Forum - View topicREVIEW: Bullbuster Anime Series Review
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Azure Chrysanthemum
Posts: 115 |
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I absolutely loved this show, I've been a longtime mecha fan and Patlabor is one of my absolute favorites, having watched it back in the day when it was still being published by US Manga Corps with my cousins. I think it's a worthy watch for any fans of the grittier real robot shows, the way it weaves its plot and antagonists around the worst aspects of late stage capitalism felt very real. It's a "smaller" series in terms of stakes and scope, but I think that really works in its favor.
Also it threw me off as a Kaguya-sama fan that their office lady was also named Miyuki Shirogane. |
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Glordit
 Posts: 469 |
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Mecha aspect aside, it's a great "small office" drama as well. It touches on quite a few aspects of the corporate red tape and frustrations some of us have dealt with before. They have taken the most frustrating aspects of work and placed it into an anime but, somehow made it entertaining because you can relate to it all, while cheering everyone on.
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Dumas1
Posts: 75 |
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The state of mecha development in this world certainly calls Patlabor to mind, and SV2 semi-regularly confronted strange, oversized beasts, but the series' premise also strongly reminded me of Dai-Guard, which was also about corporate-operated mecha. That crew also had their share of red tape and corporate politics to deal with, but they belonged to a much larger company and fought battles with much higher stakes. It makes for an interesting contrast.
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one3rd
 Posts: 1817 Location: アメリカ |
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I watched the first couple of episodes and I'll echo the comparisons to Patlabor. However, it kind of made me want to watch Patlabor instead.
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zalminar
Posts: 36 |
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This was my main takeaway as well. The show felt very... muddled? confused? like every element was pulling in a different direction. You have the mundane office shenanigans, which you'd think would be set up to contrast/undercut the big exciting mecha. But then the big exciting mecha are already undercut by just being used to slaughter dogs (Okino doesn't know about the giant beasts beforehand and in the first episode thinks a stray dog is a plausible pest--he clearly designed the robot to step on dogs). Everything sits in a weird middle ground--like the existence of giant mutant beasts is treated as kind of a big deal but not really? not big enough to be actually realistic, not small enough to be an accepted aspect of the world. Or consider the mechs--not unrealistic enough to be cool, not uncool enough to be goofy fun. Patlabor had both--the cool hero and villain mechs, and the silly background construction labors. That gave weight to when the cool mechs couldn't cross an overpass, or when the wonky designs would be dangerous and threatening. Instead the Bullbuster is just kind of sitting there in the middle, unable to provide meaningful contrast in either direction. It's like each aspect of the show is being set up to parody/play off of another half that doesn't actually exist. To work with the Patlabor comparisons some more, "police officer" is, in pop-culture terms, a real serious job. There's something to contrast with the banality of office politics, something to heighten with the introduction of mechs, and between the two comedy to be mined in the plausibility of mecha logistics. But "pest exterminator on an uninhabited island" isn't a real job (in terms of pop culture)--there aren't tropes to riff on and play with, there aren't expectations to either indulge or subvert. |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4373 Location: New York |
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Feels like it's a very original premise, but I'm surprised no one made comparisons to Trider G7, which also had its premise of "very small company with a less than notable budget is responsible for giant robot maintenance."
Shame about the CG. |
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kgw
 Posts: 1066 Location: Spain, EU |
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I watched the whole series to the end. It felt more a "company manga" than a mecha one.
Sometimes while watching I thought they could've done better with a real action ('drama'), After all, the Bulbuster was just a tool for the story of megacorporations doing as they please. But I couldn't stand the main character for a while. Too busy daydreaming AND SHOUTING about with being a mecha pilot to be likeable. Oh, the other one wasn't really better ("should I tell my coworkers spoiler[I am setting a crowfunding campaign to help the compan]y?, nah, explanations are a waste of breath") |
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Philmister978
Posts: 306 |
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The CG was indeed questionable at the best of times. especially on the beasts. I get they're supposed to be disgusting, ugly mutations, but there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. The fact they didn't even cel shade them like they did the mecha only makes it worse. Not saying the CGI on the mecha is any better - For a show trying to focus more on realism, the animation is as weightless and stilted as the beasts (at least a show like Synduality:Noir goes for more dynamic movements and actions to offset things). I feel like if they didn't frame skip like anime is fond of doing, and simply did some actual timing adjustments to get them to properly move robotic instead, they'd have gotten a better result. Nothing would save the beasts other than making them 2D, though. |
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