Summary:

With the emergence of the gigantic Gunmen that is the Teppelin, the Gurren Lagann and its allies get out of the way of all the falling pieces. At her radar station, Kinon suddenly notices that there’s something that is just like the Gurren Lagann at the Teppelin, so Simon heads up through the clouds to investigate. He sees that there is a tower at the top of the Gunmen, and inside this tower is the Helix King. Simon immediately tries to go in for the kill with the Gurren Lagann’s drill, but the Teppelin uses its massive hand to stop him in his tracks and flicks him away like an insect. The Gurren Lagann is saved when the Dai-Gurren catches it, and with Simon back, Nia asks him to take her to her father so that she can talk with him. Rossiu thinks that it’s unreasonable because the Helix King won’t let them get close so easily, but Simon agrees to it. The others want to go too, but they end up having to stay behind to fight because the enemy has launched huge fleets of Gunmen to stop them. After getting Nia from the bridge, Simon and the Dai-Gurren spearhead the charge forward at the enemy, and they take the first chance they get to go straight for the Helix King.

To get the Gurren Lagann past the massive hand of the Teppelin, the Dai-Gurren crashes into it, blasts a path through with its weapons, then launches it’s pointed front part with the Gurren Lagann riding on it. The combination of all this allows the Gurren Lagann to pass through the massive hand and crash into the Helix King’s tower, but it also leaves the Dai-Gurren in very bad condition. As Simon heads for the Helix King, the rest of the crew ejects the main part of the Dai-Gurren with the bridge and explodes the other part, causing the destruction of Teppelin’s arm. Inside the tower, Simon’s first challenge comes in the form of Viral and the four-armed Enkidu. Unfortunately for Viral, the Gurren Lagann’s first punch breaks the Enkidu’s swords and the second drill-punch blows through it and knocks it across the room. What shocks Viral even more is that the Helix King says that the power given to him isn’t the power to triumph over men. Beastmen in general are no match for a human with the spiral power, and Viral wasn’t given his body that won’t die for fighting. Instead, the Helix King wants Viral to pass down the story of the Helix King’s victory for all eternity as a storyteller.

Nia then gets out the Gurren Lagann to speak with her father, and she questions why he pushed humanity underground and killed those who came up above. However, the Helix King declares that he’s the one protecting the world and is the guardian of the human race. He feels that the world he created is the only path of survival for humanity, and he can’t let them do as they please any longer, so he wants them to die for the sake of mankind. At the exact moment that he finishes saying this, a spike bursts from the ground aimed at Nia, and although the Gurren Lagann is able to deflect it, Nia goes flying off. The Helix King then boards the Razengann, which Rossiu recognizes is the same type as the Gurren Lagann. In the ensuing battle, the Razengann clearly has an upper hand in both speed and power, so Simon uses the Giga Drill Breaker attack. However, the Razengann catches the drill in its mouth and breaks it, and the Helix King has no trouble breaking free and counterattacking. Having been beat all over the place and speared to the wall, Rossiu has lost faith in their ability to win, but Simon tells him not to give up and says that they as the Gurren Brigade kick reason through impossibility.

Simon then borrows a line from Kamina and asks Rossiu to believe in him because he feels that they can still fight. With his drill punch, the Gurren Lagann is able to then break one of the Razengann’s arms, but the enemy Gunmen responds with a drill through the Gurren’s cockpit. It hits Rossiu’s shoulder, but he’s still able to pilot, so Simon proceeds to separate the Lagann from the Gurren. He attempts to drive the Lagann down into the Razengann, but instead of letting the Lagann take over, the Helix King blows up the Razengann’s other arm. Simon, however, refuses to lose and cites how everyone believes in him. He feels that the Simon that Kamina believed in and that he himself believes in will definitely not lose to the Helix King. Seeing the Lagann power up, the Helix King decides to also use all his power and changes the Razengann into one huge drill, but it is not enough to stop Nia and Simon’s fighting spirit from powering the Lagann’s drill through the Razengann. Refusing to give up, the Helix King gets out of his cockpit and starts beating up the Lagann with his own bare fists. Nia gets thrown out of the Lagann’s cockpit in the process, and she can only watch as the Helix King throws punch after punch at an already battered Simon.

Even with Nia saying that she believes in him with all her strength, Simon still can’t seem to win against the Helix King and lets the Lagann’s arms get broken off. As the Helix King picks him up to finish him off, Simon grabs the small drill that activates the Lagann and slams it into the Helix King’s chest. He then declares that he is Simon, the leader of the Great Gurren Brigade – Digger Simon. If the Helix King is the wall that stands in his way, he’ll always pierce through with a hole. With that, Simon turns his drill into the Helix’s King’s chest and creates a large explosion. Because he now has a gaping hole in his chest, the Helix King decides to tell Simon one last thing: when this ground fills with one million monkeys (in other words, humans), the moon will become a messenger from hell, and the helix star will be destroyed. Simon doesn’t understand what this means, but the Helix King just smiles and takes a fall backwards off the top of the tower. After seeing her father disappear and after saying goodbye to him, Nia declares that she’ll head towards tomorrow. The Teppelin then starts falling apart and the enemy Gunmen below stop moving. Simon’s allies all survived the battle, and they’re overjoyed when the Gurren Lagann returns. And thus, on the morning of the seventh day of the battle to capture Teppelin, the capital city fell.

Preview:

It amazes me how they keep doing it, but this episode probably topped all the previous ones in terms of action and cool things happening, even, dare I say, the episode where Kamina dies. This felt so much like a finale with how Simon took down the Helix King and the OP didn’t play until the very end, but there are a lot of loose ends that signal something more to the story. The Helix King revealed a lot this episode, and if what he said about being the guardian of the human race is true, then you could interpret his final revelation to Simon to mean that he was trying to keep humanity’s population under one million with the Beastmen. In other words, the perpetual struggle between men and Beastmen ensured the survival of the human race from being wiped out by something even bigger from the moon. However, now that the Helix King is dead, there is likely nothing to stop the human population from reaching the one million mark, and that’s probably the direction the next arc of the story will head towards.

I also found it very interesting that Viral’s role changed from being antagonist to being storyteller, at least according to the Helix King. Granted, the Lord Genome wanted Viral to pass on the story of his own victory, but it would seem that, if Viral survived (there’s no reason to believe that he didn’t) and he ends up deciding to take that role, then he’ll likely become on observer for whatever events happen next. Thinking about this gives me an image of Viral ending the series after having told it as a story, but I doubt that’s what’s going to happen. On the flip side, I continue to be disappointed at the minor role that Yoko is now playing, but I guess the story really is more about Simon and Nia now.

Unfortunately, next week appears to be a recap, so episode 17 will be the one to start up the new arc with a new ED and maybe a new OP too. Hopefully, they’ll make the preview of next week’s episode extra long to make up for it a little.

42 Comments

  1. – Spiral King rocks… I mean rocks like really rocks! Spiral king is obviously.. a topless, if you know what I mean lol. Fire on his head thing. Simon cheat to win!! I don’t accept this! That drill beam is cheating!

    – Simon + Nia Lagann drill to heaven attack scene remind me of Ep1.

    – Spiral King unit is called Rasengan? -_-;; why does this remind me of Naruto?

    – As we expected, Spiral king is indeed trying to create the world where human can live correctly. He should have talked with Simon properly not just start bashing him -_-

    – Spiral King seems to give Viral the eternal live. Not for fighting though herher We will be seeing him later.

    – Simon x Nia little moment at the end there… Simon x Yoko fan should probably give up by now

    – So next episode is recap? I thought we have 1 hour special of anotehr show at 8:00? hmmm

    Quina
  2. might as well feel like a last episode. . “at least for those of us who cant speak japanese”… WELL… looks like it’s high time i learned a third language…but damn!! whys japanese gotta be soooo hard

    BROOKLYN otaku
  3. Wait! There should be a sequence. The king says that he has been protecting humanity and that it has something to do with the moon and outer space. I mean, i always thought that too because they presented some intergalactic fights in the first episode. Also Lamina said that their following goal would be to conquer the moon too!

    banzemanga
  4. @Quina Rasengan means spiral, helix or screw. Naruto’s rasengan also means the same thing.
    Also, the King cheated too, he used his women to power up himself at the beginning.

    banzemanga
  5. Spiral’s king women are constructed using drills. he constructed one in mid air for Viral to see last episode. Spiral King also MALEE with Lagann!! It is pretty obvious that Spiral King is stronger than Simon. Simon won using Guts, Spirit and a lot of luck which is not a bad thing consider thats how shounen suppose to win a fight.

    Viral will be very important later, its pretty obvious from the King speech.

    I know what Rasengan means, just that they really use a weird name choice. The name has pretty much nothing to do with the unit’s ability. Gurren-Lagann in the other hand match Simon’s style of fight.

    Quina
  6. Actually in this case, I doubt this Rasengan means the same as Naruto’s Rasengan. In case you didn’t know, the Lagann’s name possibly comes from the Japanese “ragan” (naked eye). It’s possible this Rasengan, or possibly “Rasengann”, has it’s name meaning “spiral eye”, while Naruto’s means “Spiral Sphere”.

    Tokkan
  7. Wow, four-armed Enkidu didn’t last long, I just hope to see him using his four swords in battle sometimes during the upcoming episodes ! Wow², Helix King must be part of the Sayajin with his blazing etheral hair and mighty body ! Wow³, future Simon is very nice and so is Rossiu ! Too bad next week episode will probably get loads of shitty flashbacks (for a Gainax anime I think it’s a bit cheap). And as for the King revelation I thing he was talking about the Spiral Planet (the one they live on, since “hoshi” stands for star or planet in japanese), that would make more sense in my opinion. Notice how no girl died ?

    Bogus
  8. Of course there’s a recap. Especially if there’s a time jump. Hopefully it’ll be either A) Narrated by the future characters or B) Narrated by Kamina (Katsuyuki Konishi). Either way I accept this as fate.

    Buuuuuut, then we’ll get crazy future space battle goodness. Take over the moon, eh? Sounds like a plan. How about the whole GALAXY?

    “Are all the lights in the heavens our enemy?”

    And that was definitely Roshiu, based on the future jump character models. But Simon is a bit older in that Ep1 scene, and R. has like tiger face paint or something, so I think we’ve got a bit of distance to cover before we see *that*. But this show moves so fast, we could see that by episode 19 and it would probably make perfect sense.

    Count me in for being disappointed at Yoko contributing basically nothing to this episode. Also… Where did the ‘ship captain’ guy come from? Did I miss something? I was confused enough about the weird clown guy that fires the cannons on the Dai-Gurren, but he’s pretty awesome so I just said, “Ehh, ‘scool…” They keep throwing in random characters @_@ bizarre.

    Old man that follows Nia is still awesome. Seriously though, what is he up to?

    Can’t wait for Simon to burst through the heavens. He’s definitely ain’t no Shinji, that’s for sure.

    DLazLong
  9. Did I mention this episode was fan-freakin’-tastic?

    Yea. I wouldn’t say it quite topped the intensity of Ep8, but when I saw the Dai-Gurren ram it’s.. uh… giant ehh, ‘sword’ into the finger of a city sized ganmen and pump it full of… err, explosives and then fire the entire front end THROUGH the hand… This show is ridiculous.

    And they air it on Sunday morning? ^_^;;;

    DLazLong
  10. Epiic episode throughout, though the following ep being a recap is a bummer. Rewatched ep 1’s foreshadowing eps, I didn’t see Yoko nor Nia, think any chance they would get killed off? (This is Gainax we’re talking about >_>) Anyway best episode so far (or that can rival episode 8).

    Chaoz
  11. My words can’t express just how insanely awesome this episode was. ‘Epic’ isn’t enough. It has surpassed the boundaries of what can be called ‘Epic’.

    I don’t know how they’ll ever surpass an episode of this calibur, but this is Gurren Lagann. Time and time again we’ve been treated to constant bombardments of amazing, and I hope that trend continues.

    Into the future, Great Gurren Brigade!

    Heiae
  12. Well, after screwing up last time with future eps I found something the 2channers where talking about, future eps, only to 20 though.

    ———BEWARE SPOILERS———
    ———BEWARE SPOILERS———
    ———BEWARE SPOILERS———

    Series is now schedule by all Japanese official sites as 27 episodes… however, that’s just because they’re counting next week’s recap as an episode.

    Anyway, 22th we get the time-skip and both a new opening and ending obviously. Nevertheless, Viral is now the episode title guy. Here are the future episode summaries and titles:

    Episode 16: RECAP

    Episode 17: “You don’t understand anything.”
    Old marriage, going to the moon stuff we knew from a while ago.

    Episode 18: “I’ll tell you now, the truth of this world.”
    The ominous Helix King’s last words are slowly becoming a reality when unidentified creatures suddenly appear beyond the moon just the moment human population reached a state and quantity fit for evolution. Unexpectedly a recognizable figure declares war on the Human Defense Organization.

    Episode 19: “We will survive, no matter what it takes!”
    Rossiu’s newly found dilemma leads him to declare Simon guilty of treason and quickly arrests him on this charges. Chaos quickly grows among the populace rioting populace and uncertainty grows as people become reminiscent of their old days underground. The former members of Dai-Gurren confront Rossiu about Simon only to be met by a dramatic revelation. At this time, the reality behind the Messenger of Hell is revealed.

    Episode 20 (May be fake… 2ch considers it real but no scan appeared.): “So this is how the last dawn of humanity looks like.”
    The Humanity Defense Organization breaks into pieces as wars break among Earth’s population. Humanity major enemy turns out to be humanity as human piloted gunmen start destroying human piloted gunmen without discrimination. The now determined Simon has escaped prison and the Dai-Gurren is quickly reformed even against the will of the Government. At this moment, the path towards Hell is opened.

    ———SPOILERS OVER———
    ———SPOILERS OVER———
    ———SPOILERS OVER———

    Well, hope these are true and not a bunch of lies, as I said before I can’t really confirm if these are the real thing.

    Nostrofo
  13. Well, after screwing up last time with future eps I found something the 2channers where talking about, future eps, only to 20 though.
    How do you spoiler tag because I really don’t want to ruin things if these are true.

    Nostrofo
  14. i dont want CODE GEASS II Suzumiya Haruhi II or Shakugan no Shana II
    I WANT Gurren Lagann
    it easily surpasses them by a million year
    i dont mean they are bad or something they are great but nothing at all compered to Gurren Lagann
    in 15 episode only they do all that and still we will have a grownup simon that i am sure will ROCK

    qwertypoiuy

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