History Anime / GunBuster

* EyeBeams: Gunbuster's WaveMotionGun is fired from its singular eye.
** Averted as it does not. The Busterbeam comes from above the singular eye. From a point inside the cross worn of the Gunbuster.

* CurbStompBattle: A lone Gunbuster versus enough space aliens to span the diameter o] ''Pluto's orbit''? Yeah.... the aliens don't stand a chance.

* BeyondTheImpossible: In-between and after her [[HeroicBSOD occasional]] [[BreakTheCutie breaks]], each of Noriko's battles is more awesome than the last. [[TearJerker Except episode 3]].

* CurbStompBattle: A lone Gunbuster versus enough space aliens to span [[BeyondTheImpossible the diameter of]] ''[[BeyondTheImpossible Pluto's orbit]]''? Yeah.... the aliens don't stand a chance.

* GonnaFlyNowMontage: One early fan GagDub ({{Robotech}} III "Not Necessarily the Sentinels") even set it to the trope-naming music.

* KeeCirculatingTheTapes: May no longer be available in Japan for the time being due to a [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor drug scandal]] involving the OP singer, Noriko Sakai.

''Top o Nerae!'', the Japanese title, serves notice that the show will borrow from many sources and genres. It is a mashing-together of ''TopGun'' and a famous Tennis Manga/Anime ''Ace o Nerae!'' (''{{Aim for the Ace}}''). As might be expected from this, episode 1 opens at a girls' high school that trains HumongousMecha pilots to battle the alien monsters that destroyed the Luxion Fleet six years before.

* Expy: The Space Monsters get one in the form of [[AsurasWrath The Gohma]].

* DolphinsDolphinsEverywhere: The Eltreum uses cyborg dolphins for navigation, though only one is briefly shown.

* SapientCetaceans: The final episode shows an Orca amongst a ship's crew.

* CreatorProvincialism: As may be expected from a series created in the halcyon days of the late '80s, ''Gunbuster'' paints a picture of [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld a world dominated by Japan]]. It's governed by a Japanese Empire ruling from Tokyo, protected by a very Japanese Imperial Navy. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]], Japan bought Hawaii from a declining USA in a very different economy. 12 years later during WorldWarIII, the US [[{{ptitle2s6v9yii}} attempts to take Hawaii back]]. However America's continuing collapse allows a more militant Japan to confiscate its space program and technology, soon using it to force the rest of the world under its [[TheEmperor emperor]].

* {{Fanservice}}: By modern standards, not all that much. For the time? Well, let's just say that it's the TropeNamer for {{Gainaxing}}. And many fans refer to Jung as "Juggs"... Hell, some people like to refer to the series itself as "Bustgunner."
** Erm, no. Even by modern standards for non-ecchi anime, there's at least one instance where the fanservice is taken beyond even the standards of ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Case in point: Episode two. Bath scene. End of story.
** Episode 5 also has a decent bit.

* {{HSQ}}: Once the Gunbuster activates in Episode 5, it's not a question of whether or not Noriko and Takaya will succeed, but a question of how many times you'll be shouting/thinking "HOLY SHIT!" over the course of the next four or five minutes. [[spoiler: Lots.]]

* {{Heroic BSOD}}: Noriko during the fourth episode. Kazumi also gets one in the fifth episode, and at the worse possible time.

* HeroicSacrifice: In the final episode, Noriko prepares to use her Buster Machine's engine to start the Black Hole Bomb, knowing that she'll die, being unable to escape. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when Kazumi combines their Buster Machines so that they'll have two engines, therefore still being able to leave. And then [[DoubleSubverted]] when it takes them 12,000 years to get home, meaning that everyone they know is by now quite long dead...
* {{HeyItsThatVoice}}: It's [[NorikoHidaka Akane Tendo]] and "Big Sister" [[ReiSakuma Shampoo]].

* {{HeyIt'sThatVoice}}: It's [[NorikoHidaka Akane Tendo]] and "Big Sister" [[ReiSakuma Shampoo]].

* GratuitousEnglish: File under CallingYourAttacks. "Homingu Reiza!!!" "BUSTAAAA!! MISAIRU!! "

* ExtyYearsFromNow: Averted.

* CallingYourAttacks: Yes, it's mentioned elsewhere, but it needs its own entry, seeing as Noriko is the [[Pantheon/{{War}} GOD]] of attack-calling.
* CapedMecha (Bustaa shieldo!)

* GratuitousEnglish: File under CallingYourAttacks. "Homingu Reiza!!!"
* {{Heroic BSOD}}: Noriko during the fourth episode.

* RammingAlwaysWorks: Inverted [[spoiler: In Episode 4 the Excelion fleet is nearly destroyed. Capitain Tashiro decides as a last ditch resort to ram the Excelion into the enemy flag ship. When the Buster Machine is finally activated Noriko is castigated that it isn't complete. She responds that she'll ram it if she has to. In the end the enemy flag ship ends up ramming Noriko and is destroyed as Noriko has it where she wants it]] Averted in the final battle also [[spoiler: The enemy fleet send a fleet in to ram the blackhole bomb, initially it doesn't work as the sheilds hold, but eventually the enemy suicide attacks are so large that the shield fails setting up the final twist to the]]* BittersweetEnding:

* StarfishAliens: The spacemonsters are among the biggest echinoderm/Giger-inspired horrors in fiction.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Kashiwara and Jung although they were evenly matched

* FanService: By modern standards, not all that much. For the time? Well, let's just say that it's the TropeNamer for {{Gainaxing}}. And many fans refer to Jung as "Juggs"... Hell, some people like to refer to the series itself as "Bustgunner."

* TheWoobie: Noriko early on, after she gets selected for the space mission. Poor Noriko - little to no self-esteem to ''begin with'' - suffers so much social abuse that she has a short [[HeroicBSOD break]][[FreakOut down]] not long after and ends up begging the Coach to rescind her selection.... And this makes the sheer {{Badass}} later on ''[[WhosLaughingNow so]]'' much ''[[BeyondTheImpossible more]]'' satisfying.

A six-volume {{OAV}} from 1988, directed by HideakiAnno, that really put StudioGainax on the map, and a series fondly remembered by old school otaku. While it's a bit of a rough diamond, viewers today can still see why it stood out then, where it led Gainax, and where Gainax took the ideas they started in it. It's also considered somewhat of a spiritual predecessor to NeonGenesisEvangelion and GurrenLagaan, as it contains a lot of elements that would later be used in those shows.

A six-volume {{OAV}} from 1988, directed by HideakiAnno, that really put StudioGainax on the map, and a series fondly remembered by old school otaku. While it's a bit of a rough diamond, viewers today can still see why it stood out then, where it led Gainax, and where Gainax took the ideas they started in it. It's also considered somewhat of a spiritual predecessor to NeonGenesisEvangelion and GurrenLagaan, as it containing a lot of elements that would later be used in those shows.

A six-volume {{OAV}} from 1988, directed by HideakiAnno, that really put StudioGainax on the map, and a series fondly remembered by old school otaku. While it's a bit of a rough diamond, viewers today can still see why it stood out then, where it led Gainax, and where Gainax took the ideas they started in it. It's also considered somewhat of a spiritual predecessor to NeonGenesisEvangelion and TengenToppaGurrenLagaan, as it containing a lot of elements that would later be used in those shows.

A six-volume {{OAV}} from 1988, directed by HideakiAnno, that really put StudioGainax on the map, and a series fondly remembered by old school otaku. While it's a bit of a rough diamond, viewers today can still see why it stood out then, where it led Gainax, and where Gainax took the ideas they started in it. It's also considered the spiritual predecessor to NeonGenesisEvangelion and TengenToppaGurrenLagaan, due to containing a lot of elements that would later be used in those shows.

A six-volume {{OAV}} from 1988, directed by HideakiAnno, that really put StudioGainax on the map, and a series fondly remembered by old school otaku. While it's a bit of a rough diamond, viewers today can still see why it stood out then, where it led Gainax, and where Gainax took the ideas they started in it.