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If Neon Genesis
Evangelion was the New Testament, then this is the Old. Many people
saw Evangelion as Hideaki Anno's remake of this, his 1988 six-part
space opera about cute girls and giant robots. Justifiably famous
for pioneering the "jiggle" effect beloved of many ecchi
anime producers, there is far more to Gunbuster than that.
Noriko Takaya is the orphaned daughter of a famous space hero, yet
seems to have inherited precisely none of her fathers ability. In
her lessons at school she sends her RX7 robot into a series of patterns
more closely resembling a breakdancer after the eighth pint than accepted
military manoeuvres. Yet Coach Ota, who fought with Noriko's father
against the alien invaders, senses potential within her and teams
her up with the number one pilot, "big sister" Kasumi Amano,
to pilot the Gunbuster, mankind's last hope.
As the series progresses Noriko matures rapidly, watching her classmates
grow old while she stays young due to the effects of lightspeed travel,
and finding someone to love only for tragedy to strike.
Kasumi meanwhile develops a keen, but friendly rivalry with another
top pilot, Jung Freud (and this was before Anno's famous four year
break, remember ;)
Naturally an anime made in 1988 is showing its age stylistically by
now, but Gainax did a beautiful job, a perfect example of script,
animation, music and subtitling in perfect harmony. There are so many
nice touches, like the science paper being scrolled across the screen
whilst a karaoke competition is held in the background, and the short
pseudo-science lessons delivered by SD versions of Noriko, Kasumi
and Ota at the end of each episode. The monochrome widescreen finale
still has me welling up every time I watch it, and I've seen it a
LOT. Surpassing even Evangelion in my opinion, Gunbuster is nothing
short of fabulous.
10/10
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Anno revisited his teens in battlesuits formula again with Neon Genesis
Evangelion. Once more the emphasis was angst, conspiracy and world
changing events.