Top wo Nerae!

I rarely deliver 10 out of 10s. Such a work must be ambitious, highly produced, realistic, relateable, emotional. Essentially flawless. So when I say Gunbuster is great, it comes from the bottom of my heart. Its the best anime I've watched, and even beats almost all movies I've seen.

At first, Gunbuster seems like standard fare. Hostile aliens have entered our galaxy, so the nations of Earth must prepare for battle. Noriko is an inexperienced high school student, forced to be something more by a stern, biased coach. Can she succeed - or even survive - in the vast vacuum of space? Alien invasion stories have been done dozens of times, but none are as focused on character, nor have such a perfect aesthetic.

Despite technically a mecha/super robot anime, there are surprisingly few fight scenes. Its a character-driven series, where we see Noriko deal with her hardships and mature. The other characters are also very solid, likable, and three-dimensional. Nobody is annoying or contrived. When they succeed, you are cheering in your seat. When they are devastated, it feels like a jackhammer to your heart.

If you're a fan of 80s/90s anime, Gunbuster's animation is among the best. Especially the detail! The attention on spaceships, mechs, consoles, and aliens is great. If you loved the art of Cowboy Bebop, you should love this. And the score! The pop and "space opera" pieces excellently convey the tone. Gunbuster has the rare moments where the actions and emotion on screen synch perfectly with the soundtrack in our ears. I couldn't image the best moments of the series without this!

I cannot recommend Gunbuster highly enough. Its short length (6 episodes) means you have little to lose, but so much to gain. Its emotional, beautiful, even awesome...and the only movie/anime/television series to make me cry. An unmatched masterpiece

I screened this before letting my son watch it. This probably shouldn't have a U rating, apart from the skimpy uniforms and breast physics there is a bath scene containing full frontal nudity in the 2nd episode. Not saying I didn't enjoy it lol, but it might be a bit much for an 11 year old.

Almost like a preamble for Neon Genesis Evangelion but without its too philosophical ending and with a bit of silliness. The science fiction in this is extensively researched and mostly works with the existing theories of that time even though certain liberties are taken in including some rejected theories. But it never tries to give much exposition on anything. This highly intelligent side is covered with some sappy and silly stuff too which kind of doesn't make too much sense to me. The time warping is used as the main source for emotional narrative here way before Interstellar. The details of animation and the emotion created by it is the best things about this even with all these other factors.

Gunbuster a early successful of Gainax studio in the mecha genre that I find myself get suck in the world and the characters when it touch many interesting aspect of travel through time and space and most importantly how people cope with in a world of rapid change.At first I don't find Noriko the main character to be admirable or reliable cause she spent most of her time crying and whining about how people look down on her despite clearly know why.Gunbuster don't deserve to be just a 6 episode OVA so I hope Gainax or Trigger will remake someday

For a six episode miniseries Gunbuster (1988) is somehow able to cover all of the narrative requirements of a full length anime series. As Hideaki Anno's directorial debut some of the concepts and ideas he is well known for are explored here, though not to the same degree and scale of his more well known show "Neon Genesis Evangelion". Most of the focus of the show is placed on the continuation of the overall plot with a fair amount of time focused on the development and inner thoughts of the main character Noriko. The story is mainly focused on the idea of how light-speed travel distorts time, and based on that the show is able to deliver some memorable and emotional moments typically not found in series' of this short length. Some complaints I have with this show is how the first episode is painfully 80's (if that makes sense) and tonally doesn't transition well into the rest of the series. Another thing I didn't like is how the first instance of nudity felt very undeserved and inserted in for the sake of appealing to an older audience. Gunbuster is still however a great anime that should be used as a reference for future miniseries'.