#ttgl: tv

[coredrill]

VIRAL in GURREN LAGANN ↳ requested by @toravii

[ahoneesan]

In high school I got permission to screen the 2nd Gurren Lagann movie in the school auditorium on the colossal projector and I feel like we are walking the same path

it was nice coming back to it after all this time! ttgl had genuinely dropped out of like, things that i considered My Media or whatever. it was a younger me who watched this after her first watch of evangelion, who couldnt even conceptualize the idea of being trapped in a shell, who bought her little core drill necklace off the internet. those memories are genuinely fuzzy now. time really flies.

but watching the movies for the first time (well, technically REwatching gurren-hen but still) at nearly 30, after being a girl for like a half-decade, really reminded me how much this series meant to me as a kid. how like novel and powerful the idea of looking at a fundamentally uncaring, unloving, even antagonistic universe and find the strength from others and eventually yourself to go on and go Further was. the idea that that whole time kamina was scared too, but seeing simon working so hard gave him the strength to keep pushing him onward. that even if it is all fundamentally empty and there isnt any capital M Meaning in life, despite how utterly illogical it is humans still create our own. it got to me as a little not-yet-girl who had been continually struggling with depression and questioning her christian upbringing for years. it still gets to me now. i feel pretty lucky that i can look back on that as "the past" now. but its still here in me. hopefully it always will be.

to say nothing of the style and presentation of it all. ttgl like other Teen Media is really what set me on the aesthetic trajectory im on. i tend to go to klk for that stuff nowadays for obvious reasons but chronologically its really ttgl (and like homestuck, of course) that shaped what i value about stories and animation today. it was what introduced me to the idea of real vs super robots! it introduced me to imaishi! and kazuki nakasima! kamen rider fourze, kill la kill, re: cutie honey all of this stuff for me traces back to me watching the ttgl dub on whatever pos streaming site i watched it on. im pretty grateful for that.

theres plenty of shit i could talk too, ofc. its a pretty misogynistic show in all the boring ways these anime tend to be. funny homophobic stereotype whos actually Cool and Awesome at what he does so it doesnt matter that hes a stereotype. another (the very first?) not fully baked Oppression Metaphor. due to being tv series compilations the movies' pacing can stumble at times (tho lagann-hen fares much better in this regard). but all in all this is The Way to revisit the series, i think. if you're watching for the first time i'd definitely recommend the tv show first. but for us who have been there n done that and want to remember how a drill works, you gotta watch the movies. im glad i did!

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

Summary: An SI wakes up on Earth Bet with spiral power.

Author: Web-Weaver

[callgespenst]

I recently finished watching Space Runaway Ideon (1980) and movies, and that most certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the shows of all time. I’ve been thinking about it for the last week, and some of my thoughts follow. Spoilers, obviously, abound.

- Anyone who tells you to skip the last episode and skip to the second movie should not be trusted. The first movie’s a bit of a mess, for sure, but it re-contextualizes the first two cours in a way that leads in really well to the second movie. And the second movie, if you watch the last episode beforehand, you know when the original series ends so you can brace yourself for when shit REALLY starts going down.

- Also if you watch the last episode, you can notice how the animation gets substantially better once the TV content ends and the new movie content begins. Not that Ideon’s animation is bad, it looks great, but the movie stuff looks much more crisp.

- The rest of the second movie is fascinating for a lot of reasons but also because it’s a clip show for episodes that never actually came to fruition, and the manic pacing lends itself extremely well to how completely miserable the film is.

- The Buff Clan is the least subtle criticism of the Japanese military during WWII imaginable, down to the Emperor being just kinda there and having one line.

- Gije’s journey from just another named samurai looking to prove himself, to proto-Viral from TTGL, to being possibly the only bitch in the whole show who dies content, is really something.

- I didn’t expect to be grabbed so much by Sheryl’s arc. From “kind of a bitch” to falling for a former enemy and finally opening up only to end up so totally broken she throws a baby in the line of fire. And yet, what would be abhorrent anywhere else, is understandable and even pitiable here.

- Jordan Bes is a good dude. Went through hell several times over and still kept everyone together somehow. When did he find the time to have sex?

- Karala and Sheryl are totally hatefucking in the first cour. Also, Hatari and Joliver are totally dating, if you ask me.

- I like Cosmo and Kasha but neither of them feel quite as developed as you’d expect by the end of the series, the rest of the crew gets the lion’s share of character moments. Which isn’t a problem, just the reverse of usual since they’re the ones piloting the robot.

- This applies triple to poor Moera, who only got any development when he was on death’s door.

- I think Kasha is neat because she’s your standard early super robot show girl pilot, but actually given a machine that can do something. Like if Sayaka Yumi was given a Mazinger of her own.

- You know that bit from Toei Mazinger where Kouji and Sayaka are beating the shit out of each other, and shouting “You’re worse than Baron Ashura!” over and over? Take that, sub in Cosmo and Kasha, and “Buff Clan” instead of Baron Ashura. 100% in character.

- It’s really fucked up that they gave a squirrel a custom space suit that fits both of his tails and also that no one ever mentions this in the show.

- Ideon feels a lot like Star Trek in how there’s a lot of exploring the galaxy and finding exciting and strange new worlds, but in a perverse sort of way where instead of being about humanity’s bright future and potential, it’s about how no one can understand each other except when stockholm syndrome’d together on a ship you can’t ever really leave.

- It’s the little cultural differences that really make it. The Buff Clan and humanity looking the same, being able to understand each other’s language, but to the former, a white flag means “we’re going to kill you all without quarter”? That’s the good shit.

- The episode where Cosmo meets that nice older lady who looks after him for a bit before she bites it gruesomely might be one of the most awe-inspiring bits of media I’ve ever seen.

- The more I think about it, Ideon getting cancelled was possibly the best outcome. Managed a decent ending despite that (better than any of its contemporaries that got axed) and then had its planned conclusion on the big screen. If the show had continued for another cour, the blowback from concerned parents once everyone starts dying would have done it in anyway.

- I got genuinely upset over the big space worms.

- I like how weird and alien all the Buff Clan machines are. Definitely still recognizable as enemy mecha, but they’ve got weird numbers of arms or legs, or things shoot off in ways you wouldn’t expect.

- And last, but absolutely not least, here’s the hot take: anyone who tells you “Evangelion is garbage, watch Ideon” is the dumbest motherfucker alive. Anno is the only dude on the planet who watched Ideon and really and truly understood the assignment.

[scope-dogg]

Thanks, will do! Right now I'm gonna start Iron-Blooded Orphans, after that I'd like to try something from a different franchise. I don't think I watched enough mecha to ask for specific recommendations (aside from GWitch, I also watched TTGL, Full Metal Panic and Evangelion, and that's about it), so right now I just wanna explore the genre and see what it has to offer. With that in mind, what do you recommend I start with?

Some of my personal favourites that I think are good starting points are Eureka 7, Gun X Sword, and Mobile Police Patlabor (the TV series.) Alternatively, if you're looking for a shorter OVA series I'd recommend both Aim for the Top (sometimes better known as Gunbuster) or Getter Robo Armageddon.

[valedecem]

It is genuinely so funny that after the creators of PSG left to create Trigger, Gainax did like three or four TV shows (one getting panned so hard that the voice actor for one of the main characters just stopped, and they had just debuted in the industry), and then for almost ten years just coasted on their IPs and the occasional work on some other studio's show. Their Fukushima subsidiary was supposed to do the same thing while bringing money into the economy of that prefecture, but the main office were so bad with money that they lost their historic studio, and had to spin off Fukushima Gainax into an independent studio WITHIN A YEAR of it existing.

No idea what that means for the Honneamise sequel and Diebuster 3 that were still supposed to be produced by Gaina, but at least I'm glad that Evangelion and TTGL are back in the hands of the people who really created them.

Seeing Gaianx's Wikipedia page go from "is" to "was" is crazy. The Anime Studio Ship of Theseus has sunk.

[canmom]

Animation Night 30: TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN

Another multiple-of-ten milestone this week, and for sure, we have something suitably bombastic to go with it! That something is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (the title could be translated as Heaven-Piercing Gurren Lagann but... for some reason rarely is!)

Yours is the drill that will pierce the heavens! Kick reason to the curb! Don’t believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you! That’s the Team Gurren way! etc. etc. - It’s the meme anime, sure, but it’s a pretty incredible production: one of the last big works of Studio Gainax before the most of the big names departed the studio.

Gurren Lagann was the first time Hiroyuki Imaishi, nowadays known as one of the founders of Studio Trigger, directed a TV anime (following the completely batshit film Dead Leaves with Production IG). If you’ve seen his work at Trigger (e.g. when we watched Promare), you’ll recognise the style of TTGL immediately: the manner of stylisation, the lighting, colour schemes... it’s all there. But TTGL was the initial ‘statement’, and what a statement.

Like... justu about all of Imaishi’s work, TTGL is a development of the ‘Kanada school’ style of animation pioneered by Yoshinori ‘Really If You’re Going To Remember One Animator’s Name This Would Be a Pretty Good Choice’ Kanada. Kanada was one of the first Japanese animators to have a personal reputation as a ‘charisma animator’, interviewed in magazines and specifically followed by fans across different productions, and as such he’s one of the most influential animators in the whole medium.

So what makes ‘Kanada school’? There’s a few elements to it, such as: an emphasis on striking extreme, dramatic poses, often accentuated by exaggerated perspective shots and background changes; highly detailed specular lighting; the use of impact frames to accentuate a strike. He was extraordinarily prolific throughout the 70s, and you can see a nice compilation of some his work here:

One of his best-known motifs is the ‘Kanada dragon’, in which a swirling fire turns into a long, twisting dragon shape and like, flies around a bit. This tends to look absolutely gorgeous, and has been homaged by many, many animators since.

Kanada’s style was spread through many animators who either worked with him or were simply inspired, who became known as the Kanada School. You can read a brief history of some of the names involved here. Or, if you’ll permit me another video:

It might not be much exaggeration to say that Kanada’s style pretty much defined action anime ever since. Certainly if you watch a parody of anime you’ll probably see some Kanada elements. But, of the various animators to carry on Kanada’s legacy, Imaishi is probably the best known. He made some adjustments, simplifying Kanada’s complex shading a bit while pushing the perspective and timing even harder.

Gurren Lagann can be read as a development of the themes of Neon Genesis Evangelion (on which Imaishi worked), as well as a chance for Gainax to train a new generation of animators. Like NGE, it touches on depression, the extreme discomfort of adolescence, and grief. Unlike NGE, which is almost unrelentingly bleak and can’t see much way out of its problems, Gurren Lagann takes a much more upbeat view.

Gurren Lagann takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, overrun by the forces of the Spiral King, in which what little remains of humanity is forced to live underground with the surface ruled by the King’s ‘beastmen’. Well, that’s where it starts, anyway. The plot takes a number of dramatic swerves, following an exhilarating spiral of escalation to (I guess!) structurally reflect the show’s main conceit: ‘spiral energy’.

Described as the power behind evolution (kinda silly but bear with me), Gurren Lagann’s ‘spiral energy’ is kind of a cosmic force which rewards confidence and determination with... well, practically, with bigger transforming robots, but narratively, this is a world in which there is no greater mistake than accepting ‘necessary evils’ instead of going for the stupidest, most impossible route of demanding it all and carrying it through anyway.

We can read ‘spiral energy’ as exponential growth, and as much as I tend to see that as a potentially very horrifying thing, Gurren Lagann makes a pretty compelling emotional case for it.

Obviously its values are intimately tied in with notions of masculinity, and there is a lot to be said about how Gurren Lagann approaches gender, more than I am probably capable of treating in the time I have to write this post. (In that regard, it’s fascinating to read it alongside Imaishi’s later work Kill la Kill). It’s about a certain implicitly masculine ideal, but to be clear it’s also not exactly just about how great a guy like Kamina would be; there’s a reason Simon is the main character. And yes, it would easy to be put off by Gurren Lagann’s attitude that depression can be cured by a punch in the face and a suitably bravado-laden pep talk, but it manages to carry it off with the energy of editing and style: it makes us want to believe in Kamina’s rhetoric just as much as Simon. Or at least it works very very hard to.

But hold on, Bryn; who are these names you’re dropping? Simon is the protagonist of Gurren Lagann - he is young, lacking in confidence, shy but uh... good at drilling holes. Kamina, meanwhile, is the show’s most famous character: an impossibly cool, unflappable guy who takes Simon under his wing and never stops encouraging him, as they escape their home onto the surface. Kamina is clearly the leader of the group, reckless but charming enough to get away with it. They’re joined by Yoko, who runs around in almost nothing while carrying an enormous sniper rifle, which is a big mood honestly.

To briefly go out on a tangent - I do feel like Yoko is not simply Hot Girl #N+1, and is allowed subjectivity; she’s unquestionably a super horny character design but at its best, it’s a version of the fantasy where she’s into it and doing it deliberately, in a setting where broadly speaking it’s just like, young ppl going around having sexualities, so that basically doesn’t bother me [not that it’s not handled very awkwardly in places, especially the hot springs episode, which I am hoping they will mostly cut from the movies]. The camera is equally interested in sexualising Kamina, right? There’s still plenty of Gender to muck things up in how it approaches the two characters (both are presented as cool, but we get more “Kamina is confident and powerful” shot framing on the one hand and more “Yoko has nice boobs” shot framing on the other). Overall... I don’t like analysis that is just, ‘sexuality bad’, and I think there’s good reason for it to be part of this show given its themes. However, Yoko does get increasingly sidelined as the cast expands, which sucks a lot!

And oh boy does the cast expand a lot. The earlier arcs of the show consist of the gang building a rebel army to take on the Beastmen, characters who contrast in various ways to the main trio. The benefit of this very colourful gang is that it keeps up the show’s manic energy in every scene, from minor characters like the guy who presses the missiles button to semi-deuteragonist Viral; the drawback is that it means most characters don’t have time for a huge amount of character development. I am going to be curious how well they can handle that in four hours of movie instead of a full 26-episode series!

In any case, Gurren Lagann deserves recognition mostly for how it tells its story. The editing, the visuals, the kickass soundtrack... it all comes together to achieve the breakneck pace that Imaishi/Trigger are known for, and most importantly, creates a feeling that reflects the spirit of these characters. It’s kind of proudly stupid, but gorgeously animated for that; the imagery is up to the task of escalating from ‘fighting a small robot in a hole’ to ‘throwing galaxies in a pocket dimension to determine the fate of the universe’. It may not exactly be challenging (its politics are like... vaguely anti-authority but not particularly deep lmao) but it is extraordinarily fun.

If you’d like to read more about the production side of Gurren Lagann, there’s some interesting interviews translated on the dubiously named website fullfrontal.moe (that one’s about the rather dubious hot springs episode, but it has links to the previous five translations).

So! Tonight we’re going to watch the theatrical version of Gurren Lagann, consisting of two films, which condense the original series with some new animation to give it that extra theatrical swish.

Alongside the films, we’ll be watching the Parallel Works, which are a series of short music videos made to parts of the soundtrack by various members of Gainax’s team. The highlight is absolutely that of Yoh Yoshinari, one of Gainax’s best animators, who portrays the backstory of the Spiral King with incredible style. (I believe some of his work on this short actually made it into the film proper.) The others remix the characters into a variety of settings, some working much better than others.

And... depending on time constraints, I may also show some of Imaishi’s other work - namely his early film Dead Leaves, and an episode or two of his last work at Gainax, Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt. We’ll see.

Animation Night #30 will be at 7pm UK time at twitch.tv/canmom. Look forward to seeing you there! ^^

[kuribo4indahouse]

OK, here's a surprise!

Yoh Yoshinari (director Little Witch Academia), and Kazuki Nakashima (TTGL, KLK, Promare writer) collaborating with Studio Trigger again. This is not the usual Nakashima x Imaishi combo. Interesting.

2020, and it's a TV show.

https://twitter.com/trigger_inc/status/1147355034855673856?s=19

[spinnedcycle]

confession: there’s literally never been a piece of fiction more inspiring to me then the last bit of ep. 25 of ttgl

[pokewooloo]

Wanted to some questions your way for fun! 1. how do you spend your spare time? any hobbies? // 2. speak any other languages? // 3. favourite animal? // 4. favourite movie/tv show? :)

1. Outside of playing Pokemon and writing, I like to bake, (but I hate cleaning up afterward.) I try to visit local restaurants since I'm a foodie.

2. Sadly, no. I want to one day learn ASL, Japanese, and either Spanish or Swahili.

3. Okay, I can’t limit this to just one so, my favorite domestic animal is a cat. My favorite exotic animal is a snow leopard. My favorite marine anime is Nessie.

4. Favorite t.v shows are TTGL (anime) and Code Geass (also an anime). My favorite non anime show would be the Golden Girls. 

Ayyy! Thanks for sending this in! It was a lot of fun :)

[heather-m-quigley]

you should see Dead Leaves, it"s this old 45 minute OVA directed by Imaishi (the guy who would split off Trigger from Gainax.. TTGL, PSG, KLK) where a TV-head is one of the main characters in moon jail..

man i’m gonna say it that tv head thing that early-teens tumblr had going on was great and i want it back

[coredrill]

CREATE THE HEAVENS! DAY FIVE: VIRAL DAY

[alligaytorrr-official]

Two tropes I really like are 

1. when a character says something really important but the audience doesn’t get to hear it and just sees them mouth it (e.g. Nagato does this in The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, in FMA Ed does this when he tells Winry that the next time he makes her cry she’ll cry tears of joy...even though he immediately does repeat himself) 

and 2. when a final battle, especially if other battles were big intense fights either with really elaborate choreography or big impressive weapons, is super simple like just a fistfight (e.g. TTGL’s movie dials the fights all the way up to Super TTGL but it ends with Simon and the Anti-Spiral just punching each other out, MGS has big huge fights with giant nuclear mechs but the last fight in the whole series is two old men boxing)

and I really want to find if these have tv tropes pages cause I love these and want to see more of them but I have no clue what they are. Searching through those series’ pages I couldn’t find anything

[jojismagicsupplies]

50 Anime Movies that you should watch, that you almost certainty haven’t yet

Basically no Ghibli 

1. Dokyuusei

2. The girl who leapt through time

3. In this corner of the world

4. Redline

5. The night is short walk on girl

6. Lu over the wall

7. Summer wars

8. TTGL Movie: Gurren Hen

9. TTGL Movie: Laggan Hen

10. Time of Eve Movie

11. Patema Inverted

12. Legend of the galactic heroes: Overture to a new war

13-20. Kara No Kyokai series

21-25. Persona 3 movie series

26. Tamako Love Story

27. Tekkon Kinkreet

28. Macross: Do You Remember Love?

29. Colorful

30. Little Witch Academia: The enchanted parade (even tho 1 and TV are better)

31. Saint Young Men

32. Vampire Hunter D (novel is better tbh)

33. Galaxy Express 999

34. Psycho Pass Movie (the tv recut is cooler but whatever)

35. Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer

36. Mind Game

37-38. Ideon Movies

39. Jin Roh

40. Maroco (better than the OVA version Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai)

41. Digimon Adventure: Our War Game

42. Memories

43. Neo Tokyo (actually a compilation of shorts with no connection but its good)

45. Golgo 13

46. Barefoot Gen

47. Haguregumo

48. Natsu e no Toriba

49. Gantz:O

50. Welcome to the space show

And that’s 50, in no particular order, there are a ton of works that had the debuts of amazing staff, amazing studios got their breaks through some of these works, Massaki Yuassa, the whole 9 yards

[masstersword]

Got tagged by @friendship--seal❤️❤️❤️

Goal: Tag 9 people you wish to get to know better 

 Relationship Status: i need someone to love and have them love me back 😭 RIP

 Favourite color: its fuckin pink bitch. (also black, purple, and green!)

 Lipsticks or chapsticks: chapstick ftw

 Last Song: Emotional Prism 感情的なプリズム

 Last movie: IT

 Top 3 TV shows: TTGL, Sailor Moon, and uhhhhh B99 

Ships: HENROBIN!!!  

I’ll tag @heeho @bepis-boy @tlozalbw @genderfluid-morgan @max-the-merc @pyxu @kiwwua @greatcaveoffensive and @toilet--princess

[scope-dogg]

So I always see gifs about Getter Robo here and there and have only heard positive things ( I also dig the fat rounded mech designs!), but never anything in detail unfortunately. Seems like one of those properties where everyone who likes it is very invested though! As a mech enthusiast, could you explain what about the series you find appealing and what a recommended watch order (if there's any need for one) watch location might be? I understand some series of that age just aren't available legally in the West anymore, which is a big bummer

Honestly for a series as long and storied as Getter it can be hard to pin down the underpinning appeal to one single thing, but I'd say the closest you'd get to capturing the fundamental appeal to most people it'd be that it's perhaps that it's practically the archetype for a super robot series with a harder edge than most. It stood out on that basis even when the mecha genre was still in its relative infancy and it's managed to keep that distinction to this very day. It's a franchise that's never shied away from violence - from the genesis of the genre until today, the archetypical mecha pilot has been a spunky and/or sensitive teen, while your average Getter pilot, while still fundamentally heroic, is a borderline psychotic hard bastard, the kind of person that would probably be in jail in real life. Even when they're up against some really nightmarish shit they always seem to revel in the battle and resolve to win through sheer determination. You've probably seen Gurren Lagann, in which case that description might sound somewhat familiar. That's not a coincidence, Getter Robo is one of TTGL's biggest influences and even though the two series differ in many other ways, it occupied a somewhat similar space in the collective consciousness to the one that TTGL now occupies in the minds of most (and still does to a degree, it's one of the genre's most important founding works and as such has remained relevant for basically its whole lifespan.)

Later entries see the series get a lot more existential, and start dealing with the concepts of the future of human evolution and the fear of an unknown and possibly terrifying future that sees mankind blunder into the clutches of forces beyond its control and understanding. While the series initial core appeal of seeing hard men use their robot to battle hellish enemies remains, that cosmic horror aspect was really important to the franchise's maturing identity and is likewise a huge part of what makes it remain so appealing to so many - it's pretty much at the core of all the franchise's best installments.

As for where to begin, it's complicated and at the same time, not. As for anime, it can be tough to pick one. There's the Toei original series and its sequel Getter Robo G, though these, in addition to being old and dated, are arguably a softened-down version of the story meant for kids' TV that, while popular in their own right back in the day, don't really capture what most people now find appealing about the franchise. You're probably better off overall looking at one of the OVAs instead. In release order, those are Getter Robo Armageddon, Shin Getter Robo vs Neo Getter Robo, and New Getter Robo. All three of these are basically various attempts to blend together various chapters on the manga, along with aspects from other works done by the original author Ken Ishikawa. The thing is though, Armageddon and Shin vs Neo both assume at least some level of familiarity with the existing characters and lore, even if each one is in its own continuity. New Getter Robo is kind of like a reboot and as such is more self-contained, but at the same time is probably the one that veers off from the established tone and lore the most wildly.

In my opinion, the best thing to do is go to the source, and read Ken Ishikawa's manga from the beginning. The Getter Robo saga consists of five different chapters, those being, in release order, the original, Getter Robo G, Getter Robo Go, Shin Getter Robo and Getter Robo Arc. While the original and G are definitely old they've been touched up for rerelease and are still very readable and easy to get through while having a ton of old-school charm to them. However, once you hit Go, that's where the party truly begins. Its the quality of work that started there that really built the series up from a relatively simple good-guys vs bad-guys story into what it is today. If disciples of Getter seem very invested in the franchise, it's most likely because of ideas that first get explored here. Go's followed up by Shin Getter Robo, which is a prequel to the events of Go that explains some important things but also sets up stuff that's important for the final chapter, Getter Robo Arc. Sadly, Ken Ishikawa died before the manga could be completed, leaving the story without an ending - until now. An anime adaptation of Arc has been airing for the last few months. The final episode, presumably featuring the final true ending to the Getter Robo saga, airs this upcoming Sunday.