Shout out to other media in Aim for the Top! GunBuster.
- Most of the character dynamics, the basic plot and the sports theme of the first episode are lifted from tennis anime Aim for the Ace!. The title itself is a combination of Aim for the Ace! and Top Gun, two major influences on the plot.
- Supplementary materials, including Super Robot Wars, identify Noriko's RX-7 Machine from the start of the show as the "Nausicaä". Kazumi's is the "Giselle".
- The Inazuma Kick is a Rider Kick.
- In the next episode preview for episode three, Noriko begins her narration with "The sea of space is my sea!" which is the famous first line of the opening to Captain Harlock.
- The Yamato makes a cameo in episode four as the earth fleet is starting to warp out. All the earth ships are uniform grey and of a specific style, but there is a ship in the background with a very distinct red underbelly and smokestack.
- Noriko has a poster of it in Episode 5.
- Kazumi is briefly seen reading No Longer Human in the fourth episode.
- Gunbuster's design is a combination of a Zaku, Ideon and Getter Dragon.
- Gunbuster's Finger Firearm move copies the stance and missile colors the title character of the live action Giant Robo had.
- Its forehead beam, ship combination and tomahawks belong to Getter Dragon.
- The mech owes a few design cues to the Getter Dragon from Getter Robo G: the legs and chest are extremely similar in design, the Buster Beam fires from the mech's head much like the Dragon's Getter Beam (the other Getter machines had their beams fire from the stomach), and it was initially meant to dual-wield axes similarly to the Dragon (which didn't make the cut, but can still be seen in its Transformation Sequence)
- Likewise, Gunbuster's first launch is adapted from the pivotal battle of Getter Robo G, where the machine rises out the ocean, arms folded, and decimates the enemy's forces. Of course, virtually everyone on both sides of the Pacific now thinks of Gunbuster whenever that scene is homaged.
- Gunbuster is shown launching missiles/lasers from all over its body in an identical fashion to Ideon.
- Although never used in the show, an official card game showed Gunbuster using the Choudenji Yo-Yo and Choudenji Spin from Combattler V.
- Several references are made to the Ultra Series, of which Hideaki Anno is a famed fan.
- The characterization of Coach Oota as a mentor to Noriko, preparing her for pilot duty through Training from Hell after an injury to his right leg leaves him crippled and unable to fight, is heavily based on the depiction of Dan Moroboshi in Ultraman Leo. Similarly, the scene in the first episode in which Noriko and Oota stand face to face in front of a sunset directly references a similar scene from the first episode of Ultraman Leo.
- The orbital surveillance satellite from episode 5 is a nigh-identical replica of the MAC Station from 'Ultraman Leo''. In fact, official Gunbuster sources sarcastically deny that the two are one and the same.
- Much as in the case above, the design and location of the EDF base seen in the same episode heavily resembles the appearance of the ZAT HQ from Ultraman Taro - a resemblance that official Gunbuster resources have also sarcastically denied.
- One of the poses that the Gunbuster strikes when firing the Buster Beam replicates one of Ultraseven's signature poses when firing his own Emerium beam from his forehead.
- The manner in which the Buster missiles instantaneously erase their targets piece by piece references the Spark-8 gun attachment used by the SSSP in the 37th episode of Ultraman.
- The opening credits of the final two Science Lesson episodes reference the title sequence of Return of Ultraman.
- The name of the fifth episode is "Please!! There's Time Enough for Love!"
- Noriko's rooms in episode five and six contain:
- Posters for Space Battleship Yamato, The Castle of Cagliostro, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and My Neighbor Totoro.
- A Van Halen calendar.
- A model kit of the aforementioned Yamato, and what looks to be a Z'gok.
- The final episode, "At the End of Eternity...", is likely titled after The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov, starting the long-running Gainax tradition of naming final episodes after other pieces of fiction.
- The final scene, in particular the way Gunbuster removes its degeneracy reactor to kickstart the Jupiter Bomb, is heavily inspired by Musashi's legendary sacrifice in the original Getter manga.
- The fourth Science Lesson has Noriko directly compare Gunbuster to "Get-P Robo from the old 20th century anime". She also mentions Animage magazine.
- During one of the later Science Lesson episodes (done for the laserdisc release), Coach tells Noriko to name off all of the planets in the solar system, which she does while instantly cosplaying as each corresponding Sailor Moon character (inner planets only, the outer senshi hadn't appeared yet).