Gurren Lagann: The Movie - Crimson Chapter (Gekijo Ban Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan - Guren Hen) comes out in Japan this Saturday and since I know only slightly more than nothing about anime I’ll just translate the brief synopsis provided by MovieWalker:

In the distant future humankind has moved underground. Simon and Kamina know of the existence of the terrestrial world, so they board a mecha and start digging toward the surface. But they eventually discover a world dominated by a Spiral King, and he’s been waiting for them...

Here’s a direct link to the movie’s trailer (requires Windows Media Player).

This will be the first of two planned movies to cover the story.

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The final movie to wrap up the “Den-O” era of the Kamen Rider franchise, Farewell, Kamen Rider Den-O: Final Countdown is slated for release in Japan on October 4th the trailer is now available on the film’s official website.

I’m not exactly versed on Kamen Rider lore, so forgive me if this sounds like the incoherent rambling of a madman, but from what I can gather the story begins with Momotaros getting ganked by Ryotaro’s evil form, “Kamen Rider Yuki” as he attempts to investigate rumors of a “ghost train”. Yuto is seriously wounded by Yuki before the Ryotaro’s grandson, calling himself “New Den-O” arrives from the future on the Den-Liner. The setting later shifts to 1729 as Ryotaro must challenge a new, mysterious enemy with the help of his friends.

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Here’s the second full-length trailer for the first installment of Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s 20th Century Boys trilogy. It’s the longest one yet, coming in at over 2 minutes, but is still careful to hold back on footage of the giant plague-spreading robot that will likely be the “money shot” segment of the movie. Jason Gray got to see it in its entirety a few weeks ago and seemed pretty positive. The rest of Japan will get their chance this Saturday (8/30) when the film gets its nation-wide domestic release, courtesy of Toho.

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Here’s a plot that sort of defies normal explanation. In Yoshihiro Nakamura’s Fish Story, an unsuccessful punk band on the verge of breaking up records a song in 1975, one year before the debut of the Sex Pistols. The song isn’t initially a hit, but somehow it manages to transcend normal spacetime, affecting people across several time periods. In the original timeline Earth should have been destroyed in 2012, but because of the effects of the song that fate can be delayed or even completely avoided.

The song used in the film was produced by musician Kazuyoshi Saito in a collaboration with Kotaro Isaka, the author of the original novel on which the film is based. Check it out in the first teaser after the break.

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Whenever new info is posted about the upcoming Yukihiko Tsutsumi-helmed 20th Century Boys trilogy here or on other sites people invariably chime in about how it’s too convoluted for a western audience to be interested in without first reading the manga. I don’t really subscribe to that theory personally because science fiction fans are a different breed than typical main stream moviegoers, but it won’t be an issue anymore now that US distributor Viz Media has picked up the rights to the original manga. Anime News Network is reporting the company made the announcement today at Comic Con and will be releasing it starting in February of 2009 on a bi-monthly schedule. So read it, live it, love it, and let’s get some interest going for whenever the movie distribution rights get picked up.

For more on “20th Century Boys”, see this page.

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