hontou ni Stripey Insists Sisters Cry Oniichan Now

Ten Chara Talkabout Gurren-Lagann

[1. Darry] I've been curious about this series ever since it derailed Anime on My Mind. Also qualifying for Mentar's Itou Doctrine (along the lines of Evirus' Ayako Doctrine) but, being an adherent of Stripeyisan G4GM4M Doctrine, I was somewhat put off by how prominently 'manliness' and phallic drills featured.

But with a crushing RL deadline looming, how else would this Zaku respond? With the Power of Procrastination, of course! And so, I have just finished marathoning the landmark series that is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

[2. Simon] The marathon almost ground to a halt early on though. I tend to be quick to judge and eager to give up; Kamina's machismo and Simon's I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY fits made me want to run away from this series. But what saved the day was being spoiled about Episode 8 which made me re-look at Kamina in a more sympathetic light and to look forward to Simon's growth.

Surprised that his power-ups didn't grate at all, probably because they got so over the top that disbelief wasn't just suspended, it was punched beyond the crack of the 10th and 11th dimensions. The best power-up in animu EVAR is still Hikaru no Go where our hero's natural talent is gradually realized through tutelage, rivalry, learning from experience, adversity, hitting the wall - the grind of sheer hard work in an area that could have been boring but made exciting and dramatic. I'm not a fan of how BELIEVE IN YOURSELF power-uppu saves the space because sometimes even your best just isn't good enough. But the consistency of the setup and Simon's growth as a character was enough for me to just sit back and enjoy TTGL for what it was.

[3. Viral] The transition from contempt to mutual respect, from enemy to comrade-in-arms. Initially I just kept thinking of the hapless Kankuro 'Nyaa' Nishiyama from Muteki Kanban Musume who is also voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama but was pleasantly surprised at how I eventually won over; always a positive sign when a series manages to change my mind about a character.

The sweet dream in the penultimate mindfuck/ Alternate Universe Labyrinth Without The Folding Chair of Despair episode was actually quite sweet - so underneath the tough guy battle maniac was a yearning for nekomimi waifu and daughter in windswept grass field.

[4. Rossiu] From friend to enemy after the seven year jump. He can't beat Haruhi when it comes to pronouncing the 'Death sentence' and while most of the original Dai Gurren Dan found his lack of faith in drills disturbing, his actions - even those against Simon - formed the base for overcoming the moon crisis. In the words of Pericles:

'Athenians,' he said, 'my views are the same as ever: I am against making any concessions to the Peloponessians, even though I am aware that the enthusiastic state of mind in which people are persuaded to enter upon a war is not retained when it comes to action, and that people's minds are altered by the course of events. Nevertheless I see that on this occasion I must give you exactly the same advice as I have given in the past, and I call upon those of you who are persuaded by my words to give your full support to these resolutions which we are making all together, and to abide by them even if in some respects or other we find ourselves in difficulty; for, unless you do so, you will be able to claim no credit for intelligence when things go well with us. There is often no more logic in the course of events than there is in the plans of men, and this is why we usually blame our luck when things happen in ways that we did not expect.' Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War Bk I, Sect 40

[5. Kittan] I had initially assessed and dismissed him as an unimportant and uninteresting character but boy was I wrong. That's the spiral power of this series to spin my impressions of characters around! Missed chance for siscon here. LOL

Going down doing what a man's gotta do was disappointing because he was just on the cusp of a major transformation himself but he had gotten the Kiss of Death so I guess it was inevitable. I wasn't actually saddened by his eventual sacrifice - I felt more pain for Yoko. Who also summed up his contribution best: Kamina led from the top but Kittan continued and pushed from below.

[6. Adiane] Hot bod x Eye Patch x Scorpion Tail Slaparound = ♥ LOLOLOL at her switching from polite form to trash talk against Nia. Pity about the short life span and horrible taste in (beast)men though...

[7. Leeron] I'm rather disappointed that there was no eyecatch for Leeron even though he clearly pwns Gimmy and even Viral with his Queen power; guess there's no glory in being an absolutely crucial engineering genius and 'explain stuff in plain language' for concepts such as: The two great sources of Spiral Power are Fighting Spirit and Love Power: Aroduc x Totali GATTAI!

[8. Yoko] No disrespect to Marina Inoue but I just kept thinking how marvelous if Yoko was voiced, instead, by Mai Nakahara with her Mai Tokiha FULL CREAM MILK voice.

Ah, Boota, you certainly know how to enjoy the good things in life... LOL, was that a ploy to give Shizuka Itou more pay for signing up in this series?

While Yoko is certainly popular due to her chara design, I could help but feel she was a tad wasted, taking a back seat after the first third of the series. Ah well, at least, she had an episode dedicated to her.

[9. Lord Genome] I'm sure that the comparisons with the Scrapped Princess anime have been made already elsewhere but I haven't trawled animu blogdom on TTGL so apologies for reinventing the wheel. Oppressive force keeping humanity down turns out to be a defeated leader of a bigger conflict who is doing so for humanity's own safety but eventually changes sides.

[10. Nia] Speaking of scrapped princesses, evidently less (swimsuit) is not more (sekusshi) and more is more. If you are a light haired loli with flowers in her eyes. The above was my favourite LOL scene of the whole series. LOLOL

Simon and Nia made a lovely couple and though the 'love across time and space' was done better in Voices of a Distant Star, it was still nice how Nia's ring was the undoing of the Enemy, bringing his Dark Tower crashing down. The greatest price of victory and a meaningful loss. Though Simon going walkabout was a copout, at least he wasn't going around hunting Anti-Spiral clone-bots like a deranged Suguru Misato.

Beautiful eye catch art and its infectious 'Fight the power' rap.

A great triumph for GAINAX which finally BELIEVED IN ITSELF after a string of duds.

Related posts:

1. Gurren Lagann – Closing thoughts
2. Gurren Lagann – Opening Salvo
3. Gurren Lagann pit-stop ~ 8 eps of Kamina