"This is the tale of a man who has yet to realize his destiny."
Prologue: War among the stars. Within a massive vessel, its captain is determined to fight, shouting out:
"Gurren Lagann! Spin on! Who the Hell do you think I am?"
The scene then shifts to an underground village called Jiha, where an orphaned boy named Simon digs tunnels to earn pig-mole steaks to eat. One day, he finds a small glowing drill which he takes for his own. Other than a tiny pig-mole he calls Boota, his only friend is the rebellious Kamina, who encourages Simon to join him and his partners to venture up to the ceiling. This ends in failure and Kamina is locked up. Soon enough, Simon finds a strange machine with a large face. Simon releases Kamina to show him his discovery. They are surprised by the village chief and are about to be punished when a giant bipedal machine shows up crashing through the village's ceiling. The machine is then followed by a red haired girl who shoots at it. The girl introduces herself as Yoko from a nearby underground village and identifies the machine as a Gunmen. She joins Kamina and Simon who leads the two of them to the machine he discovered.Kamina convinces Simon to activate the machine with the glowing drill which turns out to be the machine's key. After an ardous struggle, Simon and Kamina, joined by Yoko, use the machine to destroy the Gunmen, drilling their way upward, where they find themselves outside . . .
Tropes in this episode:
- Action Prologue: Basically, this sets the scene for what is to come . . . in a way.
- Badass Boast: Kamina gives this to the invading Gunmen:"I'm gonna tell you something important right now so you better dig the wax outta those huge ears of yours and listen close! The reputation of Team Gurren echoes far and wide! When they talk about its badass leader, the man of indomitable spirit and masculinity, they're talking about me: the mighty KAMINA!"
- Fair-Weather Friend: The three other members of Team Gurren who surrender to the chief so they can eat pig-mole steaks. Kamina quickly denounces them after this, leaving Simon as his only true "blood brother".
- Hypocritical Humor: Kamina expresses distaste in Yoko after finding out she's a "Pit chick" and not actually from the surface... despite coming from an underground village himself (where they currently are).
- Underequipped Charge: Kamina faces down a Gunman with only a sword, which Yoko scolds him for.
- The World Is Just Awesome: In the climax of the episode, Simon, Kamina, and Yoko are launched to the surface, where, for the first time in the former two’s lives, they experience the sunset and the night sky at the same time…and an entire reality outside of life underground. The picturesque moment remains the trope page’s main image.
