Reviews #7--Gurren Lagann

Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagann, ("Heaven Shattering Crimson Face") brought to America as just Gurren Lagann, is yet another mecha series I've taken an interest in. A friend of mine lent me the first two DVDs, and so you get to hear about them.
Just for the novelty of it, I'd love to see a shojo mecha series. Mecha in itself, is a shonen genre, but I really would love to see the differences if they aimed it at girls. Being a shonen, we've got all the shonen plot points: overconfident male fighting-type, shy with some sort of hidden inner talent/magic/drill/whatever not-normally-a-fighter type, busty girl with some sembalnce of a purpose to thinly veil the fanservice, and STUFF BLOWING UP. Though more general fights than explosions.
Gurren Lagann takes place on an unknown planet which may or may not be post-apocalyptic Earth. People live underground, and except for Kamina, deny the existence of a surface. Our main character is 14-year-old Simon, a shy scrawny kid who's really good with a drill. The people drill out to expand their village, since they can't go up. One day while drilling, Simon find a tiny drill. No, I'm not joking. He shows it to Kamina, 18-something cocky punk who wants to break out of the village. Immediately afterwards, he pulls Simon into his "Team Gurren" and uses a herd of some sort of weird animal to break out. He fails, Simon goes back to drilling, and this time finds a "face". 'Tis a mecha, which they are forced to use when a "Gunman" falls though their ceiling being chased by aforemnetioned busty girl. Her name is Yoko, and she's a killer shot with a rifle. After killing the Gunman with the mecha--named Lagann by Kamina, Simon, Kamina, and Yoko bust through to the surface.

Reasons for: It's a fun show, and you can't help but be pulled in by that. Kamina's definitions of manhood make you want to learn to fight just so you can apply them. The mecha piloting is plausible, with neither Simon nor Kamina being especially good when they start, and only winning through the immense powers of the Gurren and Lagann, and eventually, the Gurren Lagann. Yoko really DOES have a purpose, unlike other fanservice characters I've reviewed lately (coughKarenCodeGeasscough) and she's good with that rifle. The general plotline is tried-and-true, but the idea of a planet populated by beastmen that force people to live below the surface is intriging, and keeps you watching.
Very nice opening and ending, as well. First time in a while that I've liked the ending theme song of a show.

Reasons against: KAMINA, SHUT UP. I don't know if I love him or hate him. People get annoyed by Naruto's overconfidence, fighting abilities that he didn't earn, and general attitude in general, and Kamina's much the same. He doesn't have the slightest clue what he's doing, but he just charges blindly forward and pulls through in the end. Some of the "manly" things he does are just ridiculous. When he forces Simon to jump on top of his mecha instead of just picking him up, for example--long minutes of a battle are spent on Kamina smacking the Lagann away instead of letting it combine. Really, Kamina, how far did you need to take that? He's the heart of the show so far, now will he carry it or kill it? I'm sorry, but I want to see more of Simon, the ACTUAL MAIN CHARACTER, and not Simon whining "I'm afraid, let's go home!". What home? Am I the only one who saw the Gunman destroy it?!
For the first time since Yuugiou, I've got animation to complain about. Is it just me, or was the animation different in episode 4? That's not cool, Gainax. Transfer some of the budget on making Yoko as suggestive as possible and get some consistency.

Overall: I like it, but I just don't see what makes it SO great. B+ so far, but because I've read and know what's going to happen, A-.

Bethel Park Anime #7--Tekko 1/2 Report

A week late, but it's here. ^_^;; Sorry to anyone who read the last post. Tekko 1/2 was NOTHING like what I expected.

For going by myself and being stuck in the same room all day with a bunch of people I only vaugely knew, it was pretty fun. I can't say that they were complete strangers, cause I'd seen most of them at the convention before.
Got there around 10:20 or so. The first thing on the schedule was the Appleseed movie. Eh... I mean, it was entertaining but it was a standard plot. Briareos "died", and I maybe would've liked that part, but the dialogue was so STANDARD! God, can we think of something besides "Don't talk", "Leave me, you have to save the world", "I'm not leaving you", etc. I was kind of glad when he finally "died". Course, then he didn't really die because he's half machine or something. Then they go and kill all the giant machines, preach about how even if humanity sucks, they're going to keep living anyway *cough*Nausicaä*cough* and kill all the bad guys. But still, it was entertaining. Action and whatnot. Could've done without the fanservice, though.

While watching the movie, I looked through my trivia packet that I picked up when I came in. I'll post the questions later, but even the ones from animes I knew were HARD! What's the EXACT DATE on Ed's watch was the closest I came to knowing an answer. ^_^;; Oct. 12, I'm pretty sure, but I forget the year. 1911? Out of 40 questions, the highest score was 16. Yeah.

During the end of the movie, the fruits basket group sat next to me, and Kagura introduced herself as the girl who's going to be cosplaying as Yugi! ^__^ Yay, we have a Yugi! She's trying to get a friend to join the group, too, and they want to be an Abridged Duke Devlin and walk around with a boombox playing "Sexy Back". So I had someone to talk to for a while. Right while we were talking, people finally started noticing I was dressed as Jounouchi, and I had a bunch of people ask for my picture. Luckily I had my wig with me, and put it on for the pics.

After the movie was Guitar Hero tournament. I've never played Guitar Hero (sad to say) so after watching a few warm-ups and getting pictures of cosplyers, I headed over to the library for lunch. While I was in there, I picked up the first volumes of Whistle, Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode, and Wish. I read them a little while ago, actually. Whistle was... kinda odd, but not too bad. (skip school for two weeks to practice soccer?) Not as good as Eyeshield, though.
Tokyo Mew Mew was okay, but I really don't like the new Mew. At all. I was even happy when Ichigo showed up, and I don't really like Ichigo either. Zakuro was always my favorite, even in the god-awful dub. The worst part of it, though, was the ad for 4kids on the back of the volume. >_<>_< ) It was fun at least, and I didn't know anyone there, so it wasn't embarassing or anything.
Watched some more SSBM and listened to the karaoke (and watched some people's hilarious backup dancers XD) and finally left around 4:20. It was ending at 4:30, and I had to catch a couple buses to get home.
On the way out, I wound up walking next to one of the staff. (You guys remember the staff woman dressed as White Mage? That was her.) She asked me how I liked the 1/2, and then she told me about how the staff is kind of transitioning this year since people are leaving this and next year. I said I was going to be a minion (guess I have to now ^_^;;) and doing a panel again. Then I had to go get my bus, and she was nice enough to direct me to the nearest bus stop. ^_^;; Never taken a bus out of Oakland before... I caught one, though, and after some transfering and long bus riding, got home without any trouble. All in all, it was a pretty fun day, and I can't wait for Tekko!! ^____^


Registration forms are available now at www.tekkoshocon.com. Group reg is also availabe. Discounts are $2 off everyon in a group of 5-9, $5 off in a group of 10 or more. Without the discount, registration is $35 for all three days if yo pre-reg by Dec. 31. That's 3 days for the price of just Saturday, so I would reccommend pre-registering now! ^__^