Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (天元突破グレンラガン, Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan, lit. "Break-Through Heaven Gurren Lagann") is a Japaneseanime television series animated by Gainax and co-produced by Aniplex and Konami. It has been scheduled for twenty-six episodes and premiered on April 12007 on Japan's TV Tokyo network.[1] It is directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, written by veteran playwright Kazuki Nakashima and has been in development since the participation of the famed animator in the Abenobashimecha themed episodes by the same studio. Konami has announced that they will make a video game to accompany the series, but no other details are currently known.[2]
Plot
Story
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional far future where human beings have been forced underground and thrive in isolated subterranean civilizations. These "villages" have no contact with the surface world nor other villages. Since frequent earthquakes damage infrastructure, the villages must constantly expand deeper into the earth — individuals designated to this task are known as "diggers".
Jiiha Village is the home of Simon, a fourteen year old digger who was orphaned when his parents were killed in an earthquake. He is respected by the village elder as the best of the diggers, but is ostracized by his peers. After discovering a special drill key deep in the ground, he is recruited by an eccentric fellow orphan named Kamina into his group, the "Gurren Brigade". Kamina dreams of the surface world, which he visited as a child with his father but had to return home because he was too weak to survive.
After a failed attempt at reaching the surface, Kamina is jailed by the elder and Simon resumes digging, only to discover "a big face" deep in his tunnel. As he excitedly fetches Kamina to show him the discovery, he is caught by the village elder, but Kamina's punishment is interrupted by the ceiling of Jiiha Village collapsing as an enormous robot falls into the cavern. A fourteen year old girl named Yoko appears and tries to fight the robot with a large rifle, but initially cannot do much. Simon takes Kamina and Yoko to the "big face" he found earlier and discovers that the small drill key can be used to activate the small robot which he uses to end up destroying the much larger robot and effectively break through to the surface.
It is on the surface that Simon and Kamina discover that there are more large robots known as Gunmen piloted by "Beastmen" that terrorize the surface dwellers during the day. Simon and Kamina help Yoko and her village destroy three more Gunmen and Kamina takes one for himself, naming it Gurren. Eventually, Simon and Kamina decide that they will go on a journey to end the constant struggle between Beastmen and humans. Simon and Kamina are initially accompanied by Yoko and a mechanic from Yoko's village named Leeron as they head out to find the Beastmen's Human Eradication Army main head-quarters.
Simon is a fourteen year old digger from Jiiha village. One day, he finds a mysterious drill-shaped item, which is later revealed to be the key for a head-shaped robot he dug up some time earlier. With the help of the robot, Kamina, and Yoko, he fights off a Gunmen who broke into the village. While finishing the Gunmen off with a drill-like attack, they reach the surface world.
Later on in the story, Kamina's death has a severe effect on the group's morale, specially on Simon who goes through a sort-of mental breakdown. Simon becomes reckless, and aggressive attacking enemy Gunmen without mercy and brutally beating them. He even lashes out at his comrades, notably becoming more bitter, and insulting. He continues to blame himself for Kamina's death, and wishes to become like him, as a form of repentance. This extreme degree of emotions causes the Lagann to malfunction or overflow with power therefore causing it to shutdown. But after reminiscing about Kamina's last words to him, he finally regains his will to fight and the capacity to pilot both the Lagann and the Gurren-Lagann, and was chosen by the Gurren Brigade as their new leader.
Kamina is a young man from Jiiha village who dreams of leaving the village and go to the surface, which he saw as a kid. He's very passionate about his goals, expressing his wishes through energetic speeches, which seems to affect all those who hear him. He convinces Simon to help him with his plan to drill through the roof of the village and get to the world above, but the plan failed and he was put in prison. He left the village shortly thereafter with the help of Simon and a young girl named Yoko, as a result of fighting a Gunmen, who broke into the village from the surface.
After he, Simon, and Yoko break through, they meet many enemies and friends as they go, to the point of building up a resistance force, the Gurren Brigade to fight in their war against the Beastmen Empire who hunt on human beings who live on surface, and becoming their leader. However, during a mission to hijack one of the enemy's moving fortress to their group, Kamina is heavily wounded and dies soon after sucessfully killing one of the the Four Generals. It should be noted however that the energetic words of Kamina are not forgotten by the Brigade, and still follow his motto even after his death.
Yoko is girl from Jiiha's neighboring village Ritona, who had been chasing the Gunmen which entered Jiiha village. She wields an extensive range of firearms and has previous experience fighting Gunmen. Although she is the same age as Simon, she is mature and one of the most rational of the group. Despite always badmouthing Kamina for his reckless behavior, it did not take long for her to confess her feelings to him, which he returns. She was also Simon's love interest, until Simon discovered that she was in love with Kamina and he met Nia.[3] However, Yoko seems to have developed feelings for Simon after he proclaimed that he would do anything to protect her after she took over Rossiu's position (due to a sudden illness) of piloting Gurren.
Nia is a mysterious young girl found sleeping in a capsule in the middle of a dump site by Simon, one week after Kamina's death. She has had no prior contact with humans except her father, who is also the sovereign of the Beastmen, the Helix King. She is very curious, pure and innocent, because of growing up sheltered in a peaceful environment, away from all the battles occurring in the outside world. During her travels with the Gurren Brigade, she discovers the harsh reality of the world and develops a strong empathy towards Simon. In episode eleven, it is revealed why she was thrown out. Her most defining features are her "+" shaped irises and her blue and yellow hair. Nia's hairstyle changed in episode twelve, when she was taken hostage by Adiane, but was saved when Yoko shot Adiane's Gunmen's shoulder and she was rescued by Old Coco. However, her long hair was ruined by Yoko's bullets and she asked her to fix it, having a short haircut since then.File:Gurren Lagann - Generic Ganmen.jpgGunmen
Gunmen (ガンメン, Ganmen) are the type of mecha used in the series. The name itself as a whole means "face" and can be broken down into "gun" and "man" — unsurprisingly, the mecha themselves are centered around faces. Gunmen sport a variety of weaponry — the more primitive models only use large clubs or bare hands, while more advanced ones use cannons or beam weapons. Gunmen are apparently powered by "fighting spirit", and prior to the events in the anime none were piloted by human beings.
Gurren Lagann first aired in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 12007 and is set to contain twenty-six episodes. The anime is produced by the animation studio Gainax and directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi.
2channel incident
Takami Akai, the producer of the series and a co-founder of Gainax, announced that he would resign his position effective episode five, which aired on April 292007, over comments that he made regarding posts on the Japanese Internet forum2channel. Akai and another Gainax employee, Keiko Mimori, made disparaging remarks about comments criticizing the animation style of Gurren Lagann, specifically the fourth episode, which was completely directed by guest Osamu Kobayashi. With regard to reading the fan criticisms, Akai stated that it was "like putting [his] face next to an anus and breathing deeply." Fans later became aware of his comments, and he announced his departure from the company he helped to found.[4]
Music
Opening theme
"Sky-color Days" (空色デイズ, Sorairo Deizu) by Shoko Nakagawa
An online video game developed by Konami will be released called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Chouzetsu Hakkutsu ONLINE (天元突破グレンラガン 超絶発掘ONLINE). Beta testing has ended as of April 162007. The player takes up the role of a driller and drills for treasures in first person view. There is a shop to purchase drills — the shopkeeper is an original character named Asaki. The player can also collect digital trading cards. A game for the Nintendo DS is planned for release on October 252007.
