summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2009-02-28 08:57 am
summercomfort) wrote2009-02-28 08:57 am
Gurren Lagann awesome bits
My most memorable Gurren Lagann awesome bits. As in, what totally made me like the show.
Full of spoilers, so Helena SHOULD NOT CLICK, but since Isaac didn't like it anyway, he should click to check out what he was able to escape.
- Drilling to the surface in the First Episode.
- The Flash Forward that told me that they knew where they were going.
- Kamina's totally awesome death episode -- punching Simon IN THE FACE, once with his hand and once with the severed Gurren arm just to make him stop angsting.
- The pacing of the episodes. Like, how can it be only the half-time screen-catch right now? You've already combined into a bigger mecha/had people die/resolved your emotional issue/punched through space, etc!
- Simon getting over his wangst in 3 episodes
- Simon's wangst being "I must fight more!!!" instead of "I must run away!!!"
- Those 3 episodes being not-boring because they chose to introduce Nia, and still fight.
- Response to flying Ganmen when all of your ganmen is land-based? Jump up and swing from one to another, drilling through each one! Take your MOTHER SHIP and charge it up a spire to deliver a FLYING KICK, and when that misses, to spin the ship around and KICK WITH THE OTHER FOOT. And then stealing the flying ship's levitation sphere to mod your own ship.
- the enemy is the force of stasis and protection:
The village chieftain: "I'm protecting you from the unknown by keeping you underground"
Lordgenome: "I'm protecting mankind from Anti-spirals by keeping them underground"
Rossiu: "I'm protecting mankind by hiding/running from the Anti-spirals"
Anti-spirals: "I'm protecting the universe from destruction by keeping Spiral people under 1 million"
- But it's not just a message of "charge through the unknown, have blind faith in yourself" type thing -- I love the exchange between Simon and Rossiu where Simon is like "I'm the digger, the one who drills in front so that others can follow." and "I'm punching you in the face because you need to accept your mistakes and move on. You made tough decisions that I couldn't have made, and what we need to do in the face of difficulty is just to kick and thrash and hope that we move forward."
- Time Skip! That was awesome because suddenly the brigade of fighters had to deal with building a civilization and all sorts of adult responsibilities, and suddenly there was politics and adult decisions like "kill your best friend". And it was about what makes a good leader -- someone who recklessly charges into things or someone who tries to do the best for the most people.
- Simon's message to the Anti-spiral: You can be selfish and selfless at the same time. You can fight to protect what is dear to you, but you can also have the capacity to protect the entire universe. Protecting the universe does not mean a sacrifice of the individual evolution.
- Fighting is rather straight-forward: transform into bigger mecha through the power of your spirit, and then drill through the opponent. No fancy new moves.
- Kittan's Giga drill
- throwing galaxies like shuriken. "My wife is the best in the universe swing!"
- Fighting the boss involves a stripping away of technology, and doing it mano-a-mano. Like with Lordgenome, goes from Gurren Lagann breaking down to Lagann, and then just to punching each other in the face. Or the Tegen Toppa Gurren Lagann breaking down and sending the Arc Gurren Lagann forward, which then gets stopped and then it's just Gurren Lagann and then it's just Lagann. You couldn't have gotten there without your friends, but in the end, it's up to you to drill through the force of stasis.
- So quotable!
誰だと思ってやがる！！！ dare da to omotte yagaru!!! Who the hell do you think we are!?!
Annoying bits:
- horrible costume decisions in the final arc
- Square chins of the future
- boring peripheral members of the Gurren Brigade that never get character development -- Attenborough (Beamspam McMuppet), the weird twins, the random dudes who joined the Tepperin fight, etc.
Full of spoilers, so Helena SHOULD NOT CLICK, but since Isaac didn't like it anyway, he should click to check out what he was able to escape.
- Drilling to the surface in the First Episode.
- The Flash Forward that told me that they knew where they were going.
- Kamina's totally awesome death episode -- punching Simon IN THE FACE, once with his hand and once with the severed Gurren arm just to make him stop angsting.
- The pacing of the episodes. Like, how can it be only the half-time screen-catch right now? You've already combined into a bigger mecha/had people die/resolved your emotional issue/punched through space, etc!
- Simon getting over his wangst in 3 episodes
- Simon's wangst being "I must fight more!!!" instead of "I must run away!!!"
- Those 3 episodes being not-boring because they chose to introduce Nia, and still fight.
- Response to flying Ganmen when all of your ganmen is land-based? Jump up and swing from one to another, drilling through each one! Take your MOTHER SHIP and charge it up a spire to deliver a FLYING KICK, and when that misses, to spin the ship around and KICK WITH THE OTHER FOOT. And then stealing the flying ship's levitation sphere to mod your own ship.
- the enemy is the force of stasis and protection:
The village chieftain: "I'm protecting you from the unknown by keeping you underground"
Lordgenome: "I'm protecting mankind from Anti-spirals by keeping them underground"
Rossiu: "I'm protecting mankind by hiding/running from the Anti-spirals"
Anti-spirals: "I'm protecting the universe from destruction by keeping Spiral people under 1 million"
- But it's not just a message of "charge through the unknown, have blind faith in yourself" type thing -- I love the exchange between Simon and Rossiu where Simon is like "I'm the digger, the one who drills in front so that others can follow." and "I'm punching you in the face because you need to accept your mistakes and move on. You made tough decisions that I couldn't have made, and what we need to do in the face of difficulty is just to kick and thrash and hope that we move forward."
- Time Skip! That was awesome because suddenly the brigade of fighters had to deal with building a civilization and all sorts of adult responsibilities, and suddenly there was politics and adult decisions like "kill your best friend". And it was about what makes a good leader -- someone who recklessly charges into things or someone who tries to do the best for the most people.
- Simon's message to the Anti-spiral: You can be selfish and selfless at the same time. You can fight to protect what is dear to you, but you can also have the capacity to protect the entire universe. Protecting the universe does not mean a sacrifice of the individual evolution.
- Fighting is rather straight-forward: transform into bigger mecha through the power of your spirit, and then drill through the opponent. No fancy new moves.
- Kittan's Giga drill
- throwing galaxies like shuriken. "My wife is the best in the universe swing!"
- Fighting the boss involves a stripping away of technology, and doing it mano-a-mano. Like with Lordgenome, goes from Gurren Lagann breaking down to Lagann, and then just to punching each other in the face. Or the Tegen Toppa Gurren Lagann breaking down and sending the Arc Gurren Lagann forward, which then gets stopped and then it's just Gurren Lagann and then it's just Lagann. You couldn't have gotten there without your friends, but in the end, it's up to you to drill through the force of stasis.
- So quotable!
誰だと思ってやがる！！！ dare da to omotte yagaru!!! Who the hell do you think we are!?!
Annoying bits:
- horrible costume decisions in the final arc
- Square chins of the future
- boring peripheral members of the Gurren Brigade that never get character development -- Attenborough (Beamspam McMuppet), the weird twins, the random dudes who joined the Tepperin fight, etc.
no subject
no subject
no subject
The plot sounds like Terranigma, which is kind of hilarious - the bad guys want to stop death, the good guys have to push forward humanity despite the consequences. (It's a response to the standard critique of modernity guuuys, and also a fightin' buddhist parable). The other thing is that mecha anime are (to make a really disgustingly gross generalization) all about the war, which makes me think about whether Japan will ever really be a "grown-up" nation if it doesn't take its army back.
My major objection to the show from what I've seen and heard (and comparing it to Utena throws this into relief) is that it's basically all boys, all the time, both literally and in Jungian terms. Utena is about achieving victory by being true to yourself, yes, but the way that comes about is through rediscovering your own vulnerability, and winning through by allowing yourself to be open and hurt and small. I'm generally a fan of the idea that the spiral is a good metaphor for the way we grow - continuously revisiting our old problems, just on a grander and grander scale - but I worry about the idea that it's all about becoming a galaxy-sized behemoth - I worry about the way that the feminine (Nia, and you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong about this) is seen as a trojan horse, which ultimately is trying to keep you from your masculine drill-into-the-stars destiny. I don't think that's the right message for this point in history, where we have grown big and sick on being big and now it's time for some fucking restraint, already.
"Nerd", you may say, but it's Gainax, and they opened all these questions themselves very specifically in their earlier work, and it makes me sad that this is how they've chosen to answer them. I think Nadesico took a similar premise and a similar tone/attitude and did a way better job with the same questions.
no subject
True, the women play mostly supporting roles, and Nia is essentially the internal soul whereas Simon is the external action. Nia is not the Trojan Horse, per se. As in, her being an Anti-Spiral is not a conscious choice by her, but rather part of her genetics. It's more like she got kidnapped by Anti-Spirals, and she fights it throughout, which confuses the Anti-Spirals.
The tone is not Nadesico, nor is the message. The tone becomes much more serious a few more episodes in. Cat says tone-wise it's more like Trigun. The message I got from Nadesico is more about self discovery rather than this forward motion of humanity, the evolution vs. restraint. And Kamina's death doesn't hang over everyone for as long.
In terms of war and getting ever bigger, it's actually one of the things I liked about the anime, is the way it deals with restraint. It's not about blindly charging forward and making war, but rather doing what you can. It was all right for Rossiu to be the cautious one, just as it was okay for Simon to be the cautious one. The message is to not let this restraint and caution limit your potential. Turn defeat into energy.
Yes, you fight the Anti-Spirals as a galaxy-sized behemoth. But then you stop and live. On your own planet. Simon stops fighting. Yoko goes back to her teaching job. I mean, the last scene of Simon is him at the age of 40, helping a little kid with drilling a coconut, and saying, "Of course I'm good at drilling. Who the hell do ... Well, I guess I'm just an ordinary person"
As far as comparing it to Utena, I think you have a point there. Utena is "yin" to Gurren Lagann's "yang". Both are about accepting who you are, but Utena does focus more on the vulnerable bits, whereas GL focuses more about having faith in humanity's ability to evolve.
no subject
no subject
no subject