Gurren Lagann Movie Out

The first Gurren Lagann movie opened yesterday, Saturday the 6th in Japan, and I was not there. I was not there standing in line, I was not there getting the movie pamphlet, I was not there when the lights finally dimmed and I was definitely not there for the next two hours until the credits rolled. Not that I’m bitter or anything.

Fortunately fans have already supplied us with some information in English to wet the appetite. The most detailed info I could find is from csakuras who translated some of the relevant 2ch posts. A big thanks to her for that.

Warning: The following post contains SPOILERS. 

The first thing that jumped out at me from the 2ch posts is that the movie ends at about episode 14 meaning that Genome is not yet defeated. So the climax of the first half of the TV series and the climax of the entire show are all going to be in the next movie? Sounds intense. 

The 2chers also confirmed that the first half of the movie uses recycled animation but the second half has entirely new animation and, while keeping the same basic outline, makes a number of story changes. A few things I’m particularly looking forward to are: 

• Yoko. Yoko was given a bigger role and left a strong impression on the 2chers. She has a fight with Adiane which I can’t wait to see. I always thought that Yoko should’ve been the one to pilot Lagann after Kamina was gone and although that doesn’t happen she does get her own pink Dayakkaiser. Sounds great.

Gainax’s new topart. Artist: Hiroyuki Imaishi himself.

• Daiganzandu and Dotenkaizan. Daiganzandu is Viral’s new mecha which is a cross between Enkidu and a Daiganzan. Dotenkaizan is what you get when the generals (with Viral replacing Thymilph) combine. It looks utterly ridiculous and I love it. 
• Lord Genome’s past which is in the form of Yoh Yoshinari’s not yet released parallel works video.



Speaking of young Genome, this is from an official doujin handed out at the recent Talk Live Animated event where Hiroyuki Imaishi, Masahiko Otsuka, Atsushi Nishigori and other Gainax staff involved in parallel works met with the fans. You can download it here. Genome sort of looks like Nia doesn’t he…

The impression I’m left with after reading the 2ch comments and some other spoilers, such as the recent Megami Magazine article, is that Kamina is going to die off pretty early on. The focus of the movie seems to be Simon and Yoko’s recovery from his death with Nia of course being an essential part of that. I can’t wait to see how everything has changed, especially episode 11 which was certainly one of the best episodes and very crucial to the show. It was also a wise move to have the generals attack all at once, hopefully that fight will be impressive.

I also want to mention that Bandai’s Gurren Lagann volume 3 came out last week and I really have to commend them on this fairly affordable sub only release. Watching the last few episodes on my big screen practically blew me off the couch. I’d forgotten just how incredibly over-the-top Gurren Lagann’s ending is. Once they get into space and start literally punching holes in the future and the past you know it’s on and it just keeps getting crazier and crazier until the very end. I am unashamed to admit that I couldn’t stop a few tears from spilling during Kittan and Nia’s deaths. If anything, the second time around it hit me a lot harder.