Gunbuster

• Directed by Anno Hideaki
• Released in the US by Bandai Visual/Honneamise

Bandai Visual's first release of 2007 has a pretty historic pedigree, as the first big hit from an influential, maybe even legendary studio and director. For a fans of a certain era, Gunbuster defines anime, but how well does it go over outside of its original context?

The high concept, straight from BV: "Gunbuster began with a seemingly silly, yet irresistible idea-- what if the heroes of the classic robot and space adventures ... had not been heroes, but heroines-- shojo heroines?" As you'd figure from that, Gainax's approach is hardly straight-laced; the series flips back and forth between intentional humor (like the giant footprint left in the wake of the Lightning Kick) and cheese played perfectly straight (like the Kick itself). Thanks to the "shojo storytelling" premise, every setback feels like the end of the world for ace pilots-in-the-making Noriko and Amano, even though they actually are fighting against the literal end of the Earth.

Now, I'm used to genre-busting anime; it's the pacing that kind of threw me. Somehow, GB manages to come off as both slow-burning and overly compressed; its six episodes are almost totally devoted to advancing the plot, with background and exposition delivered on the run, if at all. We race through Noriko's pilot training, and ultimately skip over most of her career; the Gunbuster itself doesn't even appear until halfway through episode four! I'm not sure if the time saved by rushing through the plot is well spent, either; the characters emote a lot, but I never really felt like I knew anyone in detail. For instance, Noriko's vaunted otaku credentials really boil down to a handful of posters glimpsed on her wall and a couple gags in the super-deformed science lessons. These character sketches get the job done, but leave me wanting more meat- I know how Noriko feels about the stuff that happens to her, but I don't really feel like I know Noriko. Our supposed heroine actually gets less character development than her mentor. As she gets to know her co-pilot and "big sister" better, we do too; Amano's less admirable traits come out to balance her more obvious positive ones.

Interestingly, the fight scenes are also staged from Noriko's perspective-- the first big skirmish in episode 3 is scary and unglamorous, and she's totally helpless during it; she/we don't even get a good look at the enemy, and the casualties don't flare out in a cathartic blaze of glory. Once Noriko finishes her training, we stop glossing over her battles, but is it too little too late?

Frankly, I enjoy watching shows analytically, but when I see a giant robot on the cover, I expect a much higher smash-to-angst ratio than is on offer here- and I say this as a Neon Genesis Evangelion fan! What robot combat we get is pretty good, but it's just a fraction of the running time. I've been told this style of storytelling is derived from earlier mecha series, and while I can appreciate that, I'm also not exactly sad it's fallen out of favor.

Gunbuster's lasting influence is mainly iconic images; ideas it tosses out in passing have entire series built around them later, and even a casual viewing can pick out elements later adopted by Martian Successor Nadesico, Super Robot Wars, and Voices of a Distant Star. Even Anno isn't above homage; he goes so far as to reuse its "to be continued" splash screen and animatic final episode preview in Evangelion.

That's not all he reuses, either; this is our first glimpse of Anno's unmistakable directorial style, and it's interesting to see how long he's been using some of these visuals and themes, but frankly, GB is still a very early work. Some parts are very impressive (episodes 2 and 6 are justly famous, and I'm pretty fond of the quiet first part of 5, as Noriko takes time out to reflect on the home front), but the show as a whole just doesn't hang together as well as his later series.

As far as the physical release, it's a definite step down from Honneamise's first wave of releases. It is about twenty bucks cheaper, but there isn't a no-frills version. The box isn't nearly as sturdy, and the accompanying booklet is informative enough, but can't compare to Patlabor's full-length books. Of course, this is still a step up from what came after, but that's a review for another day. Due to some infamous issues with the audio master, there is no English dub, but this didn't stop BV from replacing a piece of background music that referenced Chariots of Fire. It does have all the original (pseudo)science lesson skits, as well as the additional skits and interludes done for later releases, but on the other hand the subtitles usually ignore background details like Noriko's textbooks, and BV still doesn't subtitle episode credits. This is especially galling given that they DO translate the credits on the extra materials. Whether all this makes Honneamise's release of the show unacceptable is up to you.

In the end, I'd have to say that I want to like Gunbuster more than I actually do. It's well-crafted, and a vital part of Anno's development as a director, but it just doesn't strike the same chord with me as some of Gainax's other work. I'm surprised to say this, but six episodes was too short. There's a lot of human drama, but I never felt like I knew the characters that well (pop quiz: what happened to Noriko's mother?). The story ultimately sacrifices character depth for sheer epic scale, but the planet-cracking action gets underway so late that I come away wanting more. That said, I don't regret watching or buying it, and the show is worth seeing for anyone interested in Gainax's history, the mecha genre, or Anno's growth as a director.