The Gunbuster Connection

In keeping up with news of the Chinese lunar sample return probe (which didn’t waste any time collecting samples and rocketing them off the Moon’s surface to transfer them into another part of the probe that’ll return to Earth, a more elaborate mission plan than the direct return of the Soviet lunar sample return probes but of course pretty much what Apollo’s Lunar Orbit Rendezvous involved), I did notice reports of a Japanese probe returning a small sample of an asteroid to the Australian outback. I didn’t quite seem able to expand that into even a short post here, though.

Operating in a completely different mode, I took a look just today at the news section of Crunchyroll, which I visit much less often than Anime News Network. Today, though, I was in time to spot a piece about an engineer on the Hayabusa2 mission declaring the Gunbuster anime OVA had helped direct his attention to the field he’s in. Thoughts of people “inspired by Star Trek” came to mind (I’m certain Star Wars did something to get me interested in “real space” at an early age), although I did wonder a little whether Gunbuster’s own take on outer space is quite as inviting (regardless of it referencing earlier science fiction works, and leaving the specific appeal of its characters aside, of course).