For me, an anime has to have a good blend of action, drama, and even romance for me to really get into it. There are only a couple animes that I rank as my favorites. Martian Succesor Nadesico is one of those, and now, so is Gurren Lagann.Gurren Lagann starts out fast and stays fast throughout the entirety of the series. I have to admit, when one of my friends first introduced me to the show, I felt trepidation about whether or not I could get into it; I'm not usually one for giant robot animes. Nadesico and Evangelion were about the only two I could ever really get in to. So, when I first started watching Gurren Lagann, I had all but decided that I wouldn't like it. But, after I watched the first few episodes, I became hooked. I wanted to watch more of it, but didn't want to spend the large amounts of money that it would cost to buy the DVDs. So, I started looking around for a deal on it. That deal came from the iTunes Store. I found the entire series on sale for only $26.00, so I immediately downloaded it and started watching.
While the series does dwell quite a bit on the giant robot (Gunmen, as they're called) parts, that's not what it's all about. The Gunmen fight sequences are spectacularly animated and pleasing to the eye (the final battle of the whole series blew my mind). But, the thing that really drew me in was the relationships between the characters (all of which were also extremely well animated. I'm just going to say this now; Gurren Lagann was one of the most visually pleasing animes I have watched.) What starts out as a love triangle between what seem to be the 3 main characters, Simone, Kamina & Yoko (I say "seem to be" because, in my opinion, most of the characters could be considered "main") draws you in and makes you feel for each of them. And it's not just the relationships that are well thought out. Each character in the series has their own quirks and personality that endears you to each of them.
Probably one of my favorite things about this anime is what they did with it about 7 episodes in. I'm not going to say what it is, but I will say that when if first happened, I felt betrayed by an anime that I was growing to like more and more, but then, later in the series, I knew that the story wouldn't have been nearly as good if they hadn't done it. It really did make the series enjoyable.
Gurren Lagann is divided into 2 different story arcs, each lasting about 13 episodes. The first deals with the rebels from the underground cities seeking out and destroying the Spiral King. At first there are only 3 of them with only 2 Gunmen (Gurren and Lagann, which can combine to create the powerful Gurren Lagann), but as the story progresses, more and more rebels join the cause and each ends up with a Gunmen of their own, eventually making a formidable army, known as Team Dai Gurren. I thought I had seen big robots before, but some of the Gunmen in Gurren Lagann are ridiculousyl huge. Just when you think you've seen the biggest of them, they throw an even bigger one into the story. But, instead of being silly, the bigger and bigger robots made the story. The first arc of the story ends with Simone destroying the Spiral King and the rebels all celebrating. But, as the Spiral King is dying, he utters what sounds like a prophecy of the future which basically says when the population of humans on the earth reaches 1 million bad stuff will happen.
Start the second arc, which takes place years after the end of the first. The rebels have built a city of their own and have advanced greatly in the few years that have passed. Simone is the ruler of the city and the members of Team Dai Gurren are all high up in the New Government. The action, once again, starts right off when a tear in the sky releases a strange looking Gunmen just as the 1 millionth person is born on the surface. Simone gets in Gurren Lagann and heads out to fight the new Gunmen, eventually beating it by using his signature drill attack. The Gunmen explodes and the fragments of it fall to the ground... and explode on impact. Much of the city is destroyed. Simone is overthrown as ruler and placed in prison, but is later released when they realize that only he and Gurren Lagann can defeat the new enemies. As I said earlier, the giant robots keep getting bigger in this series, and in the second story arc, this is just as true. The moon eventually becomes a Gunmen that can combine with Gurren Lagann to make a huge fortress. Soon, they find out that the attacks are from the Anti Spiral race and set off into space to fight them. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but as the story draws to a close, the battles between Gunmen become more and more epic. Eventually, the heroes triumph over the villains and live out their lives in peace.
Easily the most epic Giant Robot I've ever seen.There is so much more to the story than what I've written here, but I don't want to give too much away. I'd rather you watch the series yourself to find out just how amazing this anime really is.
My final score: 5 out of 5.
This anime has one of the most gripping stories I've seen in an anime and leaves you wanting more after each episode. I know for sure that I'm going to be watching this over and over; it's just that good. With excellent character development and stunning animation, this is easily my second favorite anime. I highly recommend going out and watching all of it, you won't be disappointed.
Kind of an interesting thought I've always had relating to that last picture there. I remember going the entire series wondering why in the heck the full title of this series is actually Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. And not only does the name of that machine there define it, but also does what the words "Tengen Toppa" translate to and how it relates to the overal main theme of the series. I'd already been long sense well sold on the series as one of my all time favorites by then, but that moment right there was one of the greatest selling points of the series for me. That really is by and far the most epic Giant Robot anyone will ever see, no doubt about it. 8-)
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, you pretty much hit the nail right on the head with how I've always felt about the series myself. It's really in constant struggle with Monster between my #2 and #3 favorite series of all time. It is indeed one of those series where you have to get through the first little while before it starts getting good. And even then it still remains to be a very fun, wacky and enjoyable series. But then it gets to that certain point and takes a complete 180 and it's just friggin' friggin' epic from that point onward, and doesn't do anything but continue to get even more friggin' epic all the way to the point where it just blows you away how unbelieveably epic it is in that final battle sequence. Both in story and in action.
That is a very interesting insight to everybody essentially being main characters though. I mean it's quite clear that the main hero of the series is.... well, kind of a weird but brilliant combination of Simoun and Kamina, which of course even furthers your point. ;) But the rest of the cast really does have a major part to play in the grand scheme of things. They really are each their own main hero in their own special ways. I think one of the most impressive things about the characters though would have to be what they did with Yoko. Essentially she's supposed to be one of those characters that's solely meant for excessive fanservice, but rather than just limiting her to that they also do an excellent job of turning her into just a simply awesome character.
But yeah, absolutely adore this series. Even though it is very much so a mech series and even ebrasses that fact like no other, at the same time it doesn't really play out like a mech series, or even a sci-fi series for that matter. It's very much so it's own kind of series on so many levels. Definitely an absolute must see series if you haven't seen it yet.