Latest news with #Gainax
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘FLCL' Season 1 Blu-Ray Review: Surrealism With A Banging Soundtrack
Back in the early 2000s, something weird and wonderful happened. Gainax and Production I.G made FLCL. A genuinely mad anime that is still as fresh over two decades later. The story itself is almost irrelevant relative to how it is delivered. However, the broad strokes are that Naota lives in the supposedly boring city of Mabase. Until the day he is run over by Haruko Haruhara on a Vespa, and a robot emerges from a lump on his forehead. Haruko is an alien and is chasing something enormously powerful and equally mysterious, and Naota and the robot Canti clearly have something to do with it. I remember watching FLCL when it was first released over twenty years ago. I was still at university and was amazed at how strange and funny this anime was. It was also intended as the 'second wave' of Gainax, with it being created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki. Working his way up the ranks, Tsurumaki definitely made his mark with the original FLCL. This is because, in the many years since, we've had various follow-ons to the story, which are interesting, but I still feel the 'first season' is the best by far and really meant as something standalone. 'FLCL' is still as vibrant and fun as it was over two decades ago. What makes FLCL special is that it breaks up how anime is parsed. You have sections drawn as manga, or done in different styles, with some just genuinely surreal humor thrown in just for fun. To be honest, much of the 'zany' anime we have these days owes much of its structure and delivery to the original FLCL, and going back and watching this again only helped to remind me how far ahead of its time FLCL really was. As for this release, it's pretty barebones. The transfer is good, but not super pristine. I think this is because of the original masters being done digitally at a lower resolution, and the upscale is a bit off as a result. Don't get me wrong, this is way better than the DVD versions, and it's also handily all on one disc. The audio is great, though, and my lifelong love of The Pillows is still very much in effect after all these years. Even having seen them live in Nagoya decades ago, hearing their songs again in the anime that introduced the band to me in the first place is rather lovely. Overall, FLCL is a seminal anime that showed the shift that Gainax was taking, and in turn, where the follow-on studios, such as Khara and Trigger, would end up. It's hard to believe that this anime is over twenty years old, because it still seems so fresh and funny, FLCL Season 1 is available on Blu-ray from the Crunchyroll online store for $31.98. Disclosure: Crunchyroll sent me this Blu-ray for the purposes of this review. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
Gizmodo
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Studio Trigger Anime ‘New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt' Is a Raunchy, Foul-Mouthed Riot
Somewhere between Cartoon Network's super-powered girl mayhem in Powerpuff Girls and Netflix's unfiltered sex-fueled comedy in Big Mouth, Neon Genesis Evangelion studio Gainax unleashed Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt into the world of animation in 2010. The series, which can be best described as what would happen if Powerpuff Girls were created with crass Adult Swim humor in mind, instantly became an anime cult touchstone with its brazen, raunchy comedy and balls-to-the-wall action. Now, Studio Trigger—an anime juggernaut no longer adverse to making sequel seasons—has released its continuation of the anime with the aptly titled New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt on Prime Video. If its premiere episode is anything to go on, the bitches are back with even more brazen, full-throttle misadventures that'll leave viewers side-splitting just as hard as its predecessor. The series proper follows the Anarchy sisters, Panty and Stocking, two angels who were kicked out of Heaven. The sex-and-candy-obsessed duo lives in Daten City, where they exterminate demons and ghosts with lingerie they have magically transformed into a gun and a katana, in hopes of buying their way back into Heaven. With its explosive premiere, New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt sees Studio Trigger knock it out of the park, reuniting the foul-mouthed sisters in a riotous chaos nodding to the long hiatus and annointing Trigger as Gainax's rightful heir, spinning a fresh new adventure for the dirty pair to wreak havoc on the anime landscape once again. The premiere episode, Homecoming (spoofing Marvel's Tom Holland Spider-Man flick with a hilarious end credit illustration), jumps straight off the season one finale and hurls viewers back into the chaos. After Brief (the series' self-described 'bottom-tier loser' and Panty's new beau) delivers a quick recap, the episode detonates a wild twist. The twist sees Panty and Stocking forced to fight each other while wrestling to retain their former personas, all while Brief, Garterbelt, and even their former rivals from hell, the Scanty sisters, look on in horrified fascination as they try to pitch in. What ensues is a bunch of hilariously effective brainwashing, demonic resurrection, a running joke about one's private parts being a crucial cornerstone of their personality, and a giant kaiju battle to send viewers home wanting more of whatever bonkers hijinks Trigger has cooked up for fans. One notable shift for fans of the Funimation-era English dub is that Monica Rial, Jamie Marchi, and Christopher Sabat won't be returning as Panty, Stocking, and Garterbelt. Stepping into their roles are Courtney Lin (Rhys Rochelle in Moonrise), Cristina Vee Valenzuela (Killua Zoldyck in Hunter x Hunter), and Daniel Walton (Osceola Redarm in Blue Exorcist). While it takes some slight adjusting to get used to in the premiere episode's early goings (the previous trio really put their stamp on those characters), the new trio captures the manic spirit of their predecessors while injecting fresh flair all their own into them. And by flair, that means their rapid-fire, profanity-laced quips land like machine-gun bursts that punctuate every outlandish battle with great comedic timing. Studio Trigger has built its reputation on defiant, high-octane animation—from Kill La Kill's space-bound finale to Delicious in Dungeon's playful brutality and Cyberpunk: Edgerunner's neon-soaked rampages—and with New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, it's flexing effortlessly. Each site gag lands like a rapid-fire jab to the funny bone, bound to hit its mark despite the haphazard spread of its potty-mouth humor, while the sister's battle practically vibrates the margins of viewers' screens off its hinges. Plus, just as important, its music is still a bop all these years later. As noted earlier, New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt came with its fair share of hype before its release, following Anime Expo 2025. Gainax West's official Twitter account teased news of a new Panty & Stocking project in 2016, with the added message that it would have nothing to do with pachinko. That news turned out to be a new exhibition for the series, according to Anime News Network. That was until Trigger announced it would take over the sequel at Anime Expo 2022. In just 24 minutes, the premiere not only channels Panty & Stocking's original, sex-addled spirit but outpaces even the most parental advisory-laden moments of the 2010 series, covering twice as much narrative ground as your average anime opener. And when the chaos appears to have peaked, the anime hints toward even more raucous adventures waiting in episodes to come that'll have both newfound and old-head fans sitting for more. New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt episodes release every Wednesday on Prime Video. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Geek Culture
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
'Neon Genesis Evangelion' Celebrates 30th Anniversary With Special Exhibition This Nov
The impact of Neon Genesis Evangelion on popular media has hardly waned over the years, so it's easy to forget that the iconic mecha series will hit the big '3' this year (the first episode premiered on 4 October back in the day, so it's not quite there yet). 30周年記念展ALL OF EVANGELION#オールエヴァ展 ▶2025年10月に30周年を迎える「エヴァンゲリオン」シリーズ。作品を構成する緻密な制作資料が一堂に介し、誕生前夜から最新情報に至るまでたどる「祝祭」が #東京シティービュー にて開幕します✨ 🔍公式サイトはこちらから — 30周年記念展「ALL OF EVANGELION」 (@ao_eva30exhibit) June 18, 2025 In celebration of its 30th anniversary, a special exhibition titled ALL OF EVANGELION is set to open at Tokyo City View this fall, kicking off on 14 November and running through the new year until 12 January 2026. The event is being organised with the help of Studio Khara — which owns the rights to the IP from Gainax — and other partners, treating fans to a showcase of diverse production materials, including rare animation cels, original drawings, and design documents from the original 1995 show. Digital assets from the Rebuild of Evangelion film series will also be featured, charting its legacy from 2007 to 2021. A reboot of the original series with new elements, it comprises 2007's Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone , 2009's Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance , and 2012's Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo , coming to a definite close with 2021's Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time . More details about the exhibit will be shared in the lead-up to its launch. Directed by Hideaki Anno at Gainax, Neon Genesis Evangelion follows 14-year-old Shinji Ikari, who is recruited by the mysterious organisation NERV to pilot a giant mecha called 'Evangelion' to fight against monsters known as 'Angels' in a post-apocalyptic world. It originally aired from October 1995 to March 1996, and has spawned multiple movies, reboots, and spin-offs, alongside countless brand collaborations — from a crossover with mobile title Goddess of Victory: NIKKE and PC builds from PC and peripheral company ROG, to themed hotel rooms and even rations. The ALL OF EVANGELION special exhibition takes place from 14 November 2025 to 12 January 2026. Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really. ALL OF EVANGELION Hideaki Anno Japan neon genesis evangelion
Forbes
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Gunbuster' Blu-Ray Review: Probably The Best Anime Gainax Ever Made
One of the best anime that Gainax ever made has to be the seminal Gunbuster, and this Blu-ray release certainly does it justice. Released in 1988, Gunbuster was an OVA unlike any other at the time. Initially, it seemed to be a mecha parody of Ace o Nerae, a high-school girl's tennis manga later anime. With the title of Top o Nerae and featuring high-school girls doing calisthenics in mecha, you would think Gunbuster was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. In reality, Gunbuster was and is a very hard science-fiction story dealing with immense 'space monsters' that view humanity as a galactic infection. So what starts out as this high-school melodrama done for laughs grows into something darker and more profound as the story progresses. Dealing with the effects of time-dilation on the characters, where the high-school protagonist Noriko Takaya stays young while her friends and classmates age around her, also has similarities to Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. The space monsters are also entirely terrifying, gestating inside young suns to hideously emerge as massive space insects. So, as the conflict ramps up and humanity realizes just how badly outgunned it truly is, in steps the titular Gunbuster. Against the hard science and massive engineering keeping humanity in the fight is the anomalous super-robot Gunbuster, built from 'hard work and guts' and thus nearly invincible. When the tide finally turns in humanity's favor, with Gunbuster rising cross-armed from the bow of the starship Exelion, you know that this mecha means business. However, that's barely anything compared to the feats seen in the last two episodes, and it shows how a simple high-school girl slice-of-life drama can evolve into something truly epic. Set across six episodes, Gunbuster is also a tour-de-force of animation. The movie Gundam: Char's Counterattack was also released in 1988, and Gunbuster looks amazing by comparison. Even Gundam 0080, an OVA released in 1989 and also featuring character designs by Haruhiko Mikimoto, doesn't hold a candle to the animation in Gunbuster. You also have Kohei Tanaka's amazing musical score that underpins the evocative isolation Noriko feels as she speeds through time and space, as well as the epic no-holds-barred combat that is required to keep humanity safe. The production itself for Gunbuster was also a who's-who of major anime talent, from Masami Obari handling key animation to Kazutaka Miyatake designing the battleships and obviously Koichi Ohata's amazing mecha design. Not to mention the stamp of Hideaki Anno throughout the story and heavily nerdy science in the back end. The silly science lessons between each episode are also this wonderful juxtaposition of wild antics and incredibly dense science that explains how the physics of things like warp work. As for this release, it's been a very long time since I saw Gunbuster, and this Blu-ray version is genuinely astonishing. I remember Gunbuster being a pretty anime when I was younger, but this Blu-ray really emphasizes that. The visual and audio quality are fantastic. You also have all the science lessons at the end of episodes included. You also get some fun little extras too, all included on one Blu-ray disc. What really stands out, though, compared to all of Gainax's works, is just how accomplished and balanced it all is. Everything delivers. From the nerdy references, from Cutey Honey to Ideon, and having the starship Eltreum being built in orbit on giant model kit sprues, means the nerdiness is there throughout. However, none of that gets in the way of a poignant and immense story that stays with you in a remarkably profound way. Yes, Evangelion is popular, and yes, The Wings of Honneamise is an undeniable work of art, but Gunbuster is the best anime Gainax ever made. From its humble, almost trite beginnings to fighting for humanity's survival on a galactic scale, Gunbuster delivers on all of it and never disappoints for even a single frame. If you've never seen Gunbuster, then get this Blu-ray and correct that cultural oversight. They really don't make anime like this anymore, and while that is an obvious shame, we still have Gunbuster in all its glory to make up for that. Gunbuster is available from the Crunchyroll store for $29.96. Disclosure: Crunchyroll sent me this Blu-ray for the purposes of this review. Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.
