List of Gurren Lagann characters
This is a list of primary characters from the anime series Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Most of them are people who became the first members of Kamina's Gurren Brigade.
It's worth noting that the plotline of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is divided in two main story arcs, separated by a seven-year timeskip. After the timeskip, most characters pass through important changes in their appearances and/or personalities, and some of them have their own unique roles in the overall story.
Simon
- Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara, Takayuki Sugo (epilogue)
- Personal Ganmen:
- Flagship:
Simon (シモン, Shimon) is the main protagonist of the story. A short and unassuming fourteen year-old boy at the beginning of the tale, he was born in Jiiha Village and was raised by his parents until the age of seven, when his parents were killed in an underground avalanche caused by an earthquake. Their deaths traumatized Simon to the point of both hating and fearing life underground, and likely played a role in developing his relationship with Kamina. Ironically, Simon's role in his community was to dig more tunnels and caverns to expand Jiiha Village deeper underground.
Though valued as a skilled digger, Simon was ignored by the adults of his village and snubbed by the girls, who considered him disgusting because he didn't take care of himself. Lacking parental figures to help him mature, along with his fear of earthquakes, Simon developed low self-esteem and had many cowardly tendencies. His only friend and role model growing up was Kamina, a brash and eccentric older boy who had an obsession with escaping the underground world for the surface, which he claims had visited as a child with his father. Simon was slowly "recruited" into Kamina's Team Gurren, along with several other boys, and made several attempts to reach the surface over the years underground. During one attempt, a sudden earthquake trapped Team Gurren within a chamber and cut off their supply of oxygen. Simon began to panic, but after some inspiration from Kamina, he managed to dig all of the Team Gurren members out of danger. Yoko would later recall that Kamina himself was terrified during this incident, but he hid his fear from Simon, knowing he was the only one capable of rescuing them.
One day, during the digging of a new tunnel, Simon discovers a small drill-shaped object that periodically glows, known as the Core Drill. On the same day, he unearths a large "face" in the ground, which he shows to Yoko and Kamina, after Jiiha Village is attacked by a large Gunmen. The face is revealed to be a miniature Gunmen, and the Core Drill Simon dug up was the key to starting it up. With the aid of this mech, which Kamina names "Lagann", Simon destroys the large Gunmen attacking Jiiha and rises to the surface world.
Although Lagann and Simon by extension are essential to form the Gurren-Lagann, for much of the first arc, Simon is depicted as a sidekick to Kamina, his very presence overshadowed by his much more extroverted brother. This treatment of Simon ultimately proves fatal for Kamina when Yoko, oblivious to Simon's feelings for her, confesses her feelings for Kamina with a kiss in front of a bewildered Simon. Yoko's kiss upsets Simon and disrupts his ability to control the Lagann, forcing Kamina to personally inspire him in the middle of battle. This act in turn leaves Kamina in a vulnerable position, as to which Thymilph takes advantage of, ultimately dealing a fatal blow unto him.
The guilt over Kamina's death reduces the morale for all of Team Dai-Gurren, but it affects Simon to an extreme - mentally broken, bitter and depressed, he becomes hostile to friend and foe alike, eventually leading to the Lagann rejecting him as a pilot. It is during this dark state that he meets Nia, and the two immediately take a liking to one another. Continually inspired by Nia and touched by her kindness and sincerity, Simon regains his composure to fight, while renaming himself, Simon the Driller. He was then elected Team Dai-Gurren's new leader.
Upon defeating the Spiral King and putting an end to the war against the Beastmen, Simon became the commander-in-chief of the city founded on Teppelin's remains, Kamina City, (named after Kamina) and effectively the leader of humanity and of planet Earth. During the seven years since their victory, the city flourished by his and the rest of the Gurren Brigade's efforts, bringing a long sought period of peace. But just after proposing marriage to Nia, and receiving her positive reply, the one millionth human child was born, triggering the Anti-Spiral Human Extermination System. Nia, who was turned into the Anti-Spirals' messenger, revealed to the population the whole truth behind their intentions and the reason why they plan to wipe out mankind, triggering a revolt from the people of Kamina City against the government, who destroyed Kamina's statue and asked for Simon's head. In a maneuver to calm down the angry mob, Simon was betrayed by his second-in-command, Rossiu, who removed him from power and forged a trial where he was sentenced to death.
Sent to the Rinkane Jail for being arrested until the day of his execution, he ends up meeting Viral, an old enemy of his, and after causing a commotion among the prisoners, both are sent to individual cells, until Nia appears before them, and their conversation is interrupted by Yoko, who broke into the prison in order to rescue him. Before leaving, Simon also sets Viral free and the trio encounters the rest of the reformed Gurren Brigade, who had finished their preparatives to retaliate against the Anti-Spirals.
Having Viral at the Gurren's seat, Simon and his companions rushed into space to protect the Arc-Gurren from a massive Anti-Spiral attack, forming the Arc-Gurren-Lagann in the process. After confronting Nia and making her briefly revert to her old self, he managed to convince her to let him stop the Human Extermination System, by taking control of the Cathedral Terra, and avoiding it from falling on Earth. But when Nia was teleported back to the Anti-Spirals' homeworld, Simon swore to rescue her, no matter how small that chance may be. Leaving Rossiu at the command of Kamina City in his absence, Simon and the rest of the Gurren Brigade take control of the Cathedral Terra, and after renaming it to the Chouginga Dai-Gurren, they launch themselves into deep space, in order to end their fight with the Anti-Spirals once and for all.
After the final battle against the Anti-Spirals, Simon finally had a wedding ceremony with Nia, but the happiness of the event was cut short when her body disappeared, due to her Anti-Spiral nature. Simon was not surprised however, as he and Nia already knew what would happen beforehand. When Gimmy suggested that he use Spiral Power to revive the dead and bring back Nia and their allies to life, Simon refuses, stating that "dead people are dead people"; in doing so, he is setting himself aside differently than the Anti-Spirals. He then leaves the Lagann's Core Drill to Gimmy and wanders the world alone, having only his loyal pet Boota by his side. It is revealed in the epilogue that the elder Simon was the opening narrator for all of the episodes in the series.
Simon's name comes from the word for "below" (下, shimo), meaning "below".
Kamina
- Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi
- Personal Gunmen:
Kamina (カミナ) is a young man from Jiiha village, who dreams of leaving the underground and go to the surface, which he saw as a child. Possessing a seemingly arrogant personality, Kamina is very passionate about his goals, often expressing himself through dramatic speeches, which seem to rally all those who hear him. He convinces Simon to help him with his plan to drill through the roof of the village and get to the world above, but the plan failed and he was put in prison. He left the village shortly thereafter, with the help of Simon and a young girl named Yoko, as a result of fighting a Gunmen, who broke into the village from the surface.
After the trio breaks through, they meet many enemies and friends as they go, to the point of gathering a resistance force to fight against the Beastman Empire - the Gurren Brigade, with Kamina as their powerful leader. However, during a mission to capture one of the enemy's moving fortresses, Kamina is heavily wounded and dies soon after successfully killing one of the Four Generals, Thymilph. It should be noted, however, that the influential words of Kamina are not forgotten by the rest of the Brigade, who still follow his motto long after his death. His signature pose, in which he sticks his index finger in the air, has been mimicked by several characters during the show, as a tribute to him and as a symbol of confidence for the Dai-Gurren Brigade. A burial site was built on the battlefield where he died, with Kamina's nodachi stuck to the ground and his cloak tied to the sword's sheath.
After the war with the beastmen, a new city was built from Teppelin's remains and named after Kamina, where a huge statue of him was also erected in his honor. However, the monument was destroyed, after the city's population discovered about the Human Extermination System and revolted against the government.
Kamina returns in episode 26 to help Simon and company to break free from the trap of illusions set by the Anti-Spiral, accompanied by Kittan and the other members of the Gurren Brigade, who had died fighting the armies of the Anti-Spirals. Whether it was really Kamina or just an illusion is unknown.
Kamina's name comes from the words for "above" (上, kami) and "to be born" (生, na), meaning "born from above".
Yoko Ritona
- Voiced by: Marina Inoue
Yoko Ritona (ヨーコ・リットナー, Yōko Ritonā) is a girl from Jiiha's neighboring village of Ritona, who had been chasing the Gunmen which entered Jiiha village. She wields an extensive range of firearms, including a long range sniper rifle (which she uses most frequently), modeled after the Barrett M82 and hand guns (which can be assumed is used for midrange or close combat) and has previous experience fighting Gunmen. Although she is of the same age group as Simon, she is mature and one of the most rational members of the group. Despite always badmouthing Kamina for his reckless behavior, it did not take long for her to confess her feelings to him, to which he returns. She was also Simon's love interest, until he discovered that she was in love with Kamina and later met Nia.
After the war with the beastmen, Yoko decided not to take part in the administration of Kamina City and left to parts unknown, but not before asking Simon to take care of Nia. During the seven-year timeskip, she worked as a teacher at an elementary school in a small island, adopting the name Yomako, but after learning of the events occurring at Kamina City, she left the island and broke into the Rinkane Jail to rescue Simon. After leaving the prison with Simon and Viral, she rejoins the other members of the Gurren Brigade to aid in the war against the Anti-Spirals, piloting the Dayakkaiser.
In the epilogue, an aged Yoko is seen at the same school, now working as the principal.
As Yomako, she drives a yellow, hovering scooter, most likely a homage to Haruko from Gainax's FLCL. Her name and appearance are a reference to Yomiko Readman, the main character of Read or Die, who also worked as a teacher.
Yoko's name comes from the word for "beside" (横, yoko).
Nia Teppelin
- Voiced by: Yukari Fukui
Nia Teppelin (ニア・テッペリン, Nia Tepperin) is a mysterious young girl found sleeping in a capsule in the middle of a dump site by Simon, one week after Kamina's death. She has had no prior contact with humans, except her father, who is also the sovereign of the Beastmen, the Spiral King. She is very curious, pure and innocent, due to growing up sheltered in a peaceful environment, away from all the battles occurring in the outside world. Despite early misgivings, she is quickly accepted by the Gurren Brigade, much to the irking of Yoko. During her travels with the Gurren Brigade, she discovers the harsh reality of the world and develops a strong empathy towards Simon. Her most defining features are her "+" shaped irises (reminiscent of Nono from Gainax's Diebuster) and her blue and yellow hair. Other features inherited from Nono are her innocence, naiveness, and voice, as both characters are voiced by the same voice actor.
After her encounters with Adiane and Guame she comes to an understanding of the reason Simon found her outside the palace, being forsaken by his father after she started attaining her own will and self-consciousness as he considered his off-springs merely toys to play with as dolls, and decides to join the Gurren Brigade as cook in order to confront her father. In the final battle with Lord Genome she boards a Lagann piloted Simon and aids him in the destruction of the Lazengann.
Seven years after the war with the beastmen, Nia received a marriage proposal from Simon. She refused at first, after her bubbly contrived logic causes a misunderstanding of his words to her, but after receiving counseling from Kiyoh and Kiyal, she decided to accept. When the limit of life set by the mysterious force predicted by Lord Genome comes to be a mysterious force took control of her body and her buried identity as the Anti-Spiral Messenger awoke. Appearing before the population of the planet, she broadcasts the intention of the Human Extermination System, proclaiming that the Moon will collide with the Earth, bringing the city to a panic. Her body is entirely unchanged, with the only differences being a black skin-tight suit and her narrowed, menacing eyes with dark irises. She reveals to Simon that her memories as a human still remain, but after realizing who she really is and the pointlessness of humans progress, her entire personality radically changed as she declared her past as just a long lost fiction.
According to her, the Anti-Spirals purpose is to bring mankind into ultimate despair by letting them struggle to the very end, right before their inevitable destruction. Nevertheless, by still wearing the engagement ring Simon gave to her from her own will she comes to the discovery that unconsciously her original feelings always remained as strong as ever and as Simon points out that the only intention of the trial she set-up for humanity was to create a resistance against the Anti-Spirals she reverts to her old-self giving him the chance. However, just when he gets a glimpse of the old Nia, she is teleported to the Anti-Spirals' homeworld, and Simon promises to rescue her.
When Nia became an Anti-Spiral, her body structure changed to be the same as the Anti-Spiral mecha, meaning that if at any moment she becomes harmed, her body could explode just like the Muganns. Unfortunately, it was her Anti-Spiral structure that sealed her destiny; after the Anti-Spiral homeworld was destroyed, her body also perished soon after, during her wedding ceremony with Simon. In the epilogue, a memorial site is seen built in honor of her, located right next to Kamina's burial grounds.
One small inside joke that happened to present itself during the series both before and after the time-skip was that during the two times she was captured (first by Guame and then by the Anti-Spiral) she will keep a fiercely optimistic attitude (saying with a straight face that she won't die even though Guame has a gun pointed at her face or courageously declaring Simon won't fail in saving her as the Anti-Spiral starts dissecting her structure) only to tear up the moment Simon comes to save her.
Nia's name has multiple meanings: it can be read as near, but it's also based on the ani (兄) kanji from the word for "older brother" (兄貴, aniki), with which Simon refers to Kamina. Her name may also be a reference to niacin, continuing the DNA-themed naming trend of the Spiral King Lord Genome and his followers. The sound "nia" in Japanese is also an onomatopoeia for smiling, which Nia tends to do.
Viral
- Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama
Viral (ヴィラル, Viraru) was a former recurring enemy character throughout the series who later became an ally. He is a wolf Beastman and he is skilled in piloting Gunmen as well as in unarmed combat. During a hunting trip, he attacks Kamina, but had to retreat to his Gunmen. He manages to overcome Simon and Kamina's attacks, but leaves before the fight ends. The next day, Kamina and Simon challenges Viral again; this time however, Viral is defeated, and is forced to barrage the newly formed Gurren-Lagann with missiles in order to conceal his escape, swearing revenge on Kamina for his humiliation.
Viral later returns alongside General Thymilph and the Dai-Gunzan to crush the Gurren Brigade, but is severely injured in the battle, which resulted in Dai-Gurren's capture. He tries to obtain another chance to fight by trying to join General Adiane's side, even though she treats him like garbage. Still, Viral saved Adiane from harm during a fight with the Dai-Gurren Brigade, by stopping the Dai-Gurren's foot from crushing her. After Adiane's death by the Dai-Gurren's attack, Viral curses the Gurren-Lagann and swears to bring pain and punishment to those who killed his two superiors.
Under General Cytomander's command, Viral took part on the aerial attack on the Dai-Gurren. His battle with the Gurren-Lagann, piloted by Simon and Yoko, extended to the control room of Cytomander's aerial fortress, the Dai-Gunten. There, he learned of Kamina's death, and discovered that he not only lost to a human, but to a child human as well, challenging Simon to a one-on-one duel. Their battle was interrupted by Cytomander, who took Yoko hostage, and ordered Viral to destroy the defenseless Gurren-Lagann, but he disobeyed, knowing this outcome would not make him regain his lost pride. For this action, Cytomander asked the Spiral King's permission to execute him for treason, but Viral's last request was hearing from the King himself what is the true nature of the humans. Thus, Lord Genome dispenses Cytomander and conducts Viral to a room where he gives him the power of immortality.
Viral's last effort against the Gurren-Lagann was in the Spiral King's throne room, where he believed he could finally obtain his vengeance after becoming immortal, but was soundly defeated. Lord Genome revealed that the reason he gave Viral immortality was not to fight against Simon, as none could stand against his power, except those who also possessed the "Spiral Power", but to make of him as an eternal witness of his triumph against the Dai-Gurren Brigade.
After Lord Genome's defeat and the fall of Teppelin, Viral's whereabouts were unknown, until he was sighted causing an uproar with his Gunmen, and demanding Simon to fight him, but Rossiu stopped Simon from going after him and sent their Grapal force instead. Gimmy and Darry together managed to take down Viral's Gunmen and put him under custody. When questioned by Simon about why he continues to fight even after the war ended, Viral stated that his intention was to protect a human settlement which refused to leave the underground. That was when Simon discovered that Rossiu was forcing people out of their villages without his consent, in order to count them to find out how close mankind's population was from reaching the one million danger level, stated by Lord Genome.
Viral is sent to a government prison and reappears in the end of episode 19, when he reencounters Simon, who was imprisoned there, awaiting for his death sentence to be carried on. Both end up locked in individual cells after a brawl, but after Simon is rescued by Yoko, Viral is also released by him and accepts his proposal to join the Gurren Brigade against the Anti-Spirals as the Gurren's pilot. This position is cemented after the battle, when Simon declares him the Gurren's official pilot in a meeting with the Gurren Brigade members. This title goes uncontested by the other members.
In episode 26, we discover that Viral's greatest desire is to have a family, however this will always be impossible since Beastmen cannot reproduce. Despite being a Beastman, he obtains a Core Drill when broken free of Anti-Spiral Illusion, even though Beastmen should not be able to produce spiral power.
In the epilogue, Viral is seen commanding the Chouginga Dai-Gurren as a representative for Earth in the upcoming Spiral Peace Conference; due to his immortality, his appearance stays the same, in spite of the fact that 20 years had passed.
Viral's name comes directly from the word "viral", tying in with the Beastmen's genetics theme. But there are other theories about his name's origin. One is the fact that it can also be an anagram for "rival", referring to his constant rivalry with Kamina and Simon throughout the series. Another possible theory comes from the Nikopol Trilogy of comic books written by Enki Bilal, as Enki is the name of Viral's first Gunmen and "Bilal", pronounced in Japanese, sounds like "Viral". A strong piece of evidence supporting this theory is contained in the anime's soundtrack itself, where it contains a track named "Nikopol" which is, coincidentally, Viral's theme music.
Rossiu Adai
- Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga
- Personal Gunmen:
Rossiu Adai (ロシウ・アダイ, Roshiu Adai) is a boy from another underground village, Adai, in which the people worship the Gunmen as gods. A modest but intelligent person, he's often seen looking after the young Gimmy and Darry. When the twins are chosen to leave the village, he decides to go with them, thus the trio joins Gurren Brigade. Before he leaves, the village elder gives him a book that seems to withhold some secrets from humanity's past, with the task to find someone able to read it, as no one in his village can decipher its content. After Kamina's death, Rossiu temporarily begins piloting the Gurren in his place, though initially has trouble due to Simon's breakdown.
After the end of the war, Rossiu became Simon's second-in-command, always trying to make him act more serious about his duties as the ruler of Kamina City. However, it seems that his belief in Simon is not how it used to be, as he started to argue with him frequently. He also led a secret project to access Lord Genome's memories and learn from it the history behind him and the Anti-Spirals. After hearing all of the former Spiral King's story, and after facing the people's revolt when they heard the truth from Nia, Rossiu decides to use Simon as a scapegoat and overthrows him, putting him in prison, and sentencing him to death, an act that Rossiu is shown lamenting over by Kinon.
To protect the population from the impact with the moon to be provoked by the Anti-Spirals, Rossiu and his subordinates prepared a contingency plan by dividing it into two groups: one to take shelter in the underground villages, assumed to be safe by the government, and the other to board an ancient spaceship discovered in the lowest levels of the old Teppelin, the Arc-Gurren. However, when Leeron showed him that no life form, in the surface or underground, would survive the impact, which would render the planet completely uninhabitable for one year, Rossiu decided to change his plans, by reducing the number of refugees boarding the Arc-Gurren to half, and filling the rest with animals and livestock, ensuring a chance of survival of them, and abandoning the rest of mankind.
However, Rossiu's plans were once again foiled by the Anti-Spirals who had already set a large force awaiting to ambush the Arc-Gurren in space. Just when he was about to lose hope, Simon and the rest of the Gurren Brigade came to his aid. One week after the Human Extermination System was stopped, Rossiu left a farewell message and set for his home, Adai Village, decided to take his own life to atone for his mistakes. However, Kinon found the message and Simon rushed with her on the Gurren-Lagann to stop him. Rossiu takes the duty of watching out for Kamina City, while Simon and the rest of the Gurren Brigade depart from Earth to the Anti-Spirals' homewold, having Kinon and Guinble to assist him.
After the final battle against the Anti-Spirals, Rossiu was the priest for Simon and Nia's wedding, and in the epilogue, he is seen still holding the position of Commander-in-Chief, as Simon did not reclaim it. Interesting to note is Rossiu's resemblance to his former village elder in the epilogue.
After the seven-year timeskip, Rossiu bears an uncanny resemblance to Fei Fong Wong (specifically his hairstyle and style of clothes under his cloak) from the videogame Xenogears, a game who some cite as having a plot very similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion (another series by Gainax).
Rossiu's name comes from the word for "behind" (後, ushiro). Kamina called him by the nickname dekosuke, literally translated as "forehead".
Kittan Bachika
- Voiced by: Kishô Taniyama
- Personal Gunmen:
Kittan Bachika (キタン・バチカ, Kitan Bachika) is the oldest member of the Black Siblings. During his first encounter with the Gurren Brigade, he mistakenly confuses Kamina for a Beastman. This is reconciled, when it is discovered that Kamina is piloting the Gunmen, Gurren. Shortly after, the two teams (Black Siblings and the Gurren Brigade) come into contact with the sixteen-headed enemy Gunmen, who the Black Siblings had crossed paths with earlier. After the eventual defeat of the enemy Gunmen, the two teams part ways.
Kittan and his sisters return, in order to aid the Gurren Brigade against one of the Four Generals, Thymilph. Apparently inspired by Kamina, Kittan and a few others join the fight with Gunmen of their own they have captured and customized. This event consequently leads to the formation of the Dai-Gurren Brigade. As a result of the death of Kamina, Kittan temporarily takes over as the leader (though self-proclaimed) of the Brigade, until Simon recovers from his depressed over Kamina's death, and transfers the control of leadership to him. After the war, Kittan became the Chief of the Legal Affairs Bureau in Kamina City, but resigned after discovering about Rossiu's plan to evacuate Earth using the Arc-Gurren, along a small fraction of the human population, and abandoning the rest to die, when the Moon falls. Before leaving, he demanded Rossiu to return the Core Drill he took from Simon and rushed on his Gunmen to deliver it back to him.
Kittan's final act of manliness occurs at episode 25, when he volunteers in a suicide mission to take down the Death-Spiral Machine, which was trapping the Chouginga Dai-Gurren and draining it of its spiral energy. He managed to open a hole in the energy shield protecting it, but when his space gunmen was about to open fire on the enemy's device, it gets crushed by the intense gravitational pressure caused by it. When his efforts seemed to be wasted, he used his King Kittan to pick up one of the Gurren-Lagann's broken drills he took as a memento and by activating his own spiral power, he performs a Giga Drill Breaker Attack, taking down the machine along with him, and freeing his companions from the Anti-Spirals' trap.
Kittan's name comes from the word for "quick temper" (短気, tanki).
Boota
- Voiced by: Shizuka Itou
The unofficial mascot of the Gurren-Lagann, Boota (ブータ, Būta) is a small mole-pig from Jiiha village, who Simon keeps as a pet. Boota is characterised by his sunglasses and star pattern surrounding the tail in his rear end. No matter how many years pass, Boota's physical appearance does not change. Although he can't talk, he can understand humans, and even has seemingly near-human intelligence. His favourite spots to stay are between Yoko's breasts or on Simon's shoulders. He has ripped off part of his body as an emergency food supply in the past, so Kamina and Simon could fight on, and also has served as a morale figure to Yoko, when she first hesitated at piloting the Gurren. Interestingly enough, he too was thrown in prison along with Simon, and even had his own pair of handcuffs. When Simon and Viral broke out of jail, Boota loyally ran to Simon's shoulder. However, upon seeing Yoko again, he hastily jumped in her cleavage once more.
Boota proved his true value to the Gurren Brigade in episode 25, when he asked Viral to enter into the Gurren's cockpit and from there, released a massive surge of Spiral Energy to aid a worn-out Simon in his task to power up the Chouginga Dai-Gurren. Lord Genome stated that this occurred not only because humans aren't the only beings capable of generating Spiral Power, but it also may be a reaction from Boota being frequently exposed to Simon's Spiral Power. In episode 26, Boota stands to protect Lord Genome from the Anti-Spiral trying to attack him, and when their Spiral Powers resonate, he is transformed into a humanoid, resembling one of the characters at the beginning of the first episode. This, however, would turn out to be but a mere illusion set up by the Anti-Spirals, as Boota already had Spiral Power, and It was his dream to be able to fight alongside his friends, rather than be just a pet.
In the epilogue, he is seen wandering the world alongside an aged Simon.