Anime 2001 Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Reviews Filter Check 3

TTGL is one of most overrated anime I’ve ever watched. It’s literally a Fairy Tail version of a Mecha, filled with: corny childish speeches, deus ex machinas and power of friendship.

The show never attempts to explain anything e.g. mechas joining together because it falls back on its premise of “kick logic out of the wall Simon!!1!”

70% of the characters are one dimensional and irrelevant to the story. Simon is a generic beta crybaby that turns into a Kamina clone. Kamina is your typical, confident, never-give up aniki (big brother), Yoko has no character and is just there for boobs fanservice. The first half ... of the story is boring, repetitive mecha of the week fights. The second half turns into some convulted fight against aliens. Spiral power is the worst power system I’ve ever seen. The final fight has to be the biggest asspull I’ve seen in anime.

TTGL lacks any substance or complexity, unlike what the fanboys want you to believe. It’s a over the top, “turn your brains off” show for kids. I might have enjoyed this when I was 10, but not anymore.

“Don't forget. Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not the me who believes in you. Believe in the you who believes in yourself.”

There’s always going to be that one (or handful of) anime that everybody just seem to worship, and that all your friends tell you that you NEED to watch, because it’s going to blow your mind.

And it does blow... but not really in the way you'd expect...

For me, that anime is TTGL. The way this was described to me by a couple of friends made it sound like the best thing ever; it had mecha, great humor, awesome ... story & action, beautiful women and everything else you could ever wish for in a series. But in the end, I still can’t see what’s so good about this show, or why people idolize it.

Story: (3 / 10)

The story, is pretty dull, to be honest. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, nor is it innovative in any respect. A couple of friends find a giant robot and go on to defeat the evil leader. Sure, there are some twists here and there to keep you going “wat”, but in the end it’s your standard “hero single-handedly defeats the enemy against all odds”.

But then, halfway through, when you think “Oh, this is it, it’s finally over” they pull a time-skip out of nowhere, and you now have a somewhat different story... To be honest, I thought the second part was slightly better (atleast in terms of story), since it’s more about the intrigue and drama between characters, and the political games and whatnot, as opposed to the over-the-top battles against evil.

That is, until the end, where they pull some more twists out of their sleeves, and yet again you’re left saying “wat”.

Art: (7 / 10)

Admittedly, even if I didn’t really like the rest of the series, I can’t say that it was ugly. In fact, the art was probably the best part of it, for me. Most scenes are pretty good quality, with smooth animations, and well detailed characters. However, there are some scenes that change the artstyle into something more... hard to describe... It makes it look a bit more “gritty”, so to speak, though yet again, I wouldn’t call it ugly.

Sound: (5 / 10)

As I’ve said before, I’m not one to usually take note of background music, and the few times it was prominent enough I was probably too baffled or annoyed to actually care enough.

As for the voice actor’s, I personally watched the dub for this show (so this factors into the score a bit), and it was one of the most annoying experiences I’ve ever had.

I just can’t stand Simon’s voice, and his constant shouting “Bro, bro, bro, bro, bro!”. I can’t really remember any other VA that really stood out either, but I would highly recommend anyone who wants to watch this to do so with subs.

Character: (4 / 10)

The characters were pretty mediocre, in my opinion. I didn’t feel like there was much character development at all (looking at you here, Simon), nor did I ever really care for any character all that much. To be honest, I found most of the characters either stupid or just simply annoying, and since this (atleast the latter) didn’t really change as the show went on, it really ruined the show (further) for me.

Enjoyment: (2 / 10)

This show is a constant mess of over-the-top action scenes, manly screams, fanservice, and bad comedy. Evidently, a lot of people are going to find this show absolutely amazing and hilarious, but in my case.. well, I guess I just couldn’t handle all the epicness.

Still, if you like all of this stuff, or enjoyed any previous similar works by Gainax (FLCL) you’ll most likely love this as well, but if you’re looking for something atleast a bit serious, then this is not for you... at all.

Spoilers ahead, I suppose. Discretion advised.
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What a shame, indeed.

I get it. The show is about manliness, manic (to the point of suicidal) intentions overcoming the limitations of the universe, parodying the mecha genre and its inherently dark undertones, the innate sense of humanity having the capacity to deal with all the problems that it confronts, the ability to grit one's teeth and tell the world that they are not going to bring them down, so on and so forth. I also understand that you cannot think too hard about what you are seeing on screen: when robots the size of whole galaxies (inexplicably) ... show up, wondering how they don't take millions of years just to take their next step is the last thing you are supposed to think about.

There are those I respect from whom I heard this show was good. No, the actual words were, "this anime is a key to my creative abilities". Given how envious I am of their abilities, I eagerly watched this show. Simon, a boy without a future. Kamina, the man who knows the right words but not the right sense. They become brothers after Simon realises that Kamina has a dream that he can get behind and drill. Fine. The world is keeping them down, so they will first rebel against their village and its narrow ways. Of course, they do not succeed, but they aren't disappointed because, the very next day, everything comes crashing down, starting with a giant robot that has no intention beyond generally causing mayhem, and a teenager named Yoko who wears that ridiculous attire in the name of mobility and comfort. Their world has been a lie, and Kamina is the most satisfied of the bunch, because he can now finally believe in his own memories. So far, so good.

The show progresses and you get caught along with the characters. Then more characters show up. "O...kay", I said, "I suppose this is fine". They make a pit-stop at "moral ambiguity village" where they are treated as gods, because they fell down from the sky, but leave without any real conflict of beliefs. And I realised something was off. Nothing was gained in terms of conviction; they simply chose not to deal with the potential conflict at all. Hmm.

Alright. We have a big fight on our hands. But then something bad happens (to only one person among everyone involved in the fighting), and the whole thing grinds to a halt. "Well, that is what you get for tempting fate all this time, right?" I blurt out. But, wait, what are these emotions doing here? Remorse? Despair? Impotence (you know, lack of "manly spirit" and all that)? Before they can take their toll on the show, Nia shows up, left to die in a sealed coffin (but, somehow, assigned a caretaker, who didn't bother to show up when she was left to die while seemingly wanting to get the protagonists killed earlier in the show). She holds the show back, making sure that it doesn't go the same way Evangelion went, because letting the small things get in the way will kill the momentum. Nia gives the show the dose of morphine that pushes it on until the first half is complete.

Then the second half begins. An ominous cloud looms over everyone. Humans have become a prosperous species within just seven years (that is not how humans work, but the show didn't care and it isn't going to start now). Rossiu, Simon's partner and the erstwhile apprentice of the priest of "moral ambiguity village", is now starting to darken the mood. Sewage problems, perception of the government he is running, maintaining order. The old guard is completely dumbfounded: they are fighters, not bureaucrats. Simon is apparently at peace, for he "saved" the world, but when the Anti-Spirals, opposed to the use of the Spiral Energy that Simon exhibits most brilliantly, attack the Earth, everyone turns on Simon for being himself. Nia is pulled away, with the show making up a new character motivation for her, like it did in the past with her caretaker. Of course, here, Rossiu becomes the centre- having to take decisions he was afraid of taking but ready to accept what must follow. Honestly, this was the closest the show came to becoming interesting: what are the consequences of believing in yourself when not everyone agrees with your methods? Simon never understood this and he almost becomes the ceremonial scapegoat that would be sacrificed for the well-being of Rossiu's government. Of course, another contrivance prevents this, and the show is back on track with its attempts at embarrassing itself with each passing episode.

The show explains that Spiral Energy is a metaphor for the fighting spirit in general and the evolutionary drive which moves all living organisms. The spiralling drill is represented in the double helix of the DNA, changing and constantly bettering itself. The Anti-Spirals believe that this energy will bring about the end of the universe because of something called the Spiral Nemesis, a prophesied ("prophesied", "predicted", it doesn't make a difference) end-state of the universe when Spiral Energy grows bigger and bigger in each organism that evolves to the point where the organisms begin violating the law of conservation of mass and a black hole sucks up all of existence. I wish that I didn't know half as much as I did about astrophysics and evolution as I did when I watched this show, because all I wanted to do when I heard this explanation was to sit in a corner and cry.

I was left wondering what the people I had admired saw in the show. The women never had any real reason to come into conflict with the men after they became significant others- the definition of an idealised relationship. That is why Yoko and Simon could not live their lives with the ones they loved. The whiplash of moving from the first to the second season, only to be told that none of that matters- the definition of a cop-out. The show didn't want to deal with the issues it raises, just move past it.

The juvenile beliefs that thoughtless bravado can accomplish anything is so much easier to swallow when the people dying have not been important all this time and that harebrained schemes work better than any well-thought out plans that might fail was enough to make me yell angrily at the show, because I had realised that there was nothing that I could get from this. People will continue to appreciate this show and speak about how it stands as an epitome of manliness, testosterone, hope, and whatever else they think will get them to stop thinking about their depressing lives. Fine.

I'm not saying that the show needed to be realistic. What I'm saying is, if Evangelion represents depression, this represents mania. Not the mild kind which gives a person all sorts of ideas to keep pushing and do a lot more than they previously could, but the kind that can lead to the hospitalisation of both the person who is suffering from it and the people surrounding this person. This is neither a children's story, nor a story many can connect with unless they have separated themselves from reality to a significant enough degree: Kamina's and Simon's manliness-laden nonsense are used by megalomaniacs with cults of personalities in our world. You listen to them because they stop you from feeling bad about what you could have done, just so long as you sacrifice yourself to their dream. "There is a better tomorrow" should not be coming out of the mouths of men who have taken over the responsibility of being the only grown-ups in the world, while they themselves have no real understanding of the losses grown-ups have to deal with.

I got up from my chair and got out of my room. "This show wasn't for you," they'd say. I sighed. I had lost something that I did not expect to- a sense of stability. What does creativity mean at all? Is this what they, the ones I respect, used to fuel their imaginations that I was in awe of? I had no answer. I closed my eyes, felt a strange discomfort flood my chest, and, realising what this was, I ran to the toilet and let my breakfast come back out of my mouth. I saw the pieces of bread, the half-digested buns of rice among the yellowish brown and I closed my eyes, trying not to remember what I saw throughout the series. I hurled again, and I felt okay.

Having written this, I feel a lot better.

Ok let me make this clear from the start. I HATE Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. I hate its amount of nonsense, its animation and most of all I hate how unbelievably immature it is (and not in a fun way).

Before I start digging the hole,let me name the two things I did like about it. One: The soundtracks "Nicopol" and "Roh roh" (rap version) were awesome. Two: At the start of the second half of the series, there was some pretty nice political debate between the characters. This barely lasted for 2-3 episodes though, apparently it wasn't "over-the-top" enough for the series.

Now to grab the ... shovel; for some reason I dislike drills right now. The anime is WAAAAY too over-the-top, to a level where it becomes downright retarded. And I'm not just talking about people shouting with all of their lungs. I'm talking about robots combining (god I hate mechas), galaxies being LITERALLY grabbed and thrown like baseballs, and other equally stupid 2-year-old fantasies. On the bright side, if there is a physics teacher or a scientist you dislike you can simple show them this anime and they will commit suicide.

And then there is the anime's theme. No I don't mean the f@cking mechas, but basically the main ideology that the whole anime revolves around. "If you have the will, you can do anything."... Well that is true, so long as you have the power to do that... For example, say you're headmaster in a school, ,can you expel every student? Yes, because you have the POWER to do so, those annoying little brats! Now say you're a homeless guy who wastes his money on drinking. Can you still expell those students? No because you're a miserable failure with no power over them. For another example lets say you want to change the way a country works. Can you do it as an average day-to-day employee? No because you have no political power whatsoever. But if you were a politician? You can make a worthwhile effort because you have the POWER to do so. If you don't like the amount of power you currently have just work your way to increasing it. The show just straight up ignores this, allowing for stupidities like a squirell becoming human through sheer force of will and fighting an alien head-on, or robots with no compability whatsoever combining. Oh and keep in mind that noone EVER works on becoming more powerful. The closest we get to training is when our stupid protagonist called Simon and the even stupider former protagonist Kamina try to make their robot union technique look cooler in a pathetic attempt by the animators to offer us humor. They NEVER EVER try to imrpover by pretty logical things such as gadget upgrades or perhaps learning their opponents' weaknesses. Force of will people. When someone aims a gun at your head just shout "who the hell do you think I am?" and cross your arms. The rest will work itself out. Either that or you will die and the average IQ level of the planet will go up.

To make the hole larger... Lets talk about that "oh my god" awful animation. I'll not say that I can animate better, but I can easily say that I would animate more... Maturely. The animation reminds waaaaaay too much of a manga for its own good, seeming fake by most anime standards. Hell, Yamishibai's animation is more realistic compared to this. In case the anime itself wasn't immature enough on its own, the animators decided to add the names of attacks or transformations with BIG BRIGHT RED LETTERS that cover half the screen. To me it just made already-rediculous things appear even stupider.

Unsurprisingly I found myself siding with the anti-spirals most of the time, hoping that they would get those apes to shut up. And to those who say "you don't get it"...Yes, I don't get it, at all! This isn't entertaining or smart, it's a tribute to 2 year-old fantasies, where the big robot goes " vroom vroom!" and then "pewh pewh!", and the worst part is, it doesn't recognize itself as such, but instead takes itself seriously. How does this even have fans?!

Where should i even begin with this anime?

“Believe in yourself but not in the one who believes in yourself so believe in me who believes in you because i believe in you who believes” yeah this is the iconic quote from this anime

I have seen a lot of bad anime, some of which were truly awful but NEVER once i dropped an anime, it doesn't matter how bad it was i still forced myself to finish it, by skipping episode or moments even!

This anime is so godawful that i literally couldn't continue watching it, this unholy abomination of a series deserves nothing but 0 out ... of 10, it pains me that i have to give it a 1

The protagonist -the greatest weakling imaginable- was so intolerable to watch him even "exist". he is an incompetent loser (so original btw!) who is there just to be the loser, he has zero confidence in himself but he should be the one to pilot Gurren even though a lot of other people are available

The second protagonist, "BRO"!, is the most atrocious, despicable, loathsome character imaginable, the positivity of this guy would make fucking Naruto go :"dude stop it, you are making everyone uncomfortable", he is the -let's be positive and hyperactive in every second- guy here, i honestly got goosebumps out of fear of how much he is gonna remain on screen every time he appeared, the guy is bullshitting to a degree that borders on confabulation

Villains are disgusting, there is not even a single thing to make them relatable or likable

The plot is boring, let's go on the surface of earth and fight bad guys! yeah that's about it

Characters are awful we've already been over this but maybe their design is good? right? the biggest reason i'm dropping this show is because of the design! yeah it's that bad

Good opening or decent soundtrack? don't bother

Again nothing about this show is good, if i could see a single tolerable thing in this anime i wouldn't drop it but it is honestly that bad, it is absolutely astonishing to me that this garbage of a show has 8.7 score

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann used to be one of my favorites until I saw the ending.

The anime is well drawn with nice action scenes, nice story, the characters were likable and I got hooked on it from the first episode. I believe one of the best features in the anime was the good sound tracks and sound effects.

But what I really hated in this anime was the ending that made me regret the time I spent watching. It was too mad and insane; it made the already mad story sound like a science class!!
The lines and action in the last two episodes were clichéd which ... made the shinny parts of the anime become dull and made me lose my interst in the plot.

To conclude, this anime is a good reference of how a good anime can go wrong.

--THIS REVIEW MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS--

I started watching Gurren Laggan expecting a good show with jokes and interesting characters. Instead i got a show where the creators held an acceptable to even a good show in fort of the viewer only to snatch it a way at every possible redeeming moment.

In the beginig it's sets up an interesting and mysterious world only to slowly be forgotten and tease the viewer with the idea of "what if". The show is one big tease that never goes anywere. After a certain length in the show, character development stops completely for the majority of characters and the ones left ... are not interesting.

It was agony to finish this series as it had great potential but faild to accomplish anything. One big trap drawing you in with the first few episodes only to later turn in to a mediocre and downright annoying show. If you ever doubt the shows direction, than you might want to stop watchin to save time as it IS one big tease.

As you might understand I really didn't like this show, but it had good art and a weird but awesome soundtrack to try to keep it watchable. I really wanted to like this show but in the end, I could not find anything good, both from an objective and emotional point of view that would redeem this show in my opinion.


If you like a 27 episode tease, then this is the show for you! Otherwise don't waste your time like i did hopping for something else.



--SPOILER--
The show would have been fine if they made an episode or special changing a minor part of the ending, namely Yoko, or atleast gave some closor. I would love to see a alternative series where Yoko and Simon at least talk after the ending, before growing old.
--SPOILER--

Garbage, cant say anything more pure trash dumpster anime. I already realized that anime is nothing more for kids to look at its story is typical, characters are bad only shout and pose, ain't nothing much to say more about it. Did watch thru all of it so I could say that its garbage at least in my opinion. I've no idea how people rate this so high because its definitely not worth it there are really good Masterpiece anime out there, that should get good reviews and ratings so more people could see it, and enjoy and not this anime, it should be cast ... into darkest corner of our universe and be forgotten for eternity.

Very disappointed.My friend got me to watch this series claiming its better than Code Geass. Its rankings (on myanimelist.net) would also back that claim up, along with a couple quick Google search.
However, after watching 5 episodes i was not impressed. This series is very similar to that of Pokemon/Inuyasha. New Episode, new day, new village, same enemy. The conflict/enemy is resolved at the end of the episode and thus our heroes continue their journey towards the destination.
I told my friend this, and he told that episode 8 is epic. So I skipped 6 and 7 only to be disappointed again.
I wrote this ... review after watching only 6 episode because I feel that this series, like Pokemon, will continue down the path of predictability. There is no suspense or anything that makes me want to watch the next episode because one can correctly assume what will happen next.
This is just another example of the word "epic" being overused.

THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!!!!
Oh, boy! I am 100% sure that I will be hated for not giving TTGL a 10/10. When you saw a 3 for overall score you probably thought that I hate having fun. Well, I don't. I just don't like giant robots. But I did like The End of Evangelion and Code Geass and those also have giant robots. Why? That is because those anime had some other things to keep my attention. Gurren Lagann didn't. TTGL is overall a poorly written show which uses great animation to make you forget how bad the writing really is.

OK, before I start ... with the plot, characters, etc. part, let's talk about the fights in this show. People don't fight with superpowers or weapons in this anime, they use giant robots instead. This is because studio Gainax wants us to think the giant robots are cool. But there are a lot of people in the fanbase who dislike mecha shows, but they still like Gurren Lagann because of that ˝cool˝ factor. The show relies on it too much, because if there is someone like me, who doesn't buy the ˝cool˝ factor, that person won't find anything enjoyable in this series at all!

So, OK, I do not like giant robots, but I like action shows, so let's see if the fights are any good? Nah. Again, people like the fights in TTGL because of the great production value, but the fights themselves are not very good because of the following reasons:
1.They are repetitive-An enemy comes, giant robots start hitting each other, one of them pulls out a drill and the good guys win(except for the one time where they lost)
2.There is no strategy at all-In every fight good guys win with predictable power-ups after just hitting the enemy for a couple of minutes. Nobody does any thinking nor planning at all. It's just about hitting your foe until he is defeated.

Now when we have mecha fights out of the way let's focus on the conventional aspects most anime have.

STORY

Gurren Lagann is a post-apocalyptic story where our main character Simon and his brother Kamina live underground desperatley wishing to go to the surface, but they can't. One day they find a robbot called Lagann and a girl form surface called Yoko goes underground to lead them to the surface. However, if anyone comes to the surface, the beastmen(the servants of the spiral king Lordgenome) will attack them.
When our protagonists get to the surface they just fool around. The plot is not progressing, mostly for the sake of fanservice. Something shocking happens in episode 8 and then the characters start to cry and it lasts until around episode 12. THEY CRY 4 EPISODES FOR SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED IN ONE EPISODE!!!
After episode 15, there is a recap and then the timeskip whose begging was the most boring and frustrating plotpoint anybody could create. I would like to say more, but those of you who have seen TTGL know what I am talking about(blame Simon for everything). The mystery of the Antispiral was resolved and our heroes go to outer space to fight godlike aliens.
Altgough I dislike this show I have to say that the last 2 episodes were god tier. The final battle was amazing and I am glad that instead of a cliche happy ending for everyone there is a bittersweet ending. The only thing that bothered me is the fact that, even though the main villain of the show was doing a good thing and our heroes fought against him because of selfdefense, the villain was right and any type of moral dilema or discussion if our heroes' actions were justified is skipped over.

ANIMATION AND SOUND

It's no doubt that TTGL had a very high budget. Fights look amazing and the colors are just wonderful. My only complaint about the animation is that the character movements don't look very natural.
The OST for TTGL is a mixture of hip-hop, classical music and various orchestral themes and it sounds great! The best theme is without a doubt Row, Row Fight da Power! I could also listen to the opening theme on repeat.

CHARACTERS

For a score of the characters I gave a 1 out of 10. I didin't dislike every character in the show, I liked the Antispiral and Viral. Everyone else-compelte garbage. Kamina didn't get any time to develop and was annoying most of the time, Simon's character development was generic and predictable, Yoko doesn't even have notable character traits, she only has large breasts, Kitan didn't do anything important until the end, the entire team Dai Gurren is made of one-dimensional characters. Maybe if the show cut down on fanservice in the begging we would get better characters, but no!

VERDICT

Gurren Lagann is a bad anime. It fails in action department(the one it focuses the most on) and is pretty bad in terms of character writing. Just like with Terror in Resonance, I suggest this only to those who value good presentation over substance and writing. But can production value alone make the anime good?

TL;DR
+great conclusion to the show
+amazing OST
+fluid figth scenes

-boring battles
-lack of character depth
-slow start

My score:3.3/10

I really couldn't stop myself from writing this review
I have to say actually I didn't enjoy this anime one bit.
1. Almost every episode was the same : roar , fight , roar , fight , win .
2. There were also so many extra scenes and dialogues .
3.The personality of all the characters looked the same for me.
I'm really wondering why everyone says it is inspiring , well it wasn't for me. And it has a really high score , but why? Now I learned my lesson : don't trust the score of an anime
sorry if my writing wasn't good enough it's ... my first review.

I had high hopes for this show, mostly because it came from GAINAX. I had only seen two GAINAX shows prior to this one, but they were my two favorite anime. FLCL and Eva. There were a few parts I enjoyed but nothing particularly special. I couldn't help but compare it to FLCL and Eva, and it just couldn't stand side by side with them. The art is fine, but is nothing special. It's no FLCL. The robot design is at least funny, but it's no Eva. The characters are better than most anime, but that really isn't saying much. I just kept waiting and ... hoping for this show to become good but it never did. I ultimately decided to stop watching after SPOILERS AHEAD:









There was a "Beach Episode" immediately following the death of one of the main characters. This horrible emotional whiplash from something actually intriguing to something so awful and fanservice-y was simply too much for me.

That was the ultimate factor that caused me to stop watching, but there were others as well. One was the girl who wore a bikini while fighting giant robots because... it gave her more mobility??? Literally not how that works, but ok. There was also the terrible queer coded pedophile character, whose entire purpose was to make people uncomfortable for ""comic relief.""

There were some times where I genuinely enjoyed this show. The action scenes were fun enough (though nothing as good as FLCL) and like I said earlier the episode where the glasses guy dies was actually intruiging.

Maybe I should give it another chance. I didn't really like Eva until around the second half, so maybe this is the same. Eva also can have a similar tonal whiplash, even if it's never this extreme. I might pick this show back up eventually but I don't think that's going to be soon. I'm too busy rewatching FLCL.

Sure the art and characters were alright but the story sucked. This anime had a lot of potential I couldn't even get past the 4th episode, I kept telling myself "It'll get better" but it never did. I might've only watched a few episodes but I could tell the storyline wasn't going anywhere. The fact they used transformers as the main power tells me that this is an anime I won't like, try to be more original. They made the main character more into a side character by giving him such a lame power, who wants to be the head. The only part of this ... anime that I enjoyed was the girl and the endings/openings.

Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann! JUST WHO THE HELL THINKS THIS IS GOOD?!!
*No Helping It Soundtrack*


Guren Lagann is like an eco-friendly waste disposal facility, it's well-organized, looks clean and colorful, and gives off a cheerful vibe, but ultimately it's still garbage.

Story: Rather than going ham on this and have people "enlighten" me on how this is an "over-the-top, just-for-fun, turn-your-brain-off", I'll just explain why it fails even down that road. See, being over the top requires turning a cliché idea into a truly enjoyable one; something witty, or bizarre. TTGL does not offer that. It simply offers explosions. Then offers bigger explosions. Sadly, this only makes ... them less impactful.
Over the top is when a squirrel conjured out of a first poses a threat on your life. TTGL is so much the opposite of over-the-top, that an explosion which is supposedly of a "big bang explosion" impact seems nothing more than your every-day Ki-blast. It tries to show how grand a battle is by having people in one instant fight among galaxies, but that just makes it look like galaxies are a zoomed-out back-drop.

This show completely fails at scoping and execution of scale, achieving the opposite of what it aims for.


Will you enjoy the story if you're looking into something deep? No. The show does try to dwell on bigger ideas here and there (one scene 3 episodes apart on average), but they never follow up.

Will you enjoy it if you're looking into something over the top as in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, Hunter x Hunter, the Devil May Cry video games"? No. The show has no wit or ingenuity.

Who will enjoy this? If you like a monster-of-the-week format, and an extremely sped up version of Dragon Ball Z minus all the charging episodes, and the build up, or basically just explosions, this might be for you.




Characters, Interactions & Dialogue

The characters are one-dimensional, each one represents your typical shonen archetype. The hot-headed never-give-up main character, the nerdy, analytical, uptight buddy, the tsundere angsty nemesis, and so on.

Characters by themselves have nothing interesting to offer, and unfortunately neither do their interactions with one another. From the annoying Ted-Mosbian "Bro" exchanges that make you cringe, to the shouts of never giving up, (not even with a courtesy speech), the characters have no chemistry at all.

The dialogue, as you might find, is weak. It fails to express because its aim is to be as loud as possible. The show also suffers from the "audience" syndrome, where they feel the need to show you how awesome characters are by having some audience (random useless characters, or the entire planet) praise them endlessly. This is basically anime's version of laugh-tracks found in Sitcoms.

Art & Animation

The art is quite sweet. It's got some pretty-looking settings and the designs for some mechs are pretty original. Unfortunately, animation does not keep up. I'm not sure if the anime had a good budget or not. Because there isn't anything to animate well in the first place. For a show with so many battles, there is no "mêlee fights with sakuga choreography. Mostly it's just countless "bulbs" of explosions engulfing your screen.

Music

Not much to say here, I'll keep it short, great opening, good OST, some tracks are marred with corny Bro-rap.


In conclusion, this is one of the worst shonens in recent years, but it serves as a good reminder that pretty covers aren't all. You might fight enjoyment only if you are a die-hard shonen/Michael Bay fan.


Overall score: 3/10

Edit: overall rating has been dropped from 6 to 4 after being compared to other anime. Story and character ratings. Story has dropped from 5 to 3 and character from 7 to 3.

TTGL, the classic, hailed masterpiece by many, felt like a long journey to me.

It was an anime that has surprised me and disappointed me at the same time. I haven't seen an anime which left me conflicted in quite some time. Had I watched 10 years earlier, I would have gave nothing but praise to this anime, as it has explored concepts that were never explored by anime during this time period.

So ... is Gurren Lagann a "classic masterpiece"? In short answer, "No". The longer answer, "it depends on how you look at it".

But why a such low rating (6/10)?
First of all, I tend to give an average anime 6/10, so that places TTGL in the average section for me as of right now. It's has an interesting story but full of just flaws and character archetypes I couldn't stand.
It is also an anime that gets away by the phrase "cuz it's anime", which I generally don't like.

Just as a reference, I dropped this anime a few times in the early episodes then later decided to finish the anime. I finished the last three quarters of an anime in 3 days, and binge watched the second half in one sitting.

Story: 5/10
This was the hardest section for me to rate. TTGL had iconic quotes and masterpiece episodes which I would easily give 10/10 (episode 8/9), but also subpar cliches and character archetypes which I would place in the lower half.
TTGL is a story about a boy's journey to discover his existence, the universe, and all else beyond the horizon. It starts off comedic for the first quarter, delving into the adventures of a young boy Simon, and his idol Kamina. It soon turns into a battle for existence and the search for the human soul, adding on to the philosophical question behind meaning of life, something never really explored inside a shounen. However, the execution of this sagacious subject is below average.
There are just too much cliche character archetypes and stereotypical anime routines such as screaming for power or fan service plot or the classic power of friendship and on and on and on.
It's not that I wasn't a fan of quick transitions to the next battle, but how generic the transitions and the tension was.
And I just felt like that some side characters were being killed in the last battle to evoke a sense of emotion.

TL DR; Amazing concepts. Poor execution due to cliches.

Art: 8/10
I can't judge art. But solid. But was sad that my streaming service only offered 480p.

Sound: 5/10
An anime that excels in this department would be the Monogatari series. There are various theme song all evoking different emotions adding on to the layer of perfections. TTGL, however was meh in this field. I couldn't notice the soundtrack adding on to the layer of emotions (which could have been due to the story). And it had some mismatched timings for the opening theme song placement in my opinion.

Character: 7/10
Well characters in TTGL are mostly either way above average or cliche and subpar.
Kamina, despite feeling like a stereotypical careless hotshot guy, is far beyond that. He is a symbol for much more; he is definitely one of my favorite characters I have seen so far.
Simon is also a likeable character; although he may be the stereotypical "coward" character int he beginning, watching his growth was just satisfying.
And this show has a complex villain which we can relate to, which I never expected from an anime made in 2007.

And there are the cliche characters...
Kittan, is the stereotypical hotshot character in any shounen anime.
The missile launcher guy is the stereotypical anime guy who gets the main character into troubles.
Leeron, is a character that works as a plot armor.
Rossiu is the stereotypical "I can't bend the rules" guy.
Yoko felt like a fan service character to me... and was solely there to add romantic elements without depth.

And these cliche characters archetypes just wasn't an element of masterpiece.

Enjoyment: 6/10
I found myself skipping some section near the end due to cliche plot elements. But there were just scenes in which I could not take my eyes off from. The episodes are mix of 10/10 and 2/10s and kinda kept me alert to watch more. But I was kind of disappointed by the hype the name TTGL had in the anime community.

TL DR; TTGL is full of complex thematic elements with a mix of masterpiece and cliche archetypes.
It is not "classic masterpiece like Cowboy Bebop" due to inconsistent execution.

I only gave this a 1 so it would be at my bottom and so that I wouldn't get mech shows recommended to me anymore, actual rating is more like a 4 from what I saw.

Gurren Lagan is probably the second best mech show I have seen, of which this list includes Evangelion, Code Geass, and Big O.

Here's a brief summation of my thoughts

Art 8 - The best part of the show is visually it is appealing and has flair. I especially liked the commercial break images.

Story 5 - Very basic underdog story of humans vs. stronger force, not much to it that ... impressed me from what I saw. The recap episodes were awful and singlehandedly brought down the score from a 6 to a 5 and probably a 4.

Characters 4 - Aside from Kamina and Simon, who I think were well written characters, I thought none of the cast was well handled. Yoko's character gimmick of being dressed like a stripper and then getting embarrassed when given other slightly less immodest outfits was definitely something that would have made me laugh 10 years ago

Sound 5 - I have no nostalgia for this show so the opening and ending, characters and whatnot were not memorable to me. None of the scores from any of the episodes stood out to me.

Enjoyment 2 - I think that it might just be mech shows overall, for some reason once giant robots get involved the same sort of people write the same sort of stories and it just doesn't appeal to me.

Overall 1 - Can't wait for the emails I'm going to get for this review.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is, as of April 2024, my first 1 out of 10 ever given to an anime. Which also means that as I write this, this anime is what I consider to be the worst anime of all time.
First of all, over the 9 long episodes I've watched, the first thing I noticed is that the story seems disjointed, hard to follow, which is normally not a bad thing if later we have a good explanation of what is happening. Well, maybe it happens after episode 9, but I don't have the patience anymore, an episode takes so long to watch. There ... is also a lack of emotional depth, which makes the characters difficult to like. Even though this anime isn't marked as being, it's an ecchi you can't watch this for 5 minutes without getting a "potentially inappropriate lack of clothing" on both the men and women popping up like screamers when you try to figure out what's going on.
Oh hey, that's my opinion, you don't have to agree.

Cringeworthy Anime Moments: *I'm not going to leave a long detailed review of why this anime is not for me. So I'm just going to say it, this entire show would fit inside this section. So if you like fanservice, over-the-top action, and voice actors that love to scream for no reason, then I've got a show for you. And my goodness, I can never understand how people who speak English prefer subs to dubs. The way that the translations are phrased typically turns me off from subs, but it was especially bad in this anime. I'm sad to say that I did watch the ... entire first two seasons of this show (no seconds of my viewership were my choice) and it's easily my least favorite anime that I've watched this much content from.

Opening Titles: I guess it was kind of catchy. In the annoying the melody is stuck in your head type of way.

I survived watching until episode 8 but as a women i just absolutely hated this series. The hotspring episode was so bad i skipped it, and there was just a lot of random shonen non sense that did nothing for me. I understand im not the target audience, there are some funny moments, but in general it just feels a very "follow an obvious recipe" anime. Today's shonen like jujutsu, demon slayer, attack on titan are much less obvious, engaging and dialogues are just way better. I was it didnt age well.

Characters are ok, maybe one of the strong points
Story has a lot of wasted ... potential
World building is very bad unfortunetely

Really didn't jive with this one's story at all. It feels exactly like when a little kid walks up to you with their action figures in hand and starts acting out wild action scenes with senseless kid logic but expects you to take it just as seriously as they are. Meanwhile you're just nodding along waiting for them to get bored and wander away.

Weirdly the part of the story that I found myself most interested in was the section where Yoko was living as a teacher on a small island. I liked the idea of a teacher who was secretly a mecha fighting badass, it ... was a fun contrast and felt a bit more grounded. Her teacher design was also super cute.

While I think the character designs are hit and miss it would be a lie to say that it's not well animated (if a bit overly frantic at times) with a good soundtrack. The high production value definitely does the heavy lifting for this anime.