Gurren-Lagann - Episode 18 Discussion / Poll

[Shiroth]

Wow, Genome back in the day was all GAR. Not surprised, what after flame head and all. Talking head of awesomeness.

So after three weeks, the moon shall collide with the earth. That its self has a pretty awesome 90's feel to it, trust Gainax to come up with this. We know that the fourth arc shall have something to do with the moon, though until then everything has to sort its self out. I'm really liking Rossiu's new attitude --- it fits in nicely with the story at this point.

& still, i love this ZOE feel to the series.

[7Th]

I for one am glad they didn't went with the silly "LOL NIA HAS 2 PERSONALITIES" route or the "SHE WAS TOOK OVER BY ALIENS" plot device and just made Nia realize her true nature. GJ, Gainax. Despite the budget animation the episode itself was quite nice as a whole, the new OST tunes fit the new mood perfectly.

[Sanjuronord]

Originally Posted by quina

Next time we will see Rosui gave Simon back his core drill and tell him to live no matter what happened. I bet he also help Simon in the jail break as well. hmmm nice jack ass.

Maybe, but during the next ep preview there is also a quick flash of what looks to be the Gurren's cockpit littered with what looks like gas/air tanks and wires running every which way. Bomb maybe?

Great episode as always but feel like I'm still waiting on the time jump to kick into gear.

[Archer]

Originally Posted by Sanjuronord

Maybe, but during the next ep preview there is also a quick flash of what looks to be the Gurren's cockpit littered with what looks like gas/air tanks and wires running every which way. Bomb maybe?

Great episode as always but feel like I'm still waiting on the time jump to kick into gear.

A bomb?

Why would Rossiu feel the need to kill Simon this way? If he wanted to get rid of him he wouldn't go through the trouble of breaking him out from prison in the first place.

[ThoHell]

Maybe Rossiu just wants to confine Simon, to prevent further actions from Simon. But from what looks like a trial in the preview, judgment was passed on Simon that wasn't expected, leading to his jailbreak. Basically everyone is helpless against the anti-spiral so they're taking it out on Simon.

[Sanjuronord]

Originally Posted by Archer

Why would Rossiu feel the need to kill Simon this way? If he wanted to get rid of him he wouldn't go through the trouble of breaking him out from prison in the first place.

Make it look like an accident or something, dunno. But sorta doubt it now, there is another scene in the preview with what looks like Kinoh in the cockpit wearing a pilot's uniform. Maybe they're just air tanks so they can fly into space, but wonder why she'd go with Simon when she seems attached to Rossiu's hip here recently.

[ThoHell]

Yoko needs to come back soon, miss her already. She's gotta come back and help out Simon again soon, she's too important to not.

[deviousj]

Kickass episode; I gave it an eight. Spiral King's yawn is great. Spiral King flashback needs to be animated; an OVA would be glorious. Transformed Nia is completely different from normal Nia. Simon is as reckless as ever, rushing into battle and saying "I'll think of something". The moon falling out of orbit and crashing into the planet was not what I expected; I expected it to transform in the Death Star or something like that, but this is more interesting. The people of Kamina city are a mob of idiots blaming the government for something obviously not their fault. Rossiu using Simon as a scapegot really pissed me off, but it seems like he'll redeem himself next episode.

I know this is much shorter than my other episode impressions, but I'm just too tired to care.

[Midonin]

This episode left me with many feelings of shock. Where to begin? Genome's head in a tube was freaky, the Magun are freaky, and Anti-Nia is extremely freaky. So...with the moon about to fall to Earth and three weeks to save it...wow. I'm in a state of total shock here.

I wonder if all of Genome's daughters were meant to be messengers of the Anti-Spirals, or just Nia. She was a unique case, but even then, why would Genome's archenemy be directly within his inner circle?

So many questions and the answers yet to come. Can't wait for the weeks ahead.

[Coreyart]

Wow where are you guys seeing this I really want to watch it too but cant find it. I wonder when Simon is going to change capes to the kamina one. Also I wonder what Rossiu's village and his father are up to now. And is Nia the new main bad guy? I wonder if they will introduce the new anti hero soon.

[nubby]

If you happen to like Kamina, you can't dislike Simon for being reckless.

[musashiken]

I don't get it. Why do people keep saying it's a low budget episode?? Doesn't seem different from the other episodes to me. Except for less fighting.

[Deathkillz]

Originally Posted by musashiken

I don't get it. Why do people keep saying it's a low budget episode?? Doesn't seem different from the other episodes to me. Except for less fighting.

same here...though i am quite oblivious to animation changes myself unless it is horrible! *cough*ep4*cough*

[musashiken]

Originally Posted by Deathkillz

same here...though i am quite oblivious to animation changes myself unless it is horrible! *cough*ep4*cough*

Lol, I think I'm probably one of the very few in the world who actually don't mind episode 4 at all. I've seen worse animation changes in other series (ie. The Third). Episode 4 is pretty decent IMO.

[duckroll]

You know 7th, I really don't think it's a "low budget" episode like you've been saying. It's really just the difference between Gainax and Gonzo. The difference is so shockingly different that we would automatically assume it's a "low budget" episode. ^_^

Yes, the entire episode was co-produced by Gonzo, just like the previous episodes with Xebec (ep3) and Dogakobo (ep9). You can really tell the difference in ability with such comparisons. Gonzo shows are usually not particularly low budget, but they still manage to look like shit anyway.

[Malintex_Terek]

Originally Posted by musashiken

I don't get it. Why do people keep saying it's a low budget episode?? Doesn't seem different from the other episodes to me. Except for less fighting.

1. CGI is less expensive to animate than drawn cells.
2. A good portion of the episode consisted of recycled footage.
3. Most of the "action" consisted of just talking, the "mouth flaps".
4. When it came down to the fights, what was shown was really limited.

The best animted part of the episode was Nia turning her head toward Simon, but as duckroll mentioned, it's partially GONZO style. Of course, that doesn't mean the episode wasn't low budget - there was a lot of cut corners here and there, but it's a talk episode and will probably be the only real talk episode in the show.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by duckroll

You know 7th, I really don't think it's a "low budget" episode like you've been saying. It's really just the difference between Gainax and Gonzo. The difference is so shockingly different that we would automatically assume it's a "low budget" episode. ^_^

Yes, the entire episode was co-produced by Gonzo, just like the previous episodes with Xebec (ep3) and Dogakobo (ep9). You can really tell the difference in ability with such comparisons. Gonzo shows are usually not particularly low budget, but they still manage to look like shit anyway.

Most of Last Exile comes to mind.

[Kyuusai]

Though I felt downright depressed after seeing episode 17, I'm feeling better after this one.

- We get to see Rossiu taking more concern instead of just taking offense. This does a lot for the interpretation of his character. A jerk? Yes. Going to far? Yes. But unlike the Spiral King who, as many of us guessed, was trying to act for the "greater good", Rossiu is acting out of personal concern for the people, and not just the preservation of the species (and not taking any pleasure in the harder decisions he makes). That doesn't make everything OK, but it makes everything a lot easier to forgive, and maintains his respectability.
- Simon's plan was risky and stupid, but it was great to see some hope.
- Seeing some of the character interaction here makes me remember how poorly some of the time has been spent when character exposition and development needed more screen time.
- Still not liking evil Nia. Could this be why all the other daughters of the Spiral King were tossed away at the point they began pondering their existence? To the comments that this is actually Nia we're seeing being consciously persuaded to the anti-Spiral side... I think the fact that Nia doesn't sound at all like herself makes it clear that's not the case.
- The tradition of animation going to crap when Kittan is in the scene continues. *sigh* Why?!
- Simon's comments make it clear that apparently Nia really is normally a ditz. I'd noticed this last episode and hoped that it was just a misinterpretation. I dislike this for many reasons. Firstly, it means that Nia really is nothing more than a counterpart for Simon (even Evil Nia is just a dramatic disruption of this role), and in most cases I can't stand this. Besides that, though, while Nia seemed to live in her own world before, she always seemed intelligent and competent, if a bit unacquainted with reality at first. This would mean worse than her never adapting to the "real world": we weren't seeing intelligent resolve, but instead naive idiocy. This makes me more than a mite angry.

The preview answers a lot of "whats", but leaves the "whys" to explain. Here's hoping Rossiu is just staging a show, and that his inner teddy bear shines through by planning from the beginning on letting Simon go fight.

[musashiken]

Well, I'm constantly amazed by all the nitpicking by anime viewers nowadays (Japanese or otherwise). I mean, now I see people complaining commenting not only about plot and art, but it has come to pointing fingers at commenting about the directors, animators, studios, seiyuus, budget etc.

I don't recall all this when I started out downloading my free (but illegal) animes years ago. Sigh. I blame the internet for everything.

Who knows. Maybe if the Japanese were given a huge budget, abundant pool of scriptwriters, class A seiyuus, connections to top tier studios and a very very loose schedule, I bet a mega-uber-classic production will be made and idolized by generations to come. Then again, I'm probably sprouting crap here. Oops, I correct myself, the internet is such a wonderful thing isn't it?

Anyway. Is it me or Nia's transformation scene is soo hot? If only this was OVA only, I bet we can see a Noriko/Nono cleavage tribute. Oh wait, that was done by Yoko already.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by Kyuusai

- Still not liking evil Nia. Could this be why all the other daughters of the Spiral King were tossed away at the point they began pondering their existence? To the comments that this is actually Nia we're seeing being consciously persuaded to the anti-Spiral side... I think the fact that Nia doesn't sound at all like herself makes it clear that's not the case.
- The tradition of animation going to crap when Kittan is in the scene continues. *sigh* Why?!
- Simon's comments make it clear that apparently Nia really is normally a ditz. I'd noticed this last episode and hoped that it was just a misinterpretation. I dislike this for many reasons. Firstly, it means that Nia really is nothing more than a counterpart for Simon (even Evil Nia is just a dramatic disruption of this role), and in most cases I can't stand this. Besides that, though, while Nia seemed to live in her own world before, she always seemed intelligent and competent, if a bit unacquainted with reality at first. This would mean worse than her never adapting to the "real world": we weren't seeing intelligent resolve, but instead naive idiocy. This makes me more than a mite angry.

I think that was rather to show how poorly Simon understood Nia and how poorly Nia really understood humanity... even after those seven years. That was the impression I got from Nia's interactions in episodes 17 and 18... as if they never really clicked with each other beyond the emotional level.

About the character interaction... I'm having fitting Gunbuster/Diebuster flashbacks in here. Both series had such a fast-pacing most of the relationships other than the leads were rather understated.