Anime Discussion Thread - Page 2688

Not sure why you would say that about Noriko and not about Simon. The biggest difference between them is gender, and not much else. Simon goes from staying in Kamina's shadow and generally being a coward, to eventually saving the day a few episodes after Kamina's death. Same goes for Noriko, who had a complex of her skill and ability compared to Kasumi and Jung, but over-came her fears with hard work. Thematically, Noriko and Simon are almost identical. Its not like it came out of no where, no more than Simon's change came out of no where. Both had character building and development that lead to what they did.

Plus, Noriko and Kasumi had been training to pilot the Gunbuster since they were first on-board the Exelion (they had been specifically chosen for that in episode 1), and Coach was giving Noriko one-on-one attention to pilot it (much to Jung's annoyance), so its not like she just jumped on it then "suddenly" she can pilot.

The first enemy Noriko defeated was 1,000 enemies with a single laser sweep, but before that she couldn't even swing at an enemy. In TTGL Simon defeated his first foe clumsily and with help and built up to doing more impressive feats. Simon as a person grew with the help of Kamina, Yoko and Nia to come out of his coward shell. Noriko was abandoned by Amano although she did receive some emotional support from Coach it was more advice than friendship. So yes I agree that they are the same archetypes Simon in my opinion received more help which made his conversion to bravery more believable. Though you are right that Noriko and the others were being trained to use the Gunbuster, but I have a problem of never actually seeing it when Noriko never demonstrated she could use any mech in combat.

It wasn't that she couldn't even swing at her enemy, it was because she was too afraid to.

Look at it like this, this is the buildup that went into Gunbuster, and why it was so good. Noriko was initially a low level student, but Coach saw potential in her, and picked her. This caused her to get bullied alot, but in response to this, she worked really hard (which is a key theme throughout the anime), and at the end of episode 1, defeated Kashiwara, who was the #2 in the school behind Kazumi. This is the proof that her hard work paid off, and she was worthy to be selected by Coach/worthy to pilot the Gunbuster.

Episode 2 introduces Jung, and her rivalry with Kazumi. Noriko already felt inferior to Kazumi, and Jung's appearance gives her even more of an inferiority complex. Episode 2 also has her demonstrating her ability to pilot, especially in difficult situations such as getting aboard that ship that was in warp (at least until she learned it was her father's ship/he was dead).

Episode 3 has their first battle. She meets Smith, tries to act tough because shes being trained to pilot the Gunbuster, but still thinks she isn't much compared to the other two. She partners with Smith, and gets onto the battlefield. Do you remember how they protrayed that battle? They didn't even show the outside of her mech for the most part. It was dark. You didn't know what was coming. All you had was Smith's voice coming through the radio. Noriko was afraid. It was her first fight. Then all the sudden, Smith stops talking. The entire scene was designed to be claustrophobic and to show the fear Noriko was experiencing in her first fight. It wasn't lack of physical ability. She didn't even fire a shot. That isn't an indication of "wow she sucks at piloting", that's an indication of being a coward.

Episode 4 has her fears and insecurities peak. Coach starts giving her one-on-one training, and advice. You can't discount his influence on either Noriko or Kazumi in this anime, his advice and coaching is immense, everything they need to hear, they hear it. His influence on Noriko is as strong, or stronger, than Nia's was on Simon after she was introduced. There is a scene where Jung at one point sees Noriko getting this special training (this is you seeing her training for the Gunbuster, btw, its even the exact same cockpit), gets jealous, and challenges her. We see explicitly just how much the previous fight had traumatized her. When the battle comes, and shes left out, shes crying in her room. She knows why everyone "abandoned" her, in that she just runs away and cries. She hates that about herself. She asks herself if shes going to die like that, which is both a rhetorical question, and one which was a very distinct possibility given their situation. She resolves that her old self is 'dead', and she won't run away and cry anymore. It wasn't about other people having to give her support to come to that conclusion. She always had the ability to fight. Her only obstacle was herself. She owed it not only to her friends, who were out there fighting to the death right that instant, but to the dead too. She finds her resolve. The scene where she first launches in Gunbuster is one of the most powerful in anime, IMO. Its the scene marking where she forces herself to conquer her fears with her own inner strength to do whats right, and to help her friends. The build up to it was masterful.

Feels unfinished though, what we got was basically a romance/action in a space setting. While I liked what happened around and with the main characters, I can't say I cared too much about the war as a whole.

Sorry for getting space sidetracked, gonna marathon Kaiji now. I hope you forgive me.