Japanese animation (anime) - 天元突破グレンラガン
English: Making Break-Through Gurren-Lagann
Vintage: 2007
Style: Comédia Pastelão Ficção Ação
天元突破グレンラガン - Preview
Preview
In the distant future, mankind hides from the scorching and dangerous planet's surface in deep underground villages. As the rebellious youngster Kamina decides to reach the surface and beyond, he incites friends to try and dig up, to most dismay of the village leaders. When his best friend who he takes as a small brother, Simon, finds a strange machine in the form of a face, they would never guess it would be the key for their survival on the surface - coincidentally on the same day, the village ceiling collapses and a huge monster mecha falls, together with a hot sniper named Yoko, who knows her way with the surface and said monsters. Now, Yoko, Kamina and Simon departs with the goal to gather allies and defeat the "Beastman" who control the surface using such mechas, and reclaim mankind place in the surface world. Pacing Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann is a near slapstick comedy sci-fi thriller by Gainax focusing in a clear "straight-ahead action" motto. You can easily think of it as Neon Genesis Evangelion meets Furi Kuri (FLCL). As Kamina and Simon decide to take up the challenge and fight off the Beastman, they slowly gather friends, steal mechas and learn about the Earth's past and current situation to their best benefit. Very soon in the title they manage to steal a larger Mecha, Gurren, and together with the smaller Simon's mecha Lagann, they can merge forming the fearsome and powerful Gurren-Lagann (thus, the anime title). Going straight ahead with no fear or even a plan, the characters just smash enemy after enemy, gather allies, and march towards the unknown (yeah, right) future. The focus is most often at Simon and his drama of growing up, fighting with reason and emotion to overcome hardships, and his relation with some other characters, and though most of this "character development" comes out from easy-to-understand ridiculously predictable pattern, it's actually fun to watch. Earlier on the title, Kamina also has the spotlight, and later, a new cute girl named Nia appears and eventually tops Yoko as the lead female (Until Gainax decides to once again trash a good character). However, do not expect romantic development: Gainax never knew how to make good romance (be it the main subject or not), and this title is no different, and all romantic developments are trashed aside to pave the way to ludicrous events that fill in the shallow wacky plot. The anime have two arches, the second of which (on episode 16, or 17 if you include the recap episode) takes places years after the conclusion of the first arch, showing several developments and the characters grown up.
Conclusion
Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann received a lot of hype from anime community during 2007 as one of Gainax's best, and some praised it to the point of calling the best mecha anime ever, or "mecha will be compared to this from now on". Surely enough, all hypes come from fanatics trying desperately to make their affection objects be known and loved, but Tengen Toppa is indeed an awesome title in the entertainment/mecha front, however have no doubts: Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann is mediocre at it's best.
There is little character development, all romances are trashed (together with the character developments, which follow very predefined stock-personalities pattern - you can almost read the stereotype list while reading a character description pamphlet on this title, and you can almost tell who will die by the time you meet them), and the anime suffers from a serious lack of identity (is it comedy? Is it serious?), although all that is forgiven and not even noticed if you watch Tengen Toppa heads-on as a mindless entertainment all-action title: it has enough epic battles, mecha fights, hot girls and a shred of a sci-fi plot to fuel any fan eager to watch something while their brains are in hibernation mode, and you will find yourself cheering and shouting to the ridiculous nonsensical matroska mecha (one inside another, squared) fighting for reasons you don't even care. However, as soon as you try to take a more down to earth view, you will realize things are random and artificial: every single cliché you can think of is present, characters behave erratically and sometimes even in stupid (though comic) ways (in a given moment, a character thinks it's natural to be used as a bomb to safeguard another character from stealing things; in another passage, the small rat-like creature that is always with Simon chops off his ass and offers to the hungry characters. Examples of mindless slapstick comedy events can go on and on), and the first lead character death in the anime can be predicted a couple of episodes before it happens (some people claim it was unexpected, but keep in mind the "hibernation mode" required to proper enjoy this series, and how comedy and wacky oriented it is, so it was indeed somewhat unexpected that ANY character would actually die) By the time one of the characters show up with Super-man's clothing, and other with Wonder-woman's, you will realize this is not a title to be taken seriously. Tengen Toppa was clearly made for the entertainment-only fan, but let's face it, here is a good title for you to watch after a tiring school/work day just to have a laugh or two, and you will not find a single thought-provoking moment (in fact, when characters need to explain something, others start snoring at a more plausible explanation, and than everything is downgraded to a childish play on words so even the most retarded character, and viewer, can understand the EXCUSE to do something - no, not a plot, an excuse).
The strange thing is that Tengen Toppa keeps killing it's characters as if you actually cared, but you don't, and this grounded serious view on cause and effect is not really welcome inside the wacky plot, which is probably the only reason for you to get sad when someone dies: "Why!? This is not a drama anime!". Bottom line is, if you want the best that Animation can offer as an entertainment set with action, boobs and shootouts, Tengen Toppa is for you, and on that, you can count it will reach your top list quickly.
If, however, you want to watch something with a quality plot, memorable and human characters and a solid view on sci-fi, stay away or you might suffer several brain damage. If you like Yoko's wallpapers and imagery you can find on the net, just stay put and ignore the title, as you will notice how Gainax can spoil a good character over and over again with no remorse. If you were looking for a good intelligent title for 2007 batch, try Terra He or Dennou Coil.
