Diebuster OVA

Diebuster is the follow-up to Gunbuster. I watched this with same group of friends that I saw Gunbuster with and I can say that this time I enjoyed it as much as they did. This sequel is not so much a continuation of the original story, but an update/retread. It shares some common elements with the original OVA like the flight suit design and the general direction of the story, but mostly the film does its own thing. Diebuster is standard anime material, a young girl named Nono runs away from home to the a military where the mech pilots are chosen by the natural presence of supernatural abilities. Nono is lacking in that department but still manages to infiltrate the group. From there on, things grow more intense resulting in an insane space showdown that pretty much blows up the whole universe.

As an OVA based on a 6 episode series (that I've never seen), it is somewhat apparent there is less time to focus on the character development. Taking those 6 episodes and turning it into a film, the movie misses a lot of the emotional storylines and watching how these heroines got from point A to to point B in becoming talented pilots (or at least that's what I've been told). Like Gunbuster, Diebuster isn't a serious sci-fi series there's plenty of comedy (most notably the abuse of an old dog) and tons of fanservice material (including a retread of the shirt ripping scene from Gunbuster) and there's plenty of crazy nonsense to make you laugh (luckily the science lesson interludes don't make a reappearance). Anyway, I liked this one better than Gunbuster. The overall goal of the film is accomplished by showcasing two cool storylines and I think fans of the original who haven't seen this will definitely enjoy it. I think I'll try to catch the proper series so I can get the full story.