ROW, ROW, FIGHT THE POWAH!!! Gurren Lagann complete simulwatch

[Neil.T]

Episode 24

"You mean we need an even bigger drill?"

For all the speechifying in my post on the previous episode, perhaps @Dai was right all along and this is the show's core message.

Just a small observation to start with, but did anyone else notice that the subtitles have gotten corrupted again in one area? They've started reading "Spiral Real Perceptual Teleportation System" instead of "realm".

Anyhow, this is the episode that introduces us to the series' latest escalation in scale: Space Gunmen. My god, the scale is going off the scale now; they're enormous!
Each of these things is the size of Arch-Gurren Lagann. They're piloted the same way as well: just as Arch-Gurren Lagann is piloted by Gurren Lagann sitting inside of it, the individual Gunmen pilots pilot their original regular-sized machines to pilot the much, much bigger Space Gunmen. The same principle applies to the Space Grapearl squadron headed by Gimmy and Darry as well.

Fun fact: the nature of the Space Gunmen and Space Grapearls is given a clever twist in movie #2. Look out for it later in the simulwatch, folks.

Beyond all of that, though, this is a tragic episode where Team Dai-Gurren sees the deaths of Zorthy, Iraak and Kid, Jorgun, Balinbow and Makken (the second time in the same show that VA Katsuyuki Konishi's character has bought it ), so perhaps an amusing anecdote is in order here to cheer us up? Thinking about the Grapearls made me remember something that Dai mentioned earlier in the thread:

Having a mass-produced fleet of mechs based on the show's signature mech reminded me of the sizzlers in Gunbuster.

That made me recall a conversation I had with a workmate some years ago where she was struggling to remember the name of a character from the American Pie films. The name was Stiffler, but much to my amusement, the nearest she could get was "Sizzler".

Because of that, I sometimes find myself wondering what it would be like if the Gunbuster copies were called "Stifflers" instead.

Another fun fact: when I was using this forum's search function to retrieve Dai's post, I accidentally started to type "Sizzler" as a user name instead of into the search box. A potential ready-made user name for anyone reading this who hasn't signed up for an AUKN account yet, perhaps.

 

[Lordhippos]

Episode 24

Would a flag really wave about in space?

The space battle was pretty epic, although we lost some side characters I didn't really care that much about, we did lose Jorgun and Balinbow who went down in a blaze of glory!

And then we wind up in the ocean in space, of course

I actually couldn't remember the ocean bit at all which is weird, I think until this point I have known pretty well how things would go, but this ending is the one that's made me want to crack on and watch the next episode without delay to find out how they get out of it!

 

[Neil.T]

Would a flag really wave about in space?

No, it absolutely would not. And this is what makes Hiroyuki Imaishi such a good action director: he doesn't give a sh*t!

 

[Ian Wolf]

@Neil.T @Lordhippos RE the waving flag, I remember an episode of QI where the debunked the Moon landing conspiracy theories. One theory people put forward is that footage of the Moon landing shows the US flag moving. However, in space if you move something with little resistance it will not stop moving for a long time.

 

[Dai]

Episode 24

"You mean we need an even bigger drill?"

For all the speechifying in my post on the previous episode, perhaps @Dai was right all along and this is the show's core message.

You know where the story is going, so I'm sure you realize that I was never joking about a bigger drill being the answer.

this ending is the one that's made me want to crack on and watch the next episode without delay to find out how they get out of it!

Yes, from this point onwards, trying to stick to one episode per day will be the anime equivalent of edging.

Episode 24
Team Dai-Gurren are out of their cushy offices and back where they belong: in the cockpit, kicking ass. In this episode, characters whose names have barely been mentioned until now get their moment in the spotlight, and prove definitively that what they lack in project management skills they more than make up for with hard work and guts. I teared up a little when Makken bought it, probably because of that reaction shot of his wife.

Something I hadn't really thought about before: after sending only faceless drones against humanity, the anti-spiral fleet we see this time all have faces. I wonder if this means that they are piloted.

 

[Neil.T]

You know where the story is going, so I'm sure you realize that I was never joking about a bigger drill being the answer.

Spoiler

from this point onwards, trying to stick to one episode per day will be the anime equivalent of edging

Team Dai-Gurren are out of their cushy offices and back where they belong: in the cockpit, kicking ass.

And chewing bubblegum. You forgot about the bubblegum part*.

Something I hadn't really thought about before: after sending only faceless drones against humanity, the anti-spiral fleet we see this time all have faces. I wonder if this means that they are piloted.

This occurred to me as well, actually, but I seriously doubt it, based on something we've yet to see.


*Apparently Team Dai-Gurren are out of bubblegum. Anti-Spiral beware

 

[João Gomes]

I swear to god, Simon's eyes on minute 4:14 are lifted straight from Gendo somewhere in Eva.

Onto more important matters... In this episode we get the confirmation that the anti-spiral are indeed perverted prudes, because holding a woman hostage while naked and then censoring her intimate parts cannot possibly be interpreted otherwise.

In other news, it feels like there was a sale on Team Gurren members or something, I mean, there was nothing left!

...

...


Right, anyway, creepy enemies get creepier (but also more silly? It's weird), we get some beautiful backround art and enough explosions to make Michael Bay jealous.

It actually stung to watch Team Gurren go. The twins going out laughing in a final kamikaze attack was a great bit, as mentioned. Actually, they all laughed or smiled while staring death in the eye and that always makes for a cool moment in fictional stuff. All said and done, they accomplished their objective of buying Simon time to amass the spiral energy they need for victory, eventually. (He's straight up super saiyaning inside the Lagann, by the way, whew.)

And onto the final disc.

 

[HWR]

Episode 24
So begins the tragic loss of comrades as the final battle progresses.

 

[Geriatric hedgehog]

I've seen the one- and two-star uniforms now, but I want to go back and look at Simon's three-star gear now.

(One- two- and three-star uniforms, eh? Sound anything like Kill la Kill's Goku uniforms, anyone?)

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about the star rating in the Goku uniforms, so true! Also it was interesting that when Simon and Viral were incarcerated their outfits both had three crosses as opposed to stars heh; can't remember if the other inmates/lesser villains were awarded one or two crosses now. And Simon's final outfit is totally awesome. By the way, was that reveal on the deck meant to be a throwback/replacement of the first scene in the show?

Jesus dude, anything but Devilman Crybaby, that thing made me miserable, it's so sad, tragic and melancholic! Watch GTO or Fumoffu or Prison School!! PLEASE

Hahaha, it really is misery-inducing isn't it and evoked EoE when I first watched it. But the latter is pretty effective for helping develop some serious misery resistance heheh. Both top class animes nonetheless!

Episode 23

For me at least it was never really in doubt that they'd forgive Viral, I think even Kamina respected him, and even if Viral had killed Kamina, I don't believe that Kamina would want them to hold a grudge that prevented them teaming up to fight the anti-spiral. It's a sad truth but in war people get killed, and they were on opposing sides for much of the series.

Leeron not knowing how he got smart enough to do what he did was pretty much par for the course, as a lot of stuff that goes on is kind of operating on the same idea of don't try and explain it because you can't! Waving his hands around to control the screen haha.

This episode introduces the concept that they can teleport to something if they know where it is, they all take this new ability very much in stride. Now to put it to use with that ring Nia has refused to get rid of despite saying she doesn't care for Simon or what happens to them.

Of course we pull the moon in from it's hiding place first

@Geriatric hedgehog - Hopefully you're doing OK!

Thanks dude, much appreciated. And spot on about the objectivity when looking at the casualties in a war. But it still takes a truly great spirit to muster that objectivity and forgive your enemy. And also as @João Gomes said, the science jargon use was hilarious especially when everyone turned to a helpless Leeron during lordgenome's torture/lessons (I think what he was trying to say is that red bull love gives you wings or something...)

Fun fact: the nature of the Space Gunmen and Space Grapearls is given a clever twist in movie #2. Look out for it later in the simulwatch, folks.

Ah man @Neil.T, you're killing me with all this movie #2 hype, I really want to watch what they've done with the story here. Will vicariously live it through your postings of it eventually heh.

Would a flag really wave about in space?

Of course! This is Team Gurren after all, making the impossible possible!!

The space battle was pretty epic, although we lost some side characters I didn't really care that much about, we did lose Jorgun and Balinbow who went down in a blaze of glory!

Ouch, so mean about the extras dude heh. But yeah, having forgotten the details, I was wondering about the short but suspicious focus on them all of a sudden only to see them all extinguished in blazes of glory. Heroic exits are still a heartbreaking..

This occurred to me as well, actually, but I seriously doubt it, based on something we've yet to see.

I've completely forgotten this upcoming reveal and also thought this was an interesting point from @Dai on their face-heavy designs. I got the impression that, somewhat 2001 style, the anti-spiral were more or less omnipresent in this dimension/universe as lordgenome implied the whole universe is against them.

And a life sucking Ocean in space!?! Brilliant and only in Gurren Lagann!

 

[Ian Wolf]

Episode 25

Spoiler

Next on Channel 5: When Space Ships Sink

It looks like the crew are about go down into Davey Jones' Space Locker, and indeed one of the crew doesn't make it back alive. Another sad loss, but what a spectacular was to depart.

Again, the star motif appears again in the form of Simon's transforming goggles. Also, once more Boota plays an important part in the story, as it is his massive amount of energy in such a tiny animal that gives the Team the strength they need. It is good to see everyone in the crew playing the part, no matter how big or small.

 

[Lordhippos]

Episode 25

So the flag is now waving in the space ocean!

I couldn't remember at all how they got out of the space ocean situation but as I saw them attempting to leave by flying out of it, I suddenly remembered they in fact had to dive straight down and attack the heart of the problem. Funny how that detail had slipped my mind until I saw it starting to unfold.

It was pretty great seeing Boota deploying his own spiral power to help them out! He's been a side-kick/mascot all this time but now he actually gets to do something useful other than providing his tail as food.

The black widow Yoko kisses Kittan and off he goes to dutifully die from the curse he has placed on him by said kiss, much like Kamina did earlier on. Too many shows try and save everyone, I respect GL for actually killing characters off sometimes, victory is not taken without losses in many real world situations.

As an artistic comment, I really liked the way they draw the characters in those raw moments, not nice clean lines, but scribbles.

 

[Ian Wolf]

So the flag is now waving in the space ocean!

@Lordhippos Surely that's from the current?

 

[Dai]

Episode 25
The hyper-dense space scenario feels like something straight out of a Leiji Matsumoto story, which is fitting now that Simon has completed his transformation into Captain Harlock. Kittan receives the kiss of death and flies off to become Noble Sacrifice Guy, while we get a full rendition of the best song in the series.

Then, after a lot of powering up, we get probably the most epic transformation sequence that GL has to offer, which I've always found a little odd considering that it's given more fanfare than the later Tengen Toppa transformation, and Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann ultimately doesn't get much use.

 

[HWR]

Episode 25
Another sad sacrifice and one hell of a transformation.

 

[Lordhippos]

@Lordhippos Surely that's from the current?

Haha yeah, I didn't think it was a problem it was waving, just I noticed it waving more lately

 

[Neil.T]

I've completely forgotten this upcoming reveal
...
I got the impression that, somewhat 2001 style, the anti-spiral were more or less omnipresent in this dimension/universe as lordgenome implied the whole universe is against them.

The reveal is in the final episode, where we get to see the Anti-Spiral race's physical forms.

As for your other point, yes, indeed: the Anti-Spiral created the space that our gang have found themselves in, so it functions according to how they would like it to.

Ah man @Neil.T, you're killing me with all this movie #2 hype, I really want to watch what they've done with the story here.

Damn, man.
I still feel sorry that you didn't get that DVD set. I hope that you do sometime and get to see the films and Parallel Works for yourself.

This thread will continue to exist even after the simulwatch is over, so you can drop your thoughts in anytime!

By the way, was that reveal on the deck meant to be a throwback/replacement of the first scene in the show?

You've hit upon one of my pet subjects in Gurren Lagann here, dude, so... brace yourself?

(Seriously, brace yourself. )

To me, the most logical explanation of the scene in the episode 1 prologue is that it was only a very broad-brush account of the kind of scene that Gainax wanted to put into the series later on in its run, but things evolved and changed in the story before that point, leaving us with the discrepancy we have when compared to what's seen in episode 24. There's a bit more to add to that, though, based on a couple of things we'll see in tomorrow's episode.

I'll also point out that director Hiroyuki Imaishi does sometimes play fast and loose with continuity in this series. At the end of episode 6 for example, the bath-house episode, Viral makes a dramatic appearance, only for Kamina to have already forgotten who he is in a daft gag. In the recap at the beginning of episode 7, though, Kamina knows exactly who Viral is, and the tone is one of tension. There's also a small discrepancy between the end of episode 21 versus the start of episode 22: when Simon activates Gurren Lagann with Viral the latter time, an extra cut is spliced in showing the mass destruction of a horde of Mugann by the accompanying blinding green flash of light. There's an even bigger difference between episode end and recap still to come in the last couple of episodes.

The biggest difference between the episode 1 prologue and episode 24 conclusion for me, though, is perhaps in the behaviour of Simon versus the "Commander". The Commander in episode 1 had a very cocky and aggressive attitude, dismissing his opponents as "worthless". This is absolutely not something that Simon would do; he'd never allow himself to become so complacent. Maybe Gainax wanted a stark contrast between the prologue and the start of the episode proper, so intentionally ramped up the arrogance level of the Commander to that effect.

I have a confession to make here, but owing to the fact that the episode 1 prologue stuck with me as I watched the series for the very first time, I actually thought that Simon was going to turn rogue at some point and perhaps even become the series' antagonist! It seems ridiculous now, of course, but at the time I had no idea of what could've lay ahead.

So that's my take on possible reasons for the differences in the two scenes, but what about if we were to try to explain it in-universe? There's already the explanation given by Gainax staff that I mentioned in an earlier post. It's still a potential spoiler, so I'll link to it rather than quote. It's hidden in the spoiler tag:

ROW, ROW, FIGHT THE POWAH!!! Gurren Lagann complete simulwatch

Oh this day of rest, I bring you a collection of images from the episodes of Part 1 I was able to screencap that didn't make it to the thread, since I've finally worked out how to navigate imgur's horrible new(? I haven't used it in a while) user unfriendly interface to actually create albums...

forums.animeuknews.net

Like I say, though, apparently that explanation originally came from fan theorising, and Gainax picked up on it and used it themselves, probably with tongue planted in cheek. I have kind of my own idea of a way to explain it away that I haven't ever read anywhere else, and it's this:

You know how in episode 25 we see multiple Laganns floating in space? It's explained that they once belonged to others who had previously "made it this far", as Kittan puts it. What if one of these groups was the Commander and his crew? Yes, it's a ridiculous stretch because it doesn't explain the Team Gurren flag flying on their ship, which also looks exactly like the Cathedral Terra, or moreover why the Commander looks exactly like Simon, but... surely the Commander is just too different in character to Simon for it to be him. Well, if I can steal something from a completely unrelated anime to tie in to this, look at the 2013 CG film Harlock: Space Pirate. Main character Yama (I refuse to call the characters by their Western renamings. "Logan"?! WTF) is the spitting image of Harlock, but they're separate characters, have never met before they do during the story, and aren't related by blood.

It wouldn't be the only inexplicable physical resemblance in an anime plotline: there's also the Studio Ghibli film From Up On Poppy Hill.

Just my little pet theory for fun.

 

[Neil.T]

We're gonna need a double post.

Episode 25

"Show me the person who ain't afraid of dying! ... We don't do this because we want to! You gotta move forward, and that goes double when you're scared!"

I had to give Kittan the quote for this episode. May he rest for evermore as the hero he became.

I've typed more than enough again for one day, so just one small observation from me here. I couldn't help but notice that the animation of the part where the Space King Kittan is crushed by the water space pressure uses a very similar crumpling effect to the bit in the director's-cut version episode 23 of Neon Genesis Evangelion where Rei turns her Eva's AT Field in on itself. Low-res example image here:

Spoiler

 

[Ian Wolf]

Episode 26

Spoiler

"The One With The Dreamy Reunion..."

While the fighting does become more intense, it is when the crew get trapped in the dreamworld by the Anti-Spiral which is the big draw for this episode: seeing Kamina again is a delight, although the best bit is when after Simon comes to his sense and Kamina comments that Simon is now taller than him. It was also nice to see the other fallen members of Team Dai-Gurren appear, as well as Viral having a rare moment of tranqulity in his dream, although I'm not 100% sure about the flower crown.

On top of that, we finally see the humanoid Boota (or should it be furry Boota, given he his an anthropomorphic animal - mind you that sounds somewhat accidentally Aberdonian) that we first encounter in the opening scene of the entire series. He's been a long time coming, but it is great to finally see his fully evolved Spiral self.

 

[Neil.T]

Episode 26

"Don't you remember? You were the one who was the method to my madness! The one who made my big talk more than words!"

the best bit is when after Simon comes to his sense and Kamina comments that Simon is now taller than him.

Oh, hell yes. I absolutely love that bit; it's an inspired bit of writing.

That memorable moment, though, is just one part of the main event of this episode, what is surely Gurren Lagann's equivalent of Evangelion's Instrumentality and yet another of anime's forays into the metaphysical. This one is a cautionary tale of what can happen when you allow yourself to become frozen in place pondering infinite possibilities when you could instead be taking action. One of the ways this is put across is in Boota's unexpected evolution and acquisition of human intelligence. He may have ascended to a higher plane of existence, but... it's not an improvement, is it? Humans are mentally vulnerable things, and Boota learns this straight away, the hard way.

So quickly, in fact, that it perhaps feels rather a bit of a dead end in the scheme of things, as clever a point as it manages to make. In movie #2, Boota's transformation is omitted entirely, so perhaps Gainax felt the same after having a chance to look back and cast a critical eye over their own work.

Another thing that his attaining a humanoid form succeeds in is linking back to the similar character seen in the episode 1 prologue. (Yes, I'm still going on about that. )

Just for the sake of finally wrapping that point up, there are a couple of bits of dialogue in today's episode that also link back. Viral announces while looking at the radar that the enemy count is "off the charts", and Gimmy makes reference to the "Maelstrom Cannon". No mention of the "Great Dimensional Waterfall", though; we got a sea in space instead.

Only one episode left now!

 

[HWR]

Episode 26
Well this simulwatch has flown by, can’t believe there’s only an episode to go now.