Here’s what I think makes a great cartoon – taking an idea and escalating it beyond the confines of logic. Take Tex Avery’s Bad Luck Blackie:
It’s just one gag: whenever a black cat walks past the dog, ill will befalls the dog. But there’s a good 7 minutes that you can get out it by exploring it and pushing it beyond exhaustion.
Some people wonder why Gurren Lagann connects with viewers for whom other robot shows don’t. It’s because Hiroyuki Imaishi and Kazuki Nakashima understood what is specifically effective in cartoons and rather than just using animation as the cheapest route to sci-fi on TV, they created a series designed to take advantage of what the medium offers. And that included escalation. Not only are the stakes in Gurren Lagann progressively raised with each arc, but it takes the idea of piloting giant humanoid robots and escalates that as well. It escalates it beyond what might be considered sensible by more conservative creators, and by the end you have the giant robot equivalent of the ship falling out the sky onto the dog.