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Okay, Gainax says they have a shit ton to talk about, and I only have like, an hour of battery left. I will do my damnedest for you guys though!

Be sure to leave Gurren Lagann questions in the comments if you have them! I'll see if I can get them answered.

Okay, so, I see Imaishi-san and Nishigori-san, let's see...Otsuka-sensei, assistant director; Sushio-sensei, key animator (devil horns sign!); Nishigori-sensei, character designer; Imaishi-sensei, director; and Manabe-sensei, the PR/marketing guru for Gainax.

Awesome weird translation, by the way; the translator says Nishigori-sensei is "hot" watching us be "hot" about the movie. (He meant like, hot-blooded.)  Imaishi-sensei was happy with how different American audiences' reactions to the movie were compared to Japan's.

PR department wants to know what we thought of the movie, so we all screen and point at the cieling. They ask what our favorite scenes are; I say ( SPOILERS HEREON OUT !) Yoko vs Adiane, and I get applause. (I said it in Japanese without thinking which may have made a difference.)

Kuro's fave was the four generals doing gattai; some guy says he likes the new music at the beginning...dunno about that, but oh well. Another Japanese speaker who also likes Adiane and Yoko (and Yoko's breasts). A vote for the final giga drill break....Nia's panty shot...

Nishigori says he gave instructions to the animators to give Nia a g-string. Did not catch that!

ANother guy votes all of the gattai scenes, especially having seen Transformers the day prior. Ouch!  Simon with manly tears....Otsuka-sensei says they were running on a deadline, so they had the same determined feeling as the characters. Heh.

Otsuka-sensei also asks us whether we'd seen the film before, and Nishigori-sensei is asking about our favorite characters.. I bet it's hard to tell because everyone is yelling for every character.

Okay, Q&A:

Were they always planning on skipping over Rossiu's introduction in the film (it was part of that massive set of vignettes that were episodes like, four through....I dunno, a bunch). THey wanted to focus more on Simon and Kamina, hence the lighter touch on other characters; including Yoko and Nia to some extent.

How long does it take to make animation that awesome and that insane (the final battle scene)? Three months for a TV episode, but they spent 2.5 months on that final scene. But they'd been working on the TV series for two years so they were pretty used to it. (Yes, anime starts working that early.)

Which shows did they draw on when creating Gurren Lagann (there are some references to other mech shows), and Evangelion is more cerebral, but Gurren Lagann is more nostalgic. Getter Robo, Gaiking, Zombo 3(?), Zabunsomething, and other names I'm not as familiar with, but the list is too long to be complete, we're told. As for Eva vs Gurren Lagann and being oldschool, yes, Imaishi-sensei grew up in that 70s era, and that's what inspired him to become an animator, which is why there's someof that feeling. He also wanted to do something different from Evangelion.

DJTyrant asks: will we see the TV series or the movies on blu-ray int he US. Manabe-sensei says that Japan doesn't even have it yet, but Japanese fans definitely are asking for BD, so...yeah.

Is Yoko's Gunman going to be in the next movie? How will that affect things? The last battle scene, Imaishi-sensei wanted everyone in Gunmen, but for the TV series Yoko didn't get the Gunmen until later, but he wanted her to have it earlier. Will we see new material in the second movie? Well, duh. (Sorry, I haven't eaten since lunch, so my patience with questions even I could answer is a bit slimmer than usual!). Imaishi-sensei says that they remade a portion of Lagann-hen when they saw the reaction to Gurren-hen.

Kamina's death scene vs Ashita no Joe's death scene in the original: comment? Imaishi-sensei saaaays....the men of the men. That man is Joe, so yes.

Will there be a director's cut version with deleted scenes? (Everyone around me: "uh, it's called the TV series.") Imaishi-sensei says no, no plans for that, just the TV series and the two movies. Which I guess answers Eeepers' question on Twitter!

Someone asks about the differences between Japan's reactions and America's. Imaishi-sensei says that the Japanese don't really laugh in movies or anything, you're just more quiet and polite in the movie theater, so you see smiling or giggling but nothing big like the US audience. (It does seem only fitting for the show!) Manabe-sensei adds that when they released this film in South Korea, the audience was much more like the American audience. Storyboarder Nakashima-sensei attended then and was so thrilled by that reaction.

Imaishi-sensei says that when the scene where the generals and Viral get together and Viral says "why can't I die?" the Japanese said nothing, but the Koreans and Americans  both had the same chuckling reaction.

Second movie! More epic Kittan fight scenes? Yes, there are a lot of fighting scenes with Kittan. I think Imaishi-sensei and Manabe-sensei just chuckled at the next questioner's t-shirt-- it's Totoro.

The translator just tried asking the question in English instead of translating to Japanese. Aww, I feel bad! It is getting pretty late. The question was; how do you explain Lagann's mech coming to him when Simon was falling from Cytomander's mech? I guess that was new? Anyway, Imaishi-sensei says that the Lagann was deactivated during Simon's depression but they have a heart-to-heart communication so when Simon awoke again, so did the Lagann.

Only three more questions, then surprise, alas! Next question is Nia, trying to be Nia like, who asks...why g-string? ANd what color? Also, she has an Anti-Spiral behind her. Nishigori-sensei says it wasn't meant to be a sex appeal thing, it was just to be a bit more exotic. In his most manly feelings, that is what he gave her. Wow. Color: white.

The anti-spiral is asking about, um, the Anti-Spiral, one of the more underlooked characters of the series. He's a character that embodies misanthropy. Where did they get the inspiration for the Anti-Spiral. Everyone's going kinda nuts. Some people don't realize that translators are expected to translate EVERYthing you say, not just your main question...so rambling explanations are tough!

Anyway, Imaishi-sensei says he thinks that the Anti-Spiral's frustration would be resolved by watching the second film. Applause!

Last question: what was the moment where they felt too frustrated to go on in making the movie, and what was the biggest moment of triumph? Shizuki is an awesome translator and even mimics the guy's tone of voice and stuff.

Otsuka-sensei says "every day. Both." In English. So does Sushio-sensei. Nishigori-sensei thinks and says: not being able to sleep much was tough but he likes making anime, so it was a fun experience overall...but when good key animation was drawn, and then when they bought pizza. Imaishi-sensei says that there wasn't much he didn't like because he was blessed with really good staff, but when episode 6 aired on TV-- the bath episode --some of it couldn't be shown, so at the time he kind of hated TV stations. As for the greatest thing, seeing fan reactions. And Manabe-sensei? He says he's not part of production so it's not the same for him, but the best moment is when all the hard work is appreciated by fans and that we enjoy the show. And the sucky part is when the staff work at their own pace and are lazy and don't meet deadlines and he just wants to die. Lulz.

And the surprise IIIIIS...oh oh oh DVD on the screen! Gainax and Mizushima-sensei (director of Gundam 00) are showing a PV for the project they're working on together-- a world premiere,, and with subtitles! The project iiiiis...well, that's Gurren Lagann, and...Shikabane Hime?...

Gainax and Square Enix and Seiji Mizushima are working together on....Hanamaru Youchien, which we've talked about before. Hahaha, awesome!

Mizushima-sensei was in the audience, and he gets up to the panel and says hi, I'm making an animation with Gainax, but it's not a robot anime. It's a preschool story. <3 Manabe-sensei asks what kind of movie do you want to make? Mizushima-sensei says Gainax usually does bishoujo and mech stuff, so dunno how to make it have bishoujo, but that's the challenge. Imaishi-sensei asks, if he draws something it'll be mecha and gattai, but hire me anyway! Mizushima-sensei says absolutely! And that it'll have SOME mecha, and for Nishigori-sensei there'll be cute girls, and Ohtsuka-sensei too, awesome script planning, so that it's an awesome show.

"And by the way, I'm currently working on the Gundam 00 movie at the same time, so if you want hardcore mecha, come help us over there!" Imaishi-sensei says "definitely I will do Gundam."

Nishigori-sensei says Gainax is kind of like a preschool on its own so Mizushima-sensei should be able to teach us and lead the way. If you put a drill on a Gundam, Sushio-sensei says he'll work on it! Ohtsuka-sensei offers that he may look old but his mind is like a preschooler's so he'd like Mizushima-sensei to teach him as well. Nishigori-sensei compares Ohtsuka-sensei to dependable Dayakka.

(In case you didn't already realize, my battery ran out at this point. But the panel was over after that so you didn't miss anything.)