Gurren Lagann -

One of the most important and skillful parts of this brotherly relationship is, I think, that it does not come off as gay. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the gay community (although they can be over-exposed), but our media seems a bit confused on the whole issue. There is this fear of male characters appearing gay by being too close to another man. This fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy by causing male-to-male character relationships to be less than sincere, which often leads them to come off as closet-gay. This can stem from the director, from the writer or from the actors themselves.

It stems from an insecurity in masculinity which permeates our culture. People seem to have a hard time understanding how different the love a man feels for another man is from the love he feels for a woman, and this mix-up can lead to confusion on the orientation of characters.

Maybe it is because of the age different between Simon and Kamina, or maybe because they have clear female lovers, or because of the presence of a clearly gay man, but I don’t think so. I think it comes from a sense of security the men have in their own masculinity and an understanding on the part of the writers of what it means for men to become as brothers. They are what they are, and that is brothers. No fear of questions about whom they love comes up.

You can love someone without wanting to sleep with them, but this is something many men seem to have forgotten, and in being afraid of being gay they make themselves seem gay. Once this concept was understood, such as the way men of ancient times truly and utterly loved their king, but not in the same way they loved their wife.

Only by freeing men to feel free with their own emotions can we allow them to truly love one another as brothers, as well as creating more understanding for homosexual men by making men more comfortable with themselves.

Gurren Lagann shows how men can truly love one another in the fashion of brothers. Dedication, caring, helping one another to grow, all this combines with the eternal male thirst for competition to allow men to drive one another to greatness, as brothers.

Next time I will take a final look at the series as a whole and explore its overall image and sense of masculinity.

I saw this figure a while back before it was released and yesterday a friend of mine was in LA and asked if I was looking for anything…and here we are, another $110 out the door.

Seriously, WordPress really kills the quality of my images. Look at this difference between my computer and my blog. So I re uploaded all of the pictures to Flickr. Much better now.

I don’t do this as a major [my love is computers] or anything. I haven’t went to school for it; I taught myself. I know I’m still a novice and everything, I don’t need anyone to tell me that. So now that I know this slideshow for WordPress actually works. I can add more to it. I think is the safest way and easiest way to show my designs. If you would like to see my whole collection of designs, just click here. You might see a lot of Kurosaki Ichigo ones,Yoko ones, and Code Geass ones its because I’m a Bleach, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Code Geass  fan.

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Well, I’ve recently come across a list with the markers identifying one as an “otaku“, according to a survey held in Japan. One of the items had described “Anime T-Shirts”, as a negative thing, and I thought that impression should be fixed.

I do agree, there are the totally drawn, overdrawn, over-the-top fashion-victim shirts you see people wear, such as the neon orange and yellow 100% drawn Dragon Ball Z T-Shirts, but there are plenty of shirts one can wear, and which look good, even, and perhaps especially when those who view them do not know that they mark one as a geek. Heck, I’m sure many non-geeks will proudly wear them.

Lagann, on one of my new shirts!

I had the “pleasure” of going out and buying some l0ng-sleeved more fashionable shirts yesterday, and to be honest, I felt quite a bit like Madarame, from Genshiken. My older shirts are very comfortable, but being flannel, they tend to give a certain pajama feel. And I decided something had to be done. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw Lagann at a very mainstream shop.

Lagann at the front, more or less the same posture

For those who do not know, Lagann is the “Head” that Simon finds in the first episode of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and which later provides the “Head” for the joint (and titular) mecha, Gurren Lagann. Upon seeing this, I had to ask my mother who accompanied me, whether or not Renuar, the shop where I got the shirt, was Israeli owned. It turns out that it is. I then checked for any mangled English, because that is also quite common on Israeli shirts (Gifted Extremely, Project Your…). Well, once I checked the different colours the shirts came in, I settled upon this one.

Now, Lagann looks nice, the text seems sufficiently modern, and it is sold by an apparel chain that is quite large and mainstream in Israel. I wonder how many people who will wear this shirt will even know of its anime provenance. I mean, even I, when I first saw the shirt, took a couple of seconds to realize what I was seeing, and that it wasn’t the head of Optimus Prime

And that’s a main way for geeky things to be worn mainstream, because the mainstream can both wear and see them without knowing what they are. But then again, when it is this way, they stop being “Badges”, that when people “in the know” see, they recognize you as one of their own, such as the Order of the Black Knights emblem from Code Geass, or “Don’t Forget October third” from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Well, in future installments I’ll share some of my really cool geeky T-Shirts, which one can wear proudly amongst geek intolerant people, even.

Hogy mit is kéne nézni?

Az előőrsöt már láttam.
Szóval jöhet a Gurren Lagann mozi, és a King of Thorn.

]]> http://biotoxic.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/new-arrival-yoko-amiami/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:23:27 +0000 biotoxic http://biotoxic.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/new-arrival-yoko-amiami/

I have been looking for a Yoko figure for a while, and I stumbled across this Yoko figure by AmiAmi which caught my attention. However at the time she was exclusive to the AmiAmi website which was still Japan only. Luckily though with the recent change I was able to buy her .

Here she is. Not the most accurate Yoko figure out there, but still amazing. I collected her from Parcel Force last night, so here’s some pictures with flash.

And some taken this morning.

Full review coming soon.

BT

I needed an excuse to actually update, so here’s a fragment of this new interview with Hitomi. I’ll just focus on Bokutori because lots of homework + homeworkaholic person = very bad combination for your own health xD… And also because I always only focus on Rolo anyways I guess

○黒石
こちらはまずメロディありだったんです。ロロの持っているロケットから流れるオルゴールの曲として、どんな曲調がいいだろうかと考えて。ロロという人物を考えると、切なく歌えるようなメロディで覚えやすいことを念頭に作りました。
そこから挿入歌に発展して。私は毎回違うイメージの曲を作りたいと思っていまして、「僕は、鳥になる。」は、はかないだけでなく、間奏でちょっと管楽器を入れて少し力強いイメージも出しているんです。これは絵コンテを読んだら、ロロのお墓の前でルルーシュが立ち上がる場面があったので、そこのイメージから出来た部分です。

○Kuroishi

With this one I first had the melody. As an orgel tune that streams from the locket Rolo carries, I considered what kind of melody it should be. Thinking of Rolo’s character, I created a melody that could be sang sadly and would be easy to remember. From there, it developed into the background music. I wanted to create a song that would sound different each time, so “Boku wa, tori ni naru” is not only ephemeral, but with the inclusion of wind instruments during the interlude, it also shows a bit of a powerful image. When I read the storyboard, it had that scene with Lelouch standing up in front of Rolo’s gravesite; this was based on that image.

I really am unable to manage to sound natural when translating. My English sucks

Hitomi, they should so have let you write the staves for Arabesque too…  Though my main problem with Arabesque’s melody not fitting Rolo is the choice of instruments I think. Needs more romantic/mystical/creepy feeling to match with the (this time perfect because Hitomi wrote them) lyrics, or maybe it was just me that facepalmed when I first heard that…electronic-organ like thing. The CD should have come with an a cappella version and not just an instrumental one xD (A-A cappella Rolo ´A` … ♥)

Ahh each day gets closer to Lelouch’s birthday… Please Sunrise/Bandai please announce us some Lost Colors 2~~ <:D *still hasn’t stopped playing Banjou no Geass Gekijou, even though she unlocked everything centuries ago*

PS: I still believe those scenes in episode 10 were originally meant to be pretty shocking and dramatic, even if they ended up becoming an eternal source for jokes =)

Nendoroid Yoko

Manufacturer    :    Good Smile Company
Scale    :    Non
Material    :    PVC , ABS
Producer    :    Ryuichi (Peacemaker)
Series    :    Nendoroid
Original    :    Gurren-lagann
Release Date     :    Late Feb., 2009
Regular Price    :    3,334 yen

It’s the first and the only Nendoroid from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann series. I’d expect to see Nia coming in Nendoroid form too, but how long do I have to wait?

The sniper seems very interesting.

There’s two shoulder-strap, one is shorter.

I don’t like this style of the base much, but Yoko is not wearing the skirt. No choice.

With the base.

Let’s try not using the base.

She can stand on her own! 
Nice balance!!!

She can still stand with a gun!!

btw, is the the only nendoroid with larger bust?

Don’t miss it 

Thanks for watching 

DOUBLE K – it is comin’ ~ captainosaka

Double K GARhalla Vice page 32-33-34 released

You can thank Winamp and it’s non-random random shuffling for this post.

I have a super condensed anime music playlist that I like to listen to; it’s only 230 songs long and there’s a handful of songs on this list that when I’m in the right mood will get me to shed a tear. Last night I wasn’t much in the mood but out-of-the-blue Winamp starts playing every sad song on the list in a row and even repeating some more than once so now I’m in that mood.

It’s probably not a good idea to marathon a Key series right now so instead I’ll write this post.

Oh, and there’s some spoilers so read at your own risk.

Natsukage – from AIR

Let’s start off with an obvious show that could generate a tear inducing song – AIR. This anime holds the personal record for the most tears shed while watching it (Clannad is a close second). See, I was a relatively new anime watcher at the time, mainly subsisting on a diet of shounen shows and wasn’t aware of the emotional depths that could be found in anime. It also didn’t help that I had absolutely no knowledge of what to expect and was lulled into a false sense of security by it’s light-hearted start. Therefore, when the story turned tragic, I wasn’t ready for it and ended up crying for just about every remaining episode.

Natsukage is the name of the instrumental track that KyoAni used for many of the emotional scenes during AIR and thus when I hear it, I’m reminded of those scenes.

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Koikogarete Mita Yume – from Cross Game

The show’s first closing is another song that can bring me to tears and was able to from the very first time I heard it, which was in episode 1.

That episode completely blew me away. I wasn’t expecting to see enough character building and tragedy to fill most series all within those 24 minutes and by playing this song at the saddest scene meant that I’d always link this song to that first episode. Nor has that episode and that song lost it’s power to move the viewer, recently the animators essentially reshowed the first episode in it’s entirety for the episode 30 recap.

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Kanon by Pachebel – from Kanon

The wedding standard got repurposed for another of Key’s works – Kanon. This time, the characters actually referenced the song in the show and provided a strong means for the viewers to attach the often tragic nature of Kanon to the song. At least when I hear this song in public it’ll probably be at a wedding and it’ll be more socially acceptable to cry to it.

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“Libera me” From Hell – from Gurren Lagann

I’m convinced that Gurren Lagann is one of the greatest anime ever made and should be required watching for, not only those who profess to be an anime fan, but also for every single kid that grows up watching the insipid tv shows that pass for kid’s shows these days.

This song was used in many places throughout the show, primarily when it was time for the good guys to kick butt which makes it a strange song to cry over. And it would be but for it’s use during one of the best scenes to Gurren Lagann which happened in episode 26. The hero of the show, Simon, was given the choice between the easy way out and the harder path that true heroism calls for. He chooses the path of heroism and as a result is able to break himself and his comrades out of a devious trap laid by the enemy. The whole scene is very emotional, a testament to Gainax’s stellar character development and story telling ability, and having this track play during the entire scene meant that those emotions come back whenever hear it.

And within the entire scene there’s a small part that absolutely gets to me every single time I see it. The trap that Simon breaks everyone out of gives each person the ability to live in whatever dream world they wish for. One of the people trapped is Viral; he’s a beastman which means he looks human but was created sterile and he has a tough-as-nails personality so one would expect his dream world to be some sort Valhalla battlefield but it’s not – it’s living in a little cottage in a country meadow with a wife and a daughter that calls him “Papa”.

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Dango Daikazoku – from Clannad

Yes, another song from a Key/KyoAni anime, this time it’s from Clannad. This was used as the first season ending but it wasn’t until the second season that this became tear inducing. Though in the case of Dango Daikazoku (or “Big Dango Family”), the song brings tears from being linked to the tragic parts to Clannad and also from the happy parts.

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Love is a Flower, You are a Seed – from Only Yesterday

In many ways Only Yesterday is my favorite Studio Ghibli work so I find it an absolute travesty that it’s the only Studio Ghibli movie not released in America.

This is the only song that exclusively makes me shed tears from happiness alone. It’s the end song to Only Yesterday and the animators had it playing while the movie had it’s climatic scene before going to credits. So, like the others, those emotions got transferred to the song and hearing this song gets to me every time.

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Anyone else want to share? Or is everyone too busy getting in the Halloween mood today?

The AMV for to day combines Hollywood Undead’s “Young” from their Swan Songs Album.

Anime Featured: Gurren Lagann

Link to the creator

Slugg44

Yup! It’s your very own YOKO from the hit Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann anime.  She has her own album single. I was able to download her album a long time ago courtesy of Moonie, my otaku friend from CDOtaku. He gave me a torrent link and I was happy to have it. ^^~

I thought Yoko was only good at guns! XD! Well anyways,  the album contains 3 songs : 1.Original Song 2. Instrumental (no Vocal) 3. KIREMEKI remix of the song.

The music? It’s nice. It’s like a pop-love song sort of thing. “You are my star…” Hmm…I think he meant KAMINA. Aww well, xD!

I mentioned that I had purchased a new dollfie dream, somewhat recently. I know some of you are probably baffled by my choice, of all the dollfie dreams released that I don’t own why I would I buy I already own. Ultimately who I buy is my own decision. I was given a little bit of a bonus, I guess you can call it that and was told to spend it on whatever I wanted. I had kind of agonized over my decision, do I get a DSLR, should I use this opportunity to get caught up on pullips (which I was still behind on at that point) or should I get a new dollfie dream? I was still kind of browsing around when I seen an awesome deal on a Yoko, I’m not really considering a twin for one of my dollfies am I? I love Yoko, she is awesome. I spent days trying to talk myself out of it, then a little bird chimed in my ear that if she is going to make you happy go ahead and get her. The final tipping point is when I contacted the seller and found out she was actually coming with her full stock, I had assumed at that point with her price being so low she was coming nude and probably wig-less. She had previously been opened, and there was a small stain on the top of her head covered by her wig.

I had plans for a fairly elaborate picfic to introduce unfortunately my health has a had sudden decline ^^; so photo time was extremely limited. When I am well again I will make the picfic and post it on Danny Choo. I do eventually intend to make teacher Yoko stock for her but I am honestly perfectly happy with all the photo ops twin Yokos afford me. Eventually I will make them coordinating kimonos.

upLARK’s famous Gurren-Lagann: Viral is now in stock with the supplier! Extremely Limited Stock! Don’t miss out!!!

Price: $150 NZD

Arrival Date: 1 Left w/Suppliers!

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Please check the “Information” post for shipping costs and payment methods.

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Today was a good day, oh yes. My Viral arrived. Not so much of a long review from my part but I’ll rather let the photos speak for themselves.

UpLark, formally known as EyeUp, have released some incredible figures throughout the recent years. One of their most impressing line of figures are from their Gurren Lagann line; Kamina, Yoko, and the most recently released this past September, Nia and Viral. All are amazing and worth every penny, nickel, dime, dollar–you get it.

Manufacturer	UpLark
Character	Viral
Series	Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (天元突破グレンラガン)
Release Date	2009/09/30
Scale	1/8
Size	15.5cm
Sculptor	Black Sabbath
Price	¥7,800
Official HP	http://www.uplark.co.jp/hobby/product/006.html
Rating	5/5

Viral, sculpted by Black Sabbath (one of my top favorite sculptors, btw), has quite the dynamic pose; he’s ready to kick ass and chop you to bits with that hot-blooded expression that’s saying he’s about to rip you a new one with his fabulous hatchet ! Everything about this figure is spot on from head to toe, especially the face. It looks like he jumped right out of the anime itself; he’s prefect.

One, among the many other things I love about this figure, is the detail on the hatchet the sculptor gave it to make it look old and battered. I think this is the best weapon I’ve seen thus far on a figure. The caliber of detail on this thing is incredible. The detail makes it look plenty real and the dents and dings on the blade make it look like Viral has used it several times, which is what you really want in a blade of any kind to look like.

Same goes for the battered-like detail on his shoulder pads and sheath. The grime on the sheath looks pretty amazing, if you ask me. And I love how muscular and lean he looks. I TELL YA, HE IS ONE SEXY FURRY BEASTMAN.

Overall, this figure is one of the best purchases I’ve made this year and I’m very satisfied with it–no complaints whatsoever. He was also the priciest I’ve had to pay so far too (this year), ¥10,210 w/ shipping, ORZZZ. I regret canceling my order for UpLark’s Nia but I had to cut back a bit on my neverending figure splurging lolol. I will, however, try to get her at a later time and maybe Yoko too–tho I’m not too fond of UpLark’s Yoko but it’s always nice to have the whole gang. UPLARK, I DEMAND A SIMON FIGURE NEXT.

Also, despite me not having some good goddamn lighting and a nice backdrop, I think many of the photos came out fairly decent. Except the light is too strong in some photos because of the light on my ceiling orz. I wasn’t intending to take this many photos too but I had so much fun photographing him that I went a bit crazy with the camera, lol! I’m planning an outside photoshoot with Viral and Kamina together; just need to find the perfect spot.

OMAKE:

(should have added speech bubbles but too tired to think up anything, orz.)

Just a little background

Last year, while trying to escape the horrors that live on a certain board on a certain imageboard, I stumbled across Papercrafts.  My first models were fairly easy, things like a pikachu, Danbo, the Companion Cube, and Happy Mac.  I then graduated up into slightly harder crafts:  some cat-maid thing, Konata, and my favorite so far, Miku. (i’ll post links to these whenever i find the files for them)  Right now i’m working on a Moogle to ship to Japan.

Browsing around today, I found a few more papercrafts that I’m planning on building: (click the pictures for where to download them)

Gurren-Lagann, Fuck Yeah!

Mari-Tan being a badass

Space Marine

Haruhi

Toon Link

Some Touhou Stuff

Adorable, no?

Asuka, Never seen the series, but found her adorable

Thats all for now.  I tried to keep this one anime based, I have a rather large collection of warcraft and various other papercrafts that i’ll share later.  I’ll also post the papercrafts i’ve already built and links for patterns later.

Na dann, der erste ernste Eintrag in meinem Blog^^

Ich wollte mal eine Animeserie vorstellen die für mich persönlich zu denbesten gehört.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Die ersten beiden DVD Boxsets sind in Deutschland schon raus und sogar als Collector Edition erhältlich.

In der Welt von Gurren Lagann geht es darum das die Menschheit von den sogenannten Beastman dazu gezwungen wird unter der Erde zu leben.
Doch unsere beiden Hauptprotagonisten wollen wieder ein Leben an der Oberfläche möglich machen.

Mehr möchte ich jetzt nicht verraten.

Genre: Mecha, Action, Comedy, Ecchi
Zielgruppe: Shounen

Gurren Lagann Vol 1

Inhalt:
-Dvd 1 & 2

Extras der Collector Edition:
- Leuchtender Drillbohrer
- Gesticktes Wappenschild
- Plastikansteckplakette
- verpackt in einer schicken Sammlerbox

Gurren Lagann Vol 2

Inhalt:
-Dvd 3 & 4

Extras der Collector Edition:
-2 OST CD’s

Und zu guter letzt noch ein Amv um den ersten Eindruck zu bestärken:

There was a Paypal promotion going on with HLJ some weeks ago where they offered free EMS shipping if paying with Paypal. I didn’t see anything I wanted at first (because so many things were out) so I didn’t give care about the promo afterward. Come the last hour (literally) of the promotion, I gave in to yet another impulse buy and picked up Seravee ^^; after checking HLJ for the last time. I wanted to pick up Arios GNWHWYHWHWH/whatever and Cherudim GNWTHWTF/whatever too but they were out. I’ve always liked Seravee and Tieria is just <3.

Gurren Lagann Giga Drill Breaker cell phone strap I think this is… or keychain ^^;

Probably my first anime apparel? Unless the Tare Danny shirt also counts ^^;

Anyone also took advantage of the free EMS shipping? What did you bought? It was probably the best savings anyone outside of Japan could’ve ever gotten from a Japanese hobby site. I would gladly take free shipping for my order than save like a few % on some items.

I’ll be back! Kirin Hobby is now accepting preorders for the T-800 half-scale bust from Terminator 2, featuring a removable brain chip, light-up eyes and base, and comes with a plexi display case. Another exciting release presented by Yamato is the Dai Shogun Kiriko Hattori ninja costume figure designed by Shunya Yamashita. Other upcoming releases include Figma Aegis from Persona 3 games,the new Figma Saber and Shiro casual wear action figures from the Fate/Stay Night anime series, and Miku Hatsune figure from the Vocaloid series, all produced by Max Factory.

Hot off the truck! Bandai action figures and trading figures from Code Geass, Mazinger Z, and Street Fighter IV. Revoltech Queen’s Blade Echidna and Nanael action figures are now in stock. Also new in stock is the beautiful Yoko from Gurren Lagann produced by Alter.

Enjoy!
Edward

Tamashii Street Fighter IV mini-statues set (case of 9) [Figure] by Bandai
Soul of Popynica: PX-04 Hover Pileder [Action Figure] by Bandai
Soul of Chogokin: Tamashii GX-49 Shin Mazinger Z [Action Figure] by Bandai
Robot Spirits: Code Geass Knightmare Frame Lancelot Albion [Action Figure] by Bandai
Mazinger Z: Shin Mazinger Z [Model Kit] by Bandai
SIF! EX Umi Monogatari: Marin [Figure] by Yamato
SIF! EX Rurouni Kenshin: Best Of Trading Figures (Complete set of 6) [Figure] by Yamato
SIF! EX Needless: Eve [Figure] by Yamato
Fantasy Figure Gallery: Luis Royo ~ A Touch of Ice [Figure] by Yamato
Dai Shogun: Kiriko Hattori Ninja Costume ver (Shunya Yamashita) [Figure] by Yamato
Gurren Lagann: Yoko Littner Mysterious Bounty Hunter [Figure] by Alter
Fate/Unlimited Codes: Saber Lily [Figure] by Alter
Revoltech Queen’s Blade No.005 Melona [Action Figure] by Kaiyodo
Revoltech Queen’s Blade No.004 Nanael [Action Figure] by Kaiyodo
Revoltech Queen’s Blade No.003 Echidna (Ekidona) [Action Figure] by Kaiyodo
Final Fantasy IX (FF9) Set of 3 ~ Zidane, Vivi, Garnet [Action Figure] by Square Enix
Queen’s Blade: P-7 Nanael 2P Mega Hobby ver [Figure] by Megahouse
Queen’s Blade: Listy EX Excellent Model Core [Figure] by Megahouse
Nendoroid Black Butler: Sebastian Michaelis [Action Figure] by Good Smile Company
Vocaloid2: Miku Hatsune [Figure] by Max Factory
Figma # 051 Fate/Stay Night: Shiro Emiya Casual Wear ver. [Action Figure] by Max Factory
Figma # 050 Fate/Stay Night: Saber Casual Wear ver. [Action Figure] by Max Factory
Figma # 049 Persona 3: Aigis (Aegis) [Action Figure] by Max Factory
Terminator T-2: T-800 Half Scale Endoskeleton Bust [Figure] by Toynami

I love the theme song to this one. Reminds me of the old 70s and 80s theme songs like Jeeg with the “BAAA- BA BA BAAAAAM BAAAAAM ! BA BA BAAAAAM” bit.

In the aftermath of the battle in the previous episode, the injured are being evacuated by the Defence Corps with the observation of the army. Alas, another heterodyne is on its way and heading on the same course as the jets carrying the injured. Dai-Guard is launched with a new drill arm part in order to combat it.

Spiffy:

• The Dai-Guard team pilot the Dai-Guard in suits. This is very cool.
• At one point they’re told the Dai-Guard has no fuel, and one pilots argues “But even without that, with willpower-”. Alas, they still need fuel. Take that, Gaogaigar!
• The drill arm proves to be an absolutely terrible idea, with Dai-Guard being unable to hold it steady. Take that, Gurren Lagann!
• The town being attacked in this episode is Atami. Poor Atami.

Iffy:

• The Heterodyne they fight in this episode is identical to the one they fought in the last episode, which to me just seems a little lazy.

I really like this series! It’s basically a parody of the Super Robot genre and showcases what would actually happen if some company decided to go build a giant robot in real life. I hope it can keep up for the whole series, from what I’ve heard it falls off a little towards the end. We’ll see.