Meh, I'm the kind of person who put off watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann until just a couple weeks ago, despite hearing endless praise about it. I'll get around to watching Hellsing eventually.
I watched Hellsing Ultimate last year and found it to be pretty damn good.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!I'm sorry but I'm not sure you guys qualify as human yet.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!And once you do watch it then the Hype Backlash hits so hard.
Or you get spoiled by people trying to hype it up and just flat out won't watch the series because of it, like me.
edited 8th Nov '16 4:53:59 AM by Memers
Not in the case of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, for me. The only things I was spoiled on was Kamina dying, which was blatantly obvious from like his first appearance, and the final battle involves the largest mainstream fictional characters ever. Oh, and that the intro scene is non-canon, and that episode 4 sucks. I was completely unprepared for the repeating theme of population control, the awesome music, dialogue, and fight scenes, and 7 recurring characters dying in the final battle.
Actually, the intro scene is technically canon, just to an alternate universe. Specifically, the intro scene is the event that leads to the Spiral Nemesis. Also, you need to watch the second movie since it makes the final fight (among other things) even better.
Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!Watched both movies right after finishing the series. On the one hand: they did drastically speed up all the repetitive bits in some of the earlier fights, and the final battle is much more epic in scale. On the other, though: they completely removed most of the bonding Nia had with Team Dai-Gurren, turning her into just another damsel in distress, and Simon's Determinator moment becomes a lot less meaningful when he's just climbing up a Gunman instead of drilling through bedrock with his tiny drill trinket. Having the final battle of the first movie being with the Four Supreme Generals, rushed as it was, and having the battle against Lordgenome be the Cold Open to Lagann-Hen was pretty shitty storytelling. I did love the montage showing the progress over the 7 years, though. Skipping over most of the Anti-Spirals invasions on Earth does throw a wrench into continuity, as they haven't been fighting them long enough for Leeron to have his breakthrough regarding spiral barriors to contain the explosions, and yet you clearly see them being utilized during the space battle. Also, assuming that Nia can just move out of the way works a lot better when it's Gurren Lagann that's doing the stabbing, than when it's Arc Gurren Lagann. Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann's big reveal is completely neutered by it being the form Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren took when it first arrived in Anti-Spiral Space. Also, removing 6 of the 7 deaths really removes the impact of seeing all the destroyed Laganns and hearing of all the defeated Spiral Races. They completely removed the entire theme of population control, which is an important theme of the series, by just skipping over Rossiu's hometown and dramatically changing the reason Lordgenome kept humanity underground, changing him from a asshole extremist who was genuinely trying to protect humanity from the Anti-Spirals, into a soldier working for the Anti-Spirals, which totally ruined any impact the Anti-Spirals might have had when they started talking about the Spiral Nemesis.
tl;dr answer: the movies sucked, and completely removed way too many themes and moments from the series that are absolutely integral for proper understanding of the narrative and characters, and the ending being a little bit more Rule of Cool does not make up for it, in either movie's case.
edited 8th Nov '16 5:50:44 AM by PushoverMediaCritic
I haven't seen it either. Mainly because I don't like most anime tropes or the Japanese cultural values on the male and female gender roles in general, so it's only on very rare occasions that an anime actually catches my eye.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.LE' A DEUX FOIS GASP!
Sacre bleu!
Yeehhhhh, that's a thing. Honestly if you, well you already watched it, but if all you've heard is good things I'd recommend waiting a few more years and forgetting the hype all together. Almsot ruined Undertale, Homestuck, and Steven Universe for myself.
Gurren Lagann Abridged is another one I would recommend even if you haven't watched the original.
But that aside
edited 8th Nov '16 6:52:38 PM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!Before this gets to "TTGL was overhyped and left me completely flaccid," I mean, it's not the best anime ever made, no anime is, but if you don't like Super Mecha or overly bombastic personalities then you're really not going to care for it. Not everyone can like the same thing and that's fine, as long as we all have something else we all hate equally, like people who wear socks and sandals together.
edited 10th Nov '16 6:47:36 AM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!Saw past [character]'s death, but it was so overrated and fairly mediocre I couldn't continue on. Hype Backlash plus it was just So Okay, It's Average.
As is the case with many anime tropes, I don't really like Super Mecha so I'll probably continue giving it a pass.
Which is not an observation one way or the other of it's quality. Frankly, a lot of people need to learn the distinction between "This is a bad film/book/game/show" and "Not my genre."
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

...
...I really can't recommend doing this.
Watching Dragonball Abridged alone is almost understandable because the original was 200 something episodes. But then Kai is, what, 70, if that? Hellsing Ultimate is eight or nine hourlong episodes with... a lot of speeches granted, but still, it's not a long watch. You can finish it in a day.
Sword Art Online is the only anime I'd ever tell someone to just watch the abridged parody instead of the actual show.
If that's how you want to do it go ahead, but to me it's like watching Shaun of the Dead or Spaceballs without ever picking up a Romero film or watching Star Wars, or Scary Movie without seeing Scream. I can't say you won't get a laugh of it. But at what cost!
edited 7th Nov '16 6:50:30 PM by Soble
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!