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| @Optigisa Thanks for the answer. My excuses for not noticing your two subsequent texts. I wish you a better good time with other GAINAX's works. Optigisa said: 6 is not a bad score. Idem. ^^ @Zero_sama Diebuster is not a sequel. (it's something else plus a way to release a nicely produced OAV series while capitalizing on Gunbuste's name) |
Rei_IIIDec 26, 2019 2:07 AM
Rei366 said: @Optigisa Thanks for the answer. My excuses for not noticing your two subsequent texts. I wish you a better good time with other GAINAX's works. I like Evangelion hehe. To me, 6 is not a bad score. |
| I guess that was all right. I definitely expected more from the show that supposedly put Gainax on the map, but for what it turned out to be it was at least somewhat enjoyable. Peak enjoyment was from the first episode, which was just hilarious, but the more I watched the more and more apparent the various flaws and mistakes of this show became. The story was almost completely incoherent, with there being three episodes in a row that felt like the "last episode." I'm not a physician, so I can't comment on the accuracy or legitimacy of these ideas, but they still felt ridiculous (not docking the anime for this though; it's fucking anime, it always has been and always will be hilariously ridiculous). The characters weren't too good either, with not a single stand out character. Coachie was kind of cool, I guess, but I give that more to Wakamoto's awesome voice acting. The main two girls were just annoying. Animation was fine, good for the time, obviously doesn't still hold up. Same with the soundtrack. TLDR: Okay show, wouldn't rewatch it but I enjoyed watching it to understand its historical significance. 6/10. |
| They obviously ran short of budget for the last episode. It wasn't just artistic decision. But overall this was really good for 1988-89. I can tell some of later mecha animes got inspiration from this. Bittersweet ending. I did see that coming, but damn, 12 thousand years. |
Switch_ZNov 22, 2019 1:56 PM
ArnoldK said: Bladecatcher said: Epic ending. Next up, Diebuster. So did they have a budget problem, you know with he black and white and skipping the battles. No. In this case it was a purely artistic decision. They actually painted the cels in shades of gray rather that painting them in color and using black and white film. But it's much easier/faster to paint in grayscale than full colors. |
ChronosXIII said: Lol...I thought the black-and-white had significance till the supposed "Epic fight for survival." After watching the still image-like animations, I realized it must have been budget problems... Not only that, some cels weren't completely painted. |
| Very good series. BUT I am one of those that believe that there was some budget problems. This budget issue kinda reminds me of Giant Robo. Gotta say at least we got something, better than nothing, but feels also like it could have ended perfectly in episode 5. damn 12,000 years?? that's a lot of time, a LOT. Onto Diebuster to see what happens then... |
| I was really hyped up for episode 6 after the greatness that was episode 5, but I was kind of left hanging. The final battle felt waaaay too rushed. Imo the final episode would've been better off being a 45 minute special. Despite the episode's flaws, I still teared up at the "Sorry Kimiko, I'll never see you again!" line, and Welcome Homɘ scene. I knew how it would end, years before I even watched the OVA, but it still hit me like a brick wall. |
| Disgusting they really went and destroyed half the galaxy and got away with it. This is the highest level of plot armor and enemy incompetency i have seen. |
| I don't understand the praise for this show at all. The first MC is a crying coward for most of the show and only gets a spine when its too late for me to care at all about her character. The other acts like a bitch and falls in love with her teacher which is not only creepy but cliche as well. Besides all that there isn't enough time to let characters and the plot breathe so I really did not feel any kind of emotional weight to anything going on, just irritation at Noriko crying again. Last episode could have saved the show somewhat but I guess the budget went downhill, with all those still shots of a "battle". Last couple of min should have had the most emotional impact and managed a little but the show didn't earn it. Not to mention I dont' see how they could have tricked the girls to at first thinking the planet was dead. After 12000 years there is no space infrastructure around the planet at all? No signs of activity that even turning the power off couldn't hide? Absurd. |
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| Wow, such a bittersweet ending... It feels weird to think about how literally everyone aside from Noriko and Kasumi is now dead. This last episode was truly great ! It helped me understand better why people consider this show to be a masterpiece. However, the rest wasn't that amazing... The development was sometimes way too rushed. At least Noriko and Kasumi considerably grew, I liked that ! And one of my favorite aspects definitely was the whole thing about time in space. It's been handled a very interesting way. I give this show an 8, would've pribably given it a 9 if every episode was as good as this one but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Still a very good experience, it's not a show I'll forget ! |
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| This second arc of finally finishing off the space monsters really takes the super robot and cosmic horror levels up to 11. The ridiculousness of a black hole bomb (so they said the project cost them 3 planets or something, did they actually move the planet jupiter wow) But there is visible fear in some characters that they and humanity might not make it. Even though time moved slowly for Noriko, I can tell she has matured. More anime should deal with time dilation. They also have a cable car that takes them up into orbit on a sloped line, as opposed to a vertical elevator seen in other sci-fi. 2023 Rewatch in Dub: I notice British accents in the background chapter. Jung Freud drops some casual Russian speech here and there. A lot of imagery inspired in future Anno and Gainax works like the immense pressure crushing Freud's mech reminds of Magma Diver. |
Fortress_MaximusAug 25, 2023 2:38 PM
 Novels I have read/am reading pending approval: since November 10 2022 |
| Can someone please explain what the dolphin and pyramids are about? |
Novels I have read/am reading pending approval: since November 10 2022 |
| Well that's how it ends huh. This show definitely needed a higher episode count. The show had potential, and for me a higher ep count could've helped smooth over some character development, make me feel for the characters. Can't say I liked the 'artistic' choice to make it fully black and white. I mean the text for locations often blended in with the background. This indicates to me that they intended for it to be in colour. Regardless of that, the finale was supposed to be emotional, but for me it just didn't click, and that is obviously a shame. Overall tho, the art still looks decent for something made in 1988; animation not so much; story was pretty poor; characters were annoying throughout, and the soundtrack was possible the best part. |
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| Ending was very good, not too often you get a bittersweet kind of ending. The black and white artistic choice was neat too. I'm not particularly a mecha fan tho so the series in general didn't do too much for me. I will say that the art style was absolutely beautiful and Noriko struggling that everyone around her was growing old was sad to see unfold. Otherwise a lot of it was just "okay" to me. Decent series overall. |
| I'd say there's only about a handful of better anime at the time of it's release. I dare someone to name 10 better anime before this came out. Bonus points if you don't mention any Ghibli production. |
| The black and white style was really nice. I really enjoyed it. The battle part itself was rushed and just a handful of sketches. I realise they painted all the cells in grey but the "battle" was just a collection of sketches they put together. All in all, I don't care for this series. I'm not a huge fan of Gainax anyway and this didn't impress that much. Credit where it is due, I do like that they leaned into hard science. The characters weren't interesting to me and neither was the story. 5/10 |
| Jeez... what a feels trip at the end, that got me a bit teary eyed... I had a real nice time with this one, but it wasn't quite as full as I was anticipating. I Hope Diebuster takes it even further. |
| 𝘼 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙡 𝙙𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 |
| I don't know if it's an issue of budget or if they just wanted to do it for the art but either way the black and white was pretty jaring. It could have been fine for a while but the entire episode, beuh. The final battle is pretty much a black and white blob, and the plot has a sudden 15 years timeskip since ep5. It clearly shows they hadn't planned the last two epis in advance. All in all, I found it pretty boring. |
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| Stupid, illogical, full of cliche elements, but still somehow soulful... Unfortunately, I can't give it more than 5, Gunbuster is just too generic. |
ZevvenDec 22, 2021 7:35 AM
| I hate everyone equally |
| well fuck, that was whack. Anno really set his precedent for throwing together weird endings with this one, even if I did love the finale of eva. At least he learned from this and went on to make the greatest anime ever created |
| I went in expecting an highly influential and iconic mecha anime, full of 80s shenenigans, hype moments, technologically detailed frames and the utterly iconic stylistic mark of Gainax and Anno. I 100% got that but holy hell how much more there was |
| Yep. I can very safely say that this wasn’t for me, which is kind of concerning cus I picked this up wanting to see how Kazuya Tsurumaki’s work on Diebuster fares (I’m currently going through my third bout of FLCL mania and finally decided to delve into something else of his). At the bottom line I was hoping that there would be some intriguing sci-fi concepts and alright mecha battles, though the pacing on each of the episodes is super bizarre. It’s simultaneously too abrupt in how it introduces the focus of each episode and facilitates its character development, yet is also way too fucking slow in how it builds to those points. I can only wonder how much of this show is actually comprised of completely dead air where nothing of interest or consequence happens because I can honestly swear that it was pretty much all of it. I never managed to wrap my head around the whole time dilation thing (especially since the distance and speed the characters move at is never really specified), though there’s a lot of potential in the idea that goes unexplored here. I particularly like how it was framed by Noriko as the true motive for wiping out the alien species as well as how Noriko and Kazumi gave away their current lives in order to fight for that cause in this episode. I doubt it would seriously change my perception of this if it were emphasised more, though it’d probably elevate it. |
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| Great ending. This was a good series. There were some flaws, probably because some storytelling methods didn't age well. But man, Anno really knows how to bring out the cinematic side to anime. Great artistic liberties. What a bittersweet ending. Loved this. Overall - 8.3/10. |
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| Another mediocre work by Anno-Gainax, what a pain. At least this one was decent enough to be watchable and didnt tried that hard to be pseudophilosophical like NGE, the plot was very simple and the characters are more acceptable than in NGE, last episode had a suspectful use of black and white and also non-animated scenes, very flawed show but nowhere near the trash that was NGE, I wonder how they retroceded in writting after 7 years. Overall I liked some parts but yet I cant say this was good or decent, 4/10. |
| The first two episodes were, for me, a reference to emotional themes in 1970s cinema - like Rocky. After the third episode, I see that the main theme is permanence in time. what we left as an inheritance, fighting for something that only our grandchildren will enjoy... I saw comments here from people criticizing the "welcome back" as implausible, but for me it was one of the most beautiful and profound things; it certainly wasn't built a week before, but thousands of years before, knowing that they wouldn't live to receive them, preserving the structure... it's a beautiful example of gratitude. |
| I think the ending was good, it was bittersweet with them surviving but returning to an earth filled with unfamiliar people. Don't know why people seem to think the shirt ripping was random though. Sure, it was fan-service, but it's obvious that the Gunbuster reacted to every motion made within the cockpit. Also, the two flying red dots in the credit scene are most likely escape pods as seen in Gundam, not some magical ball like people in this thread are trying to imply. I feel like the black-and-white thing was done because of budget issues too, even though the studio apparently seems to deny that. Sad, considering that all of the other colored episodes looked absolutely fantastic and made it stand out from other space mech anime. Also, maybe I'm misunderstanding this, but how the fuck did they manage 12,000 years without dying of starvation or old age? They were not traveling at the speed of light so I don't see what time dilation had to do with that. |
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| I liked Coach, and the show was a neat concept, similar to eva. |
| Happy that I finally got around to watching this. This last episode sure was interesting being in black and white, I assume it was an artistic choice to show the passage of time. Overall, Despite not being a mecha fan, I enjoyed this OVA series. The ending itself is a happy one; humanity was able to survive and continue living without the alien threat. But at the same time, I found it quite bitter sweet. Noriko and Kazumi, while the heroes of humanity, really suffered a cruel fate. 12,000 years in the future? Would the Japanese language even exist anymore? Would humanity even be the same? Friends, family, and even their home nation are gone. Sure they're alive, but at what cost? Stuff like this kind of sours my overall enjoyment of the story. But it also plays into its themes, so I feel a little conflicted. I think the choice of Noriko as one of the chosen pilots also felt a little contrived. I can understand now why this is considered a landmark in animation and why it put Gainax on the map. The theme of sacrifice, and how far we're willing to go to survive is poignant. The music was wonderful, the animation still looks good even today, and the characters were all great as well. Noriko being the stand out, as she starts as an unsure, clumsy, and inexperienced pilot. But being surrounded by other excellent pilots, she was able to buckle down and work hard to become a great pilot herself. She also developed a lot of confidence as time went on, finally accepting the loss of her father and Smith and using it as strength. Her friendship with Kazumi was also great, especially in the final episode. Despite some of my issues with the ending, I'm glad I watched this. This was the series that put Gainax on the map, and it's the precursor to Evangelion and Fooly and Cooly. It's themes of survival, sacrifice, and willing to do whatever it takes will stay with me. I can also see its influence on the anime industry and beyond. And for that, it has my respect. 8/10 |
| Wow what a way to end this anime. It pretty much ended with a bang literally and figuratively speaking. This was such a cool watch and a bit of a hidden gem this one now when it comes to Gainax’s works everybody will always gravitate either towards Evangelion or Gurren Lagaan when it comes to exceptional series but I feel like Gunbuster doesn’t get enough love here and it clearly shows there’s a lot of passion put into the animation, the story, the characters and you can easily see where the cast of the two animes I’ve mentioned get their influences from later down the line and I feel Gunbuster helped put them on the map. So great moments throughout this whole thing. For a short anime, it really did surprise me on how good it would be and Noriko just kept on growing and growing as a main protagonist for me. By the end I was just rooting for her until the final battle came up. I feel the ending was very bittersweet I feel and very beautiful as well. They manage to reach earth again but by 12,000 years in the future, man. I did struggle to give this anime OVA a score but I figure because it’s been such a thrill from start to finish, I’ll give it a 9/10. It was that good for me. |
| What a spectacular finale!!! This is the kind of artistry I expected out of something that has endured for so long :') Bravo Gainax. Incredible work. |
| I have to say this: with each and every episode, this series seemed to mature, to grow up. By the end, it felt as if it had really gone out in space and returned: only six episodes, but the final one felt like it was ages apart from the first. These last couple of episodes (and especially the last) managed to convey perfectly, in my opinion, this eerie vastness of space - of which we are but a tiny speck. And I understood this: the main theme of the series is not the battle against the aliens - it's time. The passage of time, the way it affects our relationships with our loved ones and our personal growth. And deep in the vastness of space, time shows its true form. Noriko and Kazumi managed to return to earth... but 12.000 years have passed. It's almost inconceivable, as a thought - to know that your loved ones lived thousands of years ago. But... the people of earth remember them. And they still have each other. So, I guess it's a "happy ending" with a twist of melancholy - an outstanding ending, I'd say. All in all, I'm really glad I got to watch this! And if we think of its influence... then we can say for certain that this is, truly, an iconic series! |
| I really love the pioneering ideas of early anime. A black hole bomb! The black and white color is gorgeous -- especially with the space background. It's a bittersweet story but all the sacrifice wasn't for nought. |
| MAN THIS GAINAX GUYS WANT ME TO CRYING LIKE A BABY.....sniff,sniff......I GUESS....THAT IS HAPPENING, RIGHT NOW..... |
| BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH |
| Loved the last three episodes, and I think this finale was the highest possible note for a mini-series that didn't quite connect the emotional dots too much till it found its one, yet very poignant and melancholic trick: exploring the consequences of light-speed space travelling and the varying perception of time. It is something that I don't think belongs fully to what Gunbuster was originally; anyway, not that I mind: it's better. The series is still very enjoyable as a whole and Noriko was a lovely lead, but I much preferred the sadness and eeriness of its latter half to the zero to hero journey of the former, which I didn't find particularly well narrated. If there is something that never faltered though, that would be the production values; it looks consistenty amazing throughout and is filled with an energy that is present in both the fun and the solemn equally. This last episode is a bit more of the endlessly enjoyable experimental mess that I think Anno would be more well-known for in the more conflicting circumstances of the Evangelion production, which I personally love and consolidates it as something that feels absolutely like a passion project. |
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