Apr 21, 2008
Lemme put in my own opinion...
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is perhaps... Screw that, THE most over the top thing you will likely see for a while. You know that whole "OVER 9000!!" Meme on the internet? In here it's more like "OVER 999999999...!" and going onwards.
Let's get in the meat of the stuff.
Story: The story is basically about a kid named Simon and how he goes from the sidekick of suicidally courageous moron Kamina to asskicker extraordinaire in a journey riddled with Mecha, asskicking and believing in yourself so much that your enemies will be wiped out by your awesomeness. The plot is divided into
...
two parts. The first is about Simon as a young child and growing badass while the second is about Simon as a young adult reaching the pinnacle of his badassedness. Not gonna give any more details in case of spoilers.
Everything is standard anime cliche take to the extreme, particularly the whole "DETERMINATION TRUMPS ALLl!" and "WE ARE THE GOOD GUYS AND YOU ALL SUCK!! MUA HA HA!!!". This is defined by the catchphrases "Beyond the Impossible" and "Kick Reason to the Curb". I myself have quite the distaste for those tropes and as such found everything involving such as parody and I would describe this as the "Feel Good Comedy of the Year".
Art: The artstyle and animation is amazingly exaggerated. The Mecha designs are unique and weird in a fun and wacky way. Since this is Gainax do expect the females to have that extra bounce (Giggedy), especially Yoko, whose costume is usually limited to bras and skirts/spanky pants. The fight scenes are incredibly well-done as well as insane. Chances are people watching this will have the reactions of "HOLY DAMN THAT WAS AWESOME!" to "DID HE JUST DO THAT?!". That seems to be the popular consensus.
Sound: There's a lot of inspirational shouting as well as music to pump you up for the mood. A repeated line in the songs of the later parts of the series is "Row row fight the powah!" which sort of fits into the stuff. Voice Acting is decent enough for the inspirational shouting, with the classic monologues being done by Kamina, whose talents include making big gestures and dramataic speeches and... That's about it...
Characters: Do expect some cliches here and there. Kamina is the basic "Shonen Hero with a will of pure adamantium laced with whatever indestructive material" and is insanely overdramatic. Unfortunately (in my opinion) he lacks the wits for anything and as thus is incredibly reckless and suicidal but has the charisma to have people be as sucidial as him. Simon, his lackey and the true main character of the series eventually takes after him in this effect, but still maintains common sense (which Kamina seems to abhor).
There are other characters such as Rossiu, Simon's companion whom they meet and serves as the cool-headed intelligent one, Yoko, the female lead of the series and the provider of approximately 90% of the fanservice since (as mentioned above) she wears nothing but a bra and some skirts/spanky pants, Viral who serves as a rival to Kamina and eventually Simon, Nia who serves as Simon's love interest and a whole bunch of other side characters who I cannot bother remembering. A few tend to serve as "Guy who is there" and serve no important role save for being part of Kamina/Simon's Redshirt Army so don't bother attempting to remember all their names.
Enjoyment: Despite some criticisms I had a grand time watching the series. It filled me with an amused feeling that I rarely get from other shows. I'm not going to bother rewatching the series though since I rarely rewatch/reread stuff.
Overall, this is a fun series for those who are not willing to take everything seriously and just take it as something to be watched for fun. As a non-fan of most Mecha series I liked everything. I recommend it for anybody just wishing to find something fun to watch, though don't try to find any thought-provoking arguments/philosophies behind it all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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