Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, titled just Gurren Lagann in the west is simply one of my all-time favorite animes ever. Directed by the same person who directed FLCL and Diebuster, this is in my opinion, the greatest mecha anime of the past decade.
I'll be talking about specificly the EU DVD release volume 1 of 3 by BEEZ, a subsidary of Bandai. Volume 1 covers episodes 1-9.
Alright I suppose I should tell you the plot of these 9 episodes and the basic setting, altough there really isn't something I would say is ''basic'' about it.
So it's so far in to the future the entire history of humankind as we know it is irrelevant, if this is even supposed to be the same earth. Humanity has spent hundreds of years living below the earth's surface in underground villages which have no connection to each other after being forced there by some sort of force. People have lived there for so long that they think that the surface world is just a legend.
Simon is a teenager with confidence issues very much like those of Shinji Ikari from Gainax's most significant series, Neon Genesis Evangelion. His parents were killed in an earthquake. He spends his time digging holes with his drill to expand the village since that's what he's good at. He is also acompanied by a small mole-pig called Boota.
Simon really has no friends, except for the brash, confident dreamer and leader of the village's delinquents, Kamina. Kamina dreams of breaking through the ceiling of the village to go to the earth's surface and reunite with his father who had left for the surface years ago.
When digging, Simon first finds a small medallion shaped like a drill that shines green with energy at times when he holds it. Kamina and the village delinquents try to break through the ceiling but fail and are imprisoned by the village elder.
Simon then finds a huge metal face in a wall during one of his digs. He busts Kamina out of prison to show it to him.
Then, a giant face-like monster busts through the ceiling and attacks the village. Also from the surface comes Yoko, a teenage girl from a different village who have already reached the surface. She tries to defeat the monster with her rifle but fails.
Simon activates the big face in the wall that he found earlier. It turns out to be a mecha called a Gunman (this is a pun, since the Japanese word Gaan means face, so Faceman). Kamina dubs it Lagann (enveloping face, why exactly we'll find out a bit later).
Somehow, by piloting Lagann, Simon, Kamina and Yoko defeat the huge Gunman that fell from the surface and escape to the surface world. Here their adventure begins.
but that's just the first episode.
So then Simon, Kamina, Yoko and the flamboyant homosexual mechanic Leeron travel the huge desert that is the surface in Gurren Lagann.
The Gunmen are piloted by Beastmen, geneticly engineered soldiers of a man called the Spiral King.
Kamina decides to hijack a gunman by sheer force of will. He hijacks a huge, red gunman that he dubs Gurren (Red Lotus).
They also encounter a commander of the Spiral King's army called Viral, who forms a rivalry with Kamina. He pilots the huge gunman known as Enkidu.
During the fight with Enkidu, Gurren and Lagann combine (or as in mecha anime they call it, GATTAI) in to the titular mecha Gurren Lagann. They defeat Enkidu and steal his helmet, which becomes the trademark headpiece of Gurren Lagann.
So over the course of the 9 episodes of this volume, Kamina becomes the leader of the ever-expanding human army he calls the ''Gurren Dan'' and they get in to several fights with Thylimph, one of the 4 generals of the Spiral King's army.
Spoiler warning, be careful he who reads this
So in episode 8, Kamina commands the Gurren Dan to attack Thylimph's warship called the Dai-Gunzan which Kamina plans to make the Gurren Dan's flagship.
Before the fight, Kamina and Yoko share a tender moment which makes distresses Simon since he also harbors some feelings for Yoko.
Okay so why is this important? Lagann is vital to the plan since Lagann can fuse with other Gunmen and override their systems and runs on force of will and the psycholoical state of the person. Simon can't focus.
So during the attack, Lagann can't sucessfuly override the systems due to Simon's psychological state. Kamina jumps out of Gurren during the middle of the battle to punch Simon in the face so he'd come to his senses. As soon as Kamina returns to Gurren, he is fataly wounded by Thylimph. Gurren and Lagann fuse after Dai Gunzan is taken over, then they kill Thylimph.
Then, Kamina dies from his wounds.
And the final episode of the volume is this, also spoilers
The loss of his best friend and big brother figure, Kamina, strikes Simon with grief. This sends Simon in to self-destructive tendencies in which he continues to mereclessly kill enemy gunmen and their pilots every day.
Once during a battle, Simon's anger overloads and disbalances Lagann which goes berserk. Simon somehow ends up in a place that is like a graveyard full of metal coffins. He opens one of them and finds a strange girl named Nia. Nia has a positive effect on Simon, which makes him slightly less angry and miserable.
Nia is extremely polite and naive, not knowjng much about the world. She said she lived with her father until her father got angry at her and sent her to the graveyard for asking why she was born.
At the end of the episode, when the Dai Gunzan, now redubed the Dai Gurren is attacked by another one of the Spiral King's generals, Adine, it is revealed that Nia is the daughter of the Spiral King and she commands Adine to stop attacking. Volume ends here.
Another episode, not as important in the long run but still notable is episode 6, which is the fanservicy onsen (hot springs) episode (a common trait in anime). There is the TV and the DVD version. Does this mean you get to see Yoko's tits? No! Instead you are treated to what is a really, really hilarious episode with Kamina almost getting everyone killed thanks to his pervertedness. I suppose they had to censor the episode since Kamina runs around with Boota covering his dick while Kamina has inner conflict of ''on one hand, they're being held hostage and shit, on the other hand, I could get to see TITS. FUCKING. TITS!''
I'll give you a full on review of the entire series and the characters at the very end after I finish volume 3.
But Kamina really is as awesome as everyone says he is. He manages to capture everyone's hearts with dramatic, manly monologues. Plus his antics are sometimes absolutely hilarious. Such a shame that he... well anyway.
Simon, despite being the series main character, isn't really that much of a main focus, only at the introduction of Nia he truly becomes important.
Yoko is a pretty generic anime action girl and her importance is pretty much abandoned as soon as Nia is introduced.
Viral is a pretty cool guy, and he's voiced by motherfucking Nobuyuki Hiyama, AKA Mr.Hotblood
Nia is obnoxiously cute and shit. Also it's interesting seeing a character that is so amazingly polite. Her role isn't really shown in this volume. Also she is played by Yukari Fukui, who also voiced the main character of Diebuster, Nono.
Other notable characters would be the hilarious homosexual Leeron (voiced by Vash the Stampede's voice actor, Masaya Onosaka), the lawful Rosiu who later becomes Gurren's pilot, and Kittan, introduced sort of like as Kamina's friendly rival and overall pretty cool guy.
Yeah so it was nice seeing these episodes again. I reccomend them. Mark is a fool for giving up so soon.
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