Seisenshi Dunbine

Shou Zama is an ordinary 18-year-old from Tokyo who finds himself summoned to the medieval fantasy world of Byston Well. Upon arrival, he is put into service under the ambitious lord Drake Luft, who seeks to greatly expand his power. Those like Shou who come from "Upper Earth" possess strong aura power and are ordered to pilot "Aura Battlers," insectoid mecha designed by a man named Shot Weapon, who also came from Upper Earth.

However, Shou's alliances quickly change when he meets Marvel Frozen, a young woman who has decided to rebel against Drake's political agenda. As he realizes the lord's true intentions, the boy chooses to the fight against Drake and team up with Neal Given, who leads the resistance movement. The resistance isn't alone—Riml, daughter of their enemy and Neal's secret love, aids their efforts, hoping to escape from her father's clutches. As Shou finds himself fighting alongside his new comrades, they put their lives on the line to prevent the villainous Drake from taking over Byston Well before it's too late.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Zama, Show Main

Nakahara, Shigeru Japanese

Frozen, Marvel Main

Doi, Mika Japanese

Fau, Cham Main

Kawamura, Maria Japanese

Guinness, Todd ing

Osaka, Hidemi Japanese

Weapon, Shot ing

Tanaka, Masahiko Japanese

Given, Neal ing

Ataka, Makoto Japanese

Bunnings, Bern ing

Hayami, Show Japanese

Rou, Nigu ing

Totani, Kouji Japanese

Rou, Torou ing

Tatsuta, Naoki Japanese

On, Godo ing

Sasaoka, Shigezou Japanese

Tomino, Yoshiyuki Director, Script, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics, Original Creator

Imagawa, Yasuhiro Episode Director, Storyboard

Iuchi, Shuji Episode Director, Storyboard

Kikuchi, Kazuhito Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Jun 21, 2020

punishedsneed

Recommended

Aura Battler Dunbine, besides some stunted death scenes (I forgot one of the characters had died and was waiting for them to show up during my binge) is solid. The ending does come at you fast, and while it definitely delivers, Tomino has done some better endings (Controversial, but I liked how Victory's ending played out.)

The concept, worldbuilding, characters and so on should be experienced blind by the viewer. Take my word on it and hop into Dunbine. It's an older, episodic anime but it's worth 'battling' through.

This is probably the most unique fantasy mecha out there. I am actually glad Tomino wasn't allowed to ... adapt this without mecha. Only because of how it plays into the story. Dunbine could work without mecha, but it would have needed another plot device to play with industrialized warfare arriving in a fantastical medieval-esque landscape. This dynamic seems to be born from the forced mecha (by the network) and while I normally hate networks forcing things onto creators, Dunbine would be boring without it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by punishedsneed (13)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 19, 2018

killinki

Recommended

This would be a masterpiece if anyone but Tomino made it. He follows the same stunted pattern of interpersonal drama in all of his shows. Prepare for criminal levels of autism from every character.

Aside from that the fantasy world teeming with insect-like mecha and especially its relation with Earth are very interesting. As with all cel animation, watching the Blu-ray edition of this is a treat.

Definitely one of the better mecha shows just by its concept alone. If you don't like medieval stuff you'll probably drop this before the focus shifts on anything else than big ol' ladybugs fighting each other for castles.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by killinki (1)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jan 22, 2019

Zeroflamez

Mixed Feelings

- Introduction

Well where to begin.. I hearing about this anime about 10 years ago. The art looked out dated and didn't peak my interest. Then early last year I was checking out some of Tomino's non Gundam Works. After finishing Space Run Away Ideon I decided to give Aura Battler a go. After a bout a year I finally completed it. How do I feel about it? Well lets find out

Lets start with a synopsis

It's about a Japanese Boy named Sho that one night while riding his Motorcycle he ends up being transported to a land named Byston Wells. Soon after arriving he finds ... out he's in Lord Drakes Kingdom(who is the main antagonist of the anime). Due to not knowing what's going on Sho ends up enlisting into Drakes Military where he meets another man from Earth named Todd Guiness. After a few fights in their Aura Battlers Sho ends up seeing that Drakes intentions are to conquer the land, thus defects and ends up meeting Neil Givens that's leading a group of freedom Fighters in which he s.

- Sound
The music used in this anime is nothing special. Nothing stands out or is memorable other than the intro which is very catchy and the ending which is also quite nice.

- Art
As someone that enjoys hand drawn shows, this one just didn't age well at all. Character designs are just OK. Some characters can look really weird at times. The Aura Battlers.. a lot of people have said their designs are one of the best parts of this series. I personally think they look kind of messy. Most of them use colors that don't make them pop so a lot of the Battlers come off as looking flat.Overall look just didn't click with me. Backgrounds are pretty well done. Didn't see much wrong.

- Voice acting
Nothing much to say here. I saw the Japanese version. They all did a good job.

- Animation
Like other mecha anime during the time. You'll find recycled frames here too. Animaton during battles are alright even though sometimes it can look janky. Character movement is ok for the most part too. It gets the job done

- The Characters
Not the best written characters Tomino has come up with. I didn't care for any of the main cast protagonists. They were likable. I just didn't care. The antagonists were a mixed bag. It was basically either them wanting to rule because they're power hungry. Or them just wanting to fight just to fight. The most promising one was Shot Weapons motivation and wanting revenge. Unfortunately nothing came of that. To be honest the most memorable thing about these characters are their names. Except Cham. Cham is the best.

- Overall Story
It's just decent. It starts off strong. Different from your average Mecha anime. After the first like 20 episodes the pace becomes terrible. Pretty much every major player is introduced within those episodes but instead of progressing the plot it decides to waste your time. Not much of anything happens again until around episode 30.The plot picks up again until around episode 40 in which it devolves into more battle of the week. Until the last like 3 episodes. I'd compare it to a race. Runner starts off strong slows down in the middle then picks up speed a bit again. Then in the home stretch gets second wind runs faster than the start but ends up falling on its face and crawls to the finish line.

- overall enjoyment
I wouldn't watch this ever again. It wasn't terrible but it felt like a huge waste of time in the end. I honestly enjoyed the first 20 something episodes the most. After that it was hit or miss. Had to push myself to finish this.

- Overall thoughts
I really think this anime could have felt like less of a disappointment if it got one last episode to properly wrap it up and give us a real ending. Other issues I had were the Mecha battles. They were boring to watch. Recycled animation and just weren't interesting. The overall anime had great ideas but failed to execute most of it well. It took long for the plot to progress at times. During those times it was hard to keep my interest. Final thing is the subplots abruptly all end with subpar conclusions. I think if this series ditched the mechs it could have spent more time on plot and characters.

Do I recommend it?
Honestly unless you're a Tomino completist, not really. I also certainly can't recommend this to mecha fans either. This whole anime just felt like a huge waste of time due to the ending that essentially kicks the viewer in the nuts and gives them the finger. I'm serious. You spend all this time watching this poorly paced show and get rewarded with nothing. I can forgive a poorly paced show with a good or great ending but this is neither. Just stay away from this show. Not worth the time with that episode count. Yea Dunbine was ahead of its time and had some cool ideas but at this point theres nothing you probably haven't already seen here in modern anime. Bottom line. If you have expendable time on your hands and have the patience. Try it. If you have limited time and value it. Don't bother.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Zeroflamez (6)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Anime that influenced videogames

by jyagan0

39 Entries · 23 Restacks

💫 The 𝓐𝓔𝓢𝓣𝓗𝓔𝓣𝓘𝓒 80s 💫 (1980-1984)

by JohnDimension

27 Entries · 12 Restacks

Super Robot Wars Y - All Anime

by SHIZA_KAISER

18 Entries · 3 Restacks

North American Anime & Manga Releases for August

Here are the North American anime & manga releases for August Week 1: August 7 - August 13 Anime releases Black Clover Part 1 Blu-ray & DVD Combo Digimon Adv...read more

Aug 6, 2018 2:33 PM by Discuss (0 comments)

Q2 2018 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 5/26]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the second quarter (April-June) of 2018. Spring 2018 anime which were licensed b...read more

Mar 26, 2018 3:00 PM by Discuss (28 comments)

	Poll: Rei_III - Aug 9, 2018	3 replies	by »» Apr 16, 3:15 PM
	Poll: BlaizeV - Dec 11, 2018	7 replies	by »» Feb 8, 8:30 AM
	Poll: JaceyFox - Sep 24, 2022	1 replies	by »» Feb 3, 4:41 PM
	Poll: StevenHu - Mar 9, 2015	3 replies	by »» Jan 18, 1:58 AM
	Poll: Fronzel - Oct 22, 2011	5 replies	by »» Jan 17, 10:02 PM