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TTGL was awesome, until the timeskip. After that, the show went to crap.

To be honest, I felt like it's overrated, but not completely. I believe the reason why it scores so high is the variety of emotions that is released over the course of the series, and unlike Endelerius, I liked the second half. It turns the world upside down, and gave a new perspective. But it's like Steins; Gate, but the curve is a little less severe.

Personally, Gurren Lagann was probably a show I should have never touched. And it's probably more me than it is the show itself, though I can't say I can even begin to fathom why this show is raved about and praised like a work of art. (Yeah...I can't get past the use of badassery and testosterone as legitimate terms for describing an anime)

I saw the other old forum topic of the good and bad of the show, but decided to post here since the problem I ran into was precisely that this show was so highly spoken of by my friends that I felt almost obligated to watch it. How could I not when every single time I brought up the fact that I hadn't watched Gurren Lagann, I'd get about 10 double takes followed by "HOW COULD YOU NOT?! IT'S SO GODLY!" And you know, it happened so much I think I actually believed this might be a great show. As it goes, of course I picked it up and watched it.

Well for starters should probably state that I've never been into action, and well, that's pretty much what this entire show relied on as its hook. I've heard/read everything from how philosophical and iconic the show is to how satirical it is of mecha anime, but as it goes, if ya don't find it interesting, ya don't find it interesting... Lo and behold I snoozed through the first few episodes, fumed through the early teens, gained respect for Kamina somewhat when he died, was actually pleasantly surprised by the change of pace at episode 16 (which confounds me as to why so many people hate that portion of the show...), and then finally quit at episode 22 because it began to devolve right back to where it had started.

And I'm totally stuck here thinking like, am I the only one who didn't like this show? Because honestly, I feel kinda alone. Especially around my friends, who find it incomprehensible that I actually gave up on it. Reading the reviews doesn't really work either, as I reference my previously mentioned problems with the terms "badassery" and "testosterone". Which takes me back to the main point of how Gurren Lagann is far too overrated. I can understand the feeling of supporting a show as much as possible when you love it, as I do for Toradora, but it's rather hard to say that Gurren Lagann is still underrated after having been talked about and still talked about so frequently still after a few years since its conclusion.

And this is me talking after about 3 months since quitting Gurren Lagann, so I'd like to think I've cooled down enough to clearly talk about this. I'm still waiting for someone to give a decent of enough explanation as to why this show is so great, though even if it came up I'd probably not accept it just because of my experience with the show.

-edit-
Whoops, missed "epicness", which probably annoys me more than "badassery"

Its good because of its strong character development.

Honestly as a big Lagaan fan, even I cannot give a decent explanation for why it's great. It's one of those series that you can't really judge objectively, because it defies objectivity itself!

But I'll give a few reasons why I like it.

- It has a sense of humour about itself. This ones tricky to describe, but it's the feeling you get that the creators know they aren't making art, but are just having fun making anime. Which comes across in the show. You're not supposed to take it seriously at all.
Yes it's big and ridiculous, but unlike say Michael Bay's Transformers movies, GL has heart to it.

- Lovable characters. They're not deep or complex, but they all have an infectious charm, and they do develop pretty well over the series, even if alot of that is handled by the slightly awkward timeskip.

- Catchphrases and quotable lines. GL has tons of them. Most of them are extremely catchy "carpe diem" style messages, which might come off as a bit trite, but it fits the show perfectly. The use of drills/spiral energy etc are simple but pretty neat metaphors for much the same message.

- Production values. I'm not usually one to need great art, but the art in Lagaan is fantastic, and the music compliments it perfectly. The score is fantastic and even the songs are good, which is pretty unusual because anime songs are usually crap. Gainax always do a good song of mixing music with the visuals, perfectly synched every time.

And there might not be a lot of plot, but I must admit I found myself genuinely surprised by the plot twist in the middle of the series and the ending is classic Gainax stuff. Surprising, bittersweet yet completely fits the tone of the show. Those guys always make their endings legendary.

If you like an anime, you like an anime. If you don't like an anime, then you don't like an anime.

Gurren Lagann kicked off my intrests for anime and manga. That show was freaking amazing. Time to rewatch it.

Which I was trying to say pretty much. But to keep this in line with the topic at hand, the fact that I kept getting such an earful from everyone around me for not watching Gurren Lagann and then not liking it is what drives me to say it's overrated.

My personal preference for it doesn't say much about that matter, but it does make me more sensitive to how much people rave about the show

No, Gurren Lagann is an awesome Anime and deserves your current score. (for me, deserves at least a 9.x rating).

IMO it's crap.

Shitty Scenario. Spiral can do everything, period.
I really don't understand why it's so much praised.

Hell no. This is just an anime only true man can enjoy. Not being sexist, just pointing out that fact. Such as the argument that some people made about explosions and plot holes: Men find explosions to be awesome, women find them pointless and annoying (except Yuko). For the plot holes, no anime can be perfect and there's never a 100% probability of things being "perfect." But what I learned from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is that anyone can achieve the impossible if mere Humans can face invulnerable, supernatural beings and still pierce through the sky. And it is because this anime is so inspiring to youth or even older audiences with youth spirit, that I love it, despite the ridiculous plot and such.

Theres no such thing as over rated anythings, that word is only there for assholes to say "their opinions are wrong" but want to get away with it.

Basically, haters gonna hate. And, haters are all going to dogmatize, Because they can't understand pure genius.

I think it deserves to be overated, I mean the ending was so freaking epic and it gave me a very soothing feeling with the quote 'We decide on our own future', or something like that xD HOW EPIC IS THIS!

I watched Gurren Lagann couple weeks ago, and I felt it was extremely overrated. A friend of mine told me "If you liked Code Geass, you'll love Gurren Lagann". And oh boy, he couldnt have been further from the truth. If you're looking for an anime like Code Geass, look elsewhere.

In my opinion, CG was an awesome action anime, with a serious undertone. Politics, classic mecha action, superb characters, and no silly jokes involved. Gurren Lagann, on the other hand, is kiddish. The action scenes are sooooo over the top and exaggerated like crazy. The fanservice is sooo 'in your face' that its awkward. The story would have been considered 'original' in the 1970s. It even has the stereotypical three main characters - wimpy guy, tough guy, neutral female....oh, and the last battle has old enemies team up to fight a mysterious other-worldly power that endangers them all. How on earth did they come up with a concept as original as that? If you still wanna see it, download it. Buying it is ridiculous. Trust me.

Gurren Lagann is enjoyable but silly. If you can take that, you'll love it (maybe).
FYI the mecha designs pretty much suck, until the second half, where they suck even harder.

Just finished it, and I think it's fucking amazing.

Couldn't have said it better. Especially as Code Geass is my favorite alongside Steins;Gate. Those anime have a real plot, that makes you think "Woo didn't see that coming! Cliffhanger at the end of the episode, gotta watch the next one now!".
And Gurren Lagann has nothing of those great anime. No originality, no plot twists (that you couldn't see coming a mile before)... I gave up after 11 episodes, couldn't take it anymore.

I watched it before knowing it's popularity. When I realized it's popularity I was confused. It's a good show, but it's DEFINITELY not a masterpiece or anything close to that.

i did not like it and quit watching around episode 13-14ish

my favorite anime is death note, btw.

I second this, too.