Hello my peoples.Gypsy Blair here with another fine update.Today, we'll be focusing on the first entry into THE POP GYPSY HALL OF FAMEFamefame .
"Your echo effect sucks."
Shut it, Paco. I'm working here.
Anyway, this is a segment where I introduce one of my many favorite characters in media.Whether it's comics, movies, or literature, if someone fictitious left an impression, then sooner or later they will end up here.Our first entry is for the villains with the induction of the very creepy Anti-Spirals from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
(WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.STOP READING IF THIS BOTHERS YOU.)
Okay, so if you've been living under a rock for the last six years or just don't like watching anime, than here's a little info on the most epic anime to come out of Japan since Evangelion.Gurren Lagann takes place on earth far in the distant future.Mankind has taken to living underground, fearing the surface world that is ruthlessly ruled by anthropomorphic creatures called Beastmen who roam the planet's surface in giant robots looking for humans to exterminate.Enter The timid young digger, Simon, and his friend and mentor, the overbearing, idealistic Kamina.Kamina dreams of traveling to the surface and exploring the world just like his father who left years earlier.Simon could care less, but still cares about his "big bro."Everything changes when they dig up a robot head and a beastman mecha drops through the roof while fighting with sexy human rebel, Yoko.To make a long story short: They use the little robot to fight the beastmen, they steal a bunch of mechs, form a resistance army, and lay siege to the beastman citadel where they kill the Beastman king, Lord Genome, whose parting words are a warning of an even greater threat.This is where things get intense.
Years pass and the human race attempts to build a new civilization alongside their old enemies.Simon grows up and takes his place as president of the earth.Meanwhile, Simon's second in command has kept Lord Genome's head preserved in a jar and hooks it up to a computer to talk to him.Because why not?Genome reveals that he was trying to protect humans with his oppressive regime due to an even greater evil, the Anti-Spirals, and that the world would come to an end if one million humans populate the surface, which happens exactly thirty seconds later with the birth of a bouncing baby boy.All hell breaks loose.Simon's girl Friday and Lord Genome's daughter, Nia, gets kidnapped, revealed to be an unwitting Anti-Spiral spy, and is brainwashed into leading the attack on the earth while wearing a sexy Tron cosplay.
Of course the brave humans retaliate, but every victory only leads to worse assaults and horrible surprises, as every evil weapon the Anti-Spirals send out has some gimmick that results in just depressing everybody and spreading fear like crabs among college football players and the cheer squad.After a lot of drama and finger pointing, everyone decides that the only option they have is to defeat their enemy or lay down and die.Obviously, they choose the one that isn't dying like a sucker.However, beating the Anti-Spirals is easier said than done.
The Anti-Spirals pull out every dirty trick they have.First, they send waves of Kamikaze ships.When that fails, they go Majora's Mask and throw the freaking moon at the earth.When that doesn't get the job done, they try something a little more extreme: sink the human starships in a black hole powered ocean in space, unleash fleets of giant warships made of giant stone faces, hands, and feet.They even try to trap everyone in a dream world of their greatest desires.The Anti-Spirals are practically God-like, but those pesky Earthlings break through every time.It all seems like the whole thing is more trouble than it's really worth, so why even bother?What's the Anti-Spiral's motivation?Turns out, they're trying to save the universe.
As it happens, the tech in every uses is powered by the Spiral power, an energy found in all organisms capable of evolution and strengthened by one's willpower.The Anti-Spiral feared an event called the Spiral Nemesis, the moment Spiral energy would reach a level of "OVER 9000!" and all creation essentially overloads and shuts down.They feared it so much, they actually put their entire species into a deep coma and turned their planet into a living tomb to suppress their own Spiral energy.They then manifested their collected consciousness into the ethereal Anti-Spirals to stop the growth of the Spiral across the cosmos.Every world they visited they gave an ultimatum: submit and live a repressed life underground or be destroyed.No Exceptions.The human race lost to them in a space war long ago and surrendered.Lord Genome was made semi-immortal caretaker of the planet and that was that until Simon shoved a drill through the old man's chest several millennia later.
The worst part about all this nonsenseis that it's not nonsense.The Spiral Nemesis is a real threat and winning the fight means the heroes have to live with the burden of it's eventual approach.Despite this new revelation, they forge on ahead and finally face off in an end all battle royal to bring peace and freedom to the universeby forging together massive mecha's large enough to throw entire galaxies like Frisbees.Yeah, they pretty much stomp all over the universe both sides are trying to protect.But at least it was an epic slugfest.
In the end, the heroes win, the bad guys lose, and everyone goes home to a happy endingwell, not quite.Half the cast, mostly minor characters, pretty much die in the span of four episodes.Nia dissolves into dust at her and Simon's wedding and Simon leaves almost immediately with a few parting words to his friends.Plus there's the whole "the universe is going to end because we exist" thing.It's a bitter sweet ending really, but the whole point of the story was never giving up and always aim high for the heavens.There are a few tears but everyone puts on a happy face and refuses to just roll over and get smeared under God's boot heel.
Overall, the Anti-Spirals were incredible villains with their creativity towards stomping their enemies hopes and dreams into mush.After all, that was pretty much the whole point.Despair was the only real weapon they had to fight Spiral life forms.They had to come up with some impressively scary stuff to achieve their goals.But still, could one really call them evil?They just wanted to make sure life continued, if a bit ironically as underdeveloped civilizations of molemen.They had the right idea, they just went about it the wrong way.They weren't so much heartless monsters who didn't care, but universal eco-terrorists who cared too much and went a tick too far.
So let us now welcome the first entry of many to come in the Pop Gypsy Hall of Fame.The Anti-Spirals deserve a place among the greatest antagonists who ever lived.
This is Gypsy Blair, signing off.Good night everybody.
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