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3 reviews
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
alt title(s): Gurren Lagann; Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!

"Go Beyond The Impossible, and kick reason to the curb! That's the Team Gurren way!"

"Don't believe in yourself! Believe in me, who believes in you!"

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is what happens when you ask Studio Gainax to create a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

Lonely orphan Simon lives in an underground village, digging for ancient artifacts and eating pigmoles. His self-appointed big brother, Kamina, is a hot-headed idiot gang leader/delinquent who dreams of going to the "Surface" like his father, despite the village elder's insistence that there's no such thing.

Then Simon discovers a strange drill-shaped key and, later on, a pint-sized mecha that seems to respond to the key.

Taking his brother to see it, they're interrupted by, in turn, the elder, the roof collapsing, a massive bestial robotic head: which Kamina faces off against with just a katana, and Yoko, a woman with a very big gun and very little clothing firing at said beast-mecha — a "Gunmen".

Thus begins a rollercoaster ride of Fanservice, over-the-top fight scenes between mecha, hot-bloodedness, epic sunglasses, massive Badassitude, and mind-blowing heroism. Great fun, and doesn't take itself seriously at all. Don't try reading any science into it, common theory holds that the Universe is actually governed by Rule Of Cool and Rule Of Funny. Also, on Mohs Scale Of Science Fiction Hardness, it ranks as one of the softest.

There have been two movies (which basically amount to nice Clip Shows of the TV series with the exception of the endings)—Guren-hen ("Crimson Lotus Chapter") and Ragan-hen ("Spiral Stone Chapter"). There are also three manga: one of which is pretty much just a slightly altered version of the anime, another which is a hilariously awesome High School AU, and a third set in an Alternate Universe focusing on Simon and Nia.

Was going to be released by ADV Films, but was suddenly lifted from their license list and given to Bandai. The English dub, under the title Gurren Lagann, began showing in America on Sy Fy right before Now And Then Here And There:and then MD Geist. Sy Fy reran it from the beginning due to the positive response, right before Rave Master.

The entire anime series is now currently on Hulu... at least in the United States.

There is a character sheet.

Compare Yuusha-Oh GaoGaiGar and G Gundam. Contrast Neon Genesis Evangelion. Nothing to do with the movie Lagaan.

This series features examples of:

  • The Abridged Series
  • Abusing The Kardashev Scale For Fun And Profit: Thanks to Spiral Power, Humanity starts out as pretty much Type -1, then shoots all the way to Type 4 and beyond in 7 years!.
    • Technically, they went from Type -1 to Type 0 in seven years. They got up to 4 in a only a few days.
  • Action Girl: Yoko
  • Aerith And Bob: And how!
  • Affectionate Parody: Not only are the heroes Determinators, as they would be in a bona fide Super Robot show, but they can also win literally on pure determination.
  • After The End
  • All Your Powers Combined: The movie.
  • A Mech By Any Other Name: Sort of: there are Gunmen and Grapearl, but the (very infrequently-used) generic term is "mech". On a single occasion, "Gunmen" is also used as if it were the generic term.
  • Animation Bump: Episode 15 (the end of the first half) looks like a movie version compared to everything we had seen before, especially Gurren Lagann's flight-to and fight with Teppelin's hand and the battle with Lordgenome. Add it half the episode is evening colored instead of the usual bright daytime.
  • Anime First
  • Antagonist In Mourning: Viral can't help but feel sad for Kamina's death.
  • Antivillain: Lordgenome and the Anti-spirals
  • The Aragorn: Kamina of course; though Kittan assumes the role after Kamina dies, even getting two days in the limelight in the second arc.
  • Arc Words: "Yours is the drill that will pierce the Heavens!"
  • Art Shift: Nia's paper-cutout flashback in Episode 11. Also, the animation switches to a light, heavily sketchy style during times of extreme hot-bloodedness along with Lordgenome most of the time, whether the rest of the shot is sketchy or not, probably because he has a truly preposterous amount of Spiral energy. Also, the art style changes noticeably in episode 4 due to having a different director.
  • Artistic Age
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: Thymilph, Lordgenome and the Anti-Spirals all succeed in doing major damage to Team Dai-Gurren.
  • Autobots Rock Out: Viral's Leitmotif is highly badass heavy metal.
  • Awesome But Impractical: Filled to the brim with this, but for a completely logical reason.
  • Awesomeness Is Volatile
  • Bad Ass: Many, many characters. Kamina takes it to Refuge In Audacity levels.
  • Badass Cape: Kamina of course.
  • Badass Longcoat Prologue and post-Timeskip Simon
  • Badass Teacher - Yoko becomes one after the Time Skip. Do NOT threaten her students. She'll show you that she hasn't lost her sniper skills.
  • Bash Brothers: Simon and Kamina.
  • Batman Can Breathe In Space
  • The Battlestar: The Dai-Ganzan becomes Team Gurren's mobile fortress "Dai-Gurren" after it's seized from the Beastmen army. It gets an upgrade after the Time Skip when the moon is revealed to be an old Spiral Base, and is converted into the new "Chouginga Dai-Gurren"
  • Beach Episode: Used straight and subverted: Most of the girls get the usual treatment.. except for Yoko and Nia; the former ends up wearing a swimsuit less revealing than her normal clothes, while the latter does even better with a full body swimsuit.
  • Beam Spam: There's a reason why Attenborough is known by fans as "Beam Spam McMuppet".
  • Beneath The Earth: Most of humanity had been forced underground by forces unknown a long time ago. The first part of the series revolves around liberating the repressed humans.
  • The Berserker: The entire cast!.
  • Berserker Tears: Simon in chapter 11.
  • Beyond The Impossible: The Trope Namer, as shown by the first quote on that page.
  • BFG: Yoko's rifle.
  • BFS: Kamina's katana. Possibly lampshaded in Kamina's on-foot battle with Viral; he spends a good ten seconds drawing the thing.
  • Bicep Polishing Gesture: Bruce Ironstaunch.
  • Big Brother Mentor: Kamina; although he's not Simon's real brother, he considers himself his soul brother.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Happens all the bloody time.
  • Bigger Is Better: The Gurren Lagann just keeps getting bigger.. and bigger.. and bigger..
    • GROW GROW BUILD DA POWAH!
  • Bishounen: Cytomander.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Nia dies just after getting married to Simon, who spends the rest of his days Walking The Earth with Boota..
  • Black Box: The Gunmen. Rossiu outright failed to replicate their physics-breaking awesome.
  • Blade Brake - OVA
  • The Blank: The Anti-Spiral robots
    • Only appropriate, as "Mugann" can be translated as "faceless".
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Nia.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Kamina.
  • Boss Subtitles: When some of the mightier Gunmen are introduced, along with their pilots.
  • Breaking The Bonds: Done by Kamina in the first episode, as well as Lordgenome in the 15th.
  • Breaking The Fourth Wall: Done in the Hot Springs Episode in reference to the censoring blur on the female naked apes of Team Gurren. Kamina points it out, and is overall confused by it. That's right folks, Team Gurren really does live up to their theme and "breaks the unbreakable".
  • Building Swing: Simon and Yoko do it by sticking the Gurren Lagann's drills on enemy aircraft!.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Giga Drill Breaker is the most famous, but at one point it's parodied as well."HANDS-OFF-MY-LITTLE-BROTHER PUUUUUUUUNCH!" "WHO-THE-HELL-DO-YOU-THINK-I-AM KICK!!!" "MAN ON FIIIIIRE! BLAZING CHARIOT! KIIIIIIIIIICK!!!" MY-WIFE-IS-THE-BEST-IN-THE-UNIVERSE-SWING!!!
    • The Anti-Spiral King plays it straight in the finale: "Infinity...Big Bang! STTTTOOOOORRRRRRMMMMMMM!"
  • Camp Gay: Leeron.
    • Then we have Leeron's theme tune, "He is so XXX". The following message is spelled out in individual letters: "Leeron is gay. He is so gay. He loves my asshole. Asshole."
  • Cartwright Curse: Any man Yoko starts to express anything resembling nonplatonic affection for dies very soon. She kisses Kamina and he gets his Heroic Sacrifice clearing up Simon's Heroic BSOD. Seven years later she admits she admires Kittan's contributions, even compared to Kamina's... which concludes in a kiss right before HIS own Rule Of Cool Heroic Sacrifice. Given that death follows her lips, fans of Simon should be GLAD she never gave him the eye.
  • Cast Of Snowflakes - crowd scenes are impressively detailed, and include quite a few recurring extras. Bruce Ironstaunch only appears once, however.
  • Catch Phrase: Kamina has several, all of which border on being Arc Words: "Who the hell do you think I am!?"
    • The Mouth Flaps actually match fairly well from Japanese to English, so WTHDYTIA didn't have to be altered at all.
    • Just so you know, in Japanese it's 俺を誰だと思ってやがる "Ore o dare da to omotte yagaru?!")
  • Catchphrase Interruptus: WTHDYTIA, the last time it's used in the show.
  • Chaotic Good: Essentially an ideal for the protagonists. Doing things in a Lawful way is even harmful.
  • The Chains Of Commanding - Rossiu despairs of them once.
  • Chekhovs Boomerang - Nia's engagement ring, which coincides with her Face Heel Turn into the Anti-Spiral messenger, is later used to find her and the Anti Spiral homeworld, and is then used once again as a gateway to allow Simon and the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann to get to the Anti Spiral King.
  • Chekhovs Volcano
  • City In A Bottle: Jeeha, Simon and Kamina's village; Kamina always keeps getting in trouble because he firmly believes in the surface, and the elder doesn't start believing until Yoko and a Gunmen crash through the ceiling.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The Gunmen, especially Gurren Lagann, pretty much run on the sheer power of belief and hot blood.
  • Clip Show - Episode 16, which recaps the entire story thus far.
    • The movies are arguably glorified clip shows until the endings.
  • Close Call Haircut - Nia is being held hostage by an enemy mech, but Yoko destroys it by shooting through Nia's hair.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Nia; at first it seems to come from her sheltered up-bringing but it quite clear she isn't all there in the head when even after 7 years in the outside world she still surprises everyone with her quirky misunderstandings. Simon even remarks he has a hard time understanding what she says.
  • Colony Drop: After the time skip, the moon is sent on a head-on collision with the Earth..
  • Combining Mecha: Parodied when Kamina tries to accomplish this by just sticking Simon's mecha on top of his own, only to have it work anyway. Simon is able later to repeat this trick with a battleship, a winged mini-mech, an even bigger battleship, and the Moon..
    • Further parodied in the manga adaptation, where Kamina gets it in his head that Lagann Gurren: Gurren on top, Lagann on the bottom. might work. It doesn't.
    • In the Compilation Movie the mecha of the Four Generals: with Viral taking Thymilph's place. combine into one massive robot rather than the generals fighting the Team Gurren individually.
    • In addition to being a combination of every mecha/spaceship it has fused with to this point, the titular mecha also includes several other Laganns that had been abandoned in previous failed attempts to defeat the Anti Spiral, each piloted by a team member.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: The last part of the show seems to carry this message to a great extent.
  • Coming Of Age Story
  • Conspicuous CG: The Anti-Spiral Mugann mecha look like refugees from Tron.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Needed for the Diabolus Ex Machina moment and lampshaded with little more than the affected character shouting WHAT A TWEEEEEST!.
    • This actually supposed to be part of the thematic development in the show. Not only was Nia captured by the same fate as her father, it was actually supposed to tie in with her overall development as someone that wasn't born to be a human. It was also more beneficial to the heroes than to the villains, if Nia hadn't been the Messenger Earth would be doomed and they would never find the Anti-Spiral homeworld. It's basically the same deal as Simon finding the Lagann.
      • This troper thought about writing a Fix Fic so that Kamina would survive the battle of Dai-Gunzan, only to realize that doing so would derail the plot of the rest of the series!
  • Cool Big Sis: Yoko.
  • Cool Shades: even the robots have them.
  • Cool Ship: The Dai-Gunzan/Dai-Gurren, followed by the Arc-Gurren and finally the Cathedral Terra/SuperGalaxy Dai-Gurren.
  • Commedia Dell Arte Troupe: The entire cast fits just fine in the High School AU.
  • Conservation Of Ninjutsu: The Gunmen in season 1 seem to adhere to this, especially with regard to Yoko's rifle: whenever there's one Ganman, her shots barely faze it. When there's an army of them: like in the battle to capture Dai-Ganzan., they're dropping like flies.
    • To be fair, there's a big difference in the single Gunmen she was shooting at (Enki) and the ones she was against in the battle. Enki, like the General's Gunmen, is of a higher-caliber (which Adiane points out during her own battle) than those issued to lower-ranking soldiers. That it would be resistant to human weapons more than a standard one is logical.
  • Corrupt Church: partially subverted; the religion of Rossiu's village is faked, but only to Shoot The Dog when it's honestly necessary.
    • Though after the Time Skip, Rossiu seems to be reverting somewhat to the patterns of this phony faith, as Simon points out.
  • Cracking Up: The Arc Gurren-Lagann cracks its neck.
  • Crazy Awesome: Pretty much the entire thing.
  • Crowning Series of Awesome: For the entire Mecha anime genre.
  • Crowning Momentof Funny: This vid. That is all.
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: You all know what it is.
    • What, Viral's Theme? Sorairo Days? Minna no Peace?
      • All of it.
  • Cute Bruiser: While she never actually gets to fight hand-to-hand, Nia is freakishly strong, especially given her small size pre-timeskip.
  • Cute Little Fang: Kiyal.
  • Cute Shotaro Boy: Simon.
  • Decoy Protagonist: Kamina definitely takes up most of the spotlight during the first act, but his death kind of disqualifies him of protagonistship.
  • Delayed Explosion: Happens a lot. Often done to give the heroes time to strike a pose after a kill.
  • Destructive Saviour: the alternate Team Gurren in Parallel Works 6.
  • Determinator: The whole cast.
    Kamina: A true man never dies, even when he's killed!
  • Deus Angst Machina Played for laughs in the High School AU with Simons past
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: see Contrived Coincidence.
  • Diagonal Cut: Although This Is A Drill, Giga Drill Break stylistically resembles one.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu
  • Distant Finale: The epilogue takes place many years after the climatic battle, and shows how the survivors have settled into their new lives.
  • Does This Remind You Of Anything: Within five minutes of the first episode's beginning, some girls wonder if Simon's going to drill them. It only gets worse from there.
  • Doom Magnet: As mentioned above, anyone Yoko shows the slightest romantic affection toward is destined for a Bad End
  • Dont Think Feel: How to pilot a Gunmen: do whatever feels natural.
  • The Dragon: Viral, as well as Guame could be considered Dragons.
  • Dual Wielding Most notably, the TTGL dual-wielding two Giga Drill Breaks in the finale.
  • The Dulcinea Effect: Simon and Nia's first meeting.
  • Dying Like Animals: The Redshirt Army in the battle against the Teppelin die like Boars until Nia calms them down. After the Time Skip, the population of Kamina City turn into Sheep and Reindeer in the backlash against Simon. Also, thanks to the Beastmen, happens rather literally thanks to the Cannon Fodder they provide to Team Gurren/Dai-Gurren and, after the time skip, the Beastmen joining the ranks of the rest of the population of Kamina City.
  • Dynamic Entry: inter alia, see below under Get A Hold Of Yourself Man.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Ear Worm: ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH.
  • Eat The Dog: Boota serves his own tail to Simon and Kamina when they're too hungry to pilot their Gunmen with HOT BLOOD. It turns out, despite Simon's reluctance, it's actually delicious — though it might be that he's just a massive source of Spiral energy.
  • Ecchi: Mostly confined to Yoko's outfit of choice.
  • Elseworld: Some of the Parallel Works videos.
  • Empathic Weapon: The Gunmen — and especially Simon's Lagann — are powered by the fighting spirit of their pilots.
  • Empathic Environment: The weather is rainy and gloomy during the first two-thirds of the Episode 9. After Simon finds Nia, beams of light appear, the rain stops and colour returns to the sky.
  • Emperor Scientist: Lordgenome.
  • Energy Being: Not an actual creature, but it arguably describes the title mecha itself, which is a construct made out of all of the heroes' Spiral energy. Possibly the same case regarding its anti-thesis, the Grand Zamboa.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Lots of fans consider Kamina the actual protagonist of the show.
  • Enthusiasm Versus Stoicism
  • Estrogen Brigade Bait: Viral and Kamina.
    • It's hard to imagine Simon and Viral to be fighting in nothing but towels around their waist being for any other reason.
  • Everythings Better With Princesses: Nia, though she slowly becomes a Hot Blooded freedom fighter as she hangs out with the Team Gurren. Which makes her a...
  • Everythings Better With Spinning: In the form of "Spiral Power", this is a codified law of the universe.
  • Evil Chancellor: Post-Time Skip Rossiu, although he believes he's just Shooting The Dog.
  • Evil Is Dumb: Viral.
  • Evolving Credits - each arc has a different animation for the opening credits, reflecting changes in the cast and the goals. But they don't stop there- the pre-timeskip openers feature the first verse of Sorairo Days, while the post-timeskip openers use the second verse.
  • Expressive Mask: The faces on the Gunmen speak at the same time as their pilots.
    • To go even further, the Gunmen can even mimic facial expressions to some degree. Thought it happens with the majority of the main ones, it's best featured on Enki (particularly in Parallel Works 2, though it happens at various points in the canon).
  • Expy: Kamina acts very much like a successor to Sanson from Nadia The Secret Of Blue Water.
    • It wouldn't be a Gainax series without a Shout Out to Cordwainer Smith. The Beastmen are all too similar to Smith's animal derived Underpeople, and Teppelin shares a structurual design similar to Smith's Earthport.
    • Thymilph is a fat, old one of 777 from Dead Leaves.
  • Face Heel Turn: Nia and Lordgenome in the series (and the movies, though those are essentially just glorified clip shows); as well as Lordgenome in the parallel works. And they turn HARD.
  • Fangs Are Evil: until Viral's Heel Face Turn, when Gurren itself sports them.
  • Fanservice: Yoko wears a flame-patterned bikini, short shorts, stockings and a scarf. At all times. Lampshaded when they visit another village and tell her to cover herself up.
    • And again with the Beach Episode: The men are VERY excited that Yoko agrees to put on a bathing suit, but are disappointed when it covers more than her normal outfit (though, really, how much more revealing can you get than her normal outfit?).
    • You think Yoko is fanservicey in the show? Try watching this
    • Kamina also has his fair amount of Shirtless Scene, a whole episode of full nudity. and is a good example of Estrogen Brigade Bait. Which re-occured with Simon and Viral during the shower fight scene.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Beamspam McMuppet — Atenborough, the Gonkish weapons officer of the DaiGurren, who loves his work a little too much.
      • Also known as Button Smash McMuppet.
    • Captain Garlock — the captain in the prologue to the first episode, who resembles Captain Harlock. He is believed to be an alternate version of, and should not be confused with, the much less arrogant Post-Timeskip Simon, who is referred to as Captain Starlock.
      • The GARcadia — The Hyper Galaxy Dai-Gurren, a.k.a. Cathedral Terra. By logical extension of the above nickname.
    • Cotton Hill — Makken of the Team Dai-Gurren, who resembles Hank Hill's father.
    • Doombitch — Yoko, who gave a Last Kiss to two characters, Kamina and Kittan, who then died of Retirony.
      • In her defense, Kittan was the one who kissed Yoko, and that was AFTER he decided he was going on a suicide mission to give Team Dai-Gurren the chance they needed to win.
    • Professer Midrift — Otherwise known as Leyte. Named as such due to nearly every scene she's featured in displaying her nerdy abs.
    • Bruce Ironstaunch — An otherwise unnamed background character who only appears in one scene in the series, making a supportive, strong-armed gesture to Rossiu during the speech where he gives news of Simon's death sentence and word of an escape plan to save the city's population from their planet's moon, which is set to collide with the planet. In Western culture, however, Bruce's gesture translates roughly to "fuck you," and as such several fan artworks of Bruce have been created by Western viewers, depicting Bruce beating on Rossiu or just being manly in general.
      • The same memetic Fanon holds he's the one who threw that anonymous rock at Rossiu. But, whoever it was, there is at least one fan club dedicated to them.
    • Kamina-sama: adding 'the great' as a prefix optional. — Kamina. Let's face it; the man deserves it.
    • Lulussiou and Spinsimon: Rossiu and Simon, respectively after the Time Skip, because the same English voice actors voice both pairs, and because of both pairs' similar actions and relationships. Also note the oddness that each voices the generally like main character in one series, and The Scrappy in the other.
      • Namely, Rossiou's penchant for Xanatos Gambits and Simon's Uhhh. Spinning.
  • Fastball Special: Kamina chucks Lagann at two Gunmen (against Simon's will the first time), and it soon becomes a staple of their combat tactics.
    • Viral repeats this in the battle against the Anti-Spiral, though it stands to reason that he probably learned from watching Kamina.
  • Faux Action Girl: Kittan's sisters, who appeared very brave and strong in their first appearances, but after that, became mere satellite characters for their love interests and/or Kittan.
  • Femme Fatalons: Adiane, of course. Her entire character is feminine to the point that she has the most titular Gunmen of the series; sporting ample breasts and speaking out of its crotch.
  • Fighting From The Inside: Nia, after her consumption by the anti-spirals
  • Final Speech: Lordgenome and the Anti-Spiral leader.
  • Foreshadowing: In the first 2 minutes of the series, we get a look at the initial battle fought with the anti-spirals, and the ship which was used in it. It goes even further to show that Lagann (by way of the core drill) will play a huge part, and even displaying a character looking almost identical to evolved!Boota. The series is in love with history repeating itself (with everything from personalities, fighting techniques, and deaths), and just repeating itself in general by way of having an episode and two movies dedicated to clips; but they have moved to show us that the same thing has been in the course of happening for over 1,000 years.
    • Viral's character and sense of honor being what it is, his discussion with Lordgenome is obvious but real foreshadowing for his Heel Face Turn after the time skip.
    • Rossiu's society as a child fuels his future decisions to the point where he does exactly what he'd been so horrified to learn of in the past.
  • The Four Gods/Four Is Death: the Four Generals of the Spiral King; their Gunmen are named after the Chinese gods.
  • Freud Was Right: All those 'drills' 'penetrating' things, the shape of the good guys' airship, as well as the only female Gunmen having a fanged talking crotch.
  • Funbag Airbag: The male-on-male version happens in the very first episode between Simon and Kamina; later, you see a straight version between Simon and Yoko, who reacts with a smile.
    • Happens again in episode 6, when Simon leaps over Leeron, but his crotch doesn't quite clear him and Leeron gets smacked in the face by Simon's junk. He responds simply by going "So warm.~"
  • Future Badass: Gimmy, Darry, and Viral.
    • In the Distant Finale, it's just those 3. But don't forget, this show does have a 7-year timeskip, where pretty much everybody counts as a Future Badass. If they started Bad Ass, then they got more Bad Ass. Future Loser? In Gurren Lagann? What the hell do you think this is?!
  • Gainax Ending Opening: Apparently, it was supposed to foreshadow the ending but the writers lost that story thread somewhere. Fans have taken it as an alternate reality where that foreshadowing references a bad ending. The Word Of God ended up being "Sure Why Not?"
  • Gainaxing: So, so much.
  • Generation Xerox (Played with, since the villains make it quite clear that everything the hero has done so far has been done before, with no success; the heroes only manage to succeed due to The Power Of Love.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff - Bruce Ironstaunch is popular in America, for telling Rossui "FUCK YOU!" at his plans to execute Simon and then hitting said Rossui with a rock. Even this show's Unfortunate Implications are Badass.
  • Get A Hold Of Yourself Man — "Clench those teeth!" Kamina punches Simon to help him get over his Wangst at Yoko's kissing Kamina. Later on in the battle, Kamina throws the damaged Gurren's arm at Lagann to snap Simon out of it again. After the Time Skip, Simon pays it forward by learning to jump through Hyperspace just to punch Rossiu before he attempts to commit suicide.
  • Girl In A Box: Nia.
  • Glory Days: subverted/inverted.
  • Godiva Hair: Yoko, briefly, in The Movie.
  • Gonna Need More Trope: You mean we're gonna need to use an even bigger drill?
  • Gondor Calls For Aid: At least partially subverted when a motley crew of bit players from previous episodes show up to join the heroes' cause without being asked by anyone, least of all the heroes themselves.
  • Goldilocks And The Mines Of Moria
  • Good All Along: Lordgenome, and the Beastmen
  • Good Bad Translation: The famous "But it's not zero percent. In my case that's as good as 100 percent!" line would be better translated "I'll succeed no matter what" but god it fits character wise.
  • Gossipy Hens: in the first episode.
  • Green Lantern Ring: Spiral energy is one of the ultimate examples of this.
  • Grievous Harm With A Body: Kamina smacks some sense into Simon with the arm of his own mech. Gurren Lagann has a habit of fastballing it's own head at enemies.
  • Gundamjack: How Team Dai-Gurren got just about all its Gunmen besides the Lagann.
  • Half Human Hybrids: The Beastmen.
  • Ham To Ham Combat: There may have been one or two brief scenes of thi— OK, can't do that with a straight face. Happens every two minutes, like clockwork.
  • Heel Face Turn: Viral and Lordgenome after the timeskip; and Nia unwillingly during the Anti-Spiral arch.
  • Heroic BSOD More a villainous blue screen of death: Viral's realization that he's been fighting "women and a children" instead of Kamina, ever since Kamina's death.
    • Simon also gets a brief one after Kamina's death before realising that this isn't Neon Genesis Evangelion and quickly snaps out of it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice : Several — all the others' completely eclipsed by Kittan, whose death scene is a Crowning Moment Of Awesome all in its own, and Lordgenome, who tanks a Big Bang's worth of power..
  • Hero LFG: The lead and secondary cast joined Kamina just after a little talk. The rest of them joined just because they were told about his awesomeness.
  • Hes Back: Simon.. One of the most awesome examples ever seen on television. EVER..
  • Hes Just Hiding: Kamina's Not Quite Dead moment made it harder for fans to accept he was Killed Off For Real.
  • Hey Its That Voice - After the timeskip, you start clearly hearing the Cyborg Guy in Viral's voice when he's yelling. His is the voice that has destroyed both a sun and a moon.
    • In the dub, Simon is Keigo, Yoko is Rukia, and Kamina is Aizen. All from Bleach.
      • However Aizen doesn't sound much like Kamina. A better comparison would be Simon is Teen Ben from Ben 10 Alien Force, and Kamina is Teen Gohan: or to be more precise Saiyaman. from Dragonball Z
      • OVAAAAAAAAAN! LET'S SEE YA GRIT THOSE TEETH!!!
    • Leeron is Orochimaru. Now go watch episode 2 and remember that Simon's VA is also Sasuke.
    • Japanese seiyuu of Kamina is also Shuhei Hisagi , background character developed by fanbase demand
      • And Lloyd Irving in Tales of Symphonia
      • And America and Canada from Axis Power Hetalia...just putting it out here...
    • Viral's Japanese actor is the man who provided the voice of adult Link in The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Listen to Viral's shouts and grunts in fight scenes, he sounds hilariously like Link.
    • Not to mention, he also does Siegfried in the Soul Series. And said Link of Ocarina of Time. And Hiei of Yu Yu Hakusho. And Madarame, from Bleach. And Madarame, from Genshiken. Thus making him an immortal badass, the wielder of a sword made of pure good, and.. two epic guys named Madarame.
    • And Guy Shishioh. No-one knows more about hot blooded shouting than him.
    • As stated above, the dub has Post-Timeskip Rossiu being played by Lelouch and Post-Timeskip Simon being played by Suzaku, since Bandai Bang Zoom! is handling the dubbing for both shows.
    • Dub!Nia is voiced by Starfire from Teen Titans and boy does she ever put it to good use. The world figures for diabetes were painted red when she described Adine as a "Pissing off person".
    • Dub!Yoko sounds like Yukari to me, and my little brother swore he heard Junpei.
    • Dub!Guame is a less raspy sounding Psycho Mantis (as is Dayakka, but that's less noticeable).
    • Simon's Japanese VA is also the voice of a number of Armed Devices in season 2 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The German voice. "Kick reason to the curb" indeed. He was born in Germany.
    • Dub!Lordgenome sounds a lot like Norb, albeit in a rather bad mood.
    • Dub!Anti-Spiral sounds much like a nihilistic Angemon.
    • Simon and Yoko also play the leads, Shing Meteoryte and Kohak Hearts, in Tales of Hearts.
    • Dub!Simon is either Ben Tennyson, or Superboy Superman.
  • High Speed Missile Dodge
  • Hive Mind: The Anti-Spirals.
  • Honor Before Reason: Viral in episode 13 (he needs a little push, though)
    • This is rather typical of Viral, actually, as he is repeatedly shown as holding a sense of honor and responsibility above all else. Better explained in the manga, but it shows in the anime as well; such as when he waits patiently for everyone to get dressed and into their Gunmen because there would be no honor in fighting otherwise.
  • Hot Blooded: ..Where do we START?!.
    • We start at the Village Chief, if only because this happens within 40 seconds of the initial title screen, and the first 3 minutes of the entire series.
    • Even the Anti-Spiral becomes this during the final fight after spending the entire show trying to suppress the same thing.
  • Hot Springs Episode: featuring Lawyer Friendly Cameos from other famous Gainax characters — in Playboy Bunny costumes.
    • There was even a 3-frame shot of Rei snogging Kamina: The only other GAINAX anime he's familiar with is NGE, but Rei was almost exactly the same in cameo form and Asuka's only difference was her hairstyle. [1] [2]
  • How We Got Here
  • Ho Yay : Real men fire each other up, unite, and make comments about each other's drills..
    Kamina: Combining is where two fighting spirits collide! It's where a man's spirit is ablaze!
  • HSQ - Very, very high. Don't bother to pick your jaw up off the floor.
  • Humongous Mecha: At the end of the show, the title mech broke size records. Twice.
    • This animation◊ removes some of the boggle you'll be feeling, polishes it, and puts it back. Sideways.
      • The scale's a little off on that one. Here◊'s a downscaled demonstration of 10 million lightyears of Humongous Mecha.
    • The second movie features Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Yes that's right, they broke the size record again.
      • Can be seen here◊. That thing inside its head? That's Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The small dots are galaxies. And yes, the mecha DOES look like a huge Kamina. Made of fire.
  • Hype Aversion: Gurren Lagann's fans tend to be.. rabid. This has caused more than one person to turn away from it, which is actually quite sad given the remarkable quality of the show.
    • Just the fact to find this series mentioned in tropes where you simply can't expect it to be, and of course hyped to the max, people probably would have deleted them if not by being sure the fans will simply add it again and again no matter how many times you remove another "ZOMGBBQ! GURREN LAGANN OWNS THIS TROPE!one1!"...
  • Hype Backlash
  • I Am Legion: The Anti-Spiral King.
  • I Am Not Shazam: You may see many references to "Lord Genome" which are technically incorrect. Officially, "Lord" and "Genome" are not his title and name, rather "Lordgenome": one word. is just his name. Thus it is pronounced as one word in both the Japanese and English versions.
    • This hasn't stopped a few fans from hilariously back-mistranslating it as "Genome-sama".
  • I Feel Angry: Nia.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each arc uses a line from one character — first Kamina, then Nia, then Rossiu, and finally Simon — as the title for each episode.
  • Idiot Hero: KAMINA.
  • I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight: Simon gives a particularly good one to Nia.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Using galaxies as weapons, of course.
  • Incendiary Exponent: If something is about to get badass, it lights on fire. End of story.
  • Indy Ploy: Every single fight with just one exception: the one fight that is actually planned is the one wherein Kamina dies.
  • Instrumentality: The Anti-Spirals are all collected in one hive mind. They did this so they would stop evolving and prevent the Spiral Nemesis.
  • Intentionally Awkward Title: Do not mispronounce Kamina's name around Hokkien-speakers, especially not if you're saying it enthusiastically or loudly.
  • Internet Backdraft: Is this really the greatest series ever made, or a typical Shonen piece of crap? Don't forget to bring a helmet if you decide to ask.
  • Inventing The Wheel: Averted - The new high technology used after the timeskip is all influenced by Gunmen designs, so all civilian vehicles move on legs or have hoverpads attached with nary a wheel in sight. Basing everything on Gunmen also results in skyscrapers with faces...
  • In The Name Of The Moon: Simon and his current co-pilot do this at dramatically or thematically appropriate moments.
    • Which, ironically, includes the time they went to attack the moon.
  • It Was His Sled: Kamina dies. Also, there are things called "Anti-Spirals", and the final incarnation of Gurren Lagann is bigger than a galaxy. That second one is the most common.
  • Isnt It Sad: Pretty much the only one who makes it to merchandise is Ms Fanservice Yoko...
    • No longer true. We've got Boota (shirts, plushies), Simon & Kamina (plushies), the titular mech, Nia (figurine), flags, wallets, bracelets & whatnot. That is all.
  • Kangaroo Court: Simon gets put through one of these when Rossiu needs a scapegoat. Kittan angrily protests at the verdict, pointing out, among other things, that they gave Simon the stupidest member of the government for a defense attorney. Rossiu is pretty up-front about it, too.
  • Keigo: Nia speaks like this. It leads to her version of Kamina's phrase: "ARE YOU AWARE OF WHO EXACTLY I AM!?".
  • Killed Off For Real: not only straight-up, but arguably subverted, with the same character: try seeing how well most people survive having their torsos be completely vaporized.
  • The Last Temptation
  • Large EPIC Ham: Kamina. In fact, most of the cast are somewhat ham-like at one point or another, but Kamina really takes the cake.. The cake made entirely of ham. And badass.
    • The Anti-Spiral King brings forth truly preposterous amounts of ham when they are fighting in the final battle.
  • Lawful Neutral: Rossiu who believes that Order must be mantained no matter the cost, though his actions cause him great pain.
  • Lawyer Friendly Cameo: Several Gainax characters as bunnygirls; also, Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants, along with Gunmen resembling the Autobot and Decepticon symbols have been seen briefly. Also, Yoko rides a yellow hovering scooter/moped..
    • The eyecatches have even more, with Gunmen resembling Pokemon and Legend Of Zelda characters.
      • Pikachu himself appears in the last Parallel Works video as one of Lordgenome's toy animals.
    • And the Enki and Lazengann look... strangely familiar...
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Damn near everyone. Kamina and Attenborough are especially good examples.
  • Lensman Arms Race: It goes from the compact car-sized Lagann, to the tens-of-meters Gurren Lagann, to the aircraft-carrier-sized Dai-Gurren, to the multi-kilometric Arc-Gurren Lagann, to the thousands-of-kilometers Chouginga Gurren Lagann, to what Word Of God has stated 10-million-light-year tall Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
    • Also, the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann from the movie. Supposedly, it is 3 BILLION light years in height.
      • Not to mention, any and all visible movement, even the slightest twitch, would require breaking the lightspeed barrier..
  • Lethal Chef: Nia, although Simon and Boota sincerely like her cooking. Anyone else who eats it gets knocked out, though.
  • Literal Minded: Nia. Watch the first post-Time Skip episode in case of doubt.
  • Little Black Dress: You are not very likely to find a serious shipping war in the TTGL fandom simply because everyone (except maybe Leeron) is a Little Black Dress. Yes, even Boota.
  • Load Bearing Boss: With Lordgenome's defeat, not only does the capital city (itself a giant robot) start to break apart and explode, but his army's mecha all simultaneously lose power, thus assuring victory for our heroes.
  • Long Title—not the series itself, but rather Kamina/Team Dai-Gurren's theme song. Taku Iwasaki sure had a lot of fun making up titles for the tracks on the soundtrack. The Team Dai-Gurren rap theme's title is very, very, very long. The Japanese title is "ラップは漢の魂だ! 無理を通して道理を蹴っ飛ばす! 俺たち大グレン団のテーマを耳の穴かっぽじってよ~く聴きやがれ!!": Rappu wa Otoko no Tamashii da! Muri o Tōshite Dōri o Kettobasu! Ore-tachi Dai-Guren-dan no Tēma o Mimi no Ana Kappojite Yo~ku Kikiyagare!!. The OST cut of the song adds "(Short Start Edit)" to the end, since the 60 second-ish orchestral opening is cut. One translation of the title, "Rap is a Man's Soul! We Kick Reason to the Curb to Make the Impossible Possible! Open up Your Ears and Listen to Our Team Dai-Gurren Theme!!", is so long that when used as a filename, "(short start edit)" is cut off at "(short ", and the length of the title caused all sorts of weird bugs to happen to Windows Explorer until he finally cut "(short start edit)" to "(SSE)". Oh, and to make it worse, the most common English translation uses wording that makes the title at least two words longer.
    • What do you mean, not the series itself?
  • Lost Technology: The Gunmen; also, Yoko's gun comes from the cache of ancient weapons her village was built around.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Attenborough loves to do this. It generally accomplishes very little.
  • Male Gaze (ubiquitous throughout)
    • The camera explicitly tracks Kamina's gaze as he tries to chat up Yoko — from the gun, to the boots, along the thighs, to the breasts.
  • The Man Behind The Monsters
  • Manly Tears: Simon at episode 11, after a hell of a Rousing Speech. The distilled awesomeness of that scene is undescribable.
  • Marked Change: Post-Time Skip Nia after she becomes an Anti-Spiral.
  • Marshmallow Hell: Simon has just the perfect height for this. Kiyoh even says so when she smothers him.
  • Mauve Shirt: Gimmy and Darry usually end up as the last survivors of the Redshirt Army.
  • Meet The New Boss
  • Megaton Punch: In possiby the ultimate example of this, Simon uses Arc Gurren Lagann to punch an enemy so hard it rips a freaking hole in the fabric of space and time.
  • Memetic Badass: Kamina, or rather his sunglasses.
    • Don't forget Simon. He invented teleportation specifically to punch someone in the face.
  • Memetic Mutation: "Viral Marketing" — Viral, The Dragon of the Beastmen, collided with the "Viral Marketing" meme used to complain about Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu posts on the internet. Picture Viral in a business suit.
    • Also, ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH.
    • Let's not forget a "Drill that pierces the heavens!"
    • It seems that this site has a minor meme that Simon and Viral destroy an entire fleet "by the sheer awesomeness of their presence."
  • Memetic Outfit: Kamina's shades.
  • Milking The Giant Cow: Frequent and intense.
  • Mini Mecha: Lagann
  • Mirror Match: This is the Anti-Spirals' preferred method of inducing ultimate despair.
  • Mix And Match Critters: Grapopotamus is a key example; though this trope fits for every animal and most of the Beastmen in the series.
  • Moe Moe: Nia.
  • Monstrosity Equals Weakness
  • Mood Whiplash: as a direct consequence of several character deaths.
    • Also, the above-mentioned Sci Fi Channel scheduling.
    • Frequently switched between humour, drama, and action. "You're Gonna Do It!!", for example, starts with dramatic closeup shots as Kamina and Viral snipe at each other while Simon, Yoko, and the Black sisters look on. Then the camera switched to a wider angle, and, reminds the audience that, oh, right, our heroes are still pretty much naked from the last episode.
  • Multicolored Hair: Nia and Kittan.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: "I'm Simon The Digger!!!"
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Rossiu, known by Kamina as "Dekosuke": "Forehead Guy".
  • Narm Narm Charm: ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH! Because It WORKS DAMMIT!
    • From the dub, episode 11: "ROSSIU! Let's COMBINE!" This troper howled. The following Crowning Moment Of Awesome is made even better by Yuri Lowenthal's delivery and the new script, though, so it's all good.
  • Narrator All Along: Simon
  • Never Tell Me The Odds: They do this with Zero percent chances and Simon famously says "To me that's more like 100 percent!".
    • Also played up straight when Lordgenome is about to tell Leeron the chances of survival in the Sea of Despair, and Leeron simply doesn't want to hear it.
      • Best thing about that? Lordgenome later tells him the chances of survival were ZERO. "The odds of success were zero, but probability doesn't seem to matter with you guys."
  • Nice Job Breaking It Hero: Wait, Lordgenome's iron-fisted rule was the only thing keeping all of humanity from a brutal genocide at the hands of the Anti-Spirals? Whoopsie...
    • An example of Nice Job Breaking It Villain: Gaume's televising his fight with Lagann and broadcasting it to humans everywhere. He ends up getting his butt whupped by Simon, for all humans on Earth to see, who are thus inspired into Badassery and Hotbloodedness and turn up as The Cavalry in the penultimate battle for Teppelin.
      • Later on, Simon points out to Nia that all of the Anti-Spiral's attempts to kill off humanity have simply made them stronger.
  • No Conservation Of Energy: Actually a plot point.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Teppelin when Lordgenome is killed, and Nia after the defeat of the Anti-Spiral.
  • Noble Demon: Viral.
  • No Holds Barred Beatdown: The battle against Lordgenome, who beats the ever-loving crap out of Lagann bare-handed.
  • Non Human Sidekick: Boota, later human sidekick..
  • Normally I'd Be Dead Right Now: Kamina, after being epically blasted, seeming dead to everyone and making Simon have a Heroic BSOD, comes back and Bright Slaps him out of it, then leads the Dai-Gurren Brigade to victory. And then dies.
  • Not Brainwashed: Nia, according to herself after she learns she's The Mole. Simon disagrees.
  • Not So Stoic: The Anti-Spiral goes surprisingly Hot Blooded during the final battle.
  • No Sense Of Personal Space: Leeron gets a little too close to Simon and Kamina for their comfort when he first appears; and then repeatedly with various others through the rest of the series.
  • The Obi Wan: Kamina and Yoko fill this role together: Kamina takes it upon himself to guide Simon on his path to being a man, and Yoko acts as their guide on the surface, as well as fulfilling the role of The Herald.
  • Obi Wan Moment: Kamina before dying.
  • Off Model: Episode 4 had a guest director, and is considered to be a visual low-point in the series.
  • One Hundred And Eight Pay very close attention, in episode 24, 13 minutes and 21 seconds into the episode, Gimmy says something to the effect of "108th unit destroyed!" after blowing up a few anti-spiral mooks. Then, that's when everything goes bad. Given the obviously Buddhism(or Hinduism?. inspired ships, this was wholly intentional. If you really want to get into the symbolism here, what's 13 minutes in seconds? That's right, 780 seconds, plus the 21 seconds, and you get 801, which is ONE HUNDRED EIGHT BACKWARDS!!
    • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has 27 episodes. 27 times four is 108.
  • One Woman Wail: "Libera Me From Hell", the track played during Kittan's Heroic Sacrifice, Kamina pulling everyone out of the Lotus Eater Machine, and the creation of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • Orcus Lordgenome On His Throne
  • Only Sane Man: Rossiu in episode 6.
  • Out Of The Inferno: Pulled by Kittan flying King Kittan through the explosion of his Space Gunmen.
  • Parental Abandonment: The parents of everyone that wasn't born during the course of the series are all dead Except for Rossiu, though his mother was essentially sentenced to death by his father. Except for one case, where it simply was literal parental abandonment - though her father dies anyway. Twice..
  • People Jars: Lordgenome's head is revived as a "biological computer", who later becomes useful for spouting out Techno Babble on the reality-altering attacks the Anti-Spirals use. The Beastmen also come from people jars, which are briefly seen when Lordgenome makes Viral immortal, and again in Parallel Works 8.
    • In this case, it was more than likely a reference to the Zentraedi Exsedol in Macross 7, who had the same thing done to him.
  • Pet The Dog: Viral in mourning. Then comes a Double Subversion later in the same episode, where Yoko, Simon's current co-pilot, was held hostage by Cytomander, and the latter orders Viral to finish Simon off (defenseless because of Yoko's situation). Viral was about to comply, until Simon calls him out on this, causing Viral to disobey the order given to him.
  • Please Put Some Clothes On: After the heroes end up naked after being ambushed at the hot springs, Viral shows up looking for a fight. He is outraged at their lack of attire and gives them time to get dressed before he fights them.
  • Population Control: Applies both to Adai Village's population limit of 50 (enforced by randomly-selected exile to the surface) and the "1,000,000 apes" prophecy.
    • Of course, the latter was supposed to cut the population down to 0, were it not for Team Dai-Gurren being incredibly badass.
  • The Power Of Love: One of the main themes of the show; on a more literal level, without Simon and Nia's love, the last arc would never have happened; humanity and the beastmen would've been annihilated.
  • Power Of Trust: Trope quote maker.
  • Post Dramatic Stress Disorder: Kamina gets lethally hurt, but not without opening a huge can of whoopass on Thymilph's Dai-Ganzan and comandeering it as the Dai-Gurren. Then he dies..
  • Psychoactive Powers: Spiral Power. Fear and despair kill it, hope and optimism increase it, and Hot Blood blasts it sky-high.
  • Pun Based Title: The Japanese titles of the movies use kanji that read Guren and Ragan (i.e. "Gurren" and "Lagann"). The English titles eschew this in favor of the Idiosyncratic Episode Naming, and go with quotes just like the series episode titles.
  • Punch Punch Punch Uh Oh: Sort of, with Lordgenome effortlessly managing to block a Giga Drill Break.
  • Punk Punk: The entire first season and a little on is in the style of Desert Punk to the letter. Plus giant robots.
  • Pure Awesomeness: Simon and Viral, arriving just in time to save the day in the Gurren Lagann, use it to destroy all nearby enemies.
    • At this point, it's almost unnecessary to mention, but Kamina basically embodies this quality.
  • Readings Are Off The Scale: Literally, as in when the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann absorbs the energy from a Beam O War twice the power of the Big Bang, the readings went off the scale and floated in midair.
  • Reconstruction: This show is pretty much the polar opposite of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Red Oni Blue Oni: Reversed: über-Hot Blooded Simon and Kamina wear blue, while the level-headed Yoko is a redhead.
    • Played around with in regards to Jorgun and Balinbow (each twin wears red and blue shades respectively, but have the same basic Hot Blooded personality).
    • And played straight Post-Time Skip Simon and Rossiu.
  • Redshirt Army: The motley crew at the battle against Teppelin, then the post-Time Skip Grapal army.
  • Refuge In Audacity: The show's gung-ho attitude makes it difficult to tell whether it's taking refuge in audacity or just goosing the censors. Remember, this was aired at 9 a.m.
    • If nothing else, Parallel Works #5 puts a whole new spin on the goosing part.
  • Replacement Scrappy Averted hard by Viral. He's essentially a replacement for Kamina, but he's an insane badass in his own right. Rossiu plays it perfectly straight immediately after Kamina's death.
  • Retired Badass: Post-Time Skip Yoko before the Anti-Spirals' attack; Simon in the Distant Finale..
  • Rescued From The Scrappy Heap: Not that the minor characters from Team Gurren were Scrappies, see, it's just that no one really cared about them. But then episode 24 hits, where all of them go out in one heck of a blaze of glory. This troper couldn't believe his own Manly Tears.
  • Reverse Funny Aneurysm - In Episode Seven, Rossiu warns everyone that "Good intentions can sometimes tempt good people into traveling down the wrong path." Post-Time skip, he's doing exactly what he was warning against. He even mentions the effect it had on his village, which is what Simon compared it to when he found out.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Boota!
  • Rocket Punch: Subverted — the one and only example is less "rocket" than it is "pull off my arm and throw it at you," and it is less "punch" than "the most epic Bright Slap in human history."
  • Rousseau Was Right EVERY major antagonist turns out to be trying to do what they thought was best for the world. Including Rossiu.
  • Rule Of Cool: The show pretty much relies on this for everything it does. Even ordinary goggles can randomly transform into sunglasses if the situation is dramatic enough.
    • Kamina lives strictly by the Rule Of Cool to the point of rejecting anything useful, plausible, practical, survivable, etc, if it isn't cool enough.
  • Running Joke - The Old Man
  • Satellite Character: Kinon after the time-skip.
  • Scarf Of Asskicking: Yoko's.
    • Also Viral Post-Timeskip, in his hobo/freedom fighter outfit, although this is possibly a subversion, as his scarf defies all laws of gravity and refuses to blow in the wind.
  • Scavenger World
  • Schoolmarm: Post-Time Skip Yoko.
  • Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: The last episode shows Chouginga/Super-Galaxy Gurren Lagann, which is the size of the moon, being only slightly smaller than Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is larger than galaxies.
    • This may be justified in that the universe they were fighting in was under the control of the opponent. As they continued to fight, between the energy the heroes were releasing and the Big Bad losing focus, the universe may have been falling apart at the seams, causing reality, sizes, and more to bend (And sometimes break completely.)
      • If, by this point in the show, you have enough brain remaining to worry about this... you're doing something wrong. Very wrong.
  • Screaming Warrior: Every time someone is Hot Blooded; read: all the time!.
  • Screw Destiny: The entire point of "We go Beyond The Impossible" basically. Just listen to their Rousing Speeches during the last part of the series.
    • Alternatively, Screw Physics.
    • This could be taken literally: the dominant motifs are drills, spirals and other screw-shaped implements with which they dig right through their confines and break them to pieces.
  • Self Made Man - Kamina!
  • Shallow Love Interest: Kiyoh for Dayakka, Kinon for Rossiu. Still, this is Character Development for them since before they had little characterization.
  • Share The Male Pain: In a particularly memorable scene, the Dai-Gurren takes a shot to the crotch. Every man (save for Leeron) immediately winces.
  • Shoot The Dog: Rossiu is forced to do this a lot, and suffers for it.
  • Shoulders Of Doom: Most of the Gunmen, epitomised by Chouginga/Super-Galaxy Gurren Lagann's.
  • Shout Out: When Yoko becomes a teacher during the Time Skip, she takes the name Yomako, the name and outfit of another Action Girl teacher (if only substitute)
  • Showy Invincible Hero: Basically every main character, but subverted in that most of their death cheating catches up with them at the very end, albeit by choice, in a series of Heroic Sacrifices
  • The Siege: Combined with Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu.
  • Single Minded Twins: Jougan and Barinbou.
  • Sissy Villain: Cytomander provides the page picture.
  • Sixth Ranger: Viral after his Heel Face Turn.
  • Slap On The Wrist Nuke: Big Bang-powered Wave Motion Gun? No problem!.
  • Slipknot Ponytail: Rossiu after Simon jumps through space and time to smack some sense into him.
  • Small Girl Big Gun: Yoko and her sniper rifle.
  • Snot Bubble
  • Sorting Algorithm Of Evil: Viral, then the Four Divine Generals, then Lordgenome, then the Anti-Spiral System, then an entire reality controlled by Anti-Spirals, and finally an enemy mecha that throws galaxies like Frisbees.
  • Space Is An Ocean: There really is an ocean in space, and a watery one at that. It turns out to be a Negative Space Wedgie..
  • Spell My Name With An S: official Japanese Gulaparl vs. Fanon Grapal; which one is used depends on the fansub group, and NEITHER is the official English name, "Grapearl;" Ganmen/Gammen/Gunmen/Gunman, Rossiu/Roshiu, Giga Drill Break/Breaker; Giha/Jiiha; pronouncing Simon SHE-Moan or SEE-Moan (or as the usual Anglo "Simon"); Lord Genome/Lordgenome.
    • To add a theoretical dimension to this, Matt Greenfield of ADV Films once said that they would've dubbed Simon's name as the typical English Sai-mon.
    • "Ritona" was pretty rampant as Yoko's last/clan name, being the direct Romanization. Bandai standardized this to "Littner".
  • Sphere Of Power
  • Split Screen: Taken to splintered screens wrestling with each other's borders during arguments and Ham To Ham Combat.
  • Spoiler Opening: the third intro is notorious for this: Nia having "another self", the Gurren Lagann shown to have more (and larger) forms, the Cathedral Terra (although it's only shown in shadow), among others...
  • Stepping Stones In The Sky: The last chapter features Stepping Galaxies In Outer Space!
  • Storming The Castle
  • Stripperiffic: Yoko, especially her outfit for the final arc. Not to mention Simon's waist cincher and posture collar. And Kamina never wore very much either..
  • Strong Family Resemblance: As the 8th Parallel Works video shows super-huge Lordgenome used to basically be a male version of Nia.
    • The implications this would have for an older Nia are pure Nightmare Fuel with a side of Brain Bleach.
      • Of course, we've already seen an older Nia and she's only a disappointment to Lolicons.
    • In the Distant Finale, Rossiu now has a striking resemblance to his own father.
  • Super Prototype: The Grapearl mecha are mass-produced versions of the Gurren Lagann. Of course, being Real Robots based on a Super Robot, they're inferior. Gimmy Lampshades this in one episode. Also, the Custom Gunmen of Lordgenome's Four Generals.
  • Super Robot
  • Start Of Darkness: Parallel Works #8 for Lordgenome.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: If the short "Viral's Sweet Dream" is anything to go by, even his sworn enemies can't help but have ...thoughts about Kamina.
    Viral: Why was I dreaming of Kamina!? Well, I guess I'm allowed to have sweet dr-NO, NO! NOT SWEET! NOT SWEET!
  • Team Pet: Boota.
    • The eighth Parallel Works video suggests that Guame used to be this to Lordgenome. This is hinted at in the canon, as Gaume justifies taking more liberties against Lordgenome than the others by stating that they were old friends.
  • Technicolor Eyes: Nia.
  • Telescoping Robot: Taken to the extreme: making weapons larger than the rest of the mech. Handwaved: Spiral Power, and deconstructed: overuse will destroy the entire universe.
  • Thats No Moon: the Moon itself is a disguised Humongous Mecha.
  • Theme Music Power Up: Repeatedly. Culminating in the final episode, which contains a theme music-powered beatdown to the entire full length version of the opening theme..
  • Theme Naming: The Beastmen, their leaders, and a good chunk of the core group of Team Gurren.
    • The four generals are named after a sort-of-portmanteau of the DNA base pairs and pagan elemental spirits. Guame = guamine+Gnome, spirit of earth, Adiane = adenine+Undine, spirit of water, Cytomander = cytosine+Salamander, spirit of fire and Thymilph = thymine+Sylph, spirit of air. Their Gunmen are also named after The Four Gods, Suzaku, Seiryuu, Byakkou, and Genbu.
    • The four Beastman flagships are all named "Gun(something about the ship)". There's the ground-based Gundo: "do" means "earth", air-based Gunten: "ten" is "heaven", sea-based Gunkai: "kai" is "ocean", and for the Gunzan: "zan" is a phonetic variant of "san", meaning "mountain."
    • "Simon" contains "shimo", "below"; "Kamina" has "kami", "above"; "Yoko" is "yoko", "beside", and her alter-ego Yomako is from "mayoko", "directly beside"; Nia has "near" (of course); Kittan is from "tanki", "quick-tempered"; Leeron is from "riron", "theory"; Gimmy and Darry are from "migi" and "hidari", "right" and "left"; Kiyoh is from "youki", "cheerful", and her infant daughter Anne is from "annei", "public peace"; Kinon is from "nonki", "easygoing"; Kiyal is from "yaruki", "eager"; Dayakka is from "odayaka", "gentle"; Kidd and Ailak are from "kidoairaku", "human emotions"; Zorthy is from "souzoushii", "noisy, boisterous"; Jorgun and Balinbow are from "ganjou", "solid" and "abarenbou", "rowdy"; Makken is from "kenma", "grinding, polishing, studying"; Leite is from "teire", "maintenance"; Attenborough is from "awatenbou", "flustered". Jeeha Village is from "haji", "end"; Littner is from "tonari", "next door"; Korehana (the school Yomako taught at) is from "hanare kojima", "small island of isolation"; Bachika is from "chikaba", "nearby place"; Adai is from "aida", "distance; Koiiga (no official romanisation, the village Kidd and Ailak are from) is from "gaikoku", "foreign country"; Nakai (from whence Zorthy hails) is from "inaka", "countryside"; Bakusa (Jorgun and Balinbow's home village) is from "sabaku", "desert"; Jouken (Leite and Makken's home village) is from "kenjou", "neighbourhood"; Koachichi (Attenborough's home village) is from "acchikocchi"'', "somewhere". Phew.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Most battles, including the very first, are completed by utterly anhilating the enemy. "GIGA!!! DRILL!!! BRRRRREAKER!!!!!"
  • They Changed It Now It Sucks: Some fans are actually complaining that the remake of the "Simon the Digger" speech in the first movie isn't the same as the TV version, when in reality, it is actually better due to the improved animation and the fact that Simon's seiyuu no longer sounds like he's just reading lines off a script page like in the TV original. And don't get me started with some people's dumbassery with the English dub....
  • They Should Have Sent A Poet: at the end of the first episode. The three main characters launch themselves through the earth's surface and high into the air, getting an overview of everything.
    • This is repeated with Yoko and one of her students post-time skip.
  • This Cannot Be: Actually exclaimed by heroes and villains alike whenever physics go out the window in favor of what's coolest.
  • Of course, This Is A Drill.
  • This Is SPARTA: GIGA!!! DRILL!!! BREAAKEEEERRR!!!!!.
    • Taken to the logical extreme by combining 300 and TTGL, which arguably makes for an even more awesome trailer than the original. Beware of Spoilers and keep a towel ready to wipe off the testosterone from your monitor afterwards.
  • Time Abyss: While receiving reports on the evacuation, Rossiu glances at a display showing a world map. The shapes of the continents are just recognizable enough to deduce that tens of millions of years' worth of continental drift has occurred.
    • Or the Anti-Spirals' attack on Earth (as shown in Parallel Works #8) severely screwed up the landmasses.
  • Title Drop: The biggest mecha in the series is called "Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann"; chapters are also named after a dramatic line said by one of the characters.
    • As the title in America is simply Gurren Lagann, this was lost when the finale was aired. There's also confusion after episodes having to be renamed as the line they're named after are slightly different.
  • Took A Level In Badass: Simon.
  • Transformation Sequence: Invoked by Kamina in the fourth episode. He just would not combine with Simon until he did it.
  • Tron Lines: these appear on many things related to the Anti-Spirals, including most of the Mugann, spoiler: Nia as the Anti-Spiral messenger, and even their home planet.
  • Troperiffic
  • Tsundere: Yoko shows some characteristics of this when it comes to Kamina.
  • Tunnel King: Simon the Digger
  • Vagina Dentata: Adiane's mecha has its mouth in its crotch, with fangs.
  • Visual Innuendo: The Dai-Gurren - for God's sake just look at it!
    • This is actually pointed out at one point. When something smashed through the observation deck, all of the male crew members, minus Leeron, grabbed their crotches and cringed.
      • Shortly thereafter, an equally Freudian weapon nails the Dai-Gurren from below...causing Leeron to hop out of his seat with a startled "iya~n."
    • Antispiral Nia's black Latex Space Suit has red Tron Lines going about it. The concentric circles on her breasts easily remind you of something.
    • Dai-Gurren versus Dai-Gunten. That is all.
  • Villain Opening Scene: In the Movie.
  • Villain Pedigree: From Beastmen to Anti-Spirals.
  • Walking The Earth Simon because of Nia and Viral because of Lordgenome
  • Wave Motion Gun: Powered by a Big Bang.
  • Well Done Son Guy: Kamina; much of his personality is arguably because of his regret that he didn't accompany his father to the surface when he was a child.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist: Lordgenome, post-Time Skip Rossiu and the Anti-Spirals
  • Wham Episode: Kamina.. Kamina dies? No way. That.. that can't be right. He's gonna get right up, wipe himself off, they'll maybe put some bandages on him, he'll be fine, right? .. Right?.
    • After a certain point in Episode 24, you just want to grab Gainax and start shaking them until they stop killing secondary characters.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Awesome: Parallel Works 2 — a pachinko mecha. Seriously.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: as elaborated in Simon's World Of Cardboard Speech, the concept of spirals detailing the struggles of the humans up to that point.
  • What The Hell Hero: The justification for Simon's imprisonment.
  • When A Jerk Loves A Tsundere: Kamina and Yoko, very much so. The bickering, the insults, the beating, the denial, the accidentalpervert that leds to a beating; its all there.
  • When All You Have Is A Drill
Viral: "It's no good! Our drill can't penetrate it!" [paraphrase]
Simon: "So we need a bigger drill!?" [paraphrase]
  • Who Is This Guy Again: The secondary members of Team Dai-Gurren tend to go unnamed, even if they get large amounts of screentime.
    • The entire crew of Dai-Gurren is actually named; as are their Gunmen (though this may just be a trait of the manga). They announce names at a few points in the canon, and resources exist with all the characters labeled. None the less, it's incredibly easy to forget that they are all indeed named, as these characters are rarely identified despite having substantial screen time for minor characters.
    • Happens to Viral at the end of episode 6. Kamina actually asks "Wait... Who is he again?", though Kamina does this for various people and facts. He actually does this a lot more than one would think for a character who only lives for 7 episodes.
  • Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him: Lordgenome asks the Anti-Spiral Leader why he didn't just destroy Team Dai-Gurren with his near-infinite power. The ASK says there was an unusual source of spiral energy that they needed data on, lest it "ruin everything". Turns out it's Boota.
  • A Wizard Did It: Spiral Energy can do pretty much whatever the hell's coolest.
  • The Worf Barrage: Poor Viral seems to fall victim to this a lot, especially any time he draws his swords. Apparently drills > Katanas. Then he gets redeemed.
  • The Worf Effect: If you pay attention, you'll notice that Kamina almost never won a fight without Simon.
  • World Of Badass
  • World Of Ham
  • Wrench Wench: Leyte, a.k.a. "The Professor".
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Kinon in the AU manga.
    • For that matter, note Yoko's's reaction to "they're going to combine".
  • Yonkoma: The Internet has created the "Dai-Gurren-Koma", a collection of photoshops of the "Gaijin 4-Koma" corresponding to each episode that aired, which was updated within days of airing. This YouTube video uses the pictures to punctuate a montage of the entire series. Warning: spoilers.
  • You Killed My Father: In the second episode, Simon realising that tremors caused by the Beastmen-piloted Gunmen led to his parents' deaths motivates him to fight.
  • Younger Than They Look: Yoko starts the series at 14. Feeling uncomfortable?
    • Nope.
    • Well, sort of. Because of living underground, the years were counted far differently than they were when the sun and seasons held so much sway. Because of the difference in amount of days per year, Yoko was 18-19 by our standards.
  • You Should Know This Already: If you value being free of spoilers, do not so much as Google this series. Heck, you shouldn't even have reached this far down the page.
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