Humanity is threatened with extinction by gigantic aliens, and the only path to salvation is gigantic mechs. By a twist of fate, the most vital mecha is piloted by a confident teenager.
This may sound like the legendary anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, But that is not it. It is actually Gunbusterthe iconic mech series of Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. The 1988 six-episode OVA series was a foundational title for both studio Gainax and Anno. It set the standard for what audiences could expect from Gainax’s epic mech combat, high-concept sci-fi, and lavish fan service. Gunbuster was the first truly profitable title to get out of Gainax, giving Gainax and Anno the cachet to explore more challenging projects like Evangelion. Without Gunbusterthere would be none Evangelion.
While it doesn’t have the reputation of Anno’s more acclaimed masterpiece, Gunbuster‘s influence can be seen throughout Gainax’s catalog as it lays the foundation for all the tropes and ideas that would come to define the studio. Gunbuster is only now being released in its entirety in the West for the first time, with a high-definition format and an English dub. But its influence has been all over anime in the decades since it was first released in Japan, whether audiences know it or not.
In 1988, after working on Royal Space Force: The Wings of HonneamiseAnno was preparing for his next big project when he wrote the script for an OVA series that would become Gunbuster. He was intrigued by the script’s correlation to the classic Japanese fairy tale of Urashima Taro, which tells the story of a fisherman who spends a few days with a princess, only to discover that 100 years have passed. According to studio Khara’s biography of Anno“Anno was moved to tears by the script.”
But Anno didn’t consider the story to be strictly fairytale. Gunbuster needed to expand that concept to become the influential giant it is today. And so the show became a mashup of a few influences from that era: Gunbuster has the competitive spirit, group idolization and blossoming romance of Osamu Dezaki’s tennis shoujo classic Aim for the Ace! combined with the elite training and military focus of Top gun. And Anno didn’t stop there, throwing in other elements to increase the action quota, such as giant mechs, a strict military code, and interstellar combat.
Image: Gainax
Image: Gainax
Image: Gainax
Noriko and Gunbuster’s DNA is all over Shinji and his self-doubt.
As regards Evangelionthe impact of Gunbusterthe story is clear. Protagonist Noriko Takaya has the same self-doubt and fear that would take shape Evangelion‘s Shinji. Like that character arc, Noriko must face her fears and grow as she is not expected to become another adult, but rather the person responsible for saving humanity. With training sequences straight out rocky, Noriko must succeed by any means necessary. While Noriko has the physical requirements to be at the top of the class, her skills are lacking in the mech suits required for combat.
Among those who love the show, Gunbuster is often best remembered for using faster-than-light travel to provide many of its most striking sequences. Each time Noriko and her classmate Kazumi Amano embark on lightspeed travel, they are notified of the time dilation that will occur as a result of their travel; for everyone else, years will pass in what will feel like days to them. While recent movies like Pixar’s Light year and Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar further popularizing the well-known sci-fi trope, time dilation brought a harder edge to a show that could otherwise easily be categorized as a parody of classic shoujo anime tropes.
Noriko and Kazumi must travel to the depths of a black hole to unleash humanity’s greatest chance against the aliens. Time will take on a new meaning and it may be thousands of years before they can return to Earth. What will the Earth look like then? Would it even be worth returning to if everything you ever knew was changed and gone forever? These are gripping and intoxicating ideas for a series ostensibly about young women piloting gargantuan robots, especially given the light-hearted fanfare most of Gunbuster‘s earlier episodes. Having survived their great ordeal, when Noriko and Kazumi inevitably return to Earth hundreds of years later, it is hard to imagine anyone not bursting into tears at the end.
That last mission foreshadowed Anno’s tinkering with animation styles, as it was presented in black and white and featured stills where combat would normally be animated. There have been regular debates about whether Gainax just ran out of budget or if it was a creative decision. Given Anno’s later discussions of the series and how he experimented elsewhere, it’s easier to imagine this was international. As the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance, elaborate sketches fill the screen as composer Kohei Tanaka’s soothing orchestral music plays beneath the action. And the black-and-white look certainly gives the action more of a newsreel feel, as was common in multiplexes from the 1910s to the mid-1970s.
Thanks to Gunbuster, Anno became known as a director who would experiment with the avant-garde. He would later do something similar with static sketches during the last two episodes of Neon Genesis Evangeliona mix of still animation and voiceover with “Komm Susser Tod” playing over disturbing chalk drawings.
As one of the few mech series to do this in the mid-80s, Gunbuster featured a mostly female cast and redefined fan service in the mecha genre. Similar to other titles such as Battle against Angel AlitaOVAs could afford bigger budgets for smoother animation, and the format allowed more options for ecchi content, without being bound by mainstream TV standards. In addition to the grand space battles between the mechs and the almost inconspicuous aliens, Gunbuster didn’t hesitate to delve into copious sexualized fan service. Gunbuster was able to show his heroines topless and even took it a step further by defining a new term: the “Gainax Bounce” or “Gainaxing”, the unnatural movement of breasts in anime. The exaggerated movement (and the absurdity of it) can be seen in the credits of Gunbuster, as Noriko walks towards the viewer. It became Gainax’s signature and appeared in later anime likes Gurren Lagann with his heroine Yoko Littneras well as in Gainax successor Studio Trigger’s anime – not to mention non-Gainax or -Trigger shows, such as High School of the Dead And Food wars, among many, many others who followed the trend.
Image: Gainax
Along with Gainaxing, there was another term Gunbuster would add to the anime lexicon. First seen in the fourth episode, the “Gainax Pose” is an iconic pose in which the main character is seen with his arms crossed. The first time audiences get a glimpse of the ultimate mech Gunbuster in action, it can be seen in the Gainax Pose. Whenever Noriko strikes the Gainax Pose, it signifies that she has reached another level of determination and indicates her intent before she unleashes hell on the enemy. The pose itself is not enough to define the action as a Gainax Pose, as the character must perform the action at a pivotal turning point in the anime, the scene must contain strong visual effects, and they must be filled with strong determination. The pose has taken on a life outside Gunbuster and can be seen in other Gainax anime like Diebuster And Gurren Lagannand even later in Studio Trigger series, such as Kill La killed.
Gainaxing and the Gainax Pose not only became synonymous with Gainax, but have taken on a life of their own. Other studios were influenced by what Gainax had created, and Gainaxing would soon be used as a way to provide more suggestive content without adding to the censorship burden. It would inadvertently help define anime as an adult thing for much of the ’90s. Diebuster revived the Gainax Pose in the early ’00s, and some fans clung to drawing characters outside of the Gainax catalog in the signature pose. Even the characters from Trigger’s Cyberpunk: Edge Runners to have drawn in the poseand that can all be traced back to Gunbuster. These innovations, for better or for worse, have helped to preserve Gunbuster living in the minds of anime fans far beyond original aspirations.
Yet, Gunbuster resonated with audiences beyond just those flashy hooks. Even with giant mechs and the ability to fly through space with ease, time is the one thing Noriko can’t take anymore. Whether that’s lost time with her late father or experiencing her adolescence, it’s one thing she’ll never get back. This dilemma makes Noriko’s plight easy to deal with, and when her determination shines like a beacon in the darkness and sets aside the disappointments in her life, you will believe that this young woman can save the galaxy. What Anno would accomplish at Gainax all started with a parody of a classic shoujo sports drama that grew into a thesis about time and how fragile those fleeting moments can be. The OVA series paved the way for trends that would come to define Gainax projects throughout history – both lewd and large – and continue to influence anime to this day. Gunbuster is a success not just because of fan service, time dilation or its mark on anime history. Rather, it succeeds because it is all of those things and more. After all, where can you go a distinctive lightning bolt who decides the fate of the universe?