Gunbuster (Seasons 1–2)

Gunbuster (Aim for the Top!, 1988) is a Gainax space mecha anime you can watch online on iFILM. In the near future, as humanity ventures past the Solar System, it runs into a race of colossal insectoid aliens bent on wiping our species out of the galaxy entirely.

Earth answers with fleets of giant fighting robots, crewed by the most promising teenagers on the planet. One of the recruits is Noriko Takaya, daughter of a lost space captain, who frankly doesn't seem to have the talent for it. Paired with the cool, gifted Kazumi Amano, Noriko spends as much of the series wrestling her own self-doubt and the scars of war as she does the enemy. The real engine of the story is relativity: while the pilots fight out among distant stars, years pile up back on Earth, and every homecoming costs a little more.

This compact six-episode OVA was an early Gainax calling card, and it still ranks among the most affecting mecha shows ever made — the sports-anime thrill of training hard pivots, almost without warning, into a quiet meditation on time and goodbyes. Its near-silent final episode lands like a punch. Stream every episode of Gunbuster online on iFILM.