Review: Tengen Toppa Guren Lagaan
Jun0
About an hour ago, I just finished watching the Anime Tengen Toppa Guren Lagaan, a relatively new anime that came out a couple of years ago. It interested me because I read a manga spinoff earlier, and it’s also made by one the studios I like, Gainax.
Introduction to the Story
The beginning of the show centers around three characters. Shimon and Kamina are residents of an underground city, who dream of going to the surface. Shimon is a digger, digging holes to increase the size of the city, while Kamina is a sort of motivator, talking about the dreams that he has to arrive at the surface. One day, Shimon discovers a giant robotic head, and as he is about to show Kamina, a large robot crashes down into the city, threatening to destroy. A girl known as Yoko also comes down, attempting to bring down the robot. Shimon find out the giant head is also a robot, and with the help of Kamina and Yoko, defeats the large robot, and inadvertently ends up on the surface.
Now onto the actual review!
Story
Generally, the story of Tengen Toppa is probably one of the better ones for something that is originally an anime (not adapted from a manga). The story is fairly structured, and the characters actually show some depth, as well as overcome both physical and emotional hardships. Of course, I wouldn’t expect any less from the production company behind Evangelion.
Now, the story has an incredibly fast pacing. If the goal was to see how much story one could cram into 27 episodes, that’s a good example. Each arc is completely different from the other, and almost every episode feels necessary to the story. However, fast pacing has it’s consequences. Although no episode is particularly boring, the story introduces a lot of characters without giving a lot of explanation regarding backstory. Sometimes I feel like this character was invented just for one or two parts of the story, and then completely disregarded afterward. In fact, I felt this way about one of the main characters for at least the first 8 episodes.
If I give Tengen Toppa one thing, it’s the fact that it’s pretty much unpredictable. The twists and turns that occur are enough to cause a headache, and without a lot of time to explain, there was a lot of concepts and themes that could have been explored further.
Story: 4/5: Exhilarating, but needed to slow down to spend more time on characters and understanding what the heck is going on.
Production
Gainax is an amazing production company. Every single thing I’ve seen from them is amazing visually. Tengen Toppa is not exception. The art style really portrays the feelings and intensity of the characters, and all scenes are very well animated. You really get the sense that this is quality work. The style also takes on more of classic-robot-anime touch at some points, with thick brush lines and everything. I think this was to increase the intensity, and it sure did the trick.
Regarding the actual art style, it takes more of a 90’s Anime approach, compared to the ridiculously shiny and vibrant colors of other recent Animes.
Save for a strangely animated 4th episode (even the co-founder of Gainax had some negative things to say), the production was very well done.
Production: 5/5 fits it perfectly, and increases the intensity of the Anime.
Sound
Voice actors are top notch. I don’t really know too much about voice actors, but I do know that the voices fit perfectly, especially since this show needs some talented ones.
The music was also very good. I guess the show has it’s own original soundtrack, and the music perfectly complements every scene its in.
Sound: 5/5 very good!
Overall
Tengen Toppa Guren Lagaan kept me glued to my computer for two days straight, so I’d say it did a very good job. Besides a slightly erratic and hard to understand story, it did a very good job. Gainax sure has a knack for Mecha Anime’s.
Overall: 4.5/5
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