BONUS Anime Comic: Gunbuster - page 0

I don't even know how controversial this opinion even is, I just take for granted that starting ANY sort of conversation about Evangelion online is going to result is somebody somewhere getting irrational about something.  Combine that with the established fact that publicly preferring ANY one thing over another thing automatically makes you the enemy of that other thing, and conflict becomes inevitable.  So might as well embrace the inevitable, right?

And look, I'm not about to argue that Evangelion isn't more financially successful or culturally influential than Gunbuster ever was.  Eva is totally the high water mark of Gainax making an impact (lol).  But purely in terms of being a creatively successful artistic endeavor, in being an anime that set out to do a thing and stuck the landing, I don't think Gainax ever topped Gunbuster.  Heck, if I were feeling especially contentious, I'd argue that Evangelion doesn't even rank SECOND in that regard, instead making third place behind Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.  That's a harder argument to win, though, since Nadia's got the whole Island Arc weighing it down.  Evangelion's existential crisis and budgetary collapse is many things, but it's never boring like the Island Arc is.

But we're not here to talk about Gainax's other projects, are we?  This is Gunbuster's time to shine! ...and that time is going to last a while, because unlike the bonus comics I did about Neo-Tokyo, I've decided NOT to do all the comics in one big blast but rather post them as I finish them.  That's part of the reason this is "page zero" instead of "page one," and indeed why these are following the Weekly Anime Comic format of being counted by "page" and not "episode."  I already know I've got a second comic coming just from episode one, and want to try and get at least a little bit further into things before the page count inevitably goes out of sync with the episode count.

And don't forget: because I screwed up the voting last time around, there's going to be a SECOND vote after I've made it past episode three to see if I'll cover the rest of the OVAs.  So, if you like what you see here, consider becoming a $5 patron to take part in that vote when it happens!