Gurren Lagann Episodes 2-12

This show has shaped up to be quite the thing.

You know that bit in Nadesico after Gai dies and before the reveal about the Jovians. And the bit after the reveal and before the end. Where a lot of day to day stuff happens that really doesn’t have a lot to do with the whole plot, but it still kind of works because it’s all a meta-commentary on giant robot shows? Well a lot of Gurren Lagann is like that BUT LOUDER.

And stuff actually happens to propel the plot along.

Like Denno Coil, this show features a lot of remarkable animation for a TV show. Unlike Denno Coil it doesn’t go for a realistic style, this the Kanada school writ large – exaggerated angles and perspective, rough lines and dynamic movement. It’s a call back to the 70’s, that’s most obvious in episode 8 when Dezaki’s patent “postcard memories” technique makes an appearance, along with a shot taken straight from the climax of the Dezaki directed Ashita no Joe.

It’s a shame the reaction to giving Osamu Kobayashi the freedom to do episode 4 in his own style has apparantly precluded similar experiments. It was the closest I’ve seen Kobayashi bring his look of “End of The World” and “Table and Fishman” to a mainstream show.

This being Gainax, there is, of course, fanservice. Episode 6 contains so much that about half had to be cut from the TV showing for being too near the knuckle for 830am. And that episode also contains specifically Gainax fanservice in form of cameos for characters from other Gainax shows. The good news is that this series has Imaishi in charge, so rather than Mahoromatic or Konomini style (oh Hiroyuki Yamaga, why you so bad?), it’s Re:Cutey Honey style. And there’s action moving things along while it’s happening.

Quick word about the mecha designs. Gloriously goofy, like they are channelling all the goofy elements of various shows. The face on the chest thing is straight off Gaiking. The general squat physique of most of the mecha seems to be a reference to Kazunori Nakazawa designs. Having the villainess’s mecha’s mouth on it’s crotch seems totally Go Nagai. And Yamato with big clown feet and spindly arms? GENIUS!

Storywise, it’s all familar to anyone with more than a passing interest in giant robot shows, but it’s all in the execution. One of the things that made GaoGaiGar so great is the sense of escalation as the series progressed, and that Gurren Lagann gets that down better than GGG did. At one point the cast more than doubles in one fell swoop, and yet all these new characters, who could easily become just background, have their own distinctive, if simplistic, personalities. By episode 8 the first story arc is distinctly over.

The shift in tone in episode 9 to 12 is interesting, and could throw you if you were overly attached to the tone of the first 8 episodes. It has been said that these episodes are drawing more from 80s shows and that the tonal change is indicative of that. The character of Nia at first seems like the antithesis of the previous arc, and I think that’s deliberate.  But by the end of episode 11 any doubts that this isn’t the same show you started watching are long gone.

Gainax’s TV output the past few years has been incredibly disappointing, whereas their OAV output (Re:Cutey Honey & Diebuster) has been excellent.  For now it looks like this creative slump has been reversed with Gurren Lagann, a show that not surprisingly, shares a lot of creative force with those superb OAVs.