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Evolution - The series, the main characters
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If you see and consider only the first two episodes of the series, Gunbuster Top o Nerae! may at first disappoint you or at least mislead your expectations for the rest of the series. In fact the first episode is a bit atypical: the narrative rythm and the discussed themes may make you think that Gunbuster is a sport series or a shojo. The setting of the second episode is the one you'll see in the rest of the series, but the athmosphere is still different from the one you will feel at the end of the series; the first episodes are blithe and jolly but as soon as you you proceed towards the key moments of the plot the athmosphere becomes serious, gloomy and dramatic. There's of course an evolution of Gunbuster Top o Nerae! that starts on the sly and shows its best part only when the setting and characters are completely established. Well, I said "characters": Noriko's ripening is quite impressive: at first Noriko is a messer, an insecure girl attending Okinawa's High School, then she loses almost any hope for her life, having lost her first love, her friend and idol's confidence, her nerve to fight and her self-confidence too. When she's going to be consumed by her own fear, Noriko suddenly revives; she becomes the real heroine of the series, aggressive, convinced, determined... she turns into a fighter. In fact, in the fifth episode, when an exhausted Ota asks Noriko to protect Kazumi, his words may at first appear senseless (even Noriko, during the bath scene, has doubts about coach's request); but when the Exelion and the future of the whole humanity have to be protected, Noriko hasn't any doubts, their mission has priority over everything, they can win, they have to win, regardless of what that may imply. Noriko, unlike Kazumi, has now given up any love ambition and doesn't hesitate to furiously shout against Kazumi in order to persuade her to fight (the japanese track here is really amazing ^_^). But Noriko's real courage and spirit of sacrifice will become evident especially at the moment of the Black Bomb's non-detonation; I've read a very good phrase about that in another Gunbuster web site: "It is one girl's love for us all, who sacrifices everything, without being forced, without even being asked".
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The values of Gunbuster Top o Nerae!
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Many people think that Gunbuster Top o Nerae! was at first conceived as a parody of other famous and/or robotic series; in fact some elements leading to this conclusion can be found in the series (an example? the Gunbuster's monitors are lighted up by neon lamps...), but at the end, in 1988, Gainax Studio created a real masterpiece that is certainly able to shine with its own light. Gunbuster Top o Nerae! is a great action series, but it's at the same time a great comic and dramatic series. The plot is extraordinary, the animation is always perfect (don't forget that we're talking about OAVs realized more than 15 years ago...), the character design is really remarkable (many people agree in saying that Gunbuster Top o Nerae! is the best work of Haruiko Mikimoto) and, last but not the least, there's a really good introspective analysis of the characters (it's not a chance that this will be one of key points of Evangelion). About that, many people observed that at the end of the series, when Noriko and Kazumi finally come back to the Earth with the almost destroyed Gunbuster, all the questions concerning the salvation of humanity seem to be less important than the fact that the spiritual agony of Noriko and Kazumi is finally over. The two girl have lost almost everything but they can now live together "in the same time".
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Technical devices
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First of all, let's consider the last esisode: as you probably guessed looking at the screenshot in the "Episodes" section, the last episode of the series was realized completely in black & white in 16:9 format. Someone said that Gainax experienced economical difficulties while realizing Gunbuster Top o Nerae! so that they decided to save money choosing that solution (black and white) and realizing the final battle before the Black Bomb's implosion with still images. I don't know if this theory is correct, but you should agree with me when I say that the fact that OAV 6 is all in black and white really underlines the dramatic athmosphere that an episode like that must convey to the audience; you can feel the sadness of the situation, you understand that something really tragic is going to happen and that the future of the whole humanity is in danger. But at last, when the images focus on the lighted up Earth and suddendly colors come back, well... there's a kind of liberation and happiness in seeing those two pink points of Noriko and Kazumi reach the Earth remaining one close the other. But still, there're a lot of unsolved questions, first of all: what happenend on the Earth during those 12.000 years?
Remaing on the final scenes, Jung promised her friends that she would have waited their return and welcomed them and the message that lightened on the Earth is the realization of Jung's promise; it should have been written "okaerinasai", "welcome home", but infact the last ideogram of the message is reversed. This may mean that humanity changed a lot during that period... even if we still can't understand how Jung succeded in keeping her promise ^_^
Finally I'd like to tell you about the wise use of colors in the whole series in order to convey particular feelings. The main characters in Gunbuster Top o Nerae! are not always presented in a "natural light"; Noriko, Kazumi, Jung, etc. are often surrounded by orange, red, purple or gray lights, in particular when they are piloting the robots: colors are used to describe feelings and temper of the characters.
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Moral
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Gunbuster Top o Nerae! suggests some moral questions that you can think about; infact some elements may have been better developed, but they would have required more that six episodes; we are already very close to perfection...
First of all, the aliens: we understand that we're dealing with a very advanced form of life and that they possess great intelligence. They're well organized and consider humanity as a threat for their own existence so they aim at our destruction. There's a theme that we will see many years later in Neon Genesis Evangelion with the 'Angels': who are the "good" ones? Who said that man is good so he has the right to kill the "evil" aliens? Of course you must kill or die, but it's the same for the aliens.
Another moral question: are we the owner of the whole universe? Have we the right to destroy a galaxy swallowing it in a black hole generated by the Black Bomb only because in this manner we also swallow all the aliens?
Well, I hope I haven't bored you... I tried to raise your interest so that you watch this real masterpiece of animation.
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