Reviews Anime / Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

The Brain Beneath The Bluster.

I could talk about the amazing animation, the awesome soundtrack or the energetic and heartfelt story that makes people overlook it's plotholes. But that would be repeating what others have said. Here and now, I'm gonna counter something many people try to criticize this show for that is completely false: That it's a dumb Super Robot show. That you need to shut your brain off to enjoy this show.

No, you don't. Despite all it's bluster, yelling and giant mechs pounding each other into the dirt: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is an intelligent and deep show.

For example, it's usage of the Hero's Journey to give the show that grandiose and classical feeling as well as showing that any of us ordinary humans can be heros.

1. Simon's Ordinary World is the underground village of Giha. 2. Next is surprisingly Meeting The Mentor with the one and only Kamina! (Sorry but every TTGL fan is required to introduce him that way. He's kind of deserved it.) 3. Call to Adventure comes in the dual forms of the finding of Lagann, which becomes the means in which he overcomes the challenges before him, the first being the Gunmen that has fallen into his village. 4. The Refusal of the Call comes after the battle with the Gunmen, being chased by other two Gunmen, which also coinsides with the fifth step, Crossing teh First Threshold. 6. Meeting Friends, Allies and Enemies, which consists of the second and third episodes, where he meets the people of Littner Village who would become his closest comrades as well as a proper introduction to the Beastmen, the first antagonists of the series and one of their greatest warriors, Viral. 7. Approach comes in the form of Kamina's Death and Simon's Resulting Depression, in which he must know that he cannot be his brother, only himself. 8. The Ordeal which is the final obstacle in his quest for freedom, the Spiral King Lordgenome. 9. Reward, the accomplishment of the Spiral King's defeat and the resulting freedom. 10. The Road Back, while not his life from before, Simon's comes in the form of his new life as Supreme Commander. 11. Resurrection Hero comes in the form of the Anti-Spiral, who threatens everything Simon holds dear where he must use the lessons he learned from Kamina, his love Nia, his friend Rossiu and his comrades as well as the Anti-Spiral himself. 12. Finally, The Return with the Elixir where he puts the lessons he learned into practice by letting Nia die and wandering the world.

And that is only one example. I could make at least five other reviews on this but I can't, so I will just leave a couple of links in the comments and give you one challenge: See what you can find in TTGL.