Gunbuster Top o Nerae!

In this page I want to supply a panoramic view of the physical-scientific topics that are visited upon in the “Gunbuster Top” o Nerae!” serial and that, in spite of the remarkable science-fiction component, are hardly ever used out of place. From a certain point of view, this can also be seen as a peculiarity of the GAINAX study which, also in its subsequent successful works, such as Fushigi no Umi no Nadia and Neon Genesis Evangelion, will make a great show of its thorough knowledge in several fields (to make an example , as far Nadia is concerned , please consider the precise and geographically consistent references to Atlantis...).
In conclusion, as many have stated in connection with Evangelion, far from ordinary ingredients inserted in the plot of a series all but offer different levels of interpretation of the work itself, depending on the kind of public, which clearly increases the value of the cartoon production to a great extent. In the case of Gunbuster, anyway, there are not only the scientific elements but, as far as the other aspects are concerned, please refer to the “Comments” section.

I would be tempted to approach the subject in a roundabout way, by making a display of my knowledge of scholastic elements of philosophy with regard to time... But I do not think there is any need to ^_^. What time is exactly has been debated for centuries and perhaps, in its own small way, Gunbuster Top o Nerae! offers its own reflections on this subject.
Everything arises from a certain A. Einstein who, within the field of his studies on the theory of special relativity, formulated some theories on space-time. On the basis of principles known as length contraction and time expansion, an observer moving at a speed close to the velocity of light (approx. 300 thousand Km/sec) feels distances and time intervals in a different way compared to those who move at “normal” speeds. Essentially, time goes by more slowly for those who move at a speed comparable to the speed of light ( which theoretically is the limit that can be reached but, certainly, cannot be exceeded). There are also some experimental proofs of this theory: in the high atmosphere, the cosmic rays produce various particles , among which there are the muons, that have a very short fixed average lifetime, after which they disintegrate. Now, the duration of life of these particles would not permit them to reach the Earth surface, yet we are able to receive them on Earth. All this is possible because time goes by more slowly for the muons, which travel at the velocity of light and therefore have time enough to get to the Earth.
What has all this to do with Gunbuster? Well, Noriko and company often travel at the speed of light and, passing over the fact that thinking to be able to accelerate up to such speeds is sheer science-fiction , at least for the moment, they suffer from these effects. Contrary to what happens in all the other robotic serials, in Gunbuster Top o Nerae! it has been chosen to keep the relativistic effects into account and to turn them into one of the story key elements. Therefore, Noriko remains a teenager, whereas Kazumi, Kimiko, Takami, Ota, Kashiwara and the other inhabitants of the Earth grow old compared with her... or is it Noriko who does not get old? But what is then the real time for Noriko? Who are Noriko’s contemporaries? In what historical period does Noriko live? How did Noriko’s father feel when he returned from space at each birthday of Noriko’s and saw that his girl looked a year older with respect to a few hours before? Well, it is a sure thing, one of the foundations of our life is lost to us: time seen as something eternal, unchangeable, incorruptible, so precise that our existence can be marked by it. Perhaps it would be worth while reflecting upon the philosophical definitions of time.

One of Gunbuster Top o Nerae!’s most unusual ideas is that between an episode of the serial and the subsequent one there are some amusing sketches in which Noriko and Kazumi in super-deformed version discourse on scientific subjects. In spite of the clear comical aspect of these sketches, (with Kazumi acting the wise-head and Noriko the not very much learned student) the conversation touches on far from trite topics such as Lorentz transforms, Doppler effect, cosmic rays, black holes, ... Of course, also some purely science-fiction subjects are mentioned such as the theories on warps (movements in the sub-space at a speed exceeding the velocity of light which are often seen in Gunbuster as well as in the Star Trek serial) and no claims are laid to being fully correct nor it is intended to teach physics to somebody...but I think these intervals are a first-class touch, an ingenious idea of the Gunbuster Top o Nerae production pool.
If you want to read what Noriko and Kazumi say in these lessons, click here to download a text taken from the complete Gunbuster script by "Kentaro ONIZUKA".

Since this serial is mostly set in the space, references to astronomy could not be lacking in Gunbuster Top o Nerae!: what is interesting is that here, too, several particulars sometimes merely touched upon, but always correct, can struck a public with a minimum knowledge of the subject (in the specific instance I have studied the following subjects in my last year of secondary school).
First of all the units of length: correctly, also in Gunbuster they often discuss parsec, light years and astronomic units: in fact, no details are left out and whenever they want to describe the enemy front or to see whether there is sufficient space for the warp or how long it will take to reach a given target, precise figures are given. Therefore, in case you do not know, the astronomic unit corresponds to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, equal to approx. 150000000 Km: the light year, as you can see from the semantics, corresponds to the distance run by the light in a year, i.e. 9467 billion Km. Finally, the parsec (which has a rather complex definition based on the measurement of the parallax angle under which the celestial bodies are seen) corresponds to 3,26 light years and therefore to approx. 31000 billion Km.
In the third episode, the captain of Exelion has to evaluate the characteristics of a star and is astonished to see that it is more or less a red giant star, when it should have been a G class star, just like our “sun”. Now, stars can be classified by means of a diagram called the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram (from the name of the two astronomers who prepared it ) depending on their absolute magnitude (index of the start luminosity less the effects of the observation distance) and their spectral class (i.e. the type of radiation emanated and therefore their temperature). The red giant stars are a little out of centre in the H-R diagram and are characterised by a very big mass and a relatively low surface temperature (they pertain to class K or M and therefore are red). On the contrary, the Sun, as Tashiro correctly states, pertains to class G (it emanates a nearly yellow light) and is positioned approximately in the centre of the H-R diagram.
In the second episode, when an object which moves at high speed and will then turn out to be the space ship Luxion is sighted, an engineer aboard the Exelion states that it is not possible to have a clear image of the object due to its marked Doppler-Lorentz shift. Now, the reference to Lorentz regards the Lorentz transforms (the theory of relativity) and therefore the fact that the object appears much smaller than it is really; on the contrary the Doppler reference regards the so called red shift - blue shift: when you observe a body which is moving away or getting near at high speed from a long distance, the measurement of the radiation emitted by such a body shifts towards red or blue. This expedient is used in astronomy to establish whether a certain celestial body is getting near or going away from us. There are lots of other interesting quotations, but I should like to add only something about the black holes used more or less as vacuum cleaners for aliens in Gunbuster Top o Nerae! ^_^; these are celestial bodies featuring a huge mass and since a big gravitation field corresponds to a great mass, they have the ability to draw towards themselves everything falling within their field. Everything means really everything, luminous waves included ( I wish to remind you that, always on the basis of relatively new notions of physics, also the light has its own mass, though a minimum one, and as such it is affected by the gravitation fields). Therefore, I think that the choice made by the Gunbuster direction in the moment when the first black hole comes into being in the 5th episode (i.e. perfect silence) is rather well-chosen. Only after a few moments there is a deep rumble, but hardly the loud explosion one could have expected knowing that all was generated by the bang made by the engines of a space ship. If we want to be fussy, nothing should have been seen (since the light, too, is sucked up, and cannot therefore reach us), but it would have been detrimental to the show... As a matter of fact, the black holes cannot be seen but they are supposed to exist on the basis of the anomalous behaviour of other celestial bodies in a given zone.

To conclude, I want to add a few remarks on the fact that Gunbuster is nevertheless a science-fiction serial and therefore scientific references are additional elements but not the hinge of the story. First of all, the various technological devices (the serial is set around 2015-2040: this is the future, to be sure, but not a very far future if we consider that the serial was produced in 1988 and 14 years have already elapsed) which permit the man to move in the space as if he were at home (the Exelion interior is spectacular: there are internal trains, a solarium, gyms, etc...) are mere fantasies. As for the rest, the warp travels in the sub-space at a speed exceeding the velocity of light are perhaps the elements that best of all represent science-fiction: these are definitely the key elements required to be able to think, for instance, of escaping from the gravitation field of a black hole or even only of reaching an object moving at the speed of light... however, it is all fantasy.

Elements of this kind help to make this serial interesting also for a not so baby public and, together with a remarkable plot and all the other strong suits of the serial, make Gunbuster a great specimen of cartoon.