Can You Dig It?: Gurren Lagann

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Greetings, one and all!  Before I start on this week’s review, I think I owe a bit of an explanation about last week.  As many of you may remember, last week I said I may be going on a “hiatus” because of a possible job opportunity.  Unfortunately, that opportunity did not happen.  Still, I took that Sunday off anyways.  That being said, I do have some news that I should have shared some time ago.  This past January, I started graduate school full time.  The work load has been heavy, but the past few weeks have been particularly crazy.  In my ignorance, I thought I could pull off doing my blog and balance grad school at the same time without conflict.  So, in light of this, there may be times that I will not post.  Hanime on Anime is very important to me, but so are my academics.  And many times, my schoolwork will have to come first.  So don’t be surprised if I don’t post on Sunday and don’t explain why, but I will certainly try to let you all know if I have to cancel an upcoming post.
Well, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to this week’s review, which I must say, I’m very excited about and feel is long overdue.  This week’s show in the spotlight comes from the studio that brought you Kill la Kill.  In fact, I think this was the show that put the studio on the map.  If you haven’t figured out what I’m talking about, then let’s cut to the chase and get on with this week’s review on Gurren Lagann!
Set in a dystopian future where humanity is forced to live underground, Simon spends his days digging tunnels and keeping whatever treasures he can find.  However, things start to change when he unearths a drill shaped key, and a small mecha later on.  Not long after this happens, a creature called a Gunmen tears through the ceiling of Simon’s village, and both Simon and his brother-like companion Kamina, take the opportunity to escape.  After defeating the Gunmen with Simon’s newly discovered mecha, they join a girl named Yoko-who tried to destroy the Gunmen herself- and venture out to the surface world, which is much more dangerous than the two had thought.  They later join Yoko’s group of surface dwellers and combat the Gunmen using their mecha.
I will admit, with grad school work going on, I didn’t really have the chance to get very far into Gurren Lagann.  But, I will say, I was blown away by what I watched.  I have to give Gurren Lagann a four out of five star rating, even though it’s early on in the series.  Thus far the best selling point of the series is the story.  Though not much has happened from where I’m at, there is certainly a lot going on.  I guess to put it another way, the story has been very quick in moving along.  Call it a matter of taste, but I like when shows don’t stall or draw out one particular conflict over half the season- that’s why I stopped watching Attack on Titan and why Bleach got boring for me.  With Gurren Lagann, I got the gist of the plot in three episodes (boom).  So yeah, pace was a big thing for me.  But again, that may be just a preference of mine.  For animation, Trigger definitely has its own style of animation, which I like.  It certainly gives the show a fun and exciting feel.  So definitely an A+ there.
As far as downsides go, I don’t really have any.  I think it’s a little too early to say what problems the show has, but that may also be because I really did like this show from the get-go.  But I guess I’ll have to keep watching it to find out what issues there are, won’t I?
Even though I’ve barely scratched the surface of Gurren Lagann, it’s definitely a show that I can dig.  Although, I think I’m going to have to do some more digging myself to truly say if the show is as spectacular as it seems to be.  If you’re interested in seeing Gurren Lagann, you can watch it online at Crunchyroll and Hulu.  The series is also available for purchase on DVD wherever anime is, although I recommend using Right Stuf Anime or Amazon.  I should also note that the show has had a stint on Toonami-although the show is no longer aired.  And so with that, I’m off!  Next week, there will be no review, but a long overdue post concerning some issues with YouTube.  I’ll leave out the details until then, but some of you may already know what I’m talking about. 

-Hanime on Anime
Gurren Lagann Toonami Trailer


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