Forum - View topicVideo Girl Ai and Gunbuster- loved 'em! Any others?
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Steve Berry
Posts: 522 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA |
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My wife is out of town, so I sat down and watched Video Girl Ai (for the first time) and Gunbuster (for the first time in about 15 years), and was very pleasantly surprised by both of them.
I really don't understand how shows like these work at times. The sort of strange mix of slapstick comedy, teenage sexual inadequacy, tender romance, melodrama, and true, heart felt emotions shouldn't make any sense as a viewing experience, but I loved watching both of them, almost despite myself. Gunbuster was definitely the more maudlin of the two-- very over the top with the high melodrama, old school (in that fifty's tear-jerker sort of way) orchestral soundtrack, bouncing boobs and panty shots everywhere, and the fighting-against-humanity's-inihhilation epic battles. It shouldn't work, but I still got teary eyed at the end and yet, somehow, I was still laughing about the absurdity of the whole thing at the same time. It's both tongue-in-cheek and earnest, and perhaps it's the fact that it was able to pull that off that impressed me the most. As for Video Girl Ai, I just sort of immediately fell for Ai. I really liked this show a lot. She reminded me a lot of that sort capricous, yet big-hearted character you get with people like Meg Ryan, early Katherine Hepburn or Irene Dunne (does anyone even know who Irene Dunne is anymore??-- a great 30's and 40's actress). The Japanese voice acting was very good, the j-pop soundtrack was even pretty ok (considering it's almost 15 years old), and the characters came across pretty real-- often when you think it's going to be horrifically melodramatic, it reigns it in and gives you a dose of restrained emotion-- silence over dialogue, knowing looks, touches, etc.-- and every time it happened it was really to the show's benefit. For only 6 OVA eps, a lot happened. And it was actually FUNNY! I laughed outloud a lot. Of course, in the end, what really got me was that I bought into the romance, and I really loved the (very metaphorically heavy) ending. Bittersweet, yet endearing too. I cried some, and yet felt sort of happy at the end anyways. I find it very odd that this show isn't recommended more often in list threads for "Great Romances", or "Funny Comedic Love-Triangle" type shows. When I was in highschool I really wanted to watch this but couldn't afford it, but as an adult anime viewer I've sort of been avoiding it for years-- much to my chagrine now. I just had such a good time watching these I wanted to share the experience with someone else. It scares me to think that these 2 shows are pretty much "old school" by now, as they both around 15 years old-- Ai is from '92, and Gunbuster from '88. Does anyone watch these shows anymore? Or have any thoughts/opinions about them? |
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