It's one of the big series I'm watching new this season, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann has all the makings of a worthwhile series. Now this season is really overfilled with mecha animes, so having something stand out like Gurren-Lagann does is a nice touch to a season with other series I'm enjoying. Another one of Gainax's works, it has a fluid animation style I can best connect with Re: Cutey Honey. The style and design of the robots is quirky but top-notch, overall leaving you with a good visual experience.
The story starts with Kamina and Simon (or 'Shimon' as a lot of the forum-goers prefer), who live underground in a world where the surface isn't a place they go. Kamina, leader of his Gurren Brigade, looks to the ceiling and cries out for a means to go to the surface and see the sky. His prayers are luckily answered fast, as two visitors from the surface shake things up in their little village. One of them is Yoko, a human from the surface who fights the powerful Ganmen, giant robots (That are mostly giant heads with arms and legs) that are piloted by the evil Beastmen, who are out to destroy mankind.
The first meetings with Ganmen are quick and excellent battles. Simon's personal mini-mech Lagann is impossibly durable and carries a natural affinity to drills, much like Simon does with his work drilling underground. Once on the surface and better introduced to the interaction between Ganmen, Beastmen and humans, Kamina quickly attempts to earn his own mecha, one that he calls Gurren. The fact that humans can't use Ganmen and lost on him, and he quickly finds out the secret to piloting one.
The story continues and the battles continue to grow bigger and bigger as the opponents get more dangerous and the threats get higher. By episode three the title is better explained as Kamina forces the two human-run Ganmen into a single robot, one he dubs Gurren-Lagann!
The series gets really interesting around episode 4, but only behind the scenes. One of Japan's biggest message boards 2channel was getting pretty annoyed with some of the minor details of the series, but episode 4 really got them talking. The animation for 4 was completely different, it really has to be watched to be understood. It looked very similar to BECK, a style that fit well for that series but ultimately looked horrible in the bright colours and unrealistic forms of of Gurren-Lagann.
Well, to answer the concerns, Takai Akai, one of the men who was there before Gainax really existed, was quite rude and generally didn't hold much respect for the complainers. After the complaints for episode 4 arrived, the 2channelers found the original comments and made a huge scene out of it, leading to the producer's resignation. It was a pretty horrible scene, since it was basically a bunch of idiots from a website complaining, but he really should have known better than to sink to their level and throw insults. I mean, you tend to expect a little more from people in important positions, but they're human after all.
With that all cleared up and a Takai Akai removed from the credits for episode 5, the anime continued as before: Full of robot battles. Episodes 5, 6 and 7 were fine episodes, introducing new characters and more information. Personally, I really started to wonder where they were going to go from here.
Episode 8 stopped any train of thought faster than an anti-tank missile. I won't breath a word of what happened, but if you watch the series watch it up to episode 8. Wait, watch it up to episode 9. I haven't seen it yet but it will make or break the series at this point.
Overall, I find that Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann promises a wacky, Gainax-level anime. I've seen many of their series, both their original creations and works they just had a hand in. Even series that people barely know about. It's always interesting to see their work, particularly since they seem to love their company as much as other people do.
Check it out, you should know the usual channels to find it with.That's all for today. I suppose next time I'll cover Lucky Star, depending on how I feel about this one later. Goodnight!
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