Summary:

With the Chouginga Dai-Gurren sinking fast into what appears to be a body of water, Leeron explains that the water effect is because of how this space has been condensed so that it is ultrahigh density. Soon after they are completely submerged, the enemy ships start gathering above, so Attenborough fires the Chouginga Dai-Gurren’s main weapons upward, but the beams disappear before they can reach anything. Lord Genome thinks that it’s because this is a Death Spiral Field where spiral power is absorbed and converted to mass. Thus, the more they use their spiral power, the denser this space becomes. Simon, however, thinks that it’ll be fine if they increase engine output so that it’s coming out faster than it can be absorbed because he believes that their power is infinite as long as their hearts don’t break. He then summons up great spiral power that allows them to steer the Chouginga Dai-Gurren upward, but the Anti-Spirals won’t allow this to happen and send their ships in to stop them. On Leeron’s orders, Attenborough fires a wave of missiles upward, but there are too many enemies to be taken out, and the rest force the Chouginga Dai-Gurren further down.

Watching the situation from the ship’s hanger, a worried Gimmy asks if Kittan’s not scared of dying. Gimmy himself wants to fight, but he feels that his body won’t move. Kittan responds to this by calling Gimmy an idiot and pointing out that there’s no one who’s not afraid of dying. However, it can’t be helped because they do as they like, and they can’t do anything but move forward. Kittan believes that Jougan and Barinbou saved Gimmy and Darry because they wanted to save them, so they shouldn’t feel burdened. Kittan then boards his Gunmen and is a bit frustrated over how he didn’t say that very well. He thinks that Kamina could have encouraged Gimmy and Darry more, but Yoko feels that the Dai Gurren-dan was able to get here because of him – Simon had pulled from above and he had pushed from below. She suggests that this is the work of a fine man, and that gets Kittan embarrassed. The two then launch in their respective Gunmen to combat the Anti-Spiral ships that are holding down the ship. During the battle, Yoko almost gets hit by an enemy hand, but Kittan saves her by destroying it and in the process gets the right arm of his own Gunmen blown off. As the two start to get surrounded, Kittan asks Yoko if she can introduce him to her children when they return to Earth because he adores kids.

Before Yoko can answer him, the Anti-Spiral ships around them begin exploding due to Gimmy and Darry shooting them up as they arrive on the scene after having regained their fighting spirit. The four then continue fighting the Anti-Spirals until Gimmy suddenly notices a glowing field in front of them. Inside this field are a bunch of heads that resemble the Lagann, and Lord Genome reveals that these are spiral warriors of the past who challenged the Anti-Spirals to a fight. As Kittan and the others start to realize that others have come here before, the Anti-Spiral voice speaks up and confirms this. Warning them not to think that only they are special, the voice presents the history of defeat of the Spirals and refers to what is in front of them as the galactic spiral trench – the spiral graveyard. When Cybela then detects a high energy reaction coming from the deepest parts of it that’s drawing them in, Lord Genome identifies the Death Spiral Machine as the thing that’s creating the field. Things look bleak, but Simon urges his friends not to give up and not to let the Anti-Spirals do what they like. Simon wants them instead to take their regrets and turn them into strength.

Refusing to let things end in such a place, Simon orders the ship towards the deepest part of the field so that they can charge ahead and destroy the Death Spiral Machine. Agreeing with Simon’s assertion that this is how the Dai Gurren-dan does things, the crew points the ship downward towards the Death Spiral Machine. Lord Genome then explains that the Death Spiral Machine has an ultrahigh density space around it which they can only last 300 seconds inside of. It is also protected by a spiral conversion field, and their plan is to use their spiral power so that part of the field disappears, allowing them to then fire spiral missiles to destroy the machine. As the Chouginga Dai-Gurren continue forward, parts of the ship start to get flooded, so Dayakka and the crew try their best to wall those parts off. Leeron then sends Tetsukan down to help Reite, and Boota ends up teleporting down with him. Around the same time, one of the Gurren Lagann’s drills breaks, and Simon is too exhausted to continue. To Viral’s surprise, Boota shows up on his cockpit window wanting to be let in, and the little mole-pig starts powering the Gurren Lagann by himself. Citing that humans aren’t the only ones who can be spiral life forms, Lord Genome isn’t sure if this is a mutation or Boota reacting to Simon’s spiral power, but he knows that Boota had a huge amount of spiral power saved up in his body.

The ship soon enters within range of the Death Spiral Machine, so the crew fires a super spiral bullet at it, but the bullet blows up before reaching its target because of the high pressure. Since they’re running out of time, Yoko is about to volunteer to go out, but Kittan stops her and has Reite load the next bullet onto the Space King Kittan because he feels that this is his job. Before he goes, he surprises Yoko by kissing her and then apologizes for his selfishness. Remembering what Kittan had said about doing what he liked, Yoko feels that she can’t stop him and hugs him back. Kittan then launches in the Space King Kittan and gets close enough to the field to throw the bullet at it. This successfully opens up the field, but Kittan’s missiles pods have all broken due to the high pressure, and the entire Space King Kittan soon does so too. All seems lost until they detect King Kittan emerge from the Space King Kittan carrying one of the Gurren Lagann’s drills. With his eyes glowing spiral, Kittan declares that the drill is his soul, increases its size, and initiates the King Kittan Giga Drill Breaker attack. As the King Kittan gets vaporized along with everything else, Kittan thinks to himself that this is the spiral power and how it’s quite something.

After the huge explosion that takes out the Death Spiral Machine, Lord Genome announces that the chance of success for this was 0%, but he knows that calculations are useless with them. With the machine destroyed, a huge spiral energy reaction starts up because everything around them is reconverting to spiral energy. All this power means that Simon can now transform the Chouginga Dai-Gurren, and he does so after saying that he accepts Kittan’s dying wish. What emerges back into normal space is the Chouginga Gurren Lagann, and Simon promises to show his enemies the power of humans.

Preview

I’m actually quite disappointed that Kittan died, especially since I had him pegged to survive the series after the death scare back in episode 20. Still, he got quite an impressive death scene in terms of music, animation quality, and general coolness. In particular, I really loved the instrumental start to the insert song (what the eye-catch’s “fight the power” is derived from) and how it went so well with the kiss scene. That being said, the later parts of the song felt really weird because it combined the rapping with some opera-like music. Either song by itself would have fit the scene, but putting them together didn’t work so well for me. Of course, that’s a minor complaint of what was an awesome scene since we got to see Kittan finally awaken his true spiral powers before making the ultimate sacrifice.
So the KittanXYoko theory also didn’t quite pan out, though he did at least steal a kiss from her first since he probably knew that he wasn’t going to make it. She probably suspected the same thing, but she knew she couldn’t stop him, so she let him have the kiss and the hug. If Yoko survives, the only good match left for her is Viral, but the odds of that happening now are a lot lower than they used to be with only two episodes left. I’m not even going to consider Yoko and Simon together because that would require Nia not surviving, and I doubt such an ending would be very satisfying.
There are now only two more episodes left, and I’m really curious how they’re going to pace things and if or when we’ll ever see the opening scene of the series again. The scene in the preview seems to hint either at a look back into the past or perhaps some sort of Anti-Spiral illusion trap that Simon (or Nia?) gets caught in. I’d be worried if that were the only thing in the preview, but the rest of it looked like more space action, so I doubt they’re going to pull any really weird ending along those lines (though you never know).

106 Comments

  1. dayum. They really know how to kill everybody off in a cool “omg final gar moment and own everything while on a suicidal mission” way. is that a young simon standing next to those spiral capsule thingys i see in the preview?

    klazyguy
  2. @golthin That’s what it looks like, but there was nothing between Yoko and Kittan anyways, well he as a guy liked her, but she didn’t. If they still don’t somehow save Nia, then Simon x Yoko might happen. I mean she’s been there since the start, while Nia hasen’t. We’ll know in 2 episodes.

    GP
  3. Simon’s new glasses comes from Kamina’s glass combine with Kittan’s star shape. Somehow it ends up looking like a star fish -_-;

    Simon x Yoko won’t happen because it has to cross Nia’s dead body, and that have to cross Simon’s dead body. god damit, Kittan you had a good shot there.. you died too fast. Your spiral evolution was pretty awesome though.

    quina
  4. I don’t like Nia, so I don’t care if she dies or not.
    Man,this episode is beyond EPIC!!! When I’ve got childs, I will raise them watching this shit. Serious rly.
    Any doubts about this being the best anime of 2007?

    Maedhros
  5. What? I’ve always known Kittan might’ve had a thing for Yoko; it was especially evident in these last few episodes, but I seriously doubt she regarded him as anything other than a close friend and kick-ass ally. I thought that Yoko might’ve developed something for Simon in these years away, personally, the way she said “Kittan…and Simon”, the close-up of her eyes and the wistfulness evident in that shot, made me wonder if she’d begun to think of him as more than “just Simon”. Of course, I believe Simon and Nia belong together, and Kamina and Yoko would’ve been amazing (but that didn’t work out); it’s just that Kittan and Yoko comes out of nowhere, mutually speaking, I mean.

    Kittan, damn it, STOP BEING AMAZINGLY AWESOME MAN

    Katz
  6. Well, at least we got the final answer: NO,Kittan X Yoko won’t happen.

    I think that about caps the main-character-deaths for this series, though, unless they decide to have Simon go out in a blaze of glory (and by doing so, taking out Nia as well).

    Anonymooo
  7. oh…kay so glasses evolve on their own
    the most stylish anime i have ever seen.
    and how come every guy who kisses yoko die at the end of the same episode?
    is she cursed or something? or do the producers not like her? what is she, a dementor defect?

    Yamanote
  8. Kiss of Death from Yoko the God of death…..

    Simon becomes stronger now cuz he has been possessed by Kittan and Kamina!

    友の想いを、この身に刻み 無限の闇を光に変える  天上天下 一儀当神 超銀河グレンラガン
    tomo no omoi wo kono mini kizami mugen no yami wo hikari ni kaeru TENJO TENGE ICHITOUSHIN CHOUGINGA GURRENLAGANN!

    wahahaha
  9. Kittan had a damn Gar death , blarh , they all did !
    ..Anyone agrees to say Yoko is cursed ?
    other then that , now Simon looks really pissed….but damn the glasses ! what da hell was with it ? he was the only one with a decent outfit…until now ;_;

    kurotsuki
  10. PEOPLE!! simon x yoko IS NEVER GONNA HAPPEN! where is this well of reserve hope u guys keep drinking from?!?!? P.S= pyramid schemes dont work,, in case yall were hoping for that too!!! …….
    and whats with the elton john glasses!?!? ROCKET MAN!!!!? simon be looking LIKE THE BUTTERFLY DUDE FROM “BUSOU RENKIN”!!! FRUIT-tee

    BROOKLYN otaku
  11. I don’t like how Yoko is simply labeled the doom bitch cause she’s hot and everyone wants to hit that. He kissed HER, and did she kiss him back? No, she hugged him. Simply a coincidence, Kamina died cause Simon was a puss (thank god he takes after him by episode 11 or I myself would have stopped watching this series XD), honestly, and the same goes for Kittan.

    (the king kittan giga drill looked really corny IMO, would’ve been nice if they gave him his own original attack before he went out. he’ll always be remembered for his shotgun showdown with that mugan, R.I.P. kittan)

    Simon is in love with Nia, end of story. Yoko’s one true love was Kamina, and that’s that.

    Kittans death was caused by his actions alone.

    pls stop calling mai waifu a doombitch ._.

    Dae
  12. @ruinevil “GAINAX~~~~
    It’s gonna be like End of Evangelion all over again…. GIANT NIA = GIANT REI… and they are in the Sea of Dirac”

    Why are you people surprised? The Gainax people are master at recycling their old ideas. That is all TTGL is, all the previous Gainax’s shows bundled together with new packaging.

    golthin
  13. @RandomDendohFanboy: No, even though the symbolic meaning behind the glasses should be obvious, that would require putting two thoughts together to come to a conclusion, it’s much easier and more shallow to bitch about how “uncool” they look in the picture.

  14. really a great episode. I had been thinking that while the other gurren-dan deaths had been in the same league, they couldn’t really compare to Kamina’s. This one though met or perhaps even topped it. Kittan got to be his own man at last.

    well, a nice subplot with Kittan. this toast universe thing next week should be funny, though kinda worried for Nia now.

    Ashlay
  15. I loved the new insert songs. They were awesome. I like Kittan, but really didn’t care much about his death. I want more Simon and Viral action. They have been sitting out everything for two episodes. I also don’t have a problem with the glasses. They looked pretty awesome in action. Though I never understood all the whining about the outfits either….

    ann
  16. @Fat Cat Lim
    “If everyone who kissed Yoko dies in the end, does that mean she’s been romping in the sack with Joushi, Ailac, Kidd, Makken, Jougan and Barinbou?”

    Only apply for on screen kisses and for VERY GAR deaths!
    Simon didn’t get any of the glasses from the twins or the other guys, Just Kamina and Kittan!

    golthin
  17. Here is what I think:
    Boota = O.o
    YokoXKittan = Too Short
    Kittan’s Death = GAR
    Yoko = Man Killer
    Shimon’s Glasses = Gay~
    Preview = WTF

    Also:
    After Episode = Kittan > Kamina

    I never saw that one coming.

    DEATH
  18. @ruinevil “GAINAX~~~~
    It’s gonna be like End of Evangelion all over again…. GIANT NIA = GIANT REI… and they are in the Sea of Dirac”

    I agree. It’s just like Mahoromatic… it all ends in hell

    Thank you Gainax for providing great shows with shitty/unforgivable endings

    MaimeDaifuku
  19. If they keep with their history record, the only show with a happy end was Nadia and they still killed some people. Even gunbuster and Diebuster had not very happy ends for humanity saviours.

    golthin
  20. It’s a shame, you guys are giving Kittan more credit than he should get. Even in death he went out like the Kamina clone he was. Hell he even used THE SAME DAMN MOVE!

    As for the Yoko kiss of death, you people need to watch the fucking episode, he knows he’s going to die before the kiss ever happens, THAT’S WHY HE DOES IT! It’s one last little gift for himself on the way out. And as for “real men have GAR deaths” WTFX? true GAR characters DON’T FUCKING DIE! They pwn everything and everyone, like Simon, true GAR! The Kittan had a flashy suicide mission, everyone knew for weeks that he’d probably die anyways, now it’s just official finally.

    As for Yoko X Simon, it probably won’t happen, but the one Yoko likes now is Simon, if episode 21 didn’t make it clear to you all, then you’re as dense as a harem anime character. As for Nia, she’s not worth it imo. her character has lived it’s purpose in the show. All these good people died so far fighting the enemy of humanity. You think Gainax will just have Simon beat up all the badguys then get a perfect rosy happy ending with Nia back to how she was? I don’t think so, and I hope not, cuz that would be fail. Like with Kamina and Kittan, Nia should go out in a “GAR death” that all the fans seem to love so much. One last helping hand to everyone when they need it most etc.

    GP
  21. Two more episodes. I wouldn’t hedge our bets juuuuuuust yet; Gainax still has that much time to surprise us.

    As for Gainax endings… People tend to forget that Gainax gave Petite Princess Yuuchie a happy ending. AND Abenobashi Mahou Shogentai. A happy ending is not out of the question. So, enough with the death predictions, and just sit back and enjoy the ride while it lasts, ne?

    Myssa Rei
  22. @GP

    Oh yes I know Yoko likes simon from the episode 21 little pause when she was talking to the students, but Yoko knows that Simon loves Nia. what I find interesting is that Gainax keeps killing any possible love interest for Yoko, which make me hope for a surprise YokoxSimon even though it might not happen! You can’t never tell with Gainax!

    golthin
  23. How are they able to come up every time with equal amounts of awesomness and failure?

    – Kittan dies like a hero… copying someone else’s movement
    – “WHITE POWER”… rapping to opera music
    – Boota reachs SSJ… while Viral spends yet another episode doing nothing. He was so badass in that prison, why are they wasting him in this arc?
    – We get to see Yoko’s ass crack… but she’s still the Doombitch
    – Simon finally wakes up… only to become Mermaid Man a second later
    – The episode ends on an awesome note… then the next scene in the preview has Kamina bowing his head. BLASPHEMY! There are certain things that should never be drawn no matter what the scenario is (e.g. “Yotsuba gets raped”, lol it’s just a dream).

    And regarding Viral and his position: what’s the purpose of the Gurren’s pilot anyways? Simon has shown several times that he can pilot alone, and Viral doesn’t have Spiral power to power up the attacks. Also this is not like the old days when Simon could detach from the Gurren to try another tactic on his own. So why is Viral in that cockpit instead of fighting with the rest of the brigade? What a waste.

    hwernq
  24. shit i totally didnt expect kittan to die either
    kinda made me sad with him being the only one left like kamina

    now with all the main characters from the original dai gurren dead
    and yoko is the only one left alive
    i dont have much hope for her left, i think yoko will die too in the end

    all in all good episode

    uncanny_sama
  25. I must say that the Gurren Lagann fanbase is turning into some seriously whiny children. It’s happened many great anime before, and this show is another prime example.

    Excellent episode. Leave it at that.

    Heiae
  26. Hey, I was just wondering if anyone had the name of that death-scene song? Even better would be a site where I could dl the MP3 of it. Although it wasn’t the best fit, I have to admit, I really liked the song overall, and I’d like to listen to it on occasion, so any help would be much appreciated.

    Chris
  27. “I must say that the Gurren Lagann fanbase is turning into some seriously whiny children. It’s happened many great anime before, and this show is another prime example.”

    Because they expect perfection, nothing less. They can’t even buy a little over-the-top silliness in a GODDAMN CARTOON.

    Anonymooo
  28. To those of you who do not like Kittan because he was a Kamina copy would you please STHU!

    Kittan knew he could not surpass Kamina. Not as a gunman pilot or as a leader or in Yoko’s heart. That’s because Kamina was so great, so unique and so memorable that it is nearly impossible to surpass him. A man like him is born maybe once in a 1000 years.

    Yet, he always carried himself with dignity and a little stupid clumsiness and did what he could do, what he felt was necessary to protect those he loved. Yes, his love for Yoko was one-sided, but that’s probably one thing that differentiates him from Kamina. Remember who initiated the kiss in both cases and you’ll understand what I’m talking about…and stop calling Yoko the bitch of doom! I thought it was a really sweet moment, even though she does not love him the same way, that she kissed him back and hugged him.

    In regards of Kittan using the GIGA DRILL BREAK, I think of it as a tribute to Kamina more than an attempt to copy him. Let’s face it, Kamina was the man that Kittan respected the most, so it’s only natural for him to try to be like the man he respects.

    In the end, I am also disappointed that he died, since he was a great character, but in the given circumstances it could not be helped. Someone had to sacrifice himself in order to save everyone in a hopeless situation(remember Lord Genome saying the probability of success was zero). So, Kittan changed the course of destiny, which is a damn heroic way to die.

    Anyways, great episode! I’m only disappointed that Viral still has not done anything ever since he joined the Gurren Dan. I was hoping that he would be able to pull out some spiral power out of sheer guts and determination, but it was Boota who had to do that. I hope Viral does some epic deeds in the last couple of episodes to realize the potential he had during the entire show.

    Darklord
  29. After all the comments on ep. 24, I really start to think that the Gainax storywriters read all of them and gave both the “Yay, YokoXKittan” and “ohnoes, YokoXKittan can’t happen” ppl what they were hopig for. At the same time, it happened, and on the other hand, it didn’t. We’ll see what will they do with YokoXSimon, although if it really comes to that, she’ll become the Whore of Dai Gurren-Dan, rather than the so called “doombitch” ;]

    Ciakuz
  30. @Darklord
    “To those of you who do not like Kittan because he was a Kamina copy would you please STHU!

    Kittan knew he could not surpass Kamina. Not as a gunman pilot or as a leader or in Yoko’s heart. That’s because Kamina was so great, so unique and so memorable that it is nearly impossible to surpass him. A man like him is born maybe once in a 1000 years.

    Yet, he always carried himself with dignity and a little stupid clumsiness and did what he could do, what he felt was necessary to protect those he loved. Yes, his love for Yoko was one-sided, but that’s probably one thing that differentiates him from Kamina. Remember who initiated the kiss in both cases and you’ll understand what I’m talking about…and stop calling Yoko the bitch of doom! I thought it was a really sweet moment, even though she does not love him the same way, THAT SHE KISSED HIM BACK and hugged him.”

    Well put, but remember that Yoko didn’t kiss Kittan back, she hugged him back!

    golthin
  31. @Darklord & golthin

    Plus, remember her worried, or maybe painful expression when she was leaving Kittan to do what he was to do, and that she was the only one crying after what he did. But that could mean nothing more than just a close friendship, after all.

    Ciakuz
  32. If everyone here thinks that the moon-sized Super-Galactic Gurren Lagann is over the top, there’s still ONE MORE transformation in store for Gurren Lagann. If you pause the OP just at the part where Gurren merges with Lagann, notice the silhouettes behind the combined Gurren Lagann — behind the shadow that represents the Cho-Ginga Gurren, there’s another silhouette (with obvious skull-shaped kneepads)!

    II’m betting that the Gurren-dan will find one more planet-sized battleship to combine into before the last episode rolls in.

    Myssa Rei
  33. @Omni or anyone:
    Could anyone kindly confirm what “ikki toushin” means? We had a lot of difficulty with that (we ended up with One body and soul; probably off though) . I would like to correct it if necessary.
    Sorry if this isn’t the place to be asking this.

    Oh and for speculation,
    It would seem that there will be some kind of alternate universe or something along the lines. I’ll leave it up to Gainax to mind boggle us haha.

    Saphix
  34. @Saphix:
    Ikkitoushin is like a play on Ikkitousen. Ikkitousen means “One cavalry/mount to match a thousand” So in this case Ikkitoushin means “One to match God himself”

    And to all Nia haters. STFU. She will survive with Simon!!! Gainax will do a Gainax LOL on all you disbelievers!

    musashiken
  35. There is supposed to be something bigger than Chouginga Gurren Lagann judging from the intro. Wonder if it will make it in next week’s episode. It would be awesome to have a machine with the power of multiple universes instead of just one sub universe.

    jackdoe
  36. Anonymooo: I thought the same thing when I saw the first few shots in the preview, but it looks like this ending will be closer to /End of Evangelion/ than the end of the Evangelion tv series. Of course, when I saw Nia in the last episode, I couldn’t help but think OMGZ! Teh Rei!1one!! Ah, Gainax.

    claudius
  37. Hey guys let me let you in on a theory i just made, We all now know that Boota has Spiral energy enough to help simon out as we saw in that episode, Well do you remenber the mysterious guy standing next to future simon in episode 1, i think i might found who he really is. He is my proof of my theory he has the whiskers in the side of his cheeks and the front of his hair is split into 2 like boota. Well this is my theory that boota might turn into human form but heck i might be wrong, But if you all seen boota’s smartness from episode one he understands human language when kamina tlaked to him in episode 1 etc. My 2 cents aleast.

    Lithium
  38. That’s quite a good theory, Lithium. I have been wondering who that guy was. It might be that Boota has some furhter significance and I hope this question will be resolved in the next episode. Let’s pray he won’t be a deus ex machina then!

    Konata-chan
  39. dont read this if you dont want me to spoil your ttgl watching experience lol.

    anyway, simon x nia DOES happen…but right after that, nia goes away lol. theres something about this anime thats against love or relationships. well, with the exeption of dayakka and kiyoh? was it kiyoh or kiyon? kittans oldest sister. the blonde one. other than the sad relationships, this anime was pretty awesome. its just the ending wasnt really that epic and kinda made me feel..idk uh…mediocre.

    west
  40. Nice comment about the preview. You actually guessed well what was going to heppen in the next episodes.
    Congrets.
    And thanxs you helped me understand some things that happened int he episode.

    ruivo

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