I’ve been watching Gurren Lagann on Cartoon Network’s monday night anime block for the past couple of months, and have been really enjoying it. The design of the mecha are truly unique, gigantic faces as torsos, and the story is your classic young boy becomes a man, along with a big brother role model and love triangle on the side. Throw in your all-powerful (sorta) alien threat and scrappy humanity rising from the post-apocalyptic world and you’ve got a pretty solid series that isn’t surprising in any way, but still manages to be a lot of fun – and the technology deus ex machine that the hero Simon uses is just plain cool. There is a surprisingly mature introspection about Simon finding his identity not in being a flashy hero, but actually in the value of his humble profession (mining and digging) that lends the whole opera some serious emotional heft, too.
Actually the whole series is very evocative of Robotech, which seems so blatant at times that I wonder if it is deliberate.
For more substantive analysis, check out Drastic’s review (along with the iconic image of Yoko from the opener that should be a crowd-pleaser).
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
What love triangle?
Yoko, Kamina, and Kamina’s massive ego? Shimon, Nia, and Kamina’s ghost?
Well, maybe I am reading something there that I shouldn’t yet, but i think theres something going on with Yoko towards Simon. Simon and the Princess are obviously being setup, so you have a classic Rick-Minmei-Lisa situation.
and of course there was an inverse triangle with Yoko, Kamina and Simon that went nowhere but still served as precursor for Yoko’s feelings towards Simon (projection?)
um, WOW – “7 years later” ….
the Robotech parallel is so heavy now it’s getting distracting!!
Did you say Cartoon Network?
Maybe it’s just my local channels, but CN doesn’t really show much good anime anymore. >.< Or are you talking about Sci-Fi?