Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is an amazing show, I love it to death, it’s the journey about one man who does not know his fate yet in the beginning but then turns into one where he is fighting his fate or destiny to protect the ones he cares about. Before diving into the reasons, the “review” will contain spoilers so yeah.

Burst through the heavens with your drill
The story begins with one person, our main protagonist Simon, in the few minutes that follow once you start playing the first episode, this “main” character comes off as a shy, not so confident kid who digs tunnels in Giha village for a living, the spotlight is then shifted towards his “aniki” Kamina who is everything that Simon isn’t. He is brash, speaks his mind, charismatic but more importantly he is confident, very confident (which we will know soon), through his time digging Simon stumbles across a a gunmen which Kamina appropriately names Lagann later on, after an escape attempt gone wrong a massive mecha like thing (known as a gunmen), falls through the roof of Giha Village and here we meet the shows third protagonist Yoko Littner, she is the waifu I would say of the show, a not so showing off tsundere. Kamina later steals a gunmen and appropriately names it Gurren from here on we follow our three main protagonists as they make new friends defeating beastmen, stealing their gunmens, slowly but surely making their way to the capital Teppelin to defeat the Spiral King and reclaim the earth where everyone can live under a limitless sky.

Later, Buddy
If only it were that easy. I still remember the siege of the dai-gunzan and thinking there was no way that the newly formed team dai-gurren could lose against these guys, I mean we have seen Kamina being confident and charismatic and making iconic quotes all throughout the first nine episodes of this show, like a main character should. I loved watching Team Dai-Gurren come together and Kamina was at the center of it, a strong mentor type figure, someone who is always there for you, someone who you can rely on, someone who all the other characters trust and put their faith in for them to siege dai-gunzan, hell even Yoko admits to Kamina that she likes him just before the big battle goes down. But all of that gets taken away from us the audience and more importantly from Team Dai-Gurren.

Kamina’s demise to say it hard would be an understatement, I couldn’t watch more because he was the glue that held the team together, how were we suppose to get through the entire show now, to be honest I almost dropped the show because this character had already established himself as one of my favorites of all time. But then you look at the members to Team Dai-Gurren and seeing them in despair is hard enough but then you look towards Simon and somehow what Simon was feeling at that time was very similar if not the same to what I was feeling. Shortly after his death it is revealed that reason for Kamina’s confidence was Simon, he also says one of the best lines from this series to Simon so that he isn’t lost after he is gone which is, “Listen Simon don’t forget. Believe in yourself. Not you who believes in me. Not the me who believes in you but believe in the you who believes in yourself!” That first Giga Drill Break hits different now looking back on the series, He truly was one of the best mentor type characters, One hell of a man.

I will head towards tomorrow
Following episode 9 we have a very I would say apart Team Dai-Gurren (as expected). Everyone is grieving the loss of their leader but the one taking it the worst is Simon, soon after he finds a young girl by the name of Nia Teppelin. I would say she is not a stand in for Kamina but someone who Simon needed the most because of the things he was going through, Nia’s addition to the team was very I don’t know it just felt right, finally seeing someone other than Kamina that Simon could be himself and this starts to change him and it feels right. As someone who can sympathize with Simon I liked this change that was beginning to take place. Fueled by Spiral Power Simon now becomes the new leader of Team Dai-Gurren. I think one of the quotes given by Simon himself during one of the generals is the best way to describe, “My Bro is dead, He is gone. But he is on my back! In my heart! He lives on as a part of me!” this line is so damn powerful, this speech assures you that Simon isn’t some replacement for Kamina, he is his own person and one portion of Kamina will always be with him. This new gained confidence helped Team Dai-Gurren emerge victorious in the battle of Teppelin, and finally overthrow the spiral king to reclaim the Earth where each and every person would not be limited by a celling over their heads, instead they would have a limitless sky with all the lights in the night skies as stars.

You are someone who ought to survive
In the aftermath of the Battle of Teppelin we have two characters take center stage which are Simon and Rossiu. Kamina city is established with you guessed it none other than Simon being the Supreme Commander and Rossiu being left as the chief advisor to the Simon. Everyone has changed to some extent, the most noticeable of these changes is Simon, throwing away his shy and introverted personality to a confident and confident young man, his character growth is phenomenal, I would have never thought that the kid from episode one or even the Simon who met Nia all those years ago would ask her to marry him and as I said all character growth in this show feels just right. But peace can’t last in the episodes that follow the “Human Extermiantion System” is activated causing massive amounts of distress and tension between the residents of Kamina city and Simon, just like Lordgenome predicted. Shifting the spotlight from Simon for a bit toward Rossiu, as someone who came from similar circumstances as Simon and someone who was there when Lordgenome gave out his warning, he is just doing what he thinks is right, sure he might act a bit douchey but deep down he is protecting the same thing that Simon is. In an attempt to save humanity Rossiu imprisons Simon and takes Arc-Gurren as the last hope for the survival of humanity. In the end he is saved by Simon and Team Dai-Gurren. With rescuing Nia their top priority Team Dai-Gurren set out to fight the anti-spiral

Let’s Go, Buddy!
The final battle of this show is one of the if not the best fight I have seen in anime. The final battle against the anti-spiral is something that even my review no matter how terrible/mediocre it is could never encapsulate. A small sentence to even describe it would be, Local man literally fights god to save his waifu. And as absurd and over the top it sounds it does not even begin to put forward the emotions I felt during the last few episodes. Kamina and Simon’s reunion although being short is just perfect. After reading this, do yourselves a solid favour and rewatch that final fight, Gianax put everything they had into it and it shows. The epilogue is bittersweet to say the least but I think it fits Gurren Lagann perfectly, especially for Simon but everything will be fine as he said, “The lights in the sky are stars where our spiral friends are waiting”.

The Lights In The Sky Are Stars
Simon and Kamina form the backbone of an already strong cast of characters. Together they did some pretty impossible things throughout the show but the one who made the most impact on me was Simon seeing this introverted kid develop into someone who can literally get into a fist fight against a literal “god” is something really special.

I am really glad I got to experience the TV show and the movies as well, I know its cliché to say this but this series is amazing, It is my favourite anime of all time and will be for a long time, its characters are the best I have seen in any anime so far, the soundtrack the OPs and EDs are something which I listen to everyday and the emotions behind each "Giga Drill Break" behind each "Who the hell do you think I am?" or simply Kamina's iconic line of "Don't believe in yourself, believe in the me that believes in you" is something which will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Thank You to everyone who made Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, its an experience I won't forget.