Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann (General Discussion thread)

[Quajafrie]

Trailer = Bad. We have to wait until September to see the good side of GAINAX, I guess.

[7Th]

What was bad about the trailer? I was expecting a kiddish Dead Leaves and seems that's what we're going to get. The art-style is really as stylish as Imaiashi has always been, just somewhat more "cute" and the action direction of some of those mecha scenes was agressive, surreal and fun. Along with Gunbuster 2 Gainax we're getting Gainax's best animation quality since FLCL.

[duckroll]

Originally Posted by the.Merines

I couldn't view it either, but duckroll (who may or may not be the same duckroll from this forum, if so, thank you) has it on YouTube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jC_lSGooF1Y

You're welcome.

I tried to link the trailer for some people and they all had DRM license problems with it, so I stripped the DRM and uploaded it on Youtube so everyone could enjoy it. ^_^

[Shinndou]

After watching the trailer I've got mixed feelings on this.

On one hand I am not totally sure about the art style (or rather the clothes design of the characters), nor the animation impressed me that much. On the other hand though it did give me FLCL vibes (probably because of the character design) which is a serie I did like. I hope for Gainax that this show will prove to have more substance than just being plain and bare eyecandy like some of their recent series have been. I mean, I've got nothing against general "eye-candy" but it'd be nice if they tried to produce something more challenging than that, for a kick.

[Sonhex]

Gainax are not exactly known for being plotsmiths. FLCL and Die Buster had next to none, but delivered on sheer entertainment alone. Even Imaishi has described GL as 'full-on, balls-to-the-wall, guy-oriented drama' and concedes it's hard to find the 'dramatic hook' with that kind of mono-directional plot. I'm not expecting anything too compelling, just enough to carry the action.

Spring has plenty of 'deep' for me, so from GL I demand rainbow coloured fun, cheeky fan service and slick animation where it counts i.e the mecha punch-ups. Anything else will be a bonus...

[7Th]

Originally Posted by Sonhex

Gainax are not exactly known for being plotsmiths. FLCL and Die Buster had next to none, but delivered on sheer entertainment alone.

Huh? While FLCL over-delivered on entertainment it's actual plot, even discounting the usual Enokido symbolism, is fairly well developed, with good conceptual ideas excellent script and charismatic yet highly interesting characters.

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by Sonhex

Gainax are not exactly known for being plotsmiths. FLCL and Die Buster had next to none, but delivered on sheer entertainment alone. Even Imaishi has described GL as 'full-on, balls-to-the-wall, guy-oriented drama' and concedes it's hard to find the 'dramatic hook' with that kind of mono-directional plot. I'm not expecting anything too compelling, just enough to carry the action.

Spring has plenty of 'deep' for me, so from GL I demand rainbow coloured fun, cheeky fan service and slick animation where it counts i.e the mecha punch-ups. Anything else will be a bonus...

Their first series were plot-driven though. But yeah lately it seems like they mostly focus on the general design and animation style rather than trying to actually develope a solid plot.

[Sonhex]

Well, I'm not saying all of their shows lack plot but for the most part their stories are either overly convoluted or, alternatively, simplistic to the point of being barely detectable. This doesn't really detract from the fun or entertainment factor. Far from it. Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (one of my favourite shows) hardly bothered to grace us with the real plot until the last few eps but remains one of the most entertaining Gainax shows ever IMHO.

[te2rx]

If it can be like Imaishi's Dead Leaves, FLCL #5 and Re: Cutie Honey #1 then I'm all about it. NONE of those had good stories, seriously. The Gurren Lagann trailer wasn't that impressive, but TV anime trailers hardly ever are, particularly for good stuff...

[JediNight]

Like Sonhex said: Gainax never really takes itself seriously with its original shows. Evangelion was all Anno obviously, and Karekano was its own manga as well. Most of their shows are rather over-the-top, especially since the mid 90s.

[Shiroth]

I'm one of those fans that plans to watch this just because it is Gainax, though watching the trailer a few weeks ago has gave me many more reasons to watch Gurren Lagann. Looking very forward to another Gainax trip.

[Ama no Kagaseo]

Well, playing on the "Balls-to-the-wall, guy-oriented-drama".. Well, did the FLCL vibes stop for anyone, and begin picking up vibes from another anime entirely?

I speak of, of course, s-CRY-ed.

When I think of this guy oriented drama business, I really think of really lame, homoerotic anime. The kind that usually have very homoerotic [Word for the day!] dialogue. "I want to fight you!" "I want to fight to too!" "RAAAAH! Well then we'll fight and boarderline confess our feelings for eachother!"

...

Now, see. My fiancee loved s-CRY-ed for the homoeroticness. She nearly jumped my bones after the second episode of Gravitation, lemme put it that way. The fact that she's anticipating this series..

Well. THAT DOESN'T SCREAM FLCL TO ME!

[7Th]

Originally Posted by te2rx

If it can be like Imaishi's Dead Leaves, FLCL #5 and Re: Cutie Honey #1 then I'm all about it. NONE of those had good stories, seriously. The Gurren Lagann trailer wasn't that impressive, but TV anime trailers hardly ever are, particularly for good stuff...

Huh? Pay attention in FLCL, there's quite the plot in there, Enokido is just one of the subtler writers in anime and I think Dead Leaves is much better plot-wise than most anime in the end, but I guess that's an entirely unrelated discussion to this thread.

Originally Posted by Ama no Kagaseo

Well, playing on the "Balls-to-the-wall, guy-oriented-drama".. Well, did the FLCL vibes stop for anyone, and begin picking up vibes from another anime entirely?

I speak of, of course, s-CRY-ed.

When I think of this guy oriented drama business, I really think of really lame, homoerotic anime. The kind that usually have very homoerotic [Word for the day!] dialogue. "I want to fight you!" "I want to fight to too!" "RAAAAH! Well then we'll fight and boarderline confess our feelings for eachother!"

...

Now, see. My fiancee loved s-CRY-ed for the homoeroticness. She nearly jumped my bones after the second episode of Gravitation, lemme put it that way. The fact that she's anticipating this series..

Well. THAT DOESN'T SCREAM FLCL TO ME!

I find relationships between the hot-blood-ness to s-CRY-ed, but the style, or presentation, is primarily the one you saw at Dead Leaves and FLCL's episode 5 and that’s pretty much the first reason to expect an Imaiashi anime.

[Sonhex]

Not news as such, but Gainax's website is currently sporting a rather super bit of Gurren promotional artwork.



Less than 3 weeks till the first episode airs

[7Th]

Some new information, the artists to sing the opening and ending have been revealed. And I must admit I laughed when I read the “otaku” idol Shōko Nakagawa some people at other forum I visit had a wanking thread for in recent memory is doing the introduction song, which name I am unable to read. I’ve never heard her, but I guess her style is the usual mellow strawberry super-cute nasty pop, something I would actually expect from an ending or a Magical Girl Show. The fun thing is the Acidman-like rock band HIGH VOLTAGE is doing the outro and I actually though the guy who posted the piece in Gainax.fr forums got them mixed up until I got into the official web page. I was hoping to see Imaiashi work something aggressive and stylish worthy of the designs for the overture video, but we’ll see what they do with the current song.

Also: I really love the scene composition in this series, it probably has the better stills of all the currently revealed for the season.


(Source: http://www.gainax.co.jp/anime/gurren...news/0027.html)

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by 7Th

Some new information, the artists to sing the opening and ending have been revealed. And I must admit I laughed when I read the “otaku” idol Shōko Nakagawa some people at other forum I visit had a wanking thread for in recent memory is doing the introduction song, which name I am unable to read. I’ve never heard her, but I guess her style is the usual mellow strawberry super-cute nasty pop, something I would actually expect from an ending or a Magical Girl Show. The fun thing is the Acidman-like rock band HIGH VOLTAGE is doing the outro and I actually though the guy who posted the piece in Gainax.fr forums got them mixed up until I got into the official web page. I was actually expecting to see Imaiashi work something aggressive and stylish worthy of the designs for the overture video, but we’ll see what they do with the current song.

Also: I really love the scene composition in this series, it probably has the better stills of all the currently revealed for the season.


(Source: http://www.gainax.co.jp/anime/gurren...news/0027.html)

Oh man the bane of my existence Idol Sugar-Pop. It should be the Jam Project or something. But we'll wait and see. Maybe she's like Maaya Sakamoto or MIO and not Aya Hirano or Nana Mizuki.

Edit: Oh wait Nope Seriously what the hell are they trying to do to mecha. They're pussifying it and emasculating it. This has to be a joke. Reading this article I pretty much auto-hate her right of the bat. Typical Idol in every way possible. Guess I'll be skipping right past this opening.

And about the wanking thread. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that since she's a mildly attractive cosplayer that shows an interest in singing, that automatically makes her "multi-talented" (more like multi-does stuff) and an object of worship second to none. By using her Gainax has spit in the face of the average mecha fan and is using her to lure in the idol worshipping class of viewer. Well for the opening at least. I was worried how they'd do mecha openings in this day and age, and whether they'd recreate the good old days of hot blooded songs or sell out to the popular Sugar-Pop. It seems those worries were at least somewhat justified judging by Sokou No Strain (Horrid), Dancouga Nova (Passable), Kyoshiro To Towa Sora (Alright song) and now this. Code Geass of course is the sole exception along with Eureka 7 unless I'm forgetting something. Here's a sample of what we're probably in for. Here's what we have about a one percent chance of getting from her as an idol Pffft yeah right as if, those days are long gone. Oh well, I think I'm going to bloody cry myself to sleep.

[7Th]

Here's a TV spot with some new animation, say thanks to Manuloz from Manganimation forums:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQD2eFzPcKc

The new action scenes look fairly good, and the song which I guess is going to be the opening isn't really "super-sugar" pop like the rest of the artist's repertorie, sounds like a generic shounen theme with girl vocals.

[Sonhex]

^ There's a little more action in that CM ~ Shimon in Gurren and Enki looking all scary ~ and the OP track snippet wasn't too bad. I'll reserve judgement until I hear the full OP as Nakagawa Shoko is unknown to me, but I can probably get used to it.

[Tsuka]

New screeners on Youtube posted by "Saxeki" (thanks to him)

Gurren Lagann video, including the opening :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzeFfOeI114

[Sonhex]

Originally Posted by Tsuka

New screeners on Youtube posted by "Saxeki" (thanks to him)

Gurren Lagann video, including the opening :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzeFfOeI114

Thanks! I liked the OP visuals a lot ~ the animation all looks superbly lush and energetic. It really gets me pumped for the crazy action we can expect. Shōko Nakagawa's music sounded okay, hard to tell really with that audio but it seems to suit the hyper-kenetic style of the animation. I'm really looking forward to the first ep, especially as it's the first (decent) anime of the new season to be aired. Kicking off this amazing Spring of 2007 in style (hopefully).

T minus 7 days.