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Gunbuster: The movie (anime review)
15 years ago
For those who do not know, Aim for the Top! Gunbuster is a 1988 six episode OVA (Original video animation) of the Super Robo and Space Opera sub genres by Gainax Company, Limited, and to be honest one of my all time favorites, i mean this show was amazing in story telling, characters, the voice acting was powerful and the art was at times beautiful.
The story revolved around a young girl named Noriko Takaya who's father was an admiral in the Imperial space navy who went missing after an attack by giant insectiod creatures that are only known as Uchuu Kaijuu (Space monsters) that travel in clusters or swarms ranging from thousands to billions. We follow her as she tries and succeeds in fulfilling her dream in becoming a space pilot and joining her father among the stars. The show was great with details in hard science fiction (That is three parts theoretical/ plausible/ fact) and took many inspirations from novels like Robert A. Heinlein's Starship troopers and author Joe Haldeman's Forever War with the show's depiction of time dilation. (That is time passing slower then earths aboard sub-lightspeed star ships.) The character Noriko experiences 6 months of combat duties on board the star ship Exilion only to arrive to find 9 years have passed. This Hit her hard when she meets up with her "old" high school friend that is now a full fledged adult with a kid of her own while the other was just as surprised meeting her 17 year old friend after so many years.
Another cool feature is the evolution of human technology, ranging from first generation battleships where they are small and officers read paper read outs like a stock market machine, to the 3rd generation battleship Exilion, that had a monorail system for crews to get about, laser canons and photon torpedo's and then the 5th generation battleship Eltrium a 70km long ship with a new Warp drive, psychic dolphins, 3D computer displays and glowing hover platforms for personal transport. Also Buster machine #3 a black hole bomb that is easily the size of the moon.
Two fun facts about the show, the title is derived from two other titles that were faved by the creators. Aim for the Ace, a tennis anime. (Which i have no experience with so cant say if its that good.) and the 1986 movie Top Gun. Gunbuster was also the first anime to animate ^.^ jiggle boobs. That is so common in most anime today. The technique to animate boobs is anime jargon is often called the Gainax bounce (Named after the company) or the Bust Gunner (Named after the show.) The show was not without its flaws however, the last episode being almost completely in monochrome and the last battle being a montage of stills cleverly edited together. This was because the company was running out of money, but the editing saved the show and the company would go on to make such epics like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL (Fooly Cooly). To celebrate their 20th anniversary they produced an official sequel to the show that kicked them off the ground titled. Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster. and later in 2008 to celebrate the 20th birthday of Gunbuster they released a re-edited Gunbuster in a 95min movie on Blue ray and that brings us here.
Positive:
The movie, for lack of a better word was great, i had no complaints, in fact i truly enjoyed the fact that they took the time to hunt down and gather the original cast to re voice their work from 20 years ago. I just loved Noriko Hidaka voice of Noriko in the original, the sheer power she brought to the character in combat was to me, amazing for a Japanese voice actress, and she rocks even harder 20 years later, you can easily tell she brings her experiences with her, and the same could be said for all the other voice actors. All of the sound effect were redone or cleaned up making clear and amazing, and im not sure but i think the songs were redone as well. I really wished i had surround sound.
Neutral:
The movie's story seemed rushed to me, however because i might be bias this is a neutral aspect. As an owner of the original OVA and continual watcher im well aware of the information and scenes missing in the movie. This may not be experienced by someone who did not see the original show, which is up to $50 by the way.
Negative:
I am very disappointed in the lack of special features on the Blue ray, here you have a 50 gig disk with minimal on it. The show had a science lesson after each episode that talked about the fun facts of the Gunbuster universe. And the VHS version also included extra clips of unknown characters participating in training session that you don't see the main characters do and battles all for the sake of extra content. All a no show. I would have loved to see interviews and commentaries from the original cast and what have you. It wasn't until later that i discovered that a box set Gunbuster v.s. Diebuster was released in a 3 BD set, with Gunbuster: the movie, Diebuster: the movie and all the special features on one disc including interviews. I was very sour about that as i already own the Diebuster show i had no intention on getting all that again.
At any rate the movie was good, but the show was better. It would be great if you want to watch something that doesn't take 3 hours to finish and its would be good if you want to introduce it to someone without going through the 6 episodes of the show. The lack of extras was a turn off and didn't make the $35 price tag acceptable but like i said the show was bumped up to $50 so good luck if you want it. Perhaps with a little hard work and guts they will one day release an even better version.
If you would like other anime reviews, or horror movie reviews, please say so, i would be happy to share what i know.
The story revolved around a young girl named Noriko Takaya who's father was an admiral in the Imperial space navy who went missing after an attack by giant insectiod creatures that are only known as Uchuu Kaijuu (Space monsters) that travel in clusters or swarms ranging from thousands to billions. We follow her as she tries and succeeds in fulfilling her dream in becoming a space pilot and joining her father among the stars. The show was great with details in hard science fiction (That is three parts theoretical/ plausible/ fact) and took many inspirations from novels like Robert A. Heinlein's Starship troopers and author Joe Haldeman's Forever War with the show's depiction of time dilation. (That is time passing slower then earths aboard sub-lightspeed star ships.) The character Noriko experiences 6 months of combat duties on board the star ship Exilion only to arrive to find 9 years have passed. This Hit her hard when she meets up with her "old" high school friend that is now a full fledged adult with a kid of her own while the other was just as surprised meeting her 17 year old friend after so many years.
Another cool feature is the evolution of human technology, ranging from first generation battleships where they are small and officers read paper read outs like a stock market machine, to the 3rd generation battleship Exilion, that had a monorail system for crews to get about, laser canons and photon torpedo's and then the 5th generation battleship Eltrium a 70km long ship with a new Warp drive, psychic dolphins, 3D computer displays and glowing hover platforms for personal transport. Also Buster machine #3 a black hole bomb that is easily the size of the moon.
Two fun facts about the show, the title is derived from two other titles that were faved by the creators. Aim for the Ace, a tennis anime. (Which i have no experience with so cant say if its that good.) and the 1986 movie Top Gun. Gunbuster was also the first anime to animate ^.^ jiggle boobs. That is so common in most anime today. The technique to animate boobs is anime jargon is often called the Gainax bounce (Named after the company) or the Bust Gunner (Named after the show.) The show was not without its flaws however, the last episode being almost completely in monochrome and the last battle being a montage of stills cleverly edited together. This was because the company was running out of money, but the editing saved the show and the company would go on to make such epics like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL (Fooly Cooly). To celebrate their 20th anniversary they produced an official sequel to the show that kicked them off the ground titled. Aim for the Top 2! Diebuster. and later in 2008 to celebrate the 20th birthday of Gunbuster they released a re-edited Gunbuster in a 95min movie on Blue ray and that brings us here.
Positive:
The movie, for lack of a better word was great, i had no complaints, in fact i truly enjoyed the fact that they took the time to hunt down and gather the original cast to re voice their work from 20 years ago. I just loved Noriko Hidaka voice of Noriko in the original, the sheer power she brought to the character in combat was to me, amazing for a Japanese voice actress, and she rocks even harder 20 years later, you can easily tell she brings her experiences with her, and the same could be said for all the other voice actors. All of the sound effect were redone or cleaned up making clear and amazing, and im not sure but i think the songs were redone as well. I really wished i had surround sound.
Neutral:
The movie's story seemed rushed to me, however because i might be bias this is a neutral aspect. As an owner of the original OVA and continual watcher im well aware of the information and scenes missing in the movie. This may not be experienced by someone who did not see the original show, which is up to $50 by the way.
Negative:
I am very disappointed in the lack of special features on the Blue ray, here you have a 50 gig disk with minimal on it. The show had a science lesson after each episode that talked about the fun facts of the Gunbuster universe. And the VHS version also included extra clips of unknown characters participating in training session that you don't see the main characters do and battles all for the sake of extra content. All a no show. I would have loved to see interviews and commentaries from the original cast and what have you. It wasn't until later that i discovered that a box set Gunbuster v.s. Diebuster was released in a 3 BD set, with Gunbuster: the movie, Diebuster: the movie and all the special features on one disc including interviews. I was very sour about that as i already own the Diebuster show i had no intention on getting all that again.
At any rate the movie was good, but the show was better. It would be great if you want to watch something that doesn't take 3 hours to finish and its would be good if you want to introduce it to someone without going through the 6 episodes of the show. The lack of extras was a turn off and didn't make the $35 price tag acceptable but like i said the show was bumped up to $50 so good luck if you want it. Perhaps with a little hard work and guts they will one day release an even better version.
If you would like other anime reviews, or horror movie reviews, please say so, i would be happy to share what i know.
