Story: 8/10
Giant fighting robots. Not the most original of concepts, but seeing as how this was originally intended as a parody of the mecha genre, it can be forgiven.
What I especially liked about the story was that it started big and ended even bigger. The characters started with lofty ambitions and by the end it had changed into something completely else. It reminded me of Kill la Kill in its final episodes with over-the-top fighting sequences and outer space battles. And by that I mean that it was fucking amazing.
Art: 9/10
Considering this aired in 2007 and probably in production a couple of years before that, the art style still holds up rather well in today's terms. Nowadays, I'm sure Gurren Lagann could be remade with Attack on Titan-style 3D battle scenes with camera angles spinning into the fifth dimension, but there isn't any reason to remake what was already just about as perfect as you can get.
Another thing I noticed was that for the first half of the show, the battle sequences cut quickly from one thing to another, probably due to the difficulty of animating such things. But in the second half, the show suddenly pulls out all this CGI and draws out battle scenes without cutting the camera, so to speak. Either the makers got a bigger budget for the second half, or they saved it so that they could stun us.
Really, the only problem I had with the art was the excessive amount of fanservice. If this was intended to be a parody, the fanservice is probably self-explanatory in that regard. However, there was still quite a lot of it, yet not enough to be over-the-top like Kill la Kill. Gurren Lagann toes the line between "enough fanservice to not be fanservice" and "too little fanservice to be seen as cynical." Am I making sense here? Probably not. This show doesn't make much sense anyway, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.
Sound: 10/10
The opening is great, the endings are catchy, and the OST is awesome and, for lack of a better word, epic. My personal favorite track was the one that played during fight scenes in the first half of the show, with all the violins and stuff.
Characters: 10/10
No way could this be getting anything other than a 10 out of 10. Each character, no matter how small their role in the story, left their mark. Yes, even all those members of Team Dai-Gurren whose names I could never remember. All of the characters in Gurren Lagann were memorable. Now, this isn't Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood where each and every character is essential to the story. Yet despite the fact that not all of the background characters were crucial, they all had developed personalities and each character was so awesome that it's hard to pick a favorite out of the many wacky characters of the Gurren Lagann cast.
Enjoyment: 10/10
I only meant to watch the first episode the night I started it (I actually wasn't planning on watching it for a while due to saving the best for last). Somehow that one episode escalated into the first seven episodes, and it just went from there. Gurren Lagann kept me glued the whole way through, and I really liked how in the first half the show would throw out interesting new characters every single episode.
Overall: 9.5/10
9.5/10 for me is much closer to a 10 than a 9. It didn't quite hit the mark of a 10, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it immensely. Gurren Lagann had one of the best climaxes of any story for me, even though it was completely over-the-top like the rest of the show.
I can see why people wouldn't like the show due to being so unbelievably outrageous, but if you give it a chance, the show draws you in with its infective energy and the thrill of "What will happen next?".
If I had to describe Gurren Lagann in one phrase, it'd be "over-the-top." Everything was exaggerated and yet somehow still absolutely amazing.
tl;dr: Watch Gurren Lagann. It's completely outlandish and extremely extravagant, but still manages to make you feel like your heart was ripped out at some parts. And hey, it's on Netflix.
