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Gurren Lagann
Manga Review
I don't believe that I need to confirm this, but does heroic and adventures type stories ever not benefit from having a beginning? Reading the manga is not going to be the same experience as watching the anime, but to concentrate on the drawings of each character, as well as get into the nuances of the story, then the comic is the way to go.
As a well known toy company in Japan, Bandai had expanded to owning various media subsidiaries, like Bandai Entertainment in the United States. Even when the anime and movie has finished its run, there are still other properties to continue satisfying its fanbase. The comic is still continuing in Japan.
 Simon and Kamina are orphans living in an underground village. There is nothing to do in this village, but to dig and expand. There is much fear to the surface above, but there are also fears of cave-ins from constant earthquakes. From the moment that Yoko and an enemy Gunman crashes into their village, the world expands greatly for these two raggedly brothers.
This is a series that is filled with mentions of guerilla warfare, and the mecha mention in this series is quite organic. Readers wouldn't necessarily associate Gurren Laggan as being a strict mecha series like Gundam or Macross series. There are few series that can really be similar, but for the exclamations and flamboyance characteristics of Kamina, Soul Eater is quite similar in that approach.
Reviewed by Linda Yau, February 2012
Gurren Lagann
Anime DVD Review
Not since The Big O has there been an anime mecha series that totally redefines the anime mecha series. Most, throughout the last10 years have been carbon copies of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
But not this one.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional future where humans have been forced underground and live in isolated subterranean villages. They have no contact with the surface world or other villages (assuming they exist).
 Giha Village is the home of Simon, a fourteen year-old digger who discovers a special drill key deep in the ground, and is recruited by an eccentric fellow orphan named Kamina into his group. Kamina dreams of the surface world, which he visited as a child with his father, but had to return home because he was too weak to survive.
After a failed attempt at reaching the surface, Kamina is jailed by the elder and Simon resumes digging, only to discover "a big face" deep in his tunnel. As he excitedly fetches Kamina to show him the discovery, he is caught by the village elder, but Kamina's punishment is interrupted by the ceiling of Giha Village collapsing, as an enormous robot falls into the cavern. A girl named Yoko appears and tries to fight it with a large rifle, but cannot do much alone. Simon takes Kamina and Yoko to the "big face" he found earlier and discovers that the small drill key can be used to activate the small robot, which he uses to end up destroying the intruder, and effectively break through to the surface...
 Gurren Lagann doesn't suck. It's actually one of the best anime series you'll see this year. For one, it's brought to you by Gainax, who created Evangelion, FLCL, and enough other awesome anime that it should be obvious to anyone with a brain that they can do no wrong. It's got an awesome script with good plot twists and originality (you don't hear *that* word often in anime!).
Gurren Lagann also features some of the most original mecha designs we've seen in a long time, and the fresh art direction and of course the slammin' production value all combine to make this the killer app of anime. Oh yeah, and for those of you wanting something familiar in your giant robot shows, there *is* a well-endowed cute chick in a barely-there outfit. But that's almost every anime, what were you expecting? Overall though, Gurren Lagann is a top-notch condender and ready to satiate even the most discriminating of palates.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, October 2008
Below: Promotional artwork for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
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