YMMV / Aura Battler Dunbine

• Awesome Music: The opening theme, sung by MIQ.
• Catharsis Factor: After all her scheming and backstabbing, it's extremely satisfying to finally see Luuza get her comeuppance by the end.
• Common Knowledge: For fans who got into the Aura Battler Dunbine anime when their only experience of Dunbine is from the Super Robot Wars series. The Aura Battlers don't actually have Aura Slash/Hyper Aura Slash as a special finisher technique as it was completely made up for the Super Robot Wars series. Instead, it's a relatively down-to-earth Real Robot series.
• Complete Monster: Lady Luuza Luft manipulates her powerful husband, Lord Drake Luft, so she can conquer Byston Well. Encouraging Drake's war, Luuza cares nothing for the people massacred, as long as it secures her power. Angered by her daughter, Riml, attempting to stop the war, Luuza has her beaten and imprisoned, later threatening Riml's life to make a group of rebels back down. Believing King Bishott Hale to be a better puppet than Drake, Luuza cheats on her husband with the king. When Drake becomes aware of Luuza's treachery, he sends Riml to arrest her, only for Luuza to murder her daughter in cold blood.
• Cult Classic: The anime wasn't very popular at the time — largely due to Japanese audiences not liking the Isekai elements — and the merchandise performed poorly, but nevertheless it maintained a cult following over the years and is fondly remembered as one of Tomino's stronger non-Gundam works.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Todd Guinness. Despite not being the most prominent rival, nor the Final Boss, Todd's Anti-Villain status and the fact that he comes across as an underdog compared to the hero, earnt him the top spot of the character poll of the animation magazine "Animec" during the show's run, so much so that when he died he had a dedicated obituary section with a message of thanks from Todd's voice actor to the fans. It's why he tends to get preferential treatment in crossover appearances and model kits/figurines of his mechs.
• Fanfic Fuel: What happened to Upper Earth after the war? The ending only shows that Cham survived, and she disappears after telling the whole story to the world. Considering the devastation wreaked, one can only wonder how big of a catastrophe resulted.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Byston Well forces fighting against Drake get along very well with Great Britain and nearby countries of Europe. All of the names for the Aura Machines came from European folklore, especially that found in the UK, so it makes perfect sense.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Despite Drake's intention to negotiate with the United States rather than conquer them, it's highly doubtful that his usually smart strategy went as smoothly as the anti-Drake forces' negotiations with Europe. To start, they already destroyed several cities following the confusion with at least one being wiped off the face of the Earth. His close subordinate from America, Shot Weapon, has reason to take revenge against his home country. Todd Guinness also states how he's fighting to protect Boston from being annihilated, which Drake sparing said city after hearing his death. Furthermore, the United States is a well-armed country even among its citizens that has a history of confronting dictators and world conquerors. Drake Luft is no exception and the Carl Vinson's defection indicates a lack of popularity among the armed forces. It comes to wonder how many communities in the United States rebelled over the government complying to Drake's wishes, only to end up like Paris...or Las Vegas in this matter.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In episode 15, where a newscaster notes out Garalia's Bastole, he says, "This is not an anime," which is funny to hear, given the name and lyrics to a song used in a certain Tomino anime...
  • As well as that, some episode titles also seem bemusingly prophetic in hindsight such as "Bern's Counterattack" and "Garalia's Flash".
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The use of unmanned, remote-controlled aircraft to combat the powerful Aura Machines on Upper Earth is quite an early concept of FPV kamikaze drones now used as a very scarily effective weapon in today’s armed forces.
• Inferred Holocaust: When Byston Well undergoes a Mass Teleportation and the war is taken to Upper Earth, casualties are easily at a level not seen since World War II. Entire cities are destroyed either on-screen (as Paris can attest) or as stated by the dialogue (Las Vegas "disappears" and Shanghai is also suspected to be annihilated). And there's no telling if that's the end of it since the Aura Machines are scattered all over the place at the time.
• Moral Event Horizon: All of the villains cross it at some point:
  • The Black Knight crosses it when he kills a random fisherman who saved him from drowning in the ocean simply because he saw the knight without his mask.
  • Luuza crosses it when she murders her daughter Riml in cold blood and then when Nie faces her down she states that she has done nothing wrong and should be captured unharmed.
  • Shot Weapon crosses it when he decides that he no longer needs Drake and wants to rule Upper-Earth himself and has Muisy sent to assassinate him.
  • Drake himself is a weird example as despite being the Big Bad, it's not something he does that invokes this trope but rather what he intended to do. After the war is coming to an end, Ciela mentally asks Drake if he will stand down and accept the punishment for his crimes. Drake states that now he is free from Luuza's manipulations, he will start another war to rule over both Byston Well and Upper-Earth.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Aura Machines. Especially so when they appear in Upper Earth. Thanks to the increased amount of Aura on Upper Earth, Aura machines have now become near invulnerable weapons. Aura Barriers can take a barrage of nuclear missiles unscathed and usually normal missiles in Byston Well are increased to that scale on Earth. And the worst part is the majority of such weapons are in possession of either an Evil Overlord or the Mad Scientist behind them all.
  • What further adds to the fuel is how all these machines were transported all over the globe. There were already up to a million fatalities from the first fight between Dunbine and Bastole alone, and we only see what happened from the named characters’ perspectives. And while Lord Drake ordered his men not to harm the indigenous people of Upper Earth, he could not do this to all of the forces without an advanced radar and radio as the main cast learned. Due to lack of communication, imagine how many other cities across the globe were destroyed from the first wave alone.
• Retroactive Recognition: Dunbine features Shigeru Nakahara, Show Hayami and Fumihiko Tachiki very early on in their careers.
• Shocking Moments: The residents of Byston Well appearing in Upper Earth and demonstrating how devastatingly powerful these machines are.
• Signature Scene:
  • The debut of the Black Knight and his personal Aura Battler, the Zwarth.
  • The final clash between Show and Todd, particularly when they both go into Hyper Mode is often recreated in crossover works such as Super Robot Wars.