Kick Out Logic and Do the Impossible!

Every once in a while, I like to try something different from different from my typical fare of bishounens, drama, and romantic storylines by venturing into the realm of battle themed anime. I mean, I love having fighting factor into the plot, but I prefer the lion's share of my conflict to be handled with swords or magic, such as in Bleach, Rurouni Kenshin, or Tsubasa, and to have plenty of plot and back story to go along with each of the battles. As soon as battles cease to be one-on-one, personal affairs, I tend to lose interest and get overwhelmed in the explosion of guns, mechas, or fists and only zone back in when the plot comes back into focus.

Because of this, I knew when I started watching Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann that I was probably going to have attention span issues. I'd already seen the first few episodes during a get together of my Anime Club, and I knew much of the action was on a large scale basis between several team members as they engaged in complex battles that took up quite a bit of each episode. However, Simon, Kamina, and Yoko seemed like promising characters worth investing time in, so I decided to give the series a shot to see how things turned out.

I ended up fairly enjoying the show, although it wasn't one of my usual love, love, love reactions. My initial guess that the strength of the characters would be what carried the series was correct, since the fighting left me lukewarm compared to how much I enjoyed the relationships of the main cast as well as the greater commentary at work. The battles are by no means bad; in fact, for action fans, they’re about as good as they get. My only gripe with them was that they took up a large part of a show where I happened to be more interested in the other dynamics.

Kamina, Simon, Yoko, and Gurren Lagann, the young heroes of our show

Gurren Lagann starts off in an underground system of tunnels where hero Simon (pronounced as Shee-moan in the Japanese version) uses his hand drill to open additional tunnels for his community to use. The land above ground is considered uninhabitable, so most of the known world lives in tunnel communities such as Simon’s, though these have their own dangers as well, such as earthquakes which cause the tunnels to collapse on the people within them. It is within this setting that Simon finds a mysterious, glowing spiral shaped artifact, as well a mechanism with a mask-like face buried within rubble.

Simon at the start of the series. He still has quite a bit of growing up to do.

Keeping him comfort in his life underground is the fervent and gung-ho Kamina, the leader of a small gang of young men, Team Gurren. Kamina believes, due to a distant memory of being on the surface with his father, that a better life awaits them above ground, and uses a bevy of inspirational statements to encourage Simon to use his drill to “pierce the heavens”. Of course, the leaders of the community are content to remain where they are and leave the potential dangers of the outside world alone, but bold Kamina doesn't care what anyone else thinks and wants to “kick out logic and do the impossible” with the help of the timid Simon. When I mentioned inspirational statements, by the way, there is way, way more where that came from.

The unforgettable Kamina, well of wisdom and manly power

As fate would have it (as fate so often does in Animeland), shortly after the discovery of the mysterious looking mech and artifact in the tunnels, a similar looking mech crash lands in Simon and Kamina’s village, followed by a bikini and short shorts wearing, gun packing young woman named Yoko. While Yoko tries to fight the mech, referred to by her as a Gunman, Kamina and Simon go back to look for the Gunman Simon found earlier, only to discover that the spiral artifact Simon found earlier reacts like a key to a similar spiral-like ignition. With encouragement from Kamina, Simon begins to pilot the Gunman, renamed by Kamina as ‘Lagann,’ and helps Yoko defeat the Gunman invading their community.

Yoko. I could comment on what she's wearing, but I'd rather not

Kamina and Simon follow Yoko back up to the surface where she lives in the village of Littner and discover that the outside world is rather dangerous after all, since Gunmen piloted by creepy looking humanoids called Beastmen attack the surface dwellers on a daily basis (resulting in the earthquakes the people below ground suffer from). Kamina decides to team up with the surfacers and encourages Simon to join him, even though Simon is a tentative fighter, and relies solely on the confidence of Kamina to be strong (“Don’t believe in yourself! Believe in me! Believe in the me that believes in you!”) Luckily, Kamina hijacks a Gunman of his own, names it Gurren, and creates a move where he combines with Simon’s Lagann to increase their fighting power together (thus, Gurren Lagann).

The adventure continues as Kamina inspires the people of Littner to hijack their own Gunmen and form a fighting force to challenge the Beastmen, named Team Dai-Gurren. Along the way, Simon and Kamina fall into an underground village similar their own in which Gunmen are worshiped as deities. The leader of the community rules the village under this religion, and under the guise of having spiritual power and authority, has the town participate in a lottery whenever the population gets too large which results in whoever wins (or loses, as the case truly is) having to move to the surface. Simon and Kamina are well aware that exile to the surface is essentially a death sentence, so they fight on behalf of the two children picked to leave the community, Gimmy and and Darry, and prove to the village that the deities they are worshiping are in actuality tools of war used by Beastmen. This particular community isn't looking for a revolutionary like Littner was, but the boys are able to leave with Gimmy and Darry under their protection, and are joined by the village chief's adopted son Rossiu who is interested in witnessing the truths that his father and his faux religion masked (social commentary, anyone?).

The attractive Arc One villain, Lordgenome

The boys and Yoko continue to plow forward, learning more about the state of the system they are fighting. The surface is ruled by a the Spiral King, a man named Lordgenome, who is determined to keep the citizens of earth underground through the use of Beastmen, although his intentions are initially unknown. This does not sit well with Kamina who believes the surface is a paradise where everyone should live, and he fights to overtake the Beastman and their mobile fortress, Dai-Ganzan. Simon is less enthusiastic towards the cause, but has endless faith in Kamina. Endless faith, that is, until hormones kick in.

As I said earlier, the characters are the strength behind the show, and Kamina is among the most compelling of them. While it is easy to see him as an over-the-top, cheesy line spouting, over idealistic doofus, Kamina actually has a strong measure of vision and realization that the surest way to fail is assume that failure is inevitable. He also is acutely aware of Simon's self-doubt and fear of not being good enough, and he does his best to be the person Simon can rely on to become strong. He is through and through a truly kind and special man, and no one is more aware of it than Yoko, our fan service action girl. Unfortunately, Simon becomes aware of the growing attraction between Yoko and Kamina and witnesses a kiss between them, and is overcome with jealousy since he, too, has been developing a precocious crush on Yoko. His jealousy convinces him that he will never be able to compare to Kamina, and he loses much of his will to fight as a consequence. Bad news, considering that spiral drill which runs Simon's Lagann is dependent on the strength of his spirit.

SPOILERS BE COMING! With Simon struggling more than ever with his self-confidence, Kamina presses forward to take over the Dai-Ganzan fortress. The battle is ferocious, and with Simon not performing to the best abilities, Dai-Gurren nears defeat. When things look bleak, Kamina steps up to protect Simon and the others, taking a serious wound while delivering the fatal blow to the Beastman force. Team Dai-Gurren have faith that Kamina can survive anything, but even Kamina is mortal, as great as he is. As he bleeds out in Simon's arms, he gives Simon the message the depressed boy needs the most: “Believe in you! Not in the you who believes in me. Not in the me who believes in you. Believe in the you that believes in you!”

And yes, Kamina really does die. This is not Bleach. He isn't coming back. As much as his death broke my heart and as much as I love him as a character, his death was necessary to fuel the events which lead to Simon being able to grow into a man on his own merit. Kamina was a visionary and freedom fighter, and he died for the cause he believed in; there really is no better end for a warrior than that. His actions were what led Team Dai-Gurren to fight for their right to the surface, and without him, nothing would have grown nor changed in the world.

Of course, this is a difficult thing for the mourning Simon to understand. As Dai-Gurren continues with their mission, he spends his time obsessing over the memory of Kamina and thus being unable to run Lagann. Rossiu takes over several of the fighting duties, piloting Kamina's Gurren to make up for the losses in their fighting force. During this time, Simon witnesses a gunman throwing a strange capsule off a cliff, and goes to investigate. What he discovers is a coffin-like container which opens with his spiral drill. Inside is a cotton-candy haired girl who identifies herself as Nia.

Nia, in a clueless moment. We already have our action girl in Yoko, so she's the gentle yet wise non-combatant.

Nia is the product of an unknown and sheltered lifestyle, and is thus completely ignorant of the human vs. Beastman conflict and overall life in the outside world. This leads her to be a bit more upfront than the rest of Dai-Gurren, and it is her chastisement which leads Simon to realize he is going against the memory and final words of Kamina by refusing to move forward. When Dai-Gurren faces trouble at the hands of their enemies, he finally reawakens and takes control of Lagann to protect the things he and Kamina valued.

The group eventually learns that Nia is the cast aside daughter of the Spiral King, their number one enemy. She attempts to reason with her father on Dai-Gurren's behalf, but the Spiral King has his own agenda, which he doesn't relinquish until he is defeated at the hands of Simon and company. His dying words warn the invaders that when the surface exceeds one million people, a great calamity will befall them. This sets off alarms in Dai-Gurren, especially Rossiu, but the pleasure of victory is the more immediate joy for everyone concerned, and the ominous warning is pushed aside for the time being.

An older Simon

Seven years later, and the world is once again thriving. People have moved to the surface, a badass older Simon is put in charge with a grown up and rigid Rossiu as second-in-command, and Nia and Simon are gradually becoming a lovey-lovey couple. However, all is not well. Rossiu has kept a careful eye on the population, which is on the verge of exceeding one million. He has a special reason to be worried, too; outside of Simon's knowledge, he has preserved the Spiral King's mind and his knowledge of the impending crisis, and is prepared to do anything to keep the world he has helped create from facing another tragedy.

But fate will not be avoided. A millionth child is born into the world, and calamity comes in the form of a possessed Nia declaring that she is a part of an alien race called the Anti-Spiral whose mission is to destroy the human occupants of the world, the Spirals. To make a long story short, Anti-Spirals have ceased to use the “spiral energy” which allows humans to evolve and change through the generations, meaning that their own evolution has ceased. Anti-Spirals are aware that limitless evolution will lead to the eventual destruction of spacetime through a supermassive black hole (ah, the power of humankind!), so their goal is to keep humans from evolving to this point. This is why the Spiral King once kept humans below the surface, since the Anti-Spirals were bound to attack the Spirals as soon as their populace on the surface rose too high.

The Anti-Spirals, communicating through Nia, respond by announcing the moon will collide with the earth, wiping out all human civilization. This naturally sends everyone into a panic, and governmental the-ends-justify-the-means extremist Rossiu arrests and promises to execute leader Simon to sate the people's lust for punishment to the person who brought them to the surface. Rossiu secretly feels horrible about this, but he does what he must in order to prevent ultimate destruction, even though it hurts himself and the people around him.

Alas, Rossiu isn't exactly a Kamina or Simon-like figure, and his plan launch the citizens of the world into protective shelters isn't going to really solve anything along with the fact that there will be people left behind to face the moon collision since there wasn't enough room to take them along. SOL, guys!

Rossiu isn't a bad guy... just severely misguided. 

During this time, Yoko has been working as a secretly kick ass teacher on the surface, and after witnessing the inspiring spirit of her students and learnings the fate of Simon, she gets back into her fan service clothes and busts him out of prison with the help of Dai-Gurren. With the gang reunited, they launch into space to fight the threat butt-kicking stlye. Simon has his own reservations since Nia is an Anti-Spiral, but lives are at stake, so he can't exactly sit around while the moon threatens to become one with the earth.

This is where the fighting gets a little much for me. There are some pretty good plot points sprinkled throughout here and there. For one, Rossiu, realizing what an ass he's made himself while trying to be a good leader, returns to his original colony and plans on killing himself, only to be stopped by Simon who remembers his own times of despair and how he found strength enough to fight again. We also lose a few more beloved team members, including Yoko's second love interest (poor girl can't catch a break), but since this is Gurren Lagann no one has a meek exit; the cast is deeply inspired by both Simon and Kamina, and realize they are content to die for what they consider important enough to fight for. Also, the fighting style of the Anti-Spirals is quite interesting. Since spiral energy is dependent on spirit and the will to live, the Anti-Spirals use desires and memories against Team Dai-Gurren, and force them to fight through their demons to defeat them. Here we get a reappearance of the memory of Kamina, who encourages Simon to have strength and remember what he is fighting for.

Simon and Kamina: Row, row, fight the powa!

The final fight was epic enough to reengage my attention. Team Dai-Gurren forms their largest mecha yet, the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, through the combination of their mechas and spiral energy. Simon's spiral energy is also strong enough to revive Nia's memories and retain her long enough to join Dai-Gurren. The power of love at work! With the strength of will and belief in themselves on their side, Dai-Gurren and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann are able to defeat the Anti-Spirals and fight for their right to live and evolve, to grow and change and work towards their continued survival.

In the aftermath of the battle, we see Simon at his wedding to Nia, but he knows better than anyone that the Spirals' victory has a price. After they are wed, Nia dissolves in Simon's arms, unable to survive due to her link to the Anti-Spirals. Simon was aware that this would happen, but was strong enough to make the choice, proving just how much he has grown from the indecisive boy in episode one. In fact, that is one of things I truly enjoyed about Gurren Lagann. When you realize what an extensive journey was taken to get from Point A (Simon in episode one) to Point B (Simon at the conclusion), it really proves human potential for growth and development.

The series ends with Simon roaming the world and not settling down while his comrades work throughout the galaxy to find ways to keep spiral energy from collapsing the world. Like other heroes of the genre (Ike from Fire Emblem comes to mind), he has already done his fair share of day saving and fighting for and losing the people most important to him, and realizes when its time to pass the mantle of leadership onto the next generation. SPOILER END.

Gurren Lagann definitely has plenty of value as a series. I was deeply moved by Simon's continuing development as a character, and saw a lot of real-life themes of feeling second best and ineffectual within him. Placed beside the influence of Kamina, he proves just how important it is to not only receive guidance from others, but first and foremost to look within and find the value which exists there based on personal merit rather than association with anything or anyone else. The character of Rossiu also provided a powerful examination of the sometimes clouding influence of religion and of government when it comes to on how we act, which choices we see as just or right, and how we choose to wield whatever power we've been granted.

The amazing cast as what made the journey well worth it.

The fighting, as I said earlier, was the only thing that wore on me. I didn't mind it in moderation, but it was such a huge factor in Gurren Lagann that it was hard to avoid. Action fans most likely won't mind, but viewers like me who tend to prefer dialogue, relationships, and character interaction should be aware of the fact that battle and strategy reign supreme in this series. You're going to have to wade through all the skirmishes to get to a lot of the touchy-feely stuff I apparently really enjoy.

Also, there were two somewhat fan service based episodes that, while being amusing, veered a bit close to my dislike of “here are girls with boobs, now let's fixate on the fact that they have boobs” centered shows. Episode 6 was the obligatory hot spring episode where Kamina and Simon were determined to see some naked girls while hanging around naked themselves (male privates censored by conveniently placed animals, etc), and Episode 12 featured a detour to a beach. Yoko herself is somewhat of a fan service queen. Her get up covers up her nipples, but that's about it. I was quite confused as to why she was so against being seen naked in the hot spring episode, since only a few inches of her chest is covered on any given day.

In any case, Gurren Lagann is worthy of a watch, especially for action fans. For those who are a little less enthused about fighting, watching the first few episodes will clue you in on how much battling to expect, and you can make a judgment call on whether it is too much or just right for your tastes. I would of course encourage anime fans to at least familiarize themselves with Kamina: his quotes are iconic, and will inevitably creep up in conversation and convention banter on a regular basis.

Next up will be a romp in time travel and mad science: Steins;gate!