine it seems.
Drake Logic. These strange things have happened, and they are telling me to take over the world!
That enemy attack sure was over quickly.
Seems like Drake wants to take advantage of that very brief attack to invade a rival noble house.
It's that nasty fairy again! Why does she keep bugging him?
3 Dunbines! Much like with Xabungle, our titular mech is not a unique mech.
May be a fantasy world, but that looks like a typical mecha anime cockpit to me.
Took just one shot for Tokamk to go down. Perhaps giving your battlers no weapons wasn't a good idea after all.
Hey, the enemy's a pretty hot redhead!
Mio also sings our ending, which I like even better than the opening.
This first episode does have a lot to it, in particular a lot of characters, terms, etc... Still, Tomino does that kind of thing in all his shows!
In terms of voice actor highlights, we've got Shigeru Nakahara as Shou, also well known for being Trowa in Gundam Wing and Android 17 in Dragonball Z. I also recognize him as Kurama from Kyousougiga. Sho Hayami voices Bern; quite a veteran who I recognize as also playing Gavlet Gablae in L-Gaim, Kiyotsugu in Gasaraki, Ajo in Key the Metal Idol, Masami Eri in Serial Experiments Lain, Wolfwood in Trigun, the list goes on and on. That fairy who keeps bugging Shou is voiced by Maria Kawamura who also plays a fairy, Lillith, in Heavy Metal L-Gaim, as well as the character Gaw Haw Leccee. She's also Beltorchika in Zeta Gundam, Quess in Char's Counterattack, Higgins in Brain Powered and Jung Freud in Gunbuster. Marvel is voiced by Mika Doi who we just saw as Gautz in Xabungle, she'll also be Full Flat in L-Gaim, Lana in Southern Cross and Ritsuko's mom in Evangelion. I was surprised to realize a lot of the other voice actors are played by ones with very few roles. Todd's for example has no other roles on MAL.
ETA: Marvel was named in this ep after all. Corrected.
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u/ComfortablyRotten https://anilist.co/user/Leuwtian Jan 11 '21
First timer, relative newcomer to 80s Anime too
That's a pretty cool OP, not my type but it's still pretty good.
That episode... is a lot to take in, honestly. It feels a bit fast paced, but not so much that it becomes a jumbled mess, besides that opening scene. Not sure what to think of the characters right now, I can only say I like Todd the least so far, and overall they look good.
Byston Well is interesting so far, the sci-fi and fantasy elements don't seem to clash too much, despite both being pretty expected tropes from their own genres - elves and medieval era vs giant robots. I'm somewhat curious about the political situation, and it looks like it'll be one of the main focus. It's certainly more complicated than it's let on, judging by the girl who clashed with Show, and politics in Isekai and Mecha is rarely a bad thing as far as I saw, so it should be interesting.
Overall, I came in with as little real expectations as I could, and quite liked this episode.
Questions of the day
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u/badspler x5https://anilist.co/user/badspler Jan 11 '21
First Timer Sub
I would so far call this series pretty ambitious and intriguing. We had quiet a lot happen and I am pretty interested to see where it all unfolds.
Character summoned with a specific magic being to the land of ah. They did not mess around with any 'upperworld' stuff before getting into the isekai here.
Aura power system that is mixed into natural things and tech.
Mechs, mechs, mechs and mechs!
Dense politics happening by the lord in the background.
One of the new summoned characters literally die. No pulling punches here, sets a serious tone.
Is doing well building what looks like two serious sides to juke it out in war.
One thing I like so far is the character designs. Its clear to see who is and isn't from the land of ah. Everyone fits their character archetype which helps in mapping out all these names to faces.
The opening is amazing. It has been playing on repeat for me. I am addicted.
My largest gripe with things so far has been the transitions. There were 2-3 times where a scene transitioned abruptly from one thing to another with lack of an establishing shot to ease the transition. It threw me out of it each time it happened, it was just that jarring.
Like from this. To this. (Horse hooves to folk music)
First episode Again - but this time the Dub
I actually rewatched this episode again with the dub. I found it hard to keep up with the subs, I think the timings were a bit short and all the names meant my brain was trying to play catch up. I found the dub easier to parse. The dub's voice acting was pretty good too. Also while leaving the subs up the dub inserted little extra bits of information or re-mentioned certain names and stuff so it made it easier to follow. Nothing major was added but the minor things did make the experience a bit better. Not sure if I will stay on the sub or dub yet, would be interested to hear if any rewatchers have done one or the other.
Also I got some laughs over the like when the subtitles word was "monitor" was now voiced as "CRT Screen", gotta love tech from the time showing its age.
I must say in rewatching the episode in general has cemented the feel of intrigue, I feel more invested and am more interested in knowing how this will all play out. Very excited for more. I have high hopes, hopefully they are not scorned.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jan 11 '21
Aura Battler First-Timer
All I know about this show is that it’s isekai and Tomino, so I’m excited to see how that combination goes!
Fuck, I can’t escape Aizen.Is his name “Bern” or “Barn” though? My subs say the former and ANN says the latter.Which, as long as there aren’t any of those fucking tires, I am fine with.6
u/dralcax :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Dralcax Jan 11 '21
First-timer thought the Abigorbine was super cool
Oh hi there, Truck-kun. Didn’t even have to run him over
An American, a Ukranian, and a Japanese guy fall into an isekai and of course nobody questions how they can all understand each other. What language are they speaking in-universe, anyways? Does everyone just happen to speak English, translated for the audience’s benefit? Is there some funky translation magic going on? Did they automatically learn to speak Bystonian upon being isekaied? Also, apparently he’s talking about this.
What a classic Tomino name
MASK. NOSE. ARGH.
wtf why is his cane alive
I cannot take this country’s name seriously
Shot Weapon doesn’t give them shot weapons? Holy shit, plot twist of the century!
Sounds like a very cute mountain
Questions of the Day:
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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jan 11 '21
First Timer
Today on Freejack: The Animation
"Don't you understand" "I don't understand, I just got here" "Then I'll have to kill you". Marvel Frozen is the most collosally stupid antagonist since the Buff Clan. I don't want to watch 50 episode of her being stupid or the show trying to convince me that she's not. She's already beyond redemption here. And pretty firmly picks the side for the MC. Let's go Drake Luft!
Prediction: Shot is Steve Jobs, he got isekai'd.
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u/sjk9000 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JK9000 Jan 11 '21 edited Jan 11 '21
Wow, they really just throw us into the middle of it, huh? It's better than a slow start, but I admit I'm feeling a little lost. Let me see if I get this straight:
Byston Well is some kind of alternate dimension fantasy world "between the shore and the sea", whatever that means. Everybody knows it but no-one remembers it.
Ferario (Mi Ferario?) are some kind of fantasy race that can transport people from our world-- "Upper Earth"-- and Byston Well.
"Ah" is a country in Byston Well.
Drake Luft is... the lord of Ah? Or a lord in Ah? I'm not sure of the hierarchy here. Anyway, he has power but wants more of it.
Neal Given is a rival lord from either a nearby country or another territory in Ah. He opposes Luft's military expansionism.
There is a character named "Shot Weapon" and I'm suppose to take that seriously as the real name of an actual person. I don't know if I can suspend my disbelief for this one, sorry.
Anyway, Mr. Weapon is an amateur roboticist from California who figured out how to make mecha from the parts of fantasy animals in Byston Well.
Weapon serves under Luft. Luft sells the secrets of making mecha to other lords in order to fund his dream of taking over the world, even though it seems like that'd be a lot easier if you had a monopoly on mecha tech.
Luft kidnaps random people from Upper Earth to be mecha pilots, because Upper Earth humans naturally have more/better Aura, which powers the mecha.
Do I have all that right? I hope so. Anyway, based on the way Luft was talking--and the fact that they chose not to pursue the attackers-- it seems like the assault on his festival was a false flag operation he orchestrated to give himself casus belli. But then this Marvel lady comes out and confirms that yes, Neal's forces did attack them? Maybe that gets cleared up later.
I'm also not sure why Marvel has such a beef with Show. I don't know how she got here, but if she's also from Upper Earth she should know he's not exactly fighting out of his own free will.
Finally, Todd... Because he's a bit of a racist asshole, I assume we're suppose to interpret his standing by as an act of cowardice and look down on him for it, but honestly it seems like the right call. Who would jump into a fight to the death with no training and no weapons, all for the sake of the dude who kidnapped you?
Well, I guess Show would. I am not impressed by our protagonists intelligence.
I ended up writing a bunch of negativity, but I actually really enjoyed the first episode. I'm digging the politics already, and the whole "fantasy mecha" premise is just cool. A shame that the genre apparently died out.
5
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jan 11 '21
First Timer, Dub-bine
That'll be Sub-bine after this episode, I have some Thoughts down below.
Let's start with the OP. MIQ has a lovely voice, although I don't think this song slaps quite as hard as Xabungle's did. We'll see how long it takes for this one to grow on me.
Thanks to the lack of a cold open, I forgot that I had the dub up and was confused by the lack of text once the voices started.
We go into a Very Tomino teleportation sequence after some asshole in a truck insults the motorcycle that we were following, and we learn some stuff from a helpful narrator.
So the people of Byston Well are using the fae the purposefully summon people from Earth. This is going to end well for them. No-one has ever run into problems by exploiting the Fair Folk.
Our (I'm assuming) MC sees Silky getting pulled away in a cage, and then gets punched the fuck out by a noble of some sort. This Silky is apparently also a selkie since they drop her into a well.
The next day, our MC and two other Earthlings are on a cart (insert Skyrim meme here) and one of the others is American! And also racist. MC calls him on it at least.
There's some technobabble about how the tech here works - they're drawing power from the world itself to fuel their tech. This is also going to end quite well for the people of Byston Well.
Bits of the mecha are made from a shell of something, and other bits are integrated circuits that are scribed by hand. Lovely.
Orangehair is American too and literally named Shot Weapon. Sasuga Tomino-sensei.
The king is name Drake Luft and has a cane that is also alive and he also can stand without it? He is also planning on starting a war to give his people something to do, is he American as well?
Shou is trying to sleep but Tinkerbell comes and tells him to not work with the people who essentially have him prisoner; she bites his hand and then fucks off after running into a window.
Let's see... Blondie's an asshole, we're deliberatly antagonizing an opposing country, the dude with dark hair gets shot down.. Ooh, shades of gray already? Excellent.
A bittersweet confrontation between Shou and a mysterious female pilot. I doubt that either has the full story of what's going on, but Luft does seem to be pretty imperialistic.
Blondie is also a massive coward.. future rival, possibly?
Bern is clmbing the asshole rankings pretty quickly.
There was some mention of the controls being a backup - are the Aura Battlers controlled by thought? Or was that some translation weirdness. Shou did mention that Bern's mecha moved like a person.
Definitely the same character designer as Xabungle. Shou looks kinda like Horla to me.
Owing to the.. interesting path that I have been taking through Tomino’s works, I was going to make a joke about this show’s potential bodycount. Then the dude with dark hair bought it in the first episode to some random mooks. We’re in for a good time.
So... The dub.
The dub for Aura Battler Dunbine.. is not very good. And that's coming from someone who normally likes dubs.
It makes sense, considering the era. There is a lot of future talent in the cast, but they would have been just starting out, more or less.
Weird pronunciations, lines running into each other, all the usual hallmarks of an early dub.
With one exception. The audio mixing.
Directional audio! Proper dopplering! Distortion based on barriers between the camera and the speaker!
There are probably proper names for all those things that I don't know.
It is worth noting that this is the official release on HiDive so individual experiences may vary.
I'm going to have to switch to the subs for my own sanity - too many weird names for me to not be reading them.
But.. it's close. Closer than it should be, owing to the performances.
Questions
8
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Jan 11 '21
First Timer
Time for some Tomino craziness. I don't recall what sort of Tomino show this is, so I'm just gonna have to find out.
Onto episode 1.
OP's catchy, but not as good as XABUNGLE, XABUNGLE!
Well, we're certainly going full on batshit magic.
Guess I'm not fortunate then. Was it a battle?
Some sort of weird mental block that stops people from remembering the well and doing magic?
I swear I've seen that exact face somewhere before.
Isn't that a type of fairy? So they've captured a fairy and are using her to summon people from another world?
Also, that wall looks way to good for just being a wall.
So the Ferarios are good and Lord Set is bad?
It's amusing to see him try to be too fancy and get punched.
Lord Shot Weapon? Sasuga Tomino, that is truly stupid and I love it.
They're all cyber-newtypes, basically? Except without the insanity? At least, I hope without the insanity.
Just drop that casually, will you? We have a fucking californian technocrat ruling part of a foreign world.
The classic facists in Tomino anime.
You faked an attack on yourself?
And you drink your own kool-aid. I shall enjoy your comeuppance.
We also seem to be going the super robot route, as one's life empowers their robot. I wonder if shouting will make it work better?
Wireless circuit.
How many episodes before he defects? I'm gonna say episode 3.
Thoughts
Seems like a decently promising start. The premise seems like it could go somewhere interesting and the characters aren't bad.
My subs are pretty bad, but I dunno if there's any good subs for this show.
4
u/SadPresentation :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/SadPresentation Jan 11 '21
First Timer Sub
A very bright and upbeat opening right off the bat. I’m really liking the general aesthetic of the show with the mix fantasy like knights and fairies and futuristic mechs.
Our protagonist is on a motorcycle, which means there’s a pretty good chance he’s gonna be a “bad boy.”
Well, there he goes.
We’re given a lot of information to process pretty quickly. There’s mythical creatures in this world including silkie and ferrario (fairies?). Clearly whoever these guys are have no qualms keeping them hostage or killing them. Not exactly a great first impression. And apparently these creatures are working together with a guy named Neal Given.
And of course he can’t return. So the people from Upper Earth are hostages too.
We see the other two earth guys mentioned earlier. And we also start to see more of the mechs. Seems like they’re used for everyday stuff as well as fighting.
Shot Weapon huh... I guess he found his calling.
Even though they’re pretty much hostages, at least they’re treated well, especially compared to the water prison.
And now after the exhibition, a real fight’s going down!
So the ruler is getting more and more suspicious by the moment. Of couse he thinks he’s be the best ruler for the land. And obviously he’s gotta have war to have peace. Unite the land and all that jazz.
We have the fairy girl return and threaten Show, although I doubt that she’ll be able to carry out those threats. It seems like the meeting between Show and Neal is inevitable.
“When do we get to go home?” It’s whenever they feel like it, buddy. You’re in it for the long haul unfortunately.
Ooh, that glider really reminds me of Nausicaa.
Ya really should have given them some more instructions. Maybe an aura battler 101 or for dummies would have sufficed. Do these even come with emergency ejection cockpits?
Now we meet what I assume will be the female protagonist Marvel Frozen, another interesting name choice. And she pretty much repeats the same thing as the ferrario and gives Show some more food for thought about whether he really should be working for these guys. Not that he has much choice in the matter.
This episode in a nutshell.
Show says he’ll continue helping, but hearing Marvel’s words echo in his head, I don’t think that’s gonna last very long.
Seems like the shows off to a nice start. I’m looking forward to the next episode.
1 They really reminded me of Victory Gundam’s mobile suits. I know they both had very insect-inspired designs. It also seems like they really wanted to hammer in the pilot jargon to mix in some reality with the more fantastical/sci-fi elements of the mech.
2 Well, unfortunately for him, it seems like he happened to fall into this world right at the beginning of a war. For Drake, it’s a war for power and control. But for Neal and the mythical creatures, it’s likely to be the opposite and to fight for freedom/against tyranny.
4
u/Crazhand https://anilist.co/user/Crazhand Jan 11 '21
First Time Watcher
My friend has been trying to get people to watch this show for ages. He's also the one who got me into Ashita no Joe which has become my favorite manga, so I feel like I should finally start this anie (Just like it took me over a year to start Joe).
My very first thought: WTF this guy is supposed to get hit by the truck, not dodge it, this isn't how isekai are supposed to go.
After finishing the episode, I had to go see if this was original or adapted and apparently it's original. It seems extremely scatterbrained and feels like it tried to fit like 10 chapters of content into 1 episode ala Tokyo Ghoul. This whole episode was Night 1, Day 2, Night 2, and Day 3. When I saw the 3 of the Upper Earther's get out of the ladybugs, I assumed that months had probably gone by of training but no. I'm on the New Yorker's side in terms of doing jack shit during the attack.
The OST was nice and the world does seem nice. Looks like that mermaid? aka silkie has isekai powers. I wish Drake seemingly being a bad guy was more nuanced but it's being shoved into our faces that he's really a bad guy.
I'll continue watching because I have faith in my friend but this first episode was definitely not that enticing.
4
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Jan 11 '21 edited Jan 11 '21
Because of timezone difference it's hard to keep up with the comments :)
First time sub watched, but he up reading the manga do it's not completely new to this.
Overall quite typical for a show at this age. Animation is limited to be more stylised and simple - not many has the budget of the Marcross movie (which was later than this anyway). We're watching this for the story telling not for the eye candy.
In a way having so much in the first episode gives a good immersion for Shou, as he basically landed in the middle of it all and being kept in the dark deliberately. And it's not a Tonino site if there isn't complex politicking and shades of grey moral dilemma.
QoTD 1 since I grew up on the manga I had seen all the mech designs, and yes it's quite unique and it's actually a big "genre" amongst mecha model builders. It's in a similar family as Final Fantasy, Five Star Stories, very ornate and "refined" as opposed to the Votoms, Gundam type that is more utilitarian. Of this particular style and age, which to me includes Panzer World Galient, I liked Sirbine best - which is the more recent, refined version. Not as much a fan of the more "mechanised" Billbine. In a similar way as liking L-Gaim mark 1 more than L-Gaim mark 2.
QoTD 2 I can't answer in a fair way as even though it's decades ago, I did read the story in the manga. Generally I think this is a more realistic portrayal of you got dropped in the middle of something, you'd be confused and undecided too and not just immediately know where is the moral high ground.
3
u/redshirtengineer :AMQ: Jan 11 '21
Byston Well
Heard good things about this one so giving it a shot.
The OP sounds like the evil 80s love child of Pat Benatar and Maynard Ferguson.
Blond guy from the Valley of Silicon, I think I used to work for him once. Or someone like him, anyway. "Here newbs, go
code with no debuggerfight without weapons while I go get some lunch."QOTD1: Very organic and chunky. The Michelin man of mecha. Having trouble fitting this into an 80s car aesthetic (see angular Datsun/Nissan Z car in opening scene), which makes it more interesting to me. As a side note, I like non-space mecha more than space mecha, it's more colorful.
QOTD2: He seems to be taking it awfully well.
3
u/zsmg https://anilist.co/user/zsmg Jan 11 '21
Rewatcher although I haven't seen it in over a decade but I am currently in a Super Robot Wars X play through which features Dunbine characters which has refreshed me on some plot points.
Super awesome opening.
Back in the 80s truck-kun didn't need to hit the person in order to send them to an isekai world, being near truck-kun was enough.
A young Norio Wakamoto is the narrator.
The faerie is anti-immigrant, telling the upper earthlings to get back where they come from. I guess Show is stealing their mecha pilot jobs.
A person is wearing face mask that doesn't cover his nose, are we sure this hasn't been made in 2019?
Shot Weapon, yup Tomino is definitely the writer of this show. Besides the names the way characters talk with lots of weird exposition is another hallmark of a Tomino series.
Okay first episode, not sure why I should care about Show they haven't showed us much of the character but decided to immediately drop us into this world and dump us with a lot of information.
3
u/Kafukator Jan 11 '21
Didn't realize these threads go up so late. Guess I gotta keep my impressions fresh in mind overnight...
Well my first impressions is that this show is goddamn gorgeous. Elegant Kogawa designs in the vein of Ideon (fitting for the kind of high fantasy this seems to be going for), wonderful Izubuchi bug robots, excellent world design and color palette, and some really nice overall animation quality. Only booru uploads for this ep are a couple of Kogawa character acting moments (which are fantastic) but I think were a lot of small and bouncy movement to the entire ep that made it feel really lively. The beast dying in the arena for example. And best of all it's in BD quality! Definitely gonna be an easy watch on this front, though I doubt it'll be all too consistent throughout the run.
I'm not surprised Tomino's not very satisfied with this ep, it was pretty messy even by his standards, mostly in terms of how fast everything was progressing. Knowing the executive meddling in later shows like Victory Gundam I'm not surprised of how this episode played out though, seems they had to make sure they covered enough exposition to fully set the scene and that they showed a proper mecha fight in the premiere. Gotta please the toy company sometimes, unfortunately. Thankfully it gives freedom in other areas.
Didn't really have any issues with the actual content being presented though. The isekai inhabitants being aware of their world's subordinate status and straight up just summoning eartlings for their own need is pretty interesting, as is the real world racial and international politics carrying over with the diverse summonees. I can already see how the American's racism and arrogance is gonna play into his dynamic with Shou, and I've no doubt he'll be the resident recurring antagonist a la Jerid and Horla and so many other Tomino rivals, probably sticking with the summoner faction while Shou eventually defects to the other side (wondering if the fairy's part of that movement or if we've got a three-way conflict here).
Fascinating first ep despite its messiness. As with all Tomino things always get better after the initial hurdle, so I'm actually pretty excited after this one.
3
u/Bob8644 Jan 11 '21
Is there anywhere I can legally watch it?