The Gist:

A young villager uses a strange robot he discovered buried deep within the Earth to battle the "Beastmen" and their robots for mankind's right to live above ground.

The History:

Gurren Lagann debuted as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann on TV Tokyo in Japan on April 1, 2007. Directed by Kiroyuki Imaishi (his series directorial debut), it ran for 27 episodes and was immediately picked up for North American distribution by ADV Films in June, 2007.

Shortly after ADV's accouncement however, Gurren Lagann was removed from ADV's catalog and Bandai Entertainment announced that it had secured the North American license.

Volume 1 of the series (English subtitles only) was released on DVD on July 8, 2008 and the Sci-Fi Channel added Gurren Lagann to its Ani-Monday programming block on April 27, 2008.

Manga vs. Anime:

The Gurren Lagann manga debuted on April 27, 2007 in MediaWorks' Dengeki Comic Gao! but ended in February 2008 when the magazine ceased publication.

The manga was then picked up by ASCII Media Works and published in Dengeki Daioh beginning in April of 2008. The manga and anime series both follow the same storyline with the exception of additional background information being provided in the manga and a slight difference in the timeline of events.entirety and the first chapter from volume 6.

How To Watch:

The English subtitled version of Gurren Lagann hit the DVD shelves on July 8, 2008, and the series can also currently be seen on Monday nights on the Sci-Fi channel as part of its Ani-Monday programming.

An English dub will be released beginning November 11, 2008.

You can see the official Bandai trailer here , but if you want a laugh, check out this trailer too -- its supposed to be ADV's official trailer from when they still claimed to have the distribution rights.

Genres:

Action, adventure, comedy, drama, sci-fi

Themes: Mecha, post-apocalyptic

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Studios:

Distribution: Bandai Entertainment
Animation: Gainax
Production: Aniplex and Konami

Rating:

PG-13

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The Review:

Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional future where mankind has been forced to live underground. As a result, there are entire villages beneath the Earth's surface, each cut off from the world above the surface as well as other villages.

Fourteen-year-old Simon lives in the underground village of Giha and is known to be an extraordinary "digger", those who dig deeper into the Earth to allow their village to avoid the earthquakes. Simon discovers a mysterious key that when inserted into an equally mysterious "face" in an underground tunnel, releases a robot named Lagann that Simon uses to battle his way to the surface.

What he discovers is that the surface is occupied by large robots called "Gunmen" that operated by "Beastmen" and designed to terrorize any humans living above ground. Simon and some of his underground friends decide that enough is enough and the revolution begins.

Gurren Lagann is animated by Gainax, the same anime geniuses that brought you FLCL and Neon Genesis Evangelion, so you immediately get a sense of the flavor of this series. It's bold and action-packed with an "it's good to be an underdog" mentality as the overconfident Human Eradication Force (the bad guys) finally get a long overdue comeuppance.

In addition to the guns and robots, there's also the token busty chick, Yoko Littner, but unlike some anime shows, Yoko's got both brawn and brains and plays a vital role to the plot of the series.

Gurren Lagann is rated PG-13, mostly for the mild language and perhaps even for Yoko's revealing wardrobe, so parents might want to pre-screen this one to be sure they're comfortable with the content. That said, I really like what I've seen so far and because Bandai decided to split the 27 episodes into just three DVD's, you'll be getting a lot of Gurren Lagann bang for your buck when they're released in November.