My Personal Spiritual view towards Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (spoiler alert)
For the people that have never watched anime or TTGL (in short).
It is a coming of age story, in the most epic way possible! It is about a little boy called Simon, who is really insecure about himself and he gets all of his support from (what he sees as) his big brother Kamina.
There will be a lot of spoilers, still i recommend watching the show!
https://wall.alphacoders.com/by_sub_category.php?id=173281 is the link of this fine piece of art!
What i am going to talk about today?
Well as stated before, i am going to talk about the symbolism and my view on it with TTGL wich, does not only give the show awesome over the top moments, but also a depth, wich is almost unseeable by many!
First of all the whole grow pattern of the show, from living underground/unawakened to fighting a battle that is atleast wel i am not even going to put the number here times bigger then our Universe itself!
Ok, before we are continuing.
I will not make a big piece about The Kabbalic Tree of Life or the Tarot and connection to TTGL, main reason is, it would become way to technical without getting any true idea behind the show and the goal i want to reach with this piece.
Link where it is from: https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/38y4zl/spoilers_gurren_lagann_the_movie_the_lights_in/ big post XD and a lot of talking about the show as well.
So what am i going to talk about then?
Growth, my main thing and the focus of growing as a person and non stop developing yourself and also by looking deeper inside of yourself, that you are able that you are weird, crazy and excentric and that you get proud of it!
Also the spiritual growth from a boy to becoming a man! (i will make this kind of same post around Kill La Kill for the more feminine side eventually).
Something that most men miss nowadays and something that they like to rampage on the internet, trying to take control over others or being mean, etc, as a form to show off weak they actually are, having no self confidence!
Yeah, i want to start with that section. Because this is something so important nowadays to have that it is the first thing that pops up as well in your view of life and your daily life.
At first Simon get his confidence and support from Kamina, (MAJOR SPOILER ALERT) Kamina dies, Simon is alone and he believe he cannot do anything without Kamina, then he meets Nia and she showed him that he should not be like Kamina, but he should be himself!
Simon started to care a lot for Nia and they shared an important connection with each other as well, eventually when she got abducted, he noticed how important she was to him and he put aside his depression (of kamina's death) to save her!
He broke through his own taboo's, he drilled through his own rules and created hope, inspiration, leadership, power and love! All of his potential started to come out and his Spiral Power or what i call manifestation of True Will or the Human Fighting Spirit started to grow like mad!
(thanks to her)
The link of these gifs that really capture the essence at the beginning to early middle of the show:
http://rebloggy.com/post/my-gif-simon-gurren-lagann-tengen-toppa-gurren-lagann-ttgl-nia-tengen-toppa/33971132399
Eventually after that they have beaten Lord Genome (the father of Nia and king of the planet), you have a time skip, they become more adult. Nia in a way started to become an enemy, because she was programmed to become one by the anti-spirals.
Again the hit for Simon together with that he was used as an political scapegoat, got him into an accepting depression for a bit.
Though he founds out that we all make mistakes and that we need it to keep on growing! Also without Nia this time, he finds that power and even wants to save her! No matter how impossible far away she is!
He keeps on growing and learning and does not and never stop! He pulls all of his friends with him in the war against the Anti Spiral where they keep growing and growing, getting even as powerfull as the level of the Universe itself!
He saves Nia from the hands of the Anti Spirals, because he knows better than that her changing and working with the Anti spirals (that she was so called programmed to do) was an illusion and that she kept sacrificing herself in the hope that he would save her!
Yes he got his full self confidence as a man, out of himself even without Nia to reach that point!
Link: https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/565342559454313417/
But before he got to that final battle, he was brought into an illusion world where his brother was still alive! Thanks to the idea of Kamina still living inside of him (the real one), he manifested and showed him the path to truth! And yes even without the memory of the True Kamina (see this as reïncarnation in a way).
To get Simon going again, Kamina said:
REAL MEN NEVER DIE! EVEN IF THEY ARE PHYSICALLY DEAD!
THEY WILL KEEP LIVING ON!
THEY KEEP EXISTING AS IDEAS IN YOUR HEART, IN YOUR PERSONAL DRILL!!!
The last words as well of what Kamina said, dont be distracted by the what ifs, should ifs and if only's. The choices that you make yourself, THAT is the truth of your universe!
Afterwards again, Simon showed the way to the others as well and they all got out of their illusion, the moment that they snapped out of their dream (or the illusion of the Abyss) they ALL found their Spiral Power (True Will).
This all from just self confidence, one that is rightouss and never gives up! Keeps on learning, keeps on growing and going so deep that the idea of Kamina could save him.
No matter how small or big, Will is all that matters and that is the Will that come outside of you, with that Will, you can create miracles and do the impossible!
Then you also have exceptions as well with this rule, people that without Simon his lead finds spiral power like Kittan in his suicide in a black hole (to destroy it), that he found his personal True Will and his miracle happened!
His suicide created an option that brought out way more energy saved up for many many years!
Lord Genome, after the battle against Simon, only his head was left and it was used with all of it's knowledge and power to drive their way to the Anti Spiral space.
But eventually, as a robot he kept on seeing how they were beating the odds non stop and even he got over his trauma of his past, he even sacrificed himself with his BALLS ON FIRE!
Litterly converting the energy of the anti spiral, into spiral power, he redeemed and forgave himself for betraying the spiral race in the past (despair got him) and he died as a spiral warrior at its highest!
At that moment the love and dedication as well to his daughter Nia came out, he showed all of his support for both Nia and Simon and that was as well the moment that they got into the form that was with insane numbers times bigger then our Universe itself! (after his sacrifice)
And yes, he stopped an attack that has the power of the Big Bang! With sheer Will!
Eventually Nia also finds her Spiral power together with the others and she litterly became except for Simon one of the strongest users of Spiral Power ever, instead of only sacrificing herself also finding Her Way and Her Freedom!
Link: http://gurrenlagann.wikia.com/wiki/Tengen_Toppa_Solvernia
I really love the design of this one as well, the combination of a Egyptian high priestess and the authority of an empress and the fighting spirit of a Valkyrie, while with the look of understanding and wisdom, the level of goddess has been reached!
Yes, knowing yourself better and better, being confident even in your mistakes. Being confident even if you are alone, just keep on moving and fighting! If you have a weakness learn from it and grow! Never give up and Follow your True Will, no let me rephrase BE YOUR TRUE WILL!!!
Link: http://starlock00.blogspot.nl/2014/08/tengen-toppa-gurren-lagann-row-row.html
This is just the second layer above the over the top action!
Lets move on to the third layer!
In this anime, you see precisely the power behind Masculine, Feminine and Balance!
Kamina is reckless, always moving forward without thinking, also supporting Simon but by punching him in the face, saying to MAN UP! pure masculinity in each and every way.
Nia is pure Feminine energy, self sacrificing and loving and supporting Simon in the shadows! Even when she cannot support him or even turns into his enemy, she still supports him from afar!
Simon himself is in balance, both masculine and feminine, spiral power as well in itself is the balance of both! The past and the future, the ones who have fallen, the hopes and dreams of tomorrow!
This is that double helix for our future and evolution and that is True Will!
He also learns that Spiral Power is good to use for the Universe, but if he goes to far or let anyone else go to far with it (yeah this power can even resurrect the dead and create miracles beyond our comprehension), the spiral nemesis will be born and that will destroy the Universe.
He does not only moves forward, but he does his job and after doing his job, he let things happen as they should happen without forcing things to far!
The Fourth Layer
I will keep this as a final layer at the moment, this piece has been a long travel and trust me, i can go up to 10 layers with this show, it has so much more depth behind everything that it litterly can be mind blowing!
Well i keep this in a more popular setting in the terms of THE DRILL IS MY SOUL!
Knowing yourself so well, that you know what it stands for. The rest of the world calls you crazy, but you are actually further in your development then they are and you get your following as well with it, there are people who understand the deeper perception of this.
THE DRILL IS MY SOUL has the same meaning like All Mights, I AM THE WORLDS SYMBOL OF PEACE AND JUSTICE!
The part that activates your true essence, but at this point we go a bit deeper.
MY SOUL = I AM
THE DRILL = THE WORLDS SYMBOL OF PEACE AND JUSTICE!
This shows mastery of knowing yourself and knowing what you need to do, what you stand for.
Being build from the idea, instead of creating ideas and getting lost.
They have found their way and they will not give up, till they have found their place.
At the same time, this also has another meaning as well!
In terms of words, this is both a wish (know how a wish truly works and how powerfull it is, also can create miracles, there is even a technique called Volt by Franz Bardon that made a wish into a very powerfull technique that Goes Beyond karma and into Divine Karma) and a Power Word as well.
I will not continue about this, but you are starting to get a clear idea even if i brought it in a very simple manner, how deep this show goes!
Link: https://newmystery356.deviantart.com/art/Kamina-s-Motto-168062632