To celebrate its 20th Anniversary, Gainax produced a sequel to its first commercial success: Aim for the Top! Gunbuster. The Fraternity now protects humanity within the solar system from Space Monster attacks. Forming the Fraternity are the pilots of the Buster Machines, an elite corps of human defenders named “Topless.” They have highly evolved mental abilities and can create psychic links to their Buster Machines. The Topless within their Buster Machines are the only force capable of thwarting the onslaught of billions of Space Monsters that threaten humanity’s survival.

Nono is a plucky country girl from the backwaters of Mars. She aspires to be a space pilot who upholds peace and justice, just like a “Nonoriri.” During a surpise Space Monster attack, Nono is saved by the smug idol-princess of the Topless, Lal’C Melk Mark, and her Buster Machine, Dix-Neuf. So impressed by Lal’C was Nono, that she decided to follow Lal’C into space to become a Topless and pilot her own Buster Machine. Taking cues from the first Gunbuster series, Nono calls Lal’C “O-nee-sama” and is convinced that with hard work and determination, somehow she too will become a Topless in the Fraternity and win Lal’C's approval. Over time an awkward and sweet friendship is born between the exuberant Nono and the lonely Princess Lal’C. It doesn’t take Lal’C very long to see that Nono is a lot more than a gutsy young girl looking for adventure.

skip to 3:29 for Dix-Neuf’s Exotic ManeuverThe Buster Machines have grown in number since the Gunbuster series. Each has its own unique design and specialized weapon to battle against the Space Monsters. Lal’C's Buster Machine Dix-Neuf (No. 19) is the oldest surviving Buster Machine that serves under the Fraternity. Over thousands of years Dix-Neuf has been manned by many pilots and fought innumerable battles. Each of the pilots has passed on, but the battle experience remains in Dix-Neuf and makes “him” stronger as the generations pass.

It would be awesome to have all these lovelies on my figure shelf one day…

The animation style and character design is very much like FLCL, with quick expressive movements and bright lively colors. This is no surprise as Diebuster and FLCL share the same director, Kazuya Tsurumaki, and charcter designer, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. There is still the same respect and homage to the Giant Robot Genre in Diebuster as we have seen in Gunbuster. In the case of this series, the references are more often towards Gunbuster (like the Gunbuster pose as performed by Nono, the names of ships and planets in theDiebuster universe, and the imagery used in many scenes). After watching Diebuster you can pick out similar homages to End of Evangelion, FLCL, and other Giant Robot anime series. For example: the flagship “Lalacharn” that detains Lal’C in ep.2 is presumably a combination of the names Lalah and Char; characters from the original Gundam series.

+ =
This was an awesome series and a fantastic sequel to the first Gunbuster series. Diebuster’s story stands on it’s own, but there are some (spoiler-iffic) tie-ins that are just too good to see only Diebuster on it’s own. To get a full appreciation of Diebuster, you just (have to have to) have to see Gunbuster first. It is so satisfying to see how the two series tie together.

Watch this if you liked:

• Aim for the Top! Gunbuster
• FLCL
• Gurren Lagann
• Gundam

 
« Last Saturday’s Anime: Aim for the Top! Gunbuster
Next Saturday’s Anime: Ouran High School Host Club »