Diebuster fucking sucked, it is not worth your time if you liked Gunbuster, unless you just have shit taste or something.
I've noticed an inadvertent trend where, when I like something that was originally done by Anno (Gunbuster, Evangelion), Tsurumaki comes in and destroys what was good about the original work and everybody pretends like nothing happened (End of Evangelion, Diebuster).
This happened twice; I didn't know he was the director before I watched the works, but I could tell something was grossly wrong, different, and awful without even checking that and finding out after the fact, and it happened here too.
Fucking hell. I was very much looking forward to this too, and fully expected it to be better than Gunbuster with the decade and a half worth of experience they must've gained, but instead they regressed and made a literal pile of dogshit on a platter. Gunbuster was solid and a worthwhile watch despite many flaws, so I was hoping for something amazing with Diebuster, and instead it was just trash. This will be a full-on excoriation of this; I will try to use spoiler tags, but I might get so angry I can't hold myself back.
The synopsis is basically: The giant aliens who want to destroy the world are back, this new world with a few superpowered retards (called the "Topless") is here to stop them, with a girl who has a suspiciously similar name to Noriko (Nono) showing up.
Anyways, to start let's look at some of the biggest glaring flaws:
>No music worth a damn (besides the OP) compared to the original Gunbuster
This is insane. The OG gunbuster had some slick fucking tracks, and an OP and ED that were very nice too. The fight scene in episode 5 of Gunbuster (Which I consider the true final battle) was a fucking glorious piece of sakuga, and there were great, albeit brief, fights with very good music in episodes 1 and 2; probably something in 3 or 4 too, but not as memorable as those. A huge reason for that is the music was fucking outstanding and left a mark.
This one, compared to the slick, high-speed, fast-paced OST of Gunbuster, had a fucking orchestral soundtrack, which fucking sucked. Orchestral soundtracks are already risky for action works, but this was a fucking joke. It felt like someone just threw a dart at some generic classical music shit on YT and slapped it unto this thing without any thought.
There was also a lot of scenes with no music at all. They had a good OP, but they didn't use it anywhere either.
>Not a single fight scene that felt like it had impact
>Digital/computer-aided animation
Music already pretty much kills these, but they also used some shitty digital animation, and generally this shit was very unimpressive and mediocre as fuck. It generally looks more like it was animated by Bones than Gainax, but it didn't have the good fight choreography that Bones does at times to compensate for their lack of detail and shading, so its just shit.
Instead of a few crazy memorable action scenes, it had long, bland scenes of shit where its just like "whatever, who gives a shit".
>Horrible, inconsistent, incoherent plot and writing
>HORRIBLE characters in every way (design, dialogue, writing/actions)
>Terrible and nonsensical themes that don't line up with the character's actions.
These all tie together.
Besides Nono (who is still flawed, but at least likable enough), every single one of these characters was a genuinely awful character from pretty much every standpoint.
It tries to claim some bullshit about "friendship" when the main character besides Nono, is an arrogant princess who treats her like shit at so many times, and at other times like a disposable pet despite Nono admiring her so much, treating her so kindly the entire time, and inspiring the actual good morality out of her when she was otherwise a frigid bitch who didn't even care about fucking saving innocent lives over fighting and her own glory. The person who made this anime sounds like they never had a good friend in their life, which is fucking embarrassing. The few moments where this main character does something good, its usually because of chance/circumstance and a minor action, and outweighed immensely by the bad shit she has done, like saying she never needed Nono even once to her friends, being jealous of Nono for nearly being fucking raped and saying horrible things to her in the midst of said incident, generally trying to push her away, and acting, basically, like Griffith in Berserk did before the Eclipse, if anyone remembers that.
This chick strongly reminds me of late-stage pre-Eclipse Griffith, and her actions are remarkably similar actually, but unlike Griffith at that point, this bitch is attempted to be portrayed by the work as some kind of friend to Nono.
There was also not a single good fucking male character in this entire thing. The most prominent male character is the one who tried to rape Nono, and he was a lying, traitorous, disgusting fuck, and everyone else generally treats Nono like shit besides 1 loli character. Compare this to Gunbuster with Coach, who was a total badass who always believed in Noriko, what a fucking joke.
>Retarded concept and terrible mecha designs
Fucking "topless"? All these shitty mecha without thought for the basics of proportions and aesthetics? Gunbuster or a cool traditional mecha not showing up even once in the entire thing and instead its some kind of mecha OC cringe circlejerk with unlikable cunts? What a fucking waste.
The results of this are a work with:
>No impactful or high-intensity action scenes whatsoever
>No poignancy or meaning to any of the work's writing
>No cool factor for a mecha show, which is fatal
>No music to remember or associate with (Anime is a medium with both visual and audio after all, missing one is usually a killer)
>Inconsistent, incoherent, dribbling mess of pointless writing that served no purpose than to waste your time
>Leave you pissed off that there wasn't a single character besides Nono worth a damn in this shit work
>A complete waste of time
If you want the TL;DR review, here it is:
>Music fucking sucked (besides the OP, which was never used)
>Action scenes were fucking protracted, mediocre, and bland as fuck, and hurt by the lack of good music, or even no music period
>character designs besides Nono fucking sucked
>Pretty much all the male characters of note were unlikable scum, the most prominent one was a guy who tried to rape Nono
>The most prominent female character besides Nono was angry that she wasn't the one being raped by the above guy, and BLAMES NONO FOR IT because she's a vile, arrogant, insecure bitch[Expand Post]
>this bitch is supposed to be portrayed as the "best friend" to Nono, despite her treating Nono more like a disposable pet than a friend
>where she has on numerous occasions treated Nono like complete fucking dogshit
No joke, this fucking bitch, holy fuck. Imagine being jealous of your friend because she was about to be raped. and making that as the real problem, fucking infuriating.
>Nothing fucking happens in the entire work largely, besides some random shit here and there that all felt stupid as fuck and somehow the world is in danger by the end of it
>Its full of grotesque and retarded shit
>The themes are fucking awful because the characters are fucking awful and can't demonstrate anything without being a gigantic joke
>they even shat up Nono's mecha design by not giving it proper feet (as in, mecha greaves/boots or something, instead they gave her fucking pointy stumps for legs), leading to wasted potential
>feel nothing by the end of it
Fuck you Tsurumaki, you don't deserve to touch Anno's works or have him as a teacher you brain-addled fuck. Stick to drawing and leave the directing, writing and concept creation to people who actually have functioning brain cells.
Post was too long so I had to cut some