What a massive ride this series was. Gurren Lagann is a show that not only defines epicness and the nature of human evolution but also catches my heart every time I always take a look at it. Gainax has come along through making over-the-top and wacky stories even if there aren’t many, with those titles known for that kind of gimmick being this, FLCL, and Dead Leaves. But from time to time, Gurren Lagann is arguably the best of those shows simply because of how it pushes the boundaries and finds itself to newfound heights. With the amount of heart put into itself, it also shows us that no matter how much trouble you face, you still and will always move forward.
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The story starts off with our central main character, Simon, who is an orphan working in the Giha village which is located in the underground. Simon works while hanging with who appears to be a foster father and brother of his, Kamina. Both Simon and Kamina try to find their way to the surface but there are restrictions they somehow can’t comprehend. Eventually, they discover Lagann while they’re attacked by the first enemy gunman (or in this case, a beastman) alongside meeting Yoko, the girl who rescues the two main characters as well as stops said gunman. With Lagann activated, Simon, Kamina, and Yoko defeated their first enemy and with them succeeding in finding the surface, Kamina builds his own legacy and gets his own mech named Gurren, a mech that is stolen from the beastmen and artificially designed to be fused with Lagann for more power.
The start of the series is incredible personally simply because of how it initiates in building background the moment its story starts. We already see Simon and Kamina building their own background respectively at the start, with Simon reflecting on how he’s living his own shackled life and Kamina reflecting on his silliness while also showing that you have enough strength to face your limits. Both of them are an amazing duo that coincides with each other greatly. The series also did a great job building on Lagann’s design and personality, that being how Lagann is some sort of sacred treasure that only a person with will can possess. While Simon has yet to develop on that, Kamina is still his superior so therefore, Simon still possesses Lagann with all of his heart. While this seems silly at first, this is completely in character for how Kamina, even though he can be rough at times, cares for anyone he befriends and how they want to improve. It also succeeds at explaining how both Gurren and Lagann are connected to Kamina and Simon respectively, with Gurren being the big silly guy and Lagann being the small one still standing up.
Of course, it only gets better from here. What this series succeeds at is building one of its most prominent messages, that being how you can always move forward. Simon and friends are touring around the Badlands gaining new friends, all of who they recruit as their own allies, and facing enemy encounters. At first glance, this seems like your typical Shounen story but with mechs. You’re technically right in that regard and with that, you wanna know what this series does? It adds dark themes that show you no matter how hard you try, you will still lose something valuable and these are handled excellently. One of the best deaths in the medium is Kamina’s fate. This is hard to tackle because it’s very controversial but here’s why it’s more impactful. You see, no matter how high Kamina’s position is, one of his natures is that he can act ignorant. He’s always a goofball at heart and even then, he’s still a massive influence on his own team.
With the war against the beastmen being more and more intense, it’s time that Kamina’s soul moves on. With Simon and the crew watching Kamina going away, Simon developed his own confidence even more. The reason why this is great is because although Kamina is very prominent, his death allowed Simon to develop more determination and thus, he and his team always learn how to grow stronger and stronger. This brings us to our next point, maturity. Gurren Lagann’s maturity is surprisingly very impactful. Not only does it show how characters actually find their way to develop their own will and ideals but it also shows a perfect contrast between Simon and Kamina. Even though Simon and Kamina are bros to each other that create a great duo and team, in some cases, they’re like a yin-yang to each other. Simon is the boy who always finds more improvements as he has an inferiority complex while Kamina has a superiority complex that blinds his adaptability at times, hence why it virtually explains how Gurren struggles to keep up in fighting without Lagann.
Another point TTGL also nails is, surprisingly enough, satire. Again, satire plays a crucial role when it twists normal logic to the ground and features some of the most absurd yet welcoming things around. Think JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for a second where it is comical with its powers and actions yet doesn’t take anything seriously, regardless of serious moments, as long as it focuses on the general storytelling, directing, and character writing consistently. TTGL is similar to that in the sense that it captures its silliness very well. Is normal logic happening in our universe? Nah, screw you. The real logic here is you use your own imagination to fight against evil. Any of your imagination is part of your strength. The best part of this is the show isn’t so literal with it. Because it establishes the absurdness well, the series continues to work on other aspects very consistently.
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Let’s move on to characters and well well well, we have a lot to discuss. Let’s start with Simon, the protagonist and one-man army who always strives to establish his motivation, Kamina, the silly sidekick who leaves an impact on his own team, and Yoko, the professional sniper. Simon is an amazing protagonist and one of my personal favorites. He starts off as weak but eventually gains not only more strength but also more confidence. What makes Simon stand out from other protagonists is how he faces his own consequences. Not only does he find more strategy but since he changed when Kamina died, he has a great speech about moving forward and this impacted both him and his friends. Yet he still struggles regardless of how much power he develops but that’s fine because he’s always determined and knows how to break a limit into pieces.
Kamina is also a great character. He can be very silly but that’s part of his nature. The best part of his character, however, is how he designed his whole team to spread the wisdom of determination and fighting against evil. His character gets even better with his chemistry with Simon, especially when his fate shows you that you’re still motivated. TTGL’s cast is great but I have to admit, Yoko might be a slight exception. She’s a decent character, don’t get me wrong. She’s useful for the team and she has good chemistry with Simon and Kamina. It’s true that she’s more than fanservice but generally speaking, she isn’t as impactful as the other characters. Speaking of others, the sidecast is great too, with my personal favorite of the bunch being probably Kittan and Nia since Kittan is also quirky yet kickass while Nia is one of the most impactful reasons why Simon keeps on developing.
The villains are entertaining and more tricks up to their sleeves but they aren’t the most memorable villains in the industry out there. Again, they have their purposes but we can still do better. Although my favorite antagonists in the show are Viral and Lordgenome. Viral at first seems like your annoying side villain to be trashed by the time his first fight is over but he grew on me simply because of how he coincides with the protagonists. His dynamics with Simon are more interesting than Kamina + Simon personally (more on that later). As for Lordgenome, he’s also surprisingly impactful. Even though he may act very suspiciously, he has great ideals as he rules over humans for reasons that make him not only logical but also compelling overall. All in all, TTGL has a great story, endearing directing, and superb characters it makes use of very effectively.
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…But wait, that’s not even the end of our story! All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. We haven’t gotten into the full potential of TTGL yet and what is considered to be arguably the most controversial aspect of the show, the post-timeskip content. The post-timeskip content takes on a more mature take on the story as opposed to the pre-timeskip content’s goofier side. While it still retains almost all of its aspects such as satire, it now utilizes more drama and tragedy. The second half of this series now tells us that the beastmen aren’t really the villains of everything and they only fight because they’re bigger opponents to the true villains, the Anti-Spiral race. The imaginations we talked about are spiral powers. In fact, spiral powers are based on our imaginations (pre-timeskip content also explains this but this is more explained here). There’s a lot to unpack so let’s get through there piece by piece.
The Anti-Spiral race is not only an incredible twist but also an incredible final antagonist because they perform magic that only the strongest of the spiral warriors can comprehend and they’re the origins of how they create and moderate the universe. They also have very compelling philosophies where they have a reason to rule the universe as they’re the ones protecting it. With that, the Anti-Spiral race will try to send out weapons that are both incredibly potent and complex. And this leads us to Rossiu. Rossiu was a decent side character before. Nothing bad happened to his character but nothing too interesting happened either. But here, he becomes one of the most developed characters in the show. Rossiu takes care of people as the chief advisor and with the Anti-Spiral attacking as hard as they can, he had no choice but to put the blame on Simon. The reason for this is that he wants to calm his people but his solutions are vastly limited. Sure, that made you unlikable for arresting Simon but what other option do you have, really? Rossiu isn’t some malevolent dictator, he’s a victim of his own responsibilities and shortcomings and above all. He still cares about Simon and he wants to do something right for the people, even if it’s incredibly risky for our main cast to also fight, and that makes him a great character overall.
Viral, as I talked about, is very compelling with not only his ideals but also his chemistry with Simon. The reason why his chemistry with Simon is more interesting than Kamina’s is that although Kamina + Simon performs a very iconic duo and left a valuable impact on their own group, Viral + Simon has interactions that are more personal. They point out each others’ highs and lows. Viral worked with the beastmen legacy because he wanted to strive for more value in both his personal belongings and his true intentions. He virtually doesn’t give a flying damn if he gets his ass kicked, he wants his life to be healthier. Simon, on the other hand, still has a greater reason than anyone else as to why he’s a greater savior and how he wanted to keep Kamina’s legacy alive. Both of them try to clash with each other for said reasons from them respectively but at the end of the day, it’s kind of pointless and they agree that they’ll still fight against the true evil together. Lordgenome is more interesting because he’s the father of Nia and Nia is the Anti-Spiral’s greatest victim. Lordgenome was forced to trash Nia out of his place so his victory would not go haywire.
Sadly, that plan of his did not work but that doesn’t matter because he developed more strategies now that he fights alongside Team Dai-Gurren. The Anti-Spiral race only shows power that is just stronger and stronger. The team members have to sacrifice themselves. The best one is Kittan because he had a great time interacting with the team and how dedicated he was as a member. Like Kamina, he left an impact upon meeting his fate, strengthening the team, especially Simon, even more. Kamina’s soul is stronger because of the death of others and his soul is a living spiral power. This fully motivates Team Dai-Gurren to their full power, having a final showdown with the Anti-Spiral’s core, which is arguably one of the best finales ever. Both sides try to prove which of the two is more valuable in protecting the universe but in the end, it’s the humans who win because they always show that they always improve. The Anti-Spiral finally admits that they’re mistaken about the human race and with that, they’re dead.
After the race, Simon and Nia marry each other but Nia dies right after because she signed the contract of the Anti-Spiral race. Simon didn’t cry as he understood everything and thus he moved on, telling his team that they could do things on their own and going back to his older self, being a no-name miner. Here’s why this is a fantastic finale. You see, Simon understood what would happen to Nia because he paid attention to how potent the Anti-Spiral was, and no matter how strong he got, he always reached his limit. So yeah, even with full spiral power, he still isn’t worthy of being a god. This perfectly conveys TTGL’s message because it doesn’t matter if you gained something valuable, it doesn’t matter if you lose something valuable, you still need to face your consequences. But that’s okay because no matter the trouble around you, you ALWAYS MOVE FORWARD.
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This was fun talking about the amazing storytelling of TTGL. Before we wrap up, let’s talk about other things. The animation is great and aged well. It perfectly reflects on the over-the-top action happening. The character designs are amazing and from a generous viewpoint, my personal favorite part of the show. Minus Yoko’s space outfit which could have been a lot better with a few tweaks, every silhouette and texture is over-the-top yet very effective and adds a lot of heart. The music is also superb. Again conveying each and every scenario very well alongside having one of the most iconic songs ever, that being Libera me from Hell. The voice acting is amazing as well. While I love both the Japanese and English versions equally, I actually prefer the latter for Simon over the former. Not to diss Kakihara Tetsuya, his performance on Simon is still great and my favorite from him but Yuri Lowenthal nailed the character harder than I expected.
▶ Just listen to this poetic-ass song, does this not speak epic to you?!
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And that will do everything. Gurren Lagann is a massive inspiration to both the philosophies of your imagination and over-the-top action for the best. All of its storytelling, directing, and character writing truly did the impossible equally while also having among the best designs and soundtracks in the industry. It’s no wonder why the crew that worked on this left Gainax and created Studio TRIGGER. Again, it’s a massive inspiration for the best. Hell, even if you’re not a fan of action, this is still a ride you would guarantee to hop into because it’s wacky yet it’s deep and meaningful. I just want to thank Imaishi for introducing me to both this masterpiece and the follow-ups of his work.
