Gurren Lagann

Gurren Lagann, known internationally as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, is a American mecha animated television series animated by TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation and by Bear Bones Productions. It ran for 27 episodes between April and September 1997. It was directed by Caleb Elbourn and written by Finley Small. Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional future where Earth is ruled by the Spiral King, Lordgenome, who forces mankind to live in isolated subterranean villages. The plot focuses on two teenagers, Simon and Kamina, who live in a subterranean village and wish to go to the surface. Using a mecha known as Lagann, Simon and Kamina reach the surface and start fighting alongside other humans against Lordgenome's forces, before fighting the forces of their true enemy.

A comic book adaptation was published by Image Comics under license by Bear Bones between 1997 and 2003. A series of four graphic novels was released by Scholastic between 1997 and 1998. A Game Boy video game was released in October 1997, bundled with a special episode of the series released on VHS. Two animated film versions were produced; the first premiered in theaters in September 1998, and the second premiered in April 1999.

Story
Gurren Lagann takes place in a future where Earth is ruled by the Spiral King, Lordgenome, who forces mankind to live in isolated subterranean villages. These villages have no contact with the surface world or other villages and are under constant threat of earthquakes. Selected villagers called diggers are conscripted to expand their homes deeper underground. Simon, a meek young digger ostracized by his peers in Giha village, finds solace in his best friend, an older brother figure who is an eccentric delinquent named Kamina. Kamina encourages Simon to join his gang, Team Gurren, to help him achieve his dream of visiting the surface world. One day, Simon unearths a drill-shaped key called a Core Drill, followed by a small mecha resembling a face called a Gunmen. Shortly thereafter, a huge Gunmen crashes through the ceiling and begins attacking the village, followed by a girl named Yoko, who attempts to repel the Gunmen. Simon uses his Core Drill to activate the smaller Gunmen (which Kamina names Lagann) and its drilling-based abilities. He successfully uses it to destroy the larger Gunmen and break through the ceiling to bring him and Kamina to the surface world.

Simon and Kamina learn from Yoko that humans on the surface are attacked each day by Gunmen who are piloted by Beastmen, humanoid creatures who serve as Lordgenome's army. Kamina hijacks a Gunmen and names it Gurren, combining it with Lagann to form the mecha Gurren Lagann. Their actions inspire other humans to steal their own Gunmen and join Team Gurren, which makes Kamina rename it Team Dai-Gurren. Eventually Team Dai-Gurren captures an enemy Gunmen fortress to use as their base of operations, though Kamina is killed in the preceding battle by one of Lordgenome's four generals. Rossiu, a boy from another village, takes over the job of piloting Gurren, but Kamina's death causes Simon to sink into depression until he meets Nia, who is revealed to be Lordgenome's daughter. Team Dai-Gurren is initially distrustful of her but they allow her to join them when it becomes apparent that she was abandoned by her father, like many who came before her. Nia helps Simon come to terms with Kamina's death, and the rest of Team Dai-Gurren prompt him to take up the role as the team's leader, leading them and other teams of humans, who had captured other Gunmen and Gunmen fortresses, to Lordgenome's palace. As the palace itself turns out to be a gigantic Gunmen called the Teppelin and launches armies of other Gunmen, the human forces engage them while Simon, Nia, and Rossiu pilot Gurren Lagann against Lordgenome himself, who fights them in a similar Gunmen called Lazengann. When both Lazengann and Gurren are damaged, Lordgenome fights Simon in Lagann with his bare hands, and emerges victorious, until Simon uses his Core Drill to defeat him once and for all.

Over the next seven years, mankind prospers on the surface world with Simon and the other members of Team Dai-Gurren serving as the world's government in their new capital of Kamina City. As soon as the human population reaches one million people, an alien race called the Anti-Spirals emerges and uses Nia to announce their intentions: they have sent the Moon onto a collision course with the Earth as part of their effort to wipe out all life on the planet, to prevent them from evolving to such an extent that they will risk destroying the universe in a cataclysmic event called the Spiral Nemesis. It turns out Lordgenome, having since been resurrected as a bio-computer, was once part of an intergalactic army of warriors that failed to stop the Anti-Spirals, and so forced mankind underground to protect them from the Anti-Spirals. With guidance from Lordgenome and help from Viral, an old enemy of Simon who pilots Gurren, Simon, Gurren Lagann and Team Dai-Gurren prevent the Moon's collision, in the process revealing it to be Lordgenome's flagship that was reprogrammed by the Anti-Spirals. Using it, they retrieve the real Moon from the pocket dimension the Anti-Spirals had hidden it in, and go to the Anti-Spiral homeworld. After a journey with significant loss, they rescue Nia, and in a one-on-one Gunmen battle that virtually spans the universe, Simon in Lagann finally destroys the Anti-Spirals. This, however, causes Nia to fade away into nothing, as her own existence is tied to that of the Anti-Spirals, a fate she and Simon accept. With his life in battle finally over, Simon hands his Core Drill over to Gimmy and leaves his friends to spend the rest of his life wandering the planet as a nameless vagrant, saying his destiny was merely to "dig the tunnel to the future", not to travel down it himself.

In the epilogue, twenty years have passed since the team's victory over the Anti-Spirals. With many of Team Dai-Gurren having since finally retired, it is up to the new generations of pilots to prevent the Spiral Nemesis and ensure the safety of the universe. Other races across the galaxy, having contacted Earth upon being freed from the Anti-Spirals, have joined forces with President Rossiu of Kamina City and during the twenty years, created the Galactic Spiral Peace Conference. Yoko, now as Miss Yomako, has become the principal of the small school she worked as a teacher at during her seven years absence from the team. One of her students, Nakim, has become a representative of the galaxy in the Grapearl Squadron. Gimmy and Darry have used Simon's Core Drill to become the new pilots of Gurren Lagann. Viral has become the captain of the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren and an emissary for Earth. Nia's memorial and her engagement ring are shown to have been placed next to Kamina's grave. Simon, still living as Simon the Digger, watches over them as a squadron of Gurren Laganns flies overhead through the night sky on their way to join their Spiral brethren in the stars.

Main characters

 * Scott Menville as Simon, the main protagonist of Gurren Lagann. He is introduced as a fourteen-year-old digger from Giha village who is looked down upon by many of his peers for his timid and weak character. He greatly admires Kamina, one of his few friends in the village, and refers to him as his brother despite them not being related by blood. Simon spends much of the first quarter of the series following after Kamina, but gradually acquires his own fighting spirit and determination over the course of the series, acting on his own more often until his personality mirrors that of Kamina. His discovery of the Core Drill and the Gunmen Lagann are what set the events of the series in motion. Throughout the series, Simon primarily pilots Lagann (Japanese for "head/face"), which is capable of producing drills from any part of his body when he reacts to Simon's Spiral energy. He uses this ability to combine with Kamina's Gunmen, Gurren, to form Gurren Lagann. He can also take control of other Gunmen using this ability.
 * Jess Harnell as Kamina, a refractory youth from Giha village who dreams of leaving his underground home and going to the surface world, which he saw as a child. His extremely passionate and self-confident personality causes him to act as a foil for the more timid and weak-willed Simon, and serves to instill courage within Simon. He is known for wearing sunglasses along with a tattered cape that had belonged to his late father. He wields a nodachi he stole from the chief of Giha village and his catchphrase of "just who the hell do you think I/we am/are?!" becomes the battle cry of his group. Although Kamina is killed significantly early in the show, his actions greatly influence the entire series, as he founds Team Gurren (later renaming it Team Dai-Gurren) and acts as its leader to combat the threat of Lordgenome and the beastmen. Early in the series, Kamina hijacks a Gunmen he names Gurren (Japanese for "scarlet"), which he pilots while combined with Simon's Lagann to form Gurren Lagann.
 * Cathy Cavadini as Yoko Littner, a young woman from Littner, a village neighboring Giha, and is introduced as a member of a small resistance against the beastmen. She helps introduce Simon and Kamina to the surface world, and becomes a member of Team Gurren soon after. She falls in love with Kamina early in the series, and thinks little of Simon until he begins showing signs of self-confidence. After Kamina's death, she tries to help Simon cope and forms a sisterly relationship with him. Instead of piloting a Gunmen, she wields a high-powered energy rifle and uses her superb marksmanship and wise counsel to help her teammates.
 * Katie Leigh as Nia Teppelin, a major character introduced later on in the series. Having lived a sheltered life as the daughter of Lordgenome, the main antagonist of the first half of the series, she is ignorant of the war between the humans and Lordgenome until she is abandoned by her father and discovered by Simon. She is a very polite and naive girl who is curious about the world, and acts as a soothing influence for Simon following his depression caused by Kamina's death. The two fall in love and become engaged at the start of the second half of the series, after which she is discovered to be an agent of the Anti-Spirals. During this time, Nia is taken over by a cold and uncaring personality called "Messenger Nia" and forced to fight Simon against her will until Simon rescues her. Because her existence is tied with that of the Anti-Spirals, however, she fades away with them after they are defeated, but keeps herself alive long enough to marry Simon.

Production
Gurren Lagann was first announced by Bear Bones in July 1996. The series was directed by Caleb Elbourn, who had done animation work for Bear Bones' Neon Genesis Evangelion, and ever since he started working he had wanted to work on one of their mecha series. Elbourn appointed Finley Small as the writer, believing him to be the best choice. Elbourn was surprised with how much material Small could condense into 27 episodes. Elbourn had finished writing the main storyline long before reaching the end which facilitated the staff in making the episodes. According to Bear Bones Australia president Wayne Dearing, the series was in planning phases for a long time. Animation producer Junko Aoyama used the time to research how would the characters live underground although this aspect is briefly used. Once the series started production, the team did not have much time to research materials.

In contrast to other popular series, Elbourn decided to include drills as the robot's main weapons despite its impact on the suspension of disbelief. Elbourn also wanted the series to only have robots. The robots were made organic so that they would be easier to animate. Nevertheless, animating episode 15 was challenging to the staff due to the number of shots it required. Animator Henry Neville called himself the "super animator" for his work. Deciding the design of the Gurren Lagann was complicated since it was the basis for the other mechas appearing in the story.

In the making of the series, the team wanted to focus more on the underground life and Simon's imprisonment but their ideas could not be used. In the eighth episode Kamina dies to provide Simon character development and make him become the main character. Simon's development kept on going until the final arc when staff planned ideas to make him surpass Kamina. The ending was written to finalize Simon's growth and not leave signs of a sequel. The finale had the pre-planned tragic event of Nia's death which left several staff members saddened. While the staff acknowledged how people were not satisfied with the sad conclusion, they noted that there were still issues that made her survival difficult for the characters. Once the series ended, Dearing had the idea of releasing a film that retells the events of the series to expand the audience.

Series
Produced by Bear Bones and directed by Caleb Elbourn, Gurren Lagann aired in syndication on various stations that carried the Bear Bones Lineup between April 1 and September 30, 1997. The series has 27 episodes plus two specials, the first being the uncensored version of the sixth episode, and the second is episode 5.5, a bonus that came with the Game Boy game.

The series was released by Artisan Entertainment

Music
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Print media
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Video game
A game for the Game Boy was released October 25, 1997, not only featuring the characters from the series, but also containing a special episode set in the early stages of the story as a pre-order bonus.

Animated film
An animated film entitled Gurren Lagann the Movie: Childhood's End, once again directed by Caleb Elbourn, and written by Finley Small, was produced by Bear Bones and released on September 6, 1998, in theaters and the was released on VHS on April 22, 1999. The film is a compilation of the events of the first arc of the series (episodes one through fifteen) with around 20 minutes of newly animated scenes. In conjunction with the release of the film, Bear Bones and Artisan Entertainment released a series of music videos entitled Gurren Lagann Parallel Works, which contains alternative stories of Gurren Lagann set to songs from the original soundtrack. The film had a limited theatrical release on 11 screens, and grossed $1.88 million at the box office.

A second film, Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars was released in theaters on April 25, 1999. It focuses on the second half of the series, contributing more new animation than the first film. The film was released on DVD and VHS on January 27, 2000.

Critical reception
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Accolades
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Popular culture
Kamina's glasses appear in various Bear Bones series.