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Characters / Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann - Mecha

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This page is devoted to the various Mecha in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.


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    Mecha In General 

  • Cephalothorax: A defining characteristic of all Gunmen is having their heads in the place of their torsos.
  • Expressive Mask: All Gunmen can copy their pilots' facial expressions, although they don't always do so. They also magnify their voices, allowing them to speak through them.
  • Hot-Blooded: Yes even the Mecha themselves are motivated by fighting spirit.
  • Ridiculously Human Robots: They often have human-like features like faces, mouths and teeth. Some, like Lagann, also have tongues. Zorthy's Gunmen, Sawzorthn has lips.
  • Synchronization: When a pilot has Spiral energy, they can feel what their Gunmen feels, and also, when the Gunmen is damaged, they will feel the pain like it was their own body. In more extreme examples, like limb loss, electrical arcs will cover the pilot's own limb. Too much physical abuse can cause Blood from the Mouth.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: The Gunmen used by the Beastmen are powered with solar energy, so they can't use them at night unless they have an alternative powersource, like thermal energy or Lordgenome's own Spiral energy.

The Titular Mecha

    Lagann 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lagann.gif

A strange, miniature Gunmen that transforms into a drill bit. He was discovered by Simon embedded deep beneath his underground village, along with the Core Drill that serves as his ignition key. Lagann is a very expressive robot that reflects how his pilot feels and is quite adept with generating many more drills. Though Lagann is a small target with not much of a threatening presence, his power and that of his pilot are apparently limitless. Forms the head of Gurren Lagann, adorned by a helmet pinched from Enki's upper head.


  • An Arm and a Leg: In both of the show's most climatic fights, Lagann's limbs suffer massive damage. Lordgenome shattered both his arms, and during his final charge towards the Anti-Spiral King, they destroyed his legs, his left arm and left his right arm hanging from a pair of cables.
  • Combining Mecha: With anything.
  • Empathic Weapon: Reacts to Spiral Power, and particularly Simon's spiral power. Simon also tends to talk to Lagann like it's a person, even yelling at it after it stops working. Eventually proven to have a mind of his own.
  • Fastball Special: Lagann has been both the ball and the pitcher.
  • Happy Place: Simon considers Lagann's cockpit as this. In his own words:
    Simon: It's the only place where I can be me.
  • It Can Think: Lagann may not speak, but if he feels Simon is in danger, he'll reach his location as fast as possible. Near the end of Lagann-Hen, he used his remaining arm to throw Simon at the Anti-Spiral.
  • Mini-Mecha: He's tiny compared to other Gunmen. It's a trait common to other Lagann-types, as they share the same size.
  • No Conservation of Energy: Grows as many drills as Simon needs, out of nowhere. Justified since he's made to channel his pilot's reality-warping Spiral power.
  • Plot-Driven Breakdown: Lagann will refuse to activate if his pilot is unsure of himself. He also will refuse to move if his pilot is stuck in an unhealthy state of mind for too long, as Simon learned the hard way.
  • Spring Coil: Can sprout a set of defensive springs from its legs to leap out of the way from enemy attack or act as shock absorbers in the event of a rough landing.
  • The Assimilator: A rare heroic example; if his drills latch onto another vehicle, he can combine with them, vastly enhancing them and turning them into Gunmen if they aren't one. Lagann can also override the other vehicle's controls, giving Simon full control over the fusion.
  • This Is a Drill: His primary form of weaponry.
  • Unique Protagonist Asset: His ability to combine with and assimilate other machines, as well as the fact he's only receptive to Simon's energy, makes Simon a vital member of Team Dai-Gurren (and their eventual leader) and the main reason they can get so far against their enemies.

    Gurren 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gurren.png

A Gunmen formerly known as Gunzar that belonged to a Beastman commander named Dusack. Kamina hijacked the Gunmen and quickly learned how to pilot it, but then attacked two other enemy Gunmen so brutally, Gunzar's feeble limbs couldn't handle the abuse and all but one disintegrated. Littner Village salvaged new limbs from the Gunmen destroyed in the fight that ensued to take the Gunzar, and it was quickly rebuilt into the Gurren, which served as Kamina's mecha. Forms the body of Lagann, and was later bestowed a set of wings taken from another Gunmen. It got speared through the chest by Tymilph, piercing into the cockpit and inflicting a lethal wound to its pilot. Eventually passed over to Rossiu's ownership when Kamina died, but he was a bit clumsy at controlling it. Yoko had a more promising stint piloting Gurren, though she regretted stepping into the cockpit where her love interest was killed. Eventually, Gurren found a permanent owner in the form of Viral, whose own mecha had finally quit working altogether. After his Heel–Face Turn, he became Simon's trusty co-pilot in the Gurren.


  • Ace Custom: It's essentially just a cool-looking mecha without Lagann. It was rebuilt by Leeron and his team from the hijacked Gunzar and the remains of two other Gunmen and is more powerful than Gunzar (the limbs of which were weak enough to snap from delivering strong blows). It's not as powerful as Viral's Ace Custom Enki, however.
  • Badass Normal: Still powerful without special features.
  • BFS: Originally wielded a pair of these, but after Kamina captured it, he had them melted down into its signature Cool Shades.
  • Combining Mecha: With Lagann.
  • Cool Shades: Modeled after Kamina's own. They also act as a bladed boomerang, that can cut through metal and rock.
  • Grand Theft Prototype: While the majority of the hero-controlled Gunmen in the show are implied to have been acquired in the same fashion, this one stands out on the grounds that this was the one that inspired the rest.
  • Fastball Special: Can do this by throwing Lagann.
  • Humongous Mecha: Although it's still quite small compared to most other mecha in the series on its own.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: It survived the ordeal well enough to still be usable afterwards. Its pilot at the time did not.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Uses its Cool Shades either as a sword or a boomerang.
  • Out of Focus: After Simon's rebirth, the Gurren doesn't get any more solo action scenes, serving as little more than an extension for Lagann. The only time it actually moved without Lagann was during Viral's Fastball Special during the Final Battle. It has the saddest justification: Kamina has died, and the mecha has now lost its original characterization as Kamina's avatar while fighting. Thus, the focus shifts to purely Simon, who carries on for both of them, with Gurren being a part of Lagann just like Kamina remains a part of him.

    Gurren Lagann 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gurren_lagann_mech.png
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gurren_lagann_flight_6940.png

The protagonist's main mecha, and the titular mecha in the dub but only halfway so for the original series name. Formed from Gurren and Lagann, hence the name. Lagann drills through the canopy of Gurren, and Spiral Power causes the mecha to fuse, extending the limbs and joints of the mecha until they appear muscular and humanoid. Capable of sprouting an insane number of drills in various shapes and sizes, depending on the Spiral Power and willpower of the pilots, and generating defensive barriers. Piloted by two people- one in the head, one in the torso.

It soon acquired several new battle armaments- a helmet snatched from Enki, and later, a set of wings that gave it the ability to fly. Gurren Lagann can also pilot Arc-Gurren, using one of its drills as an activation key like the Core Drill Simon keeps with him.


  • The Assimilator: Integrates anything that gets added to his machinery.
  • Centipede's Dilemma: Will not function if his pilot overthinks how to operate it.
  • Combining Mecha: He's one, the combination of Gurren and Lagann. Later on, he does it with one of Dai-Gunten's fighters. Then with Arc-Gurren, Then with Cathedral Terra/Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren. Then with Team Dai-Gurren
  • Cool Helmet: Taken by force from Enki's crushed upper head. The helmet's ring was broken in the process, and remained that way.
  • Cool Shades: Forged out of the swords wielded by Gunzar. They're also really sharp.
  • Expy: Hmmmmmm... A red mecha that's constantly evolving, is sentient to a degree, as well as wielding a drill as one of it's many weapons... Surely Hiroyuki Imaishi wasn't inspired by Getter Robo when he came up with our eponymous mecha...
  • Fashionable Asymmetry: One of the "horns" on Enki's helmet is broken off while stealing it. This becomes an iconic part of the mecha's design and is never fixed, not even when Gurren Lagann repairs itself.
  • Fastball Special: Involves Gurren's pilot ripping the mecha's head off.
  • Finishing Move: GIGA! DRILL! BREAK!
  • Hope Bringer: As Dayakka himself says: "Gurren Lagann has become a symbol of hope for humanity."
  • Humongous Mecha: You standard issue version. The later ones take it Serial Escalation.
  • Incendiary Exponent: In Episode 7, the Man On Fire Blazing Chariot/Gurren Lagann Kick.
  • Loss of Identity: Gurren Lagann grows accustomed to a pilot's personality and begins to respond naturally after they are in sync with it. However, should that pilot enter an unhealthy state of mind for too long, and the mecha is as good as a multi-story doorstop.
  • Made of Iron: In episode 7, when the much larger Dai-Gunzan attempts to rip apart Gurren Lagann, his joints manage to hold off for more than 20 seconds before being saved by Dayakkaiser's cannon. The only damage either of them took that day was a hole in one of Gurren's heels. During the siege of Teppelin, Dai-Gundo tries to crush him with its weight, he gets finger-flicked by the mountain-sized Dekabutsu, stabbed and riddled with holes by Lazengann, both Lagann and his pilot take a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and he's still able to move and escape the crumbling Dai-Gun.
  • Meaningful Name: Translates as "crimson lotus enveloping face", the combination of Gurren and Lagann's two-word translated names. Episode 7 also gives an alternate translation: Blazing Chariot.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: Flight, after grabbing one of Dai-Gunten's flying Gunmen escorts, Simon and Yoko's Spiral energy turn it into a jetpack, using the former Gunmen's levisphere to fly.
  • Multiple Head Case: Gurren and Lagann are normally piloted in tandem and "speak" and emote separately with each pilot, especially when Kamina is the one piloting Gurren. However, Simon is perfectly able to pilot the whole mecha on his own whenever it's necessary.
  • No Conservation of Energy: Drills out of every orifice.
  • No-Sell: Right before he finishes off Byakko and Thymilph, he crushes the Condemn Blaze's beam with his bare hand.
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: The Cool Shades can be used as one. So can his wings.
  • Reality Warper: Crosses with The Determinator. Gurren Lagann created a wormhole through space to reach a very far away Rossiu in seconds flat before he could kill himself.
  • Series Mascot: Serves as an icon for Team Dai-Gurren in-universe as well as the series as a whole, and is the series' namesake in most Western territories.
  • Spiritual Antithesis: To Evangelion Unit-01. Both are the flagship mecha and Series Mascot of their respective franchises, and piloted by their respective main characters (Simon and Shinji), with Simon acting as Shinji's own Spiritual Antithesis. However, Unit-01 is a Humanoid Abomination that looks very monstrous and poses more of a threat to Shinji and the world as it becomes more powerful, while Gurren Lagann is a bona fide Super Robot but looks very humanoid, and its becoming more powerful and gaining new alternate forms reflects Simon's own growth as a person, a hero, a man and a leader. Eventually, Unit-01 becomes a catalyst in the destruction of humanity, while Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann nearly acts as its ultimate savior - but in both cases, the pilots themselves are the ones who deal the "finishing touch".
  • Spiritual Successor: Two-fold.
    • To The GunBuster: Both are humanoid Super Robots formed by combining two other mechas, were piloted by pseudo-siblings, are designed to be the ultimate weapon of humanity, insanely powerful versions of the basic mecha, and pull off the Gainax Pose.
    • Speaking of, Gurren Lagann holds an even greater resemblance to Getter Robo, being powered by human evolution, are crimson mechs, being sentient to a degree and constantly evolving. Reaches the logical conclusion as Gurren Lagann's second to last transformation is heavily reminiscent of the Getter Emperor, the most powerful form of Getter Robo.
  • Tears from a Stone: There is a heavy downpour of rain after Kamina dies. Rain trickles down the face of Gurren Lagann and makes it look like it's crying along with the vast majority of Team Dai-Gurren.
  • This Is a Drill: You couldn't get any more literal: it's a walking drill warrior! However, it can also utilize fire, raw Spiral Power, and boomerangs, in the form of Gurren's sharp shades and later on, their wings.
  • Title Drop: English dub only. The name isn't used in Japanese.
  • Took a Level in Badass: After Viral becomes Gurren's pilot, Gurren Lagann itself becomes much more powerful. While Simon was able to pull off some impressive feats as a solo pilot beforehand, with Viral backing him up they're able to destroy half an army just by screaming.
  • Use Your Head: Headbutts Enki in a stalemate. Gurren Lagann can also detach Lagann for use as an emergency weapon.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Bizarrely, a mecha that may ralph up Spiral Energy by the bushels if its pilot tosses their cookies.

    Arc Gurren-Lagann 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arclagannrender2.png

A combination between Gurren-Lagann and the Arc-Gurren Lordgenome left for humanity to enter space with. Of the Gurren-Lagann forms, this one shows up the least, but it is notable for winning one of the first unambiguous victories against the Anti-Spirals.


  • Combining Mecha: Gurren Lagann and Arc-Gurren, a Cool Starship...and they're not done yet.
  • Cool Shades: Subverted; this is the only form that does not have any cool shades.
  • Finishing Move: "Burst...SPINNING...PUNCH!"
  • Long Neck: He has one, but it's only seen when he's about to Megaton Punch the fused form of the Kyo-Mugann and the Kuu-Mugann.
  • Homeworld Evacuation: Rossiu tried to use the ship to evacuate 320,000 people and survive the Human Extermination System, after which they would return and reclaim what was left of the planet in two years. Unfortunately, due to the Anti-Spirals speeding up the moon's fall, the ship was only at half its maximum capacity. Also, the Anti-Spiral intended to Kill All Humans all along, starting with them.
  • Humongous Mecha: Comparatively tiny compared to some of the future mechs, but towers over other "Space Gunmen." And houses a colony fit for up to 320,000 people!
  • Megaton Punch: Rather than pulling off a Giga Drill Break in its initial battle, it finishes off the fused Muganns with the Space-Time-Shattering Burst-Spinning Punch, by punching them so hard they hit nothing, and break it, ripping out of space-time before they explode. In Lagann-Hen, he also does the Arc Giga Drill Break against Cathedral Lazengann's fist.
  • Reality Warper: Its punches can rip holes through spacetime.
  • The Remnant: Arc-Gurren is the only known ship other than the Cathedral Terra to survive Lordgenome's Face–Heel Turn a millenium ago.
  • Serial Escalation: A bigger version of Gurren Lagann.
  • Victory Through Intimidation: All it does is flare up its Spiral Aura once and a huge number of Mugann are destroyed.

    Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann/Cathedral Lazengann 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/super_galaxy_gurren_lagaan.png

Our friends' hopes and dreams are etched into its body, transforming the infinite darkness into light! Unmatched in Heaven, and Earth; one machine, equal to the gods! Super Galaxy GURREN LAGANN! ... We're gonna show you the power... of the human race.
The combination of Arc Gurren-Lagann with the Cathedral Terra/Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren.

Originally known as the Cathedral Terra/Cathedral Lazengan, Lordgenome's flagship during the first Human-Anti-Spiral war, it was taken over by the Anti-Spirals and turned into the Human Extermination System, in the form of a replica of the moon. Simon and Viral are able to take control of it after Lordgenome hacks the massive Gunmen and retrieves its blueprints, leading them to the Giga Core Drill slot within it. Once Simon takes it over, he renames it as the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren.

  • Anchors Away: Its Super-Dimensional Anchors can pull world-sized objects like the Moon out of Imaginary Space. Dayakka uses a bigger version of them to grab Granzeboma and throw it away with his "I Have the Best Wife in the Universe Swing".
  • Combat Tentacles: Simon tries to immobilize an Ashtanga with a barrage of golden drill tendrils.
  • Combining Mecha: The end result.
  • Cool Shades: Two massive pairs of star-shaped shades. Generated after Cathedral Lazengannnote  is upgraded into Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann.
  • Good Costume Switch: It is one. In its post-betrayal Cathedral Lazengann form, it was black with crimson lights, a masked upper face and the lower face was damaged, with broken eyes and teeth and locked in a silent scream. Parallel Works 8 shows that it had endured an Evil Costume Switch due to Lordgenome's breakdown and Face–Heel Turn. In its original form, it looked almost exactly as it does in the present, but without the Cool Shades.
  • Humongous Mecha: Practically the size of the moon, and can handle the impact of planets.
  • More Dakka: The weapon it created to hit the Ashtanga that phased into Imaginary Space could best be classified as an anti-universe gun, able to hit targets that were hiding in space-time itself. It's as close as anyone's likely to get to enough dakka. It doesn't destroy it, but leaves the Ashtanga filled with holes and forces it back into real space.
  • No-Sell: It shrugs off the impact of planets being thrown at it as well as the Ashtanga's laser beams. Simon claiming it's equal to the gods wasn't just for show. It takes the Anti-Spiral forcing Simon into the Multi-Dimensional Labyrinth to shut it down.
  • Serial Escalation: A much bigger version of Arc Gurren.
  • Shout-Out: The way it's introduced is practically identical to how the GunBuster was first launched: slowly rising up in the Gainax Pose. There are many similarities in their overall shape as well.
  • Showy Invincible Hero: Counts as this in its own right, since its entire introduction is a massive Curb-Stomp Battle against the previously devastating Anti-Spiral defense force. Even Reality Warpers couldn't stand up to its power.
  • Tears from a Stone: In Lagann-hen, when it changes to its mecha form after Kittan's death, blood flows from his eyes, the same as his devastated and really pissed off pilot.
  • That's No Moon: The Cathedral Terra was disguised as the Earth's moon.
    • Made a lot clearer in Lagann-Hen where it takes longer to defeat, letting it transform into its robot mode to punch out the Earth, something nobody was expecting to happen. Meaning if the hijacked Cathedral Terra succeeded in its mission, Earth would not have been uninhabitable for a year, but outright gone, and Rossiu's plan to take everyone into space would've failed, leading to total human extinction.
  • This Is a Drill: Combines the two enormous drills on its shoulders for an epic Giga Drill Break, but also can turn its fingers into drills. It can also grow drills on its drills.
  • Transforming Mecha: Can switch between its Moon, ship and Gunmen forms.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Only seen in Parallel Works 8. Its ship form can fire a massive emerald beam that dwarves the moon-sized flagship itself in sheer width. It single-handedly vaporizes an Ashtanga and blows countless Anti-Spiral ships to bits.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: It was designed to run entirely on a tremendous amount of Spiral Power drawn from its pilot, something only Lordgenome could accomplish before Simon came into the fray. Without that, it's basically powerless and cannot hold its robot form. Worse, trying to will the robot to power up on such a grand scale can cause severe bodily trauma to the pilot.
    • The Anti-Spirals later take full advantage of this weakness. They are able to nullify Spiral Power, which results in this Gunmen being completely shut down for a while. Additionally, in Lagann-Hen, it moves a lot slower when the Anti-Spirals have control over it because they aren't operating it through use of Spiral Power because of their fear of destroying the universe with that kind of energy.
  • The Worf Effect: Promptly skewered by the Granzeboma in both the Final Battle and Lagann-Hen.

    Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tengen_toppa_gurren_lagann.png

Don't underestimate us. We don't care about time, or space or... multi-dimensional whatevers! We don't give a damn about that. Force your way down a path YOU choose to take, and do it all yourself! That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls! Even when trapped by karma's cycle, the dreams we left behind will open the door! Even if the universe stands in our way, our seething blood will determine what will be! We'll break through time and space and defy all who would stop us to grab hold of our path! TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN! JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?

The titular mecha, formed for the final battle and piloted by the entirety of Team Dai-Gurren. Galaxies whimper before it in terms of comparative size.


  • All Your Powers Combined: In addition to being piloted by everyone left standing, it can manifest weapons like Viral's swords and Yoko's rifle to attack with.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Savagely dismantled by the Granzeboma in Lagann-Hen, spurting out red liquid similar to blood.
  • Combining Mecha: Formed from the fusion of Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann, the other Lagann-type mecha that Team Dai-Gurren found in space, and a very healthy dose of Spiral Power.
  • Cool Shades: This time, they aren't used as weapons, though.
  • Dual Wielding: You know what's better than a Giga Drill Break? Two of them.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: Formed just in time for the final confrontation with the Anti-Spiral, and faded away after the confrontation was over.
  • Humongous Mecha: Ten million light years in height.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Literally able to manifest anything its pilots need it to.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Wreathed in green flames of pure Spiral power. It's practically the Dai-Gurren insignia come to life.
  • Mirror Match: To avoid such an obscenely powerful mecha completely destroying any drama when it appeared, it was matched against an equally powerful Evil Knockoff for its first and only fight.
  • Reality Warper: At this point, the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann can do basically anything as long as its pilots feed him willpower. He can, among other things, grab and throw galaxies, replicate his pilots' fighting styles, create scaled-up copies of the weapons his pilots are used to (like Yoko's rifle and Viral and Enki's swords) and fire Probability Altering Missiles from his legs. Word of God effectively describes him as a Gunmen-shaped Super Spiral Universe.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Nobody even bothers trying to make sense of how the human sized protagonists are doing battle with a robot a hundred times the size of the Milky Way. Physics, fortunately, packed its bags and left long ago. Justified, however, since it's happening in a pocket universe where thought is given form. Not to mention Spiral Power breaks the laws of physics anyway.
  • Serial Escalation: Still bigger, and this is where it gets ridiculous.
  • The Worf Effect: Whereas it fights on par with the Granzeboma, in the movie, Lagann-Hen, it's utterly shredded to pieces and decapitated.
  • 13 Is Unlucky: Inverted. It's the Gunman representing Team Dai-Gurren's courage and willpower, and it has thirteen faces all over its body, one for each remaining member of Team Dai-Gurren in the main animenote .
  • This Is a Drill: Quite a few of them. All of them bigger than the average galaxy.
  • Title Drop: Since the series is named after it.

    Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/superttgl.png
We evolve beyond the person we were a minute before! Little by little, we advance a bit further with each turn! That's how a drill works!

The strongest final form of Gurren-Lagann, appearing only in The Movie. He is one of the biggest of all documented fictional mecha- if you could even call him a mecha anymore, since by this iteration, there's nothing mechanical to be found anymore beyond the Troika doll stacking of the escalating Gurren Lagann line inside his head. This one's an etheral manifestion of pure Spiral Energy generated by team Dai-Gurren, so profusely whopping in stature that a universe is reduced to little more than a playground when compared to him. The form he takes is an avatar of the one who started the revolution against the Anti-Spirals so long ago: the late Kamina.


  • Apocalypse How: Class X-4- just clashing drills with his Evil Knockoff destroyed the universe they were fighting in.
  • Back for the Finale: Word of God states that the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is Kamina reborn. As if the guy couldn't get any cooler.
  • Badass Cape: Tossed aside as it uses his Super Tengen Topap Giga Drill Break... if you can pull off a cape made of pure cosmic energy.
  • Bishōnen Line: Compared to the robotic appearance of the other forms, it looks more humanoid.
  • Caped Mecha: One wonders how many galaxies you could fit inside that gargantuan thing!
  • Combining Mecha: On paper it is one, but in practice it's less "combining mecha" and more "Russian nesting mecha".
  • Cool Shades: Has a pair the size of a billion nebulas.
  • Energy Being: A universal-sized humanoid mass of Spiral Energy born of hot-blooded resolve. The Anti-Spirals had every right to fear the existence of Spiral Power if that much can amass in one place.
  • Humongous Mecha: Exaggerated. He is 52.9 billion light-years tall, over three times the size of the observable universe and over half of its full size's estimated diameter, and notably the fourth-largest mech in fictionnote .
  • Meta Mecha: A robot the size of a significant fragment of the universe piloted by one several times the size of a galaxy piloted by one the size of the Moon piloted by one the size of a mountain piloted by one the size of a building piloted by one the size of a VW Bug.
  • Physical God: Not so much a giant robot as it is a god being piloted by one in turn piloted one called equal to the gods! Not to mention it was created by a Big Bang.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: Again, the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann formed the head. And not even all of its head.
  • Serial Escalation: The obscenely big and powerful Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann above? That forms this one's face.
  • This Is a Drill: A drill large enough that a pocket universe can't withstand its power. Heck, it's several times bigger than the entire universe, at somewhere between 1 AND 9 TRILLION light-years tall! note 
  • The Worf Effect: His drill fails to break the Anti-Spiral's own; however, a barrage of drills from the weaker Gurren Lagann mechs manage to break the Anti-Spiral drill.

Mecha: Team Gurren/Dai-Gurren

    King Kittan 
Kittan's personal Gunmen, acting as field deputy and squad commander for Team Dai-Gurren. As shown in Kittan Zero, it's revealed that he gained it from a victorious battle against the Beastmen. King Kittan is a star-shaped mecha with thin, pointed limbs that transform into lances, triangular horns doubling as pincers, two large eyes with red pupils, and a very jagged, toothy mouth affixed into a Joker-esque sneer. It used to be a red-colored, custom-model Gunmen piloted by a pig Beastman, but Kittan got the wild idea to hijack it with his bare hands, beat the pilot senseless, and fight a lion Beastman packing super steroids for control over the mecha- a battle he quickly won. All of this, mind you, happening in the course of a single day. The moment Kittan leapt in the cockpit, his immense fighting spirit generated enough Spiral Power to alter the Gunmen into the form seen in the series, a robotic avatar of Kittan himself.

Much like Lagann and Gurren, King Kittan is Kittan's answer to Kamina's hijacked Gunmen, as a testament to their hot-blooded rivalry. And much the same as that mecha, it, too has its own combining ability, King Kittan Deluxe, though more of an equipping variety: it can pair up with the Kiyalunga, Kiyal's Gunmen, and use it as a lance and smiley-faced shield. Post-timeskip, King Kittan is retired and put into storage, then given to Makken and Leyte to dismantle. Instead, they outfit it with a Spiral cannon on its right arm and keep it in prime condition. Eventually, King Kittan sits within the much larger Space King Kittan to act as a pilot under Kittan's control. Tragically, Kittan decides to sacrifice himself to destroy the Anti Spiral's Death Spiral Machine and loses Space King Kittan in his initial attack. King Kittan lasts just a little longer, with the help of one of Simon's drills. Then, for the first and final time, Kittan taps into his own Spiral Power and uses a super-sized Giga Drill Break with King Kittan on the machine, destroying it in one blow. Sadly, the explosion vaporizes King Kittan, taking Kittan himself along with it.


  • Ace Custom: One-of-a-kind Gunmen designed specifically for full-range combat.
  • Attack Pattern Alpha: Forms King Kittan Deluxe with Kiyalunga and rides the Dayyakaiser into battle.
  • Be the Ball: When it first appeared in the short Kittan Zero, it was in the compressed form of a ball before it fully transformed into its robot form. Kittan is never seen using this feature.
  • Double Weapon: Uses a two-sided lance in tandem with a shield when Kiyalunga forms its battle gear.
  • Dual Wielding: King Kittan's arms can be turned into twin battle lances.
  • Emergency Weapon: Gurren-Lagann's drill, after Space Kittan is crushed heading toward the Death Spiral Machine.
  • Jousting Lance: Uses a short, double-edge lance as King Kittan Deluxe and later, a much larger, standard jousting lance as Space King Kittan.
  • Large Ham: Effectively a megaphone for Kittan's boisterous attitude.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Kiyalunga becomes a bulletproof shield for King Kittan: with a smiley face, no less.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Technically switched sides when Kittan took control over it, complete with metamorphosis from "bad guy mech" into "good guy mech."
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Kittan sends it crashing into the Death Spiral Machine with a Giga Drill. Both he and the Gunmen are turned to ashes in the following massive explosion.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Apparently totes several unseen gun turrets on its body, shown in sphere form in Kittan Zero.
  • Made of Iron: Withstood tremendous amounts of gravity before crashing into the Death Spiral Machine. The actual explosion is what destroyed it.
  • Mecha Expansion Pack: Wields Kiyal's Kiyalunga to form King Kittan Deluxe. Only shown once due to Kiyal's aversion toward battle, but Space King Kittan wields a double-edged lance and shield similar to this combination. The shield has a leering face and is pink like Kiyalunga.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: First gets the power to fly from a thruster reverse-engineered from Dai-Gunten's specs, then Anti-Spiral weaponry on its arm after the time-skip.
  • More Dakka: Used an arsenal of guns in Kittan Zero.
  • More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Actually, it's a tooth-shaped hatch, but it has the shape of a cocky sneer, well-fitting to Kittan's personality.
  • This Is a Drill: First, Leite adapts Space King Kittan to transform into a drill bullet to cleave through the gravity of the Death Spiral Machine. When this mech crumples from the pressure, Kittan ejects his King Kittan, jams a broken drill onto its arm, and rockets toward the Death Spiral Machine to deliver the final blow.
  • The Power of the Sun: Space King Kittan's Space Sunbeam lance attack.
  • Suicide Mission: Its final mission.
  • Super-Strength: Ferociously powerful, and somehow managed to hold a gigantic Giga Drill over its head and then guide it straight into the Death Spiral Machine.
  • Transforming Mecha: Demonstrated the ability to transform from a rocket-propelled sphere into Gunmen form in Kittan Zero. This is never demonstrated again after Kittan takes control of it. The larger Space King Kittan, however, gets modified by Leite to transform into a bullet-shaped drill moments before Kittan undertakes his Suicide Mission.
  • Wrecked Weapon: Inverted: King Kittan uses a broken drill from Gurren Lagann in its final attack, but Kittan's Spiral Power causes the drill to repair itself and firmly attach to his Gunmen's right arm, turning into a Giga Drill far bigger than King Kittan itself.

    Space Gunmen 
During the week before the Final Battle, Simon and Leeron created upgraded and larger variants of the Gunmen to fight against the Anti-Spiral forces in their home territory.
  • Costume Evolution: Space Einzer, Space Kidknuckle and Space Twinboekun look vastly different from their normal-sized counterparts. Space King Kittan is a permanent Deluxe mode version, as Kiyal stayed behind on Earth.
  • Humongous Mecha: They are around the same size as Arc Gurren Lagann, being somewhere between 5 and 8 kilometers tall.
  • Meta Mecha: All Space Gunmen are piloted by their normal-sized counterpart.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: More like Late-Series Upgrade, but they're pretty much this.
  • Impossibly Graceful Giant: Being able to move as fast as their normal versions while being as large as mountains makes them this.
  • The Worf Effect: In the original anime, although they were bigger and stronger than the Gunmen, the Anti-Spirals destroyed five of them, killing their pilots as well. This is averted in Lagann-Hen and other adaptations, where only Space King Kittan is destroyed.
    Grapearls 
Highly advanced mass-produced mecha based in Gurren Lagann's specs, created by humans as successors to the Beastman Empire's Gunmen. Unfortunately, unlike the Gunmen, they do not have the components that allow them to manipulate Spiral energy, a flaw that almost proves fatal when the Anti-Spirals' forces invade Earth.
  • Ace Custom: Most Grapearls are gray, but Gimmy and Darry have special variants that are colored blue and pink, respectively. They later get their own Space Gunmarls too.
  • BFG: All the guns they use count as this due to their size alone. Some, like the beam cannons or the Anti-Mugann beam-spears designed by Leeron, even more so.
  • BFS: Gimmy's Grapearl has a sword known as the Grapearl Blade. It's a broadsword scaled up to the mecha's size.
  • Effective Knockoff: As their design and components are based in Gurren Lagann's capabilities, Grapearls can be very powerful against most Gunmen.
  • Fatal Flaw: Their inability to use Spiral power proves disastrous when the Anti-Spirals attack, as the Mugann are nearly impossible to destroy without it. This flaw is presumably eliminated in the Gunmarls, their successors.
  • Guns Are Worthless: Zig-zagged. Unlike Gurren Lagann, they cannot grow drills from their bodies, so they compensate by using mecha-sized weapons, like rifles, blades and spears. They're usually effective against Beastmen-piloted Gunmen, who cannot use Spiral energy. It's played straight against the Mugann, as they're nearly immune to all forms of conventional weaponry. It's finally averted when Leeron develops upgraded anti-Mugann weapons that resemble Byakko's spear and fire Condemn Blaze-like energy beams which can completely destroy Mugann and nullify ther bomblets by forming a shield around them. Even more so near the end of the series, where they're upgraded as Space Gunmarls, allowing them to fight the Anti-Spirals head-on alongside Team Dai-Guren.
  • Mecha-Mooks: A benevolent version. They're mass produced mecha.
  • Superior Successor: They are supposed to be this to Gunmen, and in most ways, they are. They later get one themselves, in the form of the Space Gunmarls.

Mecha: Beastmen

    Gozu 
A bull-faced Gunmen that was Simon and Kamina's first encounter with the surface's dangers. It fell through Giha's ceiling alongside Yoko, in the middle of their fight. Its relentless assault against the hidden village drove Simon into piloting Lagann for the first time.
  • Achilles' Heel: It has an exposed set of power conduits. Yoko tries to stop it by shooting at them, but Kamina distracts her aim.
  • Animal Motifs: Bulls. It has long horns, a long snout and attacks everything that moves.
  • The Berserker: It swings its club savagely, trying to crush everything that moves on sight.
  • Carry a Big Stick: It carries a large club of solid metal. It demolishes a large chunk of Giha with it, but it's unable to harm Lagann. It's completely destroyed when Lagann drills through it.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Pushed through the hidden village's ceiling, and torn to pieces in the skies far above. Its pilot spent his last moments of life screaming in terror.
  • Mecha-Mooks: Multiple Gozu-type Gunmen are seen throughout the series.
  • More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Its jaw its filled with long and sharp teeth. It tries to crush Lagann with them.
  • Starter Villain: The very first Beastman seen in the series, and the first to die at Simon's drills.

    Enki/Enkidu/Enkidudu 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enki_1.png
Enki
Click here to see Enkidu
Click here to see Enkidudu

Viral's Gunmen throughout the first arc. It has three forms, each with a unique feature that the others lack. It sports a variety of weapons such as missles, gunmen-scaled swords, barriers, axes, and particle beams, and is also skilled at hand-to-hand combat. It debuts with a samurai-style helmet that fires a particle beam, but it gets torn off in its first battle with the newly-formed Gurren-Lagann and taken by Kamina as a trophy. Viral re-stylizes Enki into Enkidu, a slightly modified Enki with an axe-shaped crest on its head, complete with a backup supply of crests, in place of its lost helmet, which Viral consistently demands back. After Enkidu suffers defeat several times on end, Viral discards the axe weapon and fits Enkidu with a second pair of arms and swords, turning it into Enkidudu. However, this mecha fails to hold up for mere seconds against Gurren-Lagann. Eventually, after seven years of abuse since Lordgenome's defeat, it suffers damage beyond repair as Viral tries to fight off the Grapearl squadron that has him pinned down in the desert, and shuts down permanently. Enkidudu is most likely scrapped after his capture.


  • Ace Custom: Easily the strongest non-General Gunmen in the first arc, powerful enough to curbstomp Kamina's own Ace Custom Gurren, but overshadowed by Gurren-Lagann.
  • BFG: Enki's particle beam.
  • BFS: Enki's swords, Enkidu's axe, and Enkidudu's four swords. Sixteen if you count Tengen Toppa Enki Durga.
  • Can't Catch Up: A formidable enemy when its introduced but becomes less so as the episodes pass. Not so with Tengen Toppa Enki Durga in Lagann-Hen: every sense of might it brought on gets pushed back up to its former glory.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Tengen Toppa Enki Durga wields a single kanabō along with it's fifteen swords. He's never actually shown using it though.
  • Cool Helmet: Has one in its debut, but seconds after Simon and Kamina for Gurren Lagann, Kamina tears the helmet clean off Enki and places atop Lagann's head.
  • Dual Wielding: Swords. Later, four of them, and in the movie, a breathtaking fifteen!note 
  • Everything's Better with Samurai: Fitting Viral's Monster Knight nature, Enki has a samurai-ish look.
  • Fish Eyes: When Simon defeats Viral for the last time, Gurren Lagann punches Enkidudu so hard in the face that the latter's eyes are left de-orbited and aiming in opposite directions. Viral managed to fix the damage during the Time Skip.
  • Humongous Mecha: He starts as tall as Gurren Lagann, at around 15 meters, but the loss of his helmet leaves him a couple of meters shorter.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: Enkidu is somehow able to fit at least a dozen axe-like crests in some hidden compartment in its head, with new ones popping out at will.
  • Last Stand: After the Time Skip, Viral sacrifices Enkidudu to defend a hidden village that Rossiu was trying to forcefully resettle in the surface. He actually was able to put up a fight against Gimmy's squad, but was still defeated in the end. Viral apologized to it as he bails, clearly upset at the loss of his stalwart mech.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Enkidudu deploys a round shield from one of its left wrists during its last stand. It is sturdy enough to block a Grapearl's guns.
  • Macross Missile Massacre: Enki packs a small arsenal of rockets hidden within his face, and unleashes all of them at Gurren Lagann as a desperation move. It does pretty much nothing, but it creates a big enough distraction for Viral to escape with his life.
  • Meaningful Name: Each time Viral gets a new mech (They are all just slightly stronger versions of the original), another du is added at the end.
    • Enkidu was a 1/3 man, 2/3 beast from The Epic of Gilgamesh, who was created by the god Enki to defeat Gilgamesh but ending up becoming his best friend and fighting alongside him.
    • The Enkidurga in the movie gets the "durga" part of its name from the eponymous Hindu goddess, who had (depending on her form) between ten to a thousand arms.
  • Meteor Move: Attempts one on Gurren Lagann in episode 7 with its swords after hurling it into the air, but fails, and has its swords broken.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Enkidudu, which can wield four swords at once. Even more so for Tengen Toppa Enki Durga- it has sixteen arms!
  • Punny Name: Enkidu. It's the name of a character from The Epic Of Gilgamesh (see above) but "du" also means "two" (as in "duality", "duo"). Basically the name also means "Enki Two".
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Subverted. Throwing the axe doesn't work at all.
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: Enki is the first truly powerful mecha the heroes face, and the one that drives them to combine into Gurren Lagann.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Enki's giant laser.
  • Weaponized Headgear: Enki's head-like helmet, which doubles as a BFG. Gurren Lagann takes it and puts it on Lagann after smashing it off, and wears it the rest of the series. The Enkidu has one in the form of a strange curved blade atop its head, which can be removed and used as a massive axe/hooksword. Viral later removes it, leaving Enkidudu with a bare head. Tengen Toppa Enki Durga has a more stylized version of Enki's helmet, and an extra, more human-like head to wear it.
  • The Worf Effect: After Simon snaps out of his Heroic Blue Screen of Death, The Enkidu becomes less and less able to contend with Gurren Lagann. Eventually, When the Enkidudu challenges Gurren Lagann in episode 15, it is Curb Stomped with one hand in under 20 seconds. Finally, in episode 17, the Grapearls finish it off permanently and it gets scrapped.

    Byakou/Byakko 
Thymilph the Crasher's personal Gunmen, used when the Dai-Gunzan cannot do the job for whatever reason. Looks like a skull with spearheads on its limbs. Mortally wounds Kamina, but is in turn destroyed by his Giga Drill Break, along with its pilot.
  • Hero Killer: Kills Kamina.
  • Kill It with Fire: Not exactly fire, but some kind of burning plasma, and the attack is called "Condemn Blaze" (Thymilph being the General of Fire and all).
  • Light Is Not Good: A white and blue color scheme, and piloted by the most misanthropic of the Generals.
  • Nothing but Skulls: The body is shaped like a skull.
  • Transforming Mecha: Presumably. All of the other Generals' custom Gunmen can transform, but the Byakou was likely destroyed before Thymilph could take advantage of its alternate mode.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Its spear's Condemn Blaze. Later, Leeron reverse engineers it and mass produces it for the fight with the Anti-Spirals.

    Sayrune/Seiryu 
Adiane the Elegant's personal Gunmen, designed for both flight and underwater combat. Has three modes: Winged Humanoid, scorpion, and stingray. Was blown to pieces, along with its pilot, during her unsuccessful attack on the seafaring Dai-Gurren.
  • Combat Stilettos: Its feet have pointy and sharp heels, and kicks with them are painful, given how much Simon screamed when Adiane kicked Lagann's face.
  • Double Entendre: The humanoid version of the mecha looks both like a face and like a female body (with the eyes serving as breasts and the mouth serving as a Vagina Dentata).
  • Energy Weapon: Uses energy whips.
  • Making a Splash: While the Sayrune does not explicitly manipulate water, it is a lot more efficient in it, being fast enough to effortlessly outmanoeuver Gurren-Lagann.
    Adiane: Nothing is faster than me underwater!
  • Razor Wings: Used as blades in the Bloody Clasper attack.
  • Scary Scorpions: The Sayrune's alternate mode is an utterly massive scorpion with a decently strong stinger.
  • Sinister Stingrays: Its aquatic form is a stingray that looks quite intimidating when zooming through the dark depths of the ocean to attack its foes.
  • Spin Attack: Using its wings. BLOODY CLASPER!
  • Transforming Mecha: Unlike the other General-custom Gunmen, Syrune has three forms due to being designed for combat both on land and in water, having a Winged Humanoid form for melee combat, scorpion form for holding down enemies to stab, and stingray form for fast movement through water.
  • Winged Humanoid: With somewhat butterfly-like wings.

    Gember/Genbu 
Guame the Immovable's personal Gunmen, covered in heavy armor. Has two modes: big hulking beast and giant wood louse. Was destroyed by a Giga Drill Break as it attempted to execute Team Dai-Gurren, but its pilot ejected on time.

    Shuzack/Suzaku 
Cytomander the Swift's personal Gunmen, designed for aerial combat. Has two modes: Winged Humanoid and winged skull with scythe arms. Was destroyed, along with its pilot, when it collided with the bow of the flying Dai-Gurren and rammed into Cytomander's own flying fortress.
  • Chainsaw Good: There's a circular saw secreted in Shuzack's torso. The movie calls this attack "Majestic Big Chop". He tries to kill Nia with it, but Lagann embeds himself on it and stops it from doing so.
  • Clipped-Wing Angel: The second form of the Shuzack is destroyed immediately upon transformation, leaving its full capacities unknown.
  • Feathered Fiend: It may not have feathers, but it greatly resembles a bird. Its upper face is also birdlike, an oddity for the more humanoid Gunmen.
  • Spikes of Doom: according to the movie, one of Shuzack's attacks involves a lot of spikes coming out of every seam of its body, and is called "Demolition Dr-" Cytomander was then destroyed with a Giga Drill Break mid-sentence and mid-attack.
  • Winged Humanoid: One of its modes looks like this.

    Dai-Gunzan/Dai-Gurren 
Thymilph's gigantic flagship. Essentialy a massive Gunmen with a battleship for a lower torso, loaded with extreme degrees of firepower, immensely strong arms that can peel apart victimized Gunmen- or chuck them miles away, and a detachable knife anchor prow. Kamina was so stunned at Dai-Gunzan's might he decided to concoct a hare-brained plan to hijack it using Simon's Lagann- which succeeds as planned. Unfortunately, he didn't think of the possibility that Thymiph might have a backup Gunmen on call- which becomes the worst mistake of his life. Thymilph angrily responds to the hijacking of his ship by spearing Kamina, causing fatal injuries. Kamina manages to hang on long enough to finish Thymilph, but then dies from his wounds, never getting to pilot the ship. Afterward, the flagship is renamed the Dai-Gurren, repainted, and given a new tower to replace the one destroyed by Simon's Lagann in the inital takeover. Dai-Gunzan goes through two upgrades- sea and flight adaptions- before it finally gets outmatched by Dekabutsu and pushed to its limits. The body of the Gunmen is forced to eject from the ship components and gets damaged to the point of no return. Post time-skip, it's scrapped and cannibalized to help build Kamina City, but in the second movie, it gets a Tenga Toppa Gunmen paying tribute to it.
  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: At least one brief instance pops up in Episode 8 when its arms are slyly replaced with 3D models.
  • Ace Custom: A glorified version of a mass-produced warship in the Beastman army, as evidence by Parallel Works 8 and the arrival of a Red Shirt Army in episode 14.
  • BFS: The knife anchor prow- effectively a mountain-sized battering ram. Even more devastating when ejected and thrust into the enemy.
  • BFG: Loaded with loads of cannons!!
  • Combining Mecha: Implied to do so with the other generals' ships.
  • Emerging from the Shadows: In Episode 7, as daylight begins to put it into full view.
  • Fastball Special: You know Gurren's varation of it with Lagann? This one flings Gurren Lagann and other mecha far away into the skyline to fight enemies.
  • Flunky Boss: Comes packed with smaller Gunmen and throws them at enemies.
  • Gag Penis: The battleship body just had to be where its crotch is. Leeron even seems turned on by it.
    • Made even worse by the fact that when it ejects from its ship components, there's a big, naked pelvis where they used to be. So in a sense... it's been emasculated!
  • Groin Attack: Episode 12 has a scene where a hole punctures the underbelly of the ship right where the you-know-whats would be and creates an increase in pressure. Every male member of the crew aside from Leeron grabs their groin in agony. Sight gag, indeed.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Hijacked by Team Dai-Gurren using the power of Lagann - but Kamina never gets to command it.
  • Humongous Mecha: Daunting in size compared to all other previous Gunmen seen up until its debut. And then we get to see it's not the biggest dog in the pound...
  • Incendiary Exponent: Firey cannons of death all around!
  • Informed Ability: Apparently could combine with the other generals' warships in the movie, but because it was stolen, it was replaced with Viral's Dai-Gunzan Du.
    • Also, one of the Parallel Works showed a potential fusion of it with Gurren Lagann (basically a bigger version of said mecha toting ridiculously massive battleship cannons). This never happened in-universe because the giant Gunmen was destroyed before such an idea to combine could be conceived.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: First aquatic capabilities (a big set of oars, really), then a thruster device stolen from Dai-Gunten that allows it to fly.
  • More Dakka: Overflowing with artillery cannons and loads of other weaponry all over.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: In the movie, Viral's Dai-Gunzan Du.
  • Super-Toughness: A frontrunner of it, including the final charge it takes into Lorgenome's Dekabutsu.
  • This Is a Drill: Subverted: It's one of the few especially strong Gunmen that doesn't use a drill. However, it's mass-produced counterparts are equipped with drills in Parallel Works 8.
  • The Worf Effect: In full swing against its equally-powerful sister battleships, and then outright blocked by the far larger Dekabutsu.
  • Tragic Keepsake: While not necessarily one at first, its the ensuing battle that makes it so. Capturing it costs Kamina his life, but the team remembers him with the ship under their control at last.
  • Wrecked Weapon: To the worst degree in the climactic battle with Lordgenome. Her reactor suffers a meltdown, forcing the crew to separate the mecha from the ship section, which explodes and obliterates Dekabutsu's hammer. Dai-Gurren doesn't move again after that, and it either scrapped (Anime) or preserved and left in her final rest (Lagann-hen).

    Dai-Gunkai 
Adiane the Elegant's flagship, designed for seafaring combat. Resembles a fusion between a submarine and a centipede. Destroyed by Gurren-Lagann, drilled straight through from the inside.
  • Beware My Stinger Tail: It has a stinger tail, though it's never actually used.
  • Big Creepy-Crawlies: HUGE.
  • Kill It Through Its Stomach: Gurren Lagann destroys it by drilling through its mouth and cleaving it in two. Only Viral survives.
  • Making a Splash: Dai-Gunkai can only travel by water (except in the movie), but it can generate its own water in order to travel by land. Though, the Parallel Works Kittan Zero seems to imply that's actually an ability of Adiane herself.
  • Power Pincers: Armed with massive pincers that can cut off mechanical limbs or drag targets underwater, as well as two scythe-like pincers around its mouth.

    Dai-Gunten 
Cytomander the Swift's flagship, a flying aircraft carrier packing a lot of weaponry and Gunmen. Destroyed by getting rammed by the Dai-Gurren.

    Dai-Gundo 
Guame the Immovable's flagship, a terrestrial walking base with impenetrable armor. Destroyed by Gurren-Lagann from underneath, along with Guame himself - the only General not to have been killed in his Custom Gunmen.

    Dekabutsu 
Lordgenome's giant Space Gunmen, of approximately equivalent size to the Arc-Gurren. Forms the major part of the capital city of Teppelin.
  • Evil Tower of Ominousness: Serves as one up until Teppelin collapses and reveals its true form. This is completely inverted in the Time Skip, as its torso was repurposed into Kamina City's Parliament, and given a white repaint with blue lights.
  • Finger Poke of Doom: After Gurren Lagann ineffectually tries to drill through its fingers, Lordgenome flicks him away from him.
    Lordgenome: Is this all you have? Pathetic.
  • Good Costume Switch: What remained of its torso was rebuilt into the Parliament of Kamina City, and painted white with blue lights.
  • Humongous Mecha: The first major example: This one magnificently dwarfs even the biggest Gunmen around at the time!
  • Impossibly Graceful Giant: The first thing it does after Gurren Lagann charges at it is to quickly move its arm through the clouds at a speed so fast Simon was shocked just by seeing it.
  • Meta Mecha: With Lazengann inside.
  • Monumental Damage: The Anti-Spiral assault that devastates Kamina City blasts off the right side of Parliament!Dekabutsu's torso, leaving a large hole where it used to be.
  • That's No Moon: See the capital city of Teppelin? A good portion of it is actually a giant mecha.

    Lazengann 
Lordgenome's personal mecha, Lazengann is the equivalent of Gurren Lagann- a small Gunmen united with a larger body, similar drill-based powers, and equally destructive. It was able to overpower and defeat Gurren Lagann with only a shredded hand to show for it. It is defeated and most likely destroyed by the Lagann by losing a gigantic drill clash. It is later revived as a piece of the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and used by Lordgenome in the final battle with the Anti Spirals. It fights using hand to hand combat, as well as an truckload of drill tendrils from dozens of ports that cover its body, and is capable of flight with no added jetpack.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Loses both of its arms in episode 15. The forearm of one is destroyed by a surprise drill attack by Gurren Lagann after it gets up with Heroic Resolve. The other one is destroyed when Lordgenome detonates it to prevent Lagann from hijacking it after it cripples Gurren with tendrils.
  • Badass Arm-Fold: Lordgenome is fond of this pose, so he has Lazengann do it whenever it's not fighting.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Despite being more powerful than Gurren Lagann, it is of a much simpler design. It mainly uses its obscene strength and speed to fight, with its Combat Tentacles used as long range weapon, or to shred opponents with a surprise attack.
  • Combat Tentacles: More like Combat Drill Tendrils, but they still count. They are extremely sharp, and capable of cutting both Anti-Spiral proxies and other Gurren Lagann-types into tiny pieces. Lordgenome can also use them to form larger constructs, like energy-absorbing arrays and even bigger drills.
  • Combining Mecha: It is a Gurren Lagann-type, meaning it was formed from the same kind of combination that created Gurren Lagann. Parallel Works 8 reveals that it can combine with Dekabutsu and Cathedral Terra, much like Gurren-Lagann with Arc Gurren and Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Gurren Lagann. It's also noticeable in their respective Laganns, as Lordgenome's has red eyebags instead of the blue Lagann has.
  • Expressive Mask: Probably the only Gunman to avert this. He does copy Lordgenome's Badass Armfold.
  • Human Resources: Just before the battle, Lordgenome's consorts are turned into drills and absorbed into the Lazengann (presumably to make up for the lack of a second pilot).
  • Humongous Mecha
  • Limit Break: Two. First is a Giga Drill Break-like move used against Lagann in episode 15, which involves wrapping every single one of its tendrils around each other, forming a massive drill that covers his body. The drill is at least a kilometer long, compared to Dekabutsu's size. Second is the Lazengann Overload, in which it unleashes every last one of its tendrils against A FUCKING BIG BANG, and holds it off for a while until it completely disintegrates... and then Lordgenome is able to hijack the Big Bang energy and give it to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • More Teeth than the Osmond Family: In his other face. It may have inspired Senketsu's appearance, with the red eyebags and golden eyes.
  • No-Sell: His lower face eats a Giga Drill Break, and when Lagann tries to hijack him he just blows up his arm.
  • Prehensile Tail: Unlike Gurren Lagann, Lazengann has a sharp and pointy tail that Lordgenome uses to knock Rossiu and Gurren into the ground.
  • Punny Name: Lazengann means "spiral face" (an intentional parallel to Gurren Lagann, whose name means "crimson face"). However, it sounds near-identical to Rasengan (yeah, that one), the word for "whirlwind" or "swirl".
  • This Is a Drill: The only example in the show - except for Granzeboma at the end of the Final Battle - to use the "realistic drill bit" kind, although it more often uses the "prehensile tentacles" kind.
  • Weak, but Skilled: At least compared to the Gurren Lagann. He's much more skilled in hand-to-hand combat, easily beating down his counterpart with minimal damage and countering a Giga Drill Break with some clever misdirection, but its raw Spiral Power isn't as strong, relying on Human Resources to power itself and ultimately losing a clash of energy against Simon and Lagann. Parallel Works 8 shows that Simon would've never been a match against Lordgenome and Lazengann in their prime, as he destroys several other Gurren Lagann-types and their pilots in a few seconds of carnage without breaking a sweat.

Mecha: Anti-Spiral

    Messengers (Unmarked Spoilers) 
The smallest and perhaps the most insidious Anti-Spiral drones. Made by mixing Anti-Spiral DNA and Mugann components with that of the species they're spying on, the Messengers are deadly infiltrators and information gatherers.

After Lordgenome betrayed humanity in an attempt to save them, all the children he had as the Spiral King were Messengers, leading him to dispose of them the moment they developed enough self-awareness. Nia, like all of her late siblings, is also a Messenger, as she discovers to her utter consternation when she's activated.


  • And I Must Scream: The Messenger's original personality is suppressed by their activation, but it's still there, suffering while their body hurts and kills their people, their loved ones and their family.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Once Messengers are activated, an alternate personality takes over their bodies, focused on nothing but in carrying out their mission to inflict absolute despair on the Anti-Spirals' enemies. If that means killing the people their normal selves love, they will do so without hesitation, like when Nia tried to kill Simon in Episode 21.
  • Form-Fitting Wardrobe: Nia manifests a dark blue Spy Catsuit covered in red Tron Lines when she's activated. Also counts as an Evil Costume Switch.
  • Hand Blast: Messengers can fire Mugann-like energy beams from their hands.
  • Implacable Man: When active, Messengers are single-handedly focused on the Anti-Spirals' obsession with unleashing absolute despair upon their foes. It doesn't matter who they were before they were activated, they will carry out their masters' orders to the letter.
  • Made of Explodium: According to Lordgenome, Messengers are made of the same stuff as the Mugann, which means that if they're killed violently, their bodies will break up into explosive prisms.
  • Manchurian Agent: They are sleeper agents, unaware of their true nature until they're activated. Messengers can be anyone: children, parents, lovers, et cetera...
    Anti-Spiral: Your actions are baffling, Irregular. Why do you resist us so? You were a virtual lifeform that was spliced into the genome of the Spiral race. When the remnants of that Spiral race rose up in rebellion against us, you would be awakened and become our Messenger. That is your reason for being. The fact that you were born to and loved a Spiral Warrior is nothing more than a coincidence. There is nothing special or unique about you.
  • Mouth of Sauron; It's in the name. When active, they act as such to the Anti-Spirals, acting as the enforcers of their Extermination Systems and commanding the Mugann on the planets they try to destroy.
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: A strong-willed Messenger is able to overcome the Anti-Spirals' control if they have a loved one that can help them. These are known by the Anti-Spirals as "Irregulars".
  • Synchronization: All Messengers depend on the Anti-Spirals' continued survival to keep existing. If they're wiped out, the Messengers will dissolve into nothing and die. Nia was able to survive another week thanks to her Heroic Willpower.
  • They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Intentionally done in their role as sleeper agents. Even the Messengers themselves are unaware of their true nature until they're activated.
  • Tron Lines: As seen with Nia, when a Messenger is activated, their body is entirely covered in glowing red lines, the same as a Mugann. She also has them in her Form-Fitting Wardrobe.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once their purpose is fulfilled, they're taken back to the Anti-Spiral homeworld, where their memories are extracted and analyzed. They're also deleted in the process.

    Mugann 

The main combat units used by the Anti-Spirals, these savage mechanical drones are summoned by an active Messenger to begin a species' extermination, and failling that, to ensure the planet's Extermination System's successful activation.


  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The Mugann are three-dimensional models in a two-dimensional animated show. This creates an intentional Uncanny Valley effect.
  • Attack Drone: All Anti-Spiral proxies are this.
  • Combining Mecha: In a last-ditch effort to destroy humanity, both the Kyo-Mugann and the Kū-Mugann combined into an even bigger dish-shaped Mugann, with dark magenta Tron Lines. They utterly failed in their task and were punched so hard they made a hole through reality that led to another region of the universe, where they promptly exploded.
  • Elite Mooks: The Jokyū/Advanced-Class Mugann are bigger and stronger than their common brethren.
  • Flash Step: They're able to instantly turn to any direction, presumably by shifting into Imaginary Space.
  • King Mook: The blue Kyo-Mugann and the green Kū-Mugann are the largest and strongest of the Mugann that attacked Earth. They manage to engulf Gurren Lagann and the Arc-Gurren within their cage-like bodies, before firing a constant Beam Spam at them.
  • Made of Explodium: When a Mugann takes lethal damage, they dissolve into multicolored crystalline prisms. When those prisms touch something, they explode, devastating everytying in their surroundings.
  • Mecha-Mooks: The smallest Anti-Spiral proxies after the Messengers and also the most common.
  • Nigh-Invulnerable: They have powerful shields that deflect most forms of kinetic weaponry, including drills. The only things that can certainly harm them are powerful energy weapons and Spiral Energy-powered devices, like Gunmen. Kittan was able to harm one with a shotgun. Absorbing and turning their own power against them also works, as shown when Simon destroyed one for the first time.
  • Tron Lines: They are covered in them. In the case of the normal Mugann, their whole body glows red.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: Their main form of attack is firing a crimson beam from their central protusion.

    Faced Mecha 
The Mugann are not the only machines the Anti-Spirals use. When the Mugann don't cut it, they use massive, kilometer-sized drones that bear humanoid faces in their structures. These are far more dangerous and lethal than the Mugann.
  • Close-Range Combatant: The Padas, Hastagrys and manta-shaped robots do not use any form of weapon except for their own bodies. They're surprisingly effective and fast.
  • Death from Above: Parallel Works 8 shows they can bomb planets from afar. They seem to use a rare version that resembles a shark's mandibles with an engine strapped behind it.
  • Eldritch Starship: They have various, unusual shapes, like hands, feet and something that resembles Mount Rushmore. Parallel Works 8 shows more with shapes that resemble the Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Elite Mooks: They are the vanguard of the Anti-Spiral fleet.
  • Evil Laugh: When they stop holding back, they laugh with a really deep voice.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: Or faces, for that matter.
  • Giant Foot of Stomping: The Pada are foot-shaped.
  • Giant Hands of Doom: The Hastagry are hand-shaped.
  • Hero Killer: In the anime, they kill Zorthy, Kidd and Iraak. Averted in Lagann-hen and videogame adaptations.
  • Humongous Mecha: They are the size of mountains, and some are even bigger than the Space Gunmen.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: When first encountered, they seem really weak as Kittan destroys them in droves. Once Zorthy separates from the rest of Team Dai-Gurren, they start laughing and a single Hastagry quickly crushes him.
  • Impossibly Graceful Giant: They're fast enough to dodge energy beams and can Flash Step to quickly move for the kill.

    Ashtanga 
The largest of all Anti-Spiral proxies, these monstrous ships are covered in faces and are the deadliest of their kin.
  • Breath Weapon: They can fire red energy blasts from their mouths.
  • Eldritch Starship: They're planet-sized spaceships covered in faces, they're able to throw planets and they can warp probability itself to their favor.
  • King Mook: The largest and strongest Anti-Spiral weapon outside the Multi-Dimensional Labyrinth and Granzeboma.
  • Long-Range Fighter: Unlike the rest of their kin, Ashtangas do not fight up-close and personal, and instead avoid a melee fight by shooting their targets from afar. Once Super-Galaxy Gurren Lagann cuts the distance, they go down very quickly.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: They can grow several arms from their mouths.
  • Nightmare Face: When angered, they groan in rage and open their mouths and the eyes of their other faces.
  • Planet Spaceship: Even more so than Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, as they're bigger than the Earth. Compared to their size, Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann is smaller than the main face.
  • Reality Warper: They can fire Probability-Altering Missiles, which allows them to actually harm Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann. They can also phase into Imaginary Space, where they're immune to almost any form of damage.
  • Winds of Destiny, Change!: Their Probability-Altering Missiles allow them to fight Simon in a more-or-less equal footing.

    Granzeboma 

The Anti-Spiral's Evil Knockoff of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, this is the final and most powerful weapon Team Dai-Gurren faces. It resembles a ghastly cosmic grim reaper. Granzeboma utilizes galaxies as casual weaponry, and even triggers a big bang as its finishing attack. It ultimately gets destroyed when Simon strikes down the Anti-Spiral.


  • Apocalypse How: All of its attacks. It hijacks the galaxies themselves as weapons and can even mash them together to make a new universe with a big bang.
  • Beam Spam: One of its attacks is a hail of red lasers.
  • Combat Tentacles: Of two kinds. There are the two permanent tentacle-arms, and the drill-tentacles it vomits from its mouth, which are in fact the Anti-Spiral King's extended fingers. It uses several of the latter kind to pin down every single Gurren Lagann mech after Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann dissipates, but fails to stop Lagann himself. It can use the bigger ones to shield itself against attacks.
  • Dem Bones: A hulking demonic skeletal form.
  • Evil Counterpart: Anti-Spiral's polar opposite to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • Evil Knockoff: Also designed to mock said mecha in terms of might and sheer disgust toward the humans piloting it.
  • Prophet Eyes/Supernatural Gold Eyes: Waivers between the two, until...
  • Finishing Move: "Infinity... BIG BANG! STOOORRM!!!"
  • Final Boss: The last and most powerful mech Team Dai-Gurren battles.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Granzemboa's eyes turn a hellish red as it launches its final offensive against Team Dai-Gurren. In Lagann-Hen, its eyes are white- unless the same footage was reused and doctored to make it appear to be the Super Granzeboma.
  • Grim Reaper: Natural, given that the Anti-Spiral are harbringers of death and despair.
  • Impossibly Cool Weapon: Galaxies and a Big Bang.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Wreathed in ghostly purple flames as opposed to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's green.
  • Mirror Match: Created specifically to counter the power of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
  • More Dakka: Armed with dozens of stellar-powered, probability-altering energy blasts.
  • Multiarmed And Dangerous: It has four arms. The second pair in its shoulders can extend and are capable of grabbing and throwing galaxies like they were discs. They are also used as part of the Infinity Big Bang Storm.
  • Reality Warper: Alters the laws of reality to fight!
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Granzemboa's eyes turn a searing blood red as all the Gurren Lagann mecha rush toward it in a final charge.
  • Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: It's just as big as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and in addition has a planet on its head. That would make the planet light-years across. Of course, the laws of physics don't really apply to the Anti-Spirals. Or this show, for that matter.
  • Slap-on-the-Wrist Nuke: Make that tactical BIG BANG.
  • Super Mode: The Super Granzeboma in Lagann-Hen.
  • That's No Moon: Disturbingly Inverted: Yoko discovers the Anti-Spiral have placed their homeworld on top of Granzemboa's head like a crown - after clipping half the armor around it with a intergalactic-sized version of her rifle.
  • This Is a Drill: Uses rounded, spinning lances that have a more reverse and more sinister spiral shape than Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's drills. Appropriate, given the Anti-Spiral loathe anything pertaining to Spiral Power.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Specifically designed to outclass Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. When that doesn't work, it resorts to using power that forges universes.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: And how. It wads up two galaxies to trigger a massive big bang that creates galaxies on impact with its targets!

Mecha: Movie-Exclusive Mecha

    Yoko M Tank/Yoko W Tank 

Yoko's personal mecha, made by Leeron, that appears briefly at the end of Gurren-hen for the finale attack, and then briefly again during the opening battle of Lagann-hen.


  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: It gets guns, just like Yoko.
  • More Dakka: Has at least 85 different weapon armarments stored in it, visible when Yoko gets revenge for Kittan's death.
  • Rule 63: The equivalent of Dayakka's mecha, Dayakkaizer, which she ended up using more than he did as her impromptu mecha in the anime series. In the movie, it was outright promoted into her own personal Ace Custom.

    Do-Ten-Kai-Zan 

The combined form of the Beastmen general flagships.


    Tengen Toppa Solvernia 
Nia's personal mecha in the fight against the Anti-Spiral.

    Tengen Toppa Enkidurga 
Viral's personal mecha in the fight against the Anti-Spiral.

    Tengen Toppa Yoko W Tank 
Yoko's personal mecha in the fight against the Anti-Spiral.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: Allows the movie to get away with a moment where this mecha gets stripped of its outer armaments without pulling a Nipple and Dimed moment.
  • Bishōnen Line: The Yoko W tank goes from a squat, tank-like mecha with an underbite to a female figure resembling Yoko herself.
  • Double Entendre: Much like the Sayrune, the mecha's eyes are located on the breasts and the Yoko W Tank's lower jaw is now located... down there.
  • Clothing Damage: Well, the equivalent for a mecha. It amounts to tearing off its outer armor, the weapons, and its "bra", making it look very much like a bare-chested Yoko.
  • Flaming Hair: Has a plume that looks like Yoko's own long red ponytail.
  • Hidden Buxom: Its true boobs are under the Torpedo Tits, which are colored to look like Yoko's own bra pre-Time Skip.
  • More Dakka: Think Yoko was scary with one rifle? How about with six of them?
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Unlike the other Gunmen, the Tengen Toppa Yoko W Tank and Tengen Toppa Solvernia are giant fembots that resemble their pilots with cute, mouthless faces and Flaming Hair, while the "giant face" elements are more subtle.
  • Skull for a Head: Her face looks like Yoko's skull hairpin.
  • Torpedo Tits: Complete with targeting systems that imitate the trademark bounciness.

    Tengen Toppa Dai-Gurren 
A galaxy-sixed version of Dai-Gurren summoned for the fight against the Anti-Spiral.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: While all the other mecha were very annoying for the Granzeboma, Leeron's probability-altering shells meant that this was the only one that put the Anti-Spiral in pain and knocked him silly (for a while, at least...).
  • Fusion Dance: Resembles a merger of the original Dai-Gurren (the Gunmen body) and Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren (the ship section.) The ship's face also bears a more agressive design, with sharp teeth.
  • Humongous Mecha: Utterly dwarfs the Granzeboma, yet is still only the third-largest mech in the movie.
  • More Dakka: Well, it does have Attenborough as its gunner.

    Super Granzeboma 
The result of the Anti-Spiral cranking its Evil Counterpart transformation even further to match the force of the unfathomably gigantic Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan in Lagann-Hen. It is the ultimate form of the mechanoid and 52.9 BILLION light years tall, nearly as big as the whole universe itself.
  • Dem Bones: Another skeletoid mecha that looks even scarier than its previous version.
  • Evil Knockoff: Yet another answer to its opponents' mecha transformations. Notably, its smaller counterpart stands atop its head like a crown instead of the nested configuration of all the Gurren Lagann incarnations.
  • Humongous Mecha: It's the largest mech in the movie, with its horned head making it slightly taller than even the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan's and the third-biggest mecha in documented fiction.
  • Mirror Match: The second time in a row the Anti-Spiral apes the mecha of the heroes.
  • Serial Escalation: Now it's just getting absurd. When your mecha is universal-scale, the only steps up from here are multiversal scale (comprising multiple universes, not just one), omniversal scale (reality itself), creation scale/apex scale (the whole of creation and any and all known realms it comprises in their entirety), and finally, God scale/limitless scale/infinite scale (a form without limit).
  • This Is a Drill: Possesses a drill so big that it was able destroy and recreate an entire pocket dimension when it clashed with the equally large one from its heroic counterpart.
  • Wreathed in Flames: Blanketed in supergalactic-size and billowing purple ethereal fire.

Mecha: Video Game-Exclusive Mecha

    Anti Gurren Lagann 
Coming from Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei-Hen. A copy of Gurren Lagann created by the Anti-Spirals to help Messenger!Nia protect Cathedral Lazengann's Giga Core Drill hole and ensure the Human Extermination System works as planned.
  • Climax Boss: Of both of Saisei-Hen's routes, encountered in Scenario 54 of Don't Trust Zero: Zetsubou no Sekai/World of Despair and Scenario 56 of Trust Zero: Naraka no Rasen/Spiral of Hell.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Gurren Lagann, even more so than Lazengann.
  • Finishing Move: It charges towards its foe, punches them several times and then it jumps and uses a drill move that combines Lazengann's drill tendrils with Giga Drill Maximum, sprouting several dark drills that extend and crush their victim before exploding in a massive conflagration.
  • Homing Lasers: One of its attacks fires several red blasts of light that home in and hit their target.
  • Malevolent Masked Man: Unlike Gurren Lagann, Anti Gurren Lagann keeps the mask of Enki's helmet. Anti Lagann's face beneath it is nearly the same as Lagann's, but he has the same red eyelines Lazengann has.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: Its color scheme is completely black, grey and red. It doesn't have any symbols on its pauldrons, most of its body is as black as Lazengann's, and glowing red lines cover its body.
  • Skull for a Head: Anti Gurren's face is stark white, with no eyes, resembling a skull. He also doesn't have his boomerang-sunglasses.
  • Tron Lines: Like most of the smaller Anti-Spiral machines, it's covered in glowing red lines.

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