gurren lagann redux

[kaigou]

Awhile back I contemplated bad guys and bad motivations (among other things) and then I finished the series and moved along. At AX I snagged the first volume of the official release, and mentioned (again) to CP that I really, really recommend this series. He'd watched the first episode, and said, "I don't know, it looked kinda silly."

(This from the man who cheerfully, even avidly, watched Lucky Star. Silly. Right.)

I told him, look, you know FLCL and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi? You know how both started out kinda silly, way over the top, goofy and just plain wierd and wacky? ...and then at some point along the way, it took that goofy wackiness and turned around and slammed you in the gut?

Yeah. That's Tengen Toppen Gurren Lagann. It's goofy, it's ridiculous, it's over-the-top, it's wild, it's almost retro sometimes in its visual style, it's even downright silly with the robot-heads bouncing around with these completely unrealistic super-robot-throwbacks, down to the camera angles and the angled lines as the robot hangs there on the screen mid-move, even the totally outrageous homage-and-yet-parody names Kamina comes up for each move... and then suddenly, it will take a left turn and the next thing you know, you've been gutted. Completely, and totally gutted. I'm warning you but I'm saying you can't brace yourself, because when it happens -- spiraling around again to come to that silent center, where the sacrifice lives -- it's just... this sudden quiet. That's the only way to put it.

Last night I had leaned into CP's study to let him know something, and saw he was watching Gurren, so I held off on having him pause and watched it with him instead. The entire rip-roaring, to-the-end, almost-beaten-but-rising-again fight in the grand epic tradition of any truly magnificent mecha series, and then... the character gently lowers his head. CP says, half-joking, "yeah, this is where you fall over." I didn't say anything. I just let him watch, and then as he realized exactly what had just happened... yeah. Even the soundtrack goes silent, not even ambient noise, just a series of images, and then: sayonara, comrades.

CP didn't say anything for a moment or two. I don't know if it's true for him, but I know when I first got to that point, it took a minute or two before I could marshall my thoughts, as well. Struggle to find something else to talk about, to deflect that vulnerable moment of intense pain. And it's a pain, I think, that's doubly so because in some ways you get taken in by the goofiness, the wackiness, the along-for-the-ride sensation of this ragtag bunch of mismatched larger-than-life characters, and you just don't think to yourself, I should be ready. You just don't think it could happen. You've fallen for the comedy and you've forgotten that the reason we have comedy is because we have tragedy, and that in some ways, maybe, all comedy is tragedy -- as Carol Burnett once said -- but it's just tragedy from a distance. Except that some writers bring you in so close.

That's the power of good writing, and if it means watching some outrageous, often-silly, almost goofy story to see just how powerful a gut-punch can be, to experience what it's like to be laughing and cheering on the heroes and then suddenly, silence. There are a hundred, thousand anime and cartoons out there that just aren't worth the celluloid they're on, let's be honest, and then along comes one like Gurren Lagann that makes you realize that under everything, no matter the medium -- word, sound, or image -- a good story is a good story and the best stories always hurt.

I remember when we went to see Firefly with some friends, and afterwards they were saying that their one complaint about the movie was that they didn't see why any of the main characters had to die. It seemed so...unnecessary, and it made any victory bittersweet, with a strong emphasis on bitter, even. But I think Whedon's tapped into the same vein as Kazuki Nakashima (the playwright who authored Gurren Lagann), and both even instinctively recognize the power of the sound and the fury that signifies nothing: that its real power is best felt when it's abruptly, unexpectedly, not there. When death comes in Firefly, it's not a moment of glory, it's not accompanied by large clashing symbals or even a spike in the soundtrack, it's just this quiet moment. Just a soft pause, maybe a few words, and... it's so understated that it's almost overstated in the absence of the fireworks everywhere else in the story. So the high fever pitch of action, like the high fever of laughter, is torn away and you're gut-punched but you can't even see it happening when it does, it's like it just doesn't sink in, there's this lag, this delay, and you hurt and you wonder how that gaping wound happened in your heart.

The best stories always hurt.

Believe in you. Not in you who believes in me, not in me who believes in you, but in you, who believes in you.

Comments

[stinky-horowitz.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. I needed to read something like this today, because I just read a dissatisfying book from one of my favorite authors and couldn't explain why I didn't like it. Now I can. It doesn't compare to her other work because there's not enough humor in this book to punch up the drama, and the evildoer is essentially a paperdoll with a sneer. Thanks.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I never truly understood the power of humor to make the hard parts have that much punch -- I mean, I think I got it on some level because in some ways, that's exactly how M*A*S*H had so much emotional whallop: it wrapped in this sardonic humor with moments of intense emotional trauma. The only other show I can think of that matched it (for me, at least) was any Whedon-written shows. (Then again, I watched the former as a kid, and the latter as a young adult, when I was starting to grok more about dialogue, language, and tension, and able to pay attention to the craft as well as the actual story.)

For a long time I thought that to 'get' the dark parts of a story, you had to have the 'light' (or happy) parts. Just like in horror movies, how they always start with some everday mundane scenes, people leaving for work, making breakfast, family holding a birthday party -- the absolute mundane is the opposite of the horrific unnatural. But the opposite of anger/pain isn't joy and happiness, it's laughter, but not on the characters' parts, but on our parts.

That's the general theory working in my head, probably never to be articulated much better than that. But that's about how it works, I think.

[maldoror-gw.livejournal.com]

...I watched the first 3-4 eps and couldn't get past the cheesecake tit-wiggle. But on the strength of this, I'll give it another go.

I'd counter-recc One Piece except it's got 350+ eps and running, and I believe you have a life. But I think you hit on exactly why (some) people rave about that series, too. Goofy crazy humor, over the top Personal Past Twagedies, a lot of loopy fighting, it's a running joke in the fandom that nobody ever dies except in flashback...and goddamnit, it's the only anime/manga that's made me cry, whereas thoughtful, powerful tragedies touched me - when well written - yet didn't moisten the eyeball.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the first three or four episodes I was mostly talking myself into getting over my preference for more realistic, non-over-the-top stories (and animation styles) and trying to let go of my inner snob. Heh. And then... I don't know, maybe around the 5th or 6th episode, I realized just how much I'd been suckered in.

I've been told time and again how OP has more to it than meets the eye -- and then I see the torrents for it, and think, there is no way on god's green earth I am starting a series that's already at episode 358. No freaking way.

(Btw, in TTGL, there is most definitely death, and it's not in flashbacks, and it's not a world where anyone comes back from death.)

[paikan.livejournal.com]

I think, maybe, if I were emotionally a stronger person, I'd agree with you. As it is, anime that have that twist from 'laugh out loud' to 'crying jags' end up leaving me with a sour taste in my mouth that I just can't get past. This is why I can't even stomach the soundtrack from Fruits Basket any longer, and will never be able to forget Please Save My Earth, as much as I may want to. I can only handle Bad if it's been Bad all along (ie Texhnolyze).

But then I'm, still bursting into tears at night over the cat I lost months ago... >_<*

That said, I actually got quote a kick out of (what little I've seen of) Gurren Lagann. It was very reminiscent of the 'old time' anime that I loved as a... well, when I was younger than I am now. ^_~ Very Project A-ko.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

GL really does have a retro kind of feel to it, but if you get drawn hard into the humor and aren't expecting the gut-punch, then you might want to avoid it (unless it would help if you were terribly spoiled and therefore are emotionally braced?) -- same might go for Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, to some degree. Well, for Abenobashi, you could probably watch the first six or seven episodes, laugh yourself silly (especially teh mecha episode, if you see no other, at least watch that one!!) and then move along before you're gutted.

[l-clausewitz.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good point. The character deaths that have affected me most in stories tend to be the quiet ones, too--especially the ones that forced me to reread or rewind (at least mentally) to come to terms with the idea of the death.

I'm going to terrorize the anime club guys for Guren Lagann. I thought I've poked them for it a couple of months ago, but there has really been no response so far....

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I highly highly highly recommend it -- and even if at times it seems (especially in the first 3-4 episodes) a bit too full of swagger and over-the-top, stick with it. Especially stick with it for a writer's take on the storytelling; the playwright's skill really does come through with this one. As you get farther along, you can see the story spiraling (following the main theme of the spiral) around to repeat events but for the first time: a similar battle or similar conflict but who is good and who is bad has switched around, shifted position. Worth it for a chance to enjoy such readerly-critique, if nothing else.

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

Death is what reminds us to live.

Some of the most wickedly humorous jokes come from EMTs and cops who have to deal with death all the time.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

True, very true.