Image is from the movie Gunbuster vs Diebuster. The movie contains scenes from Gunbuster and Diebuster OAV’s cut to fit a full length film.
WARNING: This post assumes you have watched both Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster and Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster.
Wow. I could choose no better word to describe what an experience this has been. I watched Gunbuster earlier this year and finally got around to finishing Diebuster recently. Everything finally made sense, and that’s hard to consider when you know Hideaki Anno is behind a lot of the storyline.
One of the first things that comes to mind is how difficult it was to tell whether or not Diebuster had anything to do with Gunbuster early on in the first few episodes. It definitely becomes apparent, but I certainly questioned whether or not Diebuster was a sequel to Gunbuster. Another big surprise for me was when it became known that Nono was actually a Buster Machine. I didn’t pay attention to the fact that she was a robot, especially since everyone made it seem like it was normal. Nikolas once said that unregistered robots were common around Pluto, but rarely seen on the inner planets. To top it off, Nono was not only a Buster Machine, but also completely autonomous one that did not require any piloting. Very cool.
Since the events at the end of Diebuster coincide with the end of Gunbuster, I know for sure that they both end in the year 14,292 A.D., precisely on July 6th. The Douze Mille plan which consisted of using the Earth as a weapon against the Variable Gravity Well Exelio took place ten years before the end of Diebuster. This means the year when Nono and Lark defeated the space monster was 14,282 A.D. When I think about it, I always had a feeling that the technology in Diebuster was way ahead of Gunbuster, but now I know exactly why.
Near the very end there’s a scene where Lark and Chikko hold a conversation. 10 years have passed, and now Lark and Chikko are much older. Lark tells Chikko she’s been doing local surveying the whole time she’s been on Earth. She mentions the Okinawa Rails, a species of bird that was likely affected by the Douze Mille plan that moved the Earth from its planetary orbit. This is much like in Gunbuster where the Earth suffered a slight distortion on its axis from the blast of the creation of Black Hole Exelio, thus forcing all organisms to adapt. Lark is seen in clothing that resembles what modern bird watchers wear today, so I think it’s safe to assume Lark decided to settle down and take care of the birds she used to talk about with Nono. Chikko, on the other hand, tells Lark she is on Pluto. She also says she’s on her way to Sirius for some kind of diplomatic mission. Sirius happens to be the brightest star that can be seen from Earth. It is one of the nearest stars to Earth as well. This particular star is a celestial body that is located 8.6 light years away from Earth, way outside our Solar System. It’s likely that humanity began exploring further out into space now that they are no longer confined to the Solar System. Lark continues and asks Chikko if she heard about the news that the Gravitational Observatory in Hawaii confirmed Gunbuster was on its way back home to Earth. Chikko also asks if there’s lots of commotion going on for the upcoming Tanabata which is a festivity in Japan celebrated on July 7th. This helps correlate the fact that the end of Diebuster takes place on July 6th, exactly when Gunbuster ended.
When I thought more about this particular scene I noticed the fact that Lark and Chikko are talking over what seems to be a cellphone. This in and of itself is amazing because they are at least 4,285,000,000 Kilometers away from each other, yet they are talking to each other remotely, in real-time. They are not experiencing any time dilation at all as they talk to each other. This begins a series of observations I’ve made that I believe help explain why none of the characters in Diebuster are ever affected by time dilation unlike the ones in Gunbuster.
Now let’s get down and dirty and try to clear some things up. A lot of what I investigated is limited by my sparse handling of highly advanced theoretical physics applications including their obscure terminology, but I found it interesting enough that I decided to go as far as I could given the amount of free time I have.
I’ve asked myself the question and you may have done so as well…why the hell is everybody traveling all over the place at sub-light speed and not experiencing time dilation? In Gunbuster people on planets were getting old all the time, but in Diebuster everyone shares the same time frame and nobody gets older when they return from a fight.
Believe it or not, right from the first episode we get the possible answer, although it might not be that clear to you your first time watching it. In the first episode Lark gets in her Buster Machine, Dix Neuf, to fight a space monster that landed on Mars (that we now know isn’t really a space monster). It’s here when the bystanders mention something crucial to understanding the story…they say ether around Lark’s Buster Machine was sparkling. They were amazed at this sight and awed at the power of a Topless. It’s here where I made the decision to believe that ether had a lot to do with the lack of time dilation in Diebuster, so it’s where I started my investigation.
In case you need a refresher, you should know time dilation is all about a moving body’s speed relative to a body at rest. The Twin Paradox by Albert Einstein explains it very well. If there were a pair of twins and one went on a journey into space at sub-light speed, while the other remained on Earth, when the traveling twin returns he will be younger than the twin at rest on the planet. The reason for this is explained in Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. In it we find that the passage of time is slower to a moving body relative to a body at rest. So basically time dilation happens because the frame of reference for a person who’s “stationary” on a planet is different from someone traveling at sub-light speed.
I’d also like to expand on the concept of “at rest.” Although a body may appear to be at rest, matter is never truly stationary in space. Think of this chain of events such as a planet rotating on its own axis while in orbit around a “sun,” which constitutes constant movement. In addition, the “sun” is also orbiting around the center of a galaxy. In turn, the galaxy is also rotating and moving in deep space, and so on. Matter cannot remain at one single point in space because of all this relative movement. This differentiation of reference points is important. All things are relative to one another and this becomes an essential part of what happens in not only Gunbuster but also in Diebuster.
In Gunbuster, time dilation happened frequently because every time a group of characters would accelerate at sub-light speed, they had to travel through ether. When they returned home a greater amount of time had passed at the place that was at rest (Earth) in relation to the time they experienced while they were moving at sub-light speed. So once again all things are relative and comparing a body at “rest,” who’s travel through ether is slow enough to be considered negligible is quite different from a body traveling at sub-light speed ripping through ether. Thus, ether becomes a key element in understanding Diebuster. I’ll explain why.
Ether was not thoroughly explained but mentioned in Gunbuster quite a few times and a little bit in Diebuster. It is an important part of space, especially because of its relationship with light. Light is described as having properties of both waves and particles, and modern physics describes all matter as having properties of both waves and particles. Particles do not require a medium in which to travel, but waves do. Like ripples on a pond or sound through the air, light needs a medium in which it can travel across space. Now thanks to the Special Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein, we can have a better understanding of wave-particle duality, which is that both light and all matter exhibit properties of both waves and particles. The medium through which light travels is theorized to be ether, or specifically Luminiferous aether. Ether isn’t proven to actually exist, but there are supporters of its existence in the scientific community.
I came up with a crude system to explain time dilation and it’s relationship to ether. Let’s explore it.
Picture two people in a pool. We’ll call one Person A and the other Person B. Person A and Person B decide to have a race from one end of the pool to the other. Now let’s also assume they’re both equally fast swimmers and complete the race at exactly the same time. With this in mind we can liken Person A and Person B as two rays of light traveling through space. Their maximum speed, which is equal, is c, the maximum speed of light. We can also consider the water in the pool as ether. Person A and Person B are able to swim across the pool thanks to the water, likewise, light can travel across space thanks to the presence of ether. Ether also becomes the limiting factor in c (299,792,458 m/s or 1,079,252,848.8 km/h), which is known as the speed of light in a vacuum. Light cannot go any faster than c, and in our simple system Person A and Person B cannot swim any faster than each other.
Now lets change the perspective and broaden the concept.
If one of the swimmers wants to go faster than the other he has to fight the resistance of the water to achieve that. However, in this system both swimmers have the same exact physical capabilities and one cannot outdo the other at swimming speed. They are maxed out just like light is maxed at c through ether. Now consider another key aspect — how ether relates to time. An object at rest (which is already explained as a relative term not as a single position in space at absolute rest) is still traveling through ether. It’s relativity to ether is more or less constant and therefore the passage of time is constant for all objects equally on the same body. If propelled to reach sub-light speed, an object must exhort large amounts of energy to maintain that speed through ether and time dilation occurs. The passage of time is slowed down for the body in movement due to traveling quickly through the viscosity of ether. The only way to increase our speed without experiencing time dilation is controlling the ether.
Lets change the system to explain time dilation. This time one of the two people in the pool will swim at full speed from one end to the other, simulating sub-light speed travel through space. On the other hand, the other person will paddle very very very slowly, simulating a person at rest on a planet. Let’s call the person swimming quickly Person A, and the one at rest Person B. The race begins and Person A jets off fighting the water resistance and focusing on getting to the other side to then come back as quickly as he can. In opposition, Person B is barely moving and paddling so slowly that momentum and inertia is carrying him ever so slightly across the pool. Because Person B is moving so slowly (at rest) he is able to notice a bird fly by and land on a nearby tree. He also notices an airplane jet across the sky too. Person B also watches as a car enters the parking lot of the pool. In the midst of all this Person A finally returns to where person B is who has barely moved from where he started. Let’s analyze this.
While swimming Person A was completely focused on his swimming to maximize the speed he traveled at through the water (ether). Person B, on the other hand, is not focused on speed but rather is able to notice the passage of time and motion around him. To Person A, the passage of time is slowed down because he is quickly moving through the water and trying to get back as quickly as possible. In the minute or so he is swimming he is completed focused on his rhythm, pacing, and breathing. Person B on the other hand notices time go by quicker and is able to notice the activity around him. By the time Person A returns to where Person B is, he will have missed out on the bird, the airplane, and the car in the parking lot. Much has happened when Person A returns. So once again, the faster you move through ether (water), the slower the passage of time becomes.
In order for Person A to make it across the pool at the same speed and back to where Person B is while still being able to notice everything Person B is noticing (no time dilation, same time frame) something must be done. Let’s try to find a solution for this.
Let’s rearrange the system once more. Person B is once again is at rest, slightly gliding across the water, while Person A is going to make the trip across the pool and back but with a fundamental difference. This time, Person A is going to control the water in the pool to prevent time dilation. Ignoring how this is done, let’s say Person A is able to split the water in the pool (think Moses from the Bible) and create a path along his swimming line all the way to the end of the pool. Along this path the water is only ankle deep. He can now make his way across walking at relatively the same speed he had while swimming. This does not affect the rest of the water in the pool. Person B is still very slowly paddling across the pool, seemingly immobile. Person A no longer has to deal with the same level of water resistance, so he makes his way across and back walking. Because of the lack of water (ether) Person A can now notice the bird land on the tree, see the airplane fly by, and watch as a car enters the parking lot. Although he is moving much faster than Person B, Person A is not tied up by water resistance and exists in the same “time frame” as Person B. Thus if we can control ether, we no longer have to experience time dilation when traveling at sub-light speed.
In Diebuster there is lots of travel at sub-light speed, not just with the Buster Machines. We see the characters travel from a satellite orbiting Mars all the way to Jupiter, with no effects of time dilation. There’s also travel from Jupiter to Titan, Titan to Charon, Charon to Pluto, and so on. In some of these scenes you’ll notice the vehicles that mankind uses for travel. You’ll also notice how they follow a rigid path through space and are not free-roaming like ships at sea. Thus, all civilian travel is done on space ways that look like tunnels. Only the Space Fleet and the Fraternity are ever seen outside of these designated space ways. Because domestic space travel is limited to space ways, it seems humanity is able to control the ether in deep space between navigational points such as planets and their moons along the Solar System. This means that even while traveling at sub-light speed, the passage of time is the same along the connected points because of the relativity of the ether between each point. It’s not so much that they removed all ether from point A to point B, but they can control the viscosity and thickness of it, hence dampening any time dilation in travel between these points.
Like I mentioned before, the ships that are not confined to space ways are the Space Fleet ships. In the second episode you’ll notice that there were a few Space Fleet ships that were traveling at sub-light speed while fighting a space monster and they did not experience time dilation. However, in this particular case there must have been an established space way from Mars to the Fraternity space station where they were. Later on in the fifth episode when the same Space Fleet ships venture out beyond the Solar System Absolute Defense System at the edge of the Solar System, you’ll come across an important detail. There’s obviously no space ways created to travel out there, and if I’m right, there has to be a way to control ether from within a ship in deep space. If you watch the fifth episode again, you’ll notice that there are ether control rings located at the front of the ships. Coupled with the ships ergonomic shape similar to a baseball bat, they are able to tunnel through the ether and not experience time dilation. This explains why Lark and Chikko can talk to each other from so far away in real-time. It’s also how the human Space Fleet was able to reach back to Earth before the Variable Gravity Well Exelio.
After trying to find so many answers I got this far. Topless being able to control ether explains a lot. It must also be the reason why the Topless are able to summon their Buster Machines from seemingly anywhere as they can split open a path for them by controlling ether in deep space. The Buster Machines undergo quantization and are rebuilt at the site, much like a warp. They can even rebuild certain parts at will as is seen early on in the first episode. This happens specifically when Lark only made Dix Neuf’s arm appear in the shop where Nono was working.
The Variable Gravity Well found on Titan was supposed to be 10,000 years old. That puts it around 2,000 years after the events that occur at the end of Gunbuster. The characters that were discussing it wondered if it had broken through the space monster encirclement around the Solar System, so that leaves the possibility that the Solar System Absolute Defense System was put up around 2,000 years after the events in Gunbuster, ~4048 A.D. The Variable Gravity Well was found buried under corpses of Space Monsters, and at that point in the story the characters did not distinguish between the real space monsters and the man-made defense system, Buster Corps. This leads me to believe that the Solar System Absolute Defense System buried that Variable Gravity Well on Titan during an attack after the creation of the defense system.
The Twins mistaken the Titan Variable Gravity Well for a Topless that has lived for 10,000 years because it can control ether and emit the same bright blue light that Topless can emit. They seem to have been eating part of it and it had extended their Topless powers even after growing older. The Topless syndrome is supposed to be a phenomenon that only occurs in young people and disappears at a certain age. The Twins did not want to lose their Topless powers so they resorted to eating the Variable Gravity Well. It must have provided enough stimuli to their brain to continue emitting the same phenomena that allow ether control, thus they stay as Topless.
In one of the episodes Nono warps from Pluto to Titan in order to save Lark from the Variable Gravity Well. Everyone is astounded by the speed at which she reached them from Pluto. Although this is taking place 12,000 years in the future, humanity lost the capability to warp. The ancient humans that created the Solar System Absolute Defense System sealed away warp technology most likely because of the incident with Noriko. Nono is able to reach her destination in what appears to be blink of an eye and there is no time dilation.
Some of you may be confused so let me slow down a bit and clarify. Traveling at sub-light speed through ether, as we already explored, causes time dilation because of presence of ether. However, a warp jump does not have any of the problems associated with time dilation. A warp consists of using a degradative reactor to compress space, turning ether into plasma and thus allowing a ship entry into sub-space. Once the ship is in sub-space it is no longer subjected to the effects of ether. What this ultimately becomes is perception of time between a body at rest slowly moving through ether at a negligible pace (Lark on Titan) vs Nono in a warp bubble not affected by ether. They both exist in the same time frame because of the small negligible difference in ethereal interference.
While in a warp bubble a ship no longer accelerates. Instead, it is carried along by the field of normal space outside of the warp bubble. The crew of the ship will not feel like they are moving at all because they are in sub-space, but they are being carried by the outside space. The passage of time while in sub-space is more or less equal to the passage of time to a body at rest. This means if a crew spends 10 seconds in warp, 10 seconds will have passed in normal space on a body at rest. However, the distance covered will be far greater than what light would have traveled in the same time frame in normal space while traveling through ether. Some of you may understand this by trying to come up with the shortest path of joining two dots on a piece of paper. Instead of drawing a line across the sheet of paper, folding the paper until the two dots meet is very much what a warp is like.
As I already pointed out, light travels at c or 299,792,458 m/s. The distance between Pluto and Titan is about 2,995,000,000 km. This means that light would take about 2 minutes and 47 seconds to get from Pluto to Titan. If Nono were to accelerate at sub-light speed and travel from Pluto to Titan without having ether control capabilities (which ancient humanity did not, thus Nono doesn’t have), time dilation would occur. 8 months and 11 days would have passed on Titan before Nono would arrive. Nono obviously got there without time dilation, and the only way to travel faster than light and not be affected by time dilation is to warp. Thus, warp is an essential FTL (Faster Than Light) travel method and is crucial to what happens in the story. Nono must have used a small micro-black hole to create a degeneracy reactor, allowing her to enter sub-space and warp to Titan. The Buster Corps, who also are able to warp, followed her shortly after.
Nono’s collective function is known as Terran Imperial Space Fleet, Solar System Direct Assistance Battalion Attache Sixth Generation Interstellar Cruising Decisive Weapon, Buster Machine No. 7. When she combines with the Buster Corps she becomes Diebuster, similar to Buster Machines 1 and 2 becoming Gunbuster. What humanity was fighting against this whole time was their own creation, the Buster Corps, a large fleet of seemingly bio-mechanically engineered unmanned Buster Machines that over thousands of years evolved to resemble their enemy because of its greater efficiency. Their function is to protect humanity, not destroy it. I’m also going to guess Nono was not only made to control the Buster Corps, but to also welcome Noriko when she arrived to the Solar System. This must be why Nono was so obsessed about Noriko (Nonoriri) and stuck to Lark so much because she was similar to Noriko. It’s also apparent all of the sentient Buster Machines made after Nono must of used some form of bio-mechanical technology.
A nameless old man is the character who found Nono. She was buried in a comet passing by Mars 5 years before the events in Diebuster. “No..no…ri…ri…ko” is what Nono uttered when she was found. This is a huge clue as to what Nono has been referring to Nonoriri, which is Noriko, the main character from Gunbuster. Nono lost most of her memory and the little data she could retain must of ended up as Nonoriri. It’s genius when you think about it.
The Fleet Chief of Staff (who by the way seems to be a robot just like Nono) is the one who explains a lot of the storyline. The black hole that was created using the ship Exelion, Black Hole Exelio, took care of a large number of Variable Gravity Wells that numbered in the hundreds of millions, but some survived. Thus, humanity must have decided to lock themselves away in the Solar System and created the Solar System Absolute Defense System. They also sealed away warp technology in the process. I believe ancient humans sealed away warp technology and enclosed themselves in the Solar System to make sure humanity remained on Earth. Noriko was still out in space and hoping to reach Earth safe and sound, it would be devastating if she returned and humanity fled in utter defeat. Noriko gave so much for humanity by destroying the center of the Galaxy, the space monster’s main nest, so they just couldn’t let her efforts go to waste. The Fleet Chief of Staff also goes on to explain that the Solar System Defense System began to attack humanity because of the appearance of the Topless. Topless have characteristics that make them very similar to the enemy the Solar System Absolute Defense System was designed to counter-attack. The enemy was now detected inside the perimeter they were protecting and it took measures to destroy it.
Nikolas once described the Topless as having a manifestation of advanced mentality. He even said that in theory, artificial intelligence is able to possess Topless powers as long as it has self and intellect. There had been no examples of it until Nono arrived which is why they allowed her to play with Dix Nuef. When Lark is called onto the Flagship Lalashan, Captain Hatori tells Lark that the appearance of the Topless and the revival of the Space Monsters appeared around the same time. This is further explained the Fleet Chief of Staff tells us that the Topless and the Space Monsters are indeed related. The thousands of years that it took the Solar System Absolute Defense System to evolve into mimics of their own enemies was enough time for humanity to evolve and give birth to the Topless. Topless are simply biological beings that are able to interact and control space in similar fashion to the fearsome space monsters. The defense system was alarmed by their abilities and tried to get rid of the Topless while humanity was oblivious to the truth.
Toplessness, which is abnormal activity of the frontal lobe peculiar to the younger generation, ends up being a problem for humanity. If it’s treated at an early stage it is possible to reintegrate the “diseased” one into society. Once it became clear that Topless were problematic and caused conflict with the Solar System Absolute Defense System, they were being treated so their propagation would not continue.
Going back to the topic about ether, the Ultra Large-Scale Ether Flow Acceleration-Type Assault Weapon, Douze Mille, is was an interesting machine. Douze Mille, the giant device used to slingshot the Earth at the Variable Gravity Well Exelio, was able to control ether flow. This is makes it very similar to the Space Fleet’s ships. Without the ether flow control, Douze Mille and Earth would be affected by time dilation, therefore the plan to try and smash the Variable Gravity Well back into Exelio would never work.
So now that you have a good grasp of the physics in both Gunbuster and Diebuster, let me postulate reasons for a lot of what happens in Gunbuster and Diebuster. “The enemy can travel from Mars to the Moon in 3 minutes,” and “1 minute at sub-light speed is equal to 3 months on Earth, remember that!” are important story defining words that Ota Koichiro says in Gunbuster. They are important proportional values that help calculate everything that happens.
The Luxion, the first ship to go out into the far reaches of the Milky Way was able to reach all the way to the Perseus Arm and back to Earth in a relatively short period of time. Takaya Yuzo, admiral of the Luxion and Noriko’s father used to visit his daughter once a year. This means his round trip to the far ends of the galaxy and back allowed only 1 year to pass on Earth allowing him to come back in time for his daughter’s birthday. So how exactly does the Luxion go out into space 12,000 parsecs away to the Perseus Arm and come back to Earth in 1 year? Well not only do you need to remember the phrases Ota Koichiro said, but another important fact. The Luxion had to have been traveling at sub-light speed for no more than 4 minutes total (round trip away and back to Earth) so when it returned to Earth 1 year would have passed.
If we use the values we know such as the speed of light and the immense distance of 12,000 parsecs, we get that even light would take about 39,140 years to get from 12,000 parsecs out in space to Earth. Calculating time dilation of a body moving at sub-light speed, 5,146,408,675 years would have passed on Earth before the Luxion made it back to Earth, while on the Luxion itself 39,140 years would have passed as previously stated. These values would double to equal the entire round trip.
So how can a ship reach Earth in only 1 year? Warp of course. Like I said before, a body in warp does not suffer time dilation can almost instantly jump huge distances in space. The trick becomes that you can’t just warp wherever and whenever you want to. A ship must travel to where the ether is calm and thinnest before attempting to use its degradative reactor to enter sub-space. So basically a long distance warp goes a little like, warp…move at sub-light speed for a few…warp…move at sub-light speed again and find another warp spot…until you reach your destination. Any interesting spots that they found they could stay there days or weeks and prepare for another warp. The total time at sub-light speed was less than 4 minutes which equals a year on Earth, and it includes the entire round trip. It’s also good to note that the space monsters were concentrated near the center of the galaxy. Once the Luxion made contact with the space monsters they started to breed on stars away from the center of the galaxy. This made travel later on more dangerous and required constant warp jumps of careful precision.
Another big question…how did the Space Fleet in Diebuster reach back to Earth way before Nono and the Variable Gravity Well? Let’s explore this.
The Variable Gravity Well entered warp from outside of the Solar System. However, that is a long distance warp and likely required travel at sub-light speed until it could warp again. 6 months passed on Earth before the Variable Gravity Well arrived, so the Variable Gravity Well was at sub-light speed for only 2 minutes before it warped and reached its destination. Likewise, Nono needed to combine with all of the Buster Corps to become Diebuster before being able to warp to Earth. This is explained with the changes to the Red Milky Way, how in a span of 6 months the Red Milky Way disappeared and regrouped to a single spot and then disappeared again. This means Nono had all the Buster Corps warp to a single location and in 2 minutes they were able to join to form Diebuster and find a spot to warp to Earth. Once again its the travel at sub-light speed through ether that is causing the time dilation.
Finally, the biggest question of them all…why did Noriko and Kazumi take 12,000 years to get back to Earth? Well…once again time dilation on their end. They were near the center of the galaxy where they set off Buster Machine 3 and destroyed most of the Milky Way’s center mass. The center of the galaxy is about 8,000 parsecs away from Earth. Gunbuster was heavily damaged while completing its mission, but they were able to escape the black hole. However, they had to have spent at least 33 days at sub-light speed trying to outrun the blast while also trying to long distance warp back to Earth after finding suitable ethereal space for warp. If Noriko had been caught by the black hole’s event horizon, they would of been crushed to singularity within the black hole and died. This explains why 12,000 years had passed on Earth, while to Noriko and Kazumi only 33 days and a few hours had passed. I’m quite certain Gunbuster must have had rations for them to handle a little over a month of survival.
Jung Freud was supposed to have returned to Earth in 2245 with the main fleet, 197 years after the end of the Carneades Project. Supposedly Jung was elected for presidency of the Galactic Federation and I’m quite sure she is largely responsible for the warm welcome Noriko and Kazumi received even after 12,000 years. She promised she would say “welcome home” when they returned and even after death she did.
Diebuster Perspective
Gunbuster Perspective
I just can’t stress enough how much of a fulfilling moment it is when you finally understand what’s going on. The magical moment begins when the horn blows, the entire planet goes dark, and every light goes out. Anyone who saw the Gunbuster first should of immediately recognized what was going on. When everything was dark in Gunbuster all I could think about was “Crap, everyone’s dead!?!? Not again Anno!!!” (although he didn’t do anything yet =P) This time, watching the scene from Earth’s perspective there was no tension or violent cursing by me. Instead, there was excitement, and when I saw the two red lights and the message that Gunbuster and their pilots returned home it all made sense. It was also a shocking to go back and watch Gunbuster’s ending more carefully, only to find out the Earth had a ring around it. Even back in 1988 it seems Anno had fleshed out details of a sequel for Gunbuster. The same ring is seen at the end of Diebuster and it makes sense that its there because it’s part of Douze Mille.
Here are some notes I took while gathering information from Diebuster and Gunbuster:
Diebuster Notes:
The stickers on the heads of the Topless must have some significance to their ether control power. One can assume its related to their latent mental abilities that disappear once they grow up. It must serve as a containment device because they are not fully capable of holding it back on sheer willpower.
Lark tells Nikolas that she hasn’t been to an old city before, and Nikolas tells Lark that Jupiter had been a ruin from the time when man was shut inside the Solar System. It seems the Jupiter they were on is the construction site that was left during the creation of Buster Machine 3.
When Chikko is jealous of Nono and she challenges Nono to a fight, the scene mirrors when Jung wished to fight Noriko and Kazumi in Gunbuster.
Some people criticize the lack of time dilation in Diebuster, but it seems the urgency of time dilation was replaced by the time one can last as a Topless.
Chikko and Lark met in a laundry room and Chikko states that Lark must have three weeks worth of laundry. Lark tells Chikko that Nono did the laundry every day, so assuming that ever since Nono left there was clean clothes for Lark too, that 3 weeks have passed. So it took Nono 3 weeks to get from Titan to Charon.
The Red Milky Way is where the human-made barrier resides, presumably designed to keep humanity protected from all outside threats.
In the show we can see domestic travel from distances of at least 600,000 kilometers into space. To organize travel there are “orbit ways” or “space ways” and they seem to be numbered. It sounds like a good way to liken it to highways in space. The traffic jam in the last episode was said to take over 80 hours to get through. They also mention needing to repair the orbit way.
The creation of Buster Machine Corps suggests there is commercial value in creation of Buster Machine units.
It’s seems as if Nonoriri not only stands for Noriko, but everything she embodied as a person including her race, her vigor, her passion, and her sacrifice. It becomes apparent that Lark knows who Noriko is when she visits the old man who found Nono and speaks with him. The old guy mentions that most likely Nono was created to serve the same function as Noriko for humanity, give it all to protect our world. Nono lost most of her memory, so she might of had vital information. I’m going to assume Nono was created to control the Solar System Defense Force and to welcome Noriko into the Solar System if she ever returned.
Singularity theory is the study of the failure of manifold structure.
We see when Nono and Lark are inside the Black Hole Exelio. Nono seems to be holding singularity in her hands and she says a monologue about her and Lark on Earth and having a good time. This supposed future obviously never happens, so perhaps Nono is able to defy all laws of physics and look into a would-be future, one of the many possibilities inside of the Manifold Space Room of the Spacetime Censor. She tells Lark that she will take the singularity that was exposed from the black hole and in exchange Lark would take Nono’s singularity. Nono seems happy about it and ends with “afterall,” with a repeat of the scene of Nono going out under the blue sky of Earth. If singularity were exposed the entire universe would revert to singularity, thus everything would be destroyed. To prevent this Nono must have used her micro black holes have Exelio’s singularity sucked into another black hole’s singularity, thus creating an infinitate loop that cancels out the operation and so the universe was saved. Lark received Nono’s singularity in the form of Nono living on in Lark, her onee-sama.
Gunbuster Notes:
Lesson 1:
Space is a vacuum filled with ether particles. Its temperature isn’t absolute zero and instead is 3 Kelvin due to radiation emissions from dark bodies. At the end of the 20th century Dr. Tannhauser posted his thesis on ethereal space theory, which changed the entire outlook of physics. The ancient physics of Newton, the classic physics of Einsten, the modern physics of Tannhauser. In his theory is the Tannhauser Gate phenomenon which later formed the foundation for warp theory. The Starbow is a phenomenon present in the dimensions of sub-light speed. The Tannhauser Gate phenomenon is the only way normal matter is able to break the light speed barrier.
The revolution of two black holes results in a vacuum area which creates a Starbow.. The black holes that share the Schwarzschild radius through controlling their angular revolution speed, create an exposed point outside the black hole. The result is an extension of the exterior circumference of the blackhole. This is the Tannhauser Gate phenomenon.
Ice II is the fuel used for space travel and machine weapons. Mankind discovered an isotope of ice that exhibited properties of gravitational degradation under normal room temperature. The majority of stationary mass is in the same dimension as motional mass. The shift of the red wavelength is so intense that red light is emitted through the darkness. The Lady’s Red Gem of Space. In Diebuster you can see this visually as Nono emits red light and so does Buster Machine 19, Dix Neuf, when its older cabin is exposed.
Lesson 2:
Super light speed and C+ Navigation. While traveling under sub-light speed conditions, several unusual phenomena have been observed. They include the Starbow and the Urashima Effect. What appears to be a huge rainbow effect, is called the Starbow. Due to the Lorentz Effect, stars form up at the bow of the ship, and the Doppler Effect light radiating from the stars to form a 7 colored ring. The principle of the Urashima Effect. Although the Luxion was missing for 7 years, only 2 days had passed on the ship. They (Noriko and Kazumi) exceeded the operation time by 12 seconds and as a result 6 months had passed on Earth. This is all Einstein’s fault, or rather Lorentz, Fitzgerald, and Gamow are also included. The main engine of the Luxion, running on the degradative reactor attained infinite accerlation as the vanishing motor was destroyed. In Gunbuster the rainbow effect can be seen when ships enter sub-space.
Lesson 3:
Warp is moving through space at a speed faster than light. The official term is Dimensional Wave Super Rotational Reaction Degradative Radius Jump Gravitational Field Super Light Speed Navigation. To initiate a warp: by enlarging the radius of the Tannhauser Gate which is frozen within the degradative reactor it causes sub-space to envelop around the entire ship, resulting in the ship jumping through time and space.
Lesson 4:
The space monsters are the natural enemies of Mankind. They wiped out the Luxion and Exelion fleets. The soldier class of space monsters fight using melee attacks and eventually die in a specified time-frame after being released from the mother body. The cruiser class space monster are slightly smaller than our own Exelion ships. The largest space monster is the Mother Ship class, several times larger than Exelion-class ships.
Lesson 5:
1st Generation Space Ship: Chemical reaction propelled rockets, i.e., Apollo 11
2nd Generation Space Ship: Photon powered sub-light speed vessels.
3rd Generation Space Ship: Super light speed capable ships powered by degradative reactors, i.e., Luxion.
4th Generation Space Ship: Wave-riding design rather than streamline shape, so as to effectively utilise the ether flow,i.e., Exelion.
5th Generation Space Ship: Designed for use in ether space. There are no thrusters. It only consumes half the usual required energy. It is different as it does not work based on Newton’s physics. Instead, it is moved by utilizing the surrounding physical environment with pure mathematics. This is known as Algorithm Image Drive. In order to maintain stability of the craft within the intense field of interference the navigational core uses physics and electronically enhanced dolphins as navigators,i.e., Eltreum
Buster Machine 3 was created as a tactical weapon for the final battle. It contains 3000 slave detonating devices which has an effective range of a 10,000 light year radius from the center of the galaxy. Buster Machines 1 and 2 escorted Buster Machine 3 to its final destination. When Buster Machines 1 and 2 combined they become Gunbuster. Sizzlers are scaled down versions of Gunbuster but only contain one reactor.
Lesson 6:
In Gunbuster the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (now a dwarf planet), Lucifer (discovered in 1999 according to the anime), Metis, Kaminatsukisei, and Jupiter 2 (Vulcan in Diebuster). There’s also Nemesis, a twin star to our Sun half a light year away from Earth.
Thanks to degradative radar and further exploration of space the Solar System’s members changed.
Episode 1 Notes:
Inazuma kick rules.
Episode 2 Notes:
- 2015 A.D. Milky Way Galaxy, Perseus Arm. Distance from Earth: 12,000 parsecs.
- 1 parsec is approximately 3.26 light years.
- Earth distance from galactic center = 8,000 parsecs (not in episode).
- There is a scene where they scream there is room for one more. In Diebuster this is mirrored.
- Tashiro Tatsumi is the captain of the Exelion.
- There is proof in this episode that humanity has kept some of the space monsters likely for studying them.
- Luxion was on the Persues Arm. It traveled back to Earth at 99.98% the speed of light when its vanishing motor was destroyed. Its going to pass the orbit of Neptune.
- “1 minute traveling at sub-light speed is equal to 3 months on Earth,” a key phrase said by Ota Koichiro. Urashima Taro, a character from a Japanese fable who lost track of time and grew old without realizing it. The plan Ota devised to visually confirm the object traveling to Earth at 99.98% the speed of light was to have Noriko and Kazumi travel at sub-light speed using special rockets, while he himself would travel at sub-light speed from the Silver Star in a recovery ship to pick them up after they disband from the rocket engines. He will reach 1 minute after they reach their destination. He warned them not to be pulled in by the ether flow. Noriko says she never expected the ether flow to be so intense.
Episode 3 Notes:
- Space feels like an ocean. There are peaceful calm areas and there are rough areas too. Noriko describes it like sailing on the ocean.
- Ship was traveling a distance of 0.5 parsecs.
- Warp can only be initiated in the calm regions of space. Ether transforms into plasma and thus the ship is allowed entry into sub-space.
- Nebula are seen.
- A space monster passed by the ship. Admiral Tashiro ordered a U turn by using Leaf-64, a young star much like our own. They were going to use the star’s gravity to slingshot the ship at maximum speed. However, when they reached Leaf-64 which is in the 8th branch of the Perseus Arm in the Milky Way, the star had turned into a red giant. Leaf-64 was a young white star similar to our Sun, but it changed a lot in 10 years due to the Space Monsters using it as a breeding ground.
- Machine Weapon’s only last 3 hours on their nuclear reactors.
- The ship is the Exelion.
- The frequent super novas in the area are likely due to the Space Monsters using the stars for breeding.
Episode 3 Physics Notes:
Comparing the similarities between quantum, mechanical partition function and statistical mechanical partition, function in ordinary forms the net quantum mechanical effect can be expressed as:
Z = { exp[i/hl]n[0]
If we interpret this as the fundamental relation, this is actually what Wall proposed and Yang and Mills expounded on in regard to the gauge theory and its result; i.e. the Weinberg Salam theory unifying electromagnetic and weak interactions. The formation of a unified quantum mechanical theory can be concluded as the most correct interpretation of the ordinary form of the fundamental relation.
A good example of the classical interchange is the integral of the isospin resonance in the 10XX GeV region which affects the physical parameter 0 and the subatomic structures.
However, theories proposed to explain unsolved questions in the end of the last century which remain unsolved and uninterpreted include superstring theory, unitary singularity problem of the supersymmetry in Hilbert space and its local tensor problems.
According to Tannhauser’s first paper, “Ether Electromagnetical Study of Moving Particles” (Pacific Sciences), either corresponds to a particle in the Higgs field according to the Weinberg-Salam theory, where vacuum is defined to be the reference state (generally, particles with zero or integer spin follow the Bose-Einstein statistics, and particles with noninteger spin follow the Fermi-Dirac statistics. Planck constant and the universal gravitational constant are determined by n-dimensional internal pair decay in the spontaneous decay of higher dimensions due to their antisymmetric states.
If conservation of the imaginary expansion is forced upon the scattering resonance with which describes the scattering mechanism, it becomes the analytics function in the imaginary plane. Tannhauser’s scattering equation is obtained by applying Corsi’s integral theory to the previous result
(Excerpt from Amano Kazumi’s speech during the 2021 Japan High School Physics Debate Convetion)
This is just a bunch of crap put together by Hideaki Anno trying to seem smart.
Episode 4 Notes:
- The Space monsters are likely coming from the center of the galaxy. Ever since they came in contact with the human race they have been searching for young stars in which they lay their eggs, spawn, and ultimately increase their influence in the region. Their objective is believed to be the Earth and not our Sun. Mankind are like infecting bacteria in the organic galaxy, while they are like antibodies that combat the infection. From the viewpoint of the galaxy mankind brings no benefit. The human race is basically like garbage.
- “The enemy can travel from Mars to the Moon in 3 minutes,” an important phrase said by Ota Koichiro.
- The fleet travel using long distance warps. They interchange between laps of warps until they reach their destination. They are cautious as to not lead the enemy towards the Solar System. As such, the next warp is initiated in subspace where radar waves do not work, and from there they will jump into the Solar System. This warp method is rarely used (warp into subspace, warp out, and warp again in subspace) but it is to prevent the enemy from knowing where they went.
- However, the space monsters were able to enter subspace where the fleet was. In theory, Newton’s laws aren’t applicable in subspace. The space monsters were able to target the fleet even without the use of radar. It is likely that their control of ethereal flow allowed them to enter the warp bubble the fleet was traveling in.
- Admiral Tashiro did not want to warp out because the space monsters would know the location of Earth, their main target. At first it was believed only 12% of the fleets survived and were able to warp out into normal space, the rest were destroyed in subspace. An attack while in subspace was something that was considered impossible before this event. Upon further confirmation only Exelion survived and 22 enemy units and their main is moving at 10% the speed of light warped out with it.
- Top Division is the division where space pilots are enrolled. Thus why the show is called Aim for the Top!. In Diebuster the saviors of humanity are now the Topless, likely stroke of genius between Noriko’s boob scene at the end and the Top Division.
Episode 5 Notes:
- Eltreum is over 70 Kilometers in length.
- It was built as an escape ship to abandon the Earth.
- Near Lyra Constellation a large quantity of Space Monsters were detected. There were so many it clouded the vision into space, enemies by 70% darkness of space by 30%, a phrase in a Japanese movie that was parodied.
- This was observed using the degenerative radar. The enemies are in a formation so dense its impossible to accurately measure their numbers.
- They estimated 100 million units with a diameter spanning nearly 80 AU (Astronomical Units)
- AU = mean distance from Earth to our Sun, roughly 150 billion meters
- There is already in place a last line of defense for the solar system which these space monsters are soon to breach.
- Their diameter nearly equals the diameter of the orbit of Pluto, our last planet(dwarf planet now).
- Commander Ota suggested the plan to send off Exelion unmanned to the center of the space monsters invading.
- It consisted of releasing the Kingsman limiter which would lead the warp engine reactors to go out of control. According the the Void Effect, an uncontrolled reactor will produce an artificial black hole after 2 minutes and 40 seconds. This would swallow Jupiter 2 (13th planet of the Solar System) and the majority of the enemy forces.
- The Buster Machines would be the escorts for this mission.
- The enemies number in the billions is what Commander uttered (including fighter drones).
- While in Gunbuster a HUD is able to display time frame on Earth and time frame in the cockpit in relativity to Earth time.
- Noriko says they are 216AU from the core of the enemy.
- Kazumi says once they reach Jupiter that traces of the enemy are detected and number around 250 million.
- Noriko and Kazumi fight off clearing a path for the Exelion. There is 3.8 billion kilometers left to the core at this point.
- After a few scenes Noriko says there’s only 1 billion kilometers left
- Kazumi hesitates but ends up fighting off enough enemies for Exelion to create the black hole. Lost in the process are planets Metis, Kaminatsukisei, and Jupiter 2 (known as Vulcan in Diebuster).
- 99.89% of the enemy was destroyed (or at least sucked into the black hole).
- The shockwave of the blast reaches Earth 6 months later. The black hole can be seen from Earth in the sky with naked eyes. It pushed Earth enough to affect its axis.
Episode 6 Notes:
- The plan to use Buster Machine 3 was called Carneades Project.
- The Flagship Eltreum rides the ether medium efficiently similarly to how a ship sails at sea.
- On the Elreum 12 hours had passed.
- The center of the galaxy is situated at Sagittarius A*.
- The center of the galaxy is bright white (Anno must of decided not to believe there is a super massive black hole at the center of the galaxy).
- The plan was to plant the bomb and get out by warping to Orion. (Orion Arm).
- 6 Billion space monsters were traveling at 12% light speed (all the radar could pick up).
- Numbers later increased to 8 billion.
- Warp has a distance limit; cannot be used at short distances.
- If an area experiences gravitational resonance out of the blue the likelihood of a warp out is very high.
- Super-Exelion Class ships were unable to fend off the Cruiser class Space Monsters.
- 1,700 ships heavily damaged, sunk.
- 4,500 ships moderately damaged.
- 22,800 fighters missing in action.
- Buster Machine 3 required several minutes to reach implosion to trigger the bomb.
- 2,562 ships were left operational at 60 seconds mark.
- Buster Machine 3 needed to have all 3000 degradative reactors functional to compress Jupiter beyond its Scharszchild radius, thus creating a black hole.
- The crew members predicted that the next wave of space monsters could number in the 12 billion.
- Jung said that if Noriko and Kazumi returned she would say to both of them “welcome home.”
- Gunbuster’s gravitational degradation was detected while in the core of Jupiter, the degradative reactor was then thrusted into the slave generators.
- The black hole in the center of the galaxy devoured most of the galactic core. The Solar System, which is near the edge of the galaxy, was not affected. Only dust and free matter remains from the black hole event.
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