Series: Gunbuster 2 is set sometime in the future of Gunbuster, though references to the original were fairly obscure so I wouldn't worry if you haven't been fortunate enough to see the original. The series is six episodes long and started with young Nono leaving the safety of her small hometown on Mars to fulfill her dream of becoming a pilot. Leaving her dog and family behind her, she strikes out for the big city where all the action is at; ending up working in a diner to keep food in her stomach and a roof over her head. While not particularly bright, she claims that she'll make it based on "sticking it out with hard work and guts"; much to the amusement of those around her. The diner she works at shows that she has a peculiar talent for splitting things in two, typically including plates and appliances, resulting in her debt increasing rather than the girl saving up any money at the place. The up side to the job is that she becomes acquainted with the many machine operators from a nearby military base, several of whom take a keen interest in the girl due to her looks and apparent availability.

One day, a few of the pilots are kidding around with her using their machines, tossing her in the air and scaring her, until a strange newcomer to the diner intercedes in the matter using a far larger, more powerful device that signifies her status as a space pilot; one of the elite of the military. Even more than that, she is the top pilot in the special organization known as The Fraternity; the home of powerful "Topless" pilots that operate machines driven by a special energy they alone control. Her name is Lal'C and after rescuing Nono from the men, leaves the area; taking her powerful machine called Dix-Neuf (the oldest machine in service) with her. The impressionable Nono follows her to the gates of the base, calling her savior One-Sama as a sign of respect. This results in a space monster attacking and Nono joining the force when it is discovered that she has some natural ability to communicate with the Gunbuster machines, proving to have other special abilities that weren't even making sense until later in the series. The dynamic of the first two episodes as contained on this DVD seeming to be as much a comical look at some of the original aspects of the series (like Nono Riki herself) but losing the emphasis on time dilation and other scientific projections the series focused so much effort on. The attempt to dumb down the series was not unexpected and actually made it better in some ways since the pseudo-science of the original Gunbuster, while interesting to science geeks, was flawed in a number of ways.

The two episodes here were 3) I Hate the Topless and 4) Resurrection!! The Legendary Buster Machine!; this time, the emphasis was on a rivalry between one of the supporting cast (Tycho, who also had a short text interview in the booklet) and Nono over who gets a newly commissioned buster machine. Nono's tremendous potential is a big factor in her favor by Tycho has been a loyal member of the team for a long time and powerful ally in the battle so while they fight at each other, causing problems, it results in a surprise choice. The big mission of this volume is to fight a regularly occurring group of space monsters called the Jupiter Express (centering around the planet Jupiter 2; another sci-fi homage) that are so plentiful that even destroying thousands of them leaves far too many alive to handle. The role of Nono as a savior is again explored when she pushes for Lal'C to save some children who think the Topless pilots are akin to gods with their supernatural abilities, playing out nicely before the couple has a falling out. That leads Nono to go on a special mission to revive a monstrous and dormant buster machine that might help turn the tide of battle. Needless to say, those in her chain of command have their own ideas as to the specifics of the mission, leading to absolute chaos when things go wrong. The space monsters attack the Pluto base where the device is lying dormant and all heck breaks loose until Nono makes a surprising transformation, but will it be enough to make the three way battle sustainable?

There was still a bit more fan service, including full nudity, than you would think a "13 Up" would provide but even the sexual connotations were mild to make up for it, the bent over panty shots, fully exposed breasts, and ass cheeks galore probably a tribute to the original show too. I liked how Nono's determination to apply hard work and guts allowed her to come out on top when she needed to be but also served to highlight the latter part of the volume when she tentatively saved the day too. In any case, the show proved to have a lot going for it in the extras as well and when it comes out next month, I think a lot of you will find this to be better than a great many titles on the market currently so I rated it as Recommended which is as high a rating as I feel comfortable giving a two episode disc. Check it out though and let me know what you think.

Picture: Gunbuster 2 was presented in the usual 1.77:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen as originally shot by director Kazuya Tsurumaki for Gainax in Japan and to be released by Bandai Visual here in the USA. The colors were cheerful and bright, the depth of field provided in times like during the opening snowfall or the stars in space, and the details were all above average looking. While the show was presented in MPEG-2 on a DVD-9, I saw no compression artifacts worth noting and the bitrate was often substantially higher than average, weighing in just under 8 Mbps regularly; almost twice that of other anime I've watched lately. The numeric readings aside, the show looked solid in most ways, even outstanding in others, so it might be a great test disc for your standard definition equipment (I just wish an HD DVD and/or Blu-Ray version was available since this is exactly the type of release that would benefit from such a treatment).

Sound: The audio was presented in a choice of a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Japanese or a 2.0 DD Japanese with English subtitles. I planned for it to be a lackadaisical set of tracks given my experience with original language track releases (dubs tend to have superior audio qualities; differing opinions about the vocals aside) but I was pleasantly surprised when the score sounded very defined and the separation appeared to be substantially better than average. The music and sound effects had the kind of raw power one doesn't tend to hear much in Japanese tracks, the OVA sounding more like a movie at times with a healthy balance between the vocals and other audio components. I wish there had been a dubbed track as with most anime releases these days (there are some die hard fans of either form of vocal track; why alienate either if trying to broaden your market appeal?) but can't deny that I liked the way each part of it was handled otherwise. Working on a hunch, I checked the bitrate and noticed it was substantially higher than I'm used to as well; clocking in at the 448 Kbps rather than the more common 192 Kbps, and a blind listening test affirmed the difference right away.

Extras: Given the fact that there were only two episodes on the DVD, I figured the extras section was going to make up for it and I wasn't disappointed. The best of the batch was the 20 page booklet that had a wealth of text interviews (the vocal actress for Tycho-Miyuki Sawashiro, and one for Nicola, the leading male, as played by Mitsuo Iwata), science lessons, and character descriptions but the best being the extensive Encyclopaedia of the series. Don't read it until you've watched the show though since it was replete with spoilers. The disc itself had a clean ending and a breakdown of the two episodes that were okay but the winner here was the Diebuster TV which included a lengthy interview of Yoji Enokido interviewed by Yutaka Izubuchi. As the screenwriter for the series, he is perhaps the second major element in making the show what it was after the planner/director/creator who was covered last time and there were a lot of clips used to illustrate the show. There were spoilers here too so wait until you're done to watching the show before jumping in on watching the interview.

Final Thoughts: Gunbuster 2, V2, like Gunbuster (Top Wo Nerae), had some imperfections in terms of plot holes and other minor issues but like the original, it was a lot of fun to enjoy with some significant replay value for me. I obtained all three volumes of the series at once and watched them in a single sitting so the lines between the volumes were not an issue for me but I was struck by the creativity used to enhance many minor details that I almost missed; necessitating a second viewing the next day. On both occasions, I found new things that jumped out at me that more devoted followers of the original OVA will probably "get" without a passing thought, still helping to make the series serve as a nice follow up to the legendary show. In all then, you are bound to like it if you enjoyed the first; something kind of rare in anime these days for most consumers, but it also stands on its own too. The flow of the series progressed nicely with this second volume and as a result, it made for some solid replay too.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, Best of Anime 2005, and Best of Anime 2006 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.