Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster

In the near future, humanity has taken its first steps towards journeying into the far reaches of the galaxy. Upon doing so they discover a huge race of insectoid aliens known as "Space Monsters." These aliens seem dedicated to the eradication of mankind as they near closer and closer to discovering Earth. In response, humanity develops giant fighting robots piloted by hand-picked youth from around the world.

Shortly after the discovery of the aliens, Noriko Takaya, the daughter of a famous deceased space captain, enters a training school despite her questionable talents as a pilot. There, she meets her polar opposite, the beautiful and talented Kazumi Amano, and is unexpectedly made to work together with her as they attempt to overcome the trauma of war as well as their own emotions.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Takaya, Noriko Main

Hidaka, Noriko Japanese

Oota, Kouichirou Main

Wakamoto, Norio Japanese

Amano, Kazumi Main

Sakuma, Rei Japanese

Freud, Jung Supporting

Kawamura, Maria Japanese

Toren, Smith Supporting

Yao, Kazuki Japanese

Higuchi, Kimiko Supporting

Fuchizaki, Yuriko Japanese

Tatsumi, Tashiro Supporting

Ooki, Tamio Japanese

Announcer Woman Supporting

Kishiro, Sakurako Japanese

Engineer Supporting

Oka, Kazuo Japanese

Officer Supporting

Nishimura, Tomomichi Japanese

Watanabe, Shigeru Producer

Sasaki, Shirou Producer

Takanashi, Minoru Producer

Anno, Hideaki Director, Script, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Dec 1, 2025

Cool_Hand

Recommended

Gunbuster is existential horror piloting a mecha suit. There is less action in the show and more focus on the frailties of human life, whether those lives end quickly in war and sickness or from the non-negotiable reality of time's constant progression.

The show alternates its action sequences with slower contemplative moments, making each more poignant by contrast. Anno would go on to perfect this oscillating method of storytelling in Neon Genesis Evangelion. But here, distilled in a 6 episode series the whiplash can at times be more impactful.

The show's strength perhaps lies in its simplicity and straightforward storytelling. There is little winding around and needs ... to be little because the show knows how to make episodes emotionally impactful.

I believe anyone can enjoy the show. Just go in knowing that even your short time with this series can feel like slow, haunting time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 8, 2020

Itkovian

Mixed Feelings

Gunbuster is a strange mixture of parodically cliched, half-assed storytelling and subversive, dramatically-powerful moments.

Some of this is obviously intentional, mainly the first two episodes, which are aping sports-anime tropes from Aim for the Ace! such as the klutzy-but-hardworking underdog protagonist, the idolised perfect older-sister figure, and the jealous rival, as well as the taciturn coach with unshakable belief. (Note that the intentional parody doesn't make these parts any less boring or annoying.)

However, other instances of this contrast are difficult to understand. For example, despite its bizarrely detailed depiction of "hard" sci-fi concepts like time dilation, the anime barely makes any real effort at fleshing ... out its setting and premise - the central conflict in the story is between humanity and mysterious "space monsters" about whom virtually nothing is ever learned, and whose enmity to humanity is never adequately explained.

Despite the commonplace nature of mechas as a weapon, scenes of training or military maneuvers rarely evidence any attempt by the writers to actually think about the implications of using them - Noriko, for example, seems to train more by just running around or lifting weights than by actually piloting her mech. The incongruous sight of mechs doing push-ups or running around on the ground is commonplace, despite how useless it would be to practice these things for a space battle. Although the entirety of Earth is presumably allied in fighting the space monsters, we rarely see any kind of international coalition of forces that would indicate the scale of such an effort - the sole "foreign" presence is a completely useless fanservice character who's hilariously named "Jung Freud".

Given that the series is only six episodes, it can be excused for not depicting a drawn-out military conflict with twists and turns, although it's quite repetitive to have the two major climaxes of the series both revolve around the strategy of "go into the middle of the enemy forces with a big bomb, run away, and detonate it". But the makers could have scrapped many of the pathetic fanservice bathing scenes in favour of trying to flesh out the world and the details of the situation instead, and they don't do that.

At this point it's worth mentioning what's actually good about it. It has excellent art - with the exception of a 6-7 minute stretch in the last episode where the presumably cash-strapped Gainax staff tried to be arty by panning over still frames instead of animating them, the animation is generally fluid and crisp, and the visual impact of the anime is always engrossing.

There are several genuinely engrossing battle sequences, the first of which is quite subversive in that instead of showing Noriko effortlessly carving through the enemy as another anime might, it shows her freezing up and unable to do anything due to the shock and fear of being in a battle for the first time.

For some reason, despite being totally uninterested in any of the other sci-fi elements of its premise, Gunbuster is very interested in the idea of time dilation resulting from lightspeed/near-lightspeed travel. It puts this concept to use in several very strong scenes, where the pathos comes from people knowing that they're going out into space on a journey and will come back with everyone they know having grown old or died, or from Noriko coming back after what - for her - was six months, to find that ten years passed on Earth, and everything has moved on from her. This part of Gunbuster is probably its greatest strength.

If every other element of Gunbuster was written with the attention and interest that's given to the scenes involving time dilation, then it would probably be perfect and an undeniable classic. As it stands, the anime oscillates wildly between sloppy, lazy melodrama and genuinely interesting, emotionally affecting sci-fi. Which averages out to around a 6.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 3, 2024

Sp1cyCrab

Not Recommended

Funny

I don't understand who is the target audience of Gunbuster.
It pretends to be a Real Robot show with down to Earth characters and lots of pseudo science. Then you see that pilots in space don't wear any kind of a space suit. Then a secondary character dies within the same episode he is introduced in, and MC decides that she is now a hot blooded Super Robot protagonist. The titular Gunbuster appears that towers over normal mech and it has a completely different control scheme ala G Gundam. A lot of yelling happens, some monsters die, credits roll.

Gunbuster's key issue is its protagonist Noriko. ... She is as an epitome of an ordinary japanese girl but she wants to go to space because of her dead father. She is somewhat of a girl failure but she is encouraged by the mentor character to work hard. The problem is that most of the training happens off screen and it has no cost. Her transformation into a badass feels completely undeserved.

To say something positive, Gunbuster looks very good. I gave it a 5 purely for visuals. Even then I have to point out that this OVA likes to show women's breasts without rhyme nor reason. (Gunbusters finial attack involves Noriko ripping her shirt open) And I'm not against nudity, I like unapologetically horny Cross Ange it's just everything has time and a place. Nudity in Gunbuster feels like animators really wanted to draw nipples at least once per episode.

In the end, it's unclear what the show is even about. It talks about guts and hard work, a "lesson" the main character learns in the first episode, and that's it.

If you want to see the protagonist learning horrors of war in space, dealing with battle fatigue and stressing over increasing amount of responsibility, watch 0079 Gundam Compilation Movies Trilogy.
If you want to watch the protagonist charge at monsters, yelling, shouting each attack and just being the definition of "hot blooded", watch any Getter Robo OVA (preferably all of them, personal watch order: New Getter Robo > Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo > Getter Robo Armageddon)

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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