After watching brilliant animes you get this feeling of "WHAT DO I DO IN LIFE NOW"
Well I've got this feeling at the moment and so I thought, hell might as well make a review on it since I'm so revved up, you get it revved up? drills rev? OHHOHOHOHO. Nevermind.
Gurren Lagann is an evolved product of the Japanese animation industry, setting new standards for the entire industry. It is only fitting that the basic underlying theme this anime tackles is also centered around “progress” and “evolution”. Taking a modest start, the anime slowly grows and develops it story and characters, ultimately building up to a tale of epic proportions. All of this and more is done in the rather impressive and constrictive episode length of 27 episodes, which is an impressive feat on it’s own.
Gurren Lagann has a killer story, but it’s amazing plot would be nothing without it’s amazing cast of characters that take the huge burden of the story on their shoulders and drive it along. It can be arguably said that Kamina himself is the main star for the first few episodes, and amazingly drives everyone and everything in the story. Then the other characters get their own chances to shine as the story continues. Simon, who’s always overshadowed by his “Aniki” (Brother figure) slowly becomes his own man, while continuing the traditions and ideas of his brother, and you see more and more of Kamina in his younger brother.
Many characters come in, and not one of them feel useless at all. The series is jam packed with lovable characters, both as inspiring heroes and as cool villains. It’s amazing how well all of these characters are maintained, keeping in mind how much they grow and change throughout the series. Even as they mature and change, however, they never stray a bit from their core personalities and that’s an amazing accomplishment in its own right. Some characters earn your respect even more as they perform their various role in the stories, while others become hated for their acts.
The sound is excellent. The voice acting in particular, is exceptional. Half the greatness of the characters comes from their dialogue and how well it’s done by the voice actors. Props to all the voice actors in the anime, as they do a terrific job and add a lot of depth to their characters. The music is also exceptionally well done, from the intro music, to the music used during the battle scenes. The sound is as good as it can get with this anime.
Mecha designs and everything also evolves much like the story and general artistic presentation of the anime. In the end, the only real flaw of the art of how it can actually be a reason to put off people from an exceptionally great anime, because not everyone wants pantyshots and 14 year olds with D cups. On the other hand, the trade-off of taking a bit of discomfort in the first episode is the great experience that every anime fan would take way from this show and it’s superb story!
As far as the visuals go, Gurren Lagann not only steamrolls through uncharted boundaries, it also makes everything feel completely off the wall. Gainax is still the king of giant robot fight scenes, and goddamnit, they prove it over and over again in this anime. Absolutely no expense is spared in the animation, and the grandiose music definitely captures the sheer magnitude of events.
Probably the most surprising thing about the series though is that - despite how ridiculous it is - I have found myself getting rather emotionally invested on both occasions where I’ve watched it. The show is unabashedly sentimental, and whilst sentimentality isn’t always my thing (and speeches about how “the human race will triumph” REALLY aren’t my thing) it works for me here slotting in to how over the top everything is. It’s part of the of the odd contradictory nature of what makes the show so good that it can be both a parody (leading to humour and fun) and yet also sincere (leading to sadness).
If you are the type of person willing to scream “THIS IS SO EPPPPIIIICCCC” as the protagonist gives a bombastic speech about self-confidence in a massive, sunglass totting robot, then be sure to check out this anime.
Gurren Lagann really did surpass my expectations in every way as I had thought it was just a over-hyped anime and the fact that I'm not an overly huge fan of the mecha genre. It’s not necessarily perfect, but it does manage to make you feel sad,happy and excited in a manner that caught me quite off-guard. It’s easy to see why this series is held in such high regard by the anime community.
