YMMV / Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

• Adorkable: Simon is as cute and endearing as Kamina is hammy. He ditches this after the timeskip though, and becomes a lot like Kamina... save for when he cheers over Nia accepting his marriage proposal.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Officially Rossiu is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but the why of some of his more dubious decisions are pretty ambiguous.
    • Rossiu is a General Failure. He imprisons their best fighter and disgards their most powerful super-robot for a bunch of inferior knock-offs in the face of a major threat. He also walks right into the Anti-Spiral trap, which was kinda obvious considering they were coming from space. That other characters have the excuse of being Idiot Heroes, but Rossiu's supposed to be smarter than that. He's a decent administrator and bureaucrat who was out of his depth in a crisis situation. It's possible he did realize this early on but was too stubborn/prideful to back down.
    • Regardless of his intentions, Rossiu is just a dick to Simon. He makes zero attempt to even sound sorry for his actions and treats him like an irresponsible idiot. It's indicated their relationship had already soured before the Anti-Spirals arrived, given Rossiu has zero response to Guinble's rudely dismissing Simon as a fool. Rossiu had lost any faith he'd previously had in Simon and when a major crisis emerged felt he could no longer be tolerated as a leader. Once Simon was arrested he makes zero effort to disguise his hostility towards him. Regardless of his bitter feelings, its clear he viewed condemning him to death as a step to far. His bitter comment about once beliving when he hands off the core drill to Kittan lends itself to this.
    • Rossiu's a Control Freak who had to be in charge, even if it meant alienating his old friends. He convinced himself that Simon was too reckless and irresponsible to handle the situation, and seized control himself. His Slave to PR tendencies such as throwing Simon under the bus for this sake of public opinion can be an extension of this.
    • Did Rossiu actually intend to execute Simon? Or was he just putting him out of the way so Rossiu could do what needed to be done? Was Rossiu ever going to evacuate Simon or was he just leave him to die in prison when the moon hit. It's likely he knew Kitan was going to bust Simon out when he handed over the core drill. Did he not care since the world was ending or did he want Simon to have a chance?
  • Simon's decision To not try and resurrect Nia. While there is a solid A God I Am Not reason for not even attempting it, it's unclear if Simon does have the ability and is choosing not to use it or if he lacks the power and everyone just believes in him so much that they think he can do it. The A God I Am Not sentiment could apply to him lacking the power or him feeling he doesn't have the right to tamper with such forces even if he has the ability to do so.
• Angst? What Angst?: Simon doesn't seem the least bit perturbed about Nia's death literally seconds after their wedding. Granted, he and Nia were expecting it, and it was meant to show how much he had matured, but one would think he'd at least have some kind of emotional response to it. The other attendees also take it amazingly well, considering they weren't expecting it at all.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Dai Gurren rams into Cytomander's Shuzack and sends him crashing into his own battleship, incinerating him in the colossal explosion. In the movie, he can't even get an attack off before Simon mulches him with a Giga Drill Break. It just goes to show how low he really is—he's not even good enough to be killed ceremoniously. As if it weren't hard enough on the guy, he is killed in the film and manga adaptations by the Giga Drill Break before he's even able to finish speaking his own attack's name.
  • Adiane, who is blown apart by Dai-Gurren's ship in the anime and manga versions before Simon can slam a finishing move, and unlike Cytomander, she was a reoccurring threat beforehand.
  • Played abundantly straight with the movie's Dai-Gan Do-Ten-Kai-Zen, a powerful fusion of the Four Generals carrier mecha who previously gave Team Dai-Gurren a run for their money individually before Simon arrives. Despite packing enormous firepower and being touted as a "Perfect Fortress", it fails to even scratch a single member of the team, and is swiftly defeated in one grandiose swoop.
  • Intentional one with the fight against Viral after Lordgenome gave him an immortal body, as the body was not immortal for fighting humans as a Beastman couldn't defeat any human with Spiral Power. Lordgenome and his mech Lazengann is shown to be the real fight in Episode 15 due to possessing Spiral Power and Viral is given a even bigger Curb-Stomp Battle then he usually gets.
• Audience-Alienating Ending: The series remains a beloved anime classic, but the conclusion is actually disliked by a fair amount of the fandom. In it, the Anti-Spiral is defeated and humanity is saved, but Nia dies at her and Simon's wedding, leaving him to become a hobo Walking the Earth all alone. Yoko also loses her other Love Interest Kittan, and while Viral is allowed to live on as a successful military leader, he knows that he'll outlive everyone he cares about (especially with the revelation that what he wants most is to marry and have children, the latter of which is outright impossible). On top of everything, the world-destroying Spiral Nemesis that the Anti-Spirals were trying to stop is still a threat to humanity. The general consensus among detractors is that the ending goes against the spirit of such an optimistic series where Hot-Blooded determination can literally defy the laws of the universe; Simon accepting Nia's death, while intended to showcase his newfound maturity, contradicts his Determinator attitude; and overall that the finale comes off as an Esoteric Happy Ending where the main characters save the world only to lose everything in the process. Likely in response to this, Super Robot Wars X alters the ending so that Nia can live a happy life with Simon.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Fans either hate Rossiu for using Simon as a scapegoat for the Anti-Spiral attacks post-Time Skip, or forgive him and see it as an integral part of his character arc.
  • The Anti-Spiral is one, albeit it's not so much half the fanbase hates it while the other half likes it. The matter is more if its actions can be excused as a Well-Intentioned Extremist, or if it has crossed the line.
  • Nia: Is she a compelling character and good foil to Kamina, or is she an unnecessary Satellite Love Interest to Simon? Additionally, was her death completely contradictory to the idealism of the series, or was it necessary to show how much Simon matured?
  • Some have called Yoko out for being an unnecessary Ms. Fanservice who adds nothing to the series, with one of the biggest complaints sexualizing a 14-year-old (pre-timeskip). Others, however, tend to see her as a competent Action Girl with a good deal of Character Development of her own. Like Kamina, she suffers from Hype Backlash in some communities for being one of the most iconic characters but never being a central focus of the story.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Yoko. While she has a developed personality, backstory, and character arc, she's famous for being a poster girl for Ms. Fanservice, and the series is entirely shameless about exploiting and lampshading it.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The hacking scene from the second movie, an Extreme Graphical Representation of bruteforcing a password on a file using your CGI head.
  • The opening of the series. Epileptic Trees have been trying to explain it from day one. Keep in mind that a lot of time passed in production between episode 1 and the future arc. It was intended to be an accurate glimpse at what would be happening at the end of the series, but the finale was heavily rewritten by the time the series got to it.
  • Boota temporarily turning human near the end. While it's presumably a call-back to the opening, and is supposed to show the "evolutionary" abilities of Spiral Energy, it still comes out of nowhere and, after he turns back into a hamster-thing, is never mentioned again.
• Broken Base:
  • The face-based Gunmen/mecha designs. They're either cool, creepy, full of Narm Charm, or any combination of the above. Same goes for the sleeker and less blatantly facelike Tengen Toppa Solvernia and Yoko W Tank, which are either more aesthetically pleasing than the standard Gunmen, or too much like generic "cute female robots".
  • The entire ending. Nia's death in particular is a very hotly contested issue, for which you have those who think it was a necessary scene to establish how Simon has grown as a character, while others think it was simply shoehorned in for cheap drama and goes against the "never give up" spirit of the series.
• Common Knowledge: No, Gurren Lagann isn't the first over-the-top Hot-Blooded bombastic action Mecha Show unlike what a lot of the American anime fandom thought it to be. That honor goes to Mazinger Z and, for the combining variant, Getter Robo, which Gurren Lagann Homages through and through. Just to see how widespread this misconception was at one point, look at all the people who didn't get◊ the Getter Robo Shout-Out in an episode of Lucky Star.
• Crazy Is Cool: Kamina is basically the poster boy for this trope. He is, when you get down to it, a complete misfit who has no idea how to fit in to society at all, especially the grim one he finds himself born into. And holy hell, is he the coolest and most inspirational guy on the show. And the show then goes on to examine this in a way, since his "crazy coolness" is, essentially, what gets him killed, and much of lead character Simon's arc for the rest of the show is more or less him considering to what degree he should really try to follow in Kamina's footsteps, or if that's even a good idea.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Jorgun and Balinbow have their fans for being hilariously stereotypical Dumb Muscle characters who end up sacrificing themselves to save Gimmy and Darry.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • One popular theory is that the world of Gurren Lagann is what happened to Earth after the end of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Considering it's revealed that the Angels generate their power from helical DNA, and humanity itself is the 18th Angel, this is getting dangerously close to being plausible.
  • The ending of the manga shows a young Beastman girl shyly looking upon Dai-Gurren, heavily resembling Adaine, right down to the clothes. Who she is and why she is there is a total mystery, though some theorize that she is possibly Viral's daughter.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Yes, the universe was saved and the Anti-Spiral didn't kill off humanity, but many of the crew dies (including Kittan, right after he confesses his love for Yoko), Nia dies just after her and Simon's wedding and Simon himself becomes a hobo of sorts, which comes off as a rather insulting fate for someone who saved humanity from extinction. Not to mention, the Spiral Nemesis, the thing the Anti-Spiral were trying to stop from happening is still a potential risk that has a very real chance of transpiring and destroying everything. For such an idealistic series, the ending can be especially jarring and made a lot of the fans angry.
• Evil Is Cool: Lordgenome, the tall, muscular Evil Overlord who pilots a pitch-black Gunmen, and isn't afraid to fight Lagann with his bare hands. It helps that he's a genuinely well-rounded, sympathetic character and pulls off one of the series' best Heroic Sacrifices.
• Fair for Its Day: Leeron is an exaggerated Camp Gay stereotype who creeps out other males when he flirts with them. While a character like him wouldn't see the light of day if created in The New '10s, Leeron has generally avoided accusations of being offensive and dated by being a very competent, helpful and entertaining heroic character whom the other characters consider a good and trusted friend, not to mention that he has a legitimate following in the LGBT community.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Beamspam McMuppet — Attenborough, 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.
    • Likewise the assistant standing next to him is referred to as Bootaide. An uplifted Boota shows up in the later episodes as well.
    • The GARcadia — The Super 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.
    • Yoko's tendency to do this has also earned the name of You Only Kiss Once.
  • Professer Midrift — Otherwise known as Leite. Named as such due to nearly every scene she's featured in displaying her nerdy abs.
  • Startits- Yoko earns this one for the literally star-studded bra she wears as part of her space-faring outfit. Just watch Kittan's first reaction to it and you'll know why.
  • 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.
  • Hamina
  • Lulussiu 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, Rossiu's penchant for Xanatos Gambits and Simon's Uhhh. Spinning.
  • The Anti-Spiral King: To diferentiate this Walking Spoiler from the Anti-Spiral Race.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A lot of viewers reject Nia Teppelin's death and the ending as contradictory to the series themes about not giving in and not accepting how things are without a fight.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Viral/Adiane seems to be popular.
• Friendly Fandoms: The show was absolutely beloved by the mecha fandom as a whole, who saw it as a great romp of an adventure and an even greater homage to classics of yore like Getter Robo.
  • Fandom Rivalry: However, a small vocal segment of the fandom eventually started to think of Gurren Lagann as some sort of untouchable masterpiece while bringing down other Super Robot anime as trashy and stupid. Most of those people seem to be connected to the Neon Genesis Evangelion fandom which is notoriously toxic and has traditionally had bad relationships with fans of other series in the genre.
• Fountain of Memes: Kamina. Many of his lines are often quoted for their combination of extreme WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK HE IS?!
• Gateway Series: The series was one of the more popular anime shown on Sci Fi Channel's Ani-Monday block back in 2008 and, along with Evangelion and Code Geass, it helped introduce many fans to the mecha genre.
• Genius Bonus: The Four Generals' names are based on the names of the four bases in DNA. Thymilph: thymine; Adiane: adenine; Guame: guanine; Cytomander: cytosine. Especially good when you remember that A and T are complementary base pairs. They also take inspiration from how the four classical alchemical are represented by specific creatures: Gnomes (Earth), sylphs (Air), undines (Water) and salamanders (Fire). Guame = guanine + gnome, Thymilph = thymine + sylph, Adiane = adenine + undine, Cytomander = cytosine + salamander. Air and Fire have clearly been swapped here, though.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series never made that big of an impact in Japan, where its father, Neon Genesis Evangelion, holds massive ubiquity. In America, where Evangelion doesn't hold as much influence as in its home country (even if it still remains a well-remembered classic in the anime community), Gurren Lagann has had much more success critically and commercially, and it's more debatable which of the two mecha anime is more popular and well-remembered.
• Growing the Beard: It's more or less unanimously agreed that the series really picks up after Kamina dies, shifting from an episodic and highly comedic format to a more serious and plot-driven one. The series' signature Serial Escalation of Beyond the Impossible badassery is also finally introduced. Ironically, Kamina is regularly seen as the series' most popular character.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Many of the off-hand comments to the effect that Kamina is gonna get himself killed in the early episodes. Viral's warning "your bravado will get you killed" and Kamina's own "I'd be dead if it wasn't for your level head" to Simon in episode 3 come across as Foreshadowing once you get to episode 8.
  • In Episode 7, 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 compares it to when he finds out.
  • One Parallel Works video features Viral with a Beastmen daughter and wife, and he realizes that it was All Just a Dream after seeing Kamina in them, so he decides to find a way to stay awake so he doesn't have to dream anymore. Come episode 26, and it's revealed that all Viral wants is a Beastmen daughter and wife (who are the same ones in the Parallel works), and he comes to realize that it's All Just a Dream when Kamina saves everyone from the Interdimensional Labyrinth, calling the whole act sappy. And unlike last time, it's not Played for Laughs.
  • The finale of Lagann-Hen and TV series becomes this when you remember in episode 4, Kamina said that more than 16 combinations sound "Stupid", when in the movie that's almost exactly what Simon and the Dai-Gurren do near the end of the battle, to turn into a giant energy Kamina. Of course, the reason why Kamina said it was stupid was that more faces doesn't make you powerful, it's the bond between the spirits combining that gives you power. Take a look at Team Dai-Gurren's close friendship.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • Within the fandom, Kamina has loads of fans who refuse to accept that he was killed.
  • Nia Teppelin gets this a lot, with people insisting there's always hope for her return. And Super Robot Wars agreed.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Concerning the voice actors:
  • In Japanese, Viral and Rossiu share their voice actors with two different incarnations of Link.
  • Yoko's English voice actress is Michelle Ruff, the default voice for the female Avatar (Robin by default) in Fire Emblem: Awakening. In Super Smash Bros., Robin is instead voiced by Lauren Landa, known for voicing Kyoko Sakura - who has a similar name to and is a very loose visual expy of Yoko, and is also a direct expy of her spiritual antecedent Asuka.
• Hollywood Pudgy: According to Kamina, Yoko has a fat, unflattering bottom. She's not drawn in a way to reflect this and no one else really comments on it, so it seems completely baseless.
• Ho Yay:
  • Real men fire each other up, unite, and make comments about each other's drills.
    Kamina: (To Viral) You best remember this, fuzzball! Combining is all about one man's fighting spirit slamming into another!!!
  • It ought be noted, it's Simon's Lagann that penetrates Kamina's Gurren...yes.
  • May also double as a sort of Shout-Out to the "Real men Ride each other" meme from Super Robot Wars.
  • The first time Kamina promises to "combine" with Simon, after the inevitable Split Screen of everyone repeating it dramatically, Yoko exclaims in glee, before Leeron tells her to forget about it.
• Hype Backlash: Thanks to a very enthusiastic fanbase, certain watchers don't believe the series warranted the hype it got.
  • For all his popularity, Kamina suffers from this in some circles. Most of this is because he only serves as the Decoy Protagonist and because Simon achieves a lot more throughout the series while becoming manlier than Kamina ever was; some of Kamina's detractors believe that most of his popularity is due to Memetic Mutation, Memetic Badassery, and from those who only watched the early episodes of the series. Despite this, it's rare to find fans who dislike or hate him outright. Instead, most are fed up with his memes.
• It Was His Sled: Chronologically: Kamina dies. Also, there are things called "Anti-Spirals", and the final incarnation of Gurren Lagann is big enough to throw galaxies like shuriken. That second one is the most common, followed by the third. Even on this very wiki.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
  • Rossiu gets this for his slide into a Well-Intentioned Extremist during the Time Skip, especially for condemning Simon to death. It doesn't help that the Anti-Spirals are only represented through Nia and mook units for this section and thus come off as impersonal in their antagonism, compared to how Rossiu's betrayal is very much personal in targeting Simon, making him come off worse to some fans.
  • Rossiu may have lost some fans due to his actions during the Time Skip, but at least it was revealed that despite sending Simon to be executed, he was secretly torn up about it. And at least he did get some comeuppance for his actions with a punch to the face from Simon. However, the entire human population of Kamina city can be just as if not more unlikable than Rossiu; simply just for being entitled and ungrateful to Simon inspite of everything he has done for them. Unlike Rossiu, they never get any sort of punishment.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: You are not very likely to find a serious shipping war in the TTGL fandom simply because everyone (except maybe Leeron) is a LOATS. Yes, even Boota.
• Magnificent Bastard: Lordgenome, the Spiral King and initial Big Bad, is the totalitarian ruler of the Beastman Empire who once challenged the Anti-Spirals as a great leader of mankind with his Spiral Powers. Defeated and faced with his race being wiped out, Lordgenome created the Beastmen to force humanity to live underground, sacrificing their freedom to keep them safe from the aforementioned Anti-Spirals. Successful for many centuries with his armies, Lordgenome's forces prove a near-match for the heroes at every turn before they manage to fight their way through to his fortress. Seemingly killed by Simon, Lordgenome warns him of the risks of Spiral Power to humanity and when resurrected to help stop the Anti-Spirals, gives his life to finally end the alien monsters' threat.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Kamina, or rather his sunglasses. There's even an Emoticon for them! ◥▶◀◤
  • Simon. He invented teleportation specifically to punch someone in the face. Unfortunately, they got rid of the teleportation part in Lagann-hen and all we get is Kinon slapping Rossiu's face. Still awesome but not as awesome as the one from the TV series.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Simon. While early series Simon is trying to find his footing and hence is not as some as Kamina, late in the series, he surpasses his "Aniki" in spades and Kamina himself acknowledges it (if posthumously). Or at least that's what the series wants to say happened. Many viewers feel that Simon never really earns his "badass" status, or that he copies Kamina a bit too much while trying to attain it, so he tends to be viewed in a lesser light than his "bro".
  • Anti-Spiral is without a doubt, one of the most powerful mecha villains ever, if not fictional villains period. But thanks to Super Robot Wars where several mecha characters on the lower scale of power are able to best him, not to mention completely rebuke his words (very harshly, even), has led to Anti-Spiral being a laughingstock in spite of his power.
• Memetic Molester: Leeron is a more humorous example. The Anti-Spiral... isn't.
• Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Kamina is not the protagonist. Simon is, and the series does not lose any of its awesomeness after Kamina dies.
  • Kamina's speech to Simon to "believe in the me that believes in you" is taken as a heartwarming show of faith that bolsters Simon's self confidence. In the show proper, it's more like a stop-gap measure Kamina used to snap Simon out of a panic attack and is shown to not be a good thing. The downside of Simon's sense of self worth coming from another person is shown clearly when Kamina is killed in battle and Simon nearly shuts down as a result. Kamina himself later corrected the statement to "believe in the you that believes in you" and expresses that Simon should be truly confident, not just mooching off Kamina's confidence in him.
  • In general, a lot of Kamina's early ideals and proclamations about how a man lives and what it takes to be a true man are closer to toxic masculinity rather than something to emulate because Kamina himself has next to no idea what he's talking about but wants to believe it's inspirational wisdom that can motivate others and mask his own vulnerabilty, and he is repeatedly made to re-examine his approach (such as thinking a true man needs no help or "a man doesn't think, he acts", both proven wrong by Simon helping Kamina out of the jams he'd gotten into) as he shapes up into a true leader who actually can motivate, inspire, and leave an impression on others. Simon and the others help Kamina improve on a personal level as much as he ends up helping them do so by the time of his death, but many fans have acted as though Kamina was always a perfect paragon of manhood and the ideal patron saint of what Team Gurren comes to believe in and fight for, which is far from the case.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The Anti-Spiral's totally-not-rape of Nia in The Movie.
  • And many other things that the Anti-Spiral does in the series. The only possible excuse is being both a Well-Intentioned Extremist and utterly insane.
• Narm Charm:
  • #ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH!# Because It WORKS DAMMIT!
  • From the dub, episode 11: "ROSSIU! Let's COMBINE!" The following Moment of Awesome is made even better by Yuri Lowenthal's delivery and the new script, though, so it's all good.
  • How does Gurren Lagann make that "sproing" sound effect when it moves appear so awesome?
  • The whole show pretty much runs on it. The story is pretty poorly constructed for the most part, especially its extreme overuse of Deus ex Machina, but the creators' sheer love and enthusiasm for their work drips from every frame and makes it beautiful.
  • "Libera Me" from Hell: You wouldn't think that an opera song with Gratuitous English rapping would end up as one of the series' most iconic and beloved pieces.
• Nausea Fuel: Boota ripping off his tail so that Simon and Kamina can have something to eat in the fourth episode. It's not bloody or anything, but it's still pretty gross to think about.
• Never Live It Down:
  • While Yoko is a very badass, likable and well-rounded female character, she will always be held up as one of the most notorious Ms. Fanservice characters, not to mention the fact that she's technically underage in her most iconic design. Yoko cosplayers in particular are stereotyped as "thots" who cosplay her for fanservice and attention rather than out of genuine admiration of her character.
  • Rossiu scapegoating Simon for the Anti-Spiral attacks and condemning him to death in a Kangaroo Court is not something fans forget, regardless of how bad he felt about it.
• Older Than They Think:
  • With the way it's spoken about online you'd think that it invented mecha.
  • Spiral Energy at first seems like a concept original to this series. In actuality, it was originally a concept from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The "Classified Information" files in the game Neon Genesis Evangelion 2, released in 2003, reveal that the Angels' S2 engines generate an inexhaustible form of energy from, you guessed it, helical energy derived from their DNA-like shape. Beyond even that, the concept of Spiral Energy as depicted in the Gurren Lagann is as old as the super-robot genre itself. The idea that the robot suddenly became stronger because the pilot/controller is all fired up is one of the defining tropes of the genre, after all. Gurren Lagann just gives it a name and a gauge rather than playing it off as just something that happens in these sorts of shows. Also, the plot about the heroes' reality-bending power dooming the universe with eventual overuse was almost directly lifted from a Getter Robo story: Spiral Energy is Getter Rays and the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is the Getter Emperor.
• Refrain from Assuming: No, the song is not called "Row, Row, Fight the Power". There are three main versions of it; one is Rap is a Man's Soul! We Surpass the Impossible, and Kick Reason to the Curb! Open Your Ears Wide and Listen to Team Dai-Gurren's Theme, another is Rap is a Man's Soul! Open Your Ears Wide and Listen to the Great Kamina's Theme, the Man Who Believes in Himself and Surges at Heaven!, and, most famously, "Libera Me" from Hell.
• Shocking Moments: The series has several. One of the most notable examples is Kamina's death.
• Spiritual Licensee: Especially in the second half, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann basically comes off as an adaptation of the later arcs of the Getter Robo saga, with Spiral Energy becoming an even more obvious parallel of Getter Rays and there even being a Getter Emperor equivalent.
• Subbing Versus Dubbing: This series has one of the most popular teen/adult-oriented English anime dubs out there, employing a very talented voice cast, being full of Woolseyisms, and translating many of the signature lines in a highly quotable manner. As such, like with any anime series, there's quite a bit of debate over whether the sub or dub is preferable. However, the debate is generally more friendly than with other series due to the series' nature and format.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Viral's theme song "Nikopol" sounds an awful lot like "Points of Authority" by Linkin Park.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Rossiu deserved his punch to the face in Episode 23. This also counts as a Rescued from the Scrappy Heap moment, as his true colours are revealed in this scene.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The remake of the "Simon the Digger" speech in the first movie isn't the same as the TV version, something that didn't go over well with certain parts of the fandom.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Some fans feel this way about Kamina, feeling that he would've made a more interesting protagonist than Simon. Or at the very least wished he lasted a bit longer into the series, up until the battle with Lordgenome.
  • Kiyal, one of the only female characters that pilots a mecha, gets sidelined and dropped Out of Focus after the Time Skip, with her mecha combined into Kittan's, wasting an opportunity for her to join the rest of Dai-Gurren, as well as plenty of character development and story potential. The manga adaptation, however, gives her more focus, dedicating an entire chapter to establishing her experiences with Team Dai-Gurren and relationship with Kittan. She even gets more development during the Time Skip, right before Kittan goes off to face the Anti-Spirals with Simon.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Rasen Shōnen-tan (or Spiral Boy) manga, set in an alternate universe. Simon meets Nia early, Yoko and Kittan are agents hunting down gunmen users (though Yoko eventually does a Heel–Face Turn), Kamina is the leader of a bunch of rebels with Viral of all people, the whole group are outlaws against a grown Rossiu and Lordgenome. Unfortunately, it was canceled after five chapters.
  • It feels like the writers hastily resolved Simon and Rossiu's reconcilliation to move on with the plot. In spite of all the issues between them, they jump a week and Simon is now Supreme Commander again and working with Rossiu, with no insight into what happened offscreen to make that possible.
  • There was an opportunity for Rossiu to fully redeem himself and prove his skills as an effective and valuable leader of the populace by encouraging them to use their spiral power to help Team Dai-Gurren versus the Anti-Spiral. Instead, we get nothing of the sort, and in the epilogue, praise of Rossiu's leader skills from Leeron that comes off as empty and meaningless due to the lack of development backing it up.
• This Is Your Premise on Drugs: This is what you get when you inject your typical Super Robot anime with Powerthirst.
• Too Cool to Live: Kamina and Kittan.
• Values Dissonance:
  • One official, pre-release Japanese source claimed Yoko was initially a fourteen-year-old. Even putting aside plausibility or canonicity, the idea of even saying that's the age of a character as visibly-sexual as Yoko is a lot more off-putting in a lot of places than inside Japan.
  • While Leeron's overall Camp Gay portrayal is Fair for Its Day, a joke or two does have him invoking very homophobic stereotypes tasteless pranks. While Leeron hitting on Kamina just to make him uncomfortable is one thing, much worse is when he does the same to Gimmy, who was only in his early teens.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Some of the Gunmen can invoke this, since they're modeled after faces. Especially since they "speak" and emote along with their pilots - particularly the titular Gurren Lagann due to its Multiple Head Case, especially when Kamina is piloting Gurren and it's very expressive.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Rossiu, who betrays Simon, designates him as a scapegoat to take the blame for the Mugann attacks, stages a coup to take his place as leader of humanity, and orders him executed. We're later shown he's seriously torn up about what he's doing and is truly only doing what he thinks is best for all of humanity, and when he's proven to have been in the wrong he attempts to kill himself, only for Simon to stop him. However, his smug attitude towards his teammates and friends, his command to have Simon executed, and the fact he is obviously basking in and enjoying the adulation of his advisors and the public when they praise him for saving them, makes it hard to feel that sorry for him when his Break the Haughty kicks in. It doesn’t help that any regrets Rossiu had only come up after the audience has had sit through multiple episodes of him being a jerk.
• Viewer Name Confusion: You may see many references to "Lord Genome" which are technically incorrect. Officially, "Lord" and "Genome" are not his title and name. Rather, it's simply "Lordgenome". Thus, it's 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".
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Violence, cursing and fanservice galore - in a Shōnen Saturday-Morning Cartoon. Western versions of the franchise drop the pretense and market it directly towards teenagers and adults.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Viral can't catch a break, even in his dreams. All the poor guy wants is a family, but being a Beastman he can never reproduce, and after Lordgenome makes him immortal he'll outlive any family he could possibly have.
  • Nia. She has to will herself to stay alive just to make it to her wedding, which happens right after she's kidnapped and tortured.
  • Simon loses his parents, his best friend who was also his surrogate brother and something of a father figure, and a good chunk of his friends from Team Gurren. Along with that, he was betrayed and then character assassinated by his close friend and Well-Intentioned Extremist Rossiu, who also had him condemned to death. And to top it all off, his lover, who rescued him from a deep depression after losing aforementioned surrogate brother, and for who he literally tore apart the universe trying to save, crumbles into dust moments after they're married. Someone give this guy a hug, dammit.
  • Yoko after both the men who loved her die.
  • Kamina, who devotes his life to getting to the surface so he can meet his father and finds his skeleton on his second night there. It gets even worse when you find out that his over-the-top personality is all a fake and he is as scared as the rest of the Brigade, if not more.
• Wangst: Rossiu's guilt and melodramatic sobbing about betraying Simon hardly redeems him to some members of the audience. Especially after putting Simon through hell by manipulating him and making Kinon strap a bomb to herself as insurance he wouldn't step out of line. Which pushes him to the level of suicidal thoughts.
• Woolseyism: In the Japanese version, Kamina's last words roughly translate to "Farewell, comrades." The dub and official subs set it to "Later, buddy..." which is more powerful and fits his character better.
• WTH, Costuming Department?: There are a few fans who react this way after seeing Yoko's ridiculously Stripperific outfit (more so than usual, that is) from the final few episodes.

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