The story of ‘Gunbuster’ follows the career of Noriko Takaya, the daughter of a legendary International Space Force pilot. Following his death in battle, she enrols at a training academy to follow in his footsteps and to become an elite pilot herself. Unfortunately, she does not show much in the way of physical ability, but her coach sees enough raw talent in her to pair her up with the school's prodigy Kazumi Amano and send them both into space to prepare for battle against an alien invasion. Noriko and 'Big Sister' Kazumi are then trained in space combat in order to pilot the Gunbuster, the ultimate weapon to defend Earth, with personal drama, humour and tragedies along the way.

This short OVA could have easily have become just another mecha anime with generous helpings of fanservice, but director Hideaki Anno and the staff at Gainax studios have managed to make a series storyline driven by character drama as much as by the suitably dramatic battle sequences. Many of the missions involve travelling at near-lightspeed, causing those in space to age more slowly than families and friends on Earth. This gives some of the most well-written and touching scenes, in which Noriko and Kazumi find time for them has stood still, while loved ones back home grow old. Like all the best anime, there is a message behind the pretty girls, giant robots and invading aliens: perseverence, self-belief and the value of friendship. There is also an interesting philosophical question posed as the inhabitants of Earth come to terms with the presence of the alien civilisation and its intentions.

There are however comedic moments which prevent the sentiment and gravity of the situations being too much of a drag. Sci-fi fans will notice a few affectionate parodies of a few classics, such as the  view of the space station which brings up memories of the space station in Stanley Kubrik's ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ or the spaceship whose triangular outline owes a lot to the designs of the Imperial Star Destroyers from ‘Star Wars’. There are also ‘science lessons’ at the end of each episode, which outline the remarkably convincing scientific principles behind the alien threat and the time-travel technology.

Perhaps most importantly, the character designs are likeable and the animation is of surprisingly good quality for its age. The final episode is filmed completely in black and white, which only adds to the emotional impact (it could also be due to Gainax's notorious habit at the time of cutting corners to keep production costs down). Sadly, the overall picture and sound quality of the DVD (currently available in the UK in region 0 format only) is as lacklustre as that of VHS, which hardly seems fair treatment for such a brilliant and, it has to be said, underrated series.

In Summary

Video quality aside, ‘Gunbuster’ is a stunning example of 'old school' sci-fi anime, with enough action, suspense, character drama and attention to detail to make it worthy of classic status. If the sight of a pre-Eva Anno’s work isn’t reason enough, the story has enough depth and emotion to earn it a place in anime history.