*No Helping It Soundtrack*
Guren Lagann is like an eco-friendly waste disposal facility, it's well-organized, looks clean and colorful, and gives off a cheerful vibe, but ultimately it's still garbage.
Story: Rather than going ham on this and have people "enlighten" me on how this is an "over-the-top, just-for-fun, turn-your-brain-off", I'll just explain why it fails even down that road. See, being over the top requires turning a cliché idea into a truly enjoyable one; something witty, or bizarre. TTGL does not offer that. It simply offers explosions. Then offers bigger explosions. Sadly, this only makes them less impactful.
Over the top is when a squirrel conjured out of a first poses a threat on your life. TTGL is so much the opposite of over-the-top, that an explosion which is supposedly of a "big bang explosion" impact seems nothing more than your every-day Ki-blast. It tries to show how grand a battle is by having people in one instant fight among galaxies, but that just makes it look like galaxies are a zoomed-out back-drop.
This show completely fails at scoping and execution of scale, achieving the opposite of what it aims for.
Will you enjoy the story if you're looking into something deep? No. The show does try to dwell on bigger ideas here and there (one scene 3 episodes apart on average), but they never follow up.
Will you enjoy it if you're looking into something over the top as in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Hunter x Hunter, the Devil May Cry video games"? No. The show has no wit or ingenuity.
Who will enjoy this? If you like a monster-of-the-week format, and an extremely sped up version of Dragon Ball Z minus all the charging episodes, and the build up, or basically just explosions, this might be for you.
Characters, Interactions & Dialogue
The characters are one-dimensional, each one represents your typical shonen archetype. The hot-headed never-give-up main character, the nerdy, analytical, uptight buddy, the tsundere angsty nemesis, and so on.
Characters by themselves have nothing interesting to offer, and unfortunately neither do their interactions with one another. From the annoying Ted-Mosbian "Bro" exchanges that make you cringe, to the shouts of never giving up, (not even with a courtesy speech), the characters have no chemistry at all.
The dialogue, as you might find, is weak. It fails to express because its aim is to be as loud as possible. The show also suffers from the "audience" syndrome, where they feel the need to show you how awesome characters are by having some audience (random useless characters, or the entire planet) praise them endlessly. This is basically anime's version of laugh-tracks found in Sitcoms.
Art & Animation
The art is quite sweet. It's got some pretty-looking settings and the designs for some mechs are pretty original. Unfortunately, animation does not keep up. I'm not sure if the anime had a good budget or not. Because there isn't anything to animate well in the first place. For a show with so many battles, there is no "mêlee fights with sakuga choreography. Mostly it's just countless "bulbs" of explosions engulfing your screen.
Music
Not much to say here, I'll keep it short, great opening, good OST, some tracks are marred with corny Bro-rap.
In conclusion, this is one of the worst shonens in recent years, but it serves as a good reminder that pretty covers aren't all. You might fight enjoyment only if you are a die-hard shonen/Michael Bay fan.
Overall score: 3/10
