Gurren-hen

Firstly, I apologize for the sudden change in font; I had some random spacing issues that caused this font the change all over the place, and I ended up standardizing with this style. Anyway, I once explained the film I'm about to review with the following analogy: "Gurren-hen is to Gurren Lagann as Rebuild of Evangelion is to Neon Genesis Evangelion." It turns out I was a little bit wrong about that. You see, Gurren-hen in itself is defeated. Like Rebuild of Evangelion, Gurren-hen is meant to be an abridged retelling of a portion of the anime in a movie format. While Gurren-hen is this, it also isn't. It's kind of confusing, almost comparable to double-think or your basic contradiction.


In a much earlier post, I reviewed the first half of Gurren Lagann, a recent anime series about mechs, fighting spirit, and spirals. This blog post conveniently fits in between that and my review of the second half of the anime, because Gurren-hen, also known as Childhood's End, is an abridged version of the first half of the anime. However, that's almost too strong of a definition of Gurren-hen, because that's exactly what  most of the movie is: an abridged version, to a very, very, very high degree.


 For the entire first half of the film (which goes all the way to the battle with the first of the Spiral King's generals), every scene is copied from the anime, angle for angle, line for line, frame for frame, even. The quality seems a bit better, but not even considerably much. You're basically watching the anime with all of the filler cut out--and sadly, the hot tub episode is considered "filler." While it is entertaining to relive such emotional moments as Kamina and Yoko's kiss and the former's death, it would have been even more entertaining if they really upped the quality, threw in some new characters and plot twists, and used at least different frames.


However, despite all of those, the movie opens completely differently than the anime did. Lord Genome, the Spiral King, speaks a narrative that recounts  conquering of Spiral races, and the rise of his Beastmen on Earth. Then we're back to a carbon copy of the anime, though the choice of the scenes seems to put a greater accent on Yoko, whereas the roles of Leeron, Gimmy, Darry, Simon's pet mole, and the Black Siblings are very much diminished. Also, it seems like a lot of new battle footage was added to the battle with Thymilph. We start to diverge from the anime--a lot of dark scenes are added to dramatize the death of Kamina after the battle. Similarly, scenes are added to make Simon seem even more disturbed and Shinji-esque after his bro's death.


Shortly after this, we make another diversion: Adiane's appearing to Team Dai-Gurren to attack the Dai-Gunzan is not what reveals Nia's true identity. Instead, Nia reveals that she is Spiral King's daughter simply by, well, saying it to the team. So, basically, the movie moves a few scenes around, and it still flows perfectly fine. Everyone is much less surprised by this due to perhaps the odd nature of this being revealed. Sadly, though, this means we don't get Nia's greatest line in the whole series now: "You are a pissing-off type person!" Also, I feel like some of the music has been moved around a bit--for example, there's a beautiful flute solo when Nia finds Simon's Kamina statues that I don't remember and certainly would have made not of.


And then, it all turns awesome. A moment happens in the movie where it basically says, "Screw the anime, THIS IS HOW WE'RE GONNA DO THIS." The battles with Adiane, Guame, and Cytomander are all COMBINED INTO ONE MEGA-BATTLE. Adiane appears just as she did in the anime, but is then joined by Cytomander's giant sky fleet and fortress. Guame's dome appears right next to the Dai-Gunzan as well. All of these three harrowing battles from the anime have been combined into one ultimate trial. This is what makes fans of the original anime shocked, for such a huge diversion is truly surprising. Also, now the material is no longer frame-for-frame copied, but rather totally new. Hooray!

IT JUST GOT SERIOUS.

 

Just as everyone but literally five or six people aboard the Dai-Gunzan get into their Gunmen to fight a truly epic battle, the Spiral King's army begins their powerful assault, which is broadcasted live to all surfaced humans by Guame. The ship and the undeployed Gunmen within are tossed up by Adiane, shot back down by Cytomander, and then slashed by Guame. Oh, but it's not over yet. Viral joins the fray too, but this time with a new machine: DAI-GUNZAN TWO. As if the situation couldn't get any worse, Viral starts literally throwing enemy Gunmen into the Dai-Gunzan. Rather than fighting them, Team Dai-Gurren tries to bat back what they can, with little success. All four commanders unleash armies of Gunmen. The fight gets so bad that Viral is slaughtering Rossiu in his battle with Gurren Lagann, and Kittan has to retreat from Guame to escape a spiny death.

IT JUST GOT MOAR SERIOUS.

The battle does retain some similarity to the anime, though. Guame is still the one who reveals the truth of the Spiral King thinks of Nia. Nia, though, is in the sky when this happens, held captive by Cytomander. Simon, who we haven't seen during this battle at all, suddenly appears on the flying fortress, scaling it with his drill to try and free Nia. Nia, inspired, actually refutes what Guame says about her being a doll, a great contrast from the anime. We also get to keep Kamina's speech about Simon from the anime, hooray! However, while all of this rescuing is happening, another general, Adiane, manages to board the Dai-Gunzan with an attack force, and proves herself able to withstand Yoko's feeble firepower.

Suddenly, though, Simon is quit literally kicked off of the aerial fortress, sending him plummeting down and away from Nia. Cytromander also starts to go a little bit insane here, making him even more like Kefka to me than he was in the anime. However, while falling, Simon's manly fighting spirit and drive to save Nia sends out a burst of green energy, which takes control of the idle Lagann. Lagann sours through the air on a burst of green energy, arriving to catch its pilot, Simon, and take him back into the brawl. Just as Nia is about to be decapitated by the "cleverly" and appropriately named "Majestic Big Chop," Lagann throws itself into Cytomander's fortress and weapon, preventing Nia's death. Simon saves Nia, showing that this time around, it isn't a sudden realization that breaks Simon out of his funk, but rather his love for Nia.

Anyway, back to the battle. Back on the Dai-Gunzan, Adiane is successfully invading and reclaiming the battleship, while Yoko is trying to keep back her army by using her rifle like a large rod or staff to attack and jab with. For some reason, Yoko finds this more practical than blowing their brains out. Fittingly, this method of attack ends up getting her thrown across the floor by Adiane and her scorpion tail. Yoko attempts an "EX Burst" by pulling a load of bullets out of her breasts and then unleashing a barrage against Adiane and her army, but it fails to affect the general.

Simon and Lagann fly down from the sky to assist Rossiu, who has been failing to hold off Viral in Gurren. The two form Gurren Lagann, and also absorb a random Gunmen that it uses as wings. It is here that Simon delivers his epic speech from Episode 11 about how his bro is here in his heart and on his back, digging to pierce the heavens, and how he is him, Simon the Digger. All of this is properly accompanied by our anime hero striking a Kamina pose.

 I'M ME!! SIMON THE DIGGER!!

At the end of Simon's iconic speech, he plummets through Cytomander's fortress with a GIGA DRILL BREAKER, destroying Cytomander. Meanwhile, Kittan and his siblings destroy Guame's dome, leaving only Adiane in perfect condition. The last general is still locked in combat with Yoko, and ends up slicing off Yoko's bra during battle. Yoko tries another barrage of bullets, though it only woulds Yoko. With help from Yoko and Boota, Yoko regains her bra and pilots a Gunmen. However, the enemy have a plan too: just as Gurren and Lagann have combined, Viral, Guame, and Adiane fuse their Gunmen, forming an extremely powerful Gunmen never seen before: Dai-Gun Doten-Kaizan.

IT CANNOT POSSIBLY GET MOAR SERIOUS. 

The monstrous Gunmen releases a furious barrage of rainbow laser flares on the Dai-Gunzan, unleashing a huge, fiery explosion. However, a shield of green energy generated from Simon and his drill narrowly prevented the vessel's destruction. Then, Simon unleashes an attack that truly shakes the heaven: GIGA DRILL BREAK. But not just any GIGA DRILL BREAK. All of the fighting spirit of Team Da-Gurren manifests as many bright beams of energy, which surround the rapidly spinning drill. As Gurren Lagann charges toward the Doten-Kaizan covered in light, it enters the Gunmen through an opening, stops for half a second to unleash all of the light as a laser barrage from the inside of the machine. It then charges with its drill again through Guame, Adiane's vessel, Adaine, Viral, and finally all of the massive Gunmen. Let me remind, this is all one attack. Simon essentially just unleashed the wrath of God.

The Gunmen then explodes several times, over and over, as surfaced humans all over the surface cheer in victorious joy. The remains of the Dai-Gunzan fly off through the sky, while Viral looks form afar, who somehow survived the assault. Finally, Team Dai-Gunzan visits Kamina's burial site, marked by his cape and sword. Simon is instated as Kamina's true successor as the leader of the group, leaving us with a happy ending. It would seem at this point that the battle with the Spiral King from the anime would simply be left out, as this is such a true, satisfying ending to this arc...

Or so you would think. After the credits roll, the Spiral King appears, threatening Simon, letting us now that it's not over yet. To Lagann-hen!

Basically, Gurren-hen is almost like two diffierent films. The first is a carbon copy of the anime. Then, in the last third of the movie, we break out into this epic battle fit for a movie adaption. That movie adaption was awesome, perfect for this format of film. The battle at the end that was different from the anime was a huge highlight of not only this film, but the whole series of Gurren Lagann. While it's hard to say that this is a case like Evangelion, in which each rehash can be thought of as a different "draft" of the story, it is easy to say that there are two alternate plots going on here.

Because of its new ending battle plot, Gurren-hen is able to be enjoyed as more than just a rehash of the anime. I would recommend Gurren-hen not only to fans of the original anime, who will love to see the new battle, but also to newcomers of the series. The movie is enticing enough to make viewers stick to it, without a lot of the filler and extra time that comes with a whole anime. Though I am a fan of the original anime, I can easily say that Gurren-hen was a movie that pulled through in the end, despite its initial qualities that made it less valuable to a fan of the original series.