877 Upon Closer Inspection.

I watched Gurren Lagann yesterday. It wasn’t much of a surprise to me because I have, like, two volumes of the manga adaptation. It was interesting to see it in motion though. It doesn’t really break any new ground as far as plot, cast, or really anything to do with anime storytelling is concerned, but it doesn’t break any new ground in a pleasant, and entertaining, way.
There’s a female fanservice character named Yoko, whose body generates a magnetic field for the camera. It’s nowhere on par with Strike Witches, but really what is? Just be prepared to spend some time panning between her tits and back around to her ass.
In defense of the series, the male leads are almost always shirtless, and built like statues. If you like that sort of thing you won’t be disappointed. They just don’t tend to pan around the crotch quite as much as with the girls.
It’s basically a giant robot cartoon. The only character who stands out as unique is Kamina, the leader of the Team Gurren. I feel like there must be other characters exactly like him in other anime, since virtually everything else in the series feels that way, but I’ve never seen them if they exist. He’s the most confident character in any anime I’ve ever seen, and probably in any media at all. On top of that he manages to be confident without being an unlikeable dick, unlike the guy in LICD. Kamina is, essentially, the polar opposite of Shinji from Evangelion; which is fucking great. Unfortunately Simon, his little buddy, has contracted Shinji syndrome and, as a result, is plagued by intense bouts of being a complete pussy. Ironically Yoko is not a pussy in any way, but they will remind you that she has one every time she’s on screen.
All in all Gurren is a fun show. About 4 episodes in there was one that had the shittiest animation quality ever, then everything was fixed in the next one. It wasn’t just a little bad either. There were scenes that looked like they were animated by the Speed Racer team. It was jarring. It was also a real shame because it was the introduction episode for some of the cast members who show up from time to time later on. The change is especially bad because up to that point the animation was some of the best quality I’ve seen in a while.
Anyway, long story short, Gurren Lagann is cool.