Gunbuster
Director
Hideaki Anno
Production
Bandai, GAINAX, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
OVA
Running time
6 episodes
Year
1988
Gunbuster UK DVD
By GhostWulf
14th Apr 06 Gunbuster
Single Sided, Dual Layer DVD.
Kiseki Films.
Running Time: 165 mins.
Certificate: PG.
Price: £19.99. Gunbuster is about Noriko Takaya, her father was a captain and is killed when his spaceship is destroyed by aliens which marks a start in a war.
Noriko wants to be a space pilot and follow her father so she goes to an academy, but there's one problem, try as hard as she can she's not doing very well and has trouble controlling the robot trainers although she has only been training for a month because of this the other students laugh at her, but for some odd reason she gets selected by Coach Ota to go into space along with top of the class Kazumi Amano.
Is Noriko selected because father was a captain? Just what does Coach Ota see in her? Gunbuster comes from Gainax and Hideaki Anno, the story is very moving and powerful, it can be light hearted at times especially with the Science Classrooms that appear before episodes which feature super deformed versions of Noriko, Kazumi and Coach Ota, these help explain some of the theories in the series plus also what is happen so it might be worth while watching them. During the course of the story Noriko hardly ages while everyone on Earth does, this is due to the time distortion effect applied by the type of propulsion used to get pilots into battle quickly and shows how this distortion affects people on earth including Noriko's friend Kimiko, this adds another layer to the powerful story this and other events in the series help shape and define Noriko.
There are other characters too in the story despite it being centred around Noriko, all the main characters are well defined and are developed later in the main story. Considering this was made 13 years ago the animation and art and still stands up today although not really impressive they are still very good and there are very few errors and indeed there is only one major one that's stands out really.
On the music side and sound effects again while nothing impressive it fits the animation and story and direction partially well although compositions can get played more than once which isn't bad really, you have to remember that this is a six part OVA. In closing people expecting mecha action may be disappointed as it plays on the story of the central character, her friends and colleagues around her more, you don't even get to see the Gunbuster itself until two thirds of the way into the series, but this doesn't take anything away from a very good anime. The DVD contains all six episodes which is very good value indeed, my complaints are with the DVD transition, its obviously taken directly from video and not even the master at that, because of this it is hard subtitled. DVD Extras: 3 pictures and a review/feature. Rating: 7 / 10
-- GhostWulf 14th Apr 06
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