While researching a long post a few months back, I came across an advertisement inside the final issue of Newtype USA for Gurren Lagann volume 1 from ADV Films carrying the now phantom release date February 26, 2008. Twelve pages later was a four-page feature and fifty pages after that was a review of vol. 1, which had been declared “DVD of the Month”.
TTGL was intended to be ADV’s next big action success and the initial dub cast had already been revealed in January (as well as a loud announcer trailer) but it got caught up in the Sojitz licensing fiasco and fell into licensing limbo. Bandai snapped up the rights a few months later and has proceeded to handle it very well, swiftly putting out sub-only nine-episode sets to please the big fans and hybrid volumes in double-single bundles just like how they began releasing Code Geass on DVD.
In this episode of Reading Out Loud, I read the featured article and the review (along with the sidebar to the review) as well attempt to project how the rest of ADV’s roll out might have gone in contrast to Bandai’s current effort (while repeating some of the background info I gave above). After the jump is a timeline of the series’ development and some tangentially related stories. Also: a chart of the voice actors I listed off during the final segment.
Music Used:
“Ookami ga Kita!!” (from Gurren Lagann BEST SOUND)
“Mawatte Mawatte Mawatte Mawatte Tetete…” (BEST SOUND)
“Douda! Ore no Trumpet wa Sugoi Darou!!” (BEST SOUND) Giant Gorg opening theme (YouTube link)
“Nessa no Areno wo Nukete dai Gurren Dan ga Iku no da” (BEST SOUND) Read the rest of this entry »
Last night, I tuned into Sci-Fi Channel to watch the TV premiere of the Bang Zoom-produced Gurren Lagann dub. I actually thought it was pretty good and something I’d watch weekly but then again, I am more forgiving of dubs than other, more purist fans may be. Kamina didn’t seem to possess all the machismo that he should’ve and Leeron’s voice may have played up a certain angle a bit too much but Simon (aka Simoun), strong Yoko, and the extras sounded good. Now we have to wait for next week to see how Viral, Kittan and his sisters stack up. (Other bloggers’ reactions: DTZ loved it, CJ called it “bearable”, xephfyre played it safe, Author-san: “quite palatable”, and Mr. Miao rightfully hates on the commercials.)
While I’m on the subject, I’d like to talk about the short Gainax interview that ANN posted yesterday. At the end of it, TTGL product manager and Gainax co-founder Hiroyuki Yamaga said, “We hope to be working on Gurren Lagann for the next decade. This work we know as Gurren Lagann will continue.” They have already released most of their Parallel Works project (which has been halted until just before the Sept. 6 premiere of series recap film #1 of 2), a DS game last fall (review from a Destructoid C-blog), a cancelled MMORPG involving first-person digging of tunnels, and a manga adaptation drawn by Kotaro Mori. It’s obvious that the studio will focus on its other projects including Shikabane Hime over the next few years but this franchise is too popular not to expand upon sometime in 2010 or 2011, although I hope it won’t get overly revised like Eva did.
AnimeOnDVD recently posted a report written by Jason Yeh of a Gurren Lagann focus panel that held at Fanime and within it, there was this interesting portion involving producer Yasuhiro Takeda:
Someone commented that Kamina is an over-the-top character and asked if he was initially designed that way. Takeda answered yes and stated the staff had to also be careful not to have Kamina overshadow Simon, the main character. He let out a slight spoiler while talking about the matter, which resulted in an audience member yelling out “spoiler”. Takeda stated he didn’t care if the show was out of not in the US [sic] and would answer questions if people asked them. He pointed out the 40 or so Gainax employees sitting in the back of the room, who were waiting for him to slip up and say something he shouldn’t. Takeda asked the employees to stand up and the audience applauded in response.
Thanks, oversensitive audience guy. Takeda comes from an industry where many, if not most, fans keep up with the series they watch as they air (just as some dedicated people in the western otaku blogocube do) so it should come as no surprise that he feels no mercy for “spoiler” criers a year after Gurren Lagann began airing. His opinion is further confirmed from a comment by Gainax president Hiroyuki Yamaga at last year’s TTGL Fanime panel where he admitted he didn’t care if people downloaded fansubs to see how the series continued.
On another note, I found it funny that there were about forty other Gainax employees at the panel but then I read in the previously 2007 panel report that Yamaga promised to make all efforts to bring more staff members to 2008’s panel. The company sure brought enough this time around.
I found this news report on Nico and want to say two things about it:
1) It’s odd but a bit nice that the synthesized-voiced reporter felt the Gurren Lagann/Sci-Fi Monday deal was important enough to pass along to the NicoNico audience (about 700 views worth). Here’s the related story from Anime! Anime!.
2) That was one of the driest news reports I’ve ever seen, but it does get the information across in a straightforward way.
For those who don’t know, Weiß Schwarz is a 2 player trading card game like Project Revolution where you try to beat your opponent by using characters from various series. In the case of the advertised TCG, the series currently involved include Zero no Tsukaima, Little Busters!, Disagea, and Persona 3. [Akibahara Channel]
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