UPDATE: Steven pointed out that this entry contains major spoilers. One would think it's inconceivable for anyone not to know that Darth Vader is Luke's father, but nonetheless it's true. I mean, it's true that spoilers follow.

Back at the first pass, I observed that Gurren-Lagann used economical art style, perilously close to American animation standard. In fact, with shows like Avatar there may even be a certain overlap now (and that is even before we consider anti-anime shows such as Shin-chan). Creators decidedly went for expressiveness at the expense of detail.

The operation is a little tricky, which ep.4 aptly illustrates. When detail is so low, small off-style deviations become rather noticeable. The cleavage of the eldest sister below (unfortunately obstructed) speaks volumes, and the thick jaw outline a-la Vandread The Second Stage is just horrible. I also saved screenshots of Simon subtly but noticeably off-model.

As the show progressed, creators started to give more better close-ups (of course, Yoko enjoyed those from the start (or should I say Yoko's chest enjoyed them)). Not that the detail skyrocketed, but it just looks like they hired competent artists. Here's one of the young ladies introduced in ep.4, grieving for Kamina:

In general, Kamina's death was taken as an excuse to excercise almost Shinbo-esquie cinematograhics, which amused me greatly despite the somber moment. Here's a crying Gunmen:

And of course, the rain:

All in all, I'm quite pleased despite being a self-styled eye-candy taster. Looking forward to the rest of it (isn't tomorrow the street date for v.2?).

FRIDGE: Coincidentially, Steven rips Gurren-Lagann a new one today:

Add to that the fact that the animation is some of the worst I've seen since Tweeny Witches. I had seen a lot of fanart of Yoko before I watched the series. I've seen fanart about a lot of series over the years, but this is the first case where nearly all the fanart looked better than the series art did.

But is there a motion in the fanart?