On the vast plethora of 'recommend me an anime'/'favourite anime'/'best anime EVAR' threads on this forum, the one series that has popped up bewilderingly often is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Despite being an anime fan, I recognise that most series I watch are mediocre at best (like most TV/games/films I indulge in), and TTGL is no exception.
Therefore, would the fans of said series please wax lyrical as to why it's so damned awesome?
TL
R version: I reckon everything about TTGL was shit except the story. Explain to me otherwise.
Perhaps I should preface this by giving examples of series I think were genuinely good in the event you decide I'm a pretentious twat (don't worry, like everyone else here, I probably am):
Seirei no Moribito
Serial Experiments Lain
Paranoia Agent
Hourou Musuko
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
(there are others, but this'll do for now).
EDIT: Yes, this is (almost) pure personal opinion, but I have yet to come across anyone (except an old uni mate) who really doesn't like it. Therefore, fans, please be so kind as to answer question as above. Much obliged.
Despite being an anime fan, I recognise that most series I watch are mediocre at best (like most TV/games/films I indulge in), and TTGL is no exception.
Therefore, would the fans of said series please wax lyrical as to why it's so damned awesome?
Ah, dialogue in (most) anime. Where would we be if not for such lyrical and poetic gems as:
?Kono te de...?
?Kyaa! Ecchi!? *slap*
?Gokai da, gokai?
?Ore ni wa muri da?
& positively Man Booker Prize material: ?Yakusoku dai yo?
If I had a penny for every time I heard one of the above lines in an anime series, I?d be a fucking billionaire. So, what has this got to do with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Well, it?s a series with none of the above lines, but is shit anyway because of some of the most horrendous dialogue and hamfisted handling of concepts I?ve ever seen (?yours is a drill that can pierce the heavens?... *facepalm*, I?ve never had such a strong desire to find a scriptwriter and ritually burn him/her at the stake). I refer you to one of the options I presented in the last review I posted:
The character designs aren?t especially pretty, but there?s a fair style to it, but the lack of consistency annoyed me more as the series went on and a truckload of new characters were introduced in quick succession. This, coupled with an animation style and set of backgrounds that looked like a hastily sketched mangakka?s draft made it all look dodgy at best. If you?re going to have dramatic changes in animation style or backgrounds, have dramatic changes in the narrative to make it fit (Yumekui Merry comes to mind), otherwise you?re just making a dig at your budget. The voice acting was fairly engaging, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too melodramatic a lot of the time, especially Katsuyuki Konishi (you?re not Tomokazu Seki, y?know!), and for some reason, this is the first time I?ve ever wanted to throttle Yukari Fukui. Moreover, at the end... Mitsuki Saiga?s character is done by Jouji Nakata?! *headdesk* (and repeat) Toshihiko Seki would?ve been an infinitely more suited voice, or better yet, Kazuhiko Inoue.
The problem I have with this series is that it doesn?t know what it wants to be. Is it an action comedy with serious undertones? If so, it dived rather spastically into it during the final couple of episodes and made little to no effort to exploit the numerous references to human potential for individuality. Characters lacked ambition from what was obvious and there was no bad guy that allowed justification for the internal politicking to occur, and even when it did, it was token at best. All of Kamina?s lines were delivered was though he was serious, and this when the mood is obviously light-hearted. I can?t help thinking that it would?ve been better the other way around, because further down the line it might have leant at least a little tension to the build up to the relevant finales. And the number of underdog clichés they thrust into these build ups had me wishing I was watching something decent... like Trigun.
The principle antagonists were well thought out but sold horrendously short, and after hearing their dialogue (which was a million times better than that of the good guys) I was egging them on to kill the humans, since I went ?good point?, and the humans chucked up arguments that were the stock of anime freedom fighters that nothing they said was either new to me or compelling. The series never gave me any reason to hate the bad guys, or reason to relate to the good guys, because they were either one-dimensional to the point of stereotype, or wacky to the point of mere comedy-relief. I will leave an exception in the form of Leeron.
And despite knowing what kind of anime it was, I spent much of the second half wondering: just how does this economy function? And it needled at me, just like the series did. Anyway, drills... spirals... helix... DNA, great idea on paper, but it translated so poorly that it almost didn?t come up at all. They really dropped it on this occasion as they could?ve made the association really mean something. Instead, it was just a label that could?ve been replaced with ?sphere? or ?rectangle? or any arbitrary shape/structure that comes to mind.
The story was the only redeeming feature (who copied who, eh, Brandon Sanderson?!), but since everything else was rubbish, it was drenched in bad dialogue, clichés and hideous mechanical design (which was unique in how idiotic it looked). And the whole ship increasing in size again and again was a nice idea, but overdone and ultimately rendered stupid.
So, seriously, people, why all the love?!
I will now slip into my recently acquired suit of Power Armour.
?Kono te de...?
?Kyaa! Ecchi!? *slap*
?Gokai da, gokai?
?Ore ni wa muri da?
& positively Man Booker Prize material: ?Yakusoku dai yo?
If I had a penny for every time I heard one of the above lines in an anime series, I?d be a fucking billionaire. So, what has this got to do with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Well, it?s a series with none of the above lines, but is shit anyway because of some of the most horrendous dialogue and hamfisted handling of concepts I?ve ever seen (?yours is a drill that can pierce the heavens?... *facepalm*, I?ve never had such a strong desire to find a scriptwriter and ritually burn him/her at the stake). I refer you to one of the options I presented in the last review I posted:
Oh, the will to live... Anyway, when I watched the first episode, all I could think was ?Simon, you look up to this twat?!? In the second episode it was ?grow a pair!? though I revised that because he?s a kid and he?s just been thrust into an entirely unknown ?world?, shall we say. Even so, Yoko: yes, you?ve got a nice rack, now go put a tank-top on at least, ?cos we get the idea. It?s silly that no-one picks up on this until they have the mandatory beach episode, where she ironically puts more clothes on. Petty point now out of the way.
The character designs aren?t especially pretty, but there?s a fair style to it, but the lack of consistency annoyed me more as the series went on and a truckload of new characters were introduced in quick succession. This, coupled with an animation style and set of backgrounds that looked like a hastily sketched mangakka?s draft made it all look dodgy at best. If you?re going to have dramatic changes in animation style or backgrounds, have dramatic changes in the narrative to make it fit (Yumekui Merry comes to mind), otherwise you?re just making a dig at your budget. The voice acting was fairly engaging, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too melodramatic a lot of the time, especially Katsuyuki Konishi (you?re not Tomokazu Seki, y?know!), and for some reason, this is the first time I?ve ever wanted to throttle Yukari Fukui. Moreover, at the end... Mitsuki Saiga?s character is done by Jouji Nakata?! *headdesk* (and repeat) Toshihiko Seki would?ve been an infinitely more suited voice, or better yet, Kazuhiko Inoue.
The problem I have with this series is that it doesn?t know what it wants to be. Is it an action comedy with serious undertones? If so, it dived rather spastically into it during the final couple of episodes and made little to no effort to exploit the numerous references to human potential for individuality. Characters lacked ambition from what was obvious and there was no bad guy that allowed justification for the internal politicking to occur, and even when it did, it was token at best. All of Kamina?s lines were delivered was though he was serious, and this when the mood is obviously light-hearted. I can?t help thinking that it would?ve been better the other way around, because further down the line it might have leant at least a little tension to the build up to the relevant finales. And the number of underdog clichés they thrust into these build ups had me wishing I was watching something decent... like Trigun.
The principle antagonists were well thought out but sold horrendously short, and after hearing their dialogue (which was a million times better than that of the good guys) I was egging them on to kill the humans, since I went ?good point?, and the humans chucked up arguments that were the stock of anime freedom fighters that nothing they said was either new to me or compelling. The series never gave me any reason to hate the bad guys, or reason to relate to the good guys, because they were either one-dimensional to the point of stereotype, or wacky to the point of mere comedy-relief. I will leave an exception in the form of Leeron.
And despite knowing what kind of anime it was, I spent much of the second half wondering: just how does this economy function? And it needled at me, just like the series did. Anyway, drills... spirals... helix... DNA, great idea on paper, but it translated so poorly that it almost didn?t come up at all. They really dropped it on this occasion as they could?ve made the association really mean something. Instead, it was just a label that could?ve been replaced with ?sphere? or ?rectangle? or any arbitrary shape/structure that comes to mind.
The story was the only redeeming feature (who copied who, eh, Brandon Sanderson?!), but since everything else was rubbish, it was drenched in bad dialogue, clichés and hideous mechanical design (which was unique in how idiotic it looked). And the whole ship increasing in size again and again was a nice idea, but overdone and ultimately rendered stupid.
So, seriously, people, why all the love?!
I will now slip into my recently acquired suit of Power Armour.
TL
R version: I reckon everything about TTGL was shit except the story. Explain to me otherwise.Perhaps I should preface this by giving examples of series I think were genuinely good in the event you decide I'm a pretentious twat (don't worry, like everyone else here, I probably am):
Seirei no Moribito
Serial Experiments Lain
Paranoia Agent
Hourou Musuko
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
(there are others, but this'll do for now).
EDIT: Yes, this is (almost) pure personal opinion, but I have yet to come across anyone (except an old uni mate) who really doesn't like it. Therefore, fans, please be so kind as to answer question as above. Much obliged.
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