If it wasn’t obvious by now, I’m a big fan of Yoshiyuki Tomino’s works. So it isn’t surprising that my favorite isekai in all of anime is the one that he created. While the concept of going to another world has existed in stories long before this genre sub genre was established, this work of Tomino’s is an extremely important one when it comes to the genre’s history with anime. Borrowing some very obscure adaptations of classic literature, Dunbine is considered the very first isekai that received an anime and has many characteristics that are foundational to what we define as an isekai.

Like many of Tomino’s other series, Dunbine strives to push the boundaries and explore new ideas from its original genre. Before he made it, most of his shows had relatively realistic elements or explored concepts that other mecha haven’t delved too deep into. Aside from his first anime, Triton, and some elements of Raideen, Dunbine is his very first fully fantastical work. It is undoubtedly a Tomino anime from how the plot is structured, the characters are written and the themes it tackles, however it is by far his most unique show at that point.

Being a Tomino anime, there are the usual directorial traits that are shared among his series. Populating this well made setting is a large cast of diverse characters. If you’re familiar with other anime, these personalities will be very familiar. The ragtag group of heroes from different backgrounds that all work together and travel on a special ship, the many factions of villains and allies that are various shades of gray, the masked rival archetype, and the various antagonists that represent the negative traits of humans. They are all well-written and represent the various ideologies that Tomino normally has in his shows. Like Gundam and Ideon, Dunbine is, at the end of the day, a story about the horrors of war and endless cycle of hatred. They work as well as they do in his other anime but I feel the parts that are unique to this story are more remarkable than those elements.

While Dunbine was originally written in the 80s, when viewing it through the modern lens of the current state of the genre, it is one of the most unique isekais from that perspective. There are many concepts and ideas that feel so much more fresh compared to the copy and paste formulas of shows we see today. The fantasy world is much more closer to medieval and traditional fantasy stories compared to the usual rpg worlds we see. Taking from his experiences from his previous shows, there are also a lot of elements that are much closer to sci-fi than fantasy in this world. There numerous ideas that are unique to Dunbine that makes it stand out way more among the sea of copy and paste adaptations we get in this genre. It is a true fantasy work that really makes you feel like you’re getting to know a truly exotic world.

Adding to the uniqueness of Dunbine are the mecha themselves. Aura battlers are some of the most weird yet fascinating designs the mecha genre has seen to that point. They are much more organic and insectoid like. This is a great choice that gives the setting a much more fantastical feel. They are a great intersection between fantasy and the more grounded mechs of the era. Later fantasy mecha would incorporate a much more into the knightly aesthetic, but the way aura battlers were designed gives Dunbine an identity that is exclusive to itself.

Dunbine is on the darker side of Tomino. The conflict starts off as a civil war, but later grows into a much larger scale as the story progresses. The stakes keep on growing as the number of people dying and tragedies increases. It does have a slower and chaotic start as everything is being introduced and set up, but there are certain turning points that not only widen the scope of the war, but makes the story so much more compelling. I don’t want to spoil it, however, another point that makes Dunbine so much better than most isekai is the interaction between the fantasy world and the normal world.

Isekai is a genre that I don’t particularly enjoy due to how many works are bland and uninteresting. There is so much potential for interesting compelling stories with unique ideas. Thus, when a creator takes full advantage of this type of story, that work becomes a truly great series. The genre may have peaked at its birth since Dunbine is a show that rightfully explores the concept of characters going to another world. On top of just being a good Tomino anime with all the elements that he is known for, it is just a good fantasy anime in general.