[Darklord_bg]

Best show of the season, hands down!

It has made such a huge impression on me that it will join the ranks of titans like Gundam SEED and Code GEASS as my Top 3 mecha anime, and will definitely find a place in my Top 10 anime overall. I am pretty sure I will be re-watching my favorite episodes and scenes from the show again and again in the years to come. Whenever I feel depressed, whenever I am bored, or just whenever I feel like a need a strong injection of adrenaline, I can always count on this show to pick me up and make my heart pound with excitement.

It's hard to find the words to express my feelings about this show, since I do not think any words can do it justice, but still, I'll give it a try.

Animation - 9/10 The animation was simply breathtaking! So many bright colors, so many explosions, so many beautiful landscape scenes. The character designs were really cool and colorful. Kamina's design is the best - the cape, the sword, the sunglasses - all very stylish. I loved how the characters changed after the time skip to make them look more grown-up and mature. Simon, Rossiu and Darry were the ones in which those changes were the most noticeable. The only qualm I had about the animation was episode 4 and I'm glad the producers chose not to pursue this weird style anymore.

Sound - 10/10 Iwasaki Taku was my favorite anime composer even before TTGL (I know him from Kenshin OVA, Getbackers, Black Cat and Kekkaishi) and he did not disappoint me. The soundtrack was amazing through and through. It accompanied the feelings of the characters really well. Sometimes the music made a really great scene even more memorable. The best example of that for me was Kittan's death scene with "Libera Me" from Hell playing in the background - it made Kittan's epic exit even more epic. Another example again with the same song was the dream sequence in episode 26 - it made it even more emotional, and of course there is Kamina's death sequence which I must have watched 20 times(no exaggeration). I've been listening to the OST all the time ever since it came out a week ago(heck I'm listening to it right now). That's how amazing it was.

Script - 10/10 When the show first came out, I thought it was going to be just another shounen/action show with comedy elements. The first few episodes were full of action and funny moments and over-the-top fight scenes, so they were entertaining to watch, but yet - nothing new. Nevertheless, there were certain moments - like the prologue or the time when Kamina first entered a Ganmen and stared for a long time at that skull, while sweating - that made me think this show might be a little bit different. When episode 8 came I knew I was right - the guy who was the heart of the show so far was killed in one unforgettable epic moment. From that time on, I couldn't wait for the next episode to come out every week.

The first post time-skip arc (mainly episodes 17-21) that many people seem to criticize for being not in tone with the rest of the show, actually gave the much needed depth to the show that seemed to be lacking up to episode 15. For the first time we got to see some more complicated character interactions, some political intrigue and some storytelling. Heck, this arc answered many of the questions that we had been asking ourselves for a while about the show: What is spiral power? What are the Ganmen and the beastmen? How did the human population get to be inprisoned underground? This story arc also gave character development to some side characters, who were mere sidekicks before - mainly Rossiu and Kittan, the latter of which became one of my favorite characters. Thus, even though this arc was not as action-packed as the rest of the show, it added depth to it and made it even better.

The final arc (Eps 23-27) was the creme of the creme, the top of the iceberg. It presented us with action, drama and intensity on a level never before seen in the show before. It had been a long time, since someone important died, and that made the many deaths in this arc even more shocking and emotional. This arc also featured the best music and animation of the entire show. The ending was great - from the intensive fight scene, to the bittersweet finale.

Characters - 10/10 I felt like I needed to make a separate category, since the characters are all so awesome. There was not a single character that I hated. Even Rossiu, who had become really annoying after the time-skip had a very nice closure to his story.

Kamina is the guy who really carried the show in the first 8 episodes and pretty much got me hooked to it. His constant optimism, coupled with his "never give up" attitude was what really made me like him. He also came up with many memorable quotes! Indeed, as Simon said: "On that day, we lost someone irreplaceable!".

Simon was also pretty amazing in his own right. He really came a long way from the insecure, yet brave and daring little boy to the confident and charismatic mature leader. His relationship with the two most important people for him - Kamina and Nia took up a great deal of the show.

Viral was this enigmatic badass bad guy in the beginning of the show. At first he seemed like a generic antagonist, but yet something about the fact that he always managed to stay alive while his superiors were killed made me think he really might turn out to be an important character. It turned out right. This is my favorite type of character - a villain with a sense of honor, who eventually joins the good guys.

Kittan started out as a generic comic relief side character, but he had an amazing character development after the time skip. His character really shined only in two episodes - 20 and 25, but he gave such an impressive performance in them, that he solidified his place as one of the most memorable characters in the show. He managed to differentiate himself from Kamina and become cool in his own right and he had probably the most impressive and emotional death sequence in the show.

I liked pretty much all the other characters as well, but for me those 4 that I mentioned stand above everyone else.

Overall Impressions: TTGL is like a shounen show on steroids. Everything that makes a shounen show great - the action, the inspirational speeches, the cool characters, the upbeat music, the intense fight scenes - is magnified tenfold in GL. The underlying theme for the whole show was, to quote Kamina, "Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb!". This theme was further reinforced by one of the main music themes: "Do the impossible, see the invisible! Raw, raw, fight the power! Touch the untouchable, break the unbreakable! Raw, raw, fight the power!". I don't remember the last time I've given so many episodes of a show a perfect 10 - 8, 15, 22, 25, 26, 27 - that's almost a quarter of the show.

In conclusion, it has been a long time since a show has made me feel this way as TTGL did. There probably will be a long time before another show replaces it in my heart. Nevertheless, I will keep watching other mecha shows and probably subconsciously compare them to GL, since it has set the bar really high. I can't wait until the DVD's come out in the US.

Overall Score: 10/10