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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 04 September 2008 16:00 |
 I was going to call Nono the cutest android ever, but then I remembered Mahoro. Seems to be a GAINAX "battle robot" theme there... I'll admit to never having seen the original Gunbuster (something I'm hoping to correct soon), so I'm coming at Gunbuster 2 without the slightest clue about what's gone before - always a dangerous thing to do. So far, though, so good...
1 - Please Let Me Call You Onee-sama!
It's Nono's aim to become a space pilot - as the first step in her plan, she runs away from home to the city, where she takes a job in a restaurant while she raises the cash she needs to get started. Two problems: at the rate she's breaking things around the restaurant it'll be years before she even earns enough to buy herself dinner, while the training to become a space pilot takes, oh, about fifteen years. When a real space pilot visits the restaurant and saves Nono from a molesting customer, Nono sees a way to short-cut the system, but her would-be mentor doesn't believe she has what it takes - according to her, only a Topless can be a space pilot - and leaves. While Nono's left watching though the spaceport fence after her, a space monster attacks, giving her the chance to prove her skills - although she takes the term Topless perhaps a little too seriously...
2 - I Don't Want to Be an Onee-sama!
The military have come calling after Lal'C & Nono's fracas with the space monster, and the investigator seems determined to give Lal'C a hard time - he has a theory that the space monsters and those with Topless abilities are somehow connected, making the Topless just as much enemies of humanity as space monsters are. While Lal'C's being interrogated, Nono's busy playing with Lal'C's Buster Machine & trying to see if she can activate it - but another space monster appears. The military try to take it on themselves, but despite unleashing huge amounts of firepower on it they can't even slow it down. Enter one of Lal'C's companions, Nicola, and his own Buster Machine...
3 - I Hate the Topless
Lal'C, Nono & co have headed for Jupiter, where a large number of Topless are gathering with their Buster Machines to deal with the problem of the Jupiter Express: a swarm of space monsters that orbit Jupiter and cause regular havoc with the stations around the planet. As it happens, the first new Buster Machine to be built in decades has also been brought along - whoever it awakens in response to will get to be its pilot. Since Tycho's just destroyed her own Buster Machine after getting in the way of the Jupiter Express, she's keen to get it, but she's got competition from Nono. Meanwhile, some kids living on the station the girls are staying at have a strange request of Tycho, something they think only a Topless could do: make it snow for them, while Tycho chooses an unusual time to challenge Nono...
4 - Resurrection! The Legendary Buster Machine!
Off to Saturn next, where on Titan what appears to be an alien Buster Machine has been uncovered. Nono may be working with the Topless now, but she's still having a hard time being accepted as "one of the group". Her hope is that if or when she gets a Buster Machine of her own the rest of the Topless will be more accepting over her (instead of just seeing her as "the klutz"), and the lure of Titan's Buster Machine is too much for her to bear. When she's caught trespassing into the excavation site it spells trouble for her, but the twins have an idea that could be to Nono's advantage: the Buster Machine Trente-Trois, thought destroyed in a war years earlier, has been detected on Pluto. If Nono can recover it, it's hers - and so off to Pluto she goes. Not everyone's pleased to see her leave, however, while her departure has been engineered for a reason...
5 - Mover of Planets
Five years ago, an old university researcher discovered something unusual buried in the heart of a comet: Nono. Now that she's fully awakened, there's no longer any need for the Topless - so the military have put plans into action to strip them of their abilities and reintegrate them into "normal" society, whether they like it or not. Since the space monsters surrounding the Solar System are reacting to the presence of the Topless, with them out of the way it's hoped that the space monsters will no longer be a threat - and if they are, there's always Nono on hand to deal with them. With their new-found confidence, the Fleet & Nono head for Black Hole Exelio, home of the space monsters - but the plan to finally defeat the monsters doesn't go quite as intended...
6 - The Story of Your Life!
Lal'C's returned to the Imperial Capital on the Moon, where preparations are being made for the final defence of mankind. The space monsters who had been on the outskirts of the Solar System have spent the past few months gathering to form an object of some kind, an object which disappeared without trace two days previously - the assumption is that it's a weapon, and will be heading for Earth. With Nono still AWOL, suddenly Lal'C and the other Topless are back in demand, and a weapon the size of a small planet has been created for her. No, wait, it is a small planet - Earth itself. As expected, Exelio soon warps-out above Earth, and Lal'C and the others are called into action - and the battle for the future of humanity begins. Nono finds she can't stay away, either...
I'd love to include some pics of Nono going Topless, but this is a family website. Curse my hosting terms & conditions. :)
The first thing that struck me through Gunbuster 2 is just how close in tone & style it is to a certain other famous GAINAX OVA series, FLCL. That's in no way a bad thing - FLCL is something of a classic - but it does mean that Gunbuster 2 shares FLCL's tendency of being unintelligible at times. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Visually, there are no complaints - like most GAINAX shows, this look Good. That capital 'G' is there for a reaons - it really is drop-dead gorgeous to watch, which makes me really look forward to the Blu-ray release of the theatrical version later in the year. The only thing I can complain about are the characters - apart from Nono, they're a pretty unremarkable and unlikeable bunch, at least at the start of the series. Lal'C softens over time as Nono's influence begins to get to her, but that's about it - the other Topless are mostly self-centred, having put too much stock in their own PR (being able to wield unlimited power generally doesn't do good things for the ego), while the few recurring military characters are fairly one-dimensional. Tycho is the only other character to really get much development, and while she also mellows over time she's still far too egoistic for my liking.
It all comes down to the action. Nono's search for a Buster Machine of her own ends in the revelation that she is a Buster Machine - the Terran Imperial Space Fleet, Solar System Direct Assistance Battalion Attache, Sixth Generation Interstellar Cruising Decisive Weapon, Buster Machine #7, to give her her full title - and once that's out in the open the final two episodes turn into an action-fest that will either have you sitting on the edge of your seat or have you rolling your eyes in disbelief, depending on how you view the use of entire planets in some sort of planetary pool game. That worked great in Red Dwarf, where you positively demand that sort of wackiness - here, it doesn't work quite so well, at least for me.
This is, after all, a GAINAX series, with all that traditionally brings in terms of duff endings. It has to be said that Diebuster's ending is far from perfect, but it's thankfully far from being a complete disaster either. It's a good roller-coaster of a show, with some good character moments and good presentation, so there's plenty about it to like. Whether it stands up to its predecessor's legendary status, I can't honestly say until I get the chance to see it, but this is a pretty goood show in its own right and well worth checking out.
Worth pointing out that this release has no English-language dub - it's in Japanese only, with English or French subtitles.
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