What can I say about Gurren Lagann? I have watched this series multiple times now and I still cannot decide whether these episodes are over rated or not. Depending on the person I have heard that it is one of the best anime series ever. And yet som have never heard of it or have dropped it. Granted at first I dropped it as well, but after some persuasion from a friend I picked it up again.
The main character, a young boy named Simon, lives in an underground city, as does all of is world's people. Simon spends all of his time digging holes to expand his city. But Simon is a coward and is absolutely afraid to try anything out of his comfort zone.That's why he looked up to another man that he called brother, but the other man's real name was Kamina. The part about the first couple of episodes that bugged me was the fact that a side character was hogging all of the action. So Simon found a spiral key (takes over minds of other mecha) and used it on a mecha that he named Lagann. Later on in the story Kamina takes control of one of the enemies mecha and names it Gurren. They also meet a girl from the surface named Yoko who always carries a super rifle; I would not want to stand in front of that thing, mecha or not. Around episode 4-5 I began to wonder why Simon was even the main character. There was nothing special about him and he was a coward. Simon's mecha is just a giant head with minuscule arms and legs, no body, probably around 6ft tall. And all of the other mechas are full size, 30 or so feet tall.
And than Kamina and Simon were pushed into a corner so (while Lagann's drill was still sticking out from it's bottom) Kamina picked up Lagann with Gurren and punctured his mecha with Lagann so it gave Gurren a head. And it combined. What Luck! But Simon did absolutely no part in the fighting and Kamina did all the work. This is were I dropped it. It seemed boring and absolutely pointless.
When my friend convinced me to take another shot at it, I became a bit more intrigues as it went on. Simon and Kamina discovered that they weren't alone on the surface and while there were human there were also beast men. They discovered that to free the humans they need to defeat the Beast men's king Lord Genome. Simon encounters four of Lord Genome's main bosses called the "The Big Four". The first Boss' base was captured by Simon when he realizes that Lagann could control other mechas. But the bosses had extremely powerful mechas intside the base. Simon was having a conflict inside his mind because before the battle he had found Kamina and Yoko making out and making promises. Kamina gets stabbed while in his mecha and thought dead. Simon goes nuts and looses control over his mecha wich then goes on a rampage. Kamina soots himself out of his mecha and lands next to Simon. Kamina incourages simon and he regains control. Kamina goes back into his mecha and fights the best he can with his mecha and fuses with Lagann again. After the battle ended they had defeated the first boss but Kamina was dead.
The series skips ahead a week ot two and we find Simon still sad about the death, but he's alot different. He attempts to take all opponent mecha's on his own and he seems that the grief is driving him crazy. While battling an enemy mecha, Simon slips (still inside Lagann) and comes across a ominous plain of boxes that seemed to hold nothing. When he see's a minion push a brand new box down a hill of dirt, he opens it with his drill neckalace (which also operates Lagann) and he finds a sleeping girl who wakes up and tells him that her name is Nia. Nia helps Simon overcome his depression of Kamina's death and he falls in love with her. (Spoiler: unfortunatley she disappears at the end because of some guys who want to destroy the world) So later on they find out that Nia is actually the daughter to Lord Genome when the third boss decides to attack her mecha. Nia send the third boss back, but when the third boss meets up with Genome she learns that Nia is a princess in exile so she returns to attack but gets defeated.
Over the course of their travels they fight the third and fourth boss' on multiple occasions, but drive them off everytime. Simon becomes the leader of their group and leads them to many victories. As to not spoil the ending i'll keep it particulary vague. Using all of the groups power they get Simon into the tower where lord Genome resides, and he takes Nia with him. (The tower can fight!) The battle between Simon and Lord Genome was amazing! I was completely entrapped. Two powers, each containing a drill key, fighting it out head to head! I'm not going to tell you who wins the final battle, but Lord Genome warned Simon and Nia that the real enemy was the moon, that when the human population excedded the limit of -i'm not telling you- then the moon would become Earth's worst enemy.
And so the first part of Gurren Lagann is done. Keep reading my reviews and tell your friends! The part two of Gurren Lagann will come soon!
