Gurren Lagann: There are Some Things I Just Have to See!!

Preface: As a seasoned Gurren Lagann veteran, I'm returning six months later to watch some of these extras to enjoy just a little more of that signature Gurren Lagann fun. As this entry is the second OVA (the full length Director's Cut version of episode 6), the other being the brief episode 5.5; I'm going to throw out a quickie here for both of them. Edited for a re-write. Going to cover the things common to both episodes here: Art: 10 Vibrant, vivid colors with the excellently animated and quick feel one expects from Hiroyuki Imaishi. Fluid movement, consistent character design,Highly stylized, and just a touch ofthe goofiness that made the show charming. Sound: 10 Sorairo Days (OP) is an absolutely fantastic mood setting song to get you into the show. Always loved it, and still singing along. ED is the same, it's perfectly listenable too. Voice acting is great. It's a touch grandiose and over the top, but what about Gurren Lagann isnt? Juicy explosions, awesome BGM, just overall excellent. Characters: 7 (all for main cast, extras don't add much) Because I'm not reviewing the main series, the focus here is going to be on what's actually different. Kamina, Simon, and Yoko take center stage, as usual. These episodes are mostly comedic in intent and delivery, and it does so. Supporting cast are riding shotgun, and really don't do a whole lot. We are introduced (ep5.5) to two new beastmen, a father/daughter team out for some vengeance against the naked apes. They provide some laughs, but have sort of a Team Rocket ending, and never appear again. Story: 7 Ep 5.5: (2/7 points) The aforementioned father/daughter crooks show up under the guise of being professional Gunmen washers, offering to clean up the dingy, neglected Gurren. Much to the dismay of Kamina, Simon keeps Lagann spotless- and after having his glasses painted over while napping, and the girl performing a miraculous paint removal service, Kamina contracts the young Beastman girl to clean Gurren with her magical spray. Commence theft and loony antics, and this one is pretty much over. At 11m in length, it's a quickie. This episode is just an additive, kind of like putting a little food coloring in your cake. It doesn't make it taste any different, but it's something new to look at. Ep 6 reeeeeemix: (5/7 points) In the original series, episode 6 was a recap episode, told in the form of Simon and Kamina reminiscing through flashbacks while relaxing at a rather dubious spa found in the middle of nowhere, run by a creepy grandma. About half of the flashbacks were taken out, excepting the recap of the first episode- and we get new a little bit of new plot, mostly just a more fleshed out dialogue and scenes in between the flashbacks that get the story set for the next real episode. It doesn't change the course of the story, but this more filled out version is a lot more interesting to watch, and would have been a better disguised flashback episode than the original. The episode was obviously one that was designed to be a budget saver, and as such doesn't radically change, but as a whole, was improved in this instance. Enjoyment and Overall: 8 These are a little obscure, and should be watched as bonuses after seeing the series in its entirety, as they don't change the story, but rather some minor differences that just add to the fun. The first part, the 5.5, is kind of a tacked-on feeling episode.. not really necessary, but it provided a little more Gurren Lagann for someone who loved the show. I enjoyed them- kept me laughing, and reminded me why i loved Gurren Lagann in the first place: because it's just plain fun.

People are likely to disagree with this review and that's fine but I did not like what this episode did with Kamina's character. And considering Kamina being a likable character is a major part of what makes the story of Gurren Lagann work I am glad they cut this episode out of the original version. The audience has to like Kamina and look at him as a cool mentor figure in order to identify properly with the protagonist Simon for emotional impacts to land as well as they do later in the series. We have all seen the comedic pervert characters in anime and Iget it's a major trope that Kamina falls into (even in the original) and that's fine but using comedic tropes to the detriment if the story or themes of an anime is what really bothers me. In this case they significantly harmed an aspect of Kaminas character that made him incredibly likable in the original version. That being his willingness to always fight and risk his life never backing down for the sake of other people including his friends. So to have him give up on a fight so easily for the sake of getting to see breasts when in this case it meant putting the lives of not only himself but his friends on the line felt like such a major betrayal to what his character is supposed to be and it makes him significantly less likable. The only thing it does is create an opportunity for overused tropes/jokes and fanservice. But it's not worth it at all when this anime already has plenty of fanservice and the joke is simply not very funny. It honestly pains me to write this a bit as Hiroyuki Imaishi is one of my favorite directors but in this case I am glad he did not get to put this cut of the episode into the final show. If I have anything positive to say about this episode it's that I do simply appreciate seeing more Gurren Lagann animation that I previously never got to see. This show has by far some of the best visuals of any anime out there and this is absolutely no exception. Loved the animation hated what they did with Kamina's character in this. 2/10. Only watch it if your curious to see more animation/art from this show but don't expect to like the story of the episode.

Judging from other reviews it looks like MAL used to have this special episode and that other OVA together as one entry but then separated them at some point, so as a point of clarity this review is specifically for the alternate but of episode 6. First I have to say that this episode having an alternate cut at all makes it a real headache to know what version you're watching. I initially tried to watch this uncut version only to find that it was the actually the censored version, just mislabeled. Equally I've found several sights that just have the uncensored version in the normallineup of episodes and make no distinction that there even is a censored version out there. I even found one version that had the uncensored footage but the subtitles were from the censored version and didn't sync up at all. It was a real mess. Why the censorship in the first place? And if you're going to censor it, why half-ass it like they did? The censored one is just a bad recap episode, like what is there to even recap this is only episode 6, and it still has a lot of the hot spring stuff anyway. Why not just cut it entirely or just leave it as it was and add more of those stupid pink censor bars all over the place? Really bizarre choices all around. The episode itself is fine, I don't mind fan service episodes. I give it a 6 for the fact that it needed to exist at all. If you're watching Gurren Lagann and you come to episode 6 and it's a recap episode for some reason, find a different streaming sight that has the real version, even if you have to find it listed as a separate episode. If you come to episode 6 and it's not a recap episode, you're golden and you don't need to look for the recap version. Trust me, it's not worth watching both, even for a 100% category speedrun. Just wrong warp right past it.

I am 24 and did not grow up with this show... I could not believe there were still classics out there i had not seen. ofc s2 was not as strong as s1 in both op ost outro and actual episode quality but man it's been a long year and stumbling across this.. its like i got a portal back to when i was a happy kid screaming with the characters on screen i tried watching it weekly just have something to look forward to for a little while longer. I do wish I watched it as a kid. His works were based upon ideas of good andevil and the end of religion in the modern world. His philosophy is mainly referred to as “existentialism”, a famous twentieth century philosophy focusing on man’s existential situation. In his works, Nietzsche questioned the basis of good and evil. He believed that heaven was an unreal place or “the world of ideas”. His ideas of atheism were demonstrated in works such as “God is dead”. He argued that the development of science and emergence of a secular world were leading to the death of Christianity. He is famous for uncompromising criticisms of traditional European morality and religion, as well as of conventional philosophical ideas and social and political pieties associated with modernity. Many of these criticisms rely on psychological diagnoses that expose false consciousness infecting people’s received ideas; for that reason, he is often associated with a group of late modern thinkers (including Marx and Freud) who advanced a “hermeneutics of suspicion” against traditional values.