First Impressions / Gurren Lagann

Summary:

It has been one month and with the Gurren Lagann finally nearing the enemy capital of Teppelin, Simon and Yoko pay a visit to Kamina’s grave. After Simon expresses how there are only things he can do now as Simon the Digger, Yoko looks back on the grave and utters a few quiet words of her own. The two then return to the Dai-Gurren where the repairs have been completed that allow the huge Gunmen to fly. Seeing Gimmy and Darry uneasy about the upcoming battle, Simon reassures the two that they’ll definitely win. The Dai-Gunten soon comes into range, and the Dai-Gurren takes off right as missiles are coming down towards it. When Cytomander launches his large force of aircraft, the Dai-Gurren responds with cannon fire and by sending out its own complement of flight-worthy Gunmen, including the Gurren Lagann. However, Guame in Dai-Gundo then joins the battle and starts shelling the Dai-Gurren from below. The human Gunmen pilots realize that they have to help the Dai-Gurren, so Simon asks them to leave all the air units to him while they go fight the ground ones.

Cytomander laughs at how his human opponents are sending only one Gunmen against all his forces, but Simon quickly makes him realize what the Gurren Lagann is capable of by shooting out a massive wave of drill missiles in all directions. Unfortunately, this tires him out, so Rossiu is tasked with evading the various missiles that have been shot back at them. After failing to destroy the Gurren Lagann with some gigantic missiles, Cytomander personally enters the battle onboard his Shuzack. He has four of his aircraft tie up the Gurren Lagann and then approaches it with a large circular saw blade, but to his surprise, he suddenly comes under attack from a different direction. Approaching from the east is an entire force of Gunmen all flying Kamina’s flag and piloted by people who had seen what happened in the previous battle between Simon and Guame. These reinforcements start pounding away at the Dai-Gunten, and with the tide of battle turning against him, Cytomander is forced to transform the Shuzack.

Unfortunately for him, it’s too little too late because the Dai-Gurren proceeds to smack right into him and then crash into the Dai-Gunten, ripping it apart. The fireball that was Cytomander’s Dai-Gunten falls right on top of Guame’s Dai-Gundo, but the battle doesn’t end there because the Dai-Gundo appears unscathed after the explosion. It heads back towards Teppelin, and to everyone’s shock, the Dai-Gundo starts spinning under the capital. As the human forces get close to it, they suddenly start getting blown around by enormous wind forces originating from the murderous merry-go-round. Leeron realizes that the Dai-Gundo combined with Teppelin to generate an energy wall, meaning that if they don’t stop the Dai-Gundo, they can’t get near the capital. Their new human allies then start charging towards this energy wall and getting themselves destroyed, and the Dai-Gurren crew can’t do anything because the twister in front of them is preventing communication. However, an image of Nia suddenly appears in front of everyone, and she yells for them to please stop.

Introducing herself as the person in charge of cooking, Nia explains that Teppelin has been wrapped in a wall of light. She urges everyone to wait because she believes that the twister will be stopped soon by Simon. Pointing upward, Nia explains that Simon’s drill is a drill that will pierce the heavens. In fact, Simon and Rossiu are at that very moment digging through the ground underneath the Dai-Gundo, and they emerge directly below it. The Gurren Lagann attempts to drill up through the Dai-Gundo, but the larger Gunmen simply fires its thrusters downward to counteract the upward force. Yoko and the others become afraid that the Gurren Lagann got smashed, but not only is Simon still alive, he’s actually grateful because the impact of that allowed the tip of his drill blade to pierce through the bottom of the Dai-Gundo. Simon now renews his attack and uses the drill to reverse the direction the Dai-Gundo is spinning in, and he also succeeds in drilling through the Dai-Gundo, right through Guame’s own torso. This completely destroys the Dai-Gundo and dispels the wall around Teppelin, but even now the battle does not appear to be over because the capital suddenly reveals itself to have a enormous face.

Preview:

Well this was another adrenaline-rush filled episode since it featured not one, but two of the Beastmen generals fighting together against the Gurren Lagann team and its new human allies. In all that happened, my favorite seen by far was watching Cytomander’s Shuzack get rammed by the front of Dai-Gurren right into the Dai-Gunten, which then crashes down into the Guame’s Dai-Gundo. It was like getting 3 for 1, except that Simon still had to finish off the Dai-Gundo on his own. With Guame and Cytomander both presumably dead now, the only major enemies left are Viral (who didn’t show up at all this episode) and the Helix King himself. From the preview, it seems that the Helix King has his own personal Gunmen, and it looks to me like it’s a black Gurren Lagann. I would say the story is progressing at an amazing pace since the final boss character appears to be coming up next week, but we all know from the beginning of the first episode that there’s going to be something more that takes our heroes into space after this. I really can’t wait until episode 16…

39 Comments

  16. Viral is nowhere in this episode other than OP.

    Which is extremely weird, given that the king just talked to him.
    MAY BE Viral is getting his awesome upgrade! He will be the only one lived after the king is defeated.

    Quina
    Reply

  28. If this first part does end at ep14 or 16, then the show being 26 eps total gives us a nice shot of the future. Maybe we’ll have a bit of a jump, they do do mini-jumps between eps, a few days here, a month for this ep etc. A few years between this and the start of whatever they do with space would be cool imo. An older Simon would be great as a character and it gives you more development overall.

    Anyone know what Yoko said at the grave before she left btw? I have a feeling she’s finally moving on, and no matter what others may think or hope, I think this opens up things more. Make of that what you will.

    GP
    Reply

  29. imagine gainax decides to meet up with another series in space “ala diebuster” that would be sick..only saying that cuz i saw it hinted by a subber. i’m getting to think they gonna kill nia off.ohh well but i’ll say this they gotta let simon grow more befor he gets to hit up yoko,, cuz right now they look mad’All Hanshin-Kyōjin’…talk about SHOTA

    BROOKLYN otaku
    Reply

  34. @Murdoc

    They’re not killing off a “main character”. Nia isn’t, and neither was Kamina for that matter, a main character. This show only has one main character, and that’s Simon. Kamina and Nia to an extent are there to push Simon and help his character develope. Mostly they’d be classifide as supporting characters really.

    GP
    Reply

  35. Hmm, just for the sake of twists and turns I don’t think Nia will die. It was fairly obvious about Kamina from the previews, but even then I didn’t think they’d actually do it. This time we’re EXPECTING them to kill her off, so naturally they won’t. More likely Yoko, which would be a real shame because while I appreciate Nia’s character, the moe thing just doesn’t do it for me. Gimme a redhead(bouncy) with a nice body(insane!), a rifle(giant) and a bikini(skimpy) any day of the week.

    Then again… It’ll probably be Nia. I also feel like Teppelin is the preface(no pun intended) to the giant face from Eppy1. Any bets on the-Little-Mecha-That-Could Lagann taking it over in the next two episodes?

    The greatest thing about Gurren Lagann is that it’s EVERYTHING that is super stereotypical of shonen/mecha anime, except done better than anyone has ever done it. It’s the best parts of every other Gainax show thrown in a pot with a bunch of wasabi and chilean insanity peppers, poured boiling hot into a funnel shoved down your throat.

    The last 6-7 minutes of episode 6 still kick my balls into the ceiling every time.

    DLazLong
    Reply

  38. garvin2000: “personally liked this show but can’t see all the love about it….just….meh”

    It’s FUN. It takes all the pure entertainment value of the old-school and actually injects it with a lot of what makes current anime so good. Yeah, GaoGaiGar was fun also, but Gurren-Lagann takes it a step further by carrying more substance and character development than the average “hey look, it’s an old-school-style mecha show.” Oh yeah, and unlike crap like Gigantic Formula, the mecha are actually hand-drawn, lending it even more character and charm.

    Anonymooo
    Reply

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