Released back in 1983, Aura Battler Dunbine was a standalone mecha anime written and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino. So why is it still so popular over 40 years later?
While many know Tomino for his work on Mobile Suit Gundam, which has become a sprawling saga, Aura Battler Dunbine was a standalone single series with a self-contained story.
It dealt with people from “Upper Earth”, being transported down the Aura Road to Byston Well, a strange medieval realm filled with monsters and strange machines.
These strange machines were aura battlers and made from the carcasses of the aforementioned monsters and powered by the “aura” of their pilot.
However, finding suitable pilots in Byston Well with a strong enough aura was extremely rare, so suitable candidates from Upper Earth were snatched away to fight in a war they had no knowledge of.
This is how motocross motorcyclist Sho Zama ends up in Byston Well and piloting the titular Dunbine, and it’s here where the show starts.
Dunbine was an interesting anime on multiple counts; it was arguably the first isekai anime ever made, it was also aimed at teenagers rather than kids, and it had mecha design unlike anything else in anime.
With the original designs penned by Kazutaka Miyatake, whose initial sketches inspired Tomino to make the setting use strange insect-like technology, the show evolved and grew until character designer Tomonori Kogawa penned the Billbine, and Yutaka Izubuchi did all the remaining enemy aura battler designs.
It’s the latter that brings me to the ongoing onslaught of Aura Battler Dunbine toys from Bandai Spirits.
To date, most of the mecha from the TV series have been given Robot Damashii toys, but what’s interesting is that now they are mining all the Aura Phantasm designs, most of which were never animated.
While there was a spin-off OVA in the late ‘80s, which Izubuchi designed the mecha for, there were also two Aura Phantasm artbooks released by B-Club around the same time.
These also featured designs by Izubuchi of far more organic and insect-like “upgrades” to designs from the original TV series.
Now, in the decades since we have seen the likes of Bellvine featured in Super Robot Wars T and now Y, not to mention having a beautiful Metal Build toy of the design, but the rest of the designs are still going strong.
Admittedly, we haven’t had a general public release of these toys since the Metal Robot Damashii Billbine in 2021, but we have had a multitude of new designs as very popular Premium Bandai releases.
To give you an idea of this madness, take a look at the photo at the top. On the far left is a toy of the Vierres, which is from the original TV show. In the middle is the Aura Phantasm version of the Vierres, and on the far right is the Gargoyle. Another Aura Phantasm design that is meant as an upgrade to the Vierres, with the latter starting pre-orders today in Japan.
Even one-off video game designs like the Zellbine from the PlayStation Dunbine role-playing game received a toy. So, clearly Bandai Spirits is going all out on this franchise.
But why now? Why is Dunbine so popular?
The first and most obvious reason is that Aura Battler Dunbine was and is a great anime. It had a fantastic story with nuanced, complex characters and a world setting unlike any other anime. Effectively starting the isekai genre in the process.
The second reason is that these aura battler designs were very complex and full of curves as well as weird angles. The toy and model kit technology of the ‘80s couldn’t match what was on screen, but now they can.
In short, the massive popularity of its original anime ‘80s run wasn’t matched by its merchandising, and that’s something that is now being belatedly addressed.
The crazy thing is that because Dunbine is such a good isekai anime, it’s also bringing in all-new fans that are sick of the current isekai slop plaguing the anime and light novel marketplace. So, a lot of these sales are being driven by new as well as old fans of the anime.
In addition, according to people at Bandai Spirits, Dunbine is one of, if not the, best-selling mecha anime toy brands in Japan, even more so than Gundam (although Gundam’s model kit sales eclipse this, obviously).
This is partly why we received some lovely new experimental animation for Dunbine last year (shown above), and it will be interesting to see if anything more comes of that.
Until then, I will be buried under a mound of ever-growing Dunbine toys, and marvelling at the sheer craftsmanship that goes into making each and every one of them.
Aura Battler Dunbine is available on Blu-ray via Crunchyroll.
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