WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!?

And so comes an end to one of, if not the, best giant robo/pseudo-mecha series I have ever watched, but not being a huge fan of mecha, I suppose that’s not saying much. But even though I’m not a huge fan of the genre, I loved Gurren Lagann, it was such fun to watch and I’ll sorely miss it in my weekly anime schedule. While there were a minority that disliked it, Gurren Lagann was very well received as a whole and will most likely be the standard of comparison for mecha series to come.

Series Rating: 10/10 (S+)

The final episode turned out to be a lot different than what I expected, but was still epic in its own right. Foregoing the OP and jumping straight into the action and seeing the birth of Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann by harnessing the power of an entire galaxy you knew immediately that we were in for an overdose of win.

The fight between the anti spiral and the Dai Gurren Dan wasn’t as spectacular as it could have been, or even comparatively to fights in the past, but it was far from bad. I had to take a second to suspend belief and think “LOL, anime physics” when the anti spiral started chucking entire galaxies and TTGL using them as stepping stones, since you know…galaxies don’t work that way, but after that brief hiccup, I sat back and enjoyed the eye candy. I was a little disappointed that Simon didn’t come up with a new attack to throw at the anti spiral, especially after it came up with the “IMA FIRIN’ MAH BIG BANG LAZOR”. But the final scene where we went from Tengen Toppa GL -> Chouginga GL -> Arc GL -> GL -> Lagann Impacto was fucking awesome.

That’s where things got a little iffy though, the wedding scene and time skip epilogue felt incredibly out of place when considered in the overall context of the series. The main theme of the series has always been “Kick reason to the curb”, breaking through reason and logic to do the seemingly impossible. But the ending didn’t seem fitting as it brought us back down to reality. At the end, you were forced to realize that the anti spirals were partially right, Simon’s spiral power was mighty, but came with consequences, ultimately, the loss of the Nia, his one true love. This contrasts with his earlier resolve where he said he’ll protect both the universe and his woman, in the end he accepts Nia’s loss and leaves the aftermath to Rossiu to become a wandering hobo.

The time skip was another misfit, Simon forged a path to the heavens but then leaves everything in Rossiu’s hands to deal with the politics. This ending conflicts with what the show built up throughout its duration, that hot blooded GAR and guts/courage will guide you through anything. The only reason I see them doing this is so that they can set up a second season, which makes sense since the events of the opening scene in episode 1 never happened, which was a huge disappointment.

I’m not saying the ending was unsatisfying, just that it was far too different from the overall tone of the series, which is determination over reason. But at least they did well in tying up the theme of spiral power, a power that is ever evolving, ever growing. When Simon says that bringing back the dead wouldn’t be right, the essence of spiral power is defined, one that walks towards the future, never looking back, never stagnating. With every rotation, one will grow, the knowledge from the past and aspirations from the future intertwine in a double helix, dependent on each other. I also like how Simon walked away from it all, yes I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see the Simon from episode 1, but Simon taking his leave was necessary. If he had stayed around, humanity would have kept depending on his strength, he needed to step aside so that the rest of them could learn to live on through their own and inspire future generations to forge an even greater future.

Ultimately, I guess we should be thankful that we didn’t get a Gainax mindfuck end, “CONGRATULATIONS SIMON!”. But damn, nobody ages well in GL, everyone except Leeron, Viral, Gimmy and Darry were freaking ugly. Especially Rossiu.

Looking back at Gurren Lagann as a whole, it’s incredible how far it’s come since the beginning. Starting from a young boy in a small underground village doing nothing but drilling holes all day, who would have thought that the series would scale exponentially to the battle that decides the fate of the entire universe, all in a mere 26 episodes. Amazing considering that some series spend the same amount of time and are unable to resolve something simple like a love triangle.

Gurren Lagann’s plot was formulaic in nature, having the Gurren-Dan kick reason to the curb and overcome impossible odds in the face of the oppression of their kind, just with increasingly HUEG enemies. But it was executed extremely well so that one arc flows smoothly into another and with so much action that you can’t help but be drawn in.

The development of the characters was equally well done, all of them having to face adversity in their lives but choosing to continue fighting to honor those who they’ve lost and protect those they love. Simon’s progression was the most interesting to watch, from a timid boy who relied so heavily on Kamina, then suddenly faced with solitude and having to find a way to believe in himself (Shinji phase) then becoming a force that others look to for strength, and finally GARlock.

On the topic of characters, another thing that Gurren Lagann did well was the main character deaths. The deaths in GL were pretty standard fare, being used to incite change in the ones that lived on, in essence giving them a push in the back so they can continue towards the future. But one thing that differed was that their deaths were completely of their free will. All the characters that died met their demise head on without any hesitation, they saw something that only they had the power to do and charged straight in knowing full well what awaited them at the end.

As for favourites, like many others, the death that impacted me the most was Kamina’s, mostly because it was the first and came as a complete surprise. However, I must concede the best death sequence goes to Kittan, no contest. Most BAAAAAAAAAW worthy was Nia ;_;

Another random thing that I liked about GL was its distorted application of physics. For the most part, the series is devoid of any bounding laws of physics, Gurren Lagann procures drills a number of times its size at its whim and the transformations of the Lagann variations completely ignore the laws of conservation of mass and the first two laws of thermodynamics (energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed). But at the most random of times, they’ll bust out things like variable hybrid probability and applications of Schrödinger’s theories of quantum mechanics. Not to mention that they actually considered the implications of having no moon on the Earth. I loved those gems among the chaos of the laws governing the Gurren Lagann universe.

I don’t think I need to say much about the technical aspects of Gurren Lagann, Gainax has been milking Evangelion for over 10 years, and the production levels of Gurren Lagann makes it apparent just how much money they’ve accumulated over that time. Aside from the controversial episode 4, every single episode of Gurren Lagann was beautifully animated with smooth actions scenes and breathtaking backgrounds. Episodes 15 and the final arc from 24-27 (40% >=D) were the heights of the series’ animation, with action sequences that I doubt will be topped in the mecha genre for quite some time to come.

Even more surprising was the music, I absolutely loved GL’s soundtrack, this coming from a guy who usually pays no attention to the music in anime. But when Happily Ever after during episode 15 and “ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWA” during episode 25 exploded onto the foreground, chills ran up my spine. I have never bought an anime ost in my entire life and it’s been a good 5 years since I bought a cd, but I’m seriously considering buying Gurren Lagann’s OST when it’s released (October 3rd!).

There’s not much more to say about Gurren Lagann, as with almost any anime, you can’t simply be told how awesome it is, you have to experience it first hand, reviews like this are only meant to open the eyes of those who haven’t stumbled upon it, or are on the fence and need some additional information to take the plunge. I generally dislike mecha, but loved this series, that speaks wonders about how great it was. Gurren Lagann has joined Evangelion and a few select others that I would define as “Must see” anime.

And for those of you who have been following Gurren Lagann and are in withdrawal now that it’s done, I suggest you go watch Gunbuster/Diebuster (a.k.a. Aim for the Top!), each a 6 episode mecha OVA by Gainax. They are both made of win and awesome, Gunbuster more than Diebuster, but they’re both quite good, and an excellent way to follow up GL.

Click image to see the whole thing

Finally, if anyone reading visits 4chan, they’ll undoubtedly know about the Gurren Lagann Koma where each panel is a shop of the original Gaijin 4koma adapted to the events of the episode. This is what it’s at so far, we’re waiting on some bored anon to shop a decent dual panel 27. I’ll update it once I find it.

~ Shirukii ~