Review 51: Gurren Laggan (Living underground).

Review 51: Gurren Laggan (Living underground).

SHE`S LIKE 12 YEARS OLD, WHAT THE HELL!

Another one that my boyfriend was bugging me to watch, and one that I had actually seen pictures of before but I never even knew what it was called... But there's fanservice...This is an odd series, where all humans live under ground in small towns. We start off in a town where practically everyone is a minor and live in small holes in the walls, they're trying to expand the town by digging into the walls even more... They don't believe in the surface. Well, they don't want to believe in the surface.

The story is set in the future, a long time ago humans where run underground by beast men and their king, also known as the spiral king. They own machines called Gunmen and roam the surface attacking whoever remains or wonders up there. People who live underground live in fear of earthquakes which collapse parts of their towns, who are actually the gunmen above them. Simon is our main character, he's one of the towns diggers and he comes across a strange key in shape of a tiny drill, then later comes across a small Gunman. No other villages underground have contact with each other, so no one even knows about these gunman or what is actually on the surface and as to why they live in constant fear of it. It starts off with a gunman falling through the ceiling of their village, and our two main protagonists trying to prove themselves to everyone else and trying to fight it off; but then one of our other main characters appears from the surface, then the real story begins.

Here's a short list of the characters and what their personalities are like:

Simon: In the beginning, he's extremely quiet and weak but later grows to become the strong main character that the series should of started off with. He's one of the villages diggers and he helps to expand and help the village grow bigger. He's introduced to us when he is only 14 years old, and has no parents; unfortunately one of the earthquakes had killed them as a part of the village had collapsed. He is supposed to be the main character, but his brotherly role model seems to stand out a lot more. His discovery of the small gunman and the core drill (the weird drill shaped key) are what start off the whole story, and stay with him throughout the series.

Kamina: To me, he seemed like he was supposed to be the main character of the series, as his personality and attitude stand out so much more than Simon. He's his older brotherly figure, since Simon hasn't got any family members and not a lot of friends in the village, he looks up to Kamina as his only friend and only family member. He's one of the only inspirational characters in the series, but sometimes you just want him to shut about how his "drill will break through the heavens". Like seriously, just calm down a little bit? He's the only person in his village who believes in the surface, as his dad went to the surface and left him behind so he could one day join him; from then on he's believed so strongly in the surface that he tried to break through the ceiling before the gunman came and crashed through the ceiling. He forms a random team with Simon, called Dai-Gurren and nominated himself as the team leader. Later on, he hijacks a gunman and combines with Simon's smaller gunman which is then famously called Gurren Laggan.

Yoko: God I hate fanservice, but I love this character... Even though I would appreciate some sort of clothing on her. She appears in the beginning as the Gunman falls through the ceiling and into simons village, even though she's about the same age as Simon, she carries a high powered gun with her and jumps around like an athlete all of the time... She's also practically naked the whole time. Her whole village had to be evacuated as a dangerous gas had leaked out and they had to leave before they suffocated and died, basically. They now have to live on the surface, and now they are all fighting for their lives on a day to day basis; they're the only ones that we know of that have to live on the surface and they all use guns to fight off the gunman, at the moment, they just live in a crack in between two cliffs that they've had to live in since.

I won't say anymore because you meet most of the other important characters further on, these are just the first basic ones. Even though it's kind of an old anime and you can tell from some scenes and animations during the fights, the storyline is good and I loved the characters in it... even though some of them need to learn how to keep quite.

Just a little further on there's a few plot twists, and around about episode 8 I wanted to cry.. Yeah. There's loads of other characters who hijack gunmans and join the fight with the other main protagonists, and I thought that was such a positive thing to do during the series since I thought that it would just be the same few through the whole thing, but we get to see a lot more people and a lot more personalities and attitudes towards the main characters as they are practically completely opposite people. I was surprised when I realized that the whole series was panned out over the course of 7 years and in the end you get to see Simon all grown up and looking completely badass! The storyline gets a tiny bit confusing, and I got lost at some points, but I still enjoyed. There is a slight twist that made me feel really smart too, we get to meet the spiral kings daughter and then she tags along throughout the story and helps out the main characters all the way; further on in the story, the reason it gets so active and filled with fights is because this girl appears.

To be honest with everyone, I was seriously put off by the fact that Gunmen are giant robots, I really don't like robots and cyborgs and I'm a big fan of supernatural beings or natural powers. So the fact that I enjoyed the anime was even a surprise to me! Even though it was made in 2007, and even though it doesn't seem that long animation and graphics has come a long way, I was surprised that I would be impressed with a slightly bad animation, fighting robot, fanservice kind of anime. However, it did feel like their might of been something missing throughout the anime and I still can't figure out what it was; it wasn't characters, storyline, the plot twists or the anime as a general piece... But throughout the anime there was something missing, and I'm starting to think that it was the script for the characters, everything felt a little bit repetitive as if you've heard the same thing before but in another situation or another time period. Just one of the small downfalls for me, and it wasn't that hard to notice actually, it took me a while to figure out what was bugging me and I'm not even sure if it was this! (I'll figure it out soon).

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I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, I would say that the target audience is definitely aimed at men, or young hormonal boys who needed some kickass, half naked, young woman to prance around on their screen. I enjoyed it still, but that isn't much evidence as to how good it is because I enjoy anything, simple minded! I would say to just go and watch it, maybe just the first episode or so to see if it's for you. I always feel like cyborg kind of animes aren't for everyone, but for once I enjoyed one!

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