Gunbuster is about a klutzy, young girl by the name of Noriko Takaya, who is trying to become a pilot of one of the machine weapons (giant robots) that protect the Sol System from a Space Monster invasion. She gets teamed up with another girl, Kazumi Amano, whom she admires, and they begin training missions in space. During one of the missions, Noriko and Kazumi are sent to investigate a strange ship, which ends up being the same lost ship Noriko's father, Admiral Takaya, was on. From this point, the story takes a heavy emotional turn which stays constant through the final battle when she pilots the Gunbuster.
Kids piloting mechs. Sound familiar? Of course it does, but Gunbuster is special. The themes of time, love, and friendship end up being the focal point in this giant mech movie. Giant mechs and emotional story themes don't sound like a great combination, but it works in the best way.
Even though Gunbuster was made in the 1980's, you won't be bothered due to how high quality and details. Also, this movie actually addressed the time differential caused when scenes moved at extremely high speeds. It moves the story along and serves to create feelings of sympathy for the characters involved.
12,000 years later, and we have Diebuster. Right away, you'll notice the difference in the animation. It's brighter, more digitized, fluid, and clean. Although the animation is different between Gunbuster and Diebuster, the stories are quite similar. In Diebuster, Nono--also a klutz-- flees from home in order to become a space pilot. A space monster’s attack introduces Nono to Lal'C, who is known as a Topless, elite fighting units and pilots of the Buster Machines. Lal'C rescues Nono, and Nono joins the Fraternity as a trainee. During the rescue we find out Nono isn't quite what she seems...
The movies of Gunbuster and Diebuster have only a few instances where I found myself confused about something due to content being cut to make the series fit into a movie format. The creators of the movies ultimately ended up making a really good final cut for both movies. The animations look beautiful and clean thanks to the 1080p HD support of the Blu-Ray. The voiceover for the original Gunbuster has been completely re-recorded using the original voice talent in 5.1ch sound. The sound in both movies is excellent, and there should be no complaints from fans and newbies alike. The 5.1ch audio for the first movie also gives old fans a chance to experience the series in a new way.
The limited edition box has artwork from both movies featured on it. Inside each case is an 8-page color booklet, detailing the Gunbuster universe in Japanese, and a foldout with the translation of the booklets in English and French. Also included in the set is a bonus disc that includes interviews with the original voice talent about their experience re-recording their lines, and what they thought about the series being cut into a full-theatrical movie. Many of the interviews will be genuinely interesting if you're interested in the voice-over world, or are a fan of the series.
However, this limited edition release has a few problems. I don't speak Japanese, and I was a little perplexed as to why the only option available was Japanese dub with English subtitles. I was willing to look past the lack of English dub, once I noticed there were commentary tracks available, and was excited to hear insider commentary on the two movies. I was disappointed to find they never bothered to subtitle the commentary. If you speak Japanese, this provides a good opportunity to practice. For the rest of us, we can always pretend to know what's being said.
Aside from the bonus disc--which includes a 30 minute chunk that isn't subtitled either--there is no bonus content to be found. Commentary, character bios, outtakes, and director's cuts are all absent from these discs. It's Blu-Ray! They could fit 50GB of content onto these! I'm fairly convinced that all three discs included in the box set could have been released on one disc with room to spare. I guess it's a way to justify the price, and to allow Bandai Visual to release the movies by themselves. Cha-Ching…
Bottom line: B
Anime 3000 reviews anime, manga, and games based on specific criteria designated by each medium's respective editor. Anime is reviewed on a scale from F to A+. Series or movies that receive a score of A- or above are considered outstanding, B- to B+ recommendable, C- to C+ average, D- to D+ unrecommended, and F terrible.
All in all: The quality of the movies far outweigh the quality of this boxset release.
Did you know? That each of these movies alone would receive an A.
