Yeah I know, it should be the other way around right? Well my anime club fin­ished this as our last show­ing project of the year…

It hasn’t been that long ago since the anime com­mu­nity exploded over Gur­ren Lagann and its sheer epic awe­some­ness, man­li­ness, and a healthy dose of Moe. Want another show with that Pierc­ing the Heav­ens atti­tude and all the finest parts of Gainax? Well there’s this not-well-known-enough series called Top wo Nerae! [Eng: Aim for the Top], bet­ter known as the Gun­buster and Die­buster series. For a show many anime fans have never touched (ranked #689&701 on MAL pop­u­lar­ity, com­pared to #13 for Gur­ren Lagann), the Gunbuster/Diebuster series is the ori­gin of almost every­thing Gur­ren Lagann had to offer.

Looks famil­iar? In before THAT POSE

My friend Cit­rus prefers to cat­e­go­rize Gunbuster/Diebuster in just seven words: “hard work, guts, and lov­ing your Onee-sama”. Okay, so you might be able to watch this show with Yuri Gog­gles, but it mostly par­al­lels the beloved “Soul Broth­ers” of Gur­ren Lagann. There’s also three more words which I feel must be added, which is “believ­ing in your­self”. Whether it’s believ­ing in the aniki coach who believes in you, or believ­ing in the Kouhai who believes in you, or believ­ing in your­self who believes in you, believ­ing will always be a neces­sity. Of course, you also need hard work and guts to back it up. Put all this together, strike the pose, and you have your awe-inspiring, heaven-piercing action. Sure, Gunbuster/Diebuster may not be toss­ing any galax­ies around, but we do get to throw Jupiter, slice black holes, and cre­ate Big Bangs …in dur­ing shirt-ripping action that shat­ters crazy eyeglasses.

Want any more rea­sons to watch? Gun­buster and Die­buster are respec­tively directed by Hidaeki Anno and Tsu­ru­maki Kazuya as one of their debuts. Of the two famous direc­tors, the for­mer made the orig­i­nal Neon Gen­e­sis Evan­ge­lion series and is now direct­ing the new movies, while the lat­ter is co-directing the same movies while stash­ing away the widely pop­u­lar Furi Kuri under his belt (although I’m not a fan of it). Some would also claim that Gunbuster/Diebuster are the two’s great­est achievement.

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