The war against the Alien threat rages on. Noriko is at last given control of the
experimental Gunbuster and set loose on the Monsters who killed her
father. But even this powerful new
weapon is not enough to stop the oncoming endless army of creatures determined
to wipe out mankind. In a war that spans
both space and time, Noriko and Kazami must unite in a final desperate ploy
that could mean the end of all life or ultimate victory for Humanity. No price is too high, no cost too great. It’s time for Noriko to finish this fight.
I’ve been mulling over how to start this review for a
good while now.
This is because I have a
very mixed response to the Gunbuster finale and Gunbuster as a whole.
A lot of what worked in the first half works
even better in the second half.
What
didn’t work in the first half is made even worse and then some.
Does that make me love or hate what I just
watched?
Well it’s somewhere in the
middle?
I don’t know, the more I get to
working on this the more I may settle my own feelings as we go.
So, does Gunbuster merit it’s legendary 80s
mecha status or is it a pretty looking dud like the original Bubblegum Crisis?
Let’s start with the good.
Mother of freaking God this Anime is freaking
beautiful.
The sheer size of space
battles and their quality make you wanna watch this on a Planetarium or IMAX
screen just to really get the full effect.
And after half a series of hype, the Gunbuster itself performs as
promised.
It’s such a bad ass mech that
it always launches with its arms folded across it’s chest like saying “The
Champ is here, surrender now.”
If
anything, I wanted to see more of the Gunbuster in action itself outside of its
relatively short skirmishes or screen time.
All of this is matched with an admittedly amazing score that I swear
sounded so much like Eva that it could be Shiro Saigau (a frequent musical
collaborator with Hideaki Anno).
No,
it’s Kohei Tanaka, who also worked on Patlabor and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08
th
MS Team.
His score is sweeping and
beautiful, even during the moments that seem pretty dire for Humanity’s fleets
in space.
Kind of like with the X Movie,
you kind of just want to mute the dialogue and let the pretty pictures and
music do all of the work…cause it kind of does in the end.
I should also note the final episode.
It is about 95% presented in black and white
and still looks absolutely breathtaking.
Now normally I’d complain about this being a cost cutting measure along
with the use of cameras panning over still drawings with action sound effects
bursting all around.
However, I didn’t
mind it this time.
As I’ve said many times
in these two reviews, Gunbuster has a lot of storytelling approaches in common
with Evangelion.
It’s well documented
just how badly Eva’s budget suffered in the back half and yet Anno made it work
wonders.
Again, I don’t think that’s the
case with Gunbusters last episode but it shows how well Anno works with this
Avant Garde approach that really upscales how big the final act of this OVA is,
how much is on the line and how things could go to Hell at any moment.
Lacking color is hardly a detriment here, the
finale is simply stunning.
However, while Gunbuster excels on a visual level, story
wise, there’s a lot to be desired, a lot just straight up wrong and a lot that
could have been made better had Gunbuster been made a different way.
This goes particularly for the constant time
jumping.
It’s not often you see this
presented, being flung across the galaxy at various speeds and dealing with
singularities that make time a bit wonky (aka when time moves slower in one
area compared to another).
Noriko and
Kazami jump across decades during their stint as Humanities saviors but I never
feel like we get enough time for them to let that sink in, on screen at
least.
At one point the pair are spilt
for over 15 years for Kazami but 6 months for Noriko.
Both just kind of run with this as if it’s
the norm but it’s rare we see how much of a toll it takes on them until the
final episode.
If you want a better
example of his time dilation can real screw your mind over, I highly recommend
Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.
The
scene where Matthew McConaughey sees a video message from his kind after being
away from the for 21 years (after an incident that was only hours long for him)
is heartbreaking and incredible piece of scifi storytelling.
It makes me wish that Gunbuster had not been an OVA or
rather it should not have been 6 episodes.
Either extend the format so you can delve more into the psychological
aspects of the war and space travel or shorten it.
I think a good 2 hour movie could be mined
from this rather than just linger on pointless distractions.
Who am I looking at when I say this?
Who do you think?
Freaking COACH OTHA.
So not only is he pushing Noriko to pilot so
he and she can both get revenge for the death of her father (hence why he keeps
sending her out cause she’ll get it eventually?) but apparently he also had a
side romance going on with Kazami.
Let’s
ignore that even with time dilation she’s still a high school student and he’s
an adult with a lot of issues. No, in this case, it comes out of nowhere.
Most of Kazami’s scenes with Coach have been
about her noting how dangerous it is to have Noriko in battle with her when she
isnt ready.
Suddenly, she’s professing
her love for Coach while he spits up blood cause he’s dying but screw that, his
vengeance must be sated, no time for love.
Personally, Kazami spends more time with Noriko and has a far better,
healthier relationship with her that I wish Gunbuster had made them a couple.
Heck make her and Jung a couple.
They both apparently had the hots for the
same guy but he doesn’t care about anything except Noriko and revenge…so why
not have them hook up?
Well with all this laid out, how do I feel about
Gunbusters ending?
Well I don’t hate it
but I don’t love it either.
The visuals
are amazing and a testament to how well 80s OVA Animation holds up.
The scale and spectacle are equally
impressive and a lot of hard work went into making Gunbuster look as good as it
does.
When it comes to the story,
honestly at some point I just turned my mind off cause it was making less and
less sense.
Sure it was good to see
Noriko come into her own as Humanity’s savior but the war with the Aliens felt
hollow without the Aliens having some kind of explanation about them besides
the half ass science class one presented to a bunch of old guys who clearly
just want an excuse to blow something up.
Coach is an irritating pain in the ass and Kazami’s character kind of
suffered from her trying to form a relationship with him that wouldn’t be
healthy for her and he could care less about.
Those kinds of notes should have me straight up hating this OVA as a
whole.
Soooo…
Final thoughts?
As
his big directorial debut, Hideaki Anno’s Gunbuster shows he clearly had what
it takes from the get go to tell a visually mesmerizing epic with bad ass
mecha, a large stage to work with and a penchant for deep character study.
Those parts don’t all come together
completely satisfactory, in fact some characters like Coach straight up suck
from beginning to end.
But the focus on
Noriko is mostly pretty good as we see her endure a decades long war against a
seemingly unstoppable enemy with herself as Humanity’s last hope.
Many artistic decisions and storytelling
techniques Anno implemented would go on to be perfected in Evangelion and
seeing their origins here is pretty amazing.
I have a lot of problems with Gunbuster as a whole but oddly enough I’d
still recommend it for the animation and high value production quality.
You want a better, in depth character study,
Evangelion is always there for you.
But
without Gunbuster to pave the way, bumps in the road and all, we might not have
that either.
It didn’t quite reach the
top it aimed for, but it was a pretty good looking shot for Gunbuster
regardless.
7/10
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