Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a tale of becoming the master of your own destiny. The cheezyness of the show and how it embraces that makes its cliche message all that more heartwarming and motivational. Gurren Lagann weaves its narrative around its characters, using them as a drill for digging it's way to your heart. Breaking down these drill parts makes you realize how it uses very common archetypes, but builds extremely believable characters around them. Take Simon for example; A shy kid growing into a man who never looks back, yet understands how he got where he is, never letting go of the memories those made him the person that he is. Even the supporting characters are incredibly detailed, most of them could have been half as developed and still have passed as great. The depth behind each character and even more so the development of all of them makes the character section of Gurren Lagann top notch.
The show is most often said to consist of two story acts, the first half and the second one starting at episode 17. However, I disagree since dividing the show in three arcs, each representing a character central to Simon's growth makes more sense. Kamina is Simon's soulbrother, kicking his adventure into motion with burning passion. The first arc of the show makes Kamina almost seem the main character. But the one who gives meaning to his empty bravado is Simon, later realizing the errors in Kamina's way and surpassing him. The second story-arc focuses on Simon's second love interest after the first crush of his wasn't interested in him, in favor of Kamina. The romance-side of Gurren Lagann is never the central focus, but instead lingering in the background almost the whole way through. The third arc happens after a 7 year timeskip. If used carelessly, it's a cheap plot device developing characters and their situations, without actually doing so. Gurren Lagann pulls this off great. The characters have matured during the 7 year time while nothing too interesting has happened. When things start going south, the show's focus shifts from BOOBIES and EXPLOSIONS and AWESOMENESS into a more of a subtle commentary on the human condition. The show still feels essentially the same, but grows far more interesting. And then the final 5 episodes feel like pure GAR again, while retaining the slight maturity gained during the last arc in the background. Although it is still a shonen saturday morning cartoon, even if in Japan only.
On the technical side of things the show is solid. There is an episode long dive in the quality of the visual side of things, but when the show looks good, damn... It looks soooo vibrant and alive. The character designs are simple but extremely memorable. Even the mechas look organic enough for punchy comedic effects, while still retaining the mechanical detail. That makes watching them explode and lose limbs all that more satisfying. The OST of the show does the impossible, combining the usual symphonic soundtracky stuff with rap, jazz, rock and even opera into a delightful mixture of different vibes and moods. A memorable OST for sure. Both the japanese and the english dubs are solid, blahblah all is great I promise!
Scoring breakdown
Art Section 7/10 (5% Of the overall)
General Artwork 4/5, Animation 3/5
Sound Section 8/10 (15% of the overall)
Voice Acting 4/4, Music 3/4, Effects 1/2
Story Section 10/10 (40% of the overall)
Premise and its execution 4/4, Pacing 3/3, Conclusion 3/3
Character Section 10/10 (40% of the overall)
Personalities 5/5, Developement 5/5
Overall Score: 9.55
Gurren Lagann is the best anime, no the best thing ever. Never has any other piece of media made me cry and laugh so hard, or bad, never has any other piece of work make me analyze it on a weekly basis, even only if in my own head. I have watched the series 4 times, and I plan doing so again. The show has genius narrative and succeeds at saving ani... succeeds at everything it seems to try pulling off. A modern classic for sure.
