[This is the last of the Anilogue movies.]

Gekijô ban Tengen toppa guren ragan: Guren hen is a movie edited from Gainax‘ anime series Tengen toppa gurren lagann. It was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi.

Plot:
Simon and Kamina are brothers who live in a village that’s completely underground. The villagers believe that there’s nothing above ground but Kamina, the older one, doesn’t want to believe that. When Simon stumbles upon a robotic device and a giant roboter comes crashing through the ceiling, closely followed by a young warrior called Yoko, their lives are about to be changed forever.

I don’t know the original anime, maybe it’s different for people who do, but this movie was a complete mess. The pieces that have been edited together refuse to form a coherent whole, the character development is ridiculous and more care seems to have gone to show Yoko’s boobs as often as possible than anything else.

If there’s one thing I learned from this film, it’s that there are really a whole lot of angles that can show a silhoutted boob. The director obviously liked the “behind her back, looking up” angle a lot. You’d think that people would get bored with it after the first ten times or so, but this just kept on coming. It doesn’t help that Yoko wears an absolutely ridiculous bikini top, but I’m willing to overlook this thing as artistic license. But people, people, combined with all the boobie-shots, it just got plain ridiculous. Not to mention sexist, of course. I mean, you got this competent warrior of a woman, who’s been hunting these robot thingies for most of her life, but as soon as the two brothers turn up, who breathe surface air for the first time, she just steps away and lets them handle things. Gnah.

The other problem I had was with the plot. Or the lack of one. It’s just so noticeable that this was adapted from a series and they didn’t manage to get rid of the episode structure at all. And yet, nothing really happens. The first 20 minutes or so is fine: they discover the robot thingy, Yoko turns up, they head to the surface together. And then it’s basically: Evil Robot! Fight! Win! Evil Robot! Fight! Win! Conspiracy with Evil Robots! Fight! Win. [Okay, there’s a little more than that. But not much.]

And the character development… well, I won’t go into it as I would spoil the movie for those who still want to see it. Let me just say that it was more of a jump to new character traits than a fluid evolution.

Well, I guess what I’m saying is that it’s a movie that can be safely skipped. Maybe the series is better, but I for one won’t be checking it out. This movie made at least that much clear.