Introduction
Shou Zama is an ordinary 18-year-old from Tokyo who finds himself summoned to the medieval fantasy world of Byston Well. Upon arrival, he is put into service under the ambitious lord Drake Luft, who seeks to greatly expand his power. Those like Shou who come from "Upper Earth" possess strong aura power and are ordered to pilot "Aura Battlers," insectoid mecha designed by a man named Shot Weapon, who also came from Upper Earth.
However, Shou's alliances quickly change when he meets Marvel Frozen, a young woman who has decided to rebel against Drake's political agenda. As he realizes the lord's true intentions, the boy chooses to join the fight against Drake and team up with Neal Given, who leads the resistance movement. The resistance isn't alone—Riml, daughter of their enemy and Neal's secret love, aids their efforts, hoping to escape from her father's clutches. As Shou finds himself fighting alongside his new comrades, they put their lives on the line to prevent the villainous Drake from taking over Byston Well before it's too late.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
9 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
50Fiftillididee
🧚🏼♂️Aura Sho-down💫 °7.4° °VG° 💯%🔍 some minor spoilers
One moment Sho was racing motocross. The next he woke up in another world. ANOTHER DIMENSION. He's been recruited - forcibly - to pilot an Aura Battler in the world of Byston Well for Drake Luft (Luft’s like a duke or baron - yes, he has a castle).
Byston Well drafts their military… from our world. People who have sufficiently powerful auras can operate an Aura Battler. Such folks may find themselves suddenly whisked away. Byston Well is a mythical Renaissance fair. A wide collection of fantastical creatures populate the land, living with and working around humans. Silkies are used to transport the recruits from earth to BW, which is in a slip dimension between earth and sea. Look up and one might find whales swimming overhead…
Read at the sourceHERMIT_PAIMON
"Insect Mecha"
Dunbine is one of legendary tomino work with a fantasy and medieval element . This show is quite different from other tomino work . Here mecha isn't just a fusion of advance space machinery . They mixed biology and robotics engineering to deliver some cool insect mecha designs , many other anime took inspiration from here e.g sword & magic .
The most important thing i liked about dunbine is background score , it's perfectly blended in fantasy theme . Many people don't like idea of meshing sci fi with fantasy so, i can't say many people gonna enjoy this or not but in my opinion is pretty enjoyable . Another thing i liked people that got summoned aren't just japanese , they included people from many different countries .
If you ask me what i didn't like then i say dunbine…
Read at the sourceMulahey
The easiest summary is that its certainly a Tomino show.
Its not all bad. There are nice designs, some fun ideas and the way the "transported to another world" element of the plot develops is superior to most uses in the medium. Aura power is very similar to New type abilities and is sometimes interesting in how it develops. Theres overall a fun story somewhere inside.
However, exposition is done quite poorly. The politics is quite important but also very thin. Characters are flat, rarely communicate and develop little. The animation is also pedestrian even for the time. The Char clone honestly has such a thin motivation and isn't interesting at all.
The biggest issue, however, is pacing. Episode after episode of fights that develop or change nothing. Characters escape and get recapture…
Read at the sourcepunishedsneed
Aura Battler Dunbine, besides some stunted death scenes (I forgot one of the characters had died and was waiting for them to show up during my binge) is solid. The ending does come at you fast, and while it definitely delivers, Tomino has done some better endings (Controversial, but I liked how Victory's ending played out.)
The concept, worldbuilding, characters and so on should be experienced blind by the viewer. Take my word on it and hop into Dunbine. It's an older, episodic anime but it's worth 'battling' through.
This is probably the most unique fantasy mecha out there. I am actually glad Tomino wasn't allowed to adapt this without mecha. Only because of how it plays into the story. Dunbine could work without mecha, but it would have needed another plot device to play with industria…
Read at the sourceZeroflamez
- Introduction
Well where to begin.. I remember hearing about this anime about 10 years ago. The art looked out dated and didn't peak my interest. Then early last year I was checking out some of Tomino's non Gundam Works. After finishing Space Run Away Ideon I decided to give Aura Battler a go. After a bout a year I finally completed it. How do I feel about it? Well lets find out
Lets start with a synopsis
It's about a Japanese Boy named Sho that one night while riding his Motorcycle he ends up being transported to a land named Byston Wells. Soon after arriving he finds out he's in Lord Drakes Kingdom(who is the main antagonist of the anime). Due to not knowing what's going on Sho ends up enlisting into Drakes Military where he meets another man from Earth named Todd Guiness. After a fe…
Read at the sourcebennitori
I went into this anime because of its connection to Garzey's Wing. So my standards were set pretty low from the start. The first third of the show isn't very good. The main character is thrown into situations that make no sense, mood whiplash occurs between shots (one second an army seems hostile, throws stuff at the characters, then suddenly start acting friendly for minimally explained reasons,) and I had to switch from subbed to dubbed because the script seemed mistranslated because of how random some things seemed. I soon learned that wasn't the case. I understand that our main character is bewildered and confused, but for the audience, it isn't an immersive confusion.
That said, things get a lot better around episode 16-18. We start following a much more interesting cast of character…
Read at the sourcekillinki
This would be a masterpiece if anyone but Tomino made it. He follows the same stunted pattern of interpersonal drama in all of his shows. Prepare for criminal levels of autism from every character.
Aside from that the fantasy world teeming with insect-like mecha and especially its relation with Earth are very interesting. As with all cel animation, watching the Blu-ray edition of this is a treat.
Definitely one of the better mecha shows just by its concept alone. If you don't like medieval stuff you'll probably drop this before the focus shifts on anything else than big ol' ladybugs fighting each other for castles.
Read at the sourceggultra2764
Aura Battle Dunbine focuses on a teenage boy named Show Zama who is whisked to another world called Byston Well where he becomes the pilot of the mecha, Dunbine, and eventually becomes a major part of a resistance movement to oppose the world conquest goals of the corrupt lord, Drake Luft. Being directed by famous Gundam director Yoshiyuki Tomino, Dunbine offers a good number of the director's trademarks with exploring the harshness of war, a cynical world view, and a high death count that affects even the show's major characters. The fantasy world setting brings about the applications of a mysterious power source called "Aura" that are utilized by a number of the show's characters in various facets, among which allowing mecha pilots and aerial warships to enhance the powers of their techn…
Read at the sourcejmoriarty84
This anime is based on a novel originally titled Wings of Rean by Gundam creator, Yoshiyuki Tomino who of course worked as the director of this series. If you’re familiar with his work or the Gundam franchise in general, then you can recognize the approach and formula of how he does things, but in a different context in comparison to Gundam. And the original novel did not contain any mechs which was added at the insistence of sponsors such as Bandai. The pacing is appropriate for its length of 49 episodes and you’re getting all kinds of characterizations of the cast, and each character acts natural in their own way in relation to what’s going on to a point you can consider realistic. And eventually other elements of Gundam are loosely transitioned to this anime that fans…
Read at the source