Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OVA
3 November 2007
I had no idea there was going to be a Gurren Lagann DS game, that motivates me more than even the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl to actually buy a DS. But what I’m really in it for is the OVA that comes with the game. I literally jumped when I saw the torrent this morning, somewhere between excitement and nostalgia, somewhere between wanting to see it and not at the same time.
It broke my heart to hear that theme song again and to see Simon, Kamina and Yoko together. It was like twelve minutes of random happiness. It was such a weird OVA, too. Apparently, the Gurren Lagann is parked in the middle of nowhere. Yoko’s working on her rifle, Simon’s cleaning his Lagann and Kamina is just sleeping. A beastman (well, it’s a female, so is she a beastwoman? Beastgirl?) pops out and draws on Kamina’s glasses with a marker. Kamina, thinking he’s blind, wakes up and starts yelling. Then, the same beastgirl appears, cleans his glasses and offers to clean the Gurren which, thanks to Kamina’s laziness, is in terrible condition.
As soon as she starts to clean the Gurren, a random ganmen jumps out and starts to attack them, even knocking over Leeron’s little office with a stray shell. Since the Gurren is being washed, Simon, Kamina and Yoko head off to defeat the ganmen in only the Lagann. Seeing how the ganmen is only running away, Yoko and Simon realizes it might be a trap and they head back to get the Gurren. When they return, they are attacked by the Gurren!
It was all an incredibly strange ploy to steal the Gurren. A beastman, with hair similar to Kamina’s, named Jigitalis is piloting the Gurren and they start fighting. The Lagann itself is no match for the Gurren, until (by falling off a cliff) Kamina discovers Jigitalis’ ganmen which he named Usagddon (or, something like it.) This annoys the hell out of Jigitalis because a human is piloting his ganmen, and freaks the hell out of Kamina because the interior is decked out in pinups of beastgirls and other, random, kinky decorations.
Simon, as always, is somewhat overshadowed by the random greatness that is Kamina, gets tugged back into the picture when he’s forced to combine with the Usagddon (or, something like it.) However, when the Lagann combined with Usagddon, the ganmen’s arms suddenly disappeared, but Kamina quickly adapts to it by using his legs and kicks Jigitalis to oblivion and then the Lagann combines with Gurren, getting rid of Jigitalis. Just as he’s about to enter his own ganmen, Yoko stops him cold with a bullet and tells him to stay put if he wants to live. Then, Chitori, the beastgirl from before, shows up and saves Jigitalis and the two of them run away.
Kamina, befuddled by their display of cowardliness, shouts after them. At the end of the day, the Gurren is still dirty and in terrible condition and Kamina will have to wash it himself.
I’m telling, it was weird, but it was good. It makes me miss the good ol’ days when the Gurren Dan only consisted of Simon, Kamina, Yoko, Leeron, Rossiu, Gimmy and Darry. It makes me miss the days when Kamina was still alive and his over the top speeches, poses and astonishingly rash personality. It makes me miss even his glasses. It makes me miss Simon being tiny and adorable and so freaked out by everything. It makes miss Yoko, just for being Yoko.
I don’t think I’ll ever, truly ‘get over’ Gurren Lagann. It’s one of those things that’s just totally polluted my mind with its greatness, irrationality and epic-ness. When I hear that opening theme, when I hear Simon’s voice, Kamina’s voice, Yoko’s voice, when I start remembering Nia, I just want to squeeze something into little pieces and cry. Especially since it was just licensed by ADV.
I could swear I heard the beastman’s saying his name is Genitalis, not Jigitalis.
After watching the end of Gurren Lagann I was bordering on the edge of clinical depression for days and days. (love love love love love love)
NO ONE GETS OVER GURREN LAGANN.
And, yes, I seemingly floated between depression, regret, and happiness for a few days. Good thing I watched Rahxephon immediately afterward. 😀
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
is one of the best anime ever
and flcl
we all want it back, the feeling that we had when we went with simon and kamina on a journey to something we didn’t quite understand yet.. too bad for us our memories will prevent us from watching it like that again..
man can you imagine how cool it would be to be suffering from memoryloss each day, and being able to watch gurren lagann each day as if it was the first time seeing it..