First Impressions / Gurren Lagann

OP Sequence:

OP: 「空色デイズ」 (Sorairo Days) by 中川翔子 (Nakagawa Shouko)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2

Summary:

Simon is a boy who lives underground and digs holes along with everyone else because village head wants to expand the village. He digs to find treasure, and one day he discovers a tiny drill. Not popular with the girls, Simon then bumps into his friend Kamina who insists on being Simon’s soul brother and declares that the drill is Simon’s soul. What’s more, he says that Simon’s drill is the drill that will break through to the heavens. It seems that Kamina is tired of living in this confined village and has his sights set on what’s above ground. His latest scheme involves using pig-moles to reach the ceiling, but he gets stopped by the head of the village. After getting lectured about how there’s not an above ground surface, Kamina stands his ground as an earthquake shakes the village and scares everyone else into their holes. Remembering how his parents died in a similar earthquake, Simon tells Kamina that he’ll be crushed to death if he doesn’t run away. Kamina holds Simon in his arms until the earthquake subsides and then yells at the entire village about how everyone spends their lives afraid of the earthquakes. Nevertheless, Kamina is the one who gets chained up in jail by the head of the village.

Simon meanwhile continues digging and uncovers a face that glows in unison with the tiny drill he found. He returns to the village and digs Kamina out the jail in order to show him the discovery, but the two get caught. The village head starts beating Kamina, but suddenly everyone is swept off their feet as something emerges from the ceiling. Kamina uses this as proof that there is something above them, but no one cares about what he says because the giant head that came down is now wrecking the village. Taking the village chief’s sword, Kamina steps forward to face it. He gets interrupted by the arrival of a girl with a large gun who manages to shoot the giant head multiple times before landing on the ground. Kamina immediately tries to get to know her, and it’s Simon who digs them all to safety and eventually leads them to the head that he discovered. With his small drill starts pulsating again and with some encouragement from Kamina, Simon uses the drill as a key and activates the face. The head then sprouts arms and legs, and all three are sent flying through the tunnel and out into the open area where the huge head (identified as a Ganmen by the girl) still is. Kamina names Simon’s mecha the Lagann, but he and the girl get separated from it and instead land on the Ganmen’s head.

Fortunately, Simon saves them and in the process gets the Ganmen to smash its own head. It initially looks like they’ve won, but the Ganmen soon gets back up. With the Lagann caught in the Ganmen’s teeth, Simon knows they need more power and manages to turn the drill key further. This causes the Lagann to explode with energy and sprout a forehead drill. With Kamina’s backing him up, Simon has the Lagann turn its arms into drills, and it’s then able to plow into the Ganmen. The force of the Lagann is so strong that they fly into the air and completely destroy the Ganmen after emerging up from the surface of the planet. Kamina, Simon, and the girl are able to enjoy a beautiful view, and the girl chooses this moment to finally introduce herself as Yoko. However, they soon realize that they’re falling, and they can’t do anything except to protect themselves inside the Lagann. Simon ends up landing on top of Yoko’s chest, but she doesn’t seem to mind. Rather, she hugs him tighter after getting a scared look on her face because two more giant head-shaped mecha have shown up in front of them.

ED Sequence:

ED: 「UNDERGROUND」 by HIGH VOLTAGE
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2
I really like the energetic opening song, which is sung by the extremely talented Nakagawa Shouko. The ending song wasn’t nearly as good, but it’s hard to judge a song based on only 30 seconds of it (which is how long the ED lasts).

This was a ton of fun to watch – very exciting and action-packed. I love Kamina’s character, and Konishi Katsuyuki did a great job voicing him. It’s hard to believe that this is the same guy who voiced Hagi in Blood+, though maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised since he voices Komui in D.Gray-man. Inoue Marina’s Yoko character was pretty cool too, though it looks like she’ll be the source of a lot of fanservice and breast humor.
Overall, GAINAX did a fantastic job with this and created something that felt very stylish. I still don’t really like the head-centric mecha designs, but I can probably overlook those since everything else is so impressive. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit this into my blogging schedule, so I can’t commit to blogging this until the other shows air in the next week or so, and I can compare with what else is good.

29 Comments

  8. Now I got two hot Openings to listen to. This song is awesome, and KOTOKO’s new song is also really good. As for the show, after watching the RAW, it featured pretty good action, and good characters. I’m still amazed at how much fanservice they tossed in even though this is airing in a morning timeslot.

    Blue-Kun
    Reply

  11. I’ts not boring at all, Xxskbgirl89xX. I just finished watching this first episode and I found it really fun and entertaining. It left me with a smile on my face. This shows feels just like Diebuster, a rollercoaster ride of fun, animation and likeable characters. I really looking forward to the following episodes.

    ShiNN
    Reply

  16. Wow. I didn’t expect much but Kamina made the whole show worth watching. It starts out slow but it picks up pace shortly after the giant head monster thing appears. The amount of fan service is something I didn’t expect as well.

    I can’t wait to see Lagan’s combined form. It looks pretty neat from the OP.

    Rasmiel
    Reply

  17. i always find it interesting observing peoples instant judgement on a show “granted they are totally entitled to there own opinion”. but its funny, the thin line between what a person likes and what they wont even give a chance” usually based on deep subconscious feelings of what moves them. some like “harem” and cutey stuff, some like action and sci-fi. some like both. those are the more fortunate in my opinion…..”XxkbgirlXX” is bugging! how you gonna come outside yo face and say it looks boring when every single screen cap is action packed and in constant movement!!?? like i said there are others, but it always intrests me to see how many people are so adamant to not like a type of show, just for the sake of not liking it… oh well. AND ANYBODY THAT SAYS GUNBUSTER2 SUCKED ,CAN SUCK THIS! ” BUT THATS JUST MY OPINION” da show looks hot, just hope it’s not too kiddy

    brooklyn otaku
    Reply

  18. wooow…..glittering and sparkling mecha transformation. That’s the one thing that Code Geass is missing….mecha intros (dazzling transformations and poses). I guess the emphasis is on story (Code Geass) which blows Gundams 20+ year old storyline out the water.

    Hope this will be a good mecha/comedy.

    Jounouchi
    Reply

  23. amazing first episode i have never liked the main characters of a show this fast its going to be one of the seasons best anime with claymore and their superb animation

    qwertypoiuy
    Reply

  25. This is a potential bombshell of a series. Alot of big names are working on this series, the characters are interesting and revamped versions of old cliches, and it just gets you riveted unconditionally.

    This show seems to benefit off of being excessive in everything that it does. Hell, the lines are cornier than corn:

    “PIERCE THE HEAVENS WITH YOUR DRILL!!” lawl, but they catch your attention.

    Blue
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *