Aura Battler Dunbine
| Aura Battler Dunbine | |
 | |
| Genre | Adventure, Mecha |
|---|---|
| Anime | |
| Aura Battler Dunbin | |
| Directed by | Yoshiyuki Tomino |
| Studio | Sunrise |
Aura Battler Dunbine (聖戦士ダンバイン, Seisenshi Danbain) is an anime television series, created by Sunrise, aired on Nagoya TV from 1983 to 1984, ran for 49 episodes, and 12 volumes of videos were released on VHS and DVD. Created by Hajime Yatate (a pseudonym for the Sunrise team) and Yoshiyuki Tomino, director of such anime series like Gundam and Heavy Metal L-Gaim, it was quite successful in Japan, due to its combination of complex characters, radical mecha designs, and plot twists.
Dunbine was one of the first anime series to combine fantasy with modern science fiction (though this would be repeated with The Vision of Escaflowne). The series is set in the medieval-like world of Byston Well, resembling a countryside in medieval Europe with kingdoms ruled by monarchs in castles, armies of unicorn-riding cavalry armed with swords and crossbows, and little winged creatures called Ferario, or fairies, flying about offering help or hindrance depending on their mood.
The main draw to the series were the insect-like Aura Battlers, used by the population of Byston Well to fight their wars. These fighting suits are powered by a powerful energy called "aura" or "life energy", which is transmitted to the suit by the pilot.
Characters
Sho Zama (Shigeru Nakahara/Jay Hickman): Sho is the young protagonist of the series. Before coming to Byston Well, he lived in Tokyo and enjoyed motocross racing. One night, as he was riding his motorcycle through the city, he was yanked to Byston Well in order to serve as a mecha pilot under the command of regional overlord Drake Luft. He soon discovers Luft's evil motives and switches sides, joining Nie Given and his freedom fighters in their resistance to Luft's military advances. Over time (and through experience in battle,) Sho's Aura Power increases to near infinite levels, while control over his power correspondingly weakens. Also, during the series, he returns to Earth twice, but his already strained and dysfunctional relationship with his estranged parents (one of whom may be American) crumbles completely when they refuse to believe that he isn't an imposter. To further complicate matters, he comes to harbor intimate feelings for Marvel. However, the stresses of war prevent them from actively pursuing their relationship.
Marvel Frozen (Doi Mika/Christine Auten): An attractive young woman whose wealthy parents own a large ranch near Dallas, Texas, Marvel was also brought to Byston Well to fight on the side of Drake Luft, but now works with Nie Given to overthrow Luft. She and Sho Zama first meet as enemies, but, between her getting him to question his allegiance, and his guilt when House Luft attacks House Given and kills Nie's mother, he soon allies with her. Her fighting abilities are on par with Sho, but she lags far behind him in Aura Power. When the battling armies of Byston Well are sent to Upper Earth by the Fellario, Marvel takes time to reconcile with her parents, and also to spend a few days visiting Hawaii with Sho. Though, early on, she seems to have some interest in Nie, Marvel falls deeply in love with Sho, and wishes that he would admit the feelings she knows he has for her.
Cham Huau (Maria Kawamura/Kira Vincent-Davis): A faerie companion of Sho's, and presumably the only "survivor" of the final battle. Cham provides the emotional barometer to the group, and often finds herself more sensitive to the tensions in a situation. She is Sho's cheerleader, and vigorously defends him from enemies and naysayers alike.
Nie Given (Ataka Makota/Vic Mignogna): A somewhat embittered freedom fighter, Nie leads a small faction that opposes the military objectives of Drake Luft. Both of his parents are killed early in the war by Drake's forces, leaving him the sole survivor of the Given family name. He commands the Aura ship, Zelana, and is harsh but dedicated to his crew. He also finds himself faced with a conflict during the war as he carries on a romance with Riml Luft, Drake's daughter.
Keen Keats (Yumi Takada/Emily Carter): The daughter of a noble house, Keen spends much of the earlier part of the series trying to prove herself. Her father, choosing to serve Drake to uphold the family name, is killed in combat against Nie's forces (Keen herself has to fight him.) Keen is a loyal, if not exactly skilled fighter, and is able to hold her own well enough until the final battle, even if she sometimes let's her want to prove herself get the better of her. While versed in the use of Aura Battlers, more often than not, Keen serves as a support pilot, sortieing in the Fou fighter unit. She has feelings Nie, but he doesn't seem to notice them.
Riml Luft (Irokawa Kyouko/Hilary Haag): Daughter of Drake Luft. While she doesn't seem to hate her father as a person, she shares no love for his actions and makes several efforts to aid Nie Given's resistance forces. While her father does care about her, and, to that end, wishes to engage her to Burn, he fails to notice she is in love with Nie. She tries to escape her father to aid the resistance multiple times, but is repeatedly recaptured. Eventually she escapes joins Nie's group. Here, however, she's met with distrust by many, even after she proves herself in battle. A decent pilot, she doesn't get many chances to actively fight before she's taken back into custody. While she still seems to care for her father, she has no love for her mother, Louser. Unlike her father, she can see through her mother's schemes.
Todd Guinness (Oosaka Hidesane/John Gremillion): Brought to Byston Well along with Sho, Todd means well enough, but has the misfortune of making many poor decisions. Unlike Sho, who knows what he wants to fight for, Todd finds his motives changing throughout his time in the war. Initially believing Byston Well to be only a dream, he takes a very lax attitude to his new role, enticed by the prospect he could very well become a king in Byston Well. It is only after several defeats, and being faced with the prospect of being replaced by Drake, that he starts to become serious, now fighting for his pride. During one of these battles, he is taken down by Shou and left bed ridden for some time. When he returns and finds he's been cast aside by Drake, he eagerly accepts an offer from one of Drake's compatriots, Bishot, as he sees an opportunity to get revenge on Shou for his disgrace. It's only when the armies are sent to Upper Earth that he finally finds a cause worth fighting for, believing if he can defeat Sho, Drake won't attack America, and thus he can protect his mother.
Burn Bunnings (Sho Hayami/John Swasey): Sho Zama's former commander. Throughout most of the series, he serves Sho's main rival. Commands extreme respect from his underlings, and grudging respect from his superiors, Burn oversees Drake's armies for a better part of the war. During the later half of the series, however, he is defeated by Sho and left for dead. He then, however, returns to Drake's army as Black Knight (his identity, supposedly kept a secret from the cast, is actually revealed to the viewers in the second opening.) He is, for a time, engaged to Riml, even though she doesn't hold mutual feelings for him.
Ceila Lapana (Miki Takahashi/*Unknown*): The queen of the land of Na. She is rescued by Sho and encourages him to fight for not only the crew of the Zelana, but for all people of Byston Well. Later she rallies her army (including the powerful battleship Gulan Gulan) and joins Sho's group in the fight against Luft. When the Dunbine is defeated in battle, it is her forces that provide Sho with the powerful new Billbine battler.
Drake Luft (Ooki Shouji/Phil Ross): The main antagonist of the series, Drake is the lord who pulls Sho into Byston Well in the first place. An ambitious man, Drake believes he is doing the right thing by forcefully uniting the people of Byston Well under his banner. His personal life is not much better, as, while he holds love for his daughter, Riml, he fails to realize that she's been working against him. Similarly, he also remains oblivious to his wife's plotting behind his back with Bishot to have him eliminated. During the final battle, he commands the battleship Will Wisp.
Shott Weapon (Tanaka Masahiko/Andy McAvin): A brilliant, but shady man. It's believed Shott is responsible for inventing the Aura Battlers. Originally believed to be from Silicon Valley, the later episodes of the anime suggest there's more to his past than he's willing to let on. Nevertheless, along with being a skilled inventor, he proves a fierce opponent as he brings his own contributions into the final battle, including the battleship Spriggan.
Bishot Hate (Kazuyuki Sogabe/Chris Patton): One of Drake's comrades and, as far as Drake believes, an ally, Bishot is actually quite the opposite. Throughout much of the series, he and Louser are actually plotting behind Drake's back, presumably planning to seize power from him. He also provides a great deal of the force involved in the final battle, and he's the one who enlists Todd after he's dismissed by Drake. During the final battle, he commands the warship Gea Gring.
Elle Humn (*Unknown*/*Unknown*): Neice to King Phaezon and the third major contributor to the resistance during the final battles. Commanding the armies of her uncle and the immensely powerful warship Graon, Elle fights for those in her family who have lost their lives to the war. As the series progresses, she also begins to develop tremendous aura powers, even having the ability to influence pilots from a distance.
Jeryll Coochibie: (*Unknown*/*Unknown*) After the failure of his first trio from Upper Earth, Drake has a second set brought over for his armies. Jeryll is easily the deadliest of these three. Violent, impulsive, and seemingly enjoying the carnage, her immense powers serve as a frightening mirror to what Sho could have become had he continued serving with Drake. She is also the first pilot to bring about 'hyper' mode (when a pilot experiences a great surge of aura power causing their battler to grow several times larger and become devastating as a result.)
Plot
The series followed Sho Zama, as he suddenly finds himself in the world of Byston Well after his motocross accident. Byston Well is located in another dimension located between the sea and the land, and is populated with dragons, castles, knights, and powerful robots known as Aura Battlers. Once Sho is discovered to possess a very powerful "aura", he is drafted into the Byston Well conflict as the pilot of the lavender-colored Dunbine.
As in other Tomino creations, Dunbine's cast is populated by Nordic-looking military types in elaborated costumes on one side, a young Japanese hero caught in the middle, and freedom fighters on the other side. Beautiful female warriors abound on both sides, and the hero falls for the main female lead. There are romances that cut across battle lines, and the non-stop battles between elaborated fighting craft on land and on the air. Most of the cast pilot Aura Battles, although there are lots of standard airships, smaller fighters, and large warships as well.
Related Notes
Yoshiyuki Tomino directed the series, which is based on an earlier novel, "The Wings of Rean" (which didn't feature the Aura Battler mechas at all, they were added to the series at the insistence of the sponsors, Clover and Bandai). The series spawned several model and toys lines, as well as related OVAs and spin-offs.
One spin-off of the series, a 3-episode OVA called Aura Battler Dunbine: The Tale of Neo Byston Well was released in 1988. The series' action takes place 700 years after the events of the original. Other animated works based on the world of Byston Well include Tales from Byston Well: Garzey's Wing (OVA, 1999) and The Wings of Rean (ONA, 2005).
The character of Cham, is virtually identical to the character of Lillith from Heavy Metal L-Gaim. They share an identical appearance and race, as well as the same voice actress. This is often joked about although the true reason has never really been officially said. Some speculate that Tomino had a soft spot for Cham, and felt like putting a near identical character in another series. A real rarity for Tomino, who often goes to great lengths to make sure characters cannot be reused.
This is yet another of Tomino's series' where we see his "Kill 'em all" style appeared once more. Most of the main cast is pretty much killed in the final battle. It is hinted however, that despite all the death, these characters may have just returned to Byston Well. The final battle takes place on Earth, when the majority of the main cast became stranded there earlier in the series.
Although sad, the ending does leave more interpretation for a happier ending than that of Space Runaway Ideon , the previous series Tomino worked on which has become legendary for having the bloodiest and most deadly ending of any anime to date. (costing the lives of not only the main cast, but the entire universe!)
Super Robot Wars and Another Century's Episode
The Dunbine characters, mecha, and storyline elements make appearances in quite a few games in the Super Robot Wars series by Banpresto; Most notably the "first" series, which ended. Banpresto has gone on to make spinoff series' taking place in different universes such as the Alpha series and the Impact/MX series. However, Dunbine has made few appearances in these latter titles. Many strongly desire to see them return in some form. The Aura Battler mecha were all undisputedly the most dodge crazy units in the game with decent attack. However, after some action some of the Aura Battlers were able to channel the pilots' Aura energy to unleash very powerful attacks. The Dunbine units have also appeared in Another Century's Episode, and its sequel. The units display excellent speed, and plenty of physical attack combos, in the sequel, Another Century's Episode two, many more units from the dunbine series are included and they have a very large part in the plot. The Dunbine units, although quite small in comparison with some units, the units from the L-Gaim series for example, they are not to be taken lightly, their Aura attacks can take out several opponents at once, are very damaging and can be used more often then the high powered attacks of other units. Shou and Marvel (onboard the Bilbine and Dunbine respectively) also share an impressive unique team attack. Just like previously mentioned Shou's Aura attacks are highly destructive, whereas Marvel has many more physical attack combos to make up for her lack of Aura ability, nevertheless, what few Aura abilities she has, a sword slash with fast recharge speed and a barrier, are still quite handy.
Related links
- Official Site Template:Jp icon
- ADV Films Official Dunbine Site
- Aura Battler Dunbine ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia