Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Episode 14
4 July 2007
I’ve learned from various people and my old blog that long summaries are bad. So, here’s to short and sweet:
Plot Fast forward one month from the last episode, the battle with Cytomander. Simon and Yoko is visitng Kamina’s grave before the final attack on Teppelin. The crew is working on patching up the Dia-Gurren, preparing for the attack. Meanwhile, inside Teppelin, Cytomander volunteers to attack the humans first. Guame comments that Cytomander’s young and he is too eager. He also says that the humans are persistent and no matter how many times they are defeated, they always return. The Spiral King replies that the faith of humans is their one valuable trait, as well as their fatal foolishness.
Soon, the Dai-Ganten commanded by Cytomander comes into firing range of the Dai-Gurren and proceeds to fire all of it’s missiles at the giant ship. But thanks to the reactor Leeron picked up from their last battle, the Dai-Gurren takes flight and dodges all of the missiles. The ganmen are also equip with reactors and are launched from the Dai-Gurren. Kittan and his sisters combine to form, if memory serves correct, the King Kittan Deluxe? Anyways, it’s nifty and pretty cool looking. Cytomander’s forces begin taking off from his airship-cruiser fortress, the Dai-Ganten. Huge air battle ensues. Somewhere, Guame with his fortress appears and starts shelling the Dai-Gurren.
Defenseless, the Dai-Gurren has no where to escape, facing bullets in every direction. Convincing the others that he is capable of handling Cytomander’s freakishly large squadron, Simon faces off against the enemy. In one of the less epic scenes, the Gurren Lagann takes out all of Cytomander’s minions. After this tiring, albeit impressive, show of power, Simon leaves the Gurren in Russio’s hands. Just as he takes over control, an array of missiles is sent flying in his direction. Russio manages to dodge all of the incoming artillery, all the time screaming and wailing in panic. However, Cytomander is not deterred by this setback. He comes out in his custom ganmen, Shuzack. The Gurren is unable to move after over exerting power is held down by Cytomander’s ganmen as he approaches with a saw to finish the job.
All is not lost! Suddenly the enemy is attacked by a volley of fire from an unknown source. Through the dust and sand of the arid plains, appearing on the horizon are more human controlled ganmen. After witnessing Guame’s defeat broadcasted live across the world, more humans for their underground villages rose up to join the Dai Gurren Brigade. Kamina’s emblem sailing proudly in the air, reinforcements have arrived! The attack regains momentum as everyone opens fire on the enemy. Cytomander is not done yet, transforming into an upgraded version. Unfortunately for the poor lunatic General, the Dai Gurren charges in, ramming into his ganmen head first, cutting his fortress in two and sending it straight for Guame on the ground below. Upon collision, there is an enormous explosion.
Dai-Gundo, however, is not destroyed. It reappears and begins spinning at the base of Teppelin, creating a tornado and an energy field around the beastmen capital. The new reinforcements begin hurling themselves into the tornado uselessly. The Dai-Gurren is unable to contact any of them. Then, Nia appears on a projector. She introduces herself as the cook of the Dai-Gurren and advises everyone to stay put and stop dying needlessly. One of the funnier scenes is when she bows during her introduction and the flying ganmen all bow back. Any case, Nia tells everyone that Simon will stop the tornado and defeat the enemy. Why? For a second, I thought she was going to sing or speak some cliched words of inspiration. But true to the quirky nature of the show from the Kamina days, Nia declares under the brilliant sun of a beautiful blue sky, that Simon’s drill is the one to pierce the heavens.
Simon, true to Nia’s word is on a surprise attack, drilling underneath the Dai-Gundo. Before Gurren’s drill is able to penetrate the armor, Guame sets in on a reverse spin and crushes the Gurren. Everyone is in shock from this new development. But Simon isn’t finished. Thanks to the force exerted on the Gurren’s drill from the reverse spin, Simon was able to break through the armor. He proceeds to drill right through the Dai-Gundo and Guame, destroying both. They may have won the battle, but the war is far from over (it’s still only half way through the series! Of course the war is still far from over!) As the dust settles, large buildings begin falling off the beastmen capital to reveal the giant face of a ganmen.
Preview “I’ll Head Towards Tomorrow” The preview this time was a bit weird, the giant chunks of Japanese seriously disrupted the pictures and I was unable to really tell what was going on. Then again, if were able to read Japanese, it probably would not have been that big of a problem…Anyways, looks like Nia is going to be in trouble, Gurren is fighting another ganmen, and…giant chunks of Japanese! Ugh!
Impressions It is official: I am in LOVE with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. That is it, that’s it. It’s probably my favorite show running, second to Darker Than Black. Gurren Lagann is epic, it’s Lord of the Rings, Matrix epic but done by Gainax which means it’s completely crazy and infinitely better than the Matrix and LoTRs combined, not to say I didn’t enjoy either of those. In fact, that Matrix kicked ass. Not only is Gurren Lagann epic, it’s also so silly and childish and innocently beautiful. The prime example is Nia. After Kamina died I had a total fit and was convinced nothing could ever replace him, but along came Nia. Nia didn’t replace Kamina but she added her own flavor to Gurren Lagann, ironically she’s the cook. It gives me such tremendous joy, such profound delight when I watch it, it’s marvelous. It’s absolutely crazy, but it’s true.
As far as this episode goes, seeing the reinforcements, seeing Simon defeat Guame was beautiful. I just gave me this wonderful feeling that Simon and the Dai Gurren Brigade won. I like the part with Nia, Nia in the Sky with…um, Ganmen? Oiy, anyways, I thought it nicely done. The scene where Russio is running for his life, dodging missiles was also particularly funny. Cytomander looked a bit freakish for my taste, especially right before he gets blown to bits, he looked rather creepy.
It’s funny because I don’t think I’ve mentioned Yoko more than once in my summary. She pretty much stood in the bridge this episode, looking worried. The fact that Nia usually gives everyone hope and Simon saves the day, leaves Yoko with nothing to do really. I always though Gurren Lagann was going to progress with Kamina and Yoko as a couple and sometime later someone (Nia) would show up to be with Simon. I was never prepared to see Kamina die. Yoko is like a wallflower now. I really liked her character though, she was a little bit annoying but seeing how she’s not like a loli and actually displays her assets through revealing clothing AND carries a large rifle made up for everything.
Any case, I’m looking forward to more inspirationally epic battles and I heard something about them going into space? If they take Teppelin now, I guess they have to go into space. Simon’s the drill is the one that pierces the Heavens, after all.
Nice review! And I can’t help but agree – I’m totally in love with Gurren Lagann too! It’s a shame you weren’t blogging when Kamina died, going on the highly emotional style of your writing, I would have loved to read your impressions of that episode!
Also, glad I’m not the only one to be creeped out by Cytomander!