Simon has lived underground his whole life, drilling to
expand his village and wondering where he belongs in the world. His only friend is his “bro” Kamina, who
dreams of traveling to the surface and seeing the sky. Their world gets shaken up when a giant robot
and a beautiful woman crash through the ceiling of their home. Using a drill key and a small mecha of their
own, Simon, Kamina and the beautiful sniper, Yoko, set out to explore the world
above, discovering more giant robot Gunman, a slew of allies and tons of bad
guys ready to kick their ass. If Simon
can find the inner strength, he can become the man Kamina hopes he will one day
become. And they’ll do it together with
their powerful combined Gunman, the Gurren Lagann
Ok so…this is my…third (?) time trying to get a feel for
this series. I don’t get it. Ever since this tittle was announced way back
when, people have been touting as the best thing to happen to Anime in a really
long time. And it’s even got all of the
things that would grab me in a series: Sword swinging protagonist, a bit of
humor and a scantily clad hot chick with a really big gun. On top of that, the animation and
storytelling style seem like a marriage of Kill La Kill and Martian Successor
Nadesico. So why…WHY CAN I NOT GET INTO
GURREN LAGANN??
It’s def a question that’s plagued me for a bit as you
can tell. Going back and watching the
first couple of episodes though, it nags me more than ever cause…I do kind of
like it. Or rather I like it when Simon
has his act together and gets into the battle.
I like it when Kamina can take it down a notch and actually show how bad
ass he is. And I like Yoko…basically at
all times, man is she hot. I guess what
im getting at are there are times I genuinely felt involved this time. I think it’s taking a bit of time to build up
to the more standard sized giant robot Gunman that I know Gurren Lagann
eventually becomes. But the world
building is pretty solid. The
underground home of Simon and Kamina isn’t around for very long but I liked the
cave dweller feel. There’s also an
obvious difference between how mean spirited the underground folk are compared
to Yoko and her surface dwelling (Resistance?) group. It’s not a bad intro by any means.
I mention Kill La Kill and Nadesico for good
reasons. The Animation reminds me a bit
of Studio Trigger and their big Anime hit with all of the energetic action and
rapidly changing art styles to fit said action.
The story seems like a bit of a parody of the giant robot genre of
anime, which is what Nadesico was at the end of the day (we’ll get to that
series early next year if I plan right).
But, also like Nadesico and even Kill La Kill, Gurren Lagann has it’s
share of dramatic moments; like when Simon and Kamina discover the eventual
fates of their parents. These beats are
around but never hamper the spirit of fun introduced in the first couple of
episodes.
Now, the question is, with all this in mind, do I give
Gurren Lagann another shot and try to get further than the first three or four
episodes? Im gonna go with a very
strong, possibly. It felt different
watching the first two episodes this time, maybe somethings changed in me? I don’t know but a ton of people really like
this show and feel I owe it to myself to check it out. So…yeah, I’ll try to fit this one into my
Anime watching schedule. Here’s hoping
Simon doesn’t do the “get brave and strong at the end of an episode before
returning to wimpy and scared the start of the next episode” too often. That’ll drive me nuts and…not even the sexy
Yoko could balance those kind of male lead issues.
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