Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition (a J!-ENT Anime DVD Review)

“Gurren Lagann” is an awesome TV series, “Gurren Lagann the Movie – Childhood’s End” is an abridged version of the first 16-episodes of the series.  If you are a hardcore fan, then you definitely want to purchase this release for its limited edition content.  Otherwise, if you have never seen the TV series before, I do recommend watching the TV series on DVD first, to truly enjoy this awesome series.

Image courtesy of © GAINAX, KAZUKI NAKASHIMA/GURREN LAGANN-MOVIE COMMITTEE. All Rights Reserved.

TITLE: Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition

FILM RELEASE: 2009

DURATION: 112 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: 16:9, Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English subtitles

COMPANY: Aniplex

RATED: 13 and Up

RELEASED: 2010

Created by GAINAX

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi

Assistant Director: Masahiko Ohtsuka

Series Directors: Kazuki Nakashima

Character Designs: Atsushi Nishigori

Mecha Designs: You Yoshinari

Design Works: Shigeto Koyama

Art Director: Yuka Hirama (BIHOU)

Color Design: Harumi Takahoshi

Director of Photography: Toyonori Yamada

Editing: Junichi Uematsu

Sound Director: Tohru Nakano

Music: Taku Iwasaki

Produced by TV Tokyo, DENTSU, Aniplex

Featuring the following voice talent:

Katsuyuki Konishi as Kamina

Tetsuya Kakihara as Simon

Marina Inoue as Yoko Littner

Yukari Fukui as Nia

Daiki Nakamura as Dayakka

Kana Asumi as Kiyal

Kana Ueda as Kinon

Kisho Taniyama as Kittan

Masaya Onosaka as Leeron

Mitsuki Saiga as Rossiu

Nobuyuki Hiyama as Viral

Rina Satou as Kiyoh

Shizuka Itou as Boota and Darry

This is the story of a man who has yet to realize what destiny holds in store for him… Far in the future, humans have lived underground, quietly and restlessly, for hundreds of years, suffering from frequent earthquake and land subsidence. In Giha Village, one such underground community, live two young men. Simon is shy and naive, while Kamina believes in existence of a “surface” world above their heads.

Their destinies start moving drastically when the ceiling falls and a gigantic “Gunmen” and a beautiful girl named Yoko with a superconductive rifle come from the surface. Kamina, Simon and Yoko get on the “Lagann” that Simon digs out from the ground, and jump out to the surface! However, the surface is not quite the dreamland Kamina imagined…

This limited edition includes a bonus disc featuring “Gurren Lagann Parallel Works” Music Videos part 1 (4 videos), a 32-page booklet, a replica of the deluxe Movie Program Book sold in Japanese theaters, and two postcards.

Fantastic!  It’s the single word that describes how I feel about “GURREN LAGANN″ and in 2008, GAINAX immediately went to work on two animated films that would capture both storyline arcs in “Gurren Lagann The Movie ~Childhood’s End” and “Gurren Lagann the Movie – The Lights in the Sky are Stars”, two films that are being distributed in the US through Aniplex.

“Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End-” is a compilation of series of events that took place in the first 16 episodes of the popular 2007 animated TV series “Gurren Lagann”.  Of course, it would be impossible to fit 320 minutes into a 112 minute movie, so GAINAX features bits and pieces from those 16 episodes and also included 20-minute of new animated scenes.

The series centers around two characters Simon and Kamina.  Both live underground with a bunch of orphans and due to earthquakes, they developed a system of people using manual drilling holes in order to move around.  But one day, the life of a young driller named Simon discovers a small mini drill underground. Simon is a shy young guy.  Not too confident in himself and hates how his parents were killed during an earthquake.  So, he works hard in order for everyone to live but also to collect whichever treasure he can find.   While continuing his digging, he discovers a small drill and not long after, he discovers a huge robotic face.

As for Kamina, he’s the cool leader of a gang.  He once saw the atmosphere with his father a long time ago and dreams of making it up to the surface but no one underground believes him.  He comes up with a plan to get to the surface with the help of Simon’s drill.  The plan backfires and Kamina is put into a jail.  Meanwhile, a big monster robot-like figure comes out of the sky and lands in the group’s village underground.  A girl sporting a bikini top and tight short shorts with a large rifle starts fighting with the monster robot.   Her name is Yoko and all of a sudden both Kamina and Simon try to assist her.

As the monster grows vicious, Simon introduces Kamina and Yoko to what he found underground.  It happens to be a small robot that Simon takes control of and eventually the three fight the robotic monster and end up defeating it. Also, end up making it above the surface where they discover sunlight, blue skies, mountains and more…monster robots.  It is learned that these things are called “Gunmen” and are piloted by Beastmen who have a hatred towards humans.  The three must survive and outwit and defeat the Gunmen and with Kamina’s leadership and willing to take anything head on with his machismo ego, he calls Simon’s robot Lagann.  Kamina eventually commandeers a Gunmen robot and calls it Gurren.  As a duo, the group find a way to combine their own two mechs and thus Kamina and Simon form Gurren Lagann, which is also the name of the team that will fight for humanity against the Spiral King and their minions.

Throughout the film, we see how both Kamina, Simon along with Yoko leave the underground city and take on various gunmen and together with savvy, intelligent and flamboyant mechanic Leeron, along with other humans they meet along the way, one by one, Team Gurren Lagann take on the Spiral King’s Four Divine Generals: Viral, Adiane, Guame and Cytomander.  And along the way, they meet with a mysterious girl named Nia and leading up to the final battle against the Spiral King.

VIDEO:

“Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition” is presented in 16:9.  The character designs by Atsushi Nishigori are fresh and very different when comparing it to other anime series/films.  I truly dig the character designs and the whole anime is quite colorful and looks stylish and pretty cool.  The artist backgrounds to the animation, explosions, character designs, mecha designs and the planning that went in to this series was quite amazing and it looks great in the film.  You will noticed even more detailed artistic backgrounds and animation with the additional new footage added to the film.

Vibrant, colorful and awesome looking!  Of course, with that being said, it would definitely be a plus if this film was released on Blu-ray, but since it’s on DVD, you will see edge enhancement at times.  But for the most part, “Gurren Lagann” was one of the rare anime series that was unique in presentation and Gainax definitely put a lot of time and effort into the creation of this TV series and along with the new footage, “Gurren Lagann the Movie – Childhood’s End” looks great on DVD and I’m sure it would look even more spectacular on Blu-ray!

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for audio, “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition” is presented in Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1.

Audio is well done as we can hear the dialogue and special effects and music quite clearly through the center and front channels but also hear the various sound effects coming from the surround channels as well.  Overall, a pretty awesome mix and hopefully this title is considered for Blu-ray, as I’m sure it would sound fantastic via lossless. While the English dub is featured in the TV series released by Bandai Entertainment, there is no English dub featured for both films from Aniplex.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

This is where the limited edition of “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition” shines.  Included are:

DISC 1:

• Theatrical Trailer – (1:35) The original Japanese theatrical trailer for “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End-”.
• Staff & Cast Credits – Standard text-based credits.
• Aniplex Trailers – Trailers for “Gurren Lagann the Movie -The Lights in the Sky are Stars-”, “Darker than Black – Gemini of Meteor”, “Durarra!!”.

DISC 2:

• Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 1: RAP IS A MAN’S SOUL! Kick Logic Out and Do the Impossible – A music video directed by Keisuke Watanabe featuring a parallel universe in which Simon, Kamina and Viral must save a princess who was locked in a dark dungeon in a castle.
• Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 2: BAFBAF! Do You Love to see It…Burn? - An electronic music video bu Suezen featuring a parallel universe in which Viral plays a “Gurren Lagann” pachinko.  (Note: Not listed on the main menu).
• Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 3: BOOBIES VS BOOBIES - A jazzy music video by Hirokazu Kojima featuring an artistic, painted style of version of the characters in a more traditional Japanese setting.
• Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 4: DRILL THE HEAVEN’S WITH YOUR XXX!!! - A music video by Ryouji Masuyama featuring a parallel universe in which Viral and Adiane travel to take on Kamina in which the beasts are trying to take on Kamina who appears to be a dictator.

EXTRAS:

“Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition” comes with a slipcase and also comes with a special Japanese collectible postcard featuring Simon and Gurren Lagann.  Also, included is a 32-page booklet, a replica of the deluxe program book that were sold at theaters in Japan (note: booklet is in Japanese).

“Gurren Lagann” is one of the animated TV series that you have to watch in completion, all 27-episodes, to realize how unique and how awesome the series truly is.  With the release of “Gurren Lagann the Movie – Childhood’s End-”, you’re essentially getting parts of the first 16-episodes including 20 minutes of new animation into one film.  An abridged storyline.

This is quite common in Japan to see a popular TV series and OVA series created into an animated film and the fans look at it as an extra and additional extension to the TV series, others look at it as a less time consuming way to learn about the story of a popular series in two hours versus watching 8 hours of a series.

When it comes to films like this, I’m not a big fan of them because you are losing out important details of the storyline.  This first “Gurren Lagann” film is only 112 minutes and the first 16-episodes is 320 minutes of content.  So, naturally, you are missing out on a lot but the creators did do a good job in focusing on the essentials.  Personally, I recommend watching the entire series.

What I do like about these films are how they can also be geared to the hardcore fans of the TV series in that you get additional/new footage in the film but also when they are released on DVD, in this case with “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition”, you get additional bells and whistles with the inclusion of the Japanese theatrical book, collectible postcard and also the parallel works featuring the characters of “Gurren Lagann” in an alternate world shown via music video.

So, I approach this release in two different ways.  As a fan of the series, I recommend watching and owning the original series because that is how this series was meant to be seen.  I will say that on its own, it’s still a pretty good film but because they skip over many scenes, it’s quite noticeable to the fan of the series.  Otherwise, if you have never seen the series, I’m sure this film would definitely be entertaining but at the same time, hopefully it inspires the viewer to go out and watch the complete series.

The other way I look at this film release as a fan who supports the film because of the additional animated footage and also you’re getting limited edition Japanese merchandise and the fact is that these limited edition releases didn’t receive a large print run.  So, they are quite collectible for the “Gurren Lagann” fan.

Overall, “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition” is a film worth watching but only after you have watched the series or if you are the type that will probably not watch the entire series (it’s important to note that if you are new to the series, the three box sets for the “Gurren Lagann” TV series are loaded with special features and a limited edition of the final set which includes a CD soundtrack and the manga).  But as far as this limited edition is concerned, you get a pretty cool postcard and the reproduction of the exact Japanese booklet that were sold in Japanese theaters.

If you are a hardcore fan of the series, you’ll definitely want to get the limited edition version of “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End” for its limited edition items.  The booklet alone is definitely worth it!

So, “Gurren Lagann the Movie -Childhood’s End- Limited Edition” is definitely recommended for the hardcore “Gurren Lagann” fan and for those who just don’t have the time to watch the complete “Gurren Lagann” series.

THE POWER OF LOVE TO RENEW, REDEEM AND RECONNECT IS EXPLORED IN POIGNANT NEW FILMS PREMIERING AT VIZ CINEMA IN FEBRUARY

Theatre Is Proud To Present Two Films By Director Isshin Inudo And Announces A Special Encore Anime Double-Feature

San Francisco, CA, January 26, 2010 – February is the month of love and VIZ Cinema, the nation’s first and only movie theatre dedicated to Japanese film, sweetens this theme with a pair of captivating love stories by director Isshin Inudo, presented in association with Asmik Ace Entertainment. Don’t miss the chance to attend the West Coast premieres of these heartwarming cinematic masterpieces. How far would you go in the name of LOVE?

VIZ Cinema is privileged to present director Inudo’s Josee, The Tiger and The Fish, screening February 5th –18th; and La Maison De Himiko, showing February 18th – March 4th. To celebrate the spirit of Valentine’s Day for the entire month of February, filmgoers who also bring a date (or a friend) will receive a special 50% discount on the second person’s admission.

Anime fans can also look forward to a special double-feature encore showing of Gurren Lagann: The Movie 1 & 2 – for one night only – on Sunday February 21st at 5:00pm and 7:30pm respectively. VIZ Cinema will offer special combo tickets for $15.00 to attend both showings. Preview trailers and screening times for all films are available at: http://www.vizcinema.com.

Isshin Inudo first gained fame as an innovative director of television commercials. But he started garnering international accolades with his first feature film, Two, Talking (1994), which won the Grand Prix award at the Sundance Film Festival in Tokyo and the Best New Director award from the Japanese Film Director’s Association.

Josee, The Tiger and The Fish, February 5th – February 18th REGIONAL PREMIERE
Love blooms between two unlikely people when college student Tsuneo meets Kumiko, aka “Josee,” a young woman who embraces life with a feisty personality, despite cerebral palsy and her need for a baby buggy for transport. Isshin Inudo deftly adapts author Seiko Tanabe’s short story into a poignant feature film that was a genuine crowd pleaser and won numerous awards including a Best New Director Award from The Japanese Minister of Education. The Tiger and The Fish takes a place alongside memorable films such as Benny & Joon, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Rory O’Shea Was Here and captures the resilience of the human spirit in the face of physical handicaps and shows how love can flourish with pride and self-determination.

La Maison De Himiko, February 18th – March 4th REGIONAL PREMIERE
Family secrets, redemption, and the power of love to renew family bonds are explored between a father and daughter who can’t understand each other and a man and a woman who can’t love each other. Their odd and beautiful stories are brought to life by director Inudo against a backdrop of a colorful homosexual retirement home. Teenage Saori despises her father, who chose to leave her mother to live a new life out of the closet. But family ties are recalled as she learns of her father’s terminal cancer; and her curiosity is piqued by a beautiful and mysterious young man who delivers the message and claims to be her father’s lover. La Maison De Himiko explores homosexuality in Japan and also how people affirm or deny the stereotypes society imposes and how they embrace their decisions and individuality, and love’s ultimate power to redeem.

Gurren Lagann: The Movie ~ Childhood’s End
Sunday, February 21st 5:00pm
Based on the hit animated television series, this sci-fi feature takes place in a fictional future in which human beings have been forced to live in closed-off underground villages. Kamina and Simon are constrained by the limits imposed by the village elder. Yet, all this will change when Simon stumbles across a fantastic mechanized device – just as the village’s peace is broken by a violent intrusion.

Gurren Lagann: The Movie 2 ~ The Lights In The Sky Are Stars
Sunday, February 21st 7:30pm
Overcoming the loss of loved ones, Simon survived mortal combat with the Beastmen leader Lordgenome. Seven years later, humans have returned to the surface to build a flourishing civilization. But, the peaceful times don’t last forever as humans begin developing beyond their world into outer space and encounter an unknown enemy.

VIZ Cinema is the nation’s first movie theatre devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. The 143-seat subterranean theatre is located in the basement of the NEW PEOPLE building and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.

NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post Street, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: www.NewPeopleWorld.com <http://www.NewPeopleWorld.com> .

GURREN LAGANN SET 02 (a J!-ENT Anime DVD Review)

“’A mecha anime series from the folks at GAINAX that is imaginative, sexy and explosive.   Volume 2 continues what I loved about the first volume and again, only one word to describe this series… Fantastic!”

DVD TITLE: GURREN LAGANN SET 02

DURATION: 225 minutes (9 episodes/ disc 1 – 5 episodes / disc 2 – 4 episodes)

DVD INFORMATION: Original Uncut Episodes, English 5.1, Japanese 2.0, 1:78:1 anamorphic widescreen, Bilingual (Japanese and English), English Subtitles

COMPANY: Bandai Entertainment

RATED: Suggested 13 and Up

Created by GAINAX

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi

Assistant Director: Masahiko Ohtsuka

Series Directors: Kazuki Nakashima

Character Designs: Atsushi Nishigori

Mecha Designs: You Yoshinari

Design Works: Shigeto Koyama

Art Director: Yuka Hirama (BIHOU)

Color Design: Harumi Takahoshi

Director of Photography: Toyonori Yamada

Editing: Junichi Uematsu

Sound Director: Tohru Nakano

Music: Taku Iwasaki

Produced by TV Tokyo, DENTSU, Aniplex

Featuring the following voice talent:

Katsuyuki Konishi/Kyle Herbert (as Kamina)

Marina Inoue/Michelle Ruff (as Yoko Littner)

Tetsuya Kakihara/Yuri Lowenthal (as Simon)

Yukari Fukui/Bridget Hoffman, Hynden Walch (as Nia)

Daiki Nakamura/Doug Stone (as Dayakka)

Kana Asumi (as Kiyal)

Kana Ueda/Stephanie Sheh (as Kinon)

Kisho Taniyama (as Kittan)

Masaya Onosaka/Steven Blum (as Leeron)

Mitsuki Saiga/Johnny Yong Bosch (as Rossiu)

Nobuyuki Hiyama/Sam Ergal (as Viral)

Rina Satou/Karen Strassman (as Kiyoh)

Shizuka Itou/Julie Ann Taylor (as Boota and Darry)

From GAINAX, the studio that brought you Neon Genes Evangelion and FLCL, comes a series that revives the spirit of the classic robot anime show for fans of all ages!

In their battle against the armies of Lordgenome, Team Dai-Gurren has suffered a crippling blow with the death of Kamina.  Simon must now pull himself together and emerge from the depths of depression in which he finds himself wallowing.  Will a chance meeting with a beautiful Nia, found inside a discarded crate, be the key to getting Simon back on his feet?  And who is the mysterious girl and what is her connection to Lordgenome?  Get ready for the final battle of the human race against the beastmen and prepare to glimpse into the future that team Dai-Gurren is creating for mankind.

Fantastic!

I said it with confidence when reviewing volume 01 and I’m saying it again for “GURREN LAGANN SET 02″ released by Bandai Entertainment.

GAINAX brings us a mecha anime series and having created so many and with so many created for so many decades, you often wonder if innovative, imaginative storylines can still be developed. Well, with “GURREN LAGANN”, the creators of this anime series manages to create something unique, fun, explosive and just enjoyable.

With this first volume set, we get both vol. 3 (Episodes 10-14) and vol. 4 (Episodes 15-18) of “GURREN LAGANN”. The popular anime titled “Tengen Toppai Gurren Lagann” aired on TV Tokyo back in April 2007 and completed it’s 27-episodes by Sept. 2007.

Just to preface of what happened so far in volume 1. The first volume started of featuring two characters Simon and Kamina. Both lived underground with a bunch of orphans and due to earthquakes, they developed a system of people using manual drilling holes in order to move around. But one day, both Simon, Kamina and a girl from another village named Kyoko made it out together.

With episode after episode, the three would gain more people to ally with them and take on the Beast men.  These animal like beings who worked for Lord Genome and would try to kill the humans with these huge mecha robots known as Gunmen.

Kamina, Simon and others in the alliance known as Team Dai-Gurren have been successful in taking control of Gunmen and make their way towards the Beastman Empire in order to take on the Spiral King.  But the King orders  Thymilph, the first of the four divine Generals of the the Spiral King was the first to go onto battle and thus the battle ensued with Team Dai-Gurren winning but losing their leader Kamina in battle.

With the death of Kamina, Simon has regressed into a severe depression.  One day, he discovers a discarded box and inside is a girl namd Nia.  He brings Nia back to headquarters.  And Vol. 2 picks up after episode 9.

Vol. 3 consists of the following episodes:

1. Episode 10 – Who Is This Bro? - The group comes head to head against Adiane, the second of the Spiral Kings Four Divine Generals.  But retreats when she sees Nia.  It appears Nia is the daughter of the Spiral King.  Nia appears to be very naive about humans, their emotions, etc.  She doesn’t understand why Simon would be depressed over someone who’s dead.
   
2. Episode 11 – Simon, Hands-off - The team meets Guame, the third of Spiral Kings Four Divine Generals.  He uses Beastmen disguised as women to fool the crew and ends up taking over their ship and putting the crew underground in prison.  Only Simon and his drilling can save the day and for Nia, she learns why she was discarded by her father.
3. Episode 12 – Yoko, Will You Do Me a Favor? - Team Dai-Gurren’s fortress needs to be refitted to travel in the water.  So, the crew goes through a little R&R and becomes too friendly with Nia and favoring her over Kyoko.  Kyoko is not sure he can trust her and sure enough, the crew goes into battle against Adiane.
4. Episode 13 – Eat Up, Everyone – Nia really wants to fit in, so she found a job for herself, to become a cook.  Meanwhile, Cytomander, the fourth of Spiral King’s Divine Four Generals makes his attack on the crew and with Rossiu sick, Kyoko must fill in and be Simon’s co-pilot for Gurren Lagann.
5. Episode 14 -Well, Met Everyone - The crew arrives near the Beastman Empire but must take on the last two of Spiral King’s Four Divine Generals – Cytomander and Guame to the death.

For Volume 4, we get the following episodes:

1. Episode 15 – I Will Head Towards Tomorrow - Team Dai-Gurren now has one final battle left and that’s against the Spiral King.  It’s all or nothing!
2. Episode 16 – Compilation Episode – This episode serves as a bridge for between the first arc and the second arc of the series.  It’s literally a special episode condensing major scenes from the first 15 episodes to one episode.  Mainly focusing on Kamina, Simon, Kyoko and Nia.
3. Episode 17 – You Don’t Know Anything – With Team Dai-Gurren successful against the Spiral King, the series flash forwards seven years later.  The planet has flourished with cities and vehicles, Simon, Rossiue and everyone else has grown up.  People own homes and have their own jobs.  Simon is in his early 20′s and is the Supreme Commander and is bored doing paper work.  Rossiu is the Chief who does all of the work but unlike Simon, holds an iron fist on how the city should be ran and for some members of Team Dai-Gurren are just head employees who answer phones.   They wonder what Lord Genome meant by his final words before he died of a new emanating threat and sure enough, that threat has materialized on the planet.  Meanwhile, something has happened to Nia.
4. Episode 18 – Tell Me the Secrets of the World – A new evil has appeared on the planet and says that because Earth has reached 1,000,000 people and has used Spiral technology to further their growth, they will now be exterminated.  Simon goes to battle against one of the enemies and succeeds in defeating it but since the enemy is composed of energy, that energy becomes like bombs and when Simon defeated the enemy and it exploded, in essence many people have died, buildings and structures destroyed and people want blood…Simon’s blood.    Nia’s true purpose is revealed and Rossiu keeps a secret.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

Each episode is featured in 1:78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The character designs by Atsushi Nishigori are fresh and very different. I truly dig the character designs and the whole anime is quite colorful and looks stylish and pretty cool.

As for the audio, I’ve watched both episodes in Japanese 2.0 and English 5.1 and as much as I enjoyed the Japanese voice track, when I watch an action-packed mecha, Digital 5.1 soundtracks make a big difference for me in terms of enjoying a series and with that being said, I am very pleased with the English vocal dub. You have some quality voice talent with Michelle Ruff as Yoko (does the voice of Rukia for “Bleach”) and Yuri Lowenthal (does the voice for many video games and anime such as Sasuke Uchiha for “Naruto”).  Everyone does a fantastic job on both Japanese and English voice acting.

There is a lot of action, so you do get some good usage from your front channels and some surround usage. But the dialogue comes quite clear and overall, both video and audio were well done.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Unfortunately, unlike volume 1 and volume 2, there really aren’t any major special features for volume 3 and 4.  Both come with the textless opening and ending songs and Bandai previews.

I can’t help but think how awesome this series was to watch! From the stylish presentation, the wacky humor and the imaginative mecha Gunmen robots and attack modes, the battles and the fun characters and the music, there is just too much to like about “GURREN LAGANN”. I absolute found the series to be quite fantastic!

If there are any major difference from the last set, there is much less perverseness.  Granted, the series becomes a bit more dark and dramatic because of the death of Kamina, Simon’s worsening depression and the introduction of Nia.  But eventually, the series works itself out and volumes 3 and 4 literally becomes mecha porn because it’s all non-stop action.  I have no doubt that fans who enjoyed the first two volumes will definitely enjoy these next two.  The series has been nothing short of fantastic.

I have to admit that I was pretty impressed with how the first arc ended but the second arc, definitely surprised of how things have changed in the planet and with the characters.  Really good planning and screenwriting.  Volume 4 leaves with such an intense cliffhanger that I definitely look forward in seeing how this is going to play out.  I want more!  With only nine episodes left in the series, I can’t wait for the final two volumes in “GURREN LAGANN SET 03″.

“GURREN LAGANN SET 02″ is highly recommended!