Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

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May 2012

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May 28 - Memorial Day

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[Demerson]

I'm surprised Surtur hasn't made a post here about this series.  Clearly an oversight on his behalf!

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is GAINAX's new mecha series that aired in 2007.  This is the series that made me believe in GAINAX again as a studio.  It's full of gattai'ing, kicking reason to the curb, and overall spiral energy goodness.  It closely resembles giant robot shows from the 70s and 80s, it's extremely fast paced, gorgeously animated, and it offers up some of the most memorable characters ever.

I'm not very good at giving a rundown of the show, I'll just say that you owe it to yourself to check out this series.

[TheContact]

Yeah, I really liked the series.  It's got such great pacing, I tore through it pretty quickly.

Great characters too.

[Surtur]

I'm surprised Surtur hasn't made a post here about this series.  Clearly an oversight on his behalf!

Clearly you are not yet well-acquainted enough with my laziness.  Hopefully that situation has now been rectified.

But yeah, Tengen.  Fuck.  Such a sweet show.  Rarely does a day go by now where I don't want to point my finger at the sky and shout "Who the hell do you think I am!?!" in the middle of a public place. 
Naked. 
Luckily I've been able to keep such urges in check, thanks to my doctor and my numerous pills.

It was pretty amazing the way the show has this theme of constantly reaching upwards and aiming higher, and never giving up, and actually mirrors that in its structure - the show literally does get better and better with like every episode until your brain just explodes at the very end.

It kind of reminds me of an RPG, in some ways, that I won't get into because they are kind of spoiler-ish.  But yeah, AC, if you're reading this, and you haven't watched this show yet - get on it.  You'll love it.  There's even a character who looks almost exactly like Fei.

Btw, I'm hijacking this thread and making it the new anime thread:

Naruto - Ugh.  I couldn't take the slow-ass pace anymore, so I've started reading ahead in the manga.  I was a little disappointed with the Sasuke showdown especially, since I was hoping for more of a fight.  I understand they can't do a full-on fight with Naruto and Sasuke yet, they want to save that for later, and that's fine.  But they could've at least given us a Sasuke vs. Sai fight.   I'd like to see some indication of why Sai is considered so strong, since most of his abilities have seemed pretty weak to me so far.  I was also annoyed at how easily they undid presumably years of brainwashing on Sai.  "You must have feelings!  Everyone does!"  "Huh.  Really?  Maybe you're right.  Let me join you after all."  Geez.
Reading ahead in the manga,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm so far up to when Sasuke gathers his own squad together.  It's more interesting, and definitely much better paced than the anime, but the story still isn't as captivating as it was in its prime.  It's by no means bad, though, so I'll definitely keep reading, and hopefully it'll get even better, instead of weaker.  One thing that bugs me a bit, though, is that I feel like I can more or less predict the shape of the story from here on out.  Naruto will fight Sasuke and/or Itachi, and once that's done, they'll have to finish off the rest of Akatsuki, with the main Akatsuki dude being, essentially, the last boss -- and that'll be the end.  But it's possible something interesting will happen with that Danzou guy (or whatever his name is), I guess.

Another show I've been watching, actually on Demerson's recommendation, is Minami-Ke, which I'm rather enjoying (although there's really no reason it should be taking me this long to finish, it's only 13 episodes.  Must... stop... being... lazy...).  It's kind of like Azumanga Daioh, but not quite as good.  If you're an Azumanga fan, think basically a whole show about Tomo - that describes Minami-Ke pretty well.  The main character is very Tomoish, and while Tomo is hilarious, she wasn't my favorite Azumanga character, so that more or less explains why the show is really good, but not as good as Azu.

So... you guys watching any anime?

[Demerson]

The new season is only one or two episodes in, so all I'm watching right now is Code Geass R2.  If you haven't seen the first season of Code Geass, you'll pretty much be totally lost.  It's a decent series though, nothing outstanding, but it's entertaining which is all I really ask for.

I'm waiting for decent subs of Macross Frontier and Golgo 13.  This is actually the first season since Gurren Lagann where I've had more than one show that I'm actually interested in.

[Surtur]

Macross F apparently has Yoko Kanno music?  So I am also interested in that, but pretty much only for that reason.  I'm not a huge Macross fan (except for Plus, which was awesome... but also happens to be the only Macross I've ever actually seen anyway, lol).

What's Golgo 13 about?  Is it based on a manga?  Because that name sounds kind of familiar to me.

Also, forgot to mention it, but in case anyone didn't know, there's a Lagann movie in the works.  It's another one of those goddammed summary movies, apparently only covering the first half of the show (if you've seen the show, you'll know up to what point), and with mostly old footage, but some new.  But apparently some kind of sequel might possibly maybe also be in the works conceivably.  Which would be cool.  A prequel, even, about

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

the Spiral Knights (okay, that probably wouldn't really spoil anything for anybody)

would be sweet.

[A.C]

Naruto - Ugh.  I couldn't take the slow-ass pace anymore, so I've started reading ahead in the manga. 

Naruto sucks, I just don't care about it anymore. Even the manga which just had a major character showdown doesn't interest me like it used to. I don't like the leaf ninja characters, there's too little Kakashi and the "super villains" are getting dumber. They can't top Orochimaru no matter how hard they try. It's like trying to replace The Emperor from Star Wars with Sephiroth.

I much rather watch One Piece these days, I had taken a break from One Piece and just got through the Water 7~Enies Lobby arc in two weeks and the epicness put anything in Naruto to shame. At least One Piece has retained what it once was. The friendship amongst the Strawhats is also alot more rewarding than the Team 7 cryfest.

I'm going to check out Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. I've already d/led the first episode, but I have not felt like watching it yet.

[Demerson]

Golgo 13 is a longggggg running manga series for like 30 years now or something?  Something crazy like that.  They made 2 movies and an OVA out of it in the 80s.  It's basically a series about a professional assassain and all the odd jobs he takes.  They just started a brand new anime out of to run for something like 50 episodes.  Looks like it'll promise lots of action, so it's worth a look.

The Gurren Lagann movie isn't a typical summary movie, it'll be two parts, which is going to be called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Crimson Volume.  It's going to focus much more on the major characters and the only prominent female lead will be Nia.  There's also 7 new works being created, which are basically animation shorts being designed around songs from the series.  These will be directed by guest animators and other people on the original staff.  The coolest thing about the new footage though? 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Seeing Lazengann slice through an Anti-Spiral ship.

The music shorts will be available on the movie's website, the movie itself will be released in theaters September 6th.  They said if it's successful, they'll be making entirely new stuff.

[Demerson]

So, thread is over a year old now...and I thought I'd mark this anniversary by saying, the first part of the Gurren Lagann movie is up on the net, so row row fite da powah.

[TheContact]

Oh hell yeah, thanks for the reminder!

[TheContact]

Hmm, looks like it was mostly just a recap movie (with some of the beginning and end altered).  I guess there's another movie coming too, because that didn't finish the series at all.

Meh.  Not great, but still enjoyed recapping the series, because it was so damn awesome.

[Demerson]

Yeah, it's kind of funny.  It's basically like a companion piece for people that already saw the series, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over the actual series.

I liked the new/extra scenes a lot though.  IMO, more Gurren Lagann is *always* a good thing.

[TheContact]

Yeah, I have to reiterate that if you like giant robots, crazy escalating action, or FLCL, you'll love Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.  So freaking cool.

[Demerson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=OPky_4bGXVg

YOU ARE MY STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

KIMI TO STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

[TheContact]

what the hell?  Talk about taking character out of the art.

[Demerson]

Well, if you haven't noticed by now, it's an official Yoko video made by Gainax as a music video for Marina Inoue's new single "Pieces of Sweet Stars".  (Marina Inoue being Yoko's seiyuu, obviously.)

It's pretty much one of the greatest things ever made in the history of mankind if you're a fan of Yoko (and let's face it, who isn't?)