Gurren Lagann Hopes To Inspire You

Review by Ricardo Ray. Photo courtesy of Unremembered Yesterdays.

I recently started watching the anime Gurren Lagann on Netflix. If you're not familiar with this anime, it's about a kid named Simon and his brother Kamina. Simon and Kamina live in Giha village. Simon is a digger, while Kamina dreams of making it to the surface, which they have never seen, because the group known as the Beastmen forced everyone to live underground. When the brothers make it to the surface after an attack on their village they meet Yoko, and the three of them travel to the surface looking for great adventures with their gunmen as team Gurren Lagann.

When it comes to Gurren Lagann I think it is the perfect show, and rivals some of the greatest anime in fiction, like Naruto or Hunter X Hunter. This is because Gurren Lagann is not  your average shonen (a manga or anime targeted at a young male audience). Gurren Lagann inspires and has great characters like Kamina, and also has great character development with Simon. For example, Simon starts as a shy kid who is scared to fight, and thinks running is the best solution, but after watching his brother Kamina die, he soon evolves and coins an amazing philosophy, “we evolve beyond the person that we were a minute before. Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn.” This can mean that personal growth and evolution happens constantly, not in sudden leaps, but through a series of small, cumulative changes.

When it comes to Gurren Lagann, one of its most significant pros is its animation, having some amazing smooth-like animation that is described as dynamic, energetic, and expressive, with a focus on exaggerated character designs and intense action sequences. Some of its best episodes, and its movie “Gurren Lagann the Movie—The Lights in the Sky Are Stars,” have astounding animation with ratings of 9.4/10 and 9.3/10 

I highly recommend watching Gurren Lagann, especially if you want a short, high-paced, and action-packed anime with great animation, characters, and an inspiring message. Gurren Lagann is available on Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and Amazon Prime.

Ricardo Ray is a freshman at Friendship Collegiate Academy.