Yeah I'm starting a thread for what is Gainax's best work in ages.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So does anybody miss all the constant penis jokes from the first half of the show? I mean they are still there later on but not so much and they are not so overt. I can't really say I miss them all too much.

Smokie misses the cock

Very funny Mike but we go from volcanoes erupting and "penetrate the heavens with your drill!" to just plain old drills. I guess it also shows how things have gotten more serious for our heroes. Its not just dick and fart jokes anymore the human race is at stake.

more like the universe, but yeah.

Dude, the part with Viral in 26 damn near broke my heart. I just wanted to curl up and cry!

I know! Poor Viral.

And now we know who the dude with Simon in episode 1 was. I thought it was our favorite asshole with a forehead like a Mack truck but I never suspected Boota.

It was great to see Kamina again too. I've missed him.

The uncut DVD version of episode 6 is hilarious. A major lack of boob but the Easter Egg character appearances are what make it great.

WOW WOW WOW FUCK MY LIFE HAS CHANGED!!

That ending... ;_; Gah I feel so empty now with it out of my life. I feel like I should rewatch it and not let it go away.

Damn fine show.

Episode 27 was one of the most EPIC things I have ever seen. That fight was....WOW!

And Lord Genome I just wasn't expecting that. Rasen Overlord!

I didn't really like the character design for some people after the time skip. Just sayin'.

Disappointed Boota went back to his pig mole form but then again the reason he could transform in the first place was probably because of being in the alternate dimension.

Also something that bugs me. When the Hell did the beginning battle in episode 1 take place? It had to be post episode 26 but we go directly from 26 into 27 leaving no time for it. I have a few theories about it but I don't feel like mentioning them because they are pretty simple. Alternate universe or timeline for example.

Um, to keep you guessing and make you think you can predict shit? It's Gainax after all.
Note the change from "All the lights are enemies" to "All the lights are stars/allies".

I can't wait for the soundtrack to be released on the third! Grow grow fight the power!

There better be at least 3 versions of that song!

Hells yes! I mean they must have had twice that play in the anime and each one kicked ass in a different manner.

4 versions!!! Original, Gurrendan version, Opera mix, and techno version!! Best OST ever!

I didn't much care for the techno version but all the others were pretty sweet. Plus Mina no Peace is pretty pimp too and a bunch of other shit I don't know the name of.

Well, I was going to ask if the hype from UT's Anime Club was true about Gurren Lagann..

But apparently it is. XD

I suppose I should finish watching it then, seeing as I've only made it through the first two episodes.

Keep watching Nicole! It just gets better and better. My favorite episodes are 15, 24, 25, 26, and 27.

Well, let's see. I have too much work to be watching this. Episode 8 makes me want to use a video idea I'd been pitching at Death Note.

Episode 8 was so very sad and GL could use more AMVs while Death Note has far too many as evidenced by AMV Hell 4.

Yeah, that's what I decided ;)

Hoping to get this video rolling because I'm excited about it. It starts with the end of the episode. I think it'll continue to Ep. 9-10. Should be fun.

Well I get the feeling the dub and official sub might not be that great. Anime Network has episode 1 with subs streaming on their website and while for the most part the sub is good I have a few problems with it. For starters the timing is a bit off but that I can ignore. My main beef is with the Gurren Dan being translated as Team Gurren. While I know at this early stage it would be a stretch to call Kamina's comrades a brigade I think that they merit being a squad. Anything to show the more militaristic badass spirit Kamina was trying to have the group embody I don't think team does that very well.

Anyways I hope that they fix shit like that on the DVD release because I don't think too many people would pay for DVDs with shitty timing and the Dai Gurren Dan becoming the Big Team Gurren.

HERE check it out. What does anybody else think of it?

They did the same thing with Team Rocket in Pokemon (rocket dan) so it's not surprising. Dan if anything means moreso team, party, or group than a brigade.

As for dai gurren dan they would probably translate it to "The Great Gurren Team" or something like that, it wouldn't be so literal.

Yeah but teams play softball. I've yet to see a team save the fucking universe.

I know getting pissy over subs is bullshit but I can't help it. Hell they could get away with calling it a fucking brigade if they wanted because Kamina is so damn crazy he tells us he kicks reason to the curb.

Team America saved the universe from Korea.

Dai Yamato was translated to Great Yamato, so I think Codi is right.

Fansubbers don't know what the fuck they are doing and use whatever word sounds coolest, or in somecases, don't even know where to start so they just leave it "dan" and cop attitude with anyone who expected their anime to come translated.

I think team is ok.

I've finally decided to watch this much hyped series, and I'm enjoying it. After a long hecktic day at work, it pumps me up again, and is a blast to watch.

I have decided to present kind of an analysis of the show since I've hit the end of the first arch, episode 8.

I have a few qualms, let me break it down a bit:

Highlights:

This is quite possibly the most macho show ever produced in Japan. In my mind Hiroyuki Imaishi is a master of the "ID". He understands the inner drives inside of all of us and exploits them to their maximum potential creating wonderful entertainment (Dead Leaves IMO being the pinnicle of this). I tend to think of him as being an equivalent to live action directors like Robert Rodriguez, guys who self consciously revel in the appeal of pulpy fun and take that pulpiness to its most extreme conclusion, something that is divinely entertaining and fun to watch.

The part of the ID that Imaishi is exploring here is pure highly concentrated unfiltered testosterone. Drills (if you've seen dead leaves you get the reference instantly), volcanoes, robots who think with 2 brains (one in the head one in the crotch), and enough references to male genitalia and masculinity in general to make Freud spin in his grave with psychoanalytical delight. I have fun pointing all these references out.

Yet unlike many other manly anime, there is a sense of fun here, a sense of self awareness but also a sense of geniune feeling of energy and creativity that really sets it apart from most anime of its ilk. I keep saying creativity even though many old anime cliches are used, Imaishi creatively re-uses them and makes them as exciting to watch as they were when I first started watching anime as a teenager.

Low Points:

Much of Episode 6, though the ending saved it, come on, a hot springs ep, with way too many flash backs... yuck. Also episode 5 seemed way too kino's journey for me, I mean they run into this old cult in the middle of nowhere that is seemingly isolated from the rest of the world, I half expected Motorrad with its child molesting English dub voice to come out and say "Hey Kino..." its just a minor quirk though, the real complaint is...

Episode 4: You know I really like Osamu Kobayashi (Beck, Paradise Kiss) he is one of Japans most unique animators, he has a unique style and pacing. This sort of style works really works great if he's directing something about kids buying indie music a a seedy cd shop, while fighting cute, yet, perversely demented critters from outer space - with an emphasis on buying the indie music from a seedy CD shop, not the fighting which should be treated as an afterthought...

THIS IS NOT Gurren Lagaan! - Kobayashi's style hits like a ton of bricks, because in gurren lagaan one of the main focuses are the battles, and Kobayashi treats it like the scenario above...

Kobayashi seems to have a knack for taking shows that are plowing foward and then suddenly and jarringly making them screech to a halt leving the audience dazed and confused. Fans of Kemonozume (all 10 of us :P) were pissed when he did this our show during episode 8. Fans of Gainax (thousands of them) actually got one of Gainax's founders fired for letting Kobayashi direct this episode check out the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurren_Lagaan

Kobayashi doesn't have quite the frantic pacing that Imaishi usually brings to the series, doesn't have the knack for intense and creative action, and instead leaves us feeling like we watched an episode of paradise kiss that wasn't really paradise kiss... and that's another problem, much of Kobayashi's work has this kind of transsexual feeling about them, a homo-eroticism mixed with straight eroticism that really doesn't feel right in what is quite possibly the most manly anime I've ever seen. Think about it: the director of paradise kiss, doing MANLY anime... it makes heads explode!

The moral of the story is, leave Kobayashi to his own stuff, don't invite him as guest director, no matter how cool or unique his style is.

I would love to see someone take the smirk (see link below) that kobayashi puts on his characters and apply it to other anime as a kind of in joke about how it must be a fad for him to be a guest director:

http://anime.fansub.tv/picture.php/984/4/1...0Gurren-Lagann/

Here is what a typical female from Kobayashi looks like (note the eyes - add the smirk and you get a double whammy for his style):

http://www.kojimorimoto.net/images/studio4...ainfunk_010.jpg

Imagine this on visual style suddenly appearing in your favorite anime show*... scary thought isn't it :P.

* Unless your favorite anime show is Beck or Paradise Kiss...

Conclusion

I am going to keep watching this highly entertaining anime. I hope it continues to deliver the goods, and be an exciting diversion.

Please do the Kobayashi fan art thing I mentioned above - I want to see Nausicaa looking like a female smirking character from his work! :P

End of the Second arc...

And I'm still very pleased, the show has a somewhat different feel since XXXXXXXXXXX, but overall I wound up enjoying the show a bit more, it grounded it a bit from the whole gung-ho lets move forward mentality it had prior to ep 8 and took its time to develop into something new. I'd say it was even a bit more character focused, and going into both inner and outer conflicts. I also thought the animation improved too, with increasingly awesome fight sequences, culminating in episode 15.



Highlights:

+ Lagaan barfing up green stuff, really awesome way to show the mental state of Simon at that time it was almost amusing, even though it was kind of sad that he wasn't able to reach his peak performance...

+ Nia - The moment I saw her come out of a pod and say "What are People" I thought Mike was totally full of shit when he said that this show was the one that conquered moe, luckily I was proven wrong, that while she was naive, and had a good reason to, she actually was a smart character who really helped out the entire "Great Brigade" it several critical moments, and had a great intuitive sense of human emotion, I was pleasantly surprised. I also think the design is cool with the pink puzzle pieces in her eyes...

+ Surreal fun stuff - The birds on the bridge of large airship mech, they always brought a smile to my face. The armadillo/mole character had a similar effect...

+ Adding flippers to make the large battleship (I always thought of it as a GIANT MAN that was well endowed) another oddly amusing touch...

+ Amazingly creative battle sequences, too many to mention here. Episode 15 stole the show, the fight with the helix king, who throughout the series look like he came out of Mindgame(*), it was an increadible fight, fun to watch and see how everything moved around, I was cheering at the screen when something awesome happened, and frankly the episode kept delivering and delivering. At one point there was the most amazing
Itano CircusI've seen since the dogfight at the end of Cowboy Bebop the Movie. Another was when the helix king was killed, increadible scene. This episode was one of the best animated TV show eps I've seen in a long time.

*(I wouldn't be too surprised if all scenes with him were animated by Shinya Ohira, or Shinji Hashimoto - the two leading animators of the sketchy style found in the anime sequence in Kill Bill)

+ A summary episode that didn't totally suck, I kind of liked how it showed a bit of the drawings behind the show, and how Imaishi (possibly) was writing key phrases, and how it showed all the storyboard/concept art over the end credits, I really liked the drawings there, mainly because they were less watered down and looked more like the Imaishi I know from dead leaves...

Finally another thing I like about this show is that while it shounen through and through, with its tired themes of teamwork, growing up, and GUTS, there really is something genuine and self conscious in this show that continues to appeal to me. Last week was a really tough week at work, getting hammered by phone calls left and right, loosing time on projects with deadlines that were approaching all to soon, and yet after I came home from work feeling beat, I'd watch this show and felt ready to go out and kick some ass... I don't usually get that feeling from shounen shows and here was one that gave it to me.

Low Point:

+ First we get a hot springs epidsode, then an episode with ah lets all go out to the beach with the exact same jokes that were used about 10 years ago in Nadia... hmmm, they need to stop doing these two tired jokey scenes over and over in anime, I'm kind of sick of them...

Here's to the rest of the series, I hope it doesn't disappoint...

The Spiral King is basically the coolest guy ever.

He also has one of the coolest if not the coolest mechs ever.

Final Episodes:

I've completed the series, and I must say it was one of the most exciting mainstream anime, and by far the best gainax anime I've seen in years. I overall liked the series, but had a kind of numb feeling when watching the last episode, almost like I couldn't imagine a bigger scale battle. Nonetheless the whole series was a fun ride, and a change in direction for mainstream anime.

At the first part of this arc I got really excited when suddenly bravada alone wasn't what was going to save the world, that Simon needed some degree of responsibility towards his planet, and had to face complex political consequences if he didn't' hold up to that responsibility. It was something that I wish would have been explored a bit more in depth though, I was thinking that the series had taken a nice turn towards Kino's Journey style philosophy about human society, but at the same time I thought the series took its really awesome concept and layed it out a bit to neatly for my taste. On the other hand there were some smart ideas that were touched on and made accessible to a general anime audience, I'm just somewhat annoyed that it didn't try to make it a bit more in depth.

On the other hand, the show developed a lot of things that I really liked through this arc. The animation markedly improved, and despite it being a super robot genere mecha show, every battle was more and more exciting, you wanted to know exactly what bizzare thing would come out and solve their problems.

And then their is the scale. Impossibly huge, yet still determined to break through time and space to accomplish their goal, that's incredibly inspiring and the kind of inspiration that's been lacking in a lot of anime, and gainax anime for a long time. (More on this later - I feel a trend may be developing in anime and this is the one that brought it to the Otaku).

Highlights:

The Anti Spiral: Visually an incredibly awesome, constantly moving while flickering, he reminded me of something out of a Studio 4C anime (mainly the demon in Tekkon Kinkreet, and had a similar outer worldly menace to him).

Bio Computer Version of the Helix King: Exactly the kind of surreal demented imagination that I've come to expect from Imaishi. I really liked the concept of a disembodied head transformed into the core computer of a large ship.

The Attacking Statues on the Other Dimension: I was reminded of the Giant hand in FLCL (which I'm sure was also an Imaishi Idea), these enemies were creepy as all hell, which is fitting given what their race's goal was...

*Spoiler*The Moe Character: Gurren Lagaan was a show about growing up and facing your fears. Moe is the exact opposite, living in a state of constant fantasy through a fear of the adult and the unknown. Consequently the most important message in this show was how it realized that Moe itself was antithetical to the human drive to go forward, procreate and accomplish great things like society and science. How this show took care of the character was impressive and a kind way of telling those who are in love with Moe idols to move on with life.

Episode 27: Imaishi was not only the supervising director, but also the episode director of this episode. Consequently a lot more of his visual flair shows up in this episodes than others. Its almost a sort of super-deformation when at key points the artwork/animation suddenly develops into Imaishi's more extreme style found in Dead Leaves. It was exciting and thrilling to watch.

Show's growth: The show grew up with Simon in a totally convincing and non-hammy way. The problems he had to deal with were increasingly complex as he tried to make sense out of a complex world, yet in doing so he managed to still maintain a spirit and determination towards success. That sort of upbeat worldview is something that really drew me into the series, and while its pretty common in shounen anime, I felt gurren still did it better than any one else.

Negatives:

Political Angle as explained above. There seemed to be a political idea at the core of this show, of controled anarchy against authoritarianism, with the anti-spirals being the ultimate authoritarian entity. As interesting a thought as this is, it seems that the show could have brought a bit more nuance to this subject. Its not much of a complaint being that this show isn't so much about nuance as in your face kick ass, but I thought there was a surprisingly intelligent idea that was touched upon that really could have used a bit more development.


Total Rating:

**** (out of 5)

Deserved the runner up prize for the annual Media Arts Festival, Gurren Lagaan is one of the best mech shows to come out in years, and one of the best solidly genre anime to be out in well over a decade. Yet its just that, genre anime, It fails to completely transcend the limitations of the genre. I wish a bit more of Imaishi's imaginative designs/animation would have surfaced and a bit more depth added to a political angle that was touched upon in the show.

My next post will be on how Gurren Lagaan being part of a possible trend in anime...

I notice your rating is missing some stars. Like a few billion or rather like stars beyond counting. Your current rating is reasonable and I'm kicking your reasons fucking ass because it has no place here. This is a thread where we do the impossible, see the invisible and a 4 out of 5 does not exist here.

Haha! :D Way to take up the spirit of the show Smokie!

My sheer will power should conquer the anti-spiral er nasty film critic tenancies in me and add another star!!! :)

The trend post will come later, I need to get up early for work tomorrow.

I'm thinking like 30 stars out of 5

As far as the improved animation goes, at the beginning of the project Gainax announced that the last 6 episodes of Gurren Lagann would have 40% of the total budget. This explains both the jump in animation, as well as the overall flow of the show. As one viewer noticed "There are not any wasted scenes, everything fits into it". This may be the first show that Gainax actually planned from the get-go.

The look of the anti-spiral space fleet was indeed awesome. My favorite episode of the series strikes me on three levels, aesthetically, artistically, and on a fanboy level. This is episode 25, when they are in the spiral nemesis thingy.
Artistically, it is fantastic. Heros are slain, Yoko's character is explored externally, and the feeling from the first half merges with the depressing realism of the second half to form the final (and overriding) flow/theme of the series.
Aesthetically, it is nearly profound. The animation is fucking fantastic, the backgrounds are as impressive as the forgrounds, and the art direction is perfect. Also, the soundscaping is unparalleled. The opera remix of fight the power playing as shit gets REAL was glorious, and rose every hair on my body.
Fanboyism - HOLY SHIT, the Nautillus just sank into that black-hole Angel and transformed into gunbuster!! HOLY SHIT!! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!

So who else got teary eyed when they saw Virals dream world?

Mike, the dream-sequence is episode 26. I should know, I uploaded that damn episode on my mp3 player!

And yeah, it makes me teary. Super teary. I mean, I was getting a little watery when Kamina commented that Simon was taller than him, tears started at the Kittan/Yoko wedding scene, and it turned in to full blown CRYING for Viral's part of the dream sequence. And that song. Oh god, that song. It's stupid if you listen to the lyrics, but man, screw the lyrics. That song is just epic, and evokes such epic imagery.

..and, also, on my MP3. XD

The Viral comment was seperate from my earlier statements.

I didn't tear up too bad but yeah that tugged at my heart strings.

I also got sad when most of the Gurren dan died. I mean they were all just there and nobody paid them much attention then Gainax kills them off. They got to die spectacular manly deaths in battle especially the twins and Kittan. I just wish we had seen them developed a bit more as characters considering Kid and Ailac had barely ever said anything before that episode.

Fair enough. Blame the fact that I was posting while I was in class, I was only half paying attention XD

Viral's scene made me smile :) it really humanized the character, he seemed like such a jackass, but in the end he was just fighting for survival and the perpetuation of his own kind.

I think that Gurren Lagaan is part of a trend of a more positively themed anime, it seems to me that the majority of anime in the last 10 years have been about how life is hell, or escaping how life is hell. The whole moe genere is case in point - nothing but pure escapism blown to gigantic geeky proportions. The animation itself in anime has gotten more formulaic (with a few exceptions, but even those exceptions still rely on catering to a very ridgid and detailed ideal of moe perfection - see: http://heiseidemocracy.com/2005/12/07/the-moe-image/)

Gurren Lagaan like Mindgame and Tekkon Kinkreet are a totally different breed of anime. First off all three films are about conquering ones inner fears and evils, weather its fear of living life to its fullest (Mindgame), fear of change and of growing up (Tekkon), or fear of the unknown that comes with progress/evolution and the harms it can cause (Gurren Lagaan). All three anime are a slap in the face of the narcissistic wallowing of Evangelion, or the deeply detailed fantasy escapist worlds constructed by most moe series. While Gurren is hardly realist, its viewpoint towards life is one of facing reality and facing ones inner demons, not hiding from them. Only when mankind conquers fear does it continue to push forward and evolve.

Second, all three works have a totally different visual philosophy that flies in the face of what's dominated anime for a long time. Less detailed drawings and more emphasis on movement, a much rougher sketchier style that is less interested in perfection of the commercial anime style, and more interested in using the power of individual animators to express themselves through the rough raw motion of their characters. The Anti Spiral, and the demon at the end in Tekkon have much in common visually, both make full use of traditional and digital technologies to produce frightening visions of fear itself. Mindgame used it a bit differently, using similar animation to show how fear can be conquered through determination, whether through the sex scene, or escaping the whale. All three use this type of raw animation to express their intense feelings very effectively.

Tekkon and Mindgame alone though can't save anime. Both films appear on the surface to be too artsy for a general audience, they don't' cater to fandom enough to really create an impact that will be felt across anime. Gurren Lagaan on the other hand does. It takes the ideas that are being toyed with by the most avant garde anime directors and popularizes them, much like how anime such as Gundam (with Tomino injecting the realism that he learned when working on Masterpiece Anime Theater series with Takahata in the 70s), and Patlabor (Oshii developing the ultimate anti-mecha show without sacrificing characters that he so quickly abandons in other work) did earlier in anime history. These two shows and others helped move anime as a whole forward, and Gurren Lagaan totally has that potential, it will pierce through the heavens! :)

Gainax frequently causes me to change ratings, for all I know another watching will make me add a star... ;)

Finally I hope Imaishi continues to kick ass and turn me, a very jaded anime fan into a drooling fanboy. ;) Even though I gave it 4 stars, believe me this is no easy task, and I have much respect for Imaishi's talents as a director :). Gurren also gave me some respect for him to construct stories with some depth beyond the visual pizazz of his other work, I only wish he could have taken it a bit further...

Fannboyism: FUCK GURREN JUST FOUGHT AGAINST THAT!!! (you know what I'm talking about, since I'm going to leave spoilers a bit on the wayside).

Animation side note: Did you know that Imaishi actually put together a website showing off some of the animation in gurren through the rough drawings - its here http://www.gainax.co.jp/anime/gurren-lagann/oni_r.html

Before this show, I wasn't aware that both Jesus and Chuck Norris worked for Gainax.

nigma please, Norris had no hand in something this awesome. However, I'm pretty sure Gainax employees Bruce Lee and I think God owns a great deal of stock so he has a lot of pull.