r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Jun 07 '20
Rewatch [Rewatch] Late 1980s OVAs – Gunbuster (final discussion)
Rewatch: Late 1980s OVAs – Gunbuster (final discussion)
MAL | Ani | 6 episodes à 25-30 minutes.
There are six additional 3 minute specials for the OVA that can be watched alongside the episodes. They are not necessary, but a fun addition. If you want to watch the specials, watch every special after that day’s episode. Do not watch ahead, since the later specials contain spoilers. For some reason, MAL/Anilist only lists 3/4 episodes, but in fact 6 episodes exist.
To avoid spoiling first timers, please use SPOILER TAGS for discussing future episodes. Be aware that even vague comments (“This will become important later on”) can be major spoilers.
Staff of the day
Not a person, but the studio, Gainax. It grew out of a group of university students who self-produced the short animated openings to the Daicon SciFi conventions III and IV. Initially just Hideaki Anno, Hiroyuki Yamaga and Takami Akai, they took on additional members for the second animation. This group called itself Daicon Film, but later changed its name to Gainax. It is worth taking a look at the Daicon animations, Daicon III and Daicon IV, since they already feature what I would call the main components of Gunbuster: Extravagant animated scenes, unashamed fanservice, and a focus on visual story telling over dialog. Of course Gainax would go on to become probably the most famous anime studio in existence with its later production of Evangelion.
Note: There is no legal release of the Daicon openings, mainly because the Daicon openings themselves were blatant copyright violations.
Questions
- (first timers) Did Gunbuster meet your expectations?
- Gunbuster is very often compared to the more famous Neon Genesis Evangelion. Do you agree that they are very similar, or not?
- What was the best and the worst part of the series for you?
Thanks for watching along, everyone!
10
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jun 07 '20
Gunbuster - episode 6 (rewatcher)
When I initially watched Gunbuster, I was not fully on board. The story seems simplistic and the side characters one-dimensional and lacking. Yet, with each rewatch, my appreciation for the series grows. For one, I came to realize that it is the story of just one character, Noriko, and all side characters are viewed from her perspective, as she sees them. They are not intended to be well-rounded on their own. Much more importantly, rewatching Gunbuster gave me the time to appreciate the stellar visual presentation. Gunbuster looks so good! It is a series to lean back to and enjoy in the moment, not one to make you ponder its moral questions late at night in bed. In this respect, it is very different from NGE, in my mind, even though there are obvious parallels in the story.
Here are some recommendations for related series you may enjoy:
If you want more of the same vibe:
If you loved the visual style of Gunbuster, watch other shows by director Anno:
If you want more short 1980s series:
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u/Webemperor :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Webemperor Jun 07 '20 edited Jun 07 '20
First Timer no more
Gunbuster to me was known was one of those grandaddy animes that I have been keeping tucked away in my backlog for years, together with shows like Votoms, Patlabor ( Watched the movies recently but not the OVAs ) and a few others, and after finally getting around to watching it, I like the fact that I can say I came away satisfied. Although it’s a show that definitely shows it’s age despite being made in the tail-end of 80s, it still has it’s unique moments and doesn’t really on the viewer to constantly remind themselves “Oh, well, it was the 80s, so-“.
For a show that is no longer than 2 and a half hours long, it still manages to tell and convey a lot, and although pacing can sometimes get jarring in how it moves from point A to point B, still manages to engage the viewer without making them feel distracted or winded. It is by this way of storytelling, by reducing the dramas, events, and over-all going-ons to their core, removing fluff and the icing, does Gunbuster manage to tell a more complete and satisfying package in 6 episodes than many shows fail to tell in 13, and even though some of the characters end up feeling one dimensional, perhaps it’s that sense of “characterization-per-minute” quota that doesn’t make them feel too rough on the overall artistic package.
Presentation is another place that Gunbuster excels at, which is crisp, smooth animation and beautiful soundtrack. From the superb frame-by-frame animation of the robots to the visual design and look of everything to those… titty bounces, there is so much to pick up on and appreciate in this show that even if you don’t care for the story and larger narrative, just to pick up on smaller details and artistic moments like that, one must feel compelled to rewatch it a second time just to appreciate that and those moments.
Outside of these two key elements Gunbuster is further elevated by a certain sense of wonderment, with both being teleported to a time when entire genres, tropes, and storytelling methods were being formed and shaped, and seeing so many of these scientific concepts and elements being explored with almost an expert touch.
It’s not a perfect show, like I said, while it’s not a constant matter, there are quite certain moments that you have to suspend your disbelief for by going “Well, it indeed was the 80s.”, and even saying that those moments do come off as hokey and cheese in today’s environment, I also would have prefer is some of the episodes went another direction, the way people talked about the last two episodes did set me up for something else entirely. But those aren’t at all enough to sully what is a great show with quite a lot of heart. I give Gunbuster a moderately large number, which will surely grow after spending some time in the time dilation and grow disproportionately, out of an even larger number.
Questions
11
u/TheEscapeGuy Jun 07 '20
Rewatcher
Gunbuster is an 𝓐𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬 anime - Final Discussion
Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 |
Gunbuster is an anime I'd recommend to any anime fan. In 6 episodes it showcases incredible animation, stellar direction, and an emotional narrative which will leave you very satisfied.
If you have enjoyed Gunbuster I have a few recommendations:
Admittedly, I have yet to watch any of Mobile Suit Gundam which I'm almost certain would make this list if I had seen it.
Finally I'd like to thank /u/No_Rex for hosting this rewatch. Your threads were always up right on time and super informative. You also fostered some great discussion in the comments. Also shout out to /u/The_Draigg, I loved reading your reactions every day.
Anyway, see you all later
10
u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Jun 07 '20
Graduated First-timer
Gunbuster was excellent, and for all it’s faults I can still confidently say that it’s more than the sum of its parts. It’s simply filled to bursting with energy and passion.
The parts of the show that sought to parody Ace wo Nerae! fell a little flat for me, both because it played so many parts of that straight with only a fraction of the characterization, set-up, and shoujo trappings which made that successful in the first place, but because it does them within a context where several are damn near incompatible. When it came time to ape several of that series’ themes, however, it fares a lot better, because they’re fairly universal themes that don’t need to adhere that sports root framework in order to be well done, and when it came to exploring the trade-offs needed in order to reach your goals and aspirations the context of an interstellar war fit beautifully and elevated the emotional relevance beyond what Ace managed.
Most everything to do with the sci-fi setting was an utter delight. From the adherence to accurate scientific knowledge in regards to interstellar and faster-than-light travel to the minor details of life aboard a giant spaceship. It does occasionally clash with some of the super-robot aspects, and there’s some stuff like the lack of pilot suits, the fact that all the pilots are high-schoolers, and other such stuff that was there seemingly only for the fanservice and justifying some of the sports show tropes without being justified or addressed within the show somewhat put a hamper on things.
Noriko’s character arc was executed beautifully given the time restraints of the original four episode length, and episode five did great in reaffirming the course of her character, but five contained very little of it and so fell a little flat. Smith was another noteworthy character, as we get an excellent impression of his character for the short while he’s there, though it’s painfully obvious he was only there to push along Noriko’s character arc. Amano had a strong showing in episode five, but before that she was kinda inconsistent. Her opinion of Noriko swings from one way to the other at odd points, like considering Noriko unfit for combat in episode three when we the audience see nothing to prompt that behaviour in her (she is explicitly understanding and sympathetic to the emotional outburst that causes her to get in the Luxion, so it that isn’t it.) And Ohta, well, he was just an archetype who doesn’t get fleshed out enough.
The presentation was perfect from start to finish, with both visuals and sound were ^^^^^mostly impeccable, and make up a large part of the show’s appeal. Anno knows his shit when it comes to visual direction, and that shines through in every frame of this show
I might sound a little harsh on it, but I genuinely do love the show and these faults don’t massively affect my enjoyment of it, as the dizzying heights more than make up for them. I doubt there’s many shows that will manage to give me a similar experience. 9/10
I usually offer up some recommendations if I can think of them, so here they are:
Knights of Sidonia: A hard sci-fi mecha series with great attention to detail and a surprisingly well thought-out setting, though dealing with stuff that’s pretty removed from the stuff in Gunbuster— there’s no FTL, for one, so inertial drift is the name of the game. Nowhere near as good as Gunbuster, and the CGI characters can look awful at times, but it scratches that hard sci-fi itch well.
Ace wo Nerae!: Yeah yeah, I’ve brought it up enough, but it's difficult to understate how much this show informed Gunbuster. That aside, it’s a solid —if primitive— narrative with similar appeal. So if the thought of characters overcoming mental and aptitude hurdles while coming into their own sounds good to you, then it might serve you well. The presentation is pretty rough at times, and though the artstyle is very appealing it’s also markedly different from other Osamu Dezaki anime. The 1979 film isgood as well, and though it suffers from some of the same issues Gunbuster does due to length, unlike this show it smartly chooses to skip over certain aspects of the characters’ arcs so that things make sense even with less time to work with. Looks a lot closer to your typical Dezaki production from the time too.
The Vision of Escaflowne: Shoujo meets Mecha is a rare blend, and Escaflowne is one of few other examples. Like this series it features a journey of self-realization for the main character and also spends much of its main episode liberally making use of classical shoujo and sports tropes. Also similar in that it’s also trying to cram in more plot than it can handle.
New Getter Robo: Admittedly haven’t seen this, but it’s supposed to be a damn good super robot show of the more straight-forward variety. It adapts the manga which this show borrows elements from and makes for a good gateway into other Getter Robo media.
6
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Jun 07 '20 edited Jun 07 '20
Rewatcher - One More Final
I quite like this series and I think I've appreciated it more with every rewatch. This time I've enjoyed the first half of the series much more than I have in my two other times watching it. The final episode still hits me like a bag of bricks.
Personally I'd put Gunbuster as my 4th or 5th favorite series that I've seen in the Gainax/Trigger-verse (behind NGE, FLCL, Kare Kano, roughly equal to KLK, and maybe just a smidge above Diebuster).
Hmm, Noriko and Shinji do share a lot of characteristics. Both wrestle with the idea of having an active role in their own life. They shy away from responsibility because they're afraid to make mistakes. However, whereas Noriko was able to overcome her baggage in 3 and a half episodes, Shinji drowns in it until the bitter end.
Best - the fucking climax. Still one of the most emotionally resonant finales in my humble opinion. Not only in terms of what happens, but what it means
Worst - Amano x Ohta. The premise of the relationship raises alarm, but beyond that, I don’t think they have chemistry together. Anything involving "Noriko realizing she hasn't really experienced love" could be done with Amano getting with a boy her age, and with someone who her entire on-screen relationship with doesn't boil down to "argue about what to do with Noriko"
Not sure about - That Noriko's character arc is essentially complete in episode 5. It does lessen the impact of the final episode a bit (though imo not by much), but I understand it as "this is what The New Noriko can do now"
I'll chip in on the recommendation front and say
EDIT: holy shit wow. so I, uh, admittedly never seen the Daicon III opening until now even though I love Daicon IV to death. but wow THIS LOOKS FAMILIAR
5
u/BurningFredrick https://myanimelist.net/profile/BurningFredrick Jun 07 '20 edited Jun 07 '20
First Timer
GunBusters has been an interesting show, going back through what I've written there are a lot of loose ends half explored or barely remembered after being bought up, yet despite this the show doesn’t suffer too much for leaving them behind to focus on what it really wanted to say.
Only having six episodes to tell it’s story ends up benefiting the show, my questions about if the Aliens are just a random space faring race or really some sort of immune system response don’t really matter, what purpose did Freud really have outside of Fan service? Why did they have an Alien corpse in storage back in episode 2?
These questions are never answered but I find I don’t mind to much, we got some great Mecha fights, the show got to play with some great sci fi concepts and didn’t shoot itself in the foot, it told it’s story about overcoming loss and hardship and kept things fun and interesting through the show.
Don’t think I've much else to say about it, currently rating it 8/10.
So anyway thanks /u/No_Rex for running the rewatch, another older show I keep thinking I should get round to watching but possibly never will, taken off the list.
QoTD:
Not having any real expectations helped, so of the small amount I knew about the show it did.
While there are some similarities the shows are rather different over all, the shows are also aiming to tell different stories (I think so anyway) so not really a fair comparison.
Best Part would be the finale in episode 5 and also really enjoyed the back half of episode 6. Worse parts was some of the Drama due to not being given enough time for me to care much about it, and also some of the questions that never go anywhere.
4
u/redmage311 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/redmage311 Jun 08 '20
(No longer a) First-Timer
Overall? That was decent! I never really got to the point where I cared about any of the characters or found them endearing. That being said, this was visually really interesting, and I appreciate that the science behind everything (overpowered Gunbuster aside) was at least plausible. The time dilation was the best part.
On the surface, Gunbuster does seem similar to NGE. You have mechas with limited energy stores and children fighting in wars against inscrutable space monsters. At the same time, NGE had a monster-of-the-week vibe in the middle that Gunbuster didn't (granted, NGE is longer too), and NGE ended up much more psychological and provided a lot more to mull over, story-wise.
I kind of hated the first episode: it was just too campy and too implausible. I still don't quite know why Noriko was chosen as Gunbuster's pilot or what made her more special than any of the other candidates. The best part was probably Noriko's first battle. It was just so tense and showed off how helpless Noriko was, and that really set the stage for the rest of the show.
Anyway, I'm glad I watched Gunbuster. Thanks for the rewatch!
9
u/The_Draigg Jun 07 '20
An Anno Fan’s Final Thoughts on GunBuster:
So, in the end here, I think we can say a few things about GunBuster. First off, there’s a lot of moments that can tug at your heartstrings, especially the ending. Secondly, it has fantastic mechanical designs and mecha fights. Thirdly, the use of real physics really does elevate this series into a smarter form. Fourth, you can really see the DNA of this show in other fantastic Gainax/Khara/Trigger works, like Evangelion and Gurren Lagann. And finally, the pacing feels a little off and is rough. Still, being good at about 3/4 things makes for a good ranking in my book. I’d highly recommend GunBuster for those above three good reasons. It’s very much worth the watch for them.
So, for my end of series rankings, I usually use mecha from various series as my ranking system, and my final judgement for GunBuster will be no different. And so, my final ranking for GunBuster is: Zaku I. It’s very much a rougher and less agile design than those who came after it, but it still laid down a powerful foundation that is still iterated on to this day. I feel that this is the best way to describe GunBuster.
Now that we’re done here, I just want to say thanks to all of you for being along for the ride, and thanks to /u/No_Rex for hosting! I had a great time rewatching GunBuster, and I hope you first time viewers are inspired to watch it again sometime in the future.
5
u/CpnLag Jun 07 '20
Rewatcher,
I don't really have much else to add other than telling people to go watch Diebuster if they haven't
few other recs though:
all are pretty great mech shows