The story of Top wo Nerae starts during the year 2023 and follows the main protagonist Noriko Takaya, the daughter of Admiral Yuzo Takaya of the Luxion who went missing early in the war. The story is picked up during her training in Okinawa with the desire to become a Gunbuster Pilot. Noriko is seen to have superior physical strength compared to the majority of the students there, however she is awful with technology and is seen by the other pilots as the weak link with no hope of ever becoming a pilot.
Though she was the worst of the lot in controlling the mechs, she worked hard at trying to become her dream, a Gunbuster pilot. (*Spoiler*) This was seen by “Coach” or Kouichirou Oota and against all odds was chosen as a pilot to go into space. This is where the story really begins.
Honestly I think it would be better going into it not knowing much after that portion, so that it adds to the experience.
Story: 8/10
Nowadays a sci-fi mecha series is just seen as another genre, however back when Top wo Nerae (1988) was airing it was a relatively new concept with some of the only other sci-fi mecha series out at that point being Macross and Gundam. As I stated previously it also has heavy influence from scientific theory and how the nature of the technology realistically could make this story plausible. Which again was, and still is an underused concept that I feel should be used more as it makes you more inclined to believe what the story is throwing at you.
Characters: 7/10
Noriko Takaya was a different take on what a main character should be at the time. As the majority of main characters have a sort of air about them that made you instantaneously realise that “Yep, that’s main protagonist-kun”. Noriko, however is different, she acts more like a real human, ex. Getting depressed over the death of another character, which affects her ability in combat. Now aside from Noriko the cast is pretty limited, other characters being: Coach, Kazumi and Jung. The story does do a good job of trying to flesh out the characters but I felt them still a bit lacking aside from Noriko, that may be in part to the fact it is only 6 episodes.
Art: 9/10
The beauty of Gunbuster being produced during the 80s is that every frame of every episode was drawn by hand. This leads to objects having an incredible amount of detail, such as the mechs. By adding more detail to things the viewers become more invested in the technology and how it works, which is something that Gunbuster does a phenomenal job at. Gunbuster has some of the most gorgeous animation of a series that came out before 1990 that I have ever seen.
Music/Sound Design: 8/10
One thing that I can say that I took away from Gunbuster is the OST which plays a heavy role in putting you in the atmosphere of the show. The majority of the music is orchestral type and listening to it during epic scenes just makes the show all the more enjoyable. The same can be said about the sound design as it comes of as very unique in nature compared to modern day mecha, it just feels different.
Overall: 8/10
Personally I enjoyed the series as a whole and would re-watch it if I felt I wanted to, however this is not a show I would recommend to a new viewer of anime in the same sense that you wouldn't give an inexperienced driver the keys to 78 Nissan. You would have to go to the trouble of teaching them how to drive clutch; clutch being the analogy that I’m using for appreciating classic shows in the same sense of appreciating classic cars. #ClutchMasterRace… get it, because race… cars race...never mind. But for those of you that have been around for a while, give it a shot, one episode never hurts right (Unless it's Boku no Pico)?
