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Jun 5, 2016
The feeling when you found out that you succeeded carving your own path, the feeling when you got over someone you lost, the feeling when you get to live another day. For me, that is Tengen Toppa... That is Gurren Lagann! A ridiculous series about shouting morons piloting gigantic robots.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a tale of becoming the master of your own destiny. The cheezyness of the show and how it embraces that makes its cliche message all that more heartwarming and motivational. Gurren Lagann weaves its narrative around its characters, using them as a drill for digging it's way to your heart. Breaking
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down these drill parts makes you realize how it uses very common archetypes, but builds extremely believable characters around them. Take Simon for example; A shy kid growing into a man who never looks back, yet understands how he got where he is, never letting go of the memories those made him the person that he is. Even the supporting characters are incredibly detailed, most of them could have been half as developed and still have passed as great. The depth behind each character and even more so the development of all of them makes the character section of Gurren Lagann top notch.
The show is most often said to consist of two story acts, the first half and the second one starting at episode 17. However, I disagree since dividing the show in three arcs, each representing a character central to Simon's growth makes more sense. Kamina is Simon's soulbrother, kicking his adventure into motion with burning passion. The first arc of the show makes Kamina almost seem the main character. But the one who gives meaning to his empty bravado is Simon, later realizing the errors in Kamina's way and surpassing him. The second story-arc focuses on Simon's second love interest after the first crush of his wasn't interested in him, in favor of Kamina. The romance-side of Gurren Lagann is never the central focus, but instead lingering in the background almost the whole way through. The third arc happens after a 7 year timeskip. If used carelessly, it's a cheap plot device developing characters and their situations, without actually doing so. Gurren Lagann pulls this off great. The characters have matured during the 7 year time while nothing too interesting has happened. When things start going south, the show's focus shifts from BOOBIES and EXPLOSIONS and AWESOMENESS into a more of a subtle commentary on the human condition. The show still feels essentially the same, but grows far more interesting. And then the final 5 episodes feel like pure GAR again, while retaining the slight maturity gained during the last arc in the background. Although it is still a shonen saturday morning cartoon, even if in Japan only.
On the technical side of things the show is solid. There is an episode long dive in the quality of the visual side of things, but when the show looks good, damn... It looks soooo vibrant and alive. The character designs are simple but extremely memorable. Even the mechas look organic enough for punchy comedic effects, while still retaining the mechanical detail. That makes watching them explode and lose limbs all that more satisfying. The OST of the show does the impossible, combining the usual symphonic soundtracky stuff with rap, jazz, rock and even opera into a delightful mixture of different vibes and moods. A memorable OST for sure. Both the japanese and the english dubs are solid, blahblah all is great I promise!
Scoring breakdown
Art Section 7/10 (5% Of the overall)
General Artwork 4/5, Animation 3/5
Sound Section 8/10 (15% of the overall)
Voice Acting 4/4, Music 3/4, Effects 1/2
Story Section 10/10 (40% of the overall)
Premise and its execution 4/4, Pacing 3/3, Conclusion 3/3
Character Section 10/10 (40% of the overall)
Personalities 5/5, Developement 5/5
Overall Score: 9.55
Gurren Lagann is the best anime, no the best thing ever. Never has any other piece of media made me cry and laugh so hard, or bad, never has any other piece of work make me analyze it on a weekly basis, even only if in my own head. I have watched the series 4 times, and I plan doing so again. The show has genius narrative and succeeds at saving ani... succeeds at everything it seems to try pulling off. A modern classic for sure.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 4, 2016
Neon Genesis Evangelion is a highly philosophical shonen anime series released in 1996. It was written and directed by Hideaki Anno under deep depression and produced by studio Gainax. Neon Genesis Evangelion tells a story taking place in 2015. Monsters referred as Angels start appearing in Tokyo 3, a city built by an organization called NERV to defend humanity from destruction. If the angels were to become victorious, it would cause the 3rd impact, an apocalyptic event that would destroy all of mankind. The only hope for humanity are gigantic cyborgs, Evangelions. Evangelions are more than capable of destroying the angels, but only a few
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people can pilot them, all born after the 2nd impact that happened 14-years ago.
The show is highly acclaimed, but it became pretentious garbage for the last two episodes, seemingly because the budget ran out. Several questions and were supposed to be answered in the show but because the mess that it ended in, it was impossible. Enter “The End Of Evangelion”, a movie released in 1997, made to be a replacement for the finale of the original show. The End of Evangelion was supposed to tie up the loose ends. The angels were now defeated, and so begins the human instrumentality project, launched by Seele, an organization behind NERV. Human instrumentality project is basically the 3rd impact under human control, in which all of humanity would be mended into a state where everyone would become one. The protagonist Shinji Ikari, who has had quite a depressing life full of setbacks and losses becomes a victim of the circumstances. So he ends up as a central part in Human Instrumentality and has to decide if humanity is to live or to become one.
The characters feel extremely real, each representing a part of Hideaki’s personality. They all are deeply scarred, some trying to prove themselves, some trying to find meaning, some being sociopaths. The meat of the movie is in Shinji seeing people that he found courage in during NGE being in distress and a particular person being defeated by Seele’s Evas resulting in some truly horrifying moments. The movie pulls off almost everything it does with perfection. The music is gorgeous, every shot is highly artistic. The only thing about the production that was off is the english dub, the actors sound extremely out of place and their parts were recorded horribly. I will give credit to Allison Keith, the voice for Shinji’s mentor. She delivered her character’s emotions on point. Near the end of the movie, there were live action shots located in Japan. They came off as eerily cryptic and seem to have no real meaning. This and some of the philosophical questions the movie sets are interesting, if a bit pretentious. Still it made a huge impact (no pun intended) on me, and looking at it only as entertainment would do a huge disservice for you and the movie. Instead if you pay attention, there is a lot of symbolism and philosophy. NGE and The End of Evangelion paint a whole unique way to view the world. They will stick with the watcher. Even if they didn’t like it.
The End Of Evangelion gave a masterpiece of a series the ending it deserved. The world needs more pieces of art like this!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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