Overview
A sci-fi robot work produced by Gainax in 1988 as an OVA with two episodes per video volume and a total of six episodes. It was first directed by Hideaki Anno, who later created Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Originally, this work was produced to repay the debt incurred due to the poor box-office performance of the first Gainax production, "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise".
Based on the reflection of "Royal Space Force", which was not well received by the anime fans because of its subdued style, the style of this work was created with an awareness of the fans' reception.
The work contains many parodies and homages based on famous masterpieces of the past ( for example, the 1970s anime "Aim for the Ace!" (Ace o Nerae!) or the film Top Gun), and the production is made in such a way that every scene in the film has an 'original' visual work.
At the idea of director Anno, the work uses the style of renowned film director Kihachi Okamoto.
Plot
In an age when humans are expanding into space, the Earth is under heavy attack from unidentified outer space creatures, known as 'Space Monsters' (宇宙怪獣). To overcome this threat, humanity builds a new successor to the Machine Weapon, the Buster Machine 'Gunbuster'.
The protagonist Noriko Takaya (タカヤ・ノリコ), the only daughter of Space Force Admiral Yuzo Takaya, attends the Space School in Okinawa, known as Okijo (沖女), to search for her father, who has gone missing in the Space Monster attack, and to follow the same military path as her father.
However, being a dropout with a timid character and unable to satisfactorily operate machine weapons, Noriko was unable to gain confidence in herself. Furthermore, she was discovered by her coach Koichiro Ota (オオタ・コウイチロウ), who is also the developer of the space monster battle weapon Gunbuster, and scouted as a pilot candidate for the Top Unit, which made her jealous of all the students and led to insidious bullying.
Noriko learns the importance of making an effort in such a difficult situation, and she trains hard, and before graduating, she goes into space and joins the Top team. There, she battles the many harsh realities that await her and grows as a Gunbuster pilot who bears the hope of humanity.
Characters
Noriko Takaya (タカヤ・ノリコ) (Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka)
A student at Okinawa Girls' Space High School (Okijo). She is physically very strong and has outstanding stamina, to the extent that she can run 50 laps around a field, but she is terrible at piloting machine weapons, and is a dropout who is dishonorably called the 'Annihilation Girl' within the school. Despite her inexperience, Coach Ota discovers the extraordinary guts she has inside her, and she gradually builds up her strength as she continues her intense training.
Kazumi Amano (アマノ・カズミ) (Voiced by: Rei Sakuma)
A student at Okijo. She is an honors student with a combination of talent and elegance, but this is backed up by her daily training. Noriko and other female students who admire her call her 'Onee-sama' (elder sister).
She is concerned about Noriko, who is exposed to the prejudices of those around her, and considers her unreliable as a fighting force, but they eventually become irreplaceable comrades-in-arms through their practical training.
She has a calm personality, but is also mentally fragile and is afraid of being separated by death from her beloved coach.
After the Absolute Defense Battle of the Solar System, She married Koichiro and became Okijo's coach. She then volunteered for the final battle and joined the Galaxy Center Raid Fleet.
Jung Freud (ユング・フロイト) (Voiced by: Maria Kawamura)
A candidate from the Soviet Union (which had not yet collapsed at the time of the work's release) whom Noriko and her team met in space. Tatsumi calls her a 'genius'. She hates to lose and has violent emotional ups and downs, holding a fierce rivalry with Noriko and the others, but they later become close friends. She is not good at gravity. In the center of the galaxy, she was initially a pilot of Buster Machine No. 2, however, in the final battle, she gives it up to Kazumi and boards Sizzler herself.
Koichiro Ota (Coach) (オオタ・コウイチロウ) (Voiced by: Norio Wakamoto)
An instructor at Okijo and the developer of the Gunbuster. Formerly a subordinate of Noriko's father, he is one of the few survivors of the Luxion Fleet. He is aware of Noriko's talent and puts her through harsh trials. He may seem cold-hearted at first glance, but his heart is as hot as a 'flame'. In fact, he is suffering from an incurable disease, Cosmic Radiation Sickness.
Tatsumi Tashiro (タシロ・タツミ) (Voiced by: Tamio Ōki )
Captain of the Exelion and the Eltreum.
Mechas
RX-7 (RX-7)
The main machine weapon at the start of the story. However, it was overwhelmingly inferior in terms of performance, partly due to the size difference, and could not even compete with the lower-ranking soldiers of the Space Monsters. Because of the disastrous result of the annihilation of the Top Unit in the Battle of Mars, it later gave up its mainstay position to the Gunbuster's mass production machine, the Sizzler.
Coloring varied according to individual pilots.
Gunbuster (ガンバスター)
A machine weapon created to counter Space Monsters, the Gunbuster is completed when Buster Machine No. 1 and No. 2 are combined. At 200 meters in length (240 meters in height including shoulders), it was by far the largest of the 'lead robots' in the history of anime until the appearance of the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann. (If not a 'lead robot', there was already the Macross-class and the Unicron, which transformed into a planet-sized version.)
Buster Machine No. 3 (ガンバスター3号)
Sizzler (シズラー)
A mass-produced version of the Gunbuster, the main machine on the human side that replaced the RX-7.
It has a single on-board degenerative reactor.
Note
In Japanese, 'Gunbuster' (ガンバスター) mainly refers to the robot weapons that appear in the story, and when referring to the name of the work, 'Aim for the Top!' (トップをねらえ!) in most cases; note this for tag searches on pixiv.
Related Illustrations
Related Tags
Gainax Hideaki Anno Top wo nerae
Neon Genesis Evangelion Gurren Lagann
