![]() Noriko and Gunbuster’s DNA is all over Shinji and his self-doubt.Īs for Evangelion, the influence of Gunbuster’s story is clear. And Anno didn’t stop there, throwing in other elements to up the action quota, like giant mechs, a strict military code, and interstellar combat. And so the show became a mashup of a few influences of the time: Gunbuster has the competitive spirit, peer idolization, and blossoming romance from Osamu Dezaki’s tennis shoujo classic Aim for the Ace! combined with the elite training and military focus of Top Gun. Gunbuster needed to expand upon that concept to become the influential giant it is today. According to studio Khara’s biography of Anno, “Anno was moved to tears by the script.”īut Anno wasn’t thinking of the story as strictly a fairy tale. He was intrigued by the script’s correlation to the classic Japanese fairy tale of Urashima Taro, which tells the story of a fisherman who spends a few days with a princess, only to discover 100 years have passed. ![]() In 1988, after working on Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Anno was preparing for his next big project when he came upon the script for an OVA series that would become Gunbuster. But its influence has been all over anime in the decades since it was first released in Japan, whether audiences know it or not. Gunbuster is only now, for the first time, being released in the West in full, with a high-definition format and an English dub. While it doesn’t have the reputation of Anno’s more lauded masterpiece, Gunbuster’s influence can be seen throughout Gainax’s catalog, as it contains the foundation for all the tropes and ideas that would come to define the studio. ![]() Without Gunbuster, there would be no Evangelion. Gunbuster was the first truly profitable title to come out of Gainax, and provided Gainax and Anno with the cachet to explore more challenging projects, like Evangelion. It set the standard for what audiences could expect from Gainax’s epic mech battles, high-concept science fiction, and plentiful fan service. The 1988 six-episode OVA series was a foundational title for both studio Gainax and Anno. It’s actually Gunbuster, the iconic mech series from Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. This might sound like the legendary anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it’s not. In a twist of fate, the most vital mech is piloted by a teenager with confidence issues. ![]() Mankind faces extinction from giant aliens, and the only path toward salvation is giant mechs. ![]()
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