A second film, Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars (劇場版 天元突破グレンラガン 螺巌篇 Gekijōban Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan Ragan Hen?, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Spiral Stone Chapter) was released in Japanese theaters on April 25, 2009.[8] The Japanese DVD for The Lights in the Sky are Stars was released on January 27, 2010. Aniplex of America will distribute both films on DVD in regular and special editions. Childhood's End will be released on July 1, 2010 while The Lights in the Sky are Stars will be released on July 30, 2010.
An animated film entitled Gurren Lagann The Movie: Childhood's End (劇場版 天元突破グレンラガン 紅蓮篇 Gekijōban Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan Guren Hen?, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Crimson Lotus Chapter), once again directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, and written by Kazuki Nakashima, was produced by Gainax and released on September 6, 2008 in Japanese theaters and the DVD was released on April 22, 2009.[14][15][16] The film is a compilation of the events of the first arc of the series (episodes one through fifteen) with around 20 minutes of newly animated scenes. In conjunction with the release of the film, Gainax has released series of music videos entitled Gurren Lagann Parallel Works which contains alternative stories of Gurren Lagann set to songs from the original soundtrack.[17] The film had its first official English release at the Viz Pictures cinema in San Francisco, California on September 8, 2009.
Gurren Lagann, known in Japan as Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (天元突破グレンラガン Tengen Toppa Guren Ragan?, literally "Heaven-Piercing Gurren Lagann"), is a Japanese mecha anime television series animated by Gainax and co-produced by Aniplex and Konami. It ran for twenty-seven episodes on Japan's TV Tokyo between April 1, 2007 and September 30, 2007. It was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, written by veteran playwright Kazuki Nakashima and had been in development since the participation of the famed animator in the Abenobashi mecha themed episodes by the same studio. The anime won several awards at the Tokyo International Anime Fair[1] and the Animation Kobe[2] and Japan Media Arts Festivals.[3]
Licensing for a North American release of Gurren Lagann was announced by ADV Films at AnimeExpo 2007 on June 30, 2007; however, after an unexplained removal from ADV's catalog (despite having had finished the first five episodes), Bandai Entertainment announced it held the license at New York Comic Con 2008.[4] It was also announced for a UK release by ADV Films at AmeCon 2007, however at AmeCon 2008 Beez Entertainment announced that they had the UK distribution rights instead. It was also announced by ADV Films Germany for a summer 2008 release. The Sci Fi Channel acquired the broadcasting rights of Gurren Lagann, and began airing the anime on July 28, 2008 as part of Sci Fi's Ani-Monday anime block.[5][6]
A manga adaptation started serialization in MediaWorks' Dengeki Comic Gao! on April 27, 2007, but switched over to ASCII Media Works' manga magazine Dengeki Daioh on April 21, 2008 due to the former being discontinued on February 27, 2008. Bandai Entertainment licensed the manga and will be releasing it in English in North America. A series of light novels have also been created and are published by Shogakukan. A video game based on the series, for the Nintendo DS, was released in October 2007, bundled with a special episode of the anime series.[7] Two animated film versions were produced. The first premiered in Japanese theaters on September 6, 2008, and the second premiered on April 25, 2009.[8]
Story
Gurren Lagann takes place in a fictional future in which human beings have been forced under Earth's surface and live in isolated subterranean civilizations. These "villages" have no contact with the surface world or other villages.
Giha Village, one of the underground villages, regularly experiences earthquakes; because these earthquakes damage infrastructure, the village must constantly extend deeper into the earth—individuals relegated to this task are known as "Diggers". Giha Village is the home of Simon, a fourteen-year-old digger who was orphaned when his parents were killed in an earthquake. Although Simon is respected by the village elders as the best of the diggers, he is ostracized by his peers. Simon discovers a special drill key deep in the ground and is soon recruited by an eccentric fellow orphan named Kamina into his group, the "Gurren Brigade". Kamina dreams of the surface world, which he once visited as a child, though he had to return home as he was too young to survive there.
After a failed attempt at reaching the surface, Kamina is jailed by the village elder. Simon resumes digging, only to discover "a big face" deep in his tunnel. As he excitedly fetches Kamina to show him the discovery, Simon is also caught by the village elder. Kamina's punishment is interrupted by the collapse of the ceiling over Giha Village, as an enormous mecha falls into the cavern. A woman named Yoko appears and tries to repel the machine with a large rifle. Simon takes Kamina and Yoko to the "big face" he found earlier and discovers that the small drill key can be used to activate it. Named "Lagann", he uses it to destroy the invading mecha and effectively break through to the surface.
Once on the surface, Simon and Kamina discover there are more large mechas known as "Gunmen" (piloted by "Beastmen") that terrorize the surface dwellers during the day. Simon and Kamina volunteer to help Yoko and her village; during the ensuing battle Kamina captures a gunman and names it "Gurren" (meaning "crimson lotus"). Eventually, Simon and Kamina decide to embark on a journey to end the constant struggle between the Beastmen and humans, and are initially accompanied by Yoko and Leeron, a mechanic from Yoko's village. As they head out to find the headquarters of the Beastmen's Human Eradication Army, the group encounters various Beastmen warriors including the vicious beastman Viral.
Along the way, Simon and the others are joined by more humans, including the "Black Siblings", led by Kittan, and Rossiu, a strict young man from an underground village, to form the "Dai (meaning "large" or "great") Team Gurren".
Team Dai-Gurren form a plan to hijack the giant fortress Gunmen the Beastmen have been using as a local base of operations. Kamina plans for Simon to steal the Gunmen using the Lagann. Later that night, while Kamina is talking, Yoko kisses him, and he reciprocates. Unseen, Simon follows Yoko and witnesses the event. This causes Simon a significant amount of psychological trauma and consequently he is distracted during the final battle, contributing to the death of his "brother", Kamina.
Team Dai-Gurren continue on, adding the daughter of the king of the Beastmen, Nia, to their ranks, and encountering and defeating the remaining generals of the Human Eradication Army. They eventually reach the capital of the Beastmen and defeat the Beastmen's king, Lordgenome. However, in doing so Simon learns of the power of the Spiral, and the destruction that it could cause. Lordgenome was once a spiral warrior who fought against the "Anti-Spirals" and failed. To preserve human kind, he forced all humans to live underground and keep their population to a minimum so they would not alert the anti-spirals to their presence.
The second half of the series takes place seven years later. Led by Simon and members of Team Dai-Gurren, mankind has become prosperous. Though all seems well, once one million humans have repopulated the surface, the anti-spirals arrive and begin attacking the humans, and Nia is suddenly transformed into their messenger. The conflict escalates, causing infighting within the Dai-Gurren members in the new capital government, and panic in the world's population when it is learned that the anti-spirals have begun their plan to eradicate all life by crashing the moon into the earth. Simon, along with the rest of the Team and his old rival, Viral, lead the battle to defeat the Anti-Spirals and save Earth, first by averting the moon disaster, and then by confronting the anti-spirals in their home pocket dimension.
However, in destroying the Anti-Spiral, Nia's fate is sealed. She holds onto life long enough to marry Simon before crumbling to dust. Simon then passes his core drill on to a new generation and spends the rest of his life wandering the earth as a nameless vagrant, while the human race begins to contact its fellow Spiral races throughout the galaxy.
