In a word... other then epic... escalation. TTGL starts humbly with a young lad and his drill. The weird kid that girls make fun of, that guy who's always pushed around by friend and foe alike... WAIT! You say, "WTFRABBITBBQ Kettei?!1! I've seen this story a hundred bigillion times!" Honestly, I was thinking the same thing, scratching my head at all the hype. Enter the obligatory guiding older brother, GTO-esque figure. At first, I kinda wanted to smack him. And then he got smacked. TTGL loves to use every single tool in the Shounen belt, then point and laugh at itself for doing so. But then a couple episodes in, TTGL gets bored and decides it's going to turn things up a notch, crank the volume to 11 and punch you right in the feels. Then it picks you up, brushes off the dirt, thumbs up, then punches you again. Behind a veil of ridiculosity mocking the norms of anime, mecha, and coming of age stories, TTGL delivers everything from laughs, to f*** yeahs, to the manly single tear of determination shed once every 500 years by Chuck Norris. Only forewarning... check your logic and common sense at the door.
