Recently I came across a quote in this article: https://www.gwern.net/docs/eva/1996-animerica-conscience-otaking

That I was very confused by. This section felt worded in a way that felt very awkwardly translated or something.

"On NADIA, Anno didn’t direct the middle episodes, Shinji Higuchi did. And some episodes were directed in Korea–why, no one knows exactly. [LAUGHS] That’s real chaos, not good! What I mean to say is, controlled chaos–that’s good. Controlled chaos is where you’ve got all the staff in the same room, looking at each other. But on NADIA you had Higuchi saying, “Oh, I’ll surprise Anno”, hide, and change the screenplay! Screenplays and storyboards got changed when people went home, and the next morning, if no one could find the original, I authorized them to go ahead with the changes. No one can be a real director or a real scriptwriter in such a chaos situation. But on GUNBUSTER, that chaos was controlled, because we were all friends, and all working in the same place. But on NADIA, half our staff was Korean, living overseas. We never met them. No control."

The way it was translated made me very confused, particularly concerning Higuchi's role in the filler arc. I'd always been trying to figure out why the story in that part of the show felt so slapdash, and the impression I had is that Mr. Higuchi was trying to outdo Mr. Anno, but I don't wish to quote anything that feels confusing.

So I found this old anime by Gainax that looked like Neon Genesis Evangelion but I have to say I was mildly surprised how different it is from anime today. It doesn't follow any of the archetypal anime characters, it makes it's own characters up and the anime itself has elements you can't find in other anime.

-Nadia is the protagonist of the story and is a black character clearly from African roots

-Nadia is a vegetarian and is against killing animals or humans saying it's cruel. Up till now she's the only vegetarian I've ever heard in anime ever and speaking against killing animals. The surprise I got with this is the same kind I got from watching false rape allegations in Shield Hero which is the first time I've heard in anime. In fact the way she argued with Jean about killing animals and eating meat was the exact kind you would have with vegans nowadays. Just the sight of dead animals and fish traumatizes her.

-Nadia doesn't follow any black character stereotypes. She is her own character.

-The steampunk style is well done and it's not too over the top

-The romance between Nadia and Jean isn't cringey or too obvious. The confusion between one another is just right.

-Characters act accordingly closer to real life than the usual unbelievable equation of anime. I would say the anime just have more elements closer to reality with some pseudo science involved but believable.

-Based off of Jules Verne books which is a complete different take than the usual high school anime with teen edginess. In fact there wasn't any resemblance towards high school in it at all which was a breath of fresh air.

-Though the main cast is predominantly white, Nadia being the only black character was still the main protagonist.

-Leads a very progressive theme of Nemo recruiting crew members based on their skills not on the color of their skin. There was brief racial moments in the beginning considering Nadia's skin color. The anime has small hints of challenging U.S. racism.

-Overall the anime doesn't follow a practiced equation so it leads to being more interesting.

I've seen it named "Clefshin luminance" in subtitles, but is that the correct transliteration?

So in preparation for Eva, I've been watching through a few Gainax and Trigger shows. Just because they're some of my favorites to come out of the industry. And of course no watching of shows from those companies would be complete without a rewatch of both Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill. Two incredibly structurally, tonally, and directorily similar shows that, despite some serious issues, manage to be some of my pedestal examples of just how good anime can get, what art style I want to one day achieve, and just how much density and value can be packed into a relatively tight package. Throughout both watch-throughs, I managed to redefine a lot of what I liked and disliked about both shows, and figured it would be fun to tie the re-reviews together and compare them. So here we go I guess. Spoilers will be a tiny bit unapologetic, so basically nobody outside of specific groups and Subreddits should probably read this, but I post long speeches and reviews basically everywhere they're kind of applicable, so… oh well.

 Gurren Lagann is a bit difficult to explain the appeal of. At least without watching it already. On paper, it's a pretty standard mecha action series. A bunch of teenagers fight some baddies with fighting spirit with absolutely no regard for logic. In that sense, it can be a pretty hard sell for anyone who isn't really into mecha. But if you take time to think about what the animators had to do to make seemingly clunky mechs bounce, stretch, gain mass, etc, while also thinking about just how well it manages to pull off the classic hero's journey story compared to basically anything else, and just how much thematic density they put in despite the show's appearances (yknow, how basically the entire thing is a hyper exaggeration of the way evolution itself is kind of harmful to the planet we live on, and that finding balance between the protection of life and maintaining order for the sake of our planet is necessary without ever once bringing up flat out environmentalism, and even incorporating religious elements by showing how it used to be a necessity for human progress, but is something that we should have long outgrown by now as we've found new methods of cooperation and survival), then it's quite the ride. A lot of the characters hold up better than I expected. Simon is one of my downright favorite protagonists going by story arc, well surpassing Phos from Land of the Lustrous. Kamina is about as hammy and badass as I remember. Yoko… well, no, she's one of the exceptions. I'll get into her later. Nia was actually enjoyable this time around, as I felt I understood her role a bit better, and she's voiced by goddamn Princess Bubblegum and Viridi in the dub (before the time soup, where her voice is kinda eh). Surprisingly enough, Rossiu replaced Yoko's previous role as my favorite character in the show. In fact, if he was the protagonist of a different show, he'd probably be a favorite of mine. Starting off as a religiously indoctrinated kid leaving to explore the world, and going on to become a logical higher-up of a new world forced to deal with a pretty fucked up moral dilemma that nearly drives him to suicide, only to learn to become a just leader that  puts a nail in the coffin of his religious past, and essentially takes Simon's place after the fall of the anti-spiral. Outside of Simon, he probably has the most well fleshed out arc in the pack. Maybe also rivaling Viral, who's arc I enjoyed about as much despite not liking his early role very much. So yeah, the show's pros still leave it standing strong.

  However, Gurren Lagann is not a perfect show. In fact, I have some pretty major gripes with it. I should start with some minor ones though. I feel like the side cast is a bit too large. Like, plenty of them manage to stand out by design, voice, one note personality, etc, but there's also a lot that just… don't. Most of which are used as death fodder towards the end. And the two standout ones that were also used as death fodder had to share screen space with with the ones that didn't stand out at all, and didn't have time to develop any sort of connection with the characters that were impacted by their death. Meaning any complexity that could have been added to them on top of design and personality was basically wasted. Two episodes in particular towards the beginning were kind of… Well, flat out bad. Pretty sure I mentioned them in the first review. Four because of its janky outsourced animation and nonsense plot, and I believe five or six because half of it is a pointless recap well before the series had anything worth recapping, while the other half is just kinda overdone fanservice with no real purpose behind it. And the hammy speeches… yeah, I love a lot of them just for how little sense they make, but… Tone it down a bit. As for major issues though… Yoko. Look, I still like Yoko as a character. She's got a fun personality, an admittedly badass design despite the fanservicey-ness of it, a fun dynamic between Simon and Kamina, and that lovely little schoolhouse episode where she got a fun shot at absolute badassery. But good lord do I absolutely despise her role in the story as a whole. Pre time skip, her main purpose outside of breaking the brothers out of the underground is to basically just inadvertently kill Kamina by being a figure of lustfulness to throw Simon off his rocker. She develops a small relationship with Kamina, which is nice, but it obviously never goes anywhere because… well… yknow. So after his death, she basically does nothing. She temporarily becomes a leader of Team Gurren, which is sweet, but after Simon snaps out of it a few episodes later, the show basically forgets about that. She's outshined by freaking Rossiu during the first 2/3s finale. A character that is in no way a fighter. Then throughout the last third, she disappears for the majority of the story, only returning right before the schoolhouse episode. After that, she does a few badass things, but when they finally provide her with a potentially interesting moment where she could have sacrificed herself for the team she once led and join Kamina in the weird-ass multi-dimension prison acid trip world of inspiration, they shove Kitan into that sacrificial role after slapping together a romance with absolutely no chemistry last minute, and force her to be the damsel forced to watch Jack drown (for lack of a better comparison). So basically, one of the most enjoyable characters in the show was given the narrative purpose of being a sexual object and sad sem-widow… yeah, me thinks the show has some sexism issues going on. And it doesn't end with her. While I did find myself enjoying Nia's character a bit more this time around, she's still basically Princess Peach. Granted maybe the Paper Mario 64 equivalent of Princess Peach, as we do at least get to see her struggles, and she does help out in some small ways, but she still has the damsel role. It wouldn't be that bad if there were other more active female characters, but again, they basically completely fucked over Yoko. That being said, politics are not a huge factor when I rate things. The show still has plenty of great characters, and is good in most other aspects. It just takes the show down to maybe the 9.6, 9.7 range.

  Then there's Kill La Kill. Boy oh boy, this show sure is really damn difficult to talk about. Like DigiBro, and I assume basically any other autistic anime fan, the show is basically a perfect summary of my mind. It's chaotic, it has a lot of sexual philosophy and political subtext that it flaunts around like mad, it very blatantly has nudity used in… most contexts (I'll get into that later), the emotions shown by its characters are not particularly subtle, it'll occasionally go off on random and kinda repetitive tangents that don't really contribute to anything (in the form of the Mako rant bits), and it has ideas that make a lot of sense at first, but eventually grow into completely overblown, confusing, nonsensical dumpsterfires that leave my brain with a blown gasket. It's just… so… so beautiful. I honestly can't tell if it perfectly fits the recesses of my mind, or if it influenced them. All of that paired with some genuinely entertaining characters, some of the most batshit animation directing in the industry, the most well timed horrible jokes in anime, some pretty neat ideas, wacky character / outfit design, a sick-ass soundtrack, and probably one of the best dubs in the industry (right below Bebop only because of some weird grammatical errors, and its slight faltering towards the end because the actors were more suited for comedy).

  But oh boy, does the show have loads of problems. For one, the majority of the final half just feels completely overblown. The animation was a lot less consistent, leading to some far less impressive shots than the first half. Which wouldn't be that bad if almost all of it wasn't pure action scene, and if they hadn't cut almost all of the comedy entirely (not to say it's brilliant comedy or anything, but it's kinda what gives the show a lot of its charm). Not to mention they basically threw it all in after absolutely no down time from the previous arc, which was better, but still had a crap ton of action. A few episodes before the final one, I was mentally exhausted. And the final battle itself was really unimpressive, ending on probably the most confusing Deus ex Machina of all time (although Super Saiyan Ryuko looks sick AF). Even before the first act, while there were a lot of action scenes I adored, all of them did feel like they relied way too heavily on Deus ex. Granted Gurren Lagann does the same thing, but its animation and choreography is usually a bit more consistent. At least after the first half. Whereas Kill La Kill is kind of all over the place in that regard. And then, the biggest issue. So Ragyo Kiriuin. She's a pretty damn intimidating villain. Almost comically so. She's damn near invincible, and tends to do things just to play with people's minds even though she could probably end everything in about five seconds. But she introduces such a major problem with the series that it basically keeps me from recommending it to anyone. I mentioned it in the past, but didn't really show just how deep of an impact it had on the show. So in an attempt to increase her level of intimidation, there are multiple scenes where Ragyo various clearly, very explicitly sexually violates other characters. Most notably her own daughters, implying some incredibly dark things about Satsuki's childhood. Now I obviously have a problem with this alone, as there is very clearly fanservice-ey intent behind it. But it could have been justified if not for the fact that it puts a massive gash in the show's clever theming. I won't go too in-depth with it because I don't want to run over too much ground that Digi already has, but the show is mostly about balance. One of the most obvious examples of that is the balance of nudity being portrayed as crass, silly, and undignified alongside being portrayed as natural and something to be embraced. In the end, it sort of embraces both. Saying that yeah it can be crass, silly, and undignified at times, but that those qualities should be embraced, and that they're just a part of nature. I could point out the slight hypocrisy of how the specific taboo parts of the body that people get so up in arms about are nonexistent in this show, implying that actual nudity should not be embraced, but at that point they would probably have to classify the show as a hentai, and odd as it may seem, it would not have been very successful if that was the case. And it probably wouldn't have gotten the sick-ass dub, so I really don't care. That being said, for the majority of the series, those are the only two ways nudity is portrayed, and it manages to do so in moderate balance. But then the Ragyo rape shit pops up on screen, and everything is thrown out of balance. You now have a new portrayal of nudity (that of fear and violation) that you need to balance out with the opposite (that of consensual intimacy). The only problem is, there is not a single moment of consensual intimacy. Let alone one directly going against the use of nudity for violation and coming to the conclusion that while both exist, the empowerment of consent will always exist to fight it. What? You say an explicit consensual sexual act would feel incredibly out of place in a show that does not portray its nudity in a particularly arousing manner? Oh really? Then maybe they shouldn't have made the only scenes in the show portrayed in a genuinely sexual manner freaking out of place rape scenes! It's really tough, because I love this show so damn much for what it does right (and because I judge shows more for what I like about them than what I don't, it remains in its 9.5 position), but it does so… so much wrong that it's honestly kind of horrible.

  So which is better? Well by score it would be Gurren Lagann, but it's actually a really hard choice. Because while Gurren Lagann is a fun as hell show that probably has the better story and character arcs, Kill La Kill embodies so much of my mind and what I love about anime that it's kind of a difficult decision. Maybe I don't need to have a favorite. Maybe Gurren Lagann can just be a badass hero's journey story progressing from a monster of the week romp to a galactic epic, and Kill La Kill can just be a weird, fucked up, experimental acid trip embracing the purest form of autism. One thing's for certain though. Despite occasionally being complete disasters, they'll always be some of my favorite shows on the market. And I wouldn't have it any other way.