‘Aura Battler Dunbine’ remains to be producing new toys over 4 a long time since its launch.Bandai Spirits
Launched again in 1983, Aura Battler Dunbine was a standalone mecha anime written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino. So why is it nonetheless so well-liked over 40 years later?
Whereas many know Tomino for his work on Cellular Go well with Gundam, which has develop into a sprawling saga, Aura Battler Dunbine was a standalone single sequence with a self-contained story.
It handled individuals from “Higher Earth”, being transported down the Aura Street to Byston Properly, a wierd medieval realm stuffed with monsters and unusual machines.
These unusual machines had been aura battlers and produced from the carcasses of the aforementioned monsters and powered by the “aura” of their pilot.
Nonetheless, discovering appropriate pilots in Byston Properly with a powerful sufficient aura was extraordinarily uncommon, so appropriate candidates from Higher Earth had been snatched away to battle in a warfare they’d no data of.
That is how motocross motorcyclist Sho Zama leads to Byston Properly and piloting the titular Dunbine, and it’s right here the place the present begins.
Dunbine was an fascinating anime on a number of counts; it was arguably the primary isekai anime ever made, it was additionally aimed toward youngsters relatively than children, and it had mecha design in contrast to anything in anime.
With the unique designs penned by Kazutaka Miyatake, whose preliminary sketches impressed Tomino to make the setting use unusual insect-like know-how, the present developed and grew till character designer Tomonori Kogawa penned the Billbine, and Yutaka Izubuchi did all of the remaining enemy aura battler designs.
It’s the latter that brings me to the continuing onslaught of Aura Battler Dunbine toys from Bandai Spirits.
To this point, a lot of the mecha from the TV sequence have been given Robotic Damashii toys, however what’s fascinating is that now they’re mining all of the Aura Illusion designs, most of which had been by no means animated.
Whereas there was a spin-off OVA within the late ‘80s, which Izubuchi designed the mecha for, there have been additionally two Aura Illusion artbooks launched by B-Membership across the identical time.
These additionally featured designs by Izubuchi of much more natural and insect-like “upgrades” to designs from the unique TV sequence.
Now, within the a long time since we’ve seen the likes of Bellvine featured in Tremendous Robotic Wars T and now Y, to not point out having a lovely Steel Construct toy of the design, however the remainder of the designs are nonetheless going sturdy.
Admittedly, we haven’t had a common public launch of those toys for the reason that Steel Robotic Damashii Billbine in 2021, however we’ve had a large number of recent designs as very talked-about Premium Bandai releases.
To provide you an concept of this insanity, check out the photograph on the high. On the far left is a toy of the Vierres, which is from the unique TV present. Within the center is the Aura Illusion model of the Vierres, and on the far proper is the Gargoyle. One other Aura Illusion design that’s meant as an improve to the Vierres, with the latter beginning pre-orders at this time in Japan.
Even one-off online game designs just like the Zellbine from the PlayStation Dunbine role-playing sport acquired a toy. So, clearly Bandai Spirits goes all out on this franchise.
However why now? Why is Dunbine so well-liked?
The primary and most blatant purpose is that Aura Battler Dunbine was and is a superb anime. It had a implausible story with nuanced, complicated characters and a world setting in contrast to every other anime. Successfully beginning the isekai style within the course of.
The second purpose is that these aura battler designs had been very complicated and stuffed with curves in addition to bizarre angles. The toy and mannequin equipment know-how of the ‘80s couldn’t match what was on display screen, however now they will.
In brief, the large reputation of its authentic anime ‘80s run wasn’t matched by its merchandising, and that’s one thing that’s now being belatedly addressed.
The loopy factor is that as a result of Dunbine is such an excellent isekai anime, it’s additionally bringing in all-new followers which might be sick of the present isekai slop plaguing the anime and light-weight novel market. So, plenty of these gross sales are being pushed by new in addition to previous followers of the anime.
As well as, in response to individuals at Bandai Spirits, Dunbine is one among, if not the, best-selling mecha anime toy manufacturers in Japan, much more so than Gundam (though Gundam’s mannequin equipment gross sales eclipse this, clearly).
That is partly why we acquired some pretty new experimental animation for Dunbine final 12 months (proven above), and will probably be fascinating to see if something extra comes of that.
Till then, I will probably be buried below a mound of ever-growing Dunbine toys, and marvelling on the sheer craftsmanship that goes into making each one among them.
Aura Battler Dunbine is on the market on Blu-ray by way of Crunchyroll.
Observe me on X, Fb and YouTube. I additionally handle Mecha Damashii and am at present featured within the Large Robots exhibition at present touring Japan.
