Cruel Angel Theses

It’s going to be difficult to attempt and write about Gurren Lagann without inevitably degenerating into one of those awestruck rants about its sense of monumental scale, as everything screams BIG, from a given character’s aspirations (“All the stars in the sky are enemies”), to the galaxy-flinging antics of the final episode, to the music (“Do the impossible”), but I’m going to try anyway.

Since my moments are inevitably memorable because they made me shed tears in varying degrees, you’d think it wouldn’t be hard to guess what I’m going to write about here. No, it wasn’t Kamina’s death, although its impact was felt several episodes later and ranks among the best, if not most defining death of 2007. It wasn’t Kittan’s death, which was sad but not tragic. It wasn’t even Nia’s fading away, despite that being a grand send-off for a character I initially had the impression of as being exposition tool/Simon pick-me-up.

It was a sunset. Not just any sunset, mind you, but the sunset first seen in episode 01 as Kamina, Simon, and Yoko break through the surface of Jeeha Village. That sunset was reproduced to amazing effect later in episode 21, and it’s this very scene that made me weep as much as, say, Kanata’s backstory in Lucky Star, or Jun’s farewell to Kana in Bokurano. I’m still wondering what hit me then.

A bit of re-watching and reflection’s helped, though. The orchestration of events in the episode is subtle, but it works: you have a little boy (Simon) whose only memento is that of his father’s (Kamina), and all he wants to do in this case is to retrieve what’s rightfully his (reclaiming the surface) by climbing a tall, tall tree (doing the impossible). Now doesn’t that sound familiar? As much as I’d have liked to have called Nakim a valuable addition to the story, his purpose in climbing that tree was as utilitarian as Kamina dying: it was for a cause, and just like Kamina’s passing helped Simon grow as a character, Nakim was there to bring things back into perspective at a time where the concept of right and wrong seems to be blurred, especially, after the revelation of Lord Genome’s true intentions and Rossiu’s “for the greater good” rationale behind his betrayal.

How is this “perspective”, you ask? While it’s natural to side with Simon and hate Rossiu, the former being the saviour of the world and whatnot, Nakim is there to explain the “why” in how naturally we take Simon’s side and demonstrates, by means of the larger picture, that Simon can’t be blamed, all things said and done; it vindicates him by reinforcing the idea that he isn’t special in his desire to live on, survive, and protect everyone within his means. This is done by reminding the viewer of everything that Simon stood for in Nakim’s retrieval of his father’s bag.

Note that all this is done through subconscious reinforcement, which makes the scene all the more admirable when you think about it. The similarities between Nakim and Simon/Kamina might seem superficial at first, but the important thing to focus on here is the fighting spirit (or, in appropriate terminology, Spiral energy) that Nakim has in climbing a tree of impossible height without a second thought to it. Just like how Kamina, and later Simon never thought of the possibility of failure in whatever they did, so does Nakim in taking back his bag. He doesn’t see the odds stacked against him (little boy, huge tree, possibility of dying); all he sees is the bag, and that he has to retrieve it, and so he does — kicking reason to the curb and scaling that tree determinedly with a spirit that would do the Gurren Brigade proud.

It’s a much needed moment, the calm before the storm, as it’s all downhill from this point. Gurren-Lagann gets progressively bigger, the stakes are higher, and characters, even important ones, die left and right. The episode is such that it paints a stark contrast to the chaotic heyday of 7 years past; instead of a wretched existence underground, humans now live normally in homes above the surface. It reminds us of the Gurren Brigade’s raison d’etre, and ensures that the world-breaking antics to come are tempered with down-to-earth reasons.

Nakim’s achievement is small, but not without a significant parallel to Simon’s predicament. In the aftermath of his climb, he finally reaches the top, and grabs his much-cherished bag. He looks around, and realises the extent of what he’s done in the dizzying height — something he didn’t take into account during the process of getting there. In the same way too has Simon finally realised the scale of his accomplishment in taking back the surface and toppling Lord Genome, and its ramifications — he’s fought all this way only to invite more danger, not onto himself alone, but onto the rest of Earth as a result. Interestingly, Yoko is there in both instances, reassuring Nakim of his safety, and bringing Simon out of his funk by liberating him of his shackles, literally.

Unconsciously processing all of this at the time, I cried upon seeing the sunset. The tears came hard and fast, leaving as abruptly as they had appeared. While GL’s depth was something I never doubted from the beginning, the fact that I cried at an inanimate object, a sunset, speaks volumes, in addition to showing why those who say that GL is pure, mindless fun and nothing more are letting its style get in the way of the substance behind it. Surely, one could say that this was a calculated tearjerking moment by Gainax, but how many people actually cried at this? I’d like to flatter myself for being one of the few weirdos who did, but I hope I never have to do so again.