Believe in the review that believes in you - Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann

Before I begin this shamozzle, I'd like to apologise beforehand that I didn't deliver on my word that I'd put out 5 pieces of content in a week. Turns out I'm a little less caring about my blog than I am most other things, and I thought I could keep the pace. For whatever reason I can't ,so it wasn't a week of delicious media. Instead, it'll be more like a 3 week-er. Not that anyone cares or listens. Anyway.

Today I'm going to talk about my thoughts on Gurren Lagann (Tenga Toppen Gurren Lagann, to use the full name of the series). To get it out of the way, GL is the current darling child of Gainax (known probably most popularly by their first series, Neon Genesis Evangelion), not to mention without doubt the biggest anime series of 2007, with the DVDs coming out as we speak for the English Dubbed world outside Japan. With such things being thrown around not only major anime news syndicates and forums, but /a/ also, I felt it was time to dig my feet into the murky waters of the genre of mecha shows. Going by my previous sentence, please understand that I do not traditionally enjoy Mecha shows and for 3 reasons -

1) they're horribly formulaic (yes this IS coming from someone who enjoys slice of life shows, but hey, I'm not claiming I'm not hypocritical)

2) There is a tendency for Mecha's to throw a badly veiled pretenses that is almost always some religious theme or Yu-gi-oh esque "you can change the world" crap that appeals to even the children

3) Two Words - Shinji Ikari. Shinji fucking Ikari.

Indeed my perceptions were to be blown away. Gurren Lagann is the story of Simon (pronounced she-mohn for integrity of Japanese phonetics) and his.. mecha. There's no way to avoid it, but like a gigantic elephant, it's a mecha show, and largely the mechas do take center stage when their time comes. Basically the story goes as this -
The world as we know it no longer exists. long ago, humanity forced underground to survive, the surface forgotten.Simon is a driller, drills holes to extend his village's size. His was a meager piece in life, until one day his best friend cum brother Kamina (who is, for the record, QUITE awesome and epic) hatches a crazy plot to head for the surface. The plot fails but then suddenly the roof opens up and a gigantic robotic head falls through. While this was happening, Simoun discovers a glowing head in one of his drillings. He, Kamina and the newly revealed hot gun babe Yoko go on a great adventure that sets it's sights on the impossible, and to kick reason to the kerb. On these notes, Gurren Lagann delivers.The overall story for the two released seasons so far can be broken into two arcs of story: Kamina and Nia. The Kamina arc is a display of Simon's progress from timid nobody to a super-power-toppling hero whom is modelled after the arc's namesake, Where the Nia arc is more of Simon understanding his own destiny beyond his own being (it's a bit more deeper than the first arc, so all you DEEP fans will just lap it up)... also BIG ROBOTS.

The show's progress is entirely linear. While some could perceive this as a bad thing and believe me there are detractors, I don't see it as so much. The show finds a pace, sticks to it and doesn't need that shitty filler that made Ergo Proxy go from quite majorly NEAT to filler 1/2.

Now onto the gears and bolts.
The Character portrayal in the show is excellent, from excellent designs and bold poses with a style to match, to excellent voice acting. It all comes together as a piece of excellent quality stuff. There are a couple of episodes I would like to add that did suffer from QUALITY (QUALITY being the actual absence of it), particularly I think it was ep 6 or 7, which looked very much like they very done by the replacement art department. Otherwise, Bold animation, bold colours, bolt art period. Kinda a reoccurring theme here. The show is bold.

Actually, you know what? That's what I like about it- it's bold, it holds no punches, makes all the right moves and doesn't like to settle with mild or deep. It is so successful at being itself, it's amazing. It is just awesome. Now for a bit of a outside view .
My former sidekick in crime, a Jim lad, when presented with the show gave some of the most interesting comments -
"No real plot"
"weak overall"
"not really that good"
After a long and lengthy conversation to try and convince him that he's not looking at a show that is Suzuka, where everything is pretentious and attempts to be realistic (where Gurren clearly isn't trying to be pretentious or realistic). Then I realised that he's part right.
The plot isn't something that is given to you as a bundle package at the start which only grows a little.. it's more simple than that. They give you a small plot that expands almost exponentially as the show continues. It's handy because the show isn't one that's targeted at literary geniuses, so getting all deep too early would have killed it. Anyway, who's he to talk about plot when he writes fantasy fiction about a guy with who's a part dragon,part vampire, part ranger mage who's got a serious amnesia plot device, and some sidekicks with names that do not consistently follow any one rule of pronunciation consistently. He got a whack over the head for pretending to be a lit fag, and I moved on to ignoring him, all is better. Moving on.

The show is a serious positive energy feed loop that doesn't step back from the plate at all. Holds no bars for plot and style, and let's face it, the end Battle is just too goddamn awesome. Using Galaxies as THROWING WEAPONS in a MECH THE SIZE OF A REALLY BIG GALAXY, POWERED BY HUMAN SPIRIT. How is that not awesome?

Overall, I loved the show, and I'm pretty happy to give this thing a definite recommendation. If I HAD to give it a score, it'd be like 9.5 (-0.5 for the crappy quality episode), however, I won't give it 9.5. Moot, in all his absolute corrupting wisdom, decided to stick up some Gurren Lagann in /b/ recently, which resulted in every OTHER board in 4chan flooded by shit-munchers, and thus entering /b/ and the internet's memeflow. So, I will give it MINUS 9.5 because moot took it and ruined it. What a dick.

Who am I? A review of Alone in the Dark

Uusually I'm quite upfront if something doesn't erach a certain level of quality ,and I'm not afraid to bust chops if there is serious beefs to be had. However, with games like Alone in the Dark, I am somewhat miffed about what to say about it. On one hand they are really trying to innovate, but there are gaping issues to be had. Let's start at the beginning of this paradoxical game.

The game is somehwat of a bridge of old and new for Alone in the Dark. It starts with you,some yet to be identified amnesiac meatbag waking up about to be shot and tossed off a building. However, osme shit happens, something to do with walls and floors full of live cracks that suck people in and spit out monstrosities that want human blood... so a slight twist on that horror cliche.. oh and the building's on fire and collapsing. As you go along you learn that you are Edward Carnby of the original Alone in the Dark fame. How'd you get in to modern day New York, and why do you look so MANLY without your muttonchops? needless to say the story's decent enough in that exists, and to me was satisfying enough that I didn't do what I did when I played FEAR(which was round in full lols mode).there are a couple of plot-driven spots in the game which ARE tedious, but they're more mechanics than actual plot. Anyhoo, all you need to know is it's a solid plot, it'll get you from A-B.

The graphics are very nice, I will be the first to admit. heck, They were so nice they forced me down from maximum res and settings on my surday reliable PC Cassidy. What I do like is the stark world they've created around the location of Central Park. You've got this safe and familiar place, which at night becomes just that little bit creepier, then thrown all over place are these bits of evil sprouting it's ugly face. And then there's the creepy enemies you face, all tweaked on acid.

So the game's a visual smorgasbord, what could be wrong? It's certainly not the sounds or voiceovers. Plenty of Charisma in both, and especially in the soundtrack. The soundtrack is guaranteedly delicious, with an interesting twist on classical horror suite by throwing into the fray some delicous choral vocals. In short, sound isn't it.

And innovative gameplay isn't a problem.. an awesome fire propogation system and lights system that combined with a KKND-style mix'n'match inventory makes for a powerfully flexible system of delivering death.

I think where Alone in the Dark really takes a thrashing from everyone is the controls. Sadly, I'm inclined to agree. This game is so very fresh as an experience, but the controls are a complete mindfuck to understand sometimes. Getting onto a rope is fine.. and I can sort of understand their choice to have a Use and "un-use" kinda button, they make sense.... BUT WHY IN GOD'S NAME is there a Jump off rope button, and WHY is it on the other side of the keyboard from everything else?! That was a fucking stupid move there. furthermore, the movement is clumsy, and the free-position melee position, despite being really neat in concept, resulted in more agony that felt only a hijack shot of playing Touhou.Once you get your head around the bizzarre french controls though, the game makes a bit more sense. you just have to sort of play the game rather than let the game play you. But yes, big letdown in controls. They're crap and they should feel ashamed.

Overally, I don't think that just bad controls were enough to stop me enjoying an otherwise entertaining game, though they did really test me sometimes. For that, I can't say that I LOVE this game and to reccommend it for everyone because it's awesome.. I will reccommend for everyone to play it to see what they think. No doubt they'll come to a similar to the conclusion I'm about to make.

The Game has it's heart set in the right place, and everything works well enough most of the time, but there are serious control issies and implementation things that I just cannot ignore.