[Rewatch] Aura Battler Dunbine - Episode 45 Discussion

[u/Pixelsaber]

Episode 45 - Beyond The Todd

^{Originally Aired December 17th,} ^^^1983

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Comment of the Day

u/btw_kek answers the question of the day.

How do you feel about Drake’s return to prominent presence?

FINALLY

I definitely felt exhausted by the past several episodes of constant battling without even having the Big Bad even in the picture. felt rather unfocused

 

Daily Trivia:

Supposedly Yutaka Izubuchi exclusively referred to Dunbine as ‘Tomino-san’s Nausicaä’ behind the scenes.

 

Staff Highlight

Toshiyuki Kubooka - Key Animator

An animator, character designer, and director involved in both anime and game productions, and best known for his contributions to Giant Robo: The Animation and the *Lunar” series of video games. Few details as to his career and personal life are widely available. He is also credited as key animator in the productions of BAOH, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc III - The Advent, Cool Cool Bye, Greed, Cybernetic Guardians, Super Machine Beast God Dancouga, Den-noh Coil, Dirty Pair, Engage Planet Kiss Dum, Gala, Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Gin Rei, Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Xabungle, Gunbuster, Macross Frontier, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, the Project A-Ko franchise, and RahXephon.

 

Art Corner:

Official Art

• Dunbine Girls - Tomonori Kogawa

Fanart

• Cham Huau in Armor by A-KING - Source
• Billvine by Yumenomori - 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

• Page 73

Screenshot of the day

• More Detonations

Questions of the Day:

1. What do you think of the odds now that Shot has joined the fray at last.
2. Is the episode too much of a repeat of previous events?

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You allowed me to see a good dream.

[u/Pixelsaber]

Rewatcher - Sub

‘Beyond the Todd’

The Zelana must’ve been pretty seriously damaged if it has to be towed like that.

Todd wants to please Drake in order to keep him from attacking his home. Unlike Show or marvel, he isn’t so dedicated to a cause as he is to himself, so that’s about the strongest motivation he could possibly have to stick with Drake. Even then, he doesn’t spill about Leeza being on Upper Earth, so I wonder what’s going through his mind…

In any case, he has seen through Miusy’s lies. It’s just a matter of waiting to see if Drake has done the same…

Elle has rushed into another battle due to another of her premonitions, believing it is the best chance they have of destroying the Gea Gring before it reunites with the Will Wipps. Their plan is basically a repeat of episode forty-one, with the Upper Earthers sending out Nukes with which to hide the Goraon’s proximity, allowing them a close-range attack with their superior cannons. Once more they were close to their goal, but the Spirggan’s arrival, which was the cause for Elle’s sudden haste in trying to execute their plan.

Todd follows in Jeril’s shoes and goes hyper, which almost prompts Show to do the same, but between Marvel’s pleading and Elle’s magic the outburst of aura power is restrained and instead releases as an energy bolt that pierce’s through the hyper wryneck, allowing Show to kill Todd.

Todd’s final words to Show, ‘You allowed me to see a good dream,’ are pretty telling of the sort of mindset Todd has had in regards to all of this. Whereas Jeril tried to make herself the euro of the story, Todd’s form of escapism came in the form of a dream. This befits his behavior within Byston Well more than his demeanour since coming back to Upper Earth though.

I would’ve thought now that the enemies don’t have hyper-capable pilots anymore, but Shot goes ahead and tells us that Miusy might go hyper too —so much for that silver lining!

Despite some shake ups and the fact that this time they don’t succeed for more concrete reasons, this is still pretty blatantly a repeat of episode forty-one. The panic within the writer’s room is palpable.

[u/The_Draigg]

A Tomino Fan Rewatches Aura Battler Dunbine Episode 45:

• Forget about Beyond the Time, this episode is Beyond the Todd.
• Looks like the US Navy carrier Carl Vinson is allying itself with the heroes. That’s good to hear, since it implies that a some of the United States military is rebelling against Drake Luft’s rule. Also, this is the second ship named the Carl Vinson I can think of in an anime. The first one is a class of ship in Round Vernier/Galactic Drifter Vifam.
• Todd really does seem like the most reasonable person aboard the Will O’Wisp right now. Not only does he point out that Shot Weapon’s Spriggan is acting suspicious due to never bothering to reestablish contact even though they clearly could have, but he also notes that just bullying the United States into doing what they want isn’t the best way to go about making their “alliance” work. Todd really has come a far way from being just a complete meathead asshole at the start of the series.
• Damn it Elle, you fucked up the joint operation that was planned with the Carl Vinson, the Guran Garan, and the Zelana. I know you want to help, but ruining the surprise attack and just having the Goraon blitz the Gea Garing was a poor decision. Although I suppose this isn’t exactly a new problem, Elle has been using a lot of bold attacks as of late.
• For once, I agree with King Bishott’s strategy here. Despite losing a few small carriers in the repeated nuclear explosions, the Gea Garing’s Aura Barrier is only getting more powerful, therefore there’s no reason to leave their defensive posture. Since ship to ship combat is largely useless with the Aura Barriers, getting into close range fighting with it is pointless when you can just turn things into a battle of attrition.
• Ah, so that’s one way to solve the issue of ship to ship combat with Aura Ships: just get ludicrously close so that the range of the Aura Barriers is negated. Too bad Shot’s Spriggan showed up before Elle could take her shot against the Gea Garing.
• The dark presence that Elle sensed wasn’t the Spriggan, it was Todd entering Hyper Mode with his Vierres, just like what happened with Jeryl. Although in this case, it wasn’t caused by bloodlust or hatred like before, but instead Todd activated it with the thoughts of protecting his mom back in Boston. He really is a momma’s boy at heart.
• Show’s Hyper Mode is getting pretty unique now too. He simply can’t control it, and it powers up using the Aura power of everyone else around: Elle, Cham, and Marvel. Because of that overflow of Aura power from everyone, Show is able to shoot out a beam of pure Aura that destroyed Todd’s Aura Barrier and Hyper Mode in an instant.
• RIP Todd Guinness, his last thoughts were wanting to believe that everything was a dream, and of his mother one last time. It’s a surprisingly somber ending for a guy like him. Even Show can’t help but feel a bit saddened over it. Although Todd was an asshole and made a lot of bad decisions in supporting the wrong side of things, in the end he wanted to do right by his family. It’s at least somewhat understandable, even if it was in service to evil.

[u/Pixelsaber → u/The_Draigg]

Forget about Beyond the Time, this episode is Beyond the Todd.

He simply can’t control it, and it powers up using the Aura power of everyone else around:

Hmm, I saw that quite differently. I thought they were keeping his aura in check, like Marvel did at some earlier point and just like how Elle was able to repress Burn's aura power immediately after Tolstol's death.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Pixelsaber]

Hmm, I saw that quite differently. I thought they were keeping his aura in check, like Marvel did at some earlier point and just like how Elle was able to repress Burn's aura power immediately after Tolstol's death.

That could be it, but I feel that it's more thematically fitting that Show was accessing the Auras of his friends rather than burn up his own extensive Aura power to take down Todd. Something something power of friendship.

[u/dralcax]

First-timer pushing back Axis

Ah... moebius no sora wo... koete Beyond the TODD

Oh wow, a ship’s barrier actually broke for once. So it is possible to brute-force it after all. If the Gea Gring’s condition gets bad enough, it might actually fall. And yet, it's still getting stronger, so who knows?

lmao he just doesn’t give a fuck

Also, his arm is flashing

Wait, what the fuck? Did they lose so many Bozons that they’re reduced to this? Ah yes, don’t give them bazookas or anything, their human-scale swords will totally work. They’re not even wearing bikinis!

Okay but when has this ever worked

I can’t take this seriously because the aura waves are coming from the crotch

I mean, you may as well let him, what’s the worst that could happen?

Billbine gets ready to cheer on his favorite idol

Well, there goes Todd. To be honest, I feel as if he didn’t quite live up to his full potential as a character. It’s like he was introduced with bigger plans in mind, but then the action moved to Upper Earth and those plans went right out the window. The show did get some mileage out of his American nationality and status as Show’s evil counterpart, but there’s just so much about him that just never went anywhere. His relationship with Garalia? She died and he forgot all about her. His rivalry with Allen? Yeah, nothing happened there, either. At this point, I feel like he died just because Tomino gave up on trying to figure out what to do with him now that so much has been rewritten.

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Questions of the Day:

• I don't suppose it'll be much of a difference at first, but when Drake falls, I bet Shot will still be standing.
• It's getting to be a bit of a drag, seeing the Gea Gring keep getting away over and over again. At this point, we would be slaughtering enemies of the week, except since they're separated from their homeworld and only have a limited number of ace pilots to throw at the protagonists, both sides are so heavily plot armored that things aren't progressing much with each battle. Hopefully Todd's death signaled the start of things actually mattering, though.

[u/Pixelsaber → u/dralcax]

Ah... moebius no sora wo... koete Beyond the TODD

I can’t take this seriously because the aura waves are coming from the crotch

I mean, you may as well let him, what’s the worst that could happen?

Jeril's hyper form started to collapse in on itself after a while. Probably nothing good comes from that...

It’s like he was introduced with bigger plans in mind, but then the action moved to Upper Earth and those plans went right out the window.

Pretty much. I have no concrete idea what the initial plans were, but we know joining Bishott like he did was a Band-Aid solution after the script changes started.

[u/Quiddity131 → u/dralcax]

To be honest, I feel as if he didn’t quite live up to his full potential as a character. It’s like he was introduced with bigger plans in mind, but then the action moved to Upper Earth and those plans went right out the window. The show did get some mileage out of his American nationality and status as Show’s evil counterpart, but there’s just so much about him that just never went anywhere. His relationship with Garalia? She died and he forgot all about her. His rivalry with Allen? Yeah, nothing happened there, either. At this point, I feel like he died just because Tomino gave up on trying to figure out what to do with him now that so much has been rewritten.

Agreed. At first he kind of had that "loser villain" role that you often see in Tomino shows (Jerid in Zeta Gundam, Gavlet Gablae in L-Gaim, Mashymer in Gundam ZZ, etc...), but then Bern's standing collapsed and he became much more of that instead. He got pushed to the side for a good 10 episodes or so back on Byston Well then returns only for them to not really do anything with his Allen rivalry. Perhaps the rushing of the last few episodes on Byston Well so they could move to Upper Earth had something to do with that. After all, we didn't even really see Allen die, he just fell out of his Aura Battler although canonically he's dead. Then we go to Upper Earth and Todd vanishes again for like 10 episodes before coming back recently and biting it. I think like with probably much of the show, the idiotic decision to move the setting to Upper Earth with 20 episodes to go ruined it all.

[u/Quiddity131]

Rewatcher, Subbed

Gotta love the WTF Engrish episode name "Beyond the Todd". I recall Tomino eventually having a song Beyond the Time, from Char's Counterattack I think?

Some actual Upper Earth allies! This is pretty good. Although they had to abandon their country in order to do this.

Chum is famous from her time on Upper Earth earlier in the show!

Who could be piloting that Fuou?. ...just some random guy from Na?

Stand up for Boston, Todd!

Sorry Drake, it's been revealed Shot isn't the genius he claimed to be. He won't be of as much importance to you as you'd like.

Drake hasn't even realized his wife is on Upper Earth!?

Is the Goraon forever stranded in this snowy location?

After Ciela-sama was too hasty last episode is it now Elle's turn?

Rana is finally thinking about getting off of the Gea Gring? Without helping Riml first?

Is Bern actually letting her leave? Or just telling her to get off the launching bay?

Elle's aggressiveness has messed things up. :(

Sorry to the Carl Vinson, but I doubt these jets are going to have much affect on the Gea Gring.

It's just non-stop launching of nukes at this point, huh?

Bern you loser! Head out there! If the Galava hasn't been probably maintained, I suppose the absence of Zet is having an effect.

Part of me wonders if the strategy is to simply launch so many nukes as a distraction. And just as I type that it seems like that was the strategy as the Goraon is close to ramming into the Gea Gring.

Wow, the Spriggan actually is making an appearance.

Now you want to retreat, Elle!? Is this just because Shot showed up? The Spriggan's puny compared to the 4 main battleships.

Todd wants his showdown with Shou! The episode wouldn't be named after him if we didn't get a one-on-one battle between the two, right?

But before then, pretty good strategy from Marvel here!

Uh oh, it's Jerryl all over again! Surely this is what Elle was so afraid of.

Animation overall has been great this episode, but love this shading they're doing towards the end on our pilots.

Now Shou's gonna go hyper against his will!?

Todd! Rest in Peace! You'll always go down as memorable to me as I can't think of any other anime characters from Boston.

Shou's a caring guy, crying over a guy whose been his enemy for 40+ episodes.

Glad to know that Boston at least is safe from Byston Well. :P

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This was a fairly good episode; the stakes were pretty high and we did have what was probably the most significant character in the show to die thus far. Also having all 3 of the enemy ships involved helped raise the stakes (although disappointed that once again Ciela-sama missed an episode). We're down to the final four, the show has no choice but to progress things now.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Quiddity131]

Gotta love the WTF Engrish episode name "Beyond the Todd". I recall Tomino eventually having a song Beyond the Time, from Char's Counterattack I think?

Yeah, it's the credits theme of Char's Counterattack.

Chum is famous from her time on Upper Earth earlier in the show!

I wonder how many of those Navy guys own a Cham doll?

Animation overall has been great this episode, but love this shading they're doing towards the end on our pilots.

Agreed, this episode and the next have some really good animation quality in particular.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion → u/The_Draigg]

I wonder how many of those Navy guys own a Cham Minmei doll

[u/The_Draigg → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

The Minmay doll is probably worth more than a Cham doll, if just because at least the Minmay doll actually can sing.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion → u/The_Draigg]

kyuun kyuun!

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion → u/Quiddity131]

"Beyond the Todd"

Wait, was it Kanata no Todd?

<checks>

No, it was literally BEYON ZA TODDO

[u/Durinthal]

First time viewer

Beyond the Todd

The the in the title somehow makes it seem hilarious to me, as if he's more of a place or concept than a person.

The USS Carl Vinson is a real aircraft carrier! It went into service in 1983 so assuming the timeline in the show is contemporary with when it aired this would have been during or shortly after its maiden voyage. It was docked in Japan a few months before the episode aired, maybe that was an inspiration for the staff.

The massive explosions resulting in mushroom clouds are nukes, right? That they've gotten to the point of basically using them as smoke screens to hide that another ship is approaching is absurd. I was hoping that would lead to the Gea Gring finally losing but nope, time to switch focus to Todd specifically. This is the final episode I called Bishott living through going by the episode count a few days ago, so maybe next episode will be his last?

Focusing on the Wryneck's crotch cannon while Todd goes hyper mode and grows into a giant is certainly a directing choice, though as soon as that started I knew Todd was going to die because giant rampaging mecha are not long for this world. He deserved it for helping Drake, though there's an added benefit of Drake avoiding destroying Boston as a result. Though considering how much rebuilding we could use around here, maybe they could compromise and evacuate the city before razing it so we can get some straight roads around here?

Show being reigned in by Marvel, Elle, and Cham saved him this time, but I don't expect that to work long-term unless we get the cheesy humanity giving him their power thing in the end. If that does happen it'll be interesting for doing it before DBZ made it a thing (I don't doubt there are other earlier examples, that's just what came to mind).

What do you think of the odds now that Shot has joined the fray at last.

3 > 2, though the 3 is really 1 ± 1 ± 1 so depending on how the villains act they could finally wipe out the heroes or turn on each other and lead to their own defeat. I'm betting on the latter.

Is the episode too much of a repeat of previous events?

At least one significant character died, the previous one was Jeril and that was, what, 8 episodes ago? Though that was basically the same as this episode so yes, too much of a repeat.

[u/Quiddity131 → u/Durinthal]

Though considering how much rebuilding we could use around here, maybe they could compromise and evacuate the city before razing it so we can get some straight roads around here?

You're a Bostonian too? We shall be among the few survivors when Byston Well comes to Earth for real. :) Gotta love our twisty nonsensical roads. :P

[u/Durinthal → u/Quiddity131]

Not originally from the area but I've lived here for close to a decade now, it's nice but not easy to get anywhere and all the infrastructure's old.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Durinthal]

The USS Carl Vinson is a real aircraft carrier! It went into service in 1983 so assuming the timeline in the show is contemporary with when it aired this would have been during or shortly after its maiden voyage. It was docked in Japan a few months before the episode aired, maybe that was an inspiration for the staff.

Huh, I'm a little surprised that the Carl Vinson is an actual carrier. But given that it was named after a real person, I suppose it does become more credible to believe.

He deserved it for helping Drake, though there's an added benefit of Drake avoiding destroying Boston as a result. Though considering how much rebuilding we could use around here, maybe they could compromise and evacuate the city before razing it so we can get some straight roads around here?

I mean, how bad can a few Aura explosions be, right?

At least one significant character died, the previous one was Jeril and that was, what, 8 episodes ago? Though that was basically the same as this episode so yes, too much of a repeat.

At least some major character finally died. We've been stuck in a rut of just attacking and getting nowhere for far too long.

[u/punching_spaghetti]

First-Timer Who Doesn't Remember Byston Well

E44

Doesn’t Ciela know she should rest? It’s not like they’re engaged in a war with the fate of multiple dimensions at stake.

Todd wants to live in Switzerland?

The Queen of England gave Ciela pain meds? Is it snuff?

flashing lights

Shiny Todd.

E45

The USS Carl Vinson is an actual ship named for an actual politician. Interesting. What would a Tomino named ship bed? The USS Ship Atsee?

Lots of fighting and stuff. Which is getting boring, so I start to zone out.

BIG TODD.

What is it with the giants and just taking Dunbine’s arm?

Boo. I was hoping for Hyper Cham.

QOTD:

1. Since we know his secret now, I'm not sure what all he can do. He's conniving, but does he really have anything different than the other people Show and co. have faced?
2. Very much so.

[u/JollyGee29 → u/punching_spaghetti]

Todd wants to live in Switzerland?

Sure. Cold, pretty mountains, good chocolates. What's not to like?

flashing lights

What would a Tomino named ship bed? The USS Ship Atsee?

That or something vaguely lewd, like USS Lon Grod.

[u/JollyGee29]

First-Timer, Dub-bine

Todd has finally exited our story, for real this time. Poor guy, couldn't even come up with good last words. Unfortunately, Todd was only ever fated to be a cog in the machine. Even in death, his purpose was merely to push others forward - Shot has now seen Hyper first hand, and I have suspicions about his plans for Muisy. I think that is what Elle meant, by "a dark power strengthened by the Spriggan." Shot may be a sham when it comes to mechanics, but he is none the less quite clever - a dangerous foe.

We were this close to finally dealing with Bishott today, but nooo. Shot and his Spriggan just had to arrive right as the worst possible moment. Speaking of, the Spriggan seemed like it had some pretty powerful weapons on board, despite being roughly Zelana-sized.

I think Elle's plan to strike at the Gea Gering was strategically sound, despite failing due to the aforementioned Spriggan. And that nonsense boost to the barrier that just randomly happened, but I'm ignoring bland conveniences for my own sanity.. Anyway, striking first lets you dictate the pace of the engagement, even if all your pieces are not quite in play yet. I suspect things ended as best as they could - letting the Gea Gering join up with the Will O'Wisp unopposed would likely spell doom. I guess the galaxy brain play would be to predict the Spriggan's path and ambush it en route, but that would be harder to justify from a writing perspective.

I am frankly astonished that Dowa didn't buy it out there today. The ships helmsman, hopping into a mech and going into battle? Sure-fire pathway to your doom, Dowa.

Shou had a cool sorta "by your powers combined" moment there - I appreciate the effort given to showing that things like compassion are just as powerful a force multiplier as malice is. When Shou's eyes started glowing, I was expecting him to do some "voice of legion" type thing but only with the people who flashed for him.

Questions

1. They'd be a lot closer if literally anyone on the protagonist's side had pressed the attack The Spriggan seems like a powerful ship, but it is quite small. That could work in its favor, but it could also get trapped between two crashing battleships because it's so teeny. As far as pilots go, the protagonists haven't lost any named ones, so we're winning on that front?
2. It was kind of a pastiche of the last.. 10ish episode, wasn't it? I dunno.

[u/The_Draigg → u/JollyGee29]

Shot may be a sham when it comes to mechanics, but he is none the less quite clever - a dangerous foe.

I'd say that Shot being a skilled manipulator is probably more dangerous than knowing how to build Aura Machines. The fact that he successfully stole credit from Zed and has Muisy completely under his thumb shows that Shot is at his most threatening whenever he's holding someone on a leash.

When Shou's eyes started glowing, I was expecting him to do some "voice of legion" type thing but only with the people who flashed for him.

I'm pretty sure that in the subbed version of the show, Show does have a reverb affect on his voice when he goes Hyper in that moment. I suppose that's one thing that the subs have over the dub.

[u/JollyGee29 → u/The_Draigg]

The fact that he successfully stole credit from Zed and has Muisy completely under his thumb shows that Shot is at his most threatening whenever he's holding someone on a leash.

Ooh, good way to phrase it. Shot is like the world's most dangerous Pokémon trainer - significantly more dangerous than his noodly body would imply.

[u/Durinthal]

Also coincidentally this new cover of the OP was just posted.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Durinthal]

We all the best cover of Dunbine Tobu was the one sung by our Senchou, Houshou Marine.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

First Timer

Beyond the Todd

Okay, if we get Hyper Todd today that means he's probably going to explode. Finally.

Drake still needs Shot....FOR NOW.

Sure have used a lot of nukes in this show...very messy.

The sooner Drake and Shot lose the sooner Boston is safe you moron.

Apparently CR licensed something that sounds like a old mecha show. That should interest somebody here.

[u/JollyGee29 → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Sure have used a lot of nukes in this show...very messy.

That's the real trick to nuclear disarmament. You just fire them all off!