Gunbuster 2

Nono ripping off her top with breasts/nipples on show. That was gratuitous in the extreme.

When the diner came up my first thought was "girl goes to Hollywood".

VivisQueen said:

Nono ripping off her top with breasts/nipples on show. That was gratuitous in the extreme.

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Did you see Gunbuster? Diebuster is actually tuned down.

And remember that in okama they had a famous H artist on board :D

There's some material in the last two episodes of Diebuster - especially the very end - that don't really make a lot of sense without having seen the original Gunbuster.

For the most part. This hit all my guilty pleasure notes, great colour palette and that over stylised character design, totally ridiculous mecha designs and fights etc.

This also comes from the time when they used to do away completely with exposition, for the most part at least, there certainly wasn't any in this episode. Nono was pretty cool, and the "hey look I'm topless" joke was pretty funny, and also a hark bark to that badass scene in Gunbuster.

I'm also guessing that Nono-Rii is Noriko from Gunbuster too, so we'll see.

Man, this one good looking OVA. The colors, the smooth animation and the designs are all excellent. The first Gunbuster had nice animation and a good artstyle, but I feel like this one has more of that Gainax personality. The scenes where The Topless Pilot was riding the scooter immediately called up images of FLCL. The action also has that Gainax signature touch, which gives the feeling of a lot of movement and excitement. This is OVA shows what Gainax can do when given an OVA sized budget and it's pretty damn impressive. I'd also point out that the design of Dix Neurf was awesome and not surprising would have fit into Gurren Lagann pretty well.

The art and animation aren't the only things that mark this as a Gainax production though. The fast pacing and minimal use of exposition to just explain the most essential things is kind of refreshing and again something that I associate with Gainax productions. This episode has the perfect flow and it really felt like I was watching the first part of an awesome movie. I get to meet the characters, get a taste of action and get some hints about what the overall plot is going to be, and I loved it. The episode went by in the blink of an eye.

This episode takes a very classic approach to this kind of set up, but it doesn't feel generic. There are plenty of little character touches and details that leave this feeling like something unique. There isn't much to comment on plotwise, but that's because this episode is just an introduction letting us get to know the characters. I'm sure the plot will be great once we get into the actual meat of it. I liked both Nono and the Topless Pilot in this episode, and it's pretty obvious they will have something of an odd couple relationship. Nono needs someone to balance out her naive optimism and The Topless Pilot needs some of that naive optimism to bring some balance to her seen it all cynicism. We already see that with the way the first episode ends with Nono doing the impossible a couple of times. I also laughed at Nono tearing off her shirt and it took me a minute to realize she did that because she wanted to be like the Topless Pilot.

There are a lot of questions raised by this episode. I am quite interested to learn more about Dix Neurf and why he hesitated to blast the monster. It makes me interested to know how sentient these mechs are and what else they are capable of. Then there's questions about Nono and what she actually is.

I think the only problem I had with this episode was the early scene in the bar when the guy picked up Nono and was tossing her around. I felt like that scene went on for an uncomfortably long time and had a bit too much of rape-y undertone. I got kind of uncomfortable watching it and it seemed like it went on forever. I know it was there to give the Topless Pilot a big introduction scene, but I think maybe it could have been done a little differently.

Other than that the episode was just what it needed to be to get me interested and wanting to watch more. I also got a laugh out of the start when Nono was running away from home and had to hit the insistent dog. It's a simple scene that goes to show that Nono is no pushover and will stand up for herself, even if she can go overboard at times.

Well if the first episode was great, then I don't know what that makes these 2. In the second episode we really see just what Nono thinks it means to be a Topless pilot, it's not about killing Space Kaiju, it's about saving people, and we see how this kind of goes against what Lal'C thinks at the time, at least until she makes that end decision.

We also got introduced to Nichola, who seems to be head of this little band of Topless pilots. His own Buster was pretty great actually, I really loved it's design and how it fought.

We also saw Captain Hatori, and see his bitterness clear as day. Here's a guy that was a Topless, but was cast aside for more gifted pilots, and who see's the Topless as mankind's enemy, with their existence actually attracting the Kaiju. Actually, considering the fact that he didn't have a lot of screentime, we can see quite a lot about him, the obvious bitterness, the pride, the intensity of his ideals etc. I'd be surprised if we see him again, but I wish more people would look at this and say to themselves "so this is how you make a good support character!"

Actually, I really want to talk about the third episode. Holy christ was that amazing. We see another Buster pilot, Tycho, and this episode mostly centres around her. Which I was pretty happy with by the end. This is how you show a backstory that 1) I actually believe and 2) I actually care about. Yes we don't get shown everything about it, but we see enough to realise her motivations and actually see them as in character. Also, I love how they sold us down the river, basically foreshadowing the whole episode that Nono would be the new Buster's pilot, but then actually giving it to Tycho, and, again, making us actually see it as believeable.

That whole scene with Nono using the hard line to make Tycho come to terms with herself and her motivations was brilliant, and so far one of the best scenes of the show for me.

Yeah, this was a great episode. It still follows the basic patterns and reminds me a bit of the next part of the movie. The first part is meant to draw you, but now this second part starts to let you in on the stakes as you spend more time to getting the characters beyond the introductions.

I guess this episode gets a neat little excuse for Nono's ecchi skirt. She's so damn tall nothing there fits here. Anyway, she's brought to the fraternity and even though she can't be a pilot because she's a robot she still wants to help there. We also meet some new characters like Nichola. It's explained the Fraternity is made up of teen Topless pilots that are the only ones that can defeat the space Kaiju with their Diebusters. However, Topless has to report to the military of the Empire, in this case the captain Hatori. The Empire doesn't trust Topless and considering Nichola and Lark's actions later I find it hard to blame him. When Space Kaiju attack, both of them recklessly endanger the lives of the military ships with their diebusters. Nichola is prepared to let the damaged ships fall to their deaths while he and lark go to fight the Kaiju, but Lark is held back by Nono's pleas and eventually they do go to rescue the human ship.

This episode tells us just about all we need to know about Topless and the military view each other. It also tells us what ideals Nono thinks a topless pilot should live up to. The last thing it tells us is Nichola and Lark have some kind of romantic relationship, and Nichola is trying to sway Lark to his way of thinking. At first Lark seems like she wants to go along with Nichola, even rejecting the title of Big Sister, because she knew the heightened expectations that Nono had for her. If it wasn't for Nono then Lark would have went to fight and let the military guys die. However, Nono is able to sway Lark much to Nichola's dismay. I think Nichola's relationship with Lark is going to star becoming tense as Nono gets more involved. Everything works out thus far, but the military still aren't happy about the way their ships were carelessly used.

However there's another element going on in that Hatori used to be Topless, but then he grew out of it. Topless is something you can only be as a teenager and once you grow out of it you lose your power. Pretty much the Topless are made up of a group of hormonal teenagers with super powers in their ability to summon and fight with the die busters. The most powerful weapons that humanity has and they can only be controlled by kids. There's definitely a lot of age stuff going on here. Hatori probably misses the power he had in those days and it can all be a metaphor for the vigor of youth, but also the reckless folly of youth. So yeah, the military has to work with the topless even though they are unhappy about it and they are proven somewhat right with the Nichola and Lark abuse their ships.

This episode fleshes out the situation of the Topless a bit more as well as the beliefs on some of the characters. It gives a little information on the military so we know that the Topless do work under someone. It's all done in a manner that limits exposition and shows the struggle whenever it can. It's very nicely done.

This was probably the most action orientated episode so far, with the Twins on Titan seemingly managing to keep their youth, and therefore topless abilities, way past when they should. It's hinted that the food on Titan is what's keeping them so young, and it's definitely portrayed in a pretty disgusting light, those sound effects when you see them eating made me a little queasy.

Anyway, It seems they're trying to resurrect the 'legendary' Buster machine that is buried deep in titan. Things go horribly wrong when it turns out it's just another Space Kaiju and kills the twins and at least 4 of the buster pilots.

And this is where I fell in total love with this whole series (not that I didn't like it before of course) when Nono warps from her wild goose chase on Pluto back to Titan and becomes the 7th Buster machine and pretty much destroys both the monster and Titan. The art direction for it was brilliant, everything about it was all I wanted from the show, it had my heart beating a little faster, I was on the edge of my seat, it hit that perfect little spot in my brain that just goes I NEED THIS.

On top of all that, the in politics of the Fraternity was really well played out, with Nichola basically being seen as a pretty much selfish dickweed and getting himself involved heavily with the twins, with the rest of them basically left outside to die. Not to mention the fact that they basically tried to sacrifice Nono so that they could get this legendary buster out of the ground. All together another great episode.

Another Kaiju is discovered near Jupiter 2, so Nono is summoned to go and put paid to her abilities and destroy it. Unfortunately for all the other topless, they have been classed as useless by the military, and as such have retainer bars placed on their heads so that they cannot remove their seal. Lal'c seems to fall into a bit of a depression about this, making paper cranes in the hospital, and generally feeling pretty damn useless. Especially when on the ship she is ordered from the bridge when they go into combat mode.

Nicola also shows his true colours in this episode where he loses his topless ability, and then goes to, seemingly, rape Nono. Unlike the first episode where it was played as a joke and was just uncomfortable to sit through because it was making light of a pretty awful thing to do, this is dealt with in a much grimmer light. It doesn't feel like a joke, it feels desperate and violent, it feels like this man who feels that the world owes him something is trying to take what he thinks is rightfully his. He is stopped by a couple of guards that Lal'C summons, and reprimanded. It was a scene that was uncomfortable to sit through for the right reasons.

It's also revealed that all the space monsters they've fought so far are failed buster attempts, and they are actually part of an old Solar Defence Force that have been trying to keep the true Space Monsters out.

The end fight was great, if completely futile. Lal'C grabbing Jupiter 2 and slamming it into the Space Monster was just brilliant, but it quickly becomes apparent that there's no way they can win. As a result, Nono actually just ups and leaves with the Solar defence Force, leaving Lal'C and the rest of them behind after the Kaiju warps.

Ah man, I don't want this to end already. I'm not gonna give a synopsis of this episode, just watch it. There were some stand out scenes for me though, Lal'C visiting the old man who found Nono floating was great, the snow setting was beautiful and it reminded me a lot of the portrayal of Okinawa in gunbuster, even though we never saw that under snow, it's more like they got the atmosphere of the place the same. Also the stadium scene with all the remaining Buster pilots just as they're about to launch their last offensive was a great one, you can feel the tension and their general sense of futility as they sit to have their photo taken.

In fact, the whole build up to the final fight was just absolutely brilliant, we don't know how much time has really passed since Nono flew off alone, and we don't know why either, it's obviously getting Lal'C down, which is why she's so stand-offish with everyone.

Then the final fight, it's not all that long in reality, but that doesn't stop it being badass when Nono reappears, and then the double lightning kick with Dix-Neuf. Also the whole throw back to Gunbuster was just excellent, with Lal'C wearing exactly the same outfit as Noriko did, and Dix-Neuf opening up his original, hidden cockpit after Lal'C loses her Topless ability.

As with most Gainax endings, this is pretty bitter sweet, defeating the Space Monster creates a singularity that will basically restart the universe, but Nono gives herself to stop it. So she and Lal'C have to say farewell in what is a pretty heart rending scene. Then at the end, we see Lal'C waiting for Noriko and Amano as they re-enter the earths atmosphere.

Firstly, we can see that Mankind has advanced a lot in some ways since Gunbuster, however, they've also fallen a lot in many other terms. For one, none of the ships can warp like they did in Gunbuster so they're confined to their own galaxy which is why they have to wait for the monsters to come to them.

Secondly, the busters in this are nowhere near as powerful as the original Gunbuster. The Monster on Titan was the same as many of the monsters from gunbuster, where Noriko destroyed them without breaking a sweat. This is obviously to do with much of the same tech as the warp machines on the ships, and is highlighted when Lal'C puts that Degeneracy Engine into Dix-Neuf's chest and it gets referred to as "ancient" technology, it's obviously that which gave the original Gunbuster it's power.