I've said before that grew up with cartoons and never really moved on from them. As a result I discovered anime and watched it almost exclusively throughout my teenage years (which would explain a lot, but moving on.) Now, in my mid-twenties, I've found that anime is harder and harder to get into. I find it gets pretty formulaic and dry most of the time, and as a result writers try to do something completely crazy to catch people's attention without actually concentrating on getting some substance worked in. For example, there's one I saw recently where a race-car driver catches a virus that lets them meld with motorcycles and he becomes a super hero. No jokes. It tries to take itself seriously, too. This is generally ok by me, I don't mind the senselessness of some of these shows; in fact sometimes it's all I want to see, but it's not too much to ask to add a bit of substance, or at least something to get you attached to the characters and what they stand for.
Gainax has been my go-to studio for these sorts of things for a long time. My first anime series was Neon Genesis: Evangelion and although they come out with pointless drivel more often than not, every once in a while they release something as golden as NGE. A six-part series by the name of FLCL was a step further, trying to take the themes and complicated plot of NGE and cram it into six 45 minute episodes. The result turned a lot of people off of the series. There was a lot of symbolism that was taken literally, which ended up confusing a lot of people. However, it's actually a pretty ingenious coming of age story rivaling some of the better Western novels of the same ilk. It gets a little distracting when the main character starts sprouting TV-headed robots out of his forehead, but seriously, it all makes perfect sense.
This represents puberty. Come on, people. It's not rocket science.
After that, Gainax was pretty silent for a while in terms of releasing something really substantial as far as I'm concerned. I waited for a few years to find something golden, dressed up in a goofy wrapper, not afraid to talk about the human condition while in the same breath throwing in a few dick and fart jokes.
Well, that's pretty much the definition of a little show called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
A whirlwind of self-parody, overbearing masculine bravado, cheesy morals, perverted jokes, giant robots and a healthy dose of T&A. Under it all, though, is a message about the indomitable human spirit and a warning about the dangers that go with it. The show starts of literally in a deep, dark pit and without stopping for breath it moves up and up into the heavens.
Our main character, by the name of Simon, is a little fella who digs tunnels all day long in his underground village for the purpose of expansion. He's essentially a worker ant, but he's really fucking good at what he does. He knows, however, that eventually the village is going to cave in and kill everybody; it's only a matter of time. As a pretty mousy guy, he's walked on by pretty much everybody in the village except for a delinquent by the name of Kamina, who insists Simon call him "bro," despite being of no relation. Kamina's plan is to break through the ceiling of the village and get to the surface; this is something the chief is displeased about, claiming there is no such thing as the surface and that he is simply stirring up trouble.
One day, Simon finds a man-sized, metal face buried in the ground while he is digging. While he is trying to show this to Kamina, another much, much bigger robotic face falls through from the surface and starts tearing up the village. Eventually, the two meet up with Yoko, a sniper girl from the surface and the aforementioned T&A, and go back to the robot that Simon found. Upon discovering that it can be piloted, Kamina insists that Simon do it, since he was the one who found it. They battle their opponent and defeat it by rocketing up to the surface, finally seeing the sky for the first time.
Their celebration is cut short, however, as they quickly find that the surface is dominated by more giant robotic faces (known as Gunmen,) and they begin a quest to reclaim the surface for humanity, picking up more allies along the way and eventually becoming "Team Gurren." The leader and driving force of this team is of course Kamina, who becomes more and more powerful through such sheer force of will that it's beyond comical and yet somehow seriously inspiring. His example, as well as his philosophy that he'd rather die than be contained, inspires the rest of the surface dwellers to fight until they are eventually waging an all-out war.
Hilarious, yet manly as fuck. By the way, his giant robot
has sunglasses like that, too.
The corny speeches and campy dialogue along side the over-the-top imagery and parodic fight sequences (giant robots combining to make giant-er robots) intensify the manner in which the series grabs you by the lapels, screaming at you and shaking you until the final episode is complete. Few shows can have a line like, "Perfect combustion of manly souls!" and get away with it, let alone have the viewers revel in it's ridiculousness and awesomeness.
By the time I had finished it, I had been infected with the show's hard-headed and bombastic glorification of the human spirit. The message isn't just to fix your problems, but to embrace the consequences of your actions in doing so, and to stomp down and over the problems that are brought up in doing so. Many stories say, "never give up." Few do it so pompously, delightfully arrogantly, and succinctly as Gurren Lagann.
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