Is there any point in me going over my thoughts on the film specifically? It hasn't changed my original stance on the series, but reminded me of and entrenched me in it. To explain:
For as well executed and truly charismatic as Gurren Lagann can be, that charisma is arguing for conquest of the cosmos as a kind of heroic venture in which humanity proves itself - indeed, as a kind of destiny that plays itself out even when suppressed to the extreme, like when Simon first digs up the Lagann. True, it's hardly the only anime to assume this kind of thematic project - I ran into very similar frustrations with early 80s anime like Godmars - but it does commit itself more fully than others, and again, lends it a charisma its predecessors lack.
Anyway, what worries me is that for as good as these lessons might (might) be for the individual subject, it lacks a truly ethical content beyond itself, and so lends itself to reckless destruction of and disregard for that world beyond itself if left unchecked. Hell, that's exactly what the Anti-Spiral spell out to the characters later on! Not to mention the quiet hypocrisy of only locating that power in a single heroic subject, as though none of the other characters could make use of this supposedly universal power unless it suited that subject's (the narrative's) needs. Ain't so heroic if everybody has their own heroic willpower to bounce off each other at random (see: Raskolnikov's final dream in Siberia).
Anyway, onto all the random thoughts I couldn't fit into the above:
- Not that Gurren Lagann does much to emphasize it, but I caught this tension early on: for as much as the story wants to be about the power of raw willpower to rise above whatever problems reality throws at it - the Nietzscehan affirmation of life, the desire for ever greater horizons - that will doesn't really mean much outside the circumstances that would actually substantiate its power. It's never Kamina's bravado that carries his plans through to completion, but circumstances lining up just right to bring them to completion (read: he gets lucky a lot). Is this what the kids call "the dialectic?" Probably not, but I'm willing to entertain that reading.
- Great composition and shots, but the animation looks like shit. The new animation cannot arrive soon enough.
- Here's fourteen year old Yoko. Uh, how old is Kamina again?
- In fact, I think I'm going to avoid saying anything about its treatment of women: Kamina's early chauvinism, Nia's manic pixie dream girl relation with Simon.
- For all the energy Gurren Lagann puts into exceeding its influences, most notably Evangelion, it tends to speak past them in favor of its own project, like it wants to believe in the myths that its inspirations threatened. (Hence the overt reliance on heroic myth, which, in the end, is always only a myth.) Simon isn't Shinji, no matter how much you want to position him as such. His problems are much more complex than just lacking confidence.
- There might be a similar problem regarding Mazinger Z. What happened to the latter's monstrousness?
- Are scale and passion - again, that Nietzschean affirmation of life - the only values this film recognizes?
- The most cynical interpretation I can muster (which isn't to say the one I embrace): the characters fight with the power of stolen gods, and represent thievery and opportunism as the height of heroism - nay, the height of life itself.
- The other characters, seeing Simon actually strategize for once in a fight: "Oh, right: we can use strategy."
Those same characters, seeing Kamina die in the very next fight after trying to strategize for himself: "Lesson learned: we will never use strategy again." - Simon runs away because he struggles to process his trauma? Teeny baby arms for him!
- One thing I sort of like about this movie is Nia as a counterpart to Kamina: same general idea of being there to give Simon permission to have confidence in himself, but she's as feminine as Kamina is masculine. Yuzuki Yukari affecting a girly voice when playing her cinches it.
- There's a fucking cameraman mecha? Cameramen mecha!?
- It's getting to the point where I want to scream Chaosmosis at this movie for its implicit notions of singular, relatively undivided subjecthood.
- We're finally getting into the good animation Gainax made specifically for this movie, aren't we? FUCK YES! FUCK YES FUCK YES FUCK YES FUCK YES!!!!
- And the transition from fan service to badass in the space of a couple of seconds? Also a fuck yes.
- They really blew half the film's animation budget on destroying that one enemy gattai.
- While I'm on the subject, having all Four Supreme Generals combine into a single mecha feels like a cop-out, and it destroys the pacing that made more sense in the show. Even if it is the setpiece in a propaganda campaign, why would the enemy throw ALL their forces at this one squadron that, until this point, they'd only understood as a strong force?
- Still worlds better than GaoGaiGar FINAL.