In one line: "A fun trip with a fabulous crew, from start to end, and back to the start for another go! Nia is cute!! ~Nyaaaa!"
Overall rating: 9/10
Briefly, the story is about Simon, a driller. Pretty boring till now. It's also about Kamina, Simon's brother, and a lot of other people. The story is also about Spirals, Beastmen and the Anti-Spirals. A story about hippopotamus made of grapes. About mecha battles. About love. About tragedy. About courage in the face of adversity. About unfaltering determination against all odds. And specially, about huge mega powerups that make Dragon Ball characters seem sooo weak. Well, basically, it's ONE anime which you will really enjoy if you watch. Definitely recommended! Pardon me for the long review. :P
-[ Animation - 8/10 ]-
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (TTGL) has one of the weirdest animation types I've ever seen. At the same time, it's also one of the most interesting I've got to watch. The characters are very well drawn, and the action scenes are always depicted with clarity, and are made to give you the feeling that everything is going very fast. There's also some shots which depict the characters as in manga drawing types. This adds to originality, since the only other anime I've seen that was in FLCL (Furi Kuri). The mechas are also well made, but they have kind of funny shapes. Like a starfish mecha? A worm mecha? A foot mecha? A hand mecha? You get the idea. They are more comical than realistic, but they are fun to watch. The mechas are almost living things. It's difficult to describe here, but it's not your generic artificial mecha type. There are not many landscape or cityscape scenes, but if they appear in TTGL, they were well detailed. The space shots later in the anime are particularly well made, with galaxies and stars being represented. It was... colourful!
- [ Sound - 8.5/10 ] -
I don't pay much attention to music in anime most of the time. I focus on the story, characters and action. TTGL does not disappoint in terms of music. The ones used in action scenes are fast and add the necessary punch to the action. The sound effects, particularly explosions, are not very realistic but they do the job. Characters are appropriately voiced, but for some of them, it does not reflect their characters very well. Like Kamina deserved a more powerful voice maybe. It's no major problem. Overall, the sound is ok, and works as it should.
- [ Characters - 9/10] -
Frankly, I've never seen such an interesting crew of characters since Eureka Seven. Each character plays a major role in the story. There are NO superfluous characters. Even the mole-pig has a role to play!! Each of the characters has a detailed background story, and each get an appropriate conclusion. The stories unfold at a very good pace, showing you the characters little by little, with some unexpected turns. Like the unfolding of Simon as Kamina's shadow, to Simon the universal leader. They also have very distinct personalities, that make a very good blend when added together to make TTGL. The mood-swings are there too!
All the main characters fit in very nicely in the story, and all the secondary characters add up to make a wonderful show out of TTGL. Even the villains are likable! I enjoyed going through the story with the crew, of that I'm sure. And well, Nia must surely be the cutest character ever shown in anime! :P
- [ Story - 7/10] -
The story is a very good one. There are only very few plotholes, or parts that were not much elaborated on. It also has a good flow, and there are no fillers, except for a recap episode. You will get a fair share of action, tragedy, romance and suspence (unfortunately, these 2 don't last very long). The series is basically divided in 2. I call the first part, the Beastmen arc, and the second arc is the Anti-Spirals arc, following a time jump of 7 years. Each arc is well structured and well developed. Another feature which I liked is fore-shadowing. You will always get to see a tiny bit of what will happen in the future. Just like a spiral, it starts small, and ends up really big. Without spoiling, you will see somewhere that population level is being controlled in a village, and in the end, it's the whole universe population level that is controlled. That's the spiralling I was talking about. Starts small, ends up big! Reeeaaall big! Basically, it was a satisfying story.
But why the 7? Well, because the story is a bit too exaggerated. The main character always seem to output more power than a nuclear reactor. Saiyen 4 is nothing in comparison to Simon! They always seem to win, whatever happens. There is usage of some weird science concepts that would make the likes of Einstein and Hawking faint. Like somebody being converted into Spiral Energy to form a drill by quantum explosion?? Space jump just by thinking about your destination (here, a loved one)? W..T..F, it just can't be!
The series is a bit weird at the end, just like Eureka Seven. Use of weird concepts. Very weird happenings and similar events. Also the fights are sometimes just too unrealistic! Come'on, a million opponents, and you seem to kill them en-mass? Hell, there's even a mecha that resists the energy blast of the big bang, and another that releases that kind of energy!! It becomes real difficult to understand what's happening after episode 25. The concepts used are just too... strange! Like messing with probabilities, and so random shots actually hit all enemies. Can somebody explain how that happens? >.<
That's just not realistic. 3 points lost to lack of realism, over-boosted good guys and because there is not enough long-lasting romance in the anime. It starts well, ends up real fast. Too fast. This series needs some more romance among main characters. However, the story is not too complex, not too technical, so you can just kick back and watch leisurely.
- [ Enjoyment & Rewatch - 8/10] -
The series was definitely enjoyable. The plot was non-linear and full of unexpected twists. Like a villain not being a villain? This makes things enjoyable. The action scenes are worth re-watching, as well as the character development. I personally enjoyed the anime, since I found a good blend of humour, lightness, ecchiness, tragedy, romance and action in it. I would say the anime has a rewatch value, probably to better understand the story, and the characters. 2 points lost because during the rewatch, you will still get that "OMG! This is just overkill!" feeling. It's just too exaggerated, trust me.
- [ Conclusions ] -
It was a great trip through TTGL. TTGL really got me stuck to my chair from the start to the end. The story was good. The characters were interesting and almost lovable. The action and plotlines were consistent. I've got nothing much to criticize about TTGL. So if you want an anime that has loads of action, huge character power-ups and is light at the same time, go for TTGL! Definitely worth it, and no regrets! :P
