Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann came out during a big transitional moment in the anime medium. Shows were about to change to HD broadcast quality, international access to anime as they were airing was about to explode, and the studio making it, Gainax, was about to lose the big geeky spark that powered it so many years ago. But when it first premiered in April of 2007, it burst out of the ground and drilled straight into the heavens, capturing the hearts of the anime viewing public. And like many anime popular enough to do so, the show was re-released a year later as two movies that condense the twenty six episodes of story (because one of them was a recap episode) into a VERY abridged retelling. Now, fifteen years later, those movies finally get their shot in US theaters, along with finally getting the English dub cast back together to dub them. Do the iconic mecha fights and memorable lines still hold up all these years later? Can these re-released movies respark the Spiral Energy within its long dormant fanbase? Can it do the impossible and break the unbreakable? Well, in the words of the lyricist who I can’t identify, Row row, fight the power.First off, there’s the story itself. Humble digger Simon lives a meager existence underground with his fiery adopted brother Kamina, along with dozens of other humans who have been forced to remain below the surface. But Kamina dreams of visiting the surface, against their village chief’s wishes! Well, those dreams are about to become reality when a giant robot comes crashing through the ceiling, along with a spunky young girl named Yoko. Using a smaller mech with drills they dub Lagann, the three defeat their enemy and make their way to the surface, obtaining a second mech Kamina calls Gurren, and eventually combining the two into, you guessed it, Gurren Lagann. Through a series of impossible victories and hot blooded battles, the group bring together other humans and take the fight to the Beastmen, the animalistic soldiers populating the surface, as well as collect a series of Gunmen, the name for giant robots here. Along the way, Kamina dies in battle, leaving Simon despondent, until they meet a girl named Nia, the abandoned daughter of the Spiral King, who rules over the planet. With renewed fervor, Simon and Team Dai-Guren defeat the Spiral King’s top generals and prepare to fight the king next…in the next movie!The story of Gurren Lagann is, unsurprisingly, still great after all this time and is definitely worth watching if you haven’t already. It is also enhanced greatly by watching it on a big movie theater screen, which these movies for sure provide, especially now that they have proper theatrical releases. And given that these are basically special editions of the show, there are plenty of additional animated scenes for people who have already seen the original version of the story, including a totally new (for these movies) final battle involving three of the four Supreme Generals. The issue that arises is pretty much in HOW they condense the fourteen episodes they make use of to fit within a two hour movie runtime. The first three episodes get a lot of time since they set the stage for everything to follow, then episodes four to six are zipped through because they only kind of matter. The seventh and eighth episodes focus on the battle where Kamina dies, so that gets focus, then the rest all get mixed into a puree to get to the new final battle. And then, rather inexplicably, with only one episode left in the arc, the movie ends, assuring that the final battle against the Spiral King will be basically brushed over at the start of the next movie.Basically, for all its strengths and how much of the show’s greatness it retains, I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone who hasn’t seen the show first. The good news there is that I like the show quite a lot and am more than fine recommending THAT to people, but for the first (and likely last) big release this franchise is going to get in theaters in nearly twenty years, I would’ve liked something more accessible. Then again, maybe this is just a thing for pre-existing fans to celebrate and look back on, in my opinion, one of the best anime of all time. I’m honestly surprised that they haven’t decided to do a sequel to it at any point in the past decade and a half. The same director made Panty and Stocking a few years later and THAT’S getting a sequel. Not that Gurren Lagann necessarily NEEDS a sequel, and maybe it’s for the best that it doesn’t, but maybe I’ll feel different next week when the second part, “The Lights in the Sky Are Stars”, comes out. God, even that title alone drudges up so much fun but also irrelevant crap in my brain, but isn’t that just all part of the experience?
