An update on my influences: Evangelion and Gurren Lagann

I decided my previous post about Evangelion might have been a little to spoilerific (it was also mega violent) for people who hadn't already seen the series (WHY HAVEN'T YOU SEEN IT YET!?), so I'm giving the series it's own little post here with a little new info and another series that I'm hugely influenced by.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

By legendary Japanese animation studio GAINAX (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, Nadia: The Secret of the Blue Water) Evangelion is often heralded as one of the (if not THE) best anime series' of all time.

A staple for any one interested in anime. ANYONE. I can recommend Evangelion to no end. It's a timeless masterpiece and changed has way the Japanese made mecha anime since. Many have to tried to duplicate it, some even created series in direct opposition of it, and none have come close.
It has fluid, amazing fight scenes, an incredible in-depth story and explores the emotions and psyches of characters like no other series I've ever watched, with some incredible relationships built between the characters.

The clip I've included is from a more lighthearted episode where two of the main characters and pilots of robots called EVA's have to learn an in sync dance routine in order to defeat an alien (or Angels, as they're called in the series) threatening Earth.

The series originally ran in the mid-90's, and they're now slowly releasing the 'Rebuild' movies, which are even more beautifully animated film versions of the series. The second film, Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: You Can't (Not) Advance comes out (legally) some time this month and I'm mega excited! I swear it is near impossible to find anywhere online.

I'm currently watching the original series through for the 5th time.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Unfortunately my favourite clip isn't available on Youtube because the series is fairly new so here's the opening credits.
Disclaimer: Gurren Lagann is my FAVOURITE ANIMATED SERIES OF ALL TIME (dun da-duuuuunnn!).

Also created and animated by Studio GAINAX  and ANOTHER of their giant mecha anime, a genre they excel at, Gurren Lagann adopts a very different style to your more generic Shounen series thatusually come to mind when you mention the word 'anime'.
Different looking character and art styles, different animation styles (with episode 3 even using a different animation director than the rest of the series. He did an abysmal job and was fired because of it! Do not judge the series based on episode 3! I BEG OF YOU!) and a completely different plot format, Gurren Lagann is highly original and extremely outrageous!
As much as I hate using this word, Gurren Lagann summed up is "epic", and it was around the release of this series that that word started being used so much, possibly because of THIS series! This is what the animators set out to achieve, and by gum they achieved the hell out of it! It goes above and beyond and does things and reaches extremes you've never seen or imagined before.

WATCH BOTH OF THESE. I cannot recommend them enough! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.