artur-artborg

Visually, "Gunbuster" is absolutely stunning, sporting that oh-so-delightful 80's anime aesthetic - sometimes in snappy colours, sometimes in gorgeous monochrome.

The narrative, however, leaves a few things to be desired. The main conflict always feels foggy, particularly in regards to the alien threat, which we never learn about (and thus leaving us with questions such as: er, are our protagonists perpetrating a genocide?). The reason why the fate of the world is left to Japanese teenagers is never explained, the character conflicts aren't particularly engaging, and the scenes that suddenly veer into full horniness are more confusing than alluring (not least because it is the "camera" - not the characters themselves - who venture into the world of the sexual).

Despite a mostly excellent (and - again - visually stunning) final episode, the series as a whole is mostly just memorable as "that thing Hideaki Anno directed before "Evangelion").

At first glance, this show should work. It has a fun, colourful and expressive artstyle. The jazzy score by Yutaka Yamada is excellent, bringing to mind the work of Yoko Kanno on "Cowboy Bepop". And this show feels like it really wants to be Bepopesque.

Unfortunately, the show collapses upon any closer scrutiny. It is plagued by many issues, the most serious (in no particular order) being: 1. The crew has obviously made no research on cultures foreign to them, leading to Arab charaters named Abigail and Clark, and a portrayal of Baghdad (as a liberal democracy of tailored suits and ballet recitals) that is just baffling.

2. Heists and schemes which are supposed to be geniusly complex instead end up being impossibly contrived and nonsensical. We are not impressed by the prowess of the con artists, but instead ask ourselves what the heist-success-equivalent of "plot armour" is.

3. The character writing is all over the wall, with the main character Makoto in particular becoming whatever any given scene calls for. There are several times in the series were upon seeing his contradictory actions we assume that an explanation is right around the corner, but then it never comes.

4. Several choices made means that previous scenes intended to be dramatic and even touching become entirely pointless.

5. Most upsettingly, the series tackles serious real-life problems like human trafficking of minors, and then forgets about them in favour of whacky hijinks... making it so that the writers fail to realize that our supposedly likeable protagonists themselves becomes guilty of some of the worst crimes imaginable. Yes, you read that correctly: our main protagonists aid and abet the enslavement and selling of children, so that they can scam the human traffickers at a later date.

In conclusion, this - quite surprisingly - ended up being one of the worst animes I've ever seen.

It almost bothers me to admit that this is a good film, but it is. Having seen it, the 2017 version of the film feels considerably worse than before. This is an improvement in almost every way.

It is not a perfect film. Many of the designs are remarkably ugly. The antagonists (Steppenwolf and Darkseid) remain poorly defined and unengaging. The aspect ratio remains a baffling choice. But other than that, I have very few complaints.

The story is exciting, the drives and personalities of the protagonists are well-defined (at least when compared to other DCEU films), several sequences are innovative... It boggles the mind how the same people who made "Man of Steel" and "Batman v. Superman" (one boring, the other straight up insulting) could have made something like this. But as it stands, it actually makes me wish for further entries in the Snyderverse, which is something I never would have believed before watching.