The next thing it does great are some of the characters. Sure, not all of them are that interesting, but the main characters sure are. Kamina is probably my favorite character in the series and is basically the heart of the show btw im about to spoil something so if you are reading this and don't want to get spoiled, this is your chance. So basically Kamina dies, and it is extremely heartbreaking, because up until this point, he was the heart of the show. Sure Simon is the main character and we know this, but much like the characters of the show we focus on Kamina rather than Simon as Kamina is more interesting, so when he dies, it is extremely heartbreaking. It doesn't help that he feels like that older brother we all want and is always pushing you. But his death also gave us another great character. Simon, who up until this point, had been relegated as brother #2, the Luigi to Kamina as Mario. After Kamina's death, it pushes Simon to become as great as he did, which eventually leads to him growing as a character and killing the Spiral King (kind of). Yoko is pretty great in the show, except I feel like she is used more for fanservice and a minor love triangle plot, but I feel that in the beginning at least, she is very useful to the team and acts as one of the more grounded and main characters. Unfortunately that goes to shit after the time skip, which I will talk about in a sec. The other characters are decently interesting such as Kittan and his sisters, and I think Viral is a fucking great villain. There are also characters like leeroy and the rest of the team who I think do a very solid job of rounding out the cast.
Now for the plot of Gurren Lagann. Gurren Lagann does not spend a lot of time on the characters backstories, and to a certain extent I think thats fine. We know Simon's parents got killed in an earthquake, and Kamina's dad died on the surface. Although I feel a little more detail could have been put into the backstories, its not that big of a deal. Gurren Lagann is pretty beautiful as it teaches you many messages throughout the first half, and its pretty inspirational. Sure, they can be a little bit obvious, like "always stive for freedom" or "keep on going" but I feel like some episodes especially are unique, such as the episode with the people who worship the gunmen, and I think its very important to see what lessons can be taken away from episodes like that. Not only that, this show also teaches us that there are two sides to a story, like why the beastmen do what they do. SPOILER ALERT, so when it all comes to Kamina's death, we see how big of an impact it is on the story. Kamina carries on, even with the injuries he sustained. He bids a happy yet sorrowful goodbye to his little brother and its overall just heartbreaking to see a guy who you would never think would die die. It also helps push Simon's character into someone more interesting, which leads me to the time skip.
Lemme get this out of the way. I HATE time skips. I think they are unoriginal, lazy, and really kills the momentum of any show. But for Gurren Lagann, it kinda makes sense. What else do you do when you have killed the tyrannical dictator keeping the world imprisoned underground? It cant be another monster of the week type show anymore. It only makes sense for there to be a time skip. And there is. A 7 year time skip takes place where we see that Simon is now the commander of the world, with Rossiu at his side (we can also see that Rossiu feels that Simon takes his role too lightly, which is foreshadowing). Anyways, we know that Yoko decided she wasn't cut out for politics and she disappears and we see that humans have started to live on the surface. Seeing the new Simon in a more confident and leadership like position is pretty startling as he used to be shy and scared. He also kinda looks more like Kamina, which is a bit strange cuz they aint biologically related but hey maybe its the fashion choice or we can chalk it up to anime being anime. But yeah, some shit happens, aliens called anti-spirals attack, Rossiu overthrows Simon to become commander, and we learn that Yoko is a teacher now and comes to save Simon while he is in prison waiting for his execution. In this period of time we also learn that gunmen are kind of a thing in the past and are replaced with more advanced robots, except those more advanced robots are kinda useless against fighting anti-spirals because gunmen were made to fight anti-spirals, which is a pretty good explanation of why gunmen are more effective. Simon then takes up Gurren Lagann again, with viral now becoming the other person in the cockpit, and I feel in this scene we see two things. One, that Yoko is completely useless now, like sure she fights in her gunmen but we don't see her do that much from here on out which is kind of a shame, and I felt she could have been used way more. The second thing we see is that Simon has kind of begun to act like Kamina. He has stopped giving up so easily, and has often pushed farther into enemy lines than before, where he used to retreat. He also would spout random inspirational lines like Kamina. It is pretty amazing seeing the drastic change in personality and shows how much of an impact Kamina had on Simon. Then after all is done, Rossiu tries to off himself, which Simon prevents, which I think is a little bit strange considering he was about to sacrifice like 90% of the world, and he gets off pretty easily, which kinda pissed me off.
Other than that, the final battle is coming up and lemme just say, shit gets fucking wild. So they get put into some water, and a lot of character sacrifice themselves, except they are some minor characters so imma be real I don't care too much, but its still sad. Then Kittan sacrifices himself and that is really heartbreaking because I think he is almost the replacement Kamina, while he might not spout inspirational lines like him he is similar in personality and is treated like an older brother, so its pretty emotional when he sacrifices himself. Then the big moment comes where they fight the anti-spiral, and lemme just say HOLY FUCK IS THE ANIMATION AMAZING. A little side tangent here but the animation for this is fucking amazing. THIS CAME OUT IN 2007, AND IT LOOKS LIKE IT WAS MADE IN 2022. GODDAMN BRO. The fight scenes in these last parts also look fabulous, and the background of space looks fantastic. Then the tearjerker came. They are all stuck in extrastaneous space, which like a mind memory labyrinth, when Kamina visits Simon in his memories or dreams and starts talking to him, and its just great. I started bawling like a baby when a grown up Simon and Kamina were talking with each other and Kamina notices how tall Simon had gotten. I saw the movie version of this scene too and I can say its better because it involves Kittan more, which I think is really cool, showing how Kittan kinda became a second brother to Simon. Anyways after thats all done, they all come back and combine into one big mech. Simon then gives off one of the greatest speeches in all of anime, and this speech is why I call this anime the anti-neon genesis evangelion. Evangelion is very melancholy and makes you depressed, but Gurren Lagann seeks to inspire you to believe in yourself. Not the type of believe in your self deus ex machina, but the believe in yourself for real because you can do amazing shit type stuff. But yeah they defeat the dude and go back to earth. Then Simon and Nia get married, but Nia fades out of existence because the anti-spiral no longer exists. It is a very emotional moment for everyone, and Simon takes off his wedding suit, puts on his cape with the Gurren Lagann logo, and disappears.
Now this last part of the story I don't really like too much, like some parts are cool, and I'll mention those, but its ANOTHER time skip, and sure its a bit warranted, but idk I feel like it doesn't fit as well. Yoko is the principal of the school (cool), Rossiu is the president (fucking why he almost left everyone for dead dont trust this guy), the other side characters are doing well, Viral is a captain for the space craft (really fucking cool, I like how beastmen and humans now co-exist), and finally Simon is just off somewhere wandering the world. I kinda hate that shit. I feel like Simon should have just returned to being commander or at the very least don't kill of Nia and have them married and living happily. There is literally no reason for Simon to be wandering the world with his drill spear. Everyone who wants to be out of the underground is out, no one really digs anymore, and its not like there are any more big robots to fight or enemies or something. Which kinda brings me to my next point, I don't get too much why he gives the drill away to Gimmy, like its not like the story showed us much emotional attachment, but its also like I dont think Gimmy will be able to use it because from what the show has said so far, only Simon can use Lagann. But yeah back to my point what is Simon doing with the spear drill at the end, is he just homeless and wandering like a mile away from the capital? Its a bit strange, but hey, good anime overall. Also realized this is my longest review/note yet. Jesus.
