Simon, Kamina, Yoko Littner, Nia Teppelin

D.Gray-man / Gurren Lagann / Random Musings

Random Musings – D.Gray-man Manga And Gurren Lagann News Edition

  • I finally got caught up on the D.Gray-man manga last night after sitting down and reading seven volumes worth of material, all the way to the most recent chapter. Given how generally disappointed I’ve felt with the anime up until this point, I was curious to see what else the manga had to offer since I had previously stopped reading at a point right after the first Krory arc. Overall, I was incredibly impressed with how action-packed and fast-paced the manga was, and it turned out to be a lot darker and bloodier than I thought it’d be. Everything else I have to say about it I’m going to put in spoilers:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    I really would love to see a good animated adaptation of the manga, but I have my doubts if the current anime is ever going to get there, and even if it does, the question remains if there will be too much edited out in terms of violence or religious imagery. Anyway, I’m going to give the anime four or five more episodes to see if there are any signs they’ll be returning to the manga story, and if it doesn’t look promising, then there’s a good chance I’ll be dropping the show by the end of this season.

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  • In Gurren Lagann news, there was a GAINAX Gurren Lagann panel held at the Fanime convention in San Jose, California this past weekend featuring Yamaga Hiroyuki, one of the people responsible for planning the show and current president of GAINAX. You can read a full report here, but the interesting stuff included:
    -Drills were chosen because boys like drills in Japan.
    -Because of the negative reaction to episode four, they won’t be trying stylistic changes like that again.
    -Episode six was edited because it was airing early in the morning in Japan. The DVD will have the full version, which might feature what they originally had in mind: Kamina peeking at the girls in the hot springs.
    -The reason humans live underground will be explained in episode 16.
    -They are currently up to recording episode 21.
    -Yoko may or may not be 14 years old, but time underground may be measured differently.
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  • Also, the official site has updated with their romanizations for the new bad guys: Adiane, Cytomander, Guame, and Lordgenome. Given that last name and focus on genetics, maybe we should be calling him the Helix King instead of the Spiral King. The Japanese word rasen can be translated both ways.
    • Gurren Lagann / PV

    Nakagawa Shouko – Sorairo Days PV (Gurren Lagann OP)

    For those who might not be familiar with her, Nakagawa Shouko is an insanely popular idol who seems to be able to do everything, including singing, acting, voice work, being an otaku, and blogging ridiculously often (something like 10 to 20 blog entries per day). I first found out about her from the now infamous Private Lesson segment from last year where she – dressed as Suzumiya Haruhi – explained what being an otaku meant to a dumbfounded Wada Akiko. Sorairo Days, which is the opening song to Gurren Lagann, is actually the first time I’ve heard her sing, and I have to say that she does a pretty good job, much better than I expected anyway. I thought the PV was a bit lacking though since it basically just showed Shocotan (as she’s known as) in variations of the same three shots cycled over and over again, and most of the time it looked like she was just holding that guitar for show. Still, I liked the full version of the song, so I’ll probably just listen to the music and not bother with watching the PV again.

    Nakagawa Shouko’s single Sorairo Days is due out June 27th, 2007.