Gurren Lagann Forum

I’ve mentioned before that GURREN LAGANN sounds Malay to me, so my mind’s already on that track.  Three episodes in, now, and I can’t help but feel a Southeast Asian vibe in everything from this show’s warm color scheme to its fisheye- lens frames to its outfits (especially Kamina's shades.) Everybody seems like they’re dressed for humidity, not just desert heat. Anybody else getting this vibe? I lived in Singapore for a decade, so maybe I’m predisposed to make associations like this. Either way, I still want to reach for a cup of cold Boba Tea when I’m watching this.

Huh… I like how GURREN LAGANN forms so inelegantly. That’s one of the best gags so far.   Instead of some graceful ballet of interlocking parts, you’ve got Kamina jamming Simon’s gunman into the top of his, which gives me serious déjà vu. See, that was the same way I’d form Megazords out of my POWER RANGERS toys when I wouldn’t bother reading the instructions. If the parts aren’t going to lock into place, than you jam 'em together! The bigger gag is that it shouldn’t work - - these knuckleheads shouldn't win - - but, to everybody's bafflement, they prevail so triumphantly against the blond CASTLEVANIA-looking dude.

Speaking of the blond CASTLEVANIA-looking dude... if he isn’t human, then just what is he supposed to be? A cat-man? I thought it was funny that everybody kept ragging on Simon for being a coward, yet Kamina kept getting his ass handed to him  by this guy (and in graceful slo-mo, no less!) And I get the feeling that the two bros will have to be less worried about beastmen attacks than aggressive passes from their mechanic on their desert journey. And things are only just getting started, now...

Watch this episode "Who Do You Think You Are, Having Two Faces!?" below and read my comments about the previous episode here. 

 
    

-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Studios and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia. HYBRID BASTARDS! is available  here and UNIMAGINABLE is available here for pre-order on Amazon.com.  

This was the first episode that sold me on the show. The first two were okay, but I just didn't get into it right away.  This episode had the first example of rules just being thrown out the window. There's no way that sticking one robot on top of another like that should cause them to combine, but that's what made it all the more awesome. I stuck with the show and from there it only gets even more crazy.

@MercuryCrusader said:

" @FoxxFireArt said:

"Why is it that Yoko seems soooo deeply interested in Gurren and Lagann combining? The hands on her face and an almost lustful look in her eyes. "

 It is a joke of sexual innuendo proportions. "

yup yup!  This is where the show got ridiculous in the extreme (and I mean extreme).  Like eva it really is making fun of some of the genre touchstones, here we get thundercats voltron or any other combining show but like you said it isn't the ballet we are all used to..the sexual stuff is funny but I really lost interest in it here just to ridiculous for me.  I suppose I will keep watching it since you all are but not really my taste in shows.  Eva is much better...

I don't think you have to be a basket case to understand eva but I do have more mental issues in my past and family (bi polar grandmother alcoholic sister) than some so that may help.  *shrug*.  For me the sexual innuendo is definitly subtle (VERY subtle for anime actually) but definitly there.  I mean you have the mechanic the combining with a drill leading to a new and better machine (man woman...together better) and the quote in the first episode of "It just kind of popped out".
 
For comparisons I was thinking more along the lines of how they each play with the conventions of the mecha genre.  Eva in a much more serious way true but they both play with them with a wink and a node to the audience.  The combining here is a good example very much not the way it it is usually done in mecha shows.  I watched enough of it to know it isn't my favorite type of show (like eva which I love), stopped about when the kids showed up..I guess that would be episode 6 or seven not sure.

hey no post today?  WE MISS YOU COME BACK TO US!