Gurren Lagann begins in an underground, post-apocalyptic town, where the brash and passionate Kamina is looking for a way to break through to the surface, and to see the sky. He recruits the young and impressionable Simon in his quest, though it isn't long before they learn that the surface is mostly a wasteland, ravaged by an army of 'beastmen,' who pilot giant mechas. Kamina begins recruiting a rag-tag band of humans to fight back, and once they learn that they can hijack the enemy mechas, their revolution against the beastmen begins in earnest. And then everything blows up from there, so that by the end of the series the kinetic mecha battles are occurring on a scale that puts everything else to shame. Remember the final stage of Katamari Damacy, when even the continents cannot resist the pull of your mighty Katamari? The final battle here dwarfs even that immense scale.
Some people are going to have difficulty making it that far though--the first 6 episodes or so have some real issues with pacing and quality control. I found that watching one episode at a time was pretty much enough for me--anything more than that and the charm wore off quickly, which the loud and unpleasant characters don't help with. The three leads are the worst offenders: Kamina is every macho-man anime stereotype squeezed into one body, Simone is a Shinji-clone, and Yoko is the ideal of 'fan-service' turned into a character. Fortunately, once the show finds its footing things improve immeasurably, and the characters harbor surprising depths that go far beyond their surface personality, which will morph most of them into truly likable (and maybe even lovable) companions by the final story arc. Of special note are the character designs throughout. Some of them are truly unique, and all are home to a few nice flourishes that help them stand out from the crowd. (Yoko's wide hips, Nia's flower-pupils, Kamina's glasses, etc. My personal favorite is Adiane, who may be my new favorite anime villainess, based solely on looks and animation alone.) The mecha designs, while frequently bizarre or just plain ugly, are also really something else, and as the characters learn that mechas can be combined in various ways the words 'transformation sequence' take on a whole new meaning.
Despite its heavily recycled plot elements and logic-defying goofiness, the show itself hides some potent surprises: especially brave are its willingness to permanently kill off important characters and a major fast-forward (7 years) that occurs halfway through the series. Seeing all of the characters 7 years older (and their relationships and personalities advanced by seven years, as well) is hugely gratifying, as time-skips like this are something that almost never happens in anime, or in television period. Another, longer time-skip (about 20 years!) happens towards the end of the series and acts as an especially bitter-sweet epilogue--between this and the awe-inspiring (and sort of devastating) climax, particularly sensitive viewers may shed some tears.
Viewers looking for logic or layers of symbolism and meaning to work through aren't going to find much here to latch onto: Gurren Lagann is all about big mecha fights and manly mushiness, and doesn't concern itself too terribly with anything else. The mechas are powered by human emotion, everything is made of explodium, plot contrivances are necessary and frequent, and all known physical laws are thoroughly and repeatedly abused. What makes it such a joy to watch has to do with how expertly Gainax continues to one-up itself as it steamrolls ahead, all while penning what must surely be the greatest love-letter to the mecha genre (and maybe action anime period) ever. That it's got a good heart (you'll actually look forward to the speeches and moralizing in this, trust me) is just the icing on the cake, and for all of its boisterous posturing, it concludes on a surprisingly grounded note that's as triumphant as it is sad.
Gurren Lagann has some problems and won't be for everyone (for me, the biggest problem is the fan-service, which starts out innocent and funny enough, but quickly grows tiresome and occasionally dips into creepy territory), but like FLCL does for some, it perfectly captures a very specific adolescent sort of feeling, and the right audience will find it to be a lively and rousing experience that pretty much kicks all kinds of ass, ever. Recommended--even if it takes you a week to get through the first five episodes.
