That's a quote from an iconic character called Kamina in the opening episode of "Gurren Lagann" (or "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann" to give it its full, grand title) that sums the series up pretty well. It's a philosophy that's not only followed religiously by the characters in "Gurren Lagann", but by the anime itself, because "Gurren Lagann" is an anime that truly rejects common sense. The series has Gainax's fingerprints all over it - it's loud, rife with phallic symbols, and completely bonkers in a way that's reminiscent of other Gainax productions such as "FLCL". And I'll be honest here: I'm NOT a fan of Gainax to say the least, and this offering from them appeared to represent not only everything I dislike about the studio, but just about everything I dislike about anime in general. I didn't like its over the top, nonsensical style; I didn't like its shameless fanservice; and I didn't like its very random, slapstick humour to name just a few things. I can usually tell from the first couple of episodes whether I'm going to like an anime or not, and though there've been a handful of anime along the way that have pleasantly surprised me, my first impressions are very rarely proved wrong. And from the opening episode, I was convinced that "Gurren Lagann" is gonna turn out to be another piece of overrated crap that I'll absolutely loathe.
I'll admit I was wrong.
It took until episode 8 for things to click. Before episode 8, "Gurren Lagann" had the odd moment of genius (the first time the mechas combined in the anime is outrageously funny), but it never really captured my interest. Episode 8 made me sit up and pay attention though, as some very interesting and unexpected developments in the story unfolded. I suddenly became intrigued as to which direction the anime is headed in, and from then on it seemed like "Gurren Lagann" had suddenly become good, though I suspect it's more of a case of me being able to see it in a different light. In my eyes, all the craziness had suddenly become brilliant, self-parodying improvisations, and beneath the craziness, meaningful themes and great character developments began to materialise. It may give the impression of being very superficial most of the time, but there is far more to "Gurren Lagann" than what first meets the eye. Though most of the cast are pretty one dimensional (but it gets away with this by giving the appearance of not attempting to go for any kind of depth), there are some fantastic characters in there who are not only interesting, but are also extremely well fleshed out and developed. In fact I would go as far as saying that one of the characters Simon undergoes some of the finest character development I've ever come across.
Then we have the underlying themes, the most central one of which is about showing defiance in the face of oppressive power, about shaping your own destiny, and walking the path you choose for yourself and not letting anyone get in your way. Sure it ain't exactly original. Similar themes have been done in many other anime before, but you'll rarely find one that does it as boldly and with as much panache... or one that playfully beats this message into your head as hard as "Gurren Lagann" does, to the extent that even a viewer as oblivious as myself is able to get it.
What makes "Gurren Lagann" such a fascinating anime is its contradictory nature - the fact that it's simultaneously cliched AND original. It's easy to see that's it belongs in the hot blooded shounen mecha genre, with its constant, over the top power ups and "fighting spirit wins all" philosophy. But at the same time, it transcends the genre not by doing something completely different, but by taking the cliches to a whole new level, all the while being delightfully self aware. It parodies AND glorifies the elements of its native genre all at once. The combining mecha aspect gets applied randomly and irrationally; the increasingly overpowered super-weapons you see in other shows also exist, but in an even more exaggerated form, with tongue-in-cheek names along the lines of "Mega Ultra Earth Shattering Giga Drill Break"; the mecha battles that likes to casually throw out crazy shit like a parody of "Spiderman"; and even the endless posturing, whilst being cheesey in the extreme, is done so well that it's also undeniably cool in the extreme. The show is full of spontaneous, joyous improvisations, as though the makers were just making stuff up as they went along, and threw in whatever crazy ideas that popped into their heads, making almost no effort to filter them through common sense first. The result is, of course, a mess... but it's a very brilliant mess.
The freshness of the concepts of "Gurren Lagann" doesn't just apply to its flashy exterior, it applies to its content and storyline as well. It's difficult to go into detail about what exactly makes "Gurren Lagann" different and daring without revealing the numerous massive twists that goes on in the story, but it's safe to talk about some aspects of it at least, one of which is its interesting take on the whole hotblooded hero theme. While the heroes of "Gurren Lagann" do a lot of endless power ups like in other shounens, it's different because the show contains this "spiral power" concept that allows them to turn the silly abstract concept of powering up into something tangible and work it into the actual story. Here, in the crazy world of "Gurren Lagann", there is a proper reason why upping up your fighting spirit will get you results. Not only that, it also provides a contrast in Rossieu who, unlike the rest of the cast, appear to be living in a reality not too distant from our own. He makes rational decisions in "Gurren Lagann", the kind of difficult decisions that reminds me of those from the remade "Battlestar Galactica" TV series. In almost any other show, these would be tough decisions very well made, but "Gurren Lagann" pointedly makes it clear that they are the wrong decisions within its surreal universe - it's basically issuing a forceful statement justifying it's brawn over brain storyline by saying "look - the rational approach just doesn't work here!" It's this kind of self awareness and cheeky way of justifying the usual cliches that distinguishes it from your run of the mill shounen.
It's obvious that "Gurren Lagann" is an extremely audacious project, and it's easy for these kind of projects to become a victim of its own vast ambitions, because it takes something damn special to pull off this kind of stunt. Although "Gurren Lagann" undeniably manage to achieve its ambitious goals, it does not emerge unscathed from its struggles to get there.
For example, it sets a lofty standard for itself with its craziness and its epicness, but once it had caught my attention with that, it needed to keep doing crazy/clever/funny things to keep me interested (how ironic, given that initially I detested the series for these same qualities), and it's something that's hard to sustain through the length of the whole series. Inevitably, during the episodes where it fails to meet it's own standards for craziness etc, "Gurren Lagann" can feel a little flat. I feel that, while watching some of the episodes mid series, my interest in the show was still being fueled by that sublime arc that started around episode 8 rather than interest generated by the new episodes. These episodes, in along with those that feel like they're just about keeping it together simply by piling on more twists, just don't feel solid enough. Also, while the fanservice of "Gurren Lagann" often comes off as parodying (especially in the hilarious episode 5), it does sometimes also feel gratuitous and excessive.
Complacency is a not a word that exists in this anime's dictionary - it's a show that rarely stays still. It's constantly skipping from location to location, timeline to timeline, and even universe to universe. However, I sometimes had trouble getting to grips with the events that were happening because the show moved *too* quickly in places. Perhaps trying so hard to keep the viewer on their toes as much as possible resulted in "Gurren Lagann" relying too much on unexpected twists and not enough on solid execution - sometimes it feels like the twists just didn't have a good enough foundation to work from. One example of this is Rossieu's character "change" after one of the time skips. It's a change that I initially found to be less than convincing. A few episodes later though, and it all started to make sense, and thinking back on it, I concluded that it probably seemed a little jarring at first because Rossieu is a character that barely featured before that time skip - it's not that he undergoes some sudden, unrealistic change in personality, it's just that we didn't get much of a chance to understand his character before the time skip.
But ultimately, "Gurren Lagann" hits the mark much more than it misses it, and it's freshness and adventurous approach does more than enough to allow it to stand out from the crowd. While I'm not about go crazy and declare it as the greatest anime ever, it surprised me not only because it made me tear up my initial assessment of it, but also in the WAY it managed to do this. Other anime that won me over after a bad initial impressions did so by tranforming itself completely (for example "Kimi ga Nozomu Eien") or by gradually building up momentum and increasing in quality (for example "Beck"), but "Gurren Lagann" doesn't do this - it's pretty consistent in what it's trying to do all the way through. Instead, it made me eat my words by changing ME. And from my personal point of view, managing to somehow convince a non-believer like myself to buy into its crazy philosophies is arguably "Gurren Lagann"'s greatest achievement. To do THAT takes something special, and "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann" is special.
