Unboxing [UK]: Gurren Lagann - Complete Series: Ultimate Edition (Blu-ray)

"YOUR DRILL IS THE DRILL THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!" The epic Gurren Lagann is finally here on Blu-ray in the UK. Here's a look at Anime Limited's Ultimate Edition set.

Gurren Lagann is an original 27 episode TV series animated by Gainax who were most known for creating classics such as Evangelion and FLCL. The team behind Gurren Lagann have also worked on Kill la Kill under Studio Trigger. It's a science fiction mecha series and one of the best known animes ever made.

This version I have for the show is the UK Ultimate Edition set from Anime Limited. The 'Ultimate Edition' is a special set that is way bigger than the standard Blu-ray (or DVD) sized releases (but not as big as some Japanese sets, like the Gurren Lagann BD-Box). Each set will be 18 x 21 cm big with tons of exclusive content for that edition alone. Gurren Lagann is the first set given this treatment and provides a ton of content that the standard Blu-ray doesn't include; the two recap movies (Childhood's End and The Lights in the Skies are Stars), the Parallel Works (both 1 & 2), character art-book (untranslated and also the primary reason for the dozen amount of delays this set had) and a nice chipboard artbox with some artwork from the Japanese Blu-ray Disc Box.

For obvious reasons, the UK Blu-ray release of Gurren Lagann is region locked to Region B players only. Subtitles have been reported to be unlockable during playback however the movie discs are locked. Unlike the main series, the movies and Parallel Works are Japanese with English subtitles only.

A few things to point with this set, there are some minor issues that should be addressed (and the people behind Anime Limited are currently sorting it out):

 - The disc holder for Disc 5 is out of place due to the production, this is currently in discussion for possible replacements

 - The Japanese audio is quieter than the English & French audio, this was caused by the encoder during final production and also in discussion for replacements

 - The video quality is slightly off for certain areas, this was because the master materials were old and some parts required fixing in order to get a better experience than it originally had. This is unfortunately near impossible to fix, so don't be surprised if a similar issue occurs on the US release.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages: Japanese, English, French

Audio: LPCM 2.0 [Japanese], DTS MA 5.1 [English], LPCM 2.0 [French]

Video: 1080p HD Native 16:9
Region: B

Subtitles: English [On-Screen], English [Signs/Lyrics - TV Series only], French [On-Screen]

Subtitles Locked: No (Yes for the Movies & Parallel Works)

Discs: 6

Plot Synopsis (via Anime Limited):

Simon and Kamina live in an underground village, unaware of the world above. But when mecha titled Gunmen and a beautiful woman called Yoko carrying a superconducting rifle appear - their lives take an interesting spin.

Escaping the village and thrown onto the surface, this trio embark on an epic and dangerous journey that will take them further than they ever imagined, right into the heavens above!

Extra Content:

Chipboard Ultimate Artbox

Movie 1: Childhood's End
Movie 2: The Lights in the Skies are Stars
Parallel Works 1
Parallel Works 2
Broadcast version of Episode 6
Yoko goes to Gainax!
Sanzigen 3D test video
Animated Storyboards
Compilation episode ending
Clean Opening & Closing Songs

Gurren Lagann is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Anime Limited in the UK (DVD release coming fairly soon). Folks in Australia can already experience the series from Madman on DVD while USA will have to face Aniplex with their expensive DVD sets and single style Blu-ray releases.