Cybuster: Tokyo 2040 Vol-1 (2003)
Animation Production: Xebec/Foundation
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Official Website: Cybuster
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Cybuster comes to JH completely from left field. I admit to not having ever of this title before although the name rang familiar due to its Robot Wars game origins. That being said I obviously had no idea on what to expect from this title or what the story around it would be about. However, I was encouraged when I saw it was produced in 1999 so at least it had some vintage to it and as many readers of this site know I tend to gravitate to older programs, although admittedly this is relatively a new show compared to the shows I really, really enjoy such as Daimos (1978), Voltes V (1977), Mazinger-Z (1972), etc. (Speaking of which when are anime companies in the U.S. going to realize that there are vast riches to be made by licensing and selling classic 1970’s super robot anime! If I had the capital to do it I sure would! Anyway that’s a whole other story)

So with that lets all find out what Cybuster is all about.

Story

"In 2040, the continuous pollution and the mysterious series of earthquakes left the city of Tokyo in ruins. A young man named Ken Ando is in training to become a member of DC, an army-like organization designed to investigate and protect the collapsing environment. Ken, with the support from his sick sister, Sayuri, gives his best to become a part of the elite group that the young longs for, but he receives the devastating news of being cut from the team because of his poor performances in the evaluation sessions. Then, an ominous monster suddenly appears from the sky with a blinding flash and starts mowing down DC's working robots with mysterious invisible forces. Ken, eager to show what he is truly made of, gets into one of the working robots and imprudently engages in a battle with the monster."-- Stellvia Webpage

Review

Volume one of Cybuster contains the first five episodes in the series, which include:

Episode 1: Messenger of the Wind
It's the year 2040 and Tokyo is in ruins. The victim of massive earthquakes the entire city and most of Japan lies in ruins now. To address the situation an organization by the name of DC has been formed to help the country recover from the disaster that struck it. Using large robots elite teams of highly trained individuals are slowly, but surely, cleaning up the mess that they inherited.

As the episode begins we join a group of fresh candidates to the program. They are undergoing the final round of tests and will soon find out who made the cut and who did not. Among these trainees we come to meet Ken Ando, who is the series’ main protagonists and Mizuki, a young girl who happens to be a life-long friend of Ken. In addition we also meet the very self-confident Lyune, the daughter of DC’s late founder.

Unfortunately Ken does not make the cut and misses out on something that he’s been working tirelessly on for a long time now. However, when a mysterious robot appears in the middle of the city it might signal a new opportunity for Ken, but what is this mysterious machine and what is its purpose?

Episode 2: Balcion
With the new recruits in place it’s time for DC to move ahead with its schedule of waste clean up. During their first mission Mizuki finds a mysterious black box, that seems entirely out of place at a waste site. Curious about the item, it is placed on a helicopter that is to transport it off-site, unfortunately something happens on the way and the chopper is absorbed into a black hole-like phenomenon.

Meanwhile back at headquarters the newest members of the organization stumble upon something unexpected, a giant battle robot named Balcion. Did DC develop this machine? What is its purpose? Perhaps this may be the only weapon capable of standing up to the mysterious robot that keeps appearing throughout Japan.

Episode 3: The Collapse of Tokyo
Something strange is happening! DC is beginning to arm all of its waste disposal robots with weapons such as cannons and even laser beams. Is this signaling a new direction for an organization whose main purpose up to this point has been to help re-invigorate the natural landscape and undo the damage from the disasters that struck several years ago?

Why is Mizuki being threatened after her inquiry into the mysterious box that she discovered in the previous episode? Many strange things are taking place and no one seems to know why and then the mystery robot appears again…

Episode 4: La Guias
The RT’s are ready and are now retrofitted with new weapons to combat the strange robot that keeps making an appearance around the city. Lyune has also been selected as Balcion’s pilot, a role she feels deserving of as her father designed the giant machine before passing away in a terrible lab accident.

In order to prepare the trainees for their new role a training session has been setup that will simulate some of the challenges that the young squadron has already undergone against their enigmatic adversary, but when the giant phantom robot re-appears will they be truly ready for it!? And where is this strange land that Mizuki finds herself in after being taken into a black hole by the robot their fighting against?

Episode 5: Artillery Training
After returning from her close up encounter with Cybuster, the giant robot DC has been trying to fight unsuccessfully for the past number of weeks, Mizuki is finding herself challenged by her colleagues. No one is willing to believe her story of having visited a placed called La Guias and meeting a young man named Masaki, Cybuster’s pilot.

During another round of practice skirmishes Cybuster re-appears. What will happen now? Will Mizuki be able to convince her friends?

All right, so where to begin with this one?

Cybuster was not exactly what I thought it would be prior to watching the DVD. I anticipated it being somewhat of an action-packed mecha battle anime, with Cybuster at the forefront of the story, however it turned out to be more of a character driven story with the mecha component being more of a secondary thing, at least in these first five episodes of the series.

The story, which revolves mostly around a small core group from the latest recruits to DC, is at its heart a tale of corporate corruption by the senior members of an organization and the way the new uninitiated members react to it as they start the process of immerging themselves into the corporate culture and noticing that not all is as was expected. At least that’s the main thread that connects most of these early episodes. In addition there are also a number of smaller subplots planted that are slowl to develop as the narrative progresses. These include Ken’s family, (specially his dad, who seems to know more about what’s going on that he lets on), Lyune’s father and of course Cybuster and La Guias, which start becoming the focus of the story more-so by episodes four and five.

The characters overall proved to be an interesting mix, with each being motivated by a different set of circumstances and personalities. I found Ken and Mizuki to be particularly interesting as I could not tell whether they were going to be kept as childhood friends or evolved into something more. They certainly leave that possibility open to either. I also enjoyed how Lyune brought in some conflict and self-righteousness into what could have otherwise been a blander group of people with no one to play off from. I guess you always need someone who is or approximates being a jerk to help define the rest of the characters’ moral standings.

Action-wise this collection of episodes proved to be a little on the slower end as the stories focus more on showing us the process that each character is going through in order to be readied for combat. This aspect of the show reminded me a little of one of my personal favorites, Dancougar, which took its time in getting everything in place for the mecha battles that would come midway through the series. In fact I was surprised at how little we got to see of the title robot, Cybuster. In the end though none of this is to say there’s no action or battles taking place here, just not a terrible lot of it.

Artistically Cybuster seems to fit perfectly with other programs of its time. The character designs tend to gravitate towards a simpler look and more realistic features (meaning no characters with weird hair styles or colors). The mecha designs are also skewed more toward realism and less towards style, with the possible exception of Cybuster, but then again he’s from another realm entirely. Speaking of which, once episodes four and five kicked in Cybuster’s setup started reminding me a little bit of another classic series that featured similar looking mecha that also happened tp exist on a parallel realm, Aura Battler Dunbine. I’m very interested in seeing how much this show will parallel that one as it progresses and reveals more about La Guias and Cybuster.

Animation quality is a slightly mixed bag. For the most part the animation is nicely handled with a solid frame rate, but there are a few scenes that I caught here and there that made me do a double take, in particular one where Balcion is supposed to be walking towards the screen, but the cel is clearly shown just sliding up with no animation. This is really not that frequent of an occurrence though, the production is quite good for the most part..

The DVD itself is another nice release by Geneon, that features a very nice transfer of the original series. The video was nice and crisp with colors coming across brightly and animation lines showing up sharply. The audio transfer was good and clear with no noticeable issues. Inside the DVD box there is a small insert with information on the dates for each of the other volumes in this series’ release.

Final Thoughts

Cybuster is a slower mecha show with more of a character orientation early on in the series, which in many ways makes the most sense as this is the first set of episodes that will set the pace for the rest of the series. I enjoyed it quite a bit and look forward to seeing what happens next.

Recommended to all anime fans, especially mecha afficionados.

Jeffrey Couto