You’ve already seen Nomad’s piece on the matter, so let me try and tackle it from a different angle. Expect spoilers and incoherent ramblings. :3
After watching all 27 episodes, I can say that Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann was a fun watch, but it won’t necessarily be a memorable show for me as a whole. It had it’s great moments, but overall the show felt like it was lacking something to me after the timeskip. We were left on a high point after the battle with Lord Genome, and I never felt that GAINAX could really sufficiently build on that point. Everything after it was nicely put together despite the many questions I had watching it (like what exactly happened during that timeskip, and more about what Lord Genome’s history was like for starters), and how things occurred the last couple of episodes were great. But it wasn’t as awesome for me as pre-timeskip was, and I think it was because GAINAX played it safe.
Maybe I became jaded, but I wanted more from GAINAX after the epic battle for the surface that defined the first half of the series. I thought for the first 15 episodes that there was a nice variation on things I’ve seen or heard of before, as well as a whole new way of looking at things. Seeing things like seeing how Kamina dies (with the amazing Giga Drill Breaker’s unveiling) and how it was done, Simon’s awakening, and the fight with Lord Genome were epic for me because I hadn’t seen things done quite like that before, especially the latter. How often does one see a man by himself (with flaming hair) take on a kid and his mecha and hold his own, knowing that he was fighting to keep humanity under the ground? It was a fresh, tongue-in-cheek series of episodes that had me desiring more of kicking reason to the curb.
And there were more original moments like that for me post-timeskip: space as an ocean, the alternate realities (why would Simon want to stay as he was with a Kamina that lacked the bravado and guts the original had, for example), fighting the Will in the primordial sea. There were pretty epic moments in that second half as well, like Kittan’s passing (again with the Giga Drill Breaker; I love that move), seeing Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann emerge from stuff which universes were made of, Rossiu taking a pretty powerful punch like a man, Boota going over 9000, Kamina “coming back”, lol quantum dividing, and so on.
But while you could say it was epic, it wasn’t as over-the-top as we got from before the timeskip, and I missed that. Part of that could be attributed to the loss of Kamina early on, though it’s not a big part. He contained a controlled insanity inside of him, you could say, which influenced the Gurren-dan in ways that no-one was really ever able to master. Simon grew to such a through the series, but he was more controlled than anything else. But it makes sense, since Simon realized that he couldn’t be Kamina. With Kamina’s death, while his mottos and views were taken up by the team, you lost much of his insanity that came with them. And with that loss of insanity, to me a lot of possibilities (in terms of doing the impossible) were lost with it. They don’t go necessarily hand in hand, but I’d like to think that being random and off the wall opens things up if people believe in that.
Another part of that tempering of going past the impossible occurred as things progressed through the series. Many things were predictable with little spin placed on them, and while things became epic in scale and the things that Gurren-Lagann could do became bigger and better, everything seemed… logical. As others have noted, Simon’s story was like a spiral in terms of what he became involved in, what became placed on his shoulders, what Spiral beings could do when placed to the edge. And because it was like that, in one way or another, you could see how things would play out, and the impact was lost for me. I like when stuff leaves me guessing and wondering what will happen next, so things like seeing Arc Gurren-Lagann punch the Mugan out of space-time as they knew it wasn’t as exciting as it should have been to me, since you could see that occuring. I just thought, “Yeah. And? What next?” And a lot of that is on me; I wanted to see a Giga Drill Breaker on a massive scale at least once in the final battle, kinda like a Goldion Crusher sort of thing. So sue me. : P
But as it seems more stories are yet to be told in the Spiral universe of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, this won’t be the end of my forays into this show. Who the hell do you think I am? I’m not that stupid/pathetic. :3
Edit: ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER
TheBigN
nomadotto
dm00
I disagree! Gurren Lagann was epic omfgwtf!!! Just kidding. I thought it was fun, but I didn’t see it as the most epic anime ever like everyone else did. row row fight da powa~
I am 35 yo. I’ve watched anime since I’m 7yo. I started with a very epic Battleship Yamato series to say the least. I am a huge fan from anime since I’m 7yo.
Having that said, I do consider TTGL the best anime I’ve ever seen.
Granted everyone has their own personal likes and dislikes, but after that long time, you don’t get awed with ease by whatever you might see or read. 28 years after Yamato, I still remember myself blasted with emotions. Science fiction became my favorite genre because of it, and many animes, series and movies have taken bits here and there of good animated classic series such as this one and a few others.
Now, for this series to actually make me feel as a small kid again, laughed like hell, had emotional moments, got identified with many chars, sunken in the story, amazed with the animation, awed with the mechas original designs and concepts, and so on and on.
My 8 and 10 yo kids watched it from the beginning and loved it. They want the DVDs, and honestly, so do I.
I was so spoiled with this series that I’m actually looking all of the new series coming out now with a “meh” attitude, if that doens’t say anything, I dunno what will.
BetrayerX: Hrm… When I think about it, maybe I didn’t feel it was as great as it is to other people because of who the show’s aimed at. Maybe more depth and things like that were for an older targeted audience. Who knows?
You know, the anime was aired in a Sunday morning time slot right? xD
It’s one of those animes targeted for both audiences where the adults can see past the face value of the anime while the children (and the children inside of the adults) can say “YES!” to the epicness that was Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann :3
Crain: I did know when the show was aired, and what it was looking for. But like I said, as the show got more epic in scale, it sure as hell didn’t feel as epic to me as the first half was, as silly as it sounds. I could say “YES!” before the timeskip, but not after it though. :/
I only recently finished watching it, and I agree on many points. But, I would have enjoyed this series so much more if Gainax had not added the 20 year Epilogue at the end. I would have rather been left to make up what happened next on my own, or hope for a continuation. And, considering we’re still getting new things from EVA to this day, Gainax is definatly going to get all it can from TTGL, considering the amount of a fan-base it has created in the 4 months since the last episode aired. Hell, they already produced a DS game and we’re working on another online game for the PC, untill they discovered installing the game crashed Windows indefinatly and progress was halted.
I hated the fact that Simon and Yoko turned out to be ‘normal people’ after the events that took place. Noone wants to watch shounen to see the main character grow up to be a hermit. I really don’t know how GAINAX would pick it up from there, but unless Simon and Yoko are in it, I doubt i’d watch it.
Thanks for the review, it was fun reading someone else’s opinion.
I agree with you Kamina Genome, the hero ending up as a hermit was a big disappointment. That 20 years after epilogue I couldnt agree with (and I understand that writers have their own reasons for ending their stories). I personally loved this series, aside from being a fun and wild ride, it was rich and deep. But that few minutes after the last giga-epic battle between the anti-spiral and gurren lagann (galaxy size!) turned out to be a let-down. It left me with a depressed feeling. Why? Firstly, I have no problems buying Nia’s disappearing act although it’s very disappointing, but to cast the HERO Simon as a hermit in the end is just abhorring. It’s inconsistent with how his character is portrayed for much of the series. What happened to the guy who faced the impossible; who always stayed on top of things; who always had that burning passion? He just turned his back on everyone after the wedding and left everything. To me, it looks like a writing blunder. How can the man with a heart of epic proportions, a man who wants to protect everyone, a man who stands up for others just turns his back on everything after just what happened???! If the writers wanted to write him off like that to become Simon the digger instead of Simon the hero, at least they could have given him some decent clothing in the end, or make him a head honcho of a drilling enterprise. I mean come on, he’s the Hero who freed universe’s inhabitants from the anti-spirals! What the writers crafted as an ending doesnt make sense at all. Ok they might ‘ve wanted to have a “different” cool-like sort of ending, but the result was the opposite. The ending was far from cool, it negated how epic those 27 episodes were.
This series is one of the best out there (it’s in my top list and it will stay there forever), this holds true as long as I refuse to accept the dismal ending.
With the demise of the Anti-Spirals, what’s left for a bombastic badass to do? We saw how Simon didn’t really enjoy being the leader of a government. Politics is not his forte. He’s probably the last person you want to send out as your ambassador to “our Spiral friends.” He’s a pathfinder, trailblazer, and dragon-slayer. He bowed out of the game when his role was fulfilled. He won’t live long enough to fight the Spiral Nemesis, but the precident he set will serve as an example to people like Gimmy and Darry for generations into the future.
I think the scenes of evil Simon shown at the very beginning of the show could be taken to reflect a future where Simon doesn’t step out of the limelight and instead goes out into space with a bad attitude and a bit of vengeance on his mind.
The show ended just the way it needed to: with hope and a society evolving to meet changing circumstances.
I agree with Will here. When you look at it, Simon and Yoko really just started off protecting their homes, and it spiraled (pun intended) into a battle for the universe. I liked how we saw Yoko as a teacher, since it showed that for all her skills and go-get-em attitude, politics and representing the world wasn’t really what she wanted, and neither did Simon. I liked how they did the ending, since it stuck how we knew them as characters.
Though if Kamina was still alive, I could still see him trying to kick ass and take names in space.
LOL!!! LUIGI AS SIMON??!!! AMAZING!! I LOVE IT!!
but simon as aquaman? ;D;…
I thought the final battle was amazingly epic while still a bit tongue-in-cheek (what with the solar system tossing and all). The last rush was insane, though. Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann collides with Grand Zamboa, Chouginga Gurren-Lagann flew out of its abdomen to be stopped by Anti-Spiral tentacles, then Arc-Gurren-Lagann launches out of the previous Gunmen’s mouth only to be stopped by another attack and have Gurren-Lagann launch out of its own mouth, and everything ends with Gurren ripping Lagann off of its body and chucking it towards the Anti-Spiral after which Lagann manages to land the finishing blow.
Also, Simon seemed to have become much more laid back after the time skip. He only fought because it was necessary. So it’s not too surprising what he did in the end. Then again, I suppose a realistic ending isn’t fitting for such an over the top series.
All the shouting in the last episode made up for any lack in impact.
GURREN LAGANN > YOU!!!!!!! That’s all I have to say
I really think, if they were to continue the series in a second season or something, they would use Gimmy and Darry as the new main characters. Thats what I think anyway… :\