What if Thymilph killed Simon: A Gurren Lagann What If

My dearest guests and subjects! For the most loyal readers it may be known that one of the anime I hold in the highest of Regards, is Gurren Lagann , prime candidate for my favourite anime, despite my adversity to the Mecha Genre. The themes are a perfect fit for me and I draw inspiration from Kamina’s word.  His vision of his drill piercing the heaven, a message I found inspiring. Yet what would happen if this prophet of my evangelion had stuck around?! What if Simon got killed in the battle with Thymilph.

Disclaimers and Stuff

So before we dig into this story let me make a few things clear, obviously this post will be filled with “spoilers”.  As we will see how the orginal story changes by performing a role reversal of sorts! Secondly I will not write this as a story.. but more how the story would conceptually change. Given what we know, how I envision these characters and  based on things like story motivations etc. I love the original story and do not think this story would be better in any way, I just think it would be an interesting post to theorycraft. As the lawful ruler of Paradise , the only holiday resort located in between reality and imagination I will use both character motivations as well as narrative structure as a guide to come up with this concept.

This means it can happen that characters suddenly change their character quite a bit, as will be the case with several characters in this scenario but this is because some personalities will not fit this new story, I will always try to find a motivator for this but as lesser anime have proven, characters are often pliable to fit a story if the need exists. I fully intend to utilize this.  No custom characters will be inserted but some designs may vary due to how things unfold. Unlike a Dragon Ball what if , this scenario would drastically change the tone of the story, but many major events. Where in Dragon Ball, making an extra character turn good, will alter the scenario..it will still feel like the same series. The events in Gurren Lagann though are pretty inevitable so the main story changes much less than the tone!  With that being said , let’s get into the story.

Episodes 1 Through 7

First let’s look at any changes that need to happen prior to the big event. I will not change any persona’s here. Things would change a bit cinematography wise. We would things a bit more from Kamina’s perspective…maybe even seeing what the man sees in Simon trough a vision of sorts… The first episode would air mostly unchanged but the introduction would look a bit different. Rather than a somewhat casual looking figure we see a more stern hero, clad in black instead of a blue glowing radar we see a more reddish colour scheme as the war across the galaxies proceeds.  A man shrouded in darkness clenches onto a tiny little drill making a tsk noise. Gurren Lagann.. Spin On!   Who the hell do you think I am, is being said… but at a Much Different Tone.  Other than that.. not a single change happens in episode 1.

Episode 2  has a bigger change, in this episode Kamina doesn’t find out his father is dead yet.  He finds his stuff.. but no bones.  Instead there is this little box that looks like it needs the Spiral Key. Kamina believes Simon is the only one that wields it’s power and he asks Simon to try and open it.. but nothing happens. He tries it himself but this time around the key doesn’t even glow. A little mystery towards Kamina’s fathers mythos.  As the character might need something of a story arc to continue on right now. He thinks his father might be dead.. but this also looks a bit like a dead drop! Other than that the episode will remain largerly unchanged.

Episode 3 & 4 will not change at all, there is no need for them to change and it introduces major elements that are told in great ways already. In the fifth episode though we will notice a few changes to the character of Rossiu Adai. The character that was depicted as a fairly devout/pious follower of Gunmen Worship! This time around is not AS pious He is Devout still but he sees something in Kamina.  A Prophet of some kind. A man who can talk to gunmen! Much like how Kamina looks at Simon in some way, Rossiu will look at Kamina in a similar way.. except with the perspective flipped. This initially will lead to Kamina bullying the boy a bit more. “Forehead Boy”  because more of a slur Kamina uses to keep Rossiu at a distance.  With this theme moving forward trough episode 6 and 7, which remain largely unchanged. Yet we do see the religious boy giving Kamina a even bigger hero status. He is the apostille of Kamina after all.

my gif kamina gurren lagann Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann TTGL Simon The  Digger | Anime, Gurren lagann, Gurren lagann kamina

Episode 8

The big moment.. the episode of the first Giga Drill Break and Kamina’s Last Certain kill move! At least in the orginal run! This time we will see a slightly more fearful Simon although rather than fearful, perhaps the better worth is anxious. Rossiu would have talked to him about the hero he thinks Kamina is.. and Simon agrees! He is convinced the world needs Kamina. He looks around him more.. and then he spots the beastmen general trying to make a surprise move on Kamina. We see the original scene play out fastened,  as Simon realises Aniki might die. Overcome by stress.. we see Gurren starting to run and as the attack is about to hit Kamina, Simon’s little droid takes the hit instead.  Kamina immediately reacts and damages the Gunmen of General Thymilph badly in an attempt to shelter his buddy!  Kamina tries to reach Simon through the radio, but there is no response.  As he thinks he hears static come to live he realises it’s rain hitting his window. There is no response from Gurren at all. With Lagann holding the badly damaged Gurren he knows. A rain puddle on the ground right below Gurren colours red. For the first time in his life.. Kamina gives the order to retreat. As Lagann picks up the heavily damaged Gurren, the general laughs, allowing them to leave. His beastmen ask him why he did that to which he simply replies. I want them to feel this pain! Their spirit is broken.

We then cut to a defeated team Dai Gurren , Kamina exits Lagann and opens the pod to find a mortally wounded Simon. Simon  tells Kamina he didn’t want to die.. but he could not let his Aniki die either. His body moved on his own. He apologises to Kamina, telling him.. Aniki is the hero anyway and as Simon hands him the tiny little drill that started their adventure.. he passes on. Kamina falls to the ground distraught, his sunglasses topple to the floor, shattering.  Yoko cries, Rossiu tries to act big, as outside the rain pours we see a lonely Kamina digging a hole. Yoko looked from some distance, distraught but clearly pushed away by Kamina for now.  He then takes of his cloak and uses it as a shroud for Simon, for a moment he thinks of burying the Spiral with him as well.. but he doesn’t he puts it on his neck, as the episode simply ends in silence.

The Remainder of Part 1

From here on out, I will not take this episode for episode anymore as we get a different story.  So who knows where the episodes begin and end. In the 9th Episode we see Yoko comfort Kamina, he is in a funk and unable to fight.. but we see him snap out of it.. yet instead of Simon, who became the idealist in Kamina’s stead.. this change would change Kamina and his beliefs. In its core Gurren Lagann had been the story of a boy trying to fill impossibly big shoes to fill! A story of amazing heroes that try to shatter the limit of what people think is possible, showing that our only true limitation is our shortsightedness.  If we think outside the box enough.. if we follow our own path instead of comparing it to what came before, we can reach new heights!  Kamina has been a beacon for this ideal and the story was about how his will was passed on. That can not happen now.. so instead of Simon, he has to go through change. Yet I feel Kamina would not give up his goal, it is to much connected to him.. so we will go with the hero turning “Dark Saviour ” trope. 

Rossiu will pilot Gurren for now but the boy has to weak of a will to save them all. Kamina realises that if he can save the world  with team Dai Gurren, Simon will not have died in vain.. If they fail.. THEN Simon will have died in vain. He shall be the drill that Wil Pierce the Heavens.. NO!  He will be the drill that MUST pierce the heavens. As Kamina realises this the Spiral Key glows red in his possession. Lagann and Gurren merge into Gurren Lagann, but the greenish/blue elements of fire and power have been replaced by a reddish element with some blue accents (like the yellow speed lines now being blue)  to reflect Kamina’s old colour scheme. Kamina’s energy and catchphrases become much more grim.. like his Drill MUST pierce the heavens.. and “who the hell do you think I am” being said much more menacingly. He also takes a few extra tattoos to look more menacingly! Like a Samao or Maori Warrior.

The key now unlocks his fathers lock-box and in it he  find his father’s diary. With it he finds  out that Lordgenome and his Father once were allies, fighting a force that is greater than them. Yet Lordgenome betrayed the Spiral-Warriors, something that is heavily implied in some side lore for the series, now becoming an actual plotpoint. The Diary said that if Kamina found this, he (the father)  would most likely be dead, but one day he would find a way to get back to his son. Kamina remade his fathers cloak.. in black this time..as well as a much more deeper shaded set of sunglasses. Lordgenome got Simon killed and now he found out he also killed his father. Kamina wanted revenge! Nia would still be found but not a lot of people would bond with her. Rossiu would seem to enjoy talking to her a bit , but Kamina said that they might have to use Nia as bait .. to weaken Lordgenome!  He will avoid it if he can.. but if there is no other way he WILL sacrifice her to see the blight of beastmen end.

The next series of transformations we would see would be grittier and darker. Rather than the insanely abundant designs, the new combinations had something more visceral to them. Stil insanely over the top.. but more functionally so. Think extra drills for defence. Kamina would also ask for some wair paint on all the gunmen!  The other humans would all change as well, as Kamina had this sort of natural charisma , they would all accompany him in his journey to a darker place. While never going villainous, Kamina’s tactics became much more pragmatic. He lost Simon.. so people die in this war it’s just facts people die! So as long as they don’t die for no reason they are allowed to die! While  Kamina would never sacrifice anyone there would be times he comes close to do so to generate tactical advantage.  A few gunmen get sacrificed and replaced though and rather than destroying all the general Gunman he would focus more on trying to obtain those. We also see Dai Gurren putting all their faith in him, very willing to throw their lives away, never questioning his orders. His natural charisma and their need for revenge clearly shaping them.

Except for of course the monkey General! Who begs for mercy after LordGenome has been defeated.. He will only show up in the last battle, not earlier because he is much more directly linked to the person Kamina has become.. he is a bigger villain this time around whom Lord Genome employs to distract Kamina but Yoko would use her sniper to disable his Gunmen and leave him stranded. When the defeat of Lordgenome would be complete and the general begs for mercy, Kamina shows him none! The monkey gets out of his gunman and on his knees and begs to be spared. Kamina lifts Gurren Lagann’s leg and squashes the monkey while the humans simply cheer him on blindly.

Part 2

Just like in the original we make a time jump, towards the time Anti Spiral has appeared.  A few major changes will occur here. Humanity has flourished much like it did with Simon. Though we see a few changes. Gimmy and Darry would not be piloting any gunmen. We see Kittan instead, hunting some beastmen in their machines. As the Star shaped Gunmen lands in front of it’s enemy it and it’s allies do a little Haka!  One one these Maori war dances meant to intimidate their enemy! I feel that is exactly the amount of intimidating but weird that I want this civilization under Kamina to have. His tatoos always remind me of that a bit and I think it would make for a great cinematic element. These Haka’s would return for the “who the hell do you think we are “ type of scenes. The Beastmen would surrender.. and as a result they would get blasted to bits!  Humans do not take kindly to beastmen!  They would do so in the name of Simon and Kamina. In another scene we would see Yoko teaching full time.. but she would look a lot more respectable.. less Bikini look,  instead she would have her hair loose. Looking a lot like Kushina from Naruto. The reason why she looks so homey is soon revealed as Kamina enters his house, the same Simon would have had.. but decorated a bit more garish!

He walk in saying “honey I am home” after which a squeaky voice says that Mrs Litner is not home yet, she had some parent teacher night. It is Nia, who now works for the family as a maid. She smiles at Kamina and tells her she put Simon to bed. Revealing Kamina and Yoko had a kid that  they named Simon. She drops the exposition that Mrs Yoko had been trying hard to find Simon his first Birthday gift. Kamina gasps.. “Oh I have to give a great gift as well, what will I do”  Nia laughs and tells him there is still a fair bit of time. Not long after that the anti spiral things begin to happen and Nia turns into an agent for Anti Spiral.. this time taking Baby Simon along with her as a hostage. I feel that just Nia turning into an Anti Spiral agent would not be strong enough this time around , so we need a character like Baby Simon.  As for her reasons to take him, Anti Spiral believes it would break the human resistance and prevent them from striking at Nia, whom never was really beloved as she was the “daughter of the devil”

MWAHAHAHA - GIF on Imgur

No betrayal and dickbag moves this time from Forehead boy ! Kamina’s rule is already more pragmatic than Simon’s and he is much more idolised than Simon, no one would ever doubt him. Everyone is loyal to a fault even our backstabber priesty boy!  Like I said before the group has this Maori like feeling around them this time and they will walk into war more akin to War-Brothers and more primal as a society. Simpler though not persé worse ..Not a whole lot would change during the Anti-Spiral wars. We’d see those Gurren Lagann clones being used by a few more faceless people, that Kamina and the rest are more willing to sacrifice, we also seem them cope with death a bit differently. Where Kintan instead of a sad goodbye is more or less saluted by everyone for his bravery and sacrifice. The group is still fairly tight knit..but  with Kamina’s undiluted ideology without the childlike innocence added to it.. it would result in a much more zealous team Dai Gurren. So we would probably see a few extra characters die. Including Rossiu because of course for the final part he has to be replaced with Viral.  Death now is not as sad anymore. People have become much more like Kamina, and the warrior culture that grew makes it all feel very different.

Near the end of the story Kamina notices his transformations barely have enough power to defeat the enemy, which would be a factor leading into the death of Rossisu, his trusted copilot. Having used all those fake Gurren Lagann’s as sacrificial fodder now came to bite Kamina back in his ass well.. as there was no real suitable pilot for Gurren. He did not want Yoko to risk it as she is the mother of his child. Yet he knew of one beastman he had left alive.. a man to which he shared a strange sort of connection with.. a Parallel of sorts. We see the scene from the beginning unfold right before the search for Viral. Kamina butchering a lot of anti spirals as if it was nothing. Yet when Viral confronted him with how much he had changed Kamina began to think… perhaps that is why he could not get everything out of his Gatai?!

The final fight begins and he argues with Vidal a lot, at one point Yoko shows up in her Yoko Tank and tells Kamina to shut up. He begins to realise he might be the one in the wrong here indeed.  This revalation is used as a speech to snap Nia out her control from anti Spiral. Kamina tells her that he was a man that would never sacrifice others before, that he met a boy who saw the good in him, calling him his big brother.. and that team Dai Gurren was family as well.. he was their big brother and a big brother takes care of his family. He tells Nia is family and if she lets him he will take care of her, no one else has to die. Nia returns baby Simon to Yoko and tells Kamina that she thanks him for finally welcoming her in the family. While she was staff before Kamina always shut her out due to her origin! She was so grateful that she had one final gift. Nia would now take the role that LordGenome did in this final fight. She would sacrifice herself to give the rest of the group a chance.

3109367-1348556995-sttgl | HeroMachine Character Portrait Creator

Kamina feels horrified.. yet another person he got killed. Then the box of his father glows.. granting him a vision, much like the anti spiral did with Simon with the false Kamina.. but this time it would all be from within Kamina himself. He would not have a vision of Simon… but of his father. Basically a Bardock Version of Kamina who just widely smiles at Kamina telling him “So You Finally got your own head out of your ass and stopped moping, you know you can do this… I just wanted to say… I am proud of you son, you have grown into a fine man.. and an even better hero, but liven up a little!  Life is to short to be so gloomy..trust me I can know”  Then Simon would appear and he would ask Kamina why he thinks Simon found that key? Kamina answers saying he felt Simon was the chosen one.. it came to him.. as with all heroes. Simon denies this and he tells Kamina to give him the tip to dig there. The Spiral was Kamina’s all along, Simon was just the way to get the key to Kamina. The latter is relieved to hear this but he says no Simon, you were more than that. You were my brother. The shot would return to reality and Kamina’s key would turn bright blue.. with some red accents.. and as he turns it, the final Gatai happens.. forming the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann from the movie.. the Blue Flamey one.

Like the original we get the scene where Anti Spiral keeps impaling these giant robots with a tinier form coming out but instead of Gurren, the final one this time would be Lagann. Throwing his Sunglasses, shouting out Certain Kill Move, before being impaled. Kamina jumps out as his hands turn into a drill as he yells, finally my drills have pierced the heaven .. but before Kamina can land a killing blow he is pierced as well. Kamina slumps over and seems to have died. His black cloak floats away on the wind.. outside the bounds of the universe. Then the logo of Dai Gurren is shown . Anti Spiral makes a comment about Kamina being strong for a mortal but in the end no one can stop him and he is just another failure. Then he jolts as he suddenly sees he is mortally wounded, Kamina has just pierced his chest with a grin on his face. Still alive, his arm turned into a drill. “Who the hell do you think I am? “ he asks.. before Anti Spiral is shattered and team Dai Gurren is victorious.

The series would end with Simon’s first birthday.  His heavily bandaged father walks into the room holding just the tiniest gift.. while his mother gave him a giant plushie shaped like Gurren Lagann.  Kamina bends over and pats his son on the back. Happy Birthday son.. Happy Birthday Simon he says, as he holds out the little drill key that started his adventure.  As Baby Simon’s tiny hands grab the shiny looking thing. Kamina gives his son a kid on the forhead. He sits in a chair looking tired. Then he slumps over…dead.  Yoko picks up her baby and sheds a single tear. She knew this would happen. As the audience is baffled she explains “Kamina was mortally wounded in the final battle, but somehow he managed to keep himself together until his son’s first birthday, to give him this gift” We pan out to a blue haired boy and a red haired woman standing at Kamina’s grave. She smiles at him as Yoko concludes her story with, and that is how you got this little thing.  As the boy looks at his necklace that holds a tiny drill he is in awe at the story he just heard. She hands the boy a birthday gift which he opens to find a bigger drill. We see the boy smile widely zoomed in he is covered in dirt. His mother hugs him if only to hide some tears from him. She whispers in his ear “Happy Birthday Simon the Digger”

And that is my take on what would happen if Simon got killed in Kamina’s stead. I know most events did not change much but with treats this big and wars going on, the events would seem rather set in stone! This tale would function as a cautionary tale not to blindly follow another, and that sometimes even the deepest beliefs can be misguided. While they may not be wrong in what they say, they may also not be right! Always keep asking yourself the question if you believe. Kamina would still be a hero but a pragmatic one rather than an idealistic one and society would change a lot because of it! I like doing these what if scenarios! Do you now a good one for any series? Let me know! Don’t be afraid to sleep in it for a night though! Because remember, Friendship is Magic but Dreams are even more Wonderful! Oyasumi!

Pinkie’s Who Would Win: LeLouch VS Kamina

At times like these.. We need entertainment..and sure anime offers entertainment on it’s own but sometimes you want something more.. something ancient.. something more befitting as a princess. Bread and games! In the past I have done my take on Death Battles….with a twist because making people battle to the death is mean! In fact making them fight in general gets them hurt is mean as well! So I let the character face off in non violent ways! This time I will make LeLouche and Kamina play a game of YuGiOh!

Why Kamina and LeLouch playing Yu-Gi-Oh?

Lelouch

So the way this works is I focus on characters that have a lot in common. Before I had Naruto and Luffy play Mario Party as well as Yuno and Junko play a game of Gloom. Today I chose to do something a bit different..because this is not just a simple match! It’s also a lesson about perspective. About how opinions have a value that is very different to the one owning the opinion compared to the one listening.  Even Facts can change if you look at them form the right perspective. So why Kamina and Lelouche?!  Well first of all they both are charismatic leaders to an underground movement that fights the terrible people in power through amazing feats and mechs!  One does it by using his brain to  create larger than live scenario’s factoring in the  tiniest things imaginable, the other does it by sheer reality shattering determination. In a way it’s a battle between brains and heart. YuGiOh is an interesting battlefield for such a match. 

Kamina

I also chose this math because it would feel extremely one sided. Something you can very easily call at first glance. We all know LeLouche is a lot smarter than Kamina, he can outstrategise him very easily. If they were to play a game of YuGiOh as we can play it in our current day.. there is no doubt LeLouche would lose to Kamina. Yet this where negativity on the internet.. and flame wars start. People ASSUME just from my title.. sure LeLouche would win, he is so much smarter. We already determine the skillset in our mind needed to overcome the challenge… However, is that really true from all angles? No! I hate LeLouche as a character and I love Kamina as a character.. so I am biased. So as a writer I am going to make Kamina win! If you have assumed that outcome, congrats! You looked at the one fact that I can not change.. the writer’s preference. All the other facts I can bend, and I will prove this next.

Setting the Stage

This will not be our stage!

If we take LeLouch and Kamina into a realistic setting than there is no doubt LeLouche would win… but what if I argued with you, there would not be a match at all?! Even with a concept of mine.. an event like this needs an audience. Modern day YuGiOh doesn’t really have that, it’s not all that fun to watch plus if we treat Kamina and LeLouch like normal guys we also take away what makes them great. They are Anime characters so people would want their match to be anime as well. People would want to see LeLouche shout out “You Have activated My Trap Card” or see Kamina contact fuse X Head Cannon with Y Dragon Head on instinct. We want this duel to be scripted and written in order for it to shine! We need that fan-service. This changes the outcome to the match considerably!  A Match between LeLouch and Kamina in YuGiOh HAS to be set in the anime setting of YuGiOh to be interesting… and here is where  “Zero” quickly loses his ground.

THIS will be our stage!

But before we will look at why I will make LeLouche lose let’s first think about what type of decks they would be playing… just for fun! It’s anime YuGiOh so this is all just flavouring. Both of them will have lots of machine cards. LeLouche will have a deck that is somewhat of a mix between the deck of Bandit Keith and Espa Roba. His signature card will be Jinzo. It is a powerful disruptor card that was very dominant in the Meta for years. LeLouche’s style of fighting is very reactive, he forces his opponents into actions while taking over dominance through their mistakes. Thus his deck would contain cards like Cyber Jar.. Cyber Dragon and Man Eater bug (only a mechanical version to fit more into his archetype) He would probably play cards like Powerbond (which is a fusion card for mechanical monsters that doubles their attack power for the price of you paying their original life points next turn). Kamina will have a deck along the lines of Jaden Yuki.. Elemental Hero/Neos contact fusion decks, maybe some XYZeed  cards, again with a mechanical twist.. but still very much in line with the hero deck, let’s say a “roid” variation of Yaden’s deck.. Kamina overwhelms ands rushes in, his strategy is focussed on heavy hits and using cards like Limiter Remover to gain new heights and overcome the new obstacle in front of his way.

You have activated my trap card! Role Reversal!

Lelouch’s Ace

So once again we find ourselves in a conundrum! It looks like LeLouch would be more likely to have a reactive deck , he has the  smarts and is super analytical.. and there in lies his problem.  He is not YuGiOh’s protagonist material.  Whether it is Yugi, Yudai, Yusei,Yuma, Yuya  Yusaku or Yuga, they all have something in common other than the first two letters to their name!  They duel..with their hearts rather than just their brain.  In fact all of the YuGiOh protagonists face a character whose intelligence is unsurpassed. In case of Yugi and Yuya they face the creator of their respective game, the ones that know all the nuances. In case of Yusei he faces a character from the future whose knowledge is unsurpassed. We see LeLouch make choices where things are being sacrificed.. oftenly  not the things he treasures most.. but he is willing to make hard choices.  Most seasons of YuGiOh go out of their way to show that this is wrong.

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Kamina’s sort of ace

Kamina however is almost exactly what a YuGiOh protagonist is. Like Yugi he is the mentor of another, like Yusei he has a lower class origin, like Yuya there is some mythos about his father and about walking in his shoes. He also has some similarities to Yuma, where the lead of YuGiOh Zexal says KATOBINGU.. as a away to make him surpass his limits, it is basically the same as Kamina’s well known phrase about a Drill Piercing the heavens.  Kamina is even colour coded correctly to be a YuGiOh protagonist.  The loud happy go lucky main characters were predominantly read, while the cool characters were predominantly blue.  Kamina wears both.. and manifests both traits. Meanwhile Deuteragonists in Yu-Gi-Oh tend to be colour coded in Black or White. If this story would be a YuGiOh story Kamina would be the main character, and therefore be more likely to take the win!  This is no Guarantee, but it is an indication.

Every Yu-Gi-Oh! Protagonist, Ranked by Hairstyle | CBR

I activated my Spell Card: Power Bond!

Now LeLouch has a way to win through his Geass.. he could make Kamina give up the match.  We have  seen that people would try to resist his Geass, so even if we factor in Kamina’s sheer determination.. he might be able to compel the man into a victory?! But I would argue that LeLouch would not use his Geass on Kamina for this. First of all LeLouch is a brilliant chess player and I think this would cause some sense of honour in him when it comes to games. He wants to prove his superiority often as well, at times in his own show even, flaunting it a bit. Like I established earlier this is for all intends and purposes a friendly game. Lelouch is very much a zealot for his cause and would be much more inclined to  think about ways to make Kamina come to his world after the match. Use his Geass for when it matters. Perhaps he would make Kamina be forced to tell how Gataii works or find a way for him to get actually home.

By YuGiOh logic the match would have an audience of friends as well.. as rarely a match is watched without friends being present.. here LeLouche however takes and advantage.. as he is not the protagonist, he MIGHT be able to duel alone!  However the Deuteragonists in YuGiOh tend to have a sidekick strolling with them. Be It Mokuba or that weird Robot in Zexal. LeLouch is not evil so he would probably have a companion…and unless that is Ralo it might be hard for LeLouche to use Geass in public. He still might… but it is heavily dependent on many variables. The power that comes closest to LeLouch’s power is that of the Millenium Rod .. but we will put it in the millenium Eye .. because.. you know the obvious reasons! Either way the power of LeLouch ends up on the Antagonist spectrum.

Kamina on the other hand, is never really attributed a power… yet he very much has one!  Kamina warps reality!  At several times , Kamina WISHES something into reality. Whether it is for their gunmen to fuse, just by believing to it..to more subtle things.. like making the Katana in his sheath longer than it actually can be to old some offensive presence against a beast man.. Kamina has a power to stack the deck in his favour , quite literally!   Can you care to guess who also has this power?!  That’s right! The Protagonists. Yugi , Yusei and Yuma for a fact have manifested new cards in their decks.. with either cards combining while there is nothing in the extra deck or cards being powered up! Exactly like what Kamina did with Gurren and Lagann or his Katana respectively. Like Kamina non of these character actually possess this ability.. with the exception of Yusaku.. yet they all manage to do it to land them a victory… just like how Kamina beats Viral. Unlike the Code Geas Protagonist, the Gurren Lagann Deuteragonist also seems much more likely to use this power, because Kamina is much more in the moment and less strategy! Reality bending by believing in your own will seems very much like heart of the cards to me!

The Actual Match

So how would this play out?! Let’s say the match set up would be as follows. It would take place somewhere after the evil king arc of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. We all know the Shadow Realm is a Dubismn for death, yet Yudai has traveled to the world of spirits.. which also happened in Yu-Gi-Oh 5d’s so  this story could also be set after Rua’s trip to the spirit world as well. Two people who died would travel back with them somehow to this new world. Not knowing how to get back Kamina and LeLouch would have to find a way to get back to their world.. which they would be trying.  Both of them quickly find out to get anywhere in this world you have to learn how to duel.  After getting their respective   decks the two would travel around trying to find a way home.. before eventually hearing rumors about  a duelist that claims to be from another world.. where giant robots are used to fight the evil rulers of that world.  Seeking each other out the two would end up in a duel!  Neither willing to share information with that other stranger.


Kamina would begin the match a bit stumbling..much like a Joey wheeler. Forgetting that Five star monsters need a tribute, and he would function as the exposition provider for the first part of the match where the basic rules. LeLouch would start the match carefully, playing monsters in defence position, like a Man-Eater bug along with some trap cards.. Maybe a Scrap Metal Scarecrow  Trap card to get a read on his opponent first. LeLouch would not immediately punish Kamina.. as his ignorance could be fake! Besides.. even if Kamina would end up losing this match, he could always use his Geass on Kamina to make him tell him what he knows.. but there is something strange about this man.. he doesn’t seem like a NeoBritannian, is he from another part of the world? 

While LeLouch tries to read Kamina the man gets some monsters out on the field. Hero like robots.. a mix between elemental heroes and Jojo stands! When he has trouble getting over a high defence power,  Kamina starts yelling at his two monsters to fuse. Just as LeLouch starts explaining to him that he can not fuse monsters without a magic card.. suddenly Kamina’s extra deck glows and the two monsters fuse anyway!

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From here, the man also known as Zero would start playing the match more seriously and more aggressively.. but for each smart thing he does, Kamina has some kind of “monkey” answer. Letting his monsters hit over an obvious trap.. but generating tokens over it, attacking a monster with equal attack meaning both monsters get destroyed but generating advantage of it.  Mister Lamperouge would get frustrated.. and would consider using his Geass to make him forfeit as the man gets on his nerves. He doesn’t seem to play by skill , yet this man is also completely unpredictable and what is with this incohesive deck?!  It’s unlike anything he has ever faced before. However Lelouche is also a proud man.. he is Zero.. he outsmarted the NeoBritannia military.   He will not lose to this … strange man! He is smart enough! 

LeLouch would get Jinzo out knowing this practically would guarantee him the victory! Equipping him with some fancy helmet, attack boosting item to make him look more like Zero. Kamina had just made a mistake and played all the cards in his hands on the field.. now he had no way he could bluff anymore. After LeLouch’s turn there would be no more monsters on Kamina’s field.. his five trap zones are locked off and he has zero cards in hand he could only lose if Kamina somehow managed to summon a monster that could beat Jinzo from drawing a single monster card. LeLouch explains this and tells Kamina to just give up.. like a good chess player he should topple his king..forfeit the match.

Clipart rat dead rat, Clipart rat dead rat Transparent FREE for download on  WebStockReview 2021

Kamina would then tell that no fight is  decided before the final card is drawn!  He knows Lelouch is not from his world.. he is too much of a fancy pants for that, yet he feels their spirits somewhat connect but Kamina just wants to win! This guy being all smug.. he needs to be toned down!  Even if things seem impossible his drill is the one to pierce the heavens. Kamina would make a destiny draw finding card of sanctity (the anime version) into a monster reborn, bringing back a monster with 2400 attack points , equips him wih a drill item that gives however much attack power Lelouch added to Jinzo and then normal summon preferably something cute like a Kuriboh variation.. that reminded him of Bootah. Since most Yugi Protagonist get their own Kuriboh cards let’s even call this one Kuribootah. Which of course magically appears in his deck. Kamina crashes into Jinzo .. and while Lelouch laughs at this silly mistake, Kamina reveals that by sending Kuribootah from his side of the field to the graveyard, he can inflict damage equal to his monster’s original life points that just got destroyed.. there are no weak cards.

The royal family member would scream at first, on how impossible Kamina’s draw was and his life points role to zero. Kamina laughs and says “Chance, who the hell do you think I am?” The two would shake hands , having learned from each other. Through this duel they have learned that the other does not know the way home. So in terms of gains.. it’s actually a tie! Yet LeLouch swears that next time he will meet Kamina he will defeat him in a duel!  Kamina tells him he never will because he plays with his mind and not with his heart before walking off in his signature pose. As he walks off a lost flyer blows towards LeLouch and he grabs it! “New Duel Runner technology? Something that provides energy for our city?! Perhaps this energy can be used to create a portal of some kind, he will look into it”

The Facts!

And that is how Kamina would win  in a match of YuGiOh! While it is heavily coloured by my opinion, it is also guided by analogies and comparisons that closely resemble facts.. Yet that doesn’t mean that I am right here. It doesn’t mean that LeLouch would NOT win given the chance. I simply used my opinion to create a chain of events and set a stage for the underdog’s victory.  There is nothing “wrong”  about it as all these things I told you are based on what I perceived. If you interpret LeLouche different than me that is fine but I have seen all the traits I gave him.. perhaps because I dislike him and are more prone to review some of his traits as negative.

Opinions or even ideas oftenly stem from a certain angle. Even when we talk about the same thing like “animation” one can discuss how good an anime is because everything is so fluent.. yet you can also demonise it for it’s choice of colours, both still being tied to the subject of animation, yet different angles. So when we pit two fictional characters against each other we could look at the stats and do calculations on who would win.. or we could hold a vote and let the winner of the vote win.. After all an imaginary character exists only in our minds and if the majority believe that Wolverine would be able to kill Superman, than it is pretty safe to assume we can collectively imagine them winning. Yet the characters are also fictional, there are certain rules to fiction and a universe, tropes and style, so by placing characters in a universe it is also fair to assume they have to follow the rules of that world. Totally different outcomes.. non is wrong.

So when I dislike your favourite anime,  or you dislike mine it doesn’t exactly mean we have reviewed the same product.  What I review as a pool of characters, driven more by plot than once own motivations , you might review as a nail biting action packed sci-fi spectacular. We perceived it differently, we had a different experience and as a result.. we arguably have not even seen the same anime. Sure the name of the anime is the same, and the events are the same, but that’s not the whole thing, anime as we process it is an experience that uses our mindset to become.. a thing only experienced by you and by twisting that mindset or opening your mind you can create new experiences… such as this seemingly unlikely outcome.

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I intentionally gave Lelouch Yu-Gi-Oh cards that were very metagame dominant , while giving Kamina more of an anime protagonist style deck, from the angle of who is smarter, Lelouch would win, from the deck building standard, Lelouch would win and based on how many victories one had…in their respective lives, Lelouch would win. Yet I love Kamina and not Lelouch so based on Yu-Gi-Oh’s narrative structure and tropes I found a solution. Within this angle I am correct and this will be the outcome, (with maybe some details altered here and there) . It shows my opinion/idea is not incorrect, no matter how much one may tell me to die or that I am stupid. This shows there are no wrong opinions, only ideas and angles we have not explored yet and by opening our minds we will allow ourselves to experience entirely new worlds, and enjoy countless new possibilities.

Jaden Yuki (Character) - Giant Bomb


Five Anime Guests I’d Invite for New Years Eve

So now what we have found out which Pokémon I’ll be bringing to our little New Years Party and which Bloggers will be joining me in hosting the party, I guess it is time to invite 5 Anime Guests I’d invite to the biggest and last event of the year. Like Pokémon and Bloggers, everyone would be invited but these five have a role to fufill. Well.. it won’t actually be five but you will see what I mean by that soon enough.

Guest Number 1 : Megumi Tadokoro : The Cook

A good party needs good food and one of the best chefs recently is Yukihira Soma from Shokugeki no Soma… so of course we won’t be inviting him.  Why not? Well because there is no drive for him to win, I am not paying for two chefs. For those who don’t know Soma he is the briljant young cook and protagonist of the Food Wars series.  He cooks food that is so delicious people will orgasmn and their clothes will explode. Now while Fred may actually enjoy that experience I am a bit more subtle and would not want to lose my favorite party dress. Besides that little titbit the opposite might also be true Soma really likes cooking disgusting food when he can, and a group of drunken people celebrating the coming of the new year just might be his perfect testing ground for those dishes. Next Soma is also quite cocky and he would be hard to manage at this party, he would probably make want HE wants to make rather than following my suggestions!

(It will be so gross you laugh? Hell No! We serve quality in Paradise.. get away Soma you scrub)

So it’s time to hire a chef that is better suited for the job. His long time buddy Megumi Tadokoro.  She has a much more handleable personality, she’s shy and kinda adorable and best of all she is specialised in fish. 
Now I know that fish is not everyone’s favorite snack in the world.. but we are all otakus here, so sushi and sashimi at the very least should go down well. Plus we live on a tropical island which means the freshest of fish anyway. It oftenly combines well with tropical fruits as well so clearly Megumi would be the better choice of the two.  I feel she would also be less repelled by the pink energy around my party.. speaking of which the next guest is actually a group which oozes pink atmosphere.

(Kaoiken Megmumi make my fish snacks tast 10x better)

Guest Number 2:  μ’s  : The Band

Mallow already said he would not want Jigglypuff singing all evening but I still need it to provide some entertainment and to play fun games with so I wont boot it off. However I will offer an actual band at my party because you got to have one.  My favorite one is the μ’s. This band is a musical idol group from the original Love Live series. If all songs in the world would be represented by a colour virtually everything in μ’s.  library of songs can be represented by the colour pink. Though I’d might give Snow Halation  silver. By now they should all have grown up a bit so they make nice party guests and people still like their songs. Be it from their classical song Start/Dash to one of my favorite No Brand Girls. They all come with a set of cute dances that are easiest to mimic but hard to master. Which will make sure  people will also have fun at the dancefloor, but also just watching the dance floor as chaos is bound to ensue. Of course their concert comes with a free master class in becoming an idol girl.. spoiler.. we will say Nico Nico Nee a lot!

(We will do this for an hour straight at the party! Fun!)

Of course there is one thing I particularly want to hire this band for, and that is to all sing together at midnight. I have already picked out the song. It’s the song that is called Aishiteru Banzai. a song that I think is perfect for New Years Eve. While two fan translation exists which differ pretty hard from each other it is at least a song that celebrates love but also moving forward. One translation of the song title would be Cheers for the Love, while the other one reads “I love you Hurray”. The latter version is mostly used for the solo version of the song, which also exists. But of course we are looking at the group version as we all will sing along.   “Cheers for Love” is of course already a message I can very much get behind. While I do not think a lover is very important to have I do think having love is so much more and is something everyone needs and deserves. So yes Cheers for Love.“Let’s move Forward, even if it’s painful , I am right here next to you” is yet another line from this song that is very inspiring. The new year will have some challenges ahead but together we can overcome them. “We have the courage not to give up so let’s enjoy the present” …Arceus damn it, this song is good. When the ball drops, just before the clock strikes 12 .. so that the last note ends when the ball drops we will sing about that great tomorrow and how we can overcome it with our love for each other and can shape a better future for ourselves by simply opening your heart to other people is a beautiful way to move into the new year..so that’s what we will be doing. 

(Study it for new years dear guests we will all be singing this)
(A good example of the dances we will doing)
(One of my favorites..but dancing along makes me way too tired)

Guest Number 3: Kamina : The Dare Guy

My bartender, Irina, might try to hog this one, but each party has their Dare Guy… you know one of those guys that pushes others to move past their limits. To talk to that cute girl that is standing there by the punch bowl, to see if you dare to eat Megumi’s Fugu, to dance on a table and just let go of your inhibitions or to smash a radio through a tv set to check out if they could possibly gatai/combine. Kamina is the ideal guy for that and sure I know he can be a little hard to get to show up so… there’s always dragon ball’s we could just wish him to be here. I think there is a new years tradition somewhere that also involves wishing so if we believe we can get him there. Kamina would tell us to have faith in what we want as well so it will all work out. Of course he is a good hunk of man meat as well for the straight girls at my party, which with my luck is everyone but me due to my panda powers, but yeah even though I am a strictly female kinda girl..for Kamina I just might make a one time exception ..after all his dri….. let’s not go there. Kamina seems like a neat guy to have at a party, he likes his booze, he likes his little show and I can really seem him bring a party to live.

Riding a flock of boars, I did that on a dare once.. it did not end well)

He has all the qualities of a dare guy, pushing his pal Simon way past his limits and comfort zone. Even years after those initial lessons of the man, his protege follows that mantra and becomes something greater than even the universe. A bunch of socially awkward people together need a Kamina, who pushes us into that flirt with the cute person we see, who nudges us into joining a game we would otherwise be to shy to join..thinking we would be a bother if the rules have to be explained to us. He will get this party started and keep it going but he will also make you move forward, because with Kamina you can not stand still, you always have to strive to a greater tomorrow, so he is also good at pushing us to set our resolutions. Of course there’s a downside of having a dare guy at these parties as I might actually need to deploy Chansey to do some first aid, or people would throw seeds into my pool just to see if they can will an entire tree to life or something weird like that. At my party we celebrate the new year and look forward to it with positivity. Kamina is that force that will allow us to break the ceiling of our imagination. If you think 2020 is gonna suck.. he will show you that if you want it you can even do more than you might imagine.

Guest Number 4: Ram: The Cleaner

I had a few nominees for this one. Tohru from Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid just fell short, as well did Sebastian. While I wanted to give the straight and bi sexual girls some more man-candy I was going over things in my head and than I realised that Tohru, Sebastian and even sister Rem for that matter would most likely at least have someone to celebrate New Years with, while not every bond is explicit or ‘successful more than likely they at least have someone to wish a happy new year too. While Ram has her master m that bond is rather toxic due to the Oni Horn incident. ’ She hardly has anyone to celebrate with or whom she would care to celebrate with aside for Rem. That they will always stick together was disproven a long time ago as well so I feel like we need to take care of Ram.
Sebastian Tohru and Rem have a more ….dedicated… following but I think we all should welcome Ram and take her into our hearts. If i’d invite Rem she most likely be lewded right away by many vagrants and if you think Subaru should have chosen Rem.. you should not just be mad at him for going after Emilia.. you should also keep Rem available to him for when he comes to his senses. Tohru is a taken girl as well and don’t get me started on Sebastian. No! We will give Ram some love.

(She is like Rem..but pink..which is always better)

Ram is better at her job, because she is a lot more dedicated to it, instead of being dedicated to a man who is not worth her time. She is strong enough to also double as a bouncer at the party, though that I will mostly provide with my five invited game characters, should there be a big incident Ram could help. Slightly less prone to dying, I guess, than her sister she isn’t an impending sign of doom, which really helps people relax at the party. Ram is also a lot more on brand with me.. since she is pink it saves me from taillour making a pink butler or maid outfit for the others. She’s smart and somewhat sophisticated and as a maid can also double as a waitress should people be too lazy to walk to the bartender. Ram all in all is a perfect guest for my party, though she might be a bit stiff, that will go for the most of us.  My blog is about being yourself and getting some love for being yourself and who can feel Ram more loved than a couple of Weeaboo anime fans reading about a fictional party, with fictional characters in an fictional place! That’s right thats true love right there.

(It’s not like I am glad to be invited or anything BAKA!)

Guest Number 5: Dark Magician Girl/Mana : The Kiss

That is right boys and girls this guest is for me! Everyone has to have someone to kiss or hug at midnight and I really tend to be alone at that moment the clock strikes twelve. So I should really look for a guest/date to bring. Ako Tamaki would have been my first pick, i’ll be honest. This girl from “And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online?!” has captured my heart with the right level of insanity devotion and general cuteness. It doesn’t hurt that her online avatar wears a lot of pink as well. Unfortunately that attractive insanity and devotion is directed towards a specific person and a guy to boot. I am such a panda that I know how it well end if I invite a straight girl to be my date. Even if I really like Yandere girls.. and while Ako is not your typical Yandere she definitely is one, albeit a less homicidal one… darn the one non homicidal Yandere I like.. is straight … and “married”. Just my luck! So this year I am looking for someone I might actually be able to have stick with me for the entire night.

(Sigh…….)

Enter Dark Magician girl! I love her bubbly personality and while her outfit might be a bit short and kinda skimpy.. I guess it’s fine on a tropical island. I love myself a magical girl  and she is an effect monster… so I am certain that she isn’t a trap either. Though since she is a summonable card opposed to an actual girl , I guess I could just go with Mana who turned into DMG at the end of the Zork Arc of Yu-gi-Oh.. but yeah the card is the actual personality I feel most comfortable being with so… solid vision from Arc V maybe? While I have no real insight in her preferences between boys and girls she does seem flirty to basically everyone which means I have a shot of her being flirty with me as well. She’s also loyal to the one who summons her  and inviting her to the party I think counts as a special summon. At worst she will just be a really fun party guest who can most certainly entertain people and make them feel happy. At best I might have finally have someone to kiss at New Years. Plus I will have the ultimate waifu.. thing. See even if she is real and becomes 3d, she still is 2d in a way as she is still summonable from a card. Meaning I get the best of two worlds. .. I think .. I am actually not really in the waifu scene but I think some say a waifu should be 2d. All I know is.. I gotta put three dark magicians in the graveyard so that kiss of Dark Magician Girl reaches maximum intensity! 

(I summon here and there is hearts already.. this meant to be!)

Tomorrow you can read the final post of this party , which game characters would I invite to the party. Should there be time than I might make an extra post on movie characters invited later this day so be sure to check the site out, better just subscribe if you haven’t already. Should you not be able to read tomorrow because you have to visit your grandma for new years , who lives in the darkest reaches of the world with no internet… I already wish you a happy new year.. I don’t know your grandma but happy new year to her too I guess. Tell her to move to civilisation.

Other posts in the New Years Party Arc
-Pokémon I’d Bring to New Years Eve
-Five Bloggers I’d Invite for New Years Eve

Analysing Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Welcome back dear guests! Today we serve you a cocktail that gives you a rush that pierces the heavens.  One of my least favorite genres in anime , is that off the mech shows. While I did enjoy Zoids: New Century as a pulpy tournament show never did I really like for example a Gundam show, even Code Geass is something I do not look at that favorably (while recognising it’s a good show). The genre tends to be bogged down by heavy political themes and this quasi-intellectual sub tones that forces you to understand a world and their complex systems, it just feels like such a burden to watch every time. My favorite anime  of all time however is all about mechs. My favorite anime of all time is Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Emotion

I do not think I need to explain the story of Gurren Lagann but here is a quick summary. Simon is a digger who lives in an underground village when he discovers a mysterious robot. His best friend Kamina and him use this robot  to break free to the surface where they find the earth is ruled by beastman controlled by the evil Lordgenome, the spiral king. Together they find allies for mankind to take their world back one fight at a time. While Gurren Lagann does share the dystopian themes of it heavy hearted brothers it doesn’t match their feeling at all. Gundam is a very serious, somewhat gloomy and like most mech shows is very much about ‘the system’ , the political gears that make things work.  Gurren Lagann is very much a *Bleep* the system anime. Where Code Geass much dabbles with emotions versus the cause or versus the smart thing to do, my favorite anime choses for a very primal route of highlighting pure emotion. You can feel the characters sheer determination, there never are any double layers or real choices to make there are never two sides of situation. Simon and Kamina  have such strong emotions and such zeal there is always only one choice. Retreating is never an option, waiting for a strategic opening can happen but they don’t explain you their thought process. Gurren Lagann is the epitome of empathy. When Simon cries , I cry, when Yoko laughs I laugh, when Kamina yells like a caveman…..my next door neighbor knocks on my door to ask me what is wrong! Then I tell him “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM” and slam the door in his face. 

Beliefs

I am not a religious girl, though I would not call myself a complete atheist either.  While I do not believe in a god, I believe in an energy, a force of some kind. Can it karma or chi or even “the force” if you like. Trough our believes and zeal we can manipulate that energy and make things happen, it grows more powerful if more people share your beliefs. Thusly trough my beliefs everyone’s religion is right and empowering … for them.  I believe a mother can lift a car to save her baby because in that very moment there is not a single doubt in the world , that she can not do that herself as well as onlookers somehow will feel that she can, reshaping the possible.Thusly we can make miracles happen because we believe in them full heartedly. Now those who wonder why I wrote this bit about my beliefs,  are people I think have not seen this anime yet. Simon and Kamina do this exact thing I believe in. They validate my belief. Their ‘spiral energy’ basically is a visualisation of how I live my life. This might seem extreme but it is exactly what happens.  This is best shown when Kamina and Simon combine their gunmen for the first time. Kamina just slams Lagann trough Gurren’s  body and is absolutely 100% sure this will lead them to combine. Everything in our body says ‘that is not how combining works’ yet Kamina’s beliefs make it possible. The scene then shows everyone being completely surprised but to the greatest hero that was ever drawn, there never were any doubts.  That level of determination and belief in yourself and your ways is then used as a blueprint for Simon to grow as well, so he can eventually overcome the final obstacle in the end. His power goes even as far as being able to alter his own body to suit his needs. He can bend reality. 

The complete package

While I do not like to talk about visuals or music to much , I really adore this style of everything. Normally mech’s have very serious designs, oftenly military colours,  white or black. This show has mech’s that look like that but as soon as they fall into the hands of the characters they become more comical , more colorful and even decked out with sunglasses and other vanity items.  Viral’s gunman represents the classic design , sleek white and dangerously looking. Firing big powerful laser beams. Kamina crushes the head of this old design and takes it’s crown.. a crown that used to be white and at their head has a golden, vertical crescent.. almost like a golden v….   As if they took the crown for best mech-show right of a gundam. I mean this show is basically about a bunch of weirdos stealing gunman (kinda sounds like a certain something) from people with a much more limited imagination and then doing some pretty wacky stuff with it. It breaks the mold and the visuals reflect that perfectly.  Mech designs are completely insane, visuals going from a blur, to crisp to completely surreal at times, it mixes what should not be mixed and create something that works. It always aims for bigger down to the very last detail. Kamina’s extreme sunglasses being outdone by even more extreme sunglasses after the timeskip. Combinations going ever more unlikely , with the movie version of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann taking the absolute crown. Their music unsurprisingly does the same. If I ask you to find two music genres that could never mix, Opera and Rap would most likely be one of the things that could very well be mentioned. These two could not be further apart.  “Libera me” From hell   is exactly that and while not my favorite song in the world it does work so well for this show it’s very much what this show is about.  When you read the premises of this show and hear Sorairo days for the first time you think it will not fit a show like that, but you would be wrong again but don’t worry.. that’s what the show is really about.

Strange Characters

While Yoko, Rossiu, Kittan, Viral and everyone else are great characters they represent something relatively minor and their role changes over the course of the series. Simon and Kamina are something way more special. Because in a way the character of Kamina is the anime, he IS ‘Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’. He names everything that is unable to convey their own names, such as the mech’s and their attacks. In a way Simon is the viewer, which is shown by Simon oftenly voicing our concerns as a viewer. ‘Are you sure this will work big bro?’ when Kamina pulls of one of his ridiculous actions is exactly what we have come to expect by watching all these other shows. Kamina basically shows us ‘That is NOT how THIS show works’. “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?’  He is not just any standard show.. he is Mother blipping Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the show where anything is possible. As soon as we the viewer have learned how this show works …………………………… This pulls a weird trick in our minds where now we HAVE to believe. The events that conclude the first ‘chapter’ of this show not only entrust Simon with the belief but the viewer as well. In a way Simon still is the viewer. That final fight is asking as much of the viewer as it is of Simon, we have to to push our suspension of disbelief to the absolute maximum of our abilities in a show that has slower Spiralled out of control. In the end the final “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE” is not only the crew of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE” .. we are the viewers of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, our beliefs are not chained by conventional narratives and tropes. We can believe anything , even your defeat! The drill that shall pierce the heavens is a metaphor of constantly shattering one’s expectations. We have a saying that the sky’s the limit, but the sky is way to restraining for this show. So we have to break open the skies to find our new limit. In a way trough Simon and Kamina , this isn’t just a show about heroes this is about us as well.

HOW THE HELL DO YOU THINK I RATE THIS!!

I am not one that re-watches anime a lot, I have some pretty solid memory and I can recognise a tv show by simple quotes such as “Here is your coffee, soy milk, low fat” .. I’ll know what episode of CSI I saw that in… once, who did it and how they worked. As a result any show with plot twists or about discovery does not have the same impact on me. This show however is different. The movies and the show both tell more or less the same story, with the second movie even improving on the second half .. of the second half. The final battle is done een better and makes me scream even louder.  At a past animecon in the hague these two movies showed at the ungodly time of 2AM till 5:30 AM and I stayed up to watch it even if I watched both recently. Just so we could yell WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE are at the final encounter with about thirty still awake anime fans. To me there is nothing like this show, not because of it’s story but because how it treats you. It teaches you to stop thinking within the limits.. set your mind free and go beyond what should even be possible. You are a part of this show when you watch it, you play a role in this story and in every aspect this exceeds what you could imagine before. It pierces the heaven of your imagination with the most epic GIGA DRILL BREAKER to the face. So there is only one flavor-grade I can give this show!