Gunbuster

After watching all the current series of "Top wo Nerae 2" I went to get my grubby mits on the previous series "Top wo Nerae - Gunbuster" and the bees knees it is too!
Noriko Takaya's father was killed by evil nasty ugly space aliens and Noriko goes to become-a-space-pilot-and-avenge-the-death-of-your-father school. This is another one of those girl-starts-out-being-cute-n-clumsy-but-ends-up- being-an-awesome-space-pilot stories. I love these stories!
Gunbuster is a series of 6 OAVs released back in 1988 - I was wrong about the 20 year thing and was getting mixed up with Macross because the characters in Gunbuster are also created by Haruhiko Mikimoto - If you liked Min Minmay from Macross, you will like Noriko I assure you.
The final episode was in black and white which miffed many fans at the time - I can understand - the animation in the final episode was fantastic but the black n white just took a bit of getting used to.
Totally and utterly recommended - I wish they made the series longer!Above: Gunbuster poster with Noriko in the frontAbove: Another cool Gunbuster poster with all the main charactersAbove: Noriko ready to kick some alien buttAbove: Starship Exelion surrounded by bad guys. The alien design was interesting as they looked like starships.Above: The Gunbuster mecha which occasionally splits apart into two ships when it feels like it.Above: Noriko learning to use her machine.Above: A shot from the last episode which was in black n white. hmmmmm Anime just does not look right in b/w.
The best sites on Gunbuster have to be the ones below (especially the first link) where you can see clips of Gunbuster too.

• The Gunbuster Index
• Gunbuster Top wo Nerae