Drills will save the universe.

Typical bait-and-switch Gainax. I have generally avoided all series by Gainax after observing this trend in Nadia and Evangelion -- basically the earlier half of a series might be quite well done, but the second half would be totally messed up. I did not watch this TV series because I suspected it would be totally Gainax, but ended up watching the two movies, which I am told are the digest versions of the TV series. My suspicions were confirmed: the first movie was alright, the second one just gets increasingly more ridiculous as it goes on.

The first movie starts with some post-apocalypse earth, where all humans retreated to living underground. But due to certain obsessions with drills and some stroke of luck, the protagonists manage to reach the surface, and defeat enemy robots one after another. The robot designs are perhaps notable for not being very geometric-looking (unlike modern mecha anime), and embarrassing sounding special moves. This was alright, especially for people who like retro-style action.

The second movie was totally messed up, exactly the kind of mess that Gainax would create. First they went to fight bigger and bigger robots, fine. The battle continued on at planetary scale, and then to galactic scale, and then... it just kept on getting more and more ridiculous. And finally it ends with the kind of hungover feeling not unlike the original Evangelion, complete with all your favorite characters dead.

I don't regret having watched these two movies, but I think I would be better served by following my instincts and not watch another Gainax production.

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