Review #100: Gurren Lagann

• Published: 07 (JP), 08 (US)
• Episodes: 27

Simone and Kamina are two boys living underground in a place called Jiha Village. Simone is a digger, the best in the village, a village that survives and expands because of diggers making new holes for places to live and grow. Kamina on the other hand is a trouble maker, always looking to find a way up to a place that no one else believes in, a place called the surface, a place he says he went to with his father when he was a child. Believing in Simone’s digging skills, Kamina ropes him into joining his band in trying to break free one day. As they try to dig out, Simone finds a face in the ground, a giant mechanical face. When the group is stopped trying to break free, a giant mecha falls down through the ceiling of Jiha Village into the town center. Remembering the face, Simone goes and finds out he possesses the key to starting it up, a drill he’s kept around his neck. With his small head mecha (who Kamina dubs Lagann), along with the help of a rifle toting girl who introduces herself as Yoko from the next door village of Litner, Simone and the others manage to drive away the large machine Yoko calls a Gunman.

Once Simone and Kamina reach the surface, Yoko informs them the true nature of the Earth. Litner and Jiha are just two underground villages where humanity lives, most unaware of any other life. The surface is patrolled by Gunmen, piloted by creatures known as Beastmen, tasked with killing any humans they find. Litner’s roof collapsed, showing it that outside world, which is how Yoko ended up knowing all she did. Unfortunately, the power of the Gunmen is too much to hold out much hope.

At least, it would be for any normal person.

With his indomitable will and lack of caution or common sense, Kamina decides that he’ll make the surface a place for humanity. The next time a Gunman attacks, he has Simone and Lagann help him open the Gunman up and steal it, claiming it for his own. Calling it Gurren, after the name of his team from Jiha Village, Kamina used his new Gunman along with Simone’s Lagann to help fight. Things took an unexpected turn however when the two try to combine on a bombastic whim… and it works, becoming the much more powerful Gurren Lagann, a two headed Gunman. With this new form, the three start to win more battles, even inspiring others to steal their own gunmen and help them fight back. As they fight more and more beastmen, more and more people join their cause, though the danger keeps getting more and more apparent. Larger and more powerful Gunmen appear, driven by the generals of a ruler known only as The Spiral King.

Yet… there’s no slowing Kamina, even as Simone doubts. There’s no slowing those that join under the new banner of Team Gurren, as they start to call their ragged band of rebels. There’s no room for giving up, turning around, playing it safe. The group moves on towards victory… but can they truly reach it just through the power of their spirit? Not only are there questions of their chances, but who IS this Spiral King, and why is he keeping humanity underground? What is Lagann, and why can it merge with other Gunmen? Will Kamina ever reach the stars, along with everyone else he pulls along in his zeal?

There is a lot more to Gurren Lagann, a staggering amount actually for the length of the series. Much like the main characters, the series is non-stop, but I won’t go into it all since the story is so dramatic and changing that it would lessen the experience. What I can say is that the scale of breaking out of the underground to take back the Earth is just the beginning. Kamina’s dream is soon realized, but at a heavy price, and even as they succeed once, they find new foes, new reasons for doubt, new impossible hurdles to make possible. It’s not an exaggeration to say that by the end the fate of the Universe hangs in the very balance, both physically and philosophically.

Even though Gurren Lagann thrives on the usual anime themes of over the top action and emotional drama, it’s got a lot different than many other anime. In feel it’s closest to a follower, Kill la Kill, with a sweeping scale that spans time and space by the end, with action that keeps pulling out all the stops only to find even more stops to pull out. It’s also very reminiscent of Kill la Kill in the artwork, with costumes that are always bombastic, bright, and flashy. With all those similarities, the tone is a bit different. Where Kill la Kill was a plot for revenge turned into a chance to save the planet, Gurren Lagann starts right off with trying to save humanity and moves on to even loftier goals. Where Kill la Kill quickly moves from basic fights to flying battles in life fiber suits, Gurren Lagann starts with mecha before the end of the first episode and keeps thinking bigger.

In a way, no anime is truly like Gurren Lagann in the sheer scale and size of it all (at least that I can recall)… but that’s a good thing. Once you crank things up to 11 out of 10 in volume, things can start to lose their uniqueness if you overdo it. Even Gurren Lagann on its own almost overdoes things, with the building reaching nigh unbelievable levels by the end. That’s really the biggest criticism I can give; this is not an anime for those that like reasonable, realistic, or even SEMI-realistic stories and plots. The anime really just keeps washing over you with more and more, and if you can accept it, it’s a wild ride.

So I’ve built up quite the praise of the anime, but if you’re reading this, then you want more tangible things to grasp for a review I imagine. The art is highly stylized but very colorful with highly unique characters, mecha, and landscapes. The music almost matches Kill la Kill in memorability, with all sort of styles and themes working perfectly through it all. The voice acting is all just as over the top and bombastic as the series itself, making for a well done English performance. Because of all that, I recommend the anime, and not just a little. I can’t call it a favorite, mostly because the nature of the anime makes it almost impossible to nail down and talk about it as a concrete plot… if that makes sense. All the same, it is like no other anime, and the journey from start to end really will leave you wondering what you just watched. Come out good or bad, it’s not an experience you should miss.