Getting it out of my system
First, my thanks to my closer friends for tolerating my *constant* rambling and fanboying on this topic for the past week.
I first became aware of "Gurren Lagann" well over a year ago, and I took my time finally watching it. Mostly because I've been on the outs with the anime scene since last year mid-summer, and was brought back into it by Balothejester's request to watch Evangelion, which I had sitting on my shelf. This led me to research the works of Gainax, which brought me through FLCL (the series that surpassed Evangelion as my favorite anime of all time) and finally to Gurren Lagann.
Simply put, it is a work with the depth, intricacy and emotion one would expect from a movie declared to be without question the finest of a decade. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (to use its full title) just happens to be a saturday morning cartoon about giant robots and a girl in a bikini top with a humongous rifle.
Like many of Gainax' other works, it is very easy to dismiss, and indeed, one must be open to sympathizing with characters who unhesitatingly accept that giant heads with arms and legs are reasonable and serious fighting robots, and indeed, live in a world which flagrantly defies real-world physics. I think, not long ago, I would not have been able to enjoy it myself, and perhaps that is why it took me so long to see it.
All this aside, the message at the series' heart is deeply moving. If the child in your heart still believes in heroes and the power of hope, and the adult part of you can stand to laugh at the most over the top series I have ever seen, I highly recommend that you spend eleven hours of your life on this.
I first became aware of "Gurren Lagann" well over a year ago, and I took my time finally watching it. Mostly because I've been on the outs with the anime scene since last year mid-summer, and was brought back into it by Balothejester's request to watch Evangelion, which I had sitting on my shelf. This led me to research the works of Gainax, which brought me through FLCL (the series that surpassed Evangelion as my favorite anime of all time) and finally to Gurren Lagann.
Simply put, it is a work with the depth, intricacy and emotion one would expect from a movie declared to be without question the finest of a decade. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (to use its full title) just happens to be a saturday morning cartoon about giant robots and a girl in a bikini top with a humongous rifle.
Like many of Gainax' other works, it is very easy to dismiss, and indeed, one must be open to sympathizing with characters who unhesitatingly accept that giant heads with arms and legs are reasonable and serious fighting robots, and indeed, live in a world which flagrantly defies real-world physics. I think, not long ago, I would not have been able to enjoy it myself, and perhaps that is why it took me so long to see it.
All this aside, the message at the series' heart is deeply moving. If the child in your heart still believes in heroes and the power of hope, and the adult part of you can stand to laugh at the most over the top series I have ever seen, I highly recommend that you spend eleven hours of your life on this.