Sep 22, 2025
Gurren Lagan is the anime that dared to ask "what if hype moments and aura also had good writing?" It seems we'll never know.
I only picked up this show because I had multiple friends insisting it was peak, only to find out after dropping it that all of them had the same experience of getting around 15 episodes in and dropping it because it was boring as shit. And yeah, I did that too! Gurren Lagann is a show that tries to be many things (character focused action, political thriller, post-apocalyptic brawls) but the only one that ends up being consistent is just cool
...
fighting for the sake of cool fighting. And don't get me wrong, I'm fine with a good fun series, JoJo is my second favorite anime. The issue I have with how GL tackles this is that it also very clearly tries to go for a well-written and profound story, which it fails in every aspect.
The main power system for the show is barely explained in a way that makes sense up until about 20 something episodes in where it turns into a scapegoat for moving the plot forward whenever it feels like it. The group is losing hope as the enemy wins? Boost in spiral power saves the day! The main character can't reach his friends in time? Magic spiral powers activate! It's such a nothing power system that's only function is to make sure the MC can win in any undesirable situation he finds himself in. It's not even well rounded at least, vague concepts of emotional stability are brought up early on and abandoned even after the system is expanded on.... at least try to make your shit consistent.
The characters are awful too. Most of them have a distinct lack of personality outside of a single trait, and sometimes they don't have any discernible personality whatsoever Yoko is the hot girl, the twins are the stupid guys, Leeron is gay. Nia is kind. The only characters who end up passing (I would put a spoiler warning but I'm being discreet and you'd never care anyways) in the show end up being characters I did not know the names of. There's one standout case of someone being a legit enjoyable character and they're murked before they can have any meaningful progression and end up being little more than a vague flashback to rely on whenever morale is low in a fight. The main bad guy might have actually had a point? Only if you ignore the random slaves he kept for no reason other than a cheap gasp from the audience The main bad guys are called the goddamn "anti-spiral force". Can you imagine if the main antagonists of Naruto were called the "anti-ninja team"?
The creator has been nothing short of controversial for sexualizing minors (which GL has plenty of), but GL also brings in much-needed elements of sexism and homophobia that, while they aren't brought up nearly enough to claim the author as any true bigot, require at the very least a mention. Leeron's role early-on is reduced to the gross creep who acts strange towards the child protagonist and weirds everyone out. His deal? Being gender non-conforming. Kamina's role early-on is claiming that women don't understand the importance of a man's pride and that it's a complete disconnect between the sexes, all the while preaching to his teenage girlfriend who initially objects before falling in love with him. None of this is really that much, but am I wrong to be a little skeptical of bigotry in situations like this?
Gurren Lagann is simply a nothing anime. It tries to do so much that it fails to be much at all besides something you watch once a night while you eat dinner to watch cool robots duke it out because what else do you have to do really? Who cares that Simon wins every fight on his first try without having to endure any hardships besides a single death in the friend group, or that he wins against the omnipotent evil easily when the king who knew infinitely more about said evil and built all of the robots couldn't even stand a chance? Who cares man, you haven't seen a mecha show with action like this since the last time a mecha show came out, which was probably last night!
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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