| Ah, the epic Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Way up there in the MAL top anime. Full of action, full of drama, epic characters, galaxy-size mechas and sexy babes. Everthing you need to make your average american blockbuster. But then, I proposed to add it to the list of anime to be considered as philosophical by the club. As it was most easily guessed by everyone, here's the question : Why? And I will not answer it yet (lack of time being the reason) but here's what I propose : Discuss it. Why should it be there? Why should it not? What have you seen in it that made you think? What have you seen that made you despise it? Later on I'll come with a full analysis of what I've seen and why it is my #1 anime of all times (lots of associations to NGE to be expected). Philosophing with science is always a possibility. |
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| Alright! Here it is at last, the long (not) awaitedc reason why Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is philosophical and thus no matter the definition of it. But, first off, here are some of the guiding lines throughout the anime that actually give that philosophic aspect. The spiral energy : What is it that makes us want to live? In face of the absurdity of life (well explained in Albert Camus books like l'Étranger), the unnessecaty of humankind to exist, why do we even struggle to find a meaning to it when God is dead? That's where the spiral energy gets in as a very concrete manifestation of evolution. On a scientific level, evolution can be associated to Darwin's theory, where the strongest survive but, more than that, where every living being tries and strives to live on another day. However, the spiral energy is more the fort of humans. Why? Because not a specy in the world achieved such fast and ummongously out of measure changements in so little time. Again, why? Because humans carve for changement more than anything else. Would that be for me trying to convince you all of my rightfulness (therefor changing your mind) or Hitler/Barack Obama trying to make the world a better place for them, we all carve changes. Spiral energy, mouvement, changes. Now, let's bring this to a philosophic level : what is the meaning of life? Haha, that's a good one and not that many people can brag about knowing an answer to it. Common answers would be "To love and be loved", "Realizing our dreams", "Pass (enter some god's name) test in life and join him in paradise", "Life is meaningless therefor has no purpose) or "Passing on our genes to the next generation". The last two, in addition to being longer to write, actually explain a more universal meangin to life, one appliable to every human being want it or not. Considering the cycle of nature, I could even add "To live (kill) and die" as another meaning, but then, that's still not philosophical. Or so it seems. Moving forward, not giving up, fighting until the bitter end and achieve as many dreams as you can before it happens, killing for your food, living, having children, killing to feed your children, living, dying, feeding plants... It'd be hard to fail and see something here. All life is based on a ever moving spiral of life and death, my life, your life, my death, your death. No one can escape it, or almost. We always could destroy every living being on earth with a massive worldwide nuclear strike until the very earth cracks open and lset out its inner magma, or something like that. That would break the cycle for sure, along with any needs for philosophy. So, no life means no philosophy, let's get that clear (screw you nihilism!). Life is at the base of all philosophy and the "spiral energy" at the base of all life. For a nice parralel, look up "stoicism" on wikipedia, they pretty much had the picture, and Kino's Journey for those who hadn't already watched it. Unreasonable : "If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you!", says often Kamina to his little brother Simon, who has huge self esteem problems (whut? who said Shinji?). This little speech did looked stupid at first, but it isn't long, especially if you watched NGE, to see that it makes perfect sens all along. Shinji lacked the confidence(love) in himself to live on. He tried to look into someone else's eyes to see a relfection of himslef that would be worth something. It did worked for a while, like, the first ten episodes and a little bit later on when his syncro rate went higher than Asuka's (you don't get to see Shinji smile like that often). But yeah, that wasn't enough on the long term, and same goes for Simon. However, had it not been from this external trust, would they ever have achieved this level of self confidence they both showed in the later episodes? Of course not. They both needed this unreasonnable way of thinking in order to mature up. So then, was it so unreasonnable? The illogical turned out to be the best course of action, where random events bring out outwordly reactions. Weren't the greatest inventions accidents? So, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, throughout all it's random speeches and ideas, didn't it make more sense than those judged reasonnable? Anyways, reason always seemed to be a synonym to socialy acceptable and normal. That's stillness, the opposite of the spiral energy, life and therefor(surprise!) philosophy. Faces?! : Noticed how everything that's man made has faces on it? Houses, vehicles, the Ganmen (the mechas) and later on, the anti-spirals. Aside from showing that what's man made possesses a lgimpse of what humans are, it's also a sign of how evolution works. The one mecha at the beggining of the anime, Lagann, had a face on it. In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the principal tool toward the human race rebellion against the beastmen was the Ganmen, mechas with giant faces on them. Later on, everything in the human society is marked with a face. Even though this isn't very profound a thought, it shows how everything from the past marks the future in sometimes very seemingly unimportant ways. Take toilet paper. There's wasn't any of it not that long ago. We take it for granted, but could anyone imagine living the rest of his life without it like they used to do? Same goes with religion. Even if ou don't believe in God or gods, the term still exists on your mind and therefor affects you everyday, probably without you noticing. Considering that the anti-spiral also possess the "faces", one could understand that what affected us could also affect other civilazation in ways similar to ours but still opposite. So, thats all for the guiding lines. The main subject will be aborded eventually. Until then, have fun quoting me and showing how wrong or right I can be. Have fun! |
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| First of all... Are you serious? |
| Know what, kinda feel like saying no right now. |
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| Ah, so you were serious... http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=88894 You know, you sound like a little improved version of this. No offence. You can try to brand anything as philosophical if you try hard. Tengen Toppa is no exception. |
akai-kitsuneSep 13, 2009 4:01 AM
| hehe, touché. |
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| I'm with you there. If I had to describe Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's unique philosophy, it would be existentialism...evolutionary, natural existentialism. I mean themes of belief in one's self? upliftment and rebellion? That just screams existentialism. It's "natural" existentialism because Simon and Crew's existential fight against the anti-spiral is fueled by some sort of evolutionary force known as Spiral energy. It's essentially a question of whether allowing for the nature of the cosmos is better or worse than the conscious decision of beings motivated by the fear of the obliteration of their existence and the universe. Fear and self-doubt is a consistent adversary for Simon, Kamina, Lordgenome and the entire Spiral race. This idea of the universe's obliteration is actually not that distant from our current understanding of the fate of the universe (entropy, 2nd law of thermodynamics, expanding universe etc.) Maybe in the future we'll have giant robots battling for the sake of the universe's continuation. Oh, this reminds me of Space Captain Harlock. I remember this nice dialogue between Nia and Simon in this show. "Hey Simon, why was I brought into this World?" "I think it's up to you to decide why." Philosophy needn't be this pedestal of obscurity and symbolism people seem to be asserting here in this club. It's about thinking about knowledge via "reason", and "reason" is the most clarifying, simplifying component of human life. |
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