Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

I'd love to discuss this with you guys.

So, I felt that the beginning was bad, and I was ready to drop the anime, because I didn't find it compelling at all. I thought that since many held it in such high regard, either I would already be loving it, or it maybe just wasn't my thing. Also I was comparing it to Kill La Kill (which is a shitty thing to do in general), which was excellent from beginning to end. I was even ready to do so when probably my favorite voice actor in anime; Nobuyuki Hiyama, made a rare appearance as Viral. (I did end up dropping it for a couple of weeks) But after (/s Kamina dies), I think the show improves exponentially. It starts dealing with real emotional subjects, like (/s coping with death). And although I did feel that Nia was ham fisted as a love interest for Simon, I grew to love her character so I dropped this criticism.

Now, my biggest reason for finding the beginning bad is...(drumroll !!!!) Kamina. I'm usually super patient with movies and anime and rarely end up judging people without knowing them first, but goddamn I thought Kamina was just super obnoxious. Yeah sure he was funny at times and had some pretty good moments, but he was just so overly brash, loud and I just could not stand him (/s ", I'm feeling like a sociopath writing this, but I felt no emotion at all when Kamina died"). The anime even rewards the overly brash Kamina with female attention, attention by the surface people and respect by them, while Simon who does the heavy lifting is just left alone (/s although maybe this is just to contrast how famous Simon actually becomes after defeating Lordgenome). This kind of struck a chord with me because it reminded me of my older brother who almost always got the attention and I was always an afterthought. Continuing with me being patient and not overly emotional (/s Yoko telling Nia not to fondle Simon too much even though he was obviously devastated by Kamina's death is perhaps the only time I said "bitch" out loud in anime for any character), so obviously I'm not too fond of the two.

That said I'm glad I stuck with it because (/s after Kamina's death and all the way up to the fight with Lordgenome) was just some of the most straight up incredible anime I've seen. The entire story developing, I just can't put into words how much I'm enjoying it.

I'm now enjoying the anime so much, and it's one of the only anime in recent times for me where it just consumes my thoughts the whole day and I just can't wait to find out what happens when I finally continue.

I'm at episode 18 or so right now so please no spoilers. Do you guys have the same opinion of the beginning as me? I'd love to hear some thoughts from you.