Aura Battler Dunbine Vol-4: Escape From Byston Well
Animation Production: Sotsu Agency/Sunrise
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 4
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Crafting a good story with solid characters and an interesting plot is a challenging endeavor. This is why I can’t help but be impressed by the increasingly complex and multi-layered story of Aura Battler Dunbine. Even with the growing number of characters and world perspectives that it keeps expanding into, the show retains its high quality and in some instances surpasses previous summits, establishing new highs for the narrative.

In volume four of ADV Films’ domestic release of this series we continue where we left off and take on some rather fun and unexpected directions.

The Story

“An unexpected turn of events completely changes everything! While defending Elf Castle against Drake Luft’s invading army, Show Zama unleashes a powerful blast of "aura power," which propels him into the Aura Road where he transported back to Japan. Unfortunately he didn’t count on another battler making the journey with him. Back in Byston Well, the crew of the Zelerna must face the new threat posed by Luft’s new recruits from Upper Earth.” -- ADV's Official Escape From Byston Well Page

Review

In this set of episodes the story focuses on two main settings, with the first two episodes centering around Elf Castle and the last two on Upper Earth. We start off by joining our heroes in a battle to protect Elf Castle from the invading forces of Luft, who has fooled King Elf into thinking that he would not be invaded, only to carry out a surprise stack on his castle.

As the battle begins we rendevouz with some of our protagonists and their Aura Battlers as they engage some increasingly difficult opponents. This leads to some of the most exciting Aura Battler duels yet and some flashy displays of Aura powers as the pilots begin to understand and harness their inner abilities, using them to their advantage in the battle field.

However by pushing powers they are yet to fully understand to the edge proves to be a mistake as Show and Garalia end up opening an Aura Road to Upper Earth, stranding them and their Aura Battlers in Japan, which wreaks havoc and fear in major cities as the pilots’ duel continues resulting in the destruction of major metropolitan areas and the death of many innocent people. When the government steps in and captures Show leaving Garalia free to continue her violent streak all hope seems lost. Will our hero be able to escape his imprisonment, put a stop to Garalia and return to Upper Earth?

Like a really good wine this show just gets better with time. As the story keeps progressing the characters are becoming more familiar, the Aura Battler battles are getting to be faster and more complex with new units being introduced and improvements being made to older models and the world of Byston Well is becoming more realized and more fully fleshed out as a universe for our characters to live and thrive in.

The revisit of Earth by the two dueling Aura Battlers is a surprising twist that posed some really interesting possibilities, which the writers made sure to explore and take full advantage of. I can hardly wait to see what happens in the next volume when they wrap up this particular plot line.

In the visual department Aura Battler Dunbine does not fail to impress. In this particular volume several of the episodes feature some complex fight scenes with several Aura Battlers and military equipment engaging in combat with each other, all being fully-realized with smooth animation and coordination. The visit to Earth also allows for something different as far as the backgrounds and overall color scheme, which makes for a nice change from the more medieval styled world of Byston Well.

The music in these episodes is also really good, especially the combat scenes’ BGM, which complements the action quite nicely. The voice acting as in previous volumes is also up to par with previous efforts.

The DVD contains the following four episodes:

Episode 14 - "The Battle to Capture Elf Castle"
Episode 15 - "Furaon Moves Not"
Episode 16 - "The Skies Above Tokyo"
Episode 17 - "The People of Upper Earth"

Extras include textless copies of the opening and ending, an artwork portfolio and previews for other releases.

Conclusion

This is a great show that keeps getting better as the story continues to unfold and lead us in new unexpected directions. I highly recommend this one to fans of mecha anime and people who enjoy slightly older anime.

Aura Battler Dunbine is currently of the best domestic anime releases around so make sure to give it a try, especially if you enjoy other classic Yoshiyuki Tomino works such as the Orignal Mobile Suit Gundam and Five Star Stories.

Jeffrey Couto