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★★★★★ Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann [Review]

An epic mecha adventure of an orphan boy living in a poor underground village who has never seen the surface and his trusty gutsy katana-gang-bro; one day a huge mecha-with-face destroys the cave ceiling whilst fighting a sniper-gun-girl, they find a smaller mecha-with-face, and the non-stop series of mecha battles begin.

It's Kill la Kill, but with mechas instead of almost-naked girls.

Lagann fighting a Gunman in the underground village.

27 episode conclusive anime original.

Warning: the two movies are summaries with the pacing destroyed, avoid them at all cost, they add very little to the TV anime and spoil the whole story.

10/10★ - The most shounen anime ever.
Strengths: blows every expectation out of the water. Great character development. At one point, combines eyegasm with eargasm for what's to be known as the legendary audiovisualgasm.

It'll give you a chill in the spine from pure euphoria and awe to its otherworldly levels of epic... in the first episode. And that's gonna happen in dozens of episodes. An unforgettable saga in countless ways.

TTGL doesn't focus on the sci-fi details. It's all about guts. Courage gives the machine power. The mecha are mere devices to advance the plot, weapons to be wielded, swords. This allows the high-quality animation to be expressive, exaggerated and non-technical. It isn't correct, it's fun. It isn't full of engineering, it's full of emotion.

The time that would be wasted on technicalities is instead used on the characters. On the decisions. On whether Shinji Simon has the courage to get on the robot and fight or not. On his fear turning into excitement for a brief moment. On learning the truth about the world they didn't even know the surface of at the very start.

Featuring a cast of memorable characters fitting distinct roles, stunning OST and artwork that can make you shed a tear of happiness as you enjoy it, and a story with the so many jaw-dropping developments, it's hard to forget the incredible experience that was watching this anime.

AniDB - MyAnimeList

Details

A fun action adventure mecha anime. It has a few sci-fi elements, like the dystopian underground village, but it isn't its strength. The technobabble is treated as just irrelevant technobabble. So it's more of an action mecha than sci-fi.

The gender ratio is rather balanced. It isn't harem, not ecchi. But it does give some slight attention to the assets of female characters.

The gratuitous violence is mostly in the form of mechas breaking apart in some rather powerful explosive ways. As PG-13 as it gets.

Names

天元tengen突破toppaグレンgurrenラガンlagann
TTGL.

Screencaps

Simon inside Lagann fighting a Gunman inside the underground village.
Kamina pointing upwards toward the surface of the planet.
Yoko Littner sliding down a rope with her sniper rifle.
Kamina, Simon and Yoko looking at the excavated Lagann.
The planet of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

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