Anime Reviews (The ’80s): Aura Battler Dunbine: Complete Collection (Neo-Tokyo 2099 Anime on Blu-ray review)

“Aura Battler Dunbine” is an epic anime series especially for those who enjoy mecha action with enough drama, humor and it’s all set in a fantasy world. “Aura Battler Dunbine: Complete Collection” is highly recommended!

Image courtesy of © SOTSU-SUNRISE. All Rights Reserved.

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TITLE: Aura Battler Dunbine: Complete Collection

ANIME RELEASE DATE IN JAPAN: February 1983 – January 1984

DURATION: Episodes 1-49 (1225 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, 4×3, English and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0, Subtitles: English

COMPANY: Sentai Filmworks

RATED: TV 14

Release Date: August 28, 2018

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Chief Director:  Tomino Yoshiyuki

Script: Yokitani Minoru, Tomita Sukehiro, Watanabe Yoshiji

Music by Tsubonou Katsuhiro

Original Creator: Yatate Hajime, Kogawa Tomonori, Tomino Yoshiyuki

Character Design by Kogawa Tomonori

Art Director: Ikeda Shigemi

Mecha Design: Miyatake Kazutaka

Anime Production: Nagoya Broadcast Network, Sotsu Co., Ltd., Sunrise

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Featuring the following voice talent:

Nakahara Shigeru/Jay Hickman  as Shou Zama

Osaka Hidemi/John Gremillion as Todd Guiness

Irokawa Kyôko/Phil Ross as Riml Luft (Emilie Luft)

Atake Makoto/Vic Mignogna as Nee Given (Neal Gibbons)

Kawamura Maria/Kira Vincent-Davis as Chum Huau (Cham Fau)

Doi Mika/Christine Auten as Marvel Frozen

Hayami Sho/John Swasey as Barn Bonnings (Bann Burning)

Oki Shoji/Phil Ross as Drake Luft

Takada Yumi/Emily Carter-Essex as Kean Keats

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Aspiring racer Sho Zama finds himself pulled into a strange realm in the middle of a motocross accident and into the mystical land of Bryston Well, where lords in castles settle disputes with unicorn-mounted cavalry and giant mecha called Aura Battlers!

Initially forced to pilot a Battler for the powerful Lord Drake, Sho soon discovers that he’s not the only person from the Earth drawn to Bryston Well, and worse, that he may be fighting for the wrong side. But once he’s joined forces with Dallas-born Aura Pilot Marvel Frozen, tiny fairy Cham Huau and other resistance fighters, Sho’s rapidly growing Aura powers may prove to be the deciding factor in a war unlike anything either world has ever experienced. From the acclaimed creator of Mobile Suit Gundam comes the wildest fantasy adventure ever in Aura Battler Dunbine!

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Please note for those not familiar with Neo-Tokyo 2099, we use the Japanese family name first, first name last

Tomino Yoshiyuki is a director and writer that is a person who I highly regard his talent for creating such series such as “Mobile Suit Gundam” (and many more series under the Gundam banner), “Heavy Metal L-Gaim” and “Aura Battler Dunbine”.

With the latter, Yoshiyuki introduced to viewers back in 1984, a new world known as Byston Well (a world that exists between the land and ocean) and from the 49-episode series of “Aura Battler Dunbine”, in 1988 with the three episode OAV series “Aura Battler Dunbine: The Tale of Neo Byston”, an OAV with the 1999 “Tales from Byston Well: Garzey’s Wing” and in 2005 with the ONA series “The WINGS of REAN” (an alternate storyline).

As the anime series was released back in 2003 by A.D. Vision would go OOP and finding the DVD’s at a good price was ‘nil unless you happened to find a copy used.

While the Blu-ray release in Japan was highly anticipated, to the ire of fans, the series was not released as a complete set but broken into two sets, the first featuring episode 1-28 and the second set which included episodes 29-49 + OVA 1-3 (Aura Battler Dunbine: The Tale of Neo Byston Well).  While fans welcomed the audio commentary and 100 page booklet, with its original price of Y36,720 per set, it was no doubt an inexpensive set for Japanese fans.

Fortunately, for American fans, the series receives the Blu-ray treatment with Sentai filmworks releasing “Aura Battler Dunbine: Complete Collection” with all 49 episodes with the original Japanese soundtrack + the English dub and for the supportive fans who have long wanted, corrections to the actual spelling of the names.  Unfortunately, the OVA’s are not included but hopefully Sentai Filmworks plans to release those in the near future.

“Aura Battler Dunbine” begins with a motorcross biker named Zama Sho, as he is being pursued by people who are trying to ram him on the freeway, Sho manages to jump over one of the cars then mysteriously disappearing out of thin air.

Sho awakens to find himself into the world of Byston Well, located in another dimension which is between the sea and land.  In this world, it resembles medieval times with the exception that powerful robots exist and are known as Aura Battlers.  Because Sho has a powerful aura, he and another man named Todd Guiness are drafted into the Byston Well battles and are forced to pilot a Dunbine (as it would be his ticket home) for the regional overlord, Drake Luft.

But Sho knows that Drake Luft is an evil guy and immediately joins Nie Givun (Neal Gibbons) and his freedom fighters as they are a resistance trying to prevent Luft’s military from advancing.

Also working with Nie Givun  is Marvel Frozen, who is originally from Dallas, Texas and was also brought to Byston Wells to fight for Drake Luft but now is one of the leaders of the resistance.

While Sho is interested in Marvel, he holds back his emotions because he feels that she is more interested in Nie.  But Nie is actually interested in Rimul Luft (Emilie Luft), the daughter of the enemy, Drake Luft.

Will Sho find a way to get home?  And who will become the victor in the conflict between the resistance vs. overlord Drake Luft and his dark forces.

The Blu-ray release is much better looking than its 2003 DVD counterpart.  I haven’t noticed any banding issues and for the most part, I didn’t notice any major blemishes.  I was quite pleased to see how detailed the background designs were painted and how cool the mechanical designs were for the overall series.

The Sentai Filmworks Blu-ray release includes both the Japanese soundtrack and English dub in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0.  I watched it in both languages and while I prefer the Japanese soundtrack primarily for better voice acting, I couldn’t help but watch the English dub because it almost had that ’80s style of English dub that many people grew up watching such as the English dub from series such as “Robotech” or “Voltron” or even early ’90s “Tekkaman Blade” and “Dragon Ball”.

While the Japanese Blu-ray release did come with an audio commentary, the only special features included in the Sentai Filmworks release are the clean opening and closing animation scenes.

But fans in America are no doubt fortunate as Japanese owners had to pay anywhere between $500-$700 (in US dollars) for both sets and the US release is much cheaper at under $70 for all 49-episodes, that’s an amazing deal, especially considering how much we had to pay for individual DVD releases back in the day.

As I watch “Aura Battler Dunbine” one again, it’s an impressive, epic anime series from Tomino Yoshiyuki (who will be forever known for “Mobile Suit Gundam” and many Gundam titles), Yatate Hajime (who also worked on many “Gundam” titles but also known for “Armored Trooper Votoms”, “Cowboy Bebop”, “Love Live! School Idol Project”, “Tiger & Bunny” and “Accel World”) and Kogawa Tomonori (best known for his character designs for “The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross” series, “Greed”, “Galaxy Express 999” TV series).

Similar to the connected world of the Gundam Universal Century storylines, “Aura Battler Dunbine” is fascinating for its world, the drama and relationships with various characters but also its war and use of powered mecha suits.  But while some may draw similarities to Gundam, both are completely different and in terms of storyline, personally, I am too biased as a Gundam fan but I did enjoy “Aura Battler Dunbine”.

Especially for the series final episodes, shocking!   I won’t spoil it, but it was an ending which I never would predict would happen.  So, it was an interesting juxtaposition in terms of storytelling when compared to Tomino’s “Mobile Suit Gundam” storyline.

Overall, “Aura Battler Dunbine” is an epic anime series especially for those who enjoy mecha action with enough drama, humor and it’s all set in a fantasy world.

“Aura Battler Dunbine: Complete Collection” is highly recommended!