Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Review
My experience with Mecha and Super Robot shows is fairly limited as I did not get the chance to see them when they were the most popular. The shows I have seen in these genres are not what I would call original, as they weren't trying to be anything more than what they were on the surface. That is big robot battles for the sake of big robot battles. There were some shows I saw that did indeed have a story worth seeing such as Code Geass, but with shows like that I always wondered why the mechs were there in the first place. They didn't have a true reason to be there other than to provide the audience with some action during which time the story would take a break on the sidelines. Such is not the case with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, a 2007 Gainax show directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi. It's got much more than I expected, from an interesting story to interesting visuals, but it isn't without its hiccups.
Story
The story of Gurren Lagann is interesting to talk about, but that's mostly because of how it tries to tell it.
Gurren Lagann takes place in a world where humans have been driven to live in underground villages. Simon the digger lives in one of these underground villages and lives his life digging to further expand the village. One day a giant mech that threatens the village falls through the ceiling as does an incredibly attractive woman named Yoko who carries a sniper rifle. Simon, with his friend Kamina and Yoko use a face mech that Simon dug up to defeat the enemy mech and launch up to the surface only to find out that it isnt the paradise that they had previously thought. It is plagued with beastmen who pilot the mechs that are called gunmen and the only way to stop them is to take out their leader, the spiral king. So begins our heroes' journey.
Now I'm going to be honest here. I didn't expect much from this when I first went into it. Like I said before I didn't have the best experiences with these types of shows. Gurren Lagann does something different than a lot of other shows though. You see it actually has a message. Other shows have messages as well, but the problem is that more often than not, they're swimming in a pool of convoluted psychology or suffer from some of the worst, cliched tropes I've seen. Gurren Lagann manages to avoid all of this... mostly, by being as ludicrous as possible. Logic is completely thrown to the wayside here, and the show constantly reminds you that the physics of the natural universe do not apply. The show seems to have a battle strategy of scream, get bigger, fight, scream some more, and win. This is fine with the "keep moving forward" message that the show is trying to convey, it's just that sometimes you'll find yourself wondering why things don't make any sense. That's because they don't. To put any logical thought process into the workings of Gurren Lagann is absolutely futile and it shouldn't be taken as seriously as some people do.
The story isn't without it's problems though. Most of my problems with it lie in the series' second third where I took a disliking to Simon in the beginning of it. Things got better and the show ran its course, but I had a lot of trouble with the tone the series took after a certain point. It was like the show was trying to be serious,but it didn't want to be serious. Again though, the show fixed itself and these problems are pretty small when compared to the whole.
Gurren Lagann takes place in a world where humans have been driven to live in underground villages. Simon the digger lives in one of these underground villages and lives his life digging to further expand the village. One day a giant mech that threatens the village falls through the ceiling as does an incredibly attractive woman named Yoko who carries a sniper rifle. Simon, with his friend Kamina and Yoko use a face mech that Simon dug up to defeat the enemy mech and launch up to the surface only to find out that it isnt the paradise that they had previously thought. It is plagued with beastmen who pilot the mechs that are called gunmen and the only way to stop them is to take out their leader, the spiral king. So begins our heroes' journey.
Now I'm going to be honest here. I didn't expect much from this when I first went into it. Like I said before I didn't have the best experiences with these types of shows. Gurren Lagann does something different than a lot of other shows though. You see it actually has a message. Other shows have messages as well, but the problem is that more often than not, they're swimming in a pool of convoluted psychology or suffer from some of the worst, cliched tropes I've seen. Gurren Lagann manages to avoid all of this... mostly, by being as ludicrous as possible. Logic is completely thrown to the wayside here, and the show constantly reminds you that the physics of the natural universe do not apply. The show seems to have a battle strategy of scream, get bigger, fight, scream some more, and win. This is fine with the "keep moving forward" message that the show is trying to convey, it's just that sometimes you'll find yourself wondering why things don't make any sense. That's because they don't. To put any logical thought process into the workings of Gurren Lagann is absolutely futile and it shouldn't be taken as seriously as some people do.
The story isn't without it's problems though. Most of my problems with it lie in the series' second third where I took a disliking to Simon in the beginning of it. Things got better and the show ran its course, but I had a lot of trouble with the tone the series took after a certain point. It was like the show was trying to be serious,but it didn't want to be serious. Again though, the show fixed itself and these problems are pretty small when compared to the whole.
A poster with the cast. From left to right: Kamina, Simon, and Yoko.
Characters
The characters were a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the male side of the spectrum we have both Kamina and Simon, who are just fantastic in this show. Kamina is undoubtedly a shining beacon of masculinity who is just a joy to be around. Simon has some problems in the second third where he develops a bit of a Shinji Ikari complex, but his development throughout the series is just excellent as it should be considering that he is our center character. Unfortunately though this great male cast is balanced out by an unfortunately poor female one. Yoko seems to be the show's fanservice character. Now I don't mind fanservice if it doesn't take away from the show, but in Yoko's case there were many moments that were just out of place, which is a real shame because she's actually an interesting character. She even gets a romance subplot in the later parts of the show. The second female I want to talk about is Nia. I don't think I've seen a character treated this poorly by the writers recently. She's actually well characterized and has interesting personality and presence when she is on screen, but the problem is that the writers treat her as nothing more than a plot device all the way up to the show's conclusion. She's practically gift-wrapped to us in a box. It's terribly upsetting to see a character treated this way. Especially since I can get around most of the other problems I have with the cast.
Kamina is so cool he wears sunglasses underground.
Animation
The animation for Gurren Lagann is sharp and much better managed than Gainax's previous works (see Evangelion). The scenes in Gurren Lagann just resonate with energy and excitement. There are a few times when the animation starts looking a little rough, but in all honesty it actually enhances the energy on screen. This show is also very colorful, and I'm not just talking about the vibrance of the colors, the range is something to commend here. You'll find everything from blue, green, purple, and red. Quite often these colors will contrast each other and there are times when the show has the look of freaking rainbow sherbet. This is a very good thing because the show doesn't always look like this. The vibrance of the colors changes drastically depending on the show's overall tone and it can become very dark at times. The animation is mostly consistent as well barring episode 4 and some oddly looking CGI enemy robots in the latter third of the show. But other than those two things it's hard to complain about the animation at all, as it's highly stylized and unique look will give you something interesting to look at for most of the show.
This is the rainbow sherbet I was talking about before.
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What the heck episode 4?
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Sound
Gurren Lagann sounds great. Really great. I had the opportunity to listen to both the dubbed and subbed versions of the show. I personally prefer the dubbed version as English Kamina is tolerable while the Japanese Nia is just not. I want to give a special mention to Yuri Lownthal here, who's voice for Simon (both old and young) really adds to the character. Even through the parts that I didn't like Simon, Lowenthal's performance was great and probably got me through those parts of the show to be honest. The soundtrack is so varied. It includes some jazz riffs and some rap songs, but I'd be completely remiss if I didn't mention the wonderfully experimental opera and rap combination that is Libera me from Hell. I find it to be inventive by adding both energy and a sense of grandeur to the show. I really don't have anything to complain about here as I couldn't imagine the show sounding any differently.
Verdict
I had quite a bit of fun with this show. Despite it's flaws, Gurren Lagann manages to be exactly what it set out to be. An over the top mecha show with interesting characters and a nice message behind it. For those that can handle its completely logic-free writing, it definitely delivers, but for those that can't and want something more thoughtful... you're looking in the wrong place. I give this anime a well deserved 4/5 and a Gold medal because shows are few and far between with this amount of ambition that can actually deliver.
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