Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Movie 1: Gurren-hen

Childhood's End is extremely similar to the first half of Gurren Lagann, it cuts a bit short before the end of the first half but that is by all means fine when planning on watching the other soon after. The really big change is the movie's climax which hurries along the plot of the show exponentially. Do I prefer the show? Yes, but the movie does a good job of still delivering hype and surprises for people who've seen the show already. Important moments are still given their respected time and unnecessary parts are left out altogether which was honestly a positive. Some plot points ... are most certainly glossed over in this installment and that's why I HIGHLY recommend to watch the show before watching the movie. Due to some plot points not having their time, some impacts are intensely less impactful and expected unlike the show, which ultimately lessens the experience in comparison to the show. Overall, the impact of the show is still better than the movies due to that change. Nevertheless, an incredible experience for already existing fans.

Gurren Lagann the Movie: Childhood's End (2008) is an entertaining and novel recap of the first 13 episodes of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007). GLTMCE is an amazing showcase of animation ability, every scene within the film is stunning, and the animation sequences (while sometimes repetitive) are gorgeous. Scenes that didn't make sense in TTGL are removed and replaced with ones that better explain the lore of the series which is a welcome change. However this is all there is to GLTMCE, since the film covers 13 episodes worth of content in just over two hours the pacing feels off, and the viewer isn't able ... to connect to the characters or watch them interact and grow like they did in the original series. To add to this TTGL was always somewhat repetitive and this is further exacerbated by the condensed format which only focuses on those battle scenes that were the source of the repetitive nature.

If you're a huge fan of TTGL or this film is playing in theaters near you then it is definitely worth checking out. But if you haven't seen TTGL yet, or aren't a huge fan then there's no purpose in watching this film.

*Dub or sub* In this case it's best to go with the sub, the dub is pretty standard: mostly flat in its delivery and the screaming during fights can be pretty cringeworthy.

Gurren Lagann: Childhood's End, is the first Gurren Lagann movie and more or less acts as a recap and retelling of the first half of the plot from the anime combined into one. The movie, as mentioned, mainly serves as a retelling, putting all the major episode plots into a single story which amounts to just under two hours, while the minor elements are either not present or combined into a montage, with one exception by the end. However, depending on how one felt about the main series and their patience level, this can either come off as a blessing or a curse. Themes and ... other elements I mentioned in the main series won't be discussed here to avoid repetition.

Let's start with the good. As mentioned, the movie essentially compacts all of the major scenes of the anime's plot-relevant episodes. As such, if you want a trimmed down version of the main story which could be easily digestible in one sitting, instead of sitting through everything, this could be recommendable. There is also a slightly different ending, and this movie ends at approximately the halfway point of the series.

However, the movie has several unfortunate elements. The first is that as a product of several episodes combining, it needs to mix several plot elements, which require nearly whole episodes to be completely retained. This is pretty bad, as it means that you're essentially watching all the plot elements at once in near their full length runtime, just squished together. This also means important episodes, as well as heartmoving or funny episodes, tend to get skipped over or squished into a montage. In my honest opinion, the movie would be better off if they opted to rewrite the storyline to make the events follow a more compact narrative. As it stands, this is unfortunately just a very large and somewhat disengaging clip show of the series so far. You may be interested in the alternate ending, however. 3/10.