This episode was fantastic to the point that even I, the mild mannered updater of this website, was boiling over with joy and glee as I uploaded screenshots. The Burning Justice (with capital first letters for emphasis) is so thick in this show that you may need sunglasses to watch. Seriously!

This show starts off with a bang, two Ganmen (the thing that attacked in episode 1) versus Kamina and the Gurren-dan. In fighting these two Ganmen they realize that they aren’t all powerful nor are they the absolute epitome of the skill. A fine trait of a FANTASTIC series is mecha pilots who are skilled with COURAGE instead of, you know, magical plot skill that isn’t based on courage.

I had a seriously hard time not loving this show. I mean it. There is no slowness, so far, nor is there anything saying “hold it there pal, this show is heading for the shittier”. Assuming you haven’t seen the show yet and you’re still reading I’m going to spoil it for you:

KAMINA STEALS A GANMEN

He takes it then HACKS INTO ITS SYSTEM WITH HIS BURNING COURAGE.

I AM NOT JOKING.

Kamina has bypassed the levels that EVEN Orange-kun could not obtain.

This show… AMAZING.

Things I liked this episode were mostly how Kamina’s father is probably dead. We his cloak and his bracelet and can only assume it’s him. However, knowing how these things work out Kamina’s dad is totally the leader of the beast people or something.

The beastmen reminds me a lot of Mina, an anime by the same director. They’re up to something. I can only imagine the plot is that somehow this is a colony that got attacked/taken over/people turned into the beast people and now Humans live underground for some stupid reason (perhap that old Wells future novel… what’s it called? The Time Machine or something like that.

The only thing that worries me (but is fixed kinda in episode 3) is Simon’s lack of just STRENGTH. Kamina is fearless while Simon is kind of scared and your mecha wimp. I’m hoping that he advances and that this isn’t going to be a common holdback in combat with Simon being “OH MAN I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT ON” although Kamina now has a mech.

A+ is all I can say to this. Just, A+.

Do you like Code Geass? Do you like Busou Renkin? Do you like burly men dripping with sweat, passion, courage, and justice? Guess what! YOU LOVE GaoGaiGar! Not only do you love it, but you love it a whole lot! GaoGaiGar is one of the very few mecha animes where you could say a die hard non-mecha fanwould love it. It’s just that great!

This is a test of our new review format. Don’t know how well it’ll work, but let’s give it a try:

First off some details:

Name
English: The King of Braves GaoGaiGar
Japanese: 勇者王ガオガイガー

Studio: Sunrise (Code Geass, s-CRY-ed, My-Hime)
Original Air Dates: February 1st, 1997 to January 31st, 1998
Number of Episodes: 49
Genre: Mecha
Additional Info:

• An OVA does exist named GaoGaiGar FINAL, released between 2000 and 2003.
• Part of the Braves series by Sunrise, although it is not an addition to any story.
• Considered by many to be one of the best mecha ever based on the amount of manlyness in the show.

Review

GaoGaiGar is a story of courage, passion, justice, and courage. Unlike most mecha, GaoGaiGar doesn’t focus on any emo characters. Even the robotes themselves have a personality and their personalty is best described as “balls to the wall”. The series is very good at taking characters and making them very manly and interesting. Even the females are interesting.

The series spans 49 whooping episodes. It contains only two arcs, the first arc and the second arc. The real story doesn’t start until the SECOND arc. The first arc goes about defeating the machine king and his ability to turn humans into zondors. The second arc is about well… you’ll just have to watch.

The first season has about 17 episodes of really power ranges style episodes. It’s really kind of, boring. I hate to say this about such a great anime, but it’s true. It’s boring. It lacks style and contains nothing of any interesting composure. Most episodes introduce a way for GaoGaiGar to become more powerful. After GaoGaiGar powers up enough we are then introduced to some really tough enemies and that’s when the series goes from “yet another Sunrise mecha show” to “MAN THIS IS THE BEST ANIME EVER”.

It’s not lie that this anime has a ton of BURNING JUSTICE. Seriously, everyone on it will not give up or hesitate in the name of justice. It’s a really excellent series in that respect. I’m going to cut this part short and say the STORY, GRAPHICS, ACTION, and everything else is TOP NOTCH.

The only gripe is that the “FINAL FUSION” scene happens every episode and takes 2 minutes. It’s similar to the Gundam Launch animation in every Gundam series. However, the GaoGaiGar Final Fusion is very… I don’t know manly but uninteresting after 30 episodes of it. The series also has the first 20ish episodes that go nowhere and do nothing other then act like this is the Power Rangers.

Taking the two negative things out of the way, the show is just awesome. The characters are fully explored, their resolve to win is massive and the story is just overwhelming. I really respect this series.

That is about all there is to say. If you like mecha or if you like people doing some really badass things then check it out. If you don’t like mecha then you may want to give it a three episode test and pick up the first DVD. It is really a great show.

Pros:

• Interesting characters with lots of depth and resolve.
• No emotional characters that let their emotions get in the way of getting anything done.
• No boring segments outside of the combine sequence.
• Sunrise mecha polish.

Cons:

• Final Fusion takes forever.
• Series would have been a lot better compressed into a 26 episode series trimming out the first 20ish episodes and a lot of the final fusion/combine sequences.

Final Rating:

9 out of 10

Busou Renkin episode 25 is the calm before the storm. As always, Kyuu has it available for download on Scarywater. A pretty decent episode, although I really want to say horrible. If not for the preview I’d be writing an essay on how much I hated episode 25.

Really though, I approve of Busou Renkin’s episode 25. It was slow, unexpected, and NOTHING of interest happened. It was still decent only because of what it’s leading up to. That is burning passion SHOUNEN JUSTICE COURAGE SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME.

If 26, the last episode, isn’t as good as the preview made it out to be I’ll be upset.

Honestly though, there is nothing to talk about this episode…. it was boring. COME ON BUSOU RENKIN EPISODE 26, COME ON.

You can download Busou Renkin at kyuu @ scarywater.

If you could measure each episode of Busou Renkin on a scale of 1 to 10, every episode would get a ten except this one. There was only burning passion BUT no burning justice which made this kind of lame. Budget episodes are always like this, I guess.This episode had good direction and does set up the next couple of episodes, but it just lacked so much action and plot development. Yeah, okay, Kazuki loves the girl. We get that, do they have to eat chipped ice for 15 minutes to show us this? Why can’t we just have Bravo doing DDR for 15 minutes.

Ahh, well. Not every anime can have Orange-kuns running around every episode. The serious lack of Bravo, action, justice, and everything that makes Busou Renkin great makes me want to say this is a 5 out of 10. If I didn’t know that next episode was going to overflow with justice I’d go on a rant about how this series has lost its way, but budget episodes are budget episodes.

So, all I can say is watch and enjoy while waiting on the next episode. It’s decent and is in no way bad.

Since there may be a total of four people who check out the RSS, I’ll just go ahead and use that nifty more tag and post the review below.

System: Nintendo DS
Game Length: Over 10 Hours
Difficulty: Hard – Mental Workout

Introduction

Phoenix Wright is an adventure game by Namco for the Nintendo DS. It features an an “Ace Attorney” who is just starting out with his first case and advances through a total of five cases. Each case past the first one spans several court room sessions along with in the field work, exploring the scene and scanning for clues.

It is an adaption from the GBA game Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten or 逆転裁判 蘇る逆転 or the literal translation: Turnabout Courtroom: Reviving Turnabout. The DS version features the original four GBA cases with little added functionality along with a fifth DS only case that is enhanced by the DS’s unique features, such as the microphone and touch screen.

Review

Phoenix Wright was one of the few actual Nintendo DS games I could actually get deeply involved with the story. As each OBJECTION! and TAKE THAT! poured in I slowly found myself getting more and more involved with the game. The characters, the story, and the caption all was just… wonderful!

I got in on the Phoenix Wright scene a little late, as the hype was just starting for the second game. So maybe my love for it was slightly derailed some, but nevertheless, I found it to be an absolutely amazing adventure game. Adventure game… amazing… 2000′s…. WHAT IS THIS MAGIC?!

The game is, without a doubt, very boring and non-interactive. You get unlimited saves, so even if you mess up you can start right back from the point you lost the game. It’s a very hard mental workout but at the same time easy. Only a very few times I had to consult an FAQ because the links to the items didn’t make as much sense as they should have.

When I say boring, I don’t mean it isn’t fun, it’s just not something you’re going to be sweating as you rush to whip Dracula or wall walk past some kind of cavern. It’s kind of like playing Chess or Go, you can take as long as you want to make a choice so it’s a rather relaxing thing.

Relaxing is used loosely, though, as the BURNING JUSTICE involved in some of the trails has you wanting to know what happens next. You rush feverishly to find out who did what or if this path you are walking is the correct one.

Overall, I say Phoenix Wright did a rather good job of reviving the adventure genre and it’s one hell of a game. I’d say more, really, but there is about ten billion other people who do the same. So I’ll just leave it at this: If you own a DS, go buy this game.

Rating

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5

This game is too unique to nitpick at anything other then music, which is gets a full 5/5 out of me.

The quality of being just; fairness.
1. The principle of moral rightness; equity.
2. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness
1. The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.
2. Law. The administration and procedure of law.

Normally, when we think of justice, we think of the majority of these based on our own opinions of what is honor, standards, law, and fairness. However, in anime it’s slightly different.

In anime, each side good and bad have their on view of what fairness is. For instance, in One Piece the Marines believe that anyone who does any kind of evil is without a doubt a very bad person requiring punishment. That is their absolute justice. However, on the other side Luffy belives in what you would think to be a more common sense of morals and fairness. That is his justice.

That is a kind of a bad example, so I’ll use some super robot examples. Say some bad guys are fighting against the good guys. From the good guys point of view, the “bad guys” are without a doubt evil and deserve their punishment. This is their justice. The evil guys however, aren’t exactly as evil as we think. See, in their eyes the good guys are evil and deserve THEIR punishment. This is their justice. So you see battle reflects around both sides definition of what their justice is.

The point I am getting at here, using simplistic examples to not make a fool of myself, is that I think a lot of people don’t look at how awesome and deep some mecha and to a certain extent shounen (jump) anime series are. On the outside it may look as if two fighters are fighting each other and that fighting is cool, but there is just so much going on between the two that it makes the fighting extremely emotional. All of this for shows targeted at children between 13 and 18. Amazing, really.