Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster

Many people will know the name of Hideaki Anno, in particular because of Neon Genesis Evangelion. His directorial debut though, was an OVA called Top wo Nerae (known as Gunbuster in the West), and whilst NGE has many, many advocates, I will admit to being one of the few who consider his debut work to be superior in almost every aspect. That said, I approached the sequel, Diebuster, with a degree of trepidation, in particular because the directorial reins had been handed over to Tsurumaki Kazuya, who also directed FLCL, NGE: Death & Rebirth, and the first two installments of the NGE remakes.

To say ... I was surprised by the end result would be an understatement.

Top wo Nerae 2 takes a bit of getting used to, especially for fans of the original series. The style, plot and scripting are very different to the original OVA, however the feel of the show is remarkably similar to it's predecessor. Part of this is because the story is set around ten years prior to the final moments of Gunbuster, at the very end of the 12,000 year period. Humanity is still at war with the "space monsters", but they are more able to cope now thanks to the efforts of the Fraternity, which is made up of teenaged pilots who possess "supernatural" powers (known as "Topless"), and their Buster machines.

The story begins with Nono, a clumsy girl living on Mars who dreams of being a space pilot. She runs away from home to follow her dream, only to find that reality is very different. Through a chance encounter she meets a Topless called Lal'C Melk Mark, and is completely bowled over by the experience. She follows Lal'C into space, ultimately to meet her destiny.

In all honesty, the plot is actually the weakest part of the whole OVA. Although the story is well paced and the scripting is tight but flowing, there are some obvious homages to Gunbuster which, all told, the show could really have done without. That's not to say that all the references are bad, especially as this is set within Gunbuster's timeframe. It simply means that the show is too reliant on knowledge of the original OVA at times, and would have been better served by trying to be more original on occasion.

The biggest problem though, is that the director and the writers have tried to cover this by making Nono a fan of Nonoriri, the girl who saved the Solar System thousands of years ago. This attempt at deus ex machina didn't sit too well as it gave a certain falseness to the characters thoughts, feelings and actions at times, especially on the occasions that mirrored occurences from the original OVA.

However, while the story may have it's problems, it is actually enjoyable for the most part, and it's to the credit of the writers that a number of flaws can be forgiven (not all though, more on that in a bit).

One area where the show does excel is in it's animation. Gainax have, once again, produced some stunning work in terms of character movements and set piece action sequences, and it's fair to say that in this department Diebuster is actually better than Gunbuster. The character designs, created by Sadamoto Yoshiyuki (who was also the character designer for FLCL), are very good on the whole, although they are, at times, a tad cartoonish. The backgrounds, especially the renderings of space and it's wonders, are very well done, and some of the visual effects used in the show are truly inspired.

The OVA does fall down though, in it's usage of nudity. Where the original series also had a degree of nudity, it's usage was minimal at best (aside from the bath scene), with the most prominent example being Noriko's famous shirt ripping moment in the final episode. Diebuster, on the other hand, seems to take any excuse to show the fans some skin, and whilst there are times when this mimics the first series, there are far too many occasions where it serves no purpose other than to please the fans. I'm all for pleasing the fans, but Tsurumaki and Gainax should have tried to do this in a different way instead of choosing to be "cheap".

Diebuster is very good in terms of it's sound effects, not simply in their usage, but also because of their timing. The sound department has paid a great a deal of attention to matching specific effects to the on-screen action, and whilst there are times when the sound is a veritable cacophony, closer examination will reveal that each individual effect stems from an individual action, item, character, etc. In truth, Diebuster is one of the few anime that is worth watching with surround sound to truly appreciate the quality of the effects.

In terms of music, the show has a generally martial tone to the various thematic pieces, however these are offset by some mellow tracks that work well with the more relaxed moments. The show has a certain feeling of continuity because of the music used throughout the series, some of which is taken directly from Gunbuster, while others have the same feel. The ending theme in the final episode is very much in keeping with that of the original series, and given that both OVAs finish at the same point in time this, like many of the other tracks, is well used and choregraphed.

Once again though, Diebuster is let down by something simple, in this case, the OP and ED. Where the ED from Gunbuster was a pretty staid ditty about love, the OP had a "get up and go" feeling to it that was reflective of the whole OVA. Diebuster, on the other hand, has two J-Pop tracks for it's OP and ED, both of which don't really reflect any aspect of the show, and seem to have been chosen to make the OVA more "trendy".

That said, the voice acting was very good throughout the show. Fukui Yukari's Nono possessed a bubbly personality that was tempered with determination, while Sakamoto Maaya's Lal'C has an aloof, and slightly disgruntled air about her. In terms of acting ability, the cast is truly excellent, and while there are occasions when they do ham up their roles a little, this is very much in keeping with the "excessive" feel of the OVA (more on that in a bit).

As for the characters themselves, they are the second weak point for Diebuster. Nono, in terms of the story, possesses no real motivations other than to be a space pilot. While she is most definitely an enjoyable character, she doesn't actually develop in any real way, as much of her drive and conviction remains the same even after her memory returns. Much of the development in the show actually happens on the part of Lal'C, especially in the way her thinking changes to reflect that of Nono.

Unfortunately, the show has a number of recurring characters who really get little to no development, and whilst it's true that this is only a 6 part OVA, if all the development was only supposed to occur on the part of the main characters, then the director should have focused on this instead of making lame attempts to round out other characters, a case in point being the furore involving Tycho and Buster machine Quatre-Vingt-Dix. The time could have been better used to round out the story instead, and it's ironic that while Diebuster hasn't done this, Gunbuster actually did.

To many it may seem as though I don't like Diebuster, especially as I'm an advocate of the original OVA, however nothing couldbe further from the truth. I found Diebuster to be very good, however not in the same way as Gunbuster. The reason for this lies solely on the shoulders of several people, including the director and character designer. Like many directors, Tsurumaki has tried, and in some measure succeeded, to stamp his mark on the series proper, and his influence, along with that of certain other staff members, is readily apparent throughout the anime, so much so in fact, that there are occasions when Diebuster resembles FLCL or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann more than it does Gunbuster.

This is not a bad thing though, as it does give the OVA a different feel to the original, but therein lies the problem as well. Where FLCL and TTGL have an excessive, over-the-top atmosphere that is prevalent in Diebuster, the original Gunbuster opted for a quiet heroism that was truly touching, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the final episodes of both OVAs. The final scenes in Gunbuster are quiet, with an emphasis on personal sacrifice - the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few being the most appropriate sentiment. Diebuster, on the other hand, opts for a much flashier ending, with lots of noise and action, and to be honest, very little emotional impact. In truth, Nono's transformation scene and what follows is actually far more memorable than the ending itself, which says a lot about the actual scripting of the show.

The problem, at least for me, is simply this: the entire series is supposed to be about how far humanity will go in order to survive. Given that fact, the method chosen to combat the "space monster" in the final epsiode doesn't equate with the core of the story, especially as there are other planets in the Solar System that would have been more suitable. That particular method was an attempt at mimicking the usage of Buster machine #3 in the first OVA which, unfortunately, doesn't have the same effect, mainly because the element of personal sacrifice for the greater good is missing.

It may sound strange to say this now, but Tsurumaki et al could have easily channeled their collective creativity into creating a show that not only captured the spirit of Gunbuster, but also encapsulated the style of FLCL and TTGL, and, in all honesty, a show like that already exists - Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still. That said, Diebuster is surprisingly honest in a number of ways, the main one being the fact that it makes no excuses for it's numerous homages to the original OVA. While there may be those who think that using so many references is simply a method of capturing fans of the original anime, this method gives the entire show a feeling of continuity that is so often missingfrom sequels.

On the whole Diebuster is a great addition to the franchise, and while it has it's flaws, it's definitely a worthy successor to Gunbuster. While the story and characters may not be as good as the original OVA, Diebuster has a style and flair of it's own that elevates the show to a whole new level.

I wouldn't say that it's truly equal to Gunbuster, but it comes very, very, close.

It is important to note that this is a continuation, and as such, will be reviewed under the assumption one has seen the prequel.

Lets get down to it. Top wo Nerae! 2, alsno known as Diebuster is the indirect sequel to Top wo Nerae/Gunbuster. I enjoyed this short OVA substantially because of its presentation.

Plot
The story follows a girl called Nono who wishes to be a "Topless," which is basically an ace mech pilot to put it simply. Instead of dragging the story out with pointless episodes and scenes you often see in 26+ shows, Diebuster goes straight to the point and sticks with it. ... Most of the scenes show multiple different conflicts (whether they are big or small) which are tied together with the main plot quite nicely. Pacing is great, but since it's so short you might forget some of the smaller details as the series goes on.

Visual/Personality
This anime brought with it a wide variety of moods and atmosphere simply due to its visual direction. In terms of overall quality, Diebuster falls by today's standards however considering its age, the key animations were memorable to say the least. The fights were all very fluid, everything in the scene seemed like it was flowing together. Usually, emotion is hard to convey, however Diebuster was able to successfully convey those emotions through its visuals. Not only that, but character design was excellent, they managed to turn a basic style suit into each character's individual style, and personality wise, none of them (at least to me) seemed to follow the stereotypical route.

Sound
Diebuster had a good OST when it comes to sound. The BGM's were nice and, all though not Gurren Lagann-type memorable, they stood up there with some of the good ones. The voice acting was pretty good too (see emotions being memorable). Some might argue Nono's voice was annoying, but I liked it. Even the enemy grunts/noises, those were superb, for grunts and noises anyway heh. Everything that had a distinct sound keep that sound though, for example beams sound like beams or explosions sound like explosions, but when tied with Diebuster's BGM, it sounded better. Lets not forget the OP and ED, both of which totally owned face. Groovin' Magic stands to be one of the best songs, at least in my opinion, to match this series (plus it was done by Round Table feat. Nino, who are one of my favorites). ACKO's Hoshikuzu Namida is a catchy single as well, pair it together with the slideshow ending, it's perfect.

Enjoyment
The reason I enjoyed this so much is because of the memorable scenes and the similarity between the original. Gainax seemed to keep the trend of hotblooded epicness going after they finished Diebuster with Gurren Lagann, which doesn't relate to Top wo Nerae at all, but they all share the same principles. If you are a fan of mecha, shounen, or anything of that sort, I'm am confident Diebuster will give you some enjoyment.

Overall
All in all, I give Diebuster, rather Top wo Nerae! 2, a solid 9 out of 10. I have to admit, those seeking to watch this typically already know what they are getting into. A story about believing in yourself and overcoming difficulties and struggles; these things are common to us all.

Some things need to stand alone.

Sequels are a gamble, especially when the time gap between original and sequel grows and grows. They tend to be put under more scrutiny than their predecessors, as they not only have to deal with standing tall as installments in their own right, but they need to provide merit as a sequel to a product that never needed one. The trickiest prospect involved is the anniversary sequel, as that is where you’re most likely to enact the gambit. Some projects of this nature can pay off in a way that respects the original and becomes its own product, perhaps even ... succeeding it in the process. However, not everyone can do a Turn A Gundam, and instead, some make Diebuster.

Put it simply, it fails both ways. As a series, it features mediocre at best and largely uninteresting characters, half-assed power-up moments, and tons of convoluted and barely explained sci-fi superpower bullshit & worldbuilding. When the highlight in terms of memorable character moments was a rape attempt, you know you’ve fucked up. As a sequel, Diebuster’s almost insulting. The writers made a completely different type of show -a mediocre one at that- a sequel to Gunbuster. It would be like making Aldnoah.Zero the sequel to Macross. As such, everything about the already poorly-crafted and convoluted world-building (galaxy building?) is brimming with incompatibility.

Buster machines are now biomechanical machines that can only be piloted by people with some hereditary superpower gene rather than robots that take skill for any able-bodied person in general to pilot. They each come with different powers including the ability to freeze space creatures in space with quantum temperatures, and controlling and turning other ships into creatures to use during battle via psychic powers or something akin to that. They have colonized entirely new planets with futuristic military technology, yet transportation technology and all things not inherently related to war against space creatures has yet to advance beyond 2004 —the year this OVA first aired— until the finale outright contradicts that. The finale also proves that it takes place during a specific portion of the original’s finale, as if to self-destruct while getting its idol caught in the explosion. Additionally, whereas Gunbuster used real, hard science for its science fiction, Diebuster uses pseudoscience superpower nonsense. This and more serve as only a taste of how incompatible (for lack of a better word) the world-building is, and why crafting a coherent world is always important. Otherwise, we get two pieces that just cannot fit.

There’s also the fact that the mere existence of the events in Die, even discounting the monumentally awful finale, ultimately sully the finale of the original Gunbuster. Not only did that show end phenomenally, but it did so in a way in which no real sequel could be warranted. Gunbuster ended so conclusively that to continue would be to retroactively take back part of the point of the finale. This isn’t even touching on the world-building. This show really should have been its own thing. It would have been a mediocre at best show, but better a mediocre separate celebration installment than a show that accidentally knocks over its predecessor’s grave, especially when said predecessor became one of the two foundational anime of its studio. However, it would probably require heavy rewrites towards the end in particular. After all, the more it goes on, the worse it gets, peaking in its concluding episodes in terms of sheer atrocity, as the show stops caring almost entirely and ends up outright nullifying the ending of the original, at least canonically.

To cover the positive —read: superficial— aspects of this asteroid, the music is better than last time, and the visuals are still mostly well-crafted. Even with the awful mech designs excessive amounts of usually terrible CGI, the show’s visuals are worthwhile. The character designs are fine enough -particularly that of Nono- and the action animation is smooth, kinetic, and kept track of extremely well...as long as the characters aren’t running. It may not hold up compared to the immaculately detailed and stylized predecessor of yore, but disregarding that leaves you with visuals that were on par with that best at the time, at least animation-wise. The sense of scale is quite large, to add on top of that. Lastly, the music is honestly a tad superior than the original, at least when it isn’t remixing tracks. The OP and ED themes are ok and the background music is serviceable, though that is all I can praise.

Ultimately, the more this show goes on, the more horrible a sequel it becomes. As if it wouldn’t be a bad enough show on its own, it just had to throw a classic series under the bus in a drunken attempt at paying homage and joining a franchise. Barring the prospect of bastardizing a returning cast, Diebuster commits every sin a sequel can commit -including ones I never thought were possible- and ends up shattering itself into pieces upon its obnoxious attempts at trying to send-up and one-up. On its own, it's a mediocre turned bad show too ambitious for its own good. As a sequel, it is so...so much worse. Way to go Gainax, producing the worst thing in your mainline repertoire to celebrate 20 years!

After watching Gunbuster/Top wo Nerae! i was crazy wanting to see more of the history, and then i saw Gunbuster 2/Top wo Nerae 2! To my surprise, on the first scnenes, it appears to be totally different or not correlated to the 1st series.

Then, like the 1st series, it began popping aliens, space and kinda different mechas? Different you say? Yes, the Top wo Nerae 2! mechas look much more like the EVAs than the 1st series mechas. But on the first chapters you note that this 2nd series battles are much MORE OVERPOWERED than the 1st series.

With you think that Dragon Ball Z is ... overpowered, think again, Diebuster 2 is the winner.

Overall, the anime has interesting art, looking like FLCL (it is the same director), the songs are great, and the action is intense like the 1st season.

But the good thing you will find in the end, i will not say, because it is a spoiler, but it will make you happy.

This is simply the best OVA, and perhaps series ever produced. Basically an alternate telling of Gunbuster, but as a parallel of sorts. The original series, from the 1980's, didn't get too much recognition until Gainax really hit mainstream with Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Diebuster, from the director of FLCL, takes a lot from that series as far as animation style, and improves upon it greatly. The six episode OVA has some of the best art and animation and just does an incredible job overall.

Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster is a hard anime to review. Basically because it is hard to analyse it without comparing it to its prequel. However: that isn't wrong, considering it IS a sequel and it does connect with the original OVA. Furthermore, it tries to conclude with various references to Gunbuster so rather it would be futile to look at it as a stand alone work and it couldn't be appreciated without the comparison either.

Having said that - the story of Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster isn't sublime. For one, it lets go of the realistic, more scientifically organized orientation that the first OVA ... set and picks up a rather far fetched fictional approach. That is mainly a neg as a sequel. Pushing technology ahead is one thing, but just coming up with ideas that seem to be written at a drinking party doesn't suit the anime as a sequel. Gunbuster set the universe as a futuristic approach to our present universe where technology had advanced, not a magical realm of superhuman races. That also reduced the attribute of tension that was prevalent in Gunbuster and brought the possibility of doing 'magical' stuff that doesn't suit the plot line of mankinds survival.

Secondly, there were plot holes. There were ideas poorly connected - there were ideas that spawned out of nowhere as if the story was not thought out properly in the start and at times there was no good transition from one event to another. And furthermore, small internal plots and politics that was added, brought little appeal to the show - they seemed like excuses to make the plot deep with a lot of stuff going on. This further gave little room for the main characters to interact and give off a more 'emotional' show that would have saved it some face. And just to add - the plot gave too much a feel of "Outlaw Star". The Serpentine Sisters seem like the Mcdougall brothers. The ending fight seems similar and there is a more of the 'chi'/power concept making it look like an Outlaw Star universe.

As a standalone plot, it would save more face - we would have to accept that it is a universe with certain abilities and fictional elements however it still doesn't deliver. There are still many more negatives like plot ones mentioned above - even as a standalone anime, it lacks a very good unique or well executed plot.

Now it may be my personal choice but the extremely vibrant, and girlish outlook of the characters didn't appeal to me. That however is a comment due to the comparison with Gunbuster; if we overlook that I did like the art in general, the fluidity, the backgrounds and color schemes. I would still say I find more appeal to the art style and execution of the original but picking on Diebuster at this point will be a very biased approach.

The characters were another weak thing about the show - Nono lacks much personality integrity - much like Luffy. And that doesn't sit well. Her wish from the start, her affiliation with "Onee-Sama" and her philosophy changes further down the show are lacking in several ways. Lal'c seems to be more well defined, more well crafted but that is only in comparison to Nono. Otherwise she also develops either too quickly, or conveniently for the plot. This is of course comparing to WELL developed characters. The rest of the characters don't require much attention - most were added for 'plot details' and 'politics' that was again lacking because either it didn't get too much time to develop or it seemed too cliched to appeal. More like a poorly developed cliche which makes it have little to no appeal.

So in the end did I enjoy watching the OVA? No. To fans of the original, watching this is a huge disappointment. To people just watching it for the sake of it, you shouldn't think too hard and enjoy what is going on otherwise you won't really like it.

"Nazenara wa.... Nonoriri is a normal girl"

Diebuster, or Gunbuster 2 or Top No Nare 2! or simply Aim for the Top 2! is one of the best attempts that GAINAX has ever made to create a short yet heart blasting show that makes you fall in love with it from the very first minute of the first episode. Not many can achieve it. Somehow, Gainax can.

The story features a robot-girl Nono who, of all things in the world, wants to become a space pilot the most. In order to do so she follows one of the top fighters - Lark, who pilots Dex Neuf - ... artificial Buster machine no 19. That's a very short summary of this anime. Why short? Because this is just a core to the whole story which, while not being very complex, sucks you in with no quarter till the final minutes of the show.

This is something uncanny for 6-ep shows which tend to rush things and focus mainly on the development of one character - usually the protagonist. This series instead develops several different stories on different levels. Some are relevant to Nono's main plot and some are there just to make the series more memorable. That's a very good development in my opinion. We learn background stories for both Lark and Nono, as well as Chico, Casio and other current or ex buster pilots. The story gets more intriguing when you learn that what the main protagonists have been fighting so far... isn't their real enemy... (much like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Gurren brigade fighting beastmen, if you know what I mean).

This is show is all about... overdoing things... So we do get some ecchi parts, we do get some slick and smooth animation of gigantic grotesque mechas fighting computer animated aliens in outer space and futuristic and unreal space stations, colonies, planets with the core only (this one looks particularly staggering!) and oversized weapons that can even move planets and warp in a second throughout the whole milky way... If I was to judge I would say that TTGL is solely based on this anime. Good thing or bad, you pick...

In all this epicness the series does not stump on some serious moments and drama. When we are to laugh the show is funny and obscure, but when the time comes to keep your mouth shut and watch the events - you know it right away. God bless Gainax for differentiating these two aspects. FLCL failed here all the way around.

The series itself, much like TTGL and Evangelion is a story of coming of age, growing up, becoming adult or however you want to call it. It may be cliche these days, when most shows do that, but then again nowhere else will you be able to feel the tension so close and hard as in Aim for the Top 2! It's omnipotent, you can practically touch it... On one hand we get to see and know Lark who seems to be a little too mature for her age. To contrast that we have Nono who, on the other hand, is as carefree as she can get while being older than Lark. Things quickly change, as the truth about Nono's past is revealed, and although she keeps her characteristic features till the very end, she matures very quickly to stand firm as a final defender to the humanity. This accounts for splendid characters and very good plot construction.

It gets even better as we move on to the video and audio aspect. The series is dated back in 2003 but since it's an OVA the animation quality is simply outstanding. Not once did I got distracted by even average quality of the drawings or cgi. The same goes for catchy and memorable soundtrack which fits perfectly to the events on screen. Sure, you do see some exaggerated space combat here, with beams firing, hundreds of enemies dead in a single shot and planet throwing (we all love TTGL, right? :D ) but it's all explained. Shhh, don't mention the fact that the explanations are a bit... vague :).

So to sum it up. If you liked EVA, FLCL and you're akin of space series - Aim for the Top 2! is for you. If you didn't... well watch it either way. You won't be disappointed, simply because behind the huge cloud of exaggeration and epicness lies a very good plot and fabulous characters...

The technical sequel of Gunbuster!!!!!! but the spiritual sequel of FLCL....

Anyway, wile Gunbuster was more of a depressing story, this one is more uplifting and "badass." I would say that it was a prequel to Gurren Lagann in ways such as style and philosophy (I mean just look at Nono).

Over all, this was a more fun show to watch compared to gunbuster and its art was definitely prettier. Also, the director of this show is about 50 million times superior to Anno, as Anno cannot direct his way out of a paper bag.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is actually minimalistic. At least that's what Diebuster taught me. With TTGL every background and every space is finely tuned to emphasize the actions of the characters, kind of a variation of the Shaft (at least the non stop-mo stuff) style except that its louder and more wild than stylized. The backgrounds in TTGL are always abstract, action lines, explosions and a focus on movement than space. Kill La Kill takes this to an even greater extreme by layering even more Western animation style comic transformations with all the huge letters filling the screen, emphasizing the presence of the characters and ... their attacks over delineating a space. The current equivalent would be like comparing Fury Road to an old John Ford or a Western by one of the masters, where in one the desert is subservient to the spectacle (except in some parts of course) where in the other its all about the Desert in all its splendor swallowing the tiny riders while they exchange shootouts with wayward Indians and Bandits. Diebuster is the old Western.

The main character of Diebuster, contrary to what people believe, is neither Lal'C nor Nono, but Space itself. The multiplicity of worlds that the character's inhabit, and the otherworldly denizens within that overwhelms the concept of human and what it means to create a civilization in an excess of empty matter.

It also happens to be a story about a friendship between two girls, but that's another thing. It's kind of the Gainax ability (at least with Tsurumaki and Anno) to make the small struggles of everyday humans reflect the state of the whole cosmos. But that's one of the secret great things about animation, that the worlds crafted are wholly subjective, and thus they HAVE to reflect psychology because its our definition of what makes a world rather than an actual world. Old cinema theorists used to talk about how the objective eye of the camera was aimed at capturing the beauty and naturalism of the world, and maybe a film like Boyhood is our greatest testament to that in current times, but Animation is wholly opposed to that sensibility, and with CGI being so prevalent, movies are turning away from that as well to an idea of pure image (whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is the subject of tons of conversations between various philosophers of media and postmodernity. Can we still live while we continuously reject the Real at every instance? Or maybe its an inherent human thing to warp, restructure and be contrary to Nature).

The bad thing is that no one has ever really conceived of what it means to step outside the cinematic notions of time and space and to have a work of art that lies wholly beyond the space in front of the camera. The greatest animators are harvesters of this sensibility, from Miyazaki to Satoshi Kon to the Gainaxers and the Shaft personnel. Makoto Shinkai even, who, despite being called a realistic artist, edges what is Real to an extreme that somehow pushes past it. Madoka Movie 3 is the farthest I have seen someone go in this attempt at pure Animation, at least outside of strange non-mainstream experimental film stuff. Sakuga, the art of creating motion through Key Animation, is a skill practiced solely at harnessing this sensibility. TTGL will add fury to the lines and thickness to the brush so as to create faces that burn out of the screen and actions that explode into the frame, while keeping all other aspects pretty streamlined.

But while all that is theory, we're here to talk about Tsurumaki and his craft. Sarah Horrocks, a comic book reviewer, talked about how Tsutomu Nihei's greatest strength in Knights of Sidonia was his ability to capture the pure silence of Space, changing his sensibility wholly from his previous cyber-bio-punk actiony works. Tsurumaki knows all of that, the gracefulness of it that has been reflected in great films like 2001 A Space Odyssey and Interstellar. But he also has a plethora of tricks up his sleeve to vary the tempo with high octane space battles, using all of the old missile circus style explosions and tricks. He uses CGI when necessary, and not it an alienating way, but to depict mass and weight. He can draw close quartered distilled emotional spaces like those out of Evangelion no problem as well. From small inhabited spaces to large encroaching Space itself. And he also has a kind of Pinky-Film exploitative sexual sensibility that pushes normal fanservice into a kind of high level pop-camp-aesthetic. This is not the degraded erotic fanservice that punctuates so many shoddily made harem shows, but the type of thing that emphasizes curvature and body-motion and sometimes straight out bare-faced Faster Pussycat Kill Kill Kill clothes-tearing brazen stuff that reflects an underground sensibility that so characterizes Gainax's subversive values in every way (then again Anno came up with all that in the original Gunbuster, so this is just an evolution of that).

The thing is that the original Gunbuster was beautiful at moments, with its noir-space-opera purple shadows and it’s cynical war plot that sort of resembled Joe Halderman’s The Forever War except while trying to stick in all the anime stuff about Truth and Heart and all that. All of it though was really jarring with the melodrama and characterization that Anno hadn’t fine-tuned yet, until it would explode into the oppressive atmosphere of Evangelion. Diebuster really shoves it right out the window by being willing to take the blazing Shounen values all the way while also respecting character and atmosphere. It even pushes the science from the pop-science of time-dilation and all that new quantum physics that was becoming in-vogue at the era, to science that probably completely doesn’t make sense in any way but sounds completely out there. Episode 3 is more or less perfect. And Tsurumaki being a guy that doesn’t care too much about exposition, as compared to Gunbuster at least, at least makes it so that exposition is being carried out with visual stimulation, and uses visual storytelling for the most part.

But really Diebuster is about imbibing the world. It’s a vision the same way Blade Runner was a vision, or that Madoka was a vision, or that Akira was a vision. A large large larger than life vision that seems to want to destroy Reality in every way and shows us that if escapism was this all-encompassing, then it’s completely okay to stake your entire life in a small cramped up apartment making stuff like this one particle at a time over copious copious drawing boards. A work to show that really who the hell needs anything that Life has to offer when our Dreams are so gallant? And you’d pay your whole soul fending off cockroaches and dirty walls and meagre salaries and horrible real life shit just to capture that sort of thing for ephemeral seconds on screen.

Out of all the fears that lurk in the back of our minds, there are some that are obvious... From spiders, darkness and the unknown to more everyday occurrences like violence, death, and the constant threat of insectoid invaders from outer space. But there’s one fear that people often overlook, and it’s one that can completely consume your life... The fear of absolute solitude. Not having a past, not having a future, just being alone, with nobody to look out for you but yourself. For some people, this wouldn’t be so bad... After all, as it’s been said, there’s ... no feeling freer than having nothing left to lose. But to Nono, a spunky girl surviving by the skin of her teeth on the planet Mars, there’s nothing cool or ideal about it. Having spent an unknown and potentially unfathomable amount of years living on her own, travelling the expansive red desert without a home to go back to, without any memories to tell her who she is, or any future to look forward to, the only comfort she has in the middle of the night is her head full of dreams, and her ambition to one day become a famous pilot and save humanity from the insidious alien threat!

However, like most people in modern day times, she’s only able to live out her dreams through fantasy while working a dead-end job for wages that she can just barely survive off of. Working in a diner that’s populated mainly by truckers and washed-up space pilots, her dreams of outer space adventures are the only thing saving her from the looming threat of assault from her patrons. Thankfully, when that threat becomes fully realized, so does her dream! An ace mecha pilot from the elite interstellar military known as Fraternity, who is ironically female, crash lands right in the middle of the diner, saving her(whether intentionally or not) and unknowingly offering her the once-in-a-lifetime chance to hitch a ride into space and live out her dreams! Well, that’s what she wants to do, but there’s a catch; The pilots of Fraternity are called Topless, not because they’re shameless exhibitionists, but because they have some sort of ESP power, so it’s like there’s no lid on their minds to hold in their powers. Yeah, that’s stretching it, but hey YOU try to explain why they’re called that. Nono, who is revealed to be a robot, doesn’t have this ability, but as it turns out, she might just have potential far exceeding those who can.

In 2004, Studio Gainax released two anime to commemorate their 20 year anniversary; One of them was This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, a full-length TV series that massively disappointed, and Aim for the Top Diebuster, the sequel to their debut OVA Aim for the Top Gunbuster, and it only takes a cursory glance at both shows to figure out which one got the most attention from the production team. This Ugly was going to be an easy, dumb title full of nudity, so they didn’t need to waste too much money to make it successful... Diebuster, however, was going to be a sequel to a 20 year old anime that had a massive army of loyal and highly protective fans behind it, was much more of a risk, and in light of this, the amount of money they poured into this title is immediately apparent upon the first few minutes of the first episode. I haven’t seen every single Studio Gainax anime... Give it a few more years, I definitely will be able to brag about this at some point... but from what I’ve seen, Diebuster is by far the best looking anime I’ve ever seen from them. Yes, that includes Evangelion, at least by a little.

To be fair, at least in terms of it’s characters, Diebuster is on the more cartoony side of the scale. Honestly, they look more like Fooly Cooly characters than Gunbuster characters, which I guess is just the look the company was pushing back then. It’s a huge step away from Gunbuster, but I think there are a few reasons it’s worth forgiving. First of all, the most colorful and cartoony character IS the sunny, happy-go-lucky robot girl, which allows the distinction to make a small bit of sense. Everyone else, even those with alternate skin and hair color options, look far more down to earth, and the few who don’t are given so little screen time it doesn’t really matter. Second, the outdated character designs of 1984 wouldn’t mesh at all with the beautifully drawn and exquisitely detailed backgrounds they’d be placed in. Before the first appearance of the show’s title in the first episode, I was already on Facebook gushing about how gorgeous it looked. I don’t think there’s a single shot in Diebuster that I wouldn’t want to watch on loop so I could fantasize about living in it, save for maybe the scarier war scenes.

There are so many layers on screen at any given time that you almost don’t know where to look... The characters aren’t always in the foreground, because sometimes that space will be reserved for lens flares, or a small cross section of whatever they happen standing in front of. After that, depending on the environment, the remaining layers can be used to show an entire world of activity in the background of outer space, or the crushing loneliness of an open plain. It’s not impossible for an anime to look as alive and immersive as Diebuster does, but it is rare, and I want to think this is the only time Gainax has ever pulled it off. The use of lighting also helps, seeing how once we leave Mars in episode 1, the bulk of what we see from there on is shrouded in shadow, which perfectly complements the bright and bouncy Nono, who’s childish antics and outgoing personality are quite literally designed to shine in the darkness, both in terms of the artwork and in terms of the bleak tone of the story. The immersive background also helps distract you during those rare moments when the animation maybe isn’t as fluid as it is elsewhere, which is already a sparse problem.

The CG is also used to perfection here, and it pops up frequently, in all sorts of background and foreground layers. You’re not just going to be impressed by the fleets of ships that the Fraternity owns, you’re going to be impressed by vast expanses of space they’re existing in. I’ve praised several anime in the past for having beautiful looking paintings represent space, but in diebuster, space is ever moving and ever evolving like an organism all it’s own. In shots that combine layers of CG with layers of traditional animation, it looks freaking unbelievable. The same can be said for weather effects and the way they visually affect the characters on-screen, as well as lazers, light beams and any other special effects the script may call for. You could almost call this a spiritual predecessor to Gurren Lagann, if it didn’t also surpass that series. Characters, whether in action or idling between missions, are animated perfectly, with a wide and very graceful range of motion, capped off by fully expressive and photogenic faces. Gainax has never been the best company when it came to managing budget issues, so for Diebuster, I’m going to assume they didn’t HAVE any budget issues, and whether or not that’s the case, it worked out amazingly for them.

While Kohei Tanaka is not a name you’d generally hear associated with Gainax... Honestly, he’s much more well known to the One Piece crowd, although I’m a much bigger fan of his work on Bastard... He did compose the score for two of Gainax’s projects, those being both Gunbuster and it’s sequel, Diebuster. This is probably why there are so many Gunbuster songs that wound up being reused in Diebuster, and in some surprizingly smart and subtle ways. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first season’s OST, but the tunes that are shared by both shows are used much better this time around. Tanaka is generally known for his grand, sweeping ballads, but he’s also known for using rock and roll and electric tracks in order to rack up the intensity of a fight scene. Honestly, though, the music in this show isn’t exactly memorable... You won’t be humming along to any of it’s tracks on the way to work... But they work splendidly in the moment, and you will enjoy them when you’re watching the show.

The opening, Groovin'’ Magic, is far more memorable, and I challenge you not to get it stuck in your head. It’s received some criticism on two different fronts, with one saying that it’s just a piece of Jpop fluff, and the other saying it’s just a mish-mash of clips from the show. To the second I say, have you never watched a Gainax show before? They do that all the time. Most of Gainax’s anime properties have openings that use original animation to bookend long slots of random out-of-context clips. Diebuster does this too, and while the original animation basically consists of silhouetted characters walking, it’s still a lot of fun to watch. The song has a sort of light, funky sixties pop feel to it, which was a great choice considering what kind of person the main character is... Nono is an idealistic dreamer, a sunny flower child who brings ideals of pacifism and humane priorities to a war zone full of cynics and jaded veterans, challenging the way they think. this is very much her theme song, but that’s not to say the ending theme doesn’t also resonate with her. It does, but it runs a little deeper, to the darker feelings she keeps hidden from everyone, as well as her firm resolve to put on a smile for their sake. It’s a great soundtrack overall, and a huge improvement over that of the first season.

Actually, as it turns out, improvements upon the first show can be found all over the place in this one. Now, I originally thought Gunbuster was okay, a good show overall, if not problematic in a lot of areas. It’s characters were weakened by it’s insistence on setting aside time it didn’t have to spare for the sake of explaining things we didn't need to know, showing us things we didn’t need to see, and exploring several dead end plot points that wound up adding nothing to the important areas of the story. As a result, thing got overcomplicated, and we sacrificed any depth the main characters or the badly explained one-note villains could have had in exchange for footnotes like dolphins with helmets were connected to the development of extrasensory perception. It probably wasn’t fair of me to blast it for being outdone by a later series, particularly in the area of developing it’s main character, but I stand by my belief that newer anime can be both superior products and useful comparative tools to older anime, and since Gainax already improved upon several elements of their inaugural series through Evangelion, they had a golden opportunity to seal the deal with their 20th anniversary piece.

There really aren’t very many ways to connect Diebuster to Gunbuster as a canon sequel, although they apparently exist in the same universe with a massive time gap in-between, so it works a lot better to consider this series as a reimagining of an older concept. And yes, Diebuster features a vast improvement in terms of narrative and execution. On the surface, it’s story is very simple. It follows an innocent and untainted main character getting the opportunity to live out her dreams, struggling, and ultimately becoming more than the sum of her parts through unexpected and unorthodox means, while changing the people around her in the process. There are little to no deviations from her journey, and the fact that it’s her journey above all else is never in question. Everything that happens in the series is either related directly to her, or directly related to the Fraternity group and surrounding characters in ways that will affect her down the line By using this much tighter sense of focus, Gainax is able to explain the plot and setting to us through her, as we learn what she learned, while at the same time getting us invested in her story. With Nono performing this role, there’s little to no need for exposition, although Gainax still crowbars it in with their subtitles.

Unfortunately, Diebuster isn’t so much an improvement as it is the exact opposite of Gunbuster in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Whereas Gunbuster spent a lot of time telling you very little, Diebuster sounds way too little time telling us way too much. There wasn’t very much happening in Gunbuster that was very important, which made it feel a little boring, but there’s way too much important shit going on in Diebuster, making it feel way too overwhelming and confusing at times. To be fair, this doesn’t actually start happening until episode 4, as I think everything was paced really nicely up until that point. Past episode 4, however, the story and plot become extremely difficult to follow, with important revelations being dropped like hot potatoes, new characters being introduced just to be killed off after mere seconds worth of collective screentime, which is apparently supposed to feel tragic, but I had to watch episode 4 three times just to catch what that tragedy even was, let alone why all the remaining Topless were lying in hospital beds with protective headgear on. It made sense when I was finally able to wrap my head around it, and the scenario I’d been missing was even written better than I thought, but that still doesn’t excuse such shoddy pacing.

But that’s all fine, because the characters get appropriate time devoted to their arcs and individual developmental journeys. Well, I say that, but just because time’s being devoted to them doesn’t mean what we’re being shown is going to hold up. As much as I loved her, and she is an incredibly fun and likeable character, Nono is kind of a Mary-Sue. There’s some subtle depth to her, when you compare her lonely past on Mars to her refusal to compromise her principals in Fraternity, but most of the time it barely resonates with her character in any meaningful way, and after spending half the series as an upbeat Lego brick, her transformation into Jesus happens on a dime. She’s too perfect, she’s always right, and when you get right down to it, she’s... well, she’s Robin Williams. I shouldn’t be too upset about that, as her perfect nature was an integral part of episode 3, which was so perfect it made me cry, but that wasn’t her episode... It was the episode of another pilot named Tycho Science(real name, not joking), who’s backstory and resolution are without question the most memorable thing about this story. And she doesn’t even manage to make an impact beyond that episode.

Which leaves the final main character, L’Arc Mellik Mai, who is probably the best one in terms of development. She starts out the series as a battle-hardened, no-nonsense warrior, the top of her class and the undisputed lord of the kill count. Meeting Nono gradually warms her heart and forces her to open up over time, resulting in her becoming more expressive as well as a few other spoilers. But I honestly can’t help but feel that she got a bit too much screen time. for a relationship between two characters to feel strong, it has to become strained at some point so it can mend and become stronger than before, which does happen in Diebuster between her and Nono... In what has to be the worst way possible. I’m going to spoil this, so skip to the next paragraph if you really don’t want to know how this all falls apart. Basically, she catches a pilot she has a thing for attempting to rape Nono, and her first words are “Why not me?” Which... I just... no. She turns her back on both of them, because how DARE he try to rape another, and how dare she BE that other, and oh dear God I’m going to vomit.

I know I spent a lot of space talking about Diebuster’s flaws, but it really is a fun show. Much like the first season, a lot of it’s best qualities can be found in it’s space battles, and in this season, none of them ever feel wasted or pointless. We know what the goal of every fight is, we know what’s at stake, and when the enemy suddenly becomes unimaginably strong, we know how and why it happened. There’s a sense of progression on both sides, with the humans discovering new technology, and the bugs becoming immeasurably powerful just when we think we’re about to overcome them, even though what they are and why they want to kill us still hasn’t been established. There’s a lot less fanservice than in the first season, as instead of bathing scenes forced in for no reason, everything that happens in this series... nudity included... Serves a strict narrative purpose, whether it’s Nono being cleaned after being rescued from Mars or characters contemplating their issues while alone in the bath, and even then, everything’s shot tastefully... Not to censor, but at the same time, not to exploit. Even the early shot of Nono ripping off the chest of her shirt was meant to be an homage to the first season, which Diebuster does clearly have a lot of respect for, even if it doesn’t look like it at times.

Aim for the Top: Diebuster! is available from Eastern Star Studios, which... Like a star... Is a bright spot in an expansive empty space of no fucking releases. This DVD set came out stateside nine years after the series came out proper, and after only three years since, it’s so far out of print that you can’t actually get it on Amazon. It’s cheap enough on Ebay, as I got my copy for about twenty-five dollars, but yeah, I have no idea why it’s been so sparsely released. An anime film, Gunbuster vs. Diebuster, is much easier to find, as it was released more recently. A single volume manga that ran in the magazine Dragon Age Pure is not available stateside.

So, how does Studio Gainax’s 20th anniversary OVA series hold up? Well, considering their other offering was a collaboration with Madhouse that brought little other than pretentious ramblings and barrels of bare boobies to the table, I’d say this one turned out rather nicely. It has surprisingly little to do with the original Gunbuster aside from some terminology and the visual of a robot running on a treadmill... I’d nitpick, but considering that she also eats, sleeps and has a heart, sure, why not... It actually feels a lot more like a few other Gainax properties. I already made the comparison to FLCL, in regard to it’s colorful and cartoony character designs and over-all artistic aesthetic, but it also incorporates a lot of Evangeleon, especially in the way that the pilots interact with each other. Oddly enough, though, it kind of also feels a lot like Gurren Lagann, which wouldn’t come out until three years later. I won’t go too specific, but it even ends with the imagery of a drill! So yeah, it works way better as a representation of what Gainax was between the late nineties and the mid-oughts than it does as a direct sequel. Much like Gunbuster, it has a lot of problems, but over-all, it’s a pretty fun experience. I give Diebuster a 6/10.

There are, perhaps, 3 reasons why this is my Favourite Anime. And one why it nearly isn't...
Firstly, and most importantly, I simply Love the style of it. The Animation is, in my opinion awesome. Ever watched Tengen Toppa or FLCL? Its Gainax at its best, doing those wonderful super-deformed animations that manages to maintain a very high quality of animation. Its not realistic in any sense of the word, but you still find yourself watching it and finding it so easy to understand.
Secondly, the story is a follow on to the original Gunbuster. Which, for me, somewhat set the bar for many Mecha Animes. But ... more importantly, it isn't really a Sequel. It doesn't finish off the plot of Gunbuster; Gunbuster doesn't need finishing, it had a pretty definitive end. What it does is proves to us that Noriko really DID save the human race.
Finally, despite being a "Sequel", its story is wonderful and, importantly, stands entirely on its own. You can watch Diebuster without ever hearing of Gunbuster, and you'll still love it. The connections between the series aren't even openly obvious until the third episode, but if you look their there from the start.

But there is that one, single, Down point T mentioned. My only regret for Diebuster is, strangely enough, the ending. I can't say exactly what because of Spoilers, but to me its almost MORE depressing than the almost-ending of Gunbuster. At least they Do get home, together. But Lark and Nono...
Gah, Spoilers. Watch it and form your own opinions.

To me, the difference between a good and a great anime is usually the ending.

After seeing the first OVA series, Gunbuster, the ending to diebuster created overwhelming amounts of satisfaction and sense of fulfillment - this is not an ordinary occurrence in alot of anime.

Please, do yourselves a favor and even if you cannot bare to watch an old anime, from 1989, bare with it and watch the original gunbuster to the end before you watch this.

In terms of overall anime quality; it seems like you average, overpowered mech anime, such as tengen toppa.

I never imagined i'd write a review for this when i started ... watching it; but my goodness i feel satisfied after watching ALL of it. I give the story a 10 out of 10 simply due to this reason - the ending.

Please watch this series, you may find it to be a normal quality animation right up until the later episodes, but found myself smiling for about 10/15 minutes straight after finishing this.

In terms of anime quality, it isn't amazing, some parts were slightly confusing and it felt overpowered, something i personally dislike in animations; but that is by no means a reason not to watch this and it's prequel, Gunbuster.

To sum it up, this anime is essentially Evangelion and FLCL combined into a cesspool of GAINAX cliches.

By no means is this OVA necessarily bad, but it feels contrived. GAINAX plots are notorious for being indecipherable, and unsurprisingly, this show's plot is overly elliptical in its pacing, pun intended. It does have a cohesive plot once you do some brainstorming, but like I said, there's hardly time for most viewers to weigh in to connect the dots. I found myself pausing time again to grasp what was happening.

I feel like there's always an effort on part of GAINAX loyalists ... to read too far into the studio's plots -- like they do so for EVA and FLCL. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love EVA, and I really enjoyed FLCL. However, it was admitted that Evangelion used religious symbolism just to merely look cool, and yet there are a number of folks who insist it has substantial philosophical depth. EVA does have philosophical depth, but its depth belongs in its characters rather than obscure lore.

Likewise, The best aspects of Gunbuster 2 are the characters and their internal struggles and ambitions. The animation is also top-tier for its time and has a strong FLCL flare.

Long story short: Another series with amazing animation, action, and visual design tainted by Gainax being Gainax. This series would be a solid 8 or even a 9, but the bare-bones plot, mostly forgettable characters, absurd plethora of fanservice and uncomfortable exploitation of the female lead leave a sour taste in your mouth. Otherwise this could have been the best thing Gainax ever did. In some ways it's much better than Gunbuster but in others even more frustrating.

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Story: As I said, it's pretty bare plot. Nono wants to become a space pilot because her hero was one. She meets Lal'C, a "Topless" who has a ... psychic connection to a Buster Machine, and immediately forms a bond with her for reasons that are somewhat lost on me. The rest of the series is mainly a bunch of teenagers who are mankind's only hope fighting Space Monsters in giant robots, combined with a lot of subplots and scenes that feel like nonsequiturs because they go nowhere. There's a pretty interesting plot twist in Episode 4 that they could have based the entire story around, but they don't really do anything with it, and the resolution of Nono's character arc is both a huge Deus Ex Machina and a pretty forced reference to the original series.

However, there is one intensely uncomfortable scene in Episode 5 which, after all of the shenanigans that came before, nearly breaks the camel's back in regards to the plot, and yet it's completely dropped after a few minutes. It bears mentioning because it's completely unnecessary, much like Coach's treatment of Onee-sama in Gunbuster Episode 5, but somehow even worse in terms of how it's handled. 6/10


Art: My god, my god, this is peak Gainax animation. Gunbuster was a great looking series for its time that also had major budget issues near the end - not to mention that the last two episodes of that series were completely unplanned at the beginning. By contrast Gainax pulled out all the stops for Diebuster. I've seen some people complain about the piloting outfits and how the FLCL-esque art design is less appealing to them than Gainax's other series, but I really like it because despite how goofy it looks it adds some visual character that Gunbuster lacked. And even compared to End of Evangelion the animation is unparalleled to the rest of Gainax's work. If there is a single saving grace to this series, it is the animation quality and the action sequences. 9/10


Sound: The best part of the sound design in Diebuster is definitely the soundtrack, as well as the OP and ED. Both the OP and ED are really enjoyable and add an upbeat tone to the series that it really needs to keep from being bogged down in melodrama. I've seen some critique of those compared to Gunbuster but I enjoy the funky 2000s J-Pop tone more than the 80s cheese of Gunbuster, as fun as it is. The orchestral score is also very good, if somewhat unmemorable compared to other Gainax scores. The references they make in the score to that of Gunbuster are also a lot more subtle and feel a lot less pandering than many of the more direct references they make in other ways. 8/10


Character: Everything else aside, this is probably the weakest aspect of the series. Nono is... somehow even more one-dimensional than Noriko. She's constantly upbeat and peppy, and so absent-minded and dumb most of the time that you seriously question whether she has the mental capacity of a child, which is entirely possible considering what we find out about her at the end of the first episode. What makes that uncomfortable is how *constantly* sexualized and ogled Nono is because she's admittedly really physically attractive, despite her simple-mindedness. Through the first few episodes she's treated as both the buttmonkey for slapstick gags and also a walking sex object who is constantly ogled by both the camera and her male teammates. I'll come back to this in the "Enjoyment" section, but the fanservice and her sexualization in general constantly pull you out from the enjoyment of the series. Not to mention her sudden character development in Episode 4 is jarring and her total change in personality doesn't seem to make any logical sense. With Noriko you can follow her character development, and Simon in TTGL is, for all his annoyance as a character early on, developed quite well. Nono by contrast does not have a "middle" to her development - only a "beginning" and "end."

Lal'C is an OK character in the sense that she probably should have had a lot more focus and even been the MC since Nono really turns out to be more of a plot device than anything. We don't know too much about her and her development is basically becoming more confident in herself and more independent, and also growing closer to Nono for some reason that's not really developed enough. Her relationship with Nicola is also barely touched on and doesn't quite fit with the rest of her character development, especially when you consider *that scene* in Episode 5 where she not only reveals how obsessed she apparently has been with Nicola, but also how warped her relationship with Nono is. It doesn't fit in at all and it's really uncomfortable.

The rest of the characters get at most a single episode of development - Tycho gets a very, very NGE-esque Episode 3 to cover her backstory and dislike of Nono, which is resolved at the end. She never gets any significant character moments after that. Nicola doesn't even get that - he gets like two scenes early in the series, and then that horrifying scene in Episode 5 which makes him utterly unredeemable and is not earned because we barely know the guy, not that it would fix that part at all. Gunbuster spent even less time on its side characters but that wasn't too big of a deal because they essentially did not matter. Here they really want you to care about the whole cast and they don't develop the two leads enough to make up for the poor characterization of the side characters. 5/10


Enjoyment: Let's get this out of the way - once again, the action is incredible and gorgeous. That's kind of a given for a Gainax mecha series but imo the action here is even better than the best parts of Gurren Lagann. All of the high ratings on this series are essentially all due to this.

However, the fanservice and sexual content in general is handled about as clumsily as any Gainax series, including their ecchi series. I want to briefly discuss this because a lot of people will say "YOU JUST HATE FANSERVICE" and that's not true in the sense that 9 times out of 10, it does not bother me much. But it's worth comparing the way Diebuster handles sexual content compared to three other somewhat related works: Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise; Gunbuster; and Kill la Kill.

In Gunbuster, as alluded to before, the fanservice is there, but it's almost comedic and relegated to scenes like those in the shared bath, aside from the famous moment at the end which is not really necessary but not really that bad. For the most part, you can laugh at it. Kill la Kill was created by many Gainax veterans who worked on Diebuster too, but the sexual content is directly part of the story and themes, and again, is so ludicrous that it passes beyond fanservice into comedy and almost satire.

In Diebuster, the first few episodes are filled with almost *constant* ogling of Nono from both the camera and the male characters. It's even more awkward because Nono is so oblivious that again, it almost feels like she has the maturity of a kid. It's so ridiculously unnecessary that it feels like they weren't confidant that younger otaku who didn't grow up with Gunbuster would enjoy this series without copious reminders that tits and asses exist. Even Lal'C is not exempt because right at the *climax of the series* there is a brief scene which is completely unnecessary yet apparently warrants full nudity.

If you want T&A in your mecha show - make it about that! Why does it need to be sprinkled in everywhere, yet they try to ignore that it's there? And again, there's that scene in Episode 5 which is just the worst example of Gainax inserting intensely uncomfortable scenes which are not necessary at all and are completely glossed over after a few minutes. There's a similar scene all the way in their first major work, Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise, which in some ways is worse because you're supposed to feel bad FOR THE GUY because "oh gee wiz I sure feel bad for doing that," and yet at least Gainax doesn't try to ignore that it happened. In Diebuster it involves a character we barely know and aside from the intensely uncomfortable reaction Lal'C has, it basically affects nothing else in the story aside creating a rift between Nono and Lal'C.

I spend so much time on this because it's so common of a problem in classic Gainax works and yet if it's not ignored by their fans, it's dismissed as a problem at all. Without those aspects this series would be one long joyride, but with it you are constantly pulled out from fully enjoying what's going on. 7/10


Overall: I fluctuate between a 6 and a 7 on this one because it's got some incredible aspects that are marred by: really sloppy execution of the story and character elements around the action; somewhat forced callbacks to Gunbuster that don't really come from anywhere; and the weird, exploitative fanservice treatment of Nono in particular and to a lesser extent Lal'C. I'm rather glad that the last few years of the Gainax glory days were led by Imaishi and the team that would create Studio Trigger because it seems they had a much, much better handle on how to manage these aspects than Anno and previous Gainax creative leads had. 7/10

Diebuster (Gunbuster/Aim for the Top 2) is the perfect sequel anime. In this age of unnecessary sequels that capitalize on the original for the sake of nostalgia-baiting its fanbase, Diebuster 2 is both an oasis in the desert and a masterclass in how to do a sequel right.

So many people say that Diebuster can't beat the original and I agree. It doesn't beat it. It embraces it. It elevates it. It champions it. And that's why I personally think Diebuster is one of the best anime sequels out there. It succeeds precisely because the original was already so amazing. To say that one is better ... than the other is simply doing both a disservice.

To elaborate, Diebuster expertly expands on the mythos of the original series while being 100% respectful to the original material. The older characters don't need any more development because their stories are already finished! So many sequel projects fail to realize this simple fact. No, we don't need Noriko to suddenly become all angsty. Why risk altering fans' perceptions of a character that is already well-loved and well-established? Instead, Diebuster is able to please fans by keeping the same tone and feel while remaining fresh by embracing new characters and ideas.

Speaking of ideas, Diebuster does take its time with the reveals. However, once the pieces start falling into place, no Gunbuster fan will be able to resist grinning from ear to ear. Diebuster is not only logically consistent with the original series, everything makes perfect sense once everything is revealed.

Now, let's talk about that ending. That ending is one of the most brilliant endings in anime sequel history. Suffice to say that it encapsulates everything good about this series I've mentioned thus far in one simple scene.

All in all, Diebuster is a phenomenal sequel anime. While I'd say that your ability to enjoy it fully is predicated on having seen and enjoyed the original series, it doesn't contain blatant yet esoteric fanservice for the express purpose of preying on fans' collective nostalgia. Neither does the series retread the original nor does it disrespect it. Both series complement each other perfectly, with Gunbuster being Diebuster's loving onee-sama.

Top wo Nerae 2! or Diebuster, or Gunbuster 2, or Reach for the Top 2! is a mid 2000s mecha anime by Studio Gainax, well known for producing Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and also other shows which I haven't seen.

I have however seen Gunbuster, and it was better than Diebuster.

That's the entire review. Watch Gunbuster instead.

Kidding.

Diebuster is a very average mecha anime, at least in my eyes. Let's start with the good.

... The art has some very good moments, especially in the later episodes, though character designs fall a little flat for me.

Sound is fine- nothing is especially memorable, and the OP and ending are... fine?

When we get to character and plot, that's where things start to fall apart for me. Plot-wise, this does not feel like a sequel to Gunbuster. So much has changed over the past TWELVE THOUSAND YEARS, yet in fact almost nothing is different. People still speak the same language, eat the same food, pilot very similar robots... for a sequel to a show that spent a large amount of time focused on hard science like time dilation, to see so little change is a little jarring.

Diebuster seems a lot more like a proto-Gurren Lagann than a sequel to the hard-sciencey Gunbuster, and, while that's not a bad thing (given how good I consider TTGL), it still strikes me as odd. Me and the friend I watched this with spent a lot of time trying to figure out how Diebuster was connected to Gunbuster (spoilers, it's almost entirely DISconnected), rather than enjoying the plot for its own merits.

That said, the plot still made some sense, and led to some epic scenes. The same cannot be said about the characters.

Our main—Nono—is a bland, ditzy, dumb, blonde. She has very little development (at least that I saw), until the last two episodes.

Our other main—Lal'c—is somehow even less likeable. Stoic, cold, good pilot... that's about all the character traits I can remember.

Supporting cast-wise, we have some sparse pickings. None of them are especially memorable, barring Tycho (because of her name), and Nicolas, who only is memorable because he literally is an attempted rapist... and nobody cares, given how he's in military command a few months later.

Final thoughts: don't watch Diebuster if you're looking for more Gunbuster, and most everything in Diebuster (Hard Work & Guts!, characters, fights, plot), is done better in TTGL. And if not, than in NGE or Gunbuster.

Story: 3
Art: 8
Sound: 6
Character: 3
Enjoyment: 4
Overall: 6
(disregard how that averages to a 5 thanks)

Diebuster serves as a sequel to Gainax’s classic mecha series, Gunbuster, that is set thousands of years following the events of Gunbuster. Focused on a seemingly clutzy teenage girl named Nono, she aspires to become a space pilot and comes to idolize Lal’C Mellk Mal, a girl around Nono’s age who is the pilot of the Buster Machine mecha known as Dix-Neuf. Lal’C is part of the Fraternity, a group of teen mecha pilots called Topless who each have their own Buster Machines used to combat a mysterious space monster threatening humanity’s expansion into space. As Nono interacts with Lal’C and the Fraternity, she comes ... to realize some truths about herself that make her realize she isn’t an ordinary girl.

Suppose one thing I should get out of the way with covering Diebuster is the many nods it makes to Gunbuster. Without spoiling too much of Diebuster’s developments, Nono and Lal’C’s characters and their relationship parallel those of Noriko and Kazumi from the original series, while also sporting the same type of mecha to combat the alien threats that threaten Earth. Both titles also carry similar themes and storytelling elements involving coming-of-age and sacrifice in regards to the main conflict of their respective titles.

The results of these Gunbuster nods do have their pros and cons throughout Diebuster. On the one hand, the character dynamics with Nono and Lal’C play out differently from Noriko and Kazumi’s to give the former’s relationship some more uniqueness and create some differing developments with their characters. Plus, there’s a good deal of spectacle in seeing the mecha action as Buster Machines to combat the alien enemy with the fights being nicely animated and having a good deal of visual detail depicted. Nono’s character serves as a fun homage of sorts to old-school mecha anime in Diebuster’s second half when she takes on a more active role to combat the aliens.

Spectacle aside though, Diebuster does have some major issues when it comes to areas of its storytelling. It attempts to have a larger scale to its plot compared to Gunbuster, though this falls flat in a number of areas. The series attempts to dabble into developments befalling a couple of Lal’C’s fellow Topless, but their developments aren’t as engaging to see develop compared to Lal’C and Nono. There are a decent number of plot elements that Diebuster doesn’t dabble too deeply into such as Nono’s origins before being found and why humanity seems prejudiced against the Topless. The second half of the series also becomes a bit hard to follow with the scientific jargon discussed with the alien threat and the rather ambiguous fate of one major character when the conflict is resolved. In short, Diebuster’s storytelling didn’t feel as cohesive compared to Gunbuster as it seemed to be doing a bit too much at a number of points within its 6-episode runtime.

If you can look past Diebuster’s storytelling issues, it still retains the over-the-top spectacle of mecha action and charming character chemistry of its two female leads found from Gunbuster. Mecha fans just wanting to see this for the action spectacle and Gainax’s signature fan service should still get a treat out of Diebuster in spite of its faults.

Diebuster is also known as Gunbuster 2 - positioning itself as a sequel to the 1988 OVA series, Gunbuster, Gainax's first big hit. Indeed, it was produced as a 15th anniversary project for that series. Expect spoilers for Gunbuster - you should watch that first (it's better, anyway) - as well as minor spoilers for Diebuster itself.

Story (4/10): Set about a decade before the last scene of episode 6 of Gunbuster (and thus some 12,000 years after episode 1), Diebuster follows a robot with a profound connection to a character from Gunbuster (if you've seen that, you will know immediately who this is); more on ... this in the Characters section. The long and short of it is that it's not great. Diebuster fails at one of the guiding principles of storytelling - show, don't tell. I'd wager a good 30% of screentime is devoted to exposition, and you still can't tell what's going on. Not an Evangelion-style "this is too deep for me" confusion, mind, but a "no, really, what the hell is happening?".
Many of the story beats are nods to Gunbuster, but rather than provoking a response of "Oh, I remember that from the original! Cool!", it only serves to draw attention to the fact that all of those story beats are better-explored in the series' older sibling. This is perhaps Diebuster's greatest flaw: it cannot escape from the shadow of its own "onee-sama". Gone is the hard sci-fi; the somber exploration of the effects of temporal relativity and time dilation, the detailed shots of the various engines, lasers, and mechanisms. In their place is a superhero story, stripped of any ingenuity, and playing fast-and-loose with the laws of physics (this isn't a bad thing - I love Gurren Lagann for this very reason - but it doesn't scream "Gunbuster"). I feel like it would have been better as a standalone OVA series - I spent much of my time trying and failing to connect the relevancy of events in Diebuster to those in Gunbuster.

Art (8/10): It's Gainax. Diebuster is a feast for the eyes, especially with regards to its action scenes. Other than the design of the space monsters (the late-80s Giger-esque style works much better than the early 2000s pastel) and the character designs (bland and uninspired), I think it can safely be said that this is the only area of improvement over the 1988 series.

Sound (5/10): This movie came out in 2003, sandwiched between FLCL (2000) and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007), two series renowned for their memorable, catchy, and enjoyable soundtracks. Diebuster gives you generic ominous drum pieces and heroic orchestral music. In other words, it fails to take any risks with its sound design, and the music fails to meet the hype of the art.

Character (3/10): As far as personalities go, none of the characters in Diebuster have a lasting impact, instead reflecting the same archetypes you'd find in any early 2000s anime. When compared to the likes of Kamina, Haruko, or Shinji, they have all the depth of the paper they were drawn on. Hell, they fail to pass muster even when compared to the tropey, one-note characters in Gunbuster or the *background characters* in Gurren Lagann. There's just nothing there. People complain that Gunbuster's lead is whiny, or poorly fleshed-out. But I raise you this: I was able to immediately connect with her, follow along with her struggles and triumphs, and remember these things after the show was over. The same cannot be said for Nono or Lal'c.
As mentioned in the Art section, the characters are dressed in uninspired costumes in various shades of pastel. I think this works in FLCL - it gives a sense of stagnancy that is central to the idea of "nothing interesting ever happening in this town". It does not work here.

Enjoyment (4/10): This is, as of the time of writing, the only Gainax or Studio Trigger production I have seriously considered dropping halfway through. I can say with a good degree of confidence that if you a) enjoy either studio's work and b) appreciate mecha anime, you will be better served by watching literally any of their other works in the genre - Gunbuster included.

Overall (6/10): Ignore that the above scores average to 5, please and thank you. I can't recommend this show. If you're itching for more Gunbuster, I recommend Space Battleship Yamato, its spin-off Space Pirate Captain Harlock, or Gundam (any of them, really). If you want a high-octane mecha show, watch Gurren Lagann.

I personally really enjoyed watching Top wo Nerae 2!( or otherwise called Diebuster in english ). I've been meaning to watch Diebuster for awhile but it wasn't until this year's Anime Watching Challenge on My Anime List in which I gave myself the chance to watch this show, and I'm really glad that I did.

To give out my thoughts semi-orderly I guess I'll go by the ratings I gave for it by category, first off the Story. WOW, there was a lot of twists, around episodes 3 and 4 it started to feel a little formulaic but by episode 5 that DEFINITELY was not ... the case. The beginning of Diebuster was pretty interesting too helping create a bit more of a gritty atmosphere with Nono being the outlier in the whole galaxy. Though it's really easy to tell just by the synopsis on Diebuster and by my previous sentence this show is very much a science fiction anime. I think this is one of my favorite specifically science fiction anime too. Though that maybe more because of the wonderful ending instead of the first episode. I really do not like the sleazy, perverted, old dude archetype. Just seeing there antics is hard for me as a girl too watch because of weird it is.

The Art of the show very much show's off the current style of the time this was created that being 2003. Very much more " moe " and cute in design for all the characters in the show or at least it shows somewhat through all the designs, a lot more rounded shapes instead of pointed shapes in the character design. That is expect for the Buster Machines and the Antagonists. They show a lot more pointed shapes but there is somewhat of unifying theme due to the environment being so rugged and futuristic.

I can't really accurately gauge how good the soundtrack of Diebuster is because that's not my expertise but I do know that the tracks correctly allowed the viewer to be sucked into the scene plus the opening and ending themes of Diebuster is really good in my opinion my favorite being the opening theme Groovin' Magic and the main reason to why I wanted to watch Diebuster in the first place.

The main characters and supporting cast are incredibly well fleshed out and the only scene that was kind of sexual and showed the development of a character was what Nicola tried to do to Nono, ( which I will not further discuss but I thought it showed his fall from grace beautifully ). Onto Nono she really is the perfect main character for Diebuster, her cheery attitude along with her hardwork and guts help contrast her from her environment while also being a positive influence on characters such as Lal'c and Tycho. I also loved the role switch between Nono and Lal'c during episode 5 and 6 while Nono kept that amount of respect for Lal'c throughout the whole ordeal. Lal'c character arc has to be one of the best in the anime though, she starts off sort of arrogant being the top of her game but at the end thanks to Nono and her circumstances she becomes a more level-headed person and learns that she is more than her powers.

Overall I would recommend this to any anime fan but with warnings about a lot of breasts and some crude humor at the beginning.

I’m not going to pretend like the plot of DieBuster isn’t complete and utter nonsense, but goddamnit I still love it. Just like GunBuster before it, this show embodies many of the qualities that made their respective eras of anime so unique and recognizable and turns them up to 11, making for an exceptionally enjoyable show if you’re into that kind of stuff.

Boasting the now iconic style of modern Gainax, DieBuster’s world is angular, stylish, energetic, and most importantly fun. The protagonist that is Nono exudes exactly the kind of charming stupidity you’d expect from the “lovable clutz”-stereotype, and she absolutely carries the show ... alongside its audiovisual presentation. And while I can’t say much about the rest of the cast of characters, their designs are kind of neat at least, much like all of the machines featured in the show, be that mechas, spaceships, etc…

If there’s one major thing that DieBuster lacks when compared to its predecessor, I think most would agree that it’d be the sometimes genuinely emotional moments. I’m not saying that it doesn’t try with scenes like this (oh it tries alright), but for me, they just don’t land. While I’m sure that some of the few who actually watched this show will disagree with me, the complete lack of groundedness, which most of the time is the show’s biggest strength, also renders me unable to get emotionally invested. It’s not impossible, but it’s goddamn hard to make stories like these and still have the audience take them seriously. Me, I’m fully content with the show just being a really, really dumb and fun time.

7.5 / 10, Gainax better pull their shit together and make Top wo Nerae 3.