Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster (Gunbuster 2)

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

English: Gunbuster 2

Synonyms: Aim for the Top! 2, DieBuster

Japanese: トップをねらえ2！DIEBUSTER

Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 6

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 3, 2004 to Aug 25, 2006

Producers: Bandai Visual

Licensors: Discotek Media, Bandai Visual USA

Studios: Gainax

Source: Original

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Space, Comedy, Drama, Mecha

Duration: 30 min. per ep.

Rating: R+ - Mild Nudity

Statistics

Score: 7.67¹ (scored by 30,567 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1097²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1907

Members: 65,157

Favorites: 822

7.67

Ranked #1097Popularity #1907Members 65,157

OVAGainax

Add to List

Episodes: /6

* Your list is public by default.

Edit

Synopsis

Generations have passed since the war with the Space Monsters started, and none remain who know how it began, with even records of those times being scarce. It is a lost cause, but humanity still fights against them, relying on the "Topless": a group of elite space pilots with special powers that allow them to use the Buster Machines—the last hope against the Space Monsters.

Nono, a girl from a remote Martian town, has heard tales all her life of the legendary pilot "Nono-Riri," and wants nothing more than to leave her humble life behind and follow in the footsteps of her idol. Though she has no idea of the dangers that lie ahead, nothing will stop her from achieving her dream. While Nono is down on her luck, she chances upon the lonesome Topless pilot Lal'C Melk Mark, and decides to stake her entire future on following Lal'C, no matter the cost.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Episode Videos

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Top wo Nerae 2!, Top wo Nerae! Next Generation
Prequel:	Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster
Alternative version:	Top wo Nerae! & Top wo Nerae 2! Gattai Movie!!
Other:	Top wo Nerae 2! Kagaku Kouza
Sequel:	Top wo Nerae 3!

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Nono

Main

Fukui, Yukari
Japanese

Melk Mark, Lal'C

Main

Sakamoto, Maaya
Japanese

Science, Tycho

Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Vacheron, Nicola

Supporting

Iwata, Mitsuo
Japanese

Takashiro, Casio

Supporting

Yamazaki, Takumi
Japanese

Hatori

Supporting

Umezu, Hideyuki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tsurumaki, Kazuya

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Planning, Key Animation

Nakano, Tooru

Sound Director

Nishigori, Atsushi

Episode Director, Animation Director, Key Animation, Assistant Animation Director

Ootsuka, Masahiko

Episode Director, Assistant Director

Edit

Opening Theme

"Groovin' Magic" by ROUND TABLE featuring Nino (eps 2-5)

Edit

Ending Theme

#1: "Hoshikuzu Namida" by ACKO (eps 1-5)
#2: "Tatsu Tori Ato wo Nigosazu" by Kouhei Tanaka (ep 6)

More reviews

Reviews

Oct 27, 2009

6 of 6 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

Archaeon (All reviews)

237 people found this review helpful

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 read more

permalink | report

Dec 12, 2007

6 of 6 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Karura (All reviews)

166 people found this review helpful

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.

Helpful

permalink | report

May 18, 2018

6 of 6 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

CodeBlazeFate (All reviews)

63 people found this review helpful

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!

Helpful

permalink | report

Jan 18, 2008

6 of 6 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 8

Brian333 (All reviews)

66 people found this review helpful

Seeing how Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is finally coming to the states in the form of licensed DVD releases, I thought I might take the time to write a bit about the anime that preceded and fathered the style and feel of TTGL, Top wo Nerae 2.

Being a fan of the genre, GAINAX, and the crew of people within that animation studio that worked on this project, Top wo Nerae 2 has always been one of my personal favorites despite its relative lack of fame when compared to some other works from the same people. Despite its anonymity, it's still easily one read more

permalink | report

More news

Recent News

Studio Gaina Announces Four New Projects

The official website for Studio Gaina has announced four new projects. The projects are Aoki Uru, which has been in production since 2013, a new series in the Top w...read more

Sep 7, 2018 3:50 AM by tsubasalover | Discuss (29 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

	Poll: Top wo Nerae! 2 Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) MK - Aug 12, 2008	137 replies	by boubaIssa »» Jul 24, 2020 12:18 AM
	Poll: Top wo Nerae! 2 Episode 5 Discussion Veethorn - May 15, 2010	26 replies	by boubaIssa »» Jul 23, 2020 8:18 AM

Recent Featured Articles

Top wo Nerae!: Gainax's Precursor to Evangelion and Gurren Lagann

Gunbuster and Diebuster: Two titles that represent different turning points in Gainax's history and serve as the precursors to their more renowned works, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann. Does the appeal of these OVAs extend beyond their legacy? Let's find out.

by MFA_Community

9,122 views

Spoiler