/Summary

A girl named Noriko is enrolled in a all-girls pilot school based in Okinawa. She's good at everything until she get into mechs, where she becomes a clumsy fool. When everyone gives up on her, the best pedophile in history see's a potential in her. He get's her into a partnership with Kazumi, the most skilled mecha pilot in the school. The partnership is made for a secret project started to hopefully save humanity from the alien threat.

/Review

Gunbuster was Gainax's last chance of making it as a studio. Their first studio production wasn't a success at all and they didn't even make back half of the budget. Their primary financier, Bandai, gave Okada and the rest of Gainax one more chance. To make a six episode OVA that would sell 12,000 copies. If they did the impossible, the funding will continue. Okada, hardly in a position to decline, accepts the offer. Thus Gunbuster was born.

The main premise of the story seems pretty basic. I mean Okada did say he would make a basic mecha show that has cute girls with the funding. Which I think the first episode at the surface level qualifies for that description. But I think even the breast animation that would weirdly go on to be influential in it's own right, contributes to the show in a important way.

When I first watched, I was one of the people that thought that Noriko falls in love with Smith way to fast. But when taking a step back and looking at the situation, it makes sense she did. At that point she has nobody to really lean on. Even Kazumi loses her faith in her, the last person who has any left is Smith. In a vulnerable state she clings to the last person she's got.

Going back to the breast example, I believe it being in the audience's face while very traumatic things happen to the characters create a nice contrast. It makes the viewer feel uncomfortable on purpose and might've been a critique of said viewers. We already know Okada and Yamaga had gripes with the current state of anime in the Royal Space Force Proposal. They had a certain idea that viewers where being put into a loop of mecha and cute girls. This causes them to sink deeper into the loop and eventually start to reject reality. It seems a lot of creators around the time had similar attitudes to it, like Tomino.

I suspect that space dilation is meant to tie that idea back into the story. When the girls are in space they're stuck in their own bubble while the world moves on. Similar to how otaku then and still now do the same, I'm very guilty of that. They escape into there anime and craft so much to a point where they're entire world is anime, at that time that world would be mecha and anime girls. Noriko is literally a anime fan in the show so this isn't a far fetched idea.

Saying that, I enjoyed the cute anime girls and the mechs. The intricate detail on the Exelion and Eltreum was so sick. Seeing the Eltreum being built in episode 5 and the drydock being based on model kits was really cool. One of my favorite scenes was the Gunbuster coming out for the first time in episode 4, with the iconic arm cross. It brung tears to my eyes, the grandness of it just left such a big impression on me. I really like how the anime uses size with the mechs and ships. Like in episode 6 when Jupiter comes into view and it just absolutely mogs the gunbuster in size, it gave me chills.

I really like the art direction of Gunbuster, it encaptures that early Gainax style I prefer over the later one. The peak of the artstyle was Otaku no Video, the bluray is a beauty. Anyway, the animation is obviously amazing. The jiggle physics they apply is infamous for a reason, they where enjoyable but I'm more drawn towards the mechs of course. Visually, my favorite episode is episode 6. It's not just the design of the space and the fleet of ships, the monotone colors they went with is what made it my favorite. I will say that the more quite scenes like when Noriko goes out in space for the first time in the RX-7 or when Kimiko looks up to the sky with her daughter saying she heard Noriko's voice, after hanging wishes for her during what I assume is Tanabata.

They did a good job on conveying emotion of the characters through the visuals and soundtrack. The soundtrack was done by Kohei Tanaka, also known as the guy to do Patlabor's soundtrack. Other than the two pop tracks that where done by Anno, Yamaguchi, and Matsumiya. The soundtrack is more similar to other space operas like Battleship Yamato than it is to more pop oriented tracks. Some stand out tracks for me are Departure, Kōkyōshi Gunbuster, and Tobe Gunbuster!. Kōkyōshi Gunbuster is my absolute favorite track though.

The sound of Gunbuster is a bit more unique than standard ones. I found to be a little more somber at points than most. Even the more grand and high energy tracks are have a bit more punch to them. The soundtrack elevates to emotions of scenes to a large degree that I don't think Gunbuster's impact would be as heavy hitting without it.

When watch the OVA for the first time I didn't really get it. I was just starting to really get into anime and I was recommended Gunbuster as one of the classics. I thought it was ok. I believe it was the lack of context for the history behind it and the extreme amount of influence that caused me to feel this way. It's been years since then and I'm much more educated since then about the history of the medium. Now I can't help but cry at the ending every time.

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