The Blackberry Walk

Seeming Tranquility Simon helps rebuild the new city, Simon and Nia marry, have kids, and live out their days as respected heroes, the end... is how most stories would end. But Gurren Lagann is special - it’s a different beast to other anime out there. The first half of the story, the story up to this point, is the traditional hero myth which, upon its completion, is the protagonist done. Finished. Story’s over. The next step, is to ‘settle down’ since you’re a finished product. Neuroplasticity dwindles; you’re twenty-five, and you’ll never change. But you’re not done. Why else would our spiral energy keep charging us up? Gurren Lagann realises the myth ain’t over - there’s still a story to be told. Many say the first part after the time skip is slow, boring, and doesn’t have quite the same ‘cool’ as the action-packed first half had. I used to be in that camp before we watched the show with the society. Upon rewatching, this part of the show touched me the most - it was the point in my life I was at - and hit me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Kamina City Once Simon and the Gurren-dan defeat Lordgenome, the rebel insurgents start building an authoritarian state in the name of their martyr, Kamina. Simon sitting at the helm of the new government, but with true power lying in Rossiu, the grey blur. Warning strikes, however: the moon has been declared by the anti spiral to fall on the Earth in three weeks. The anti-spiral, the new big evil, take control of Nia, Simon’s betrothed, turning her into a virtual image, or simply a 2D waifu. No longer is Nia flesh and blood - instead she’s become the interlocutor for the anti-spiral. But what does it mean to become virtual, to become an image? It means that Simon can no longer see his Nia, his soul-mate, his soul-image, his soul, in concrete reality; in a sense, Simon has become detached from his own soul. ‘Loss of Soul’ is a common motif throughout hunter-gatherer tribes and antiquity, which can be generally equated to the idea of depression, ennui, or a loss of vitality and passion for life. In short: Simon’s lost his edge; his soul, Nia, has left him; and his spiral energy has reached a new nadir. “Times Have Changed” Upon Simon’s daring yet successful rescue of the city, crowds who quite recently lived in hovels came to boo him. They said that “times have changed” and that such reckless actions can’t be justified in the dignified new government. Rossiu, nervous, picks Simon as a scapegoat, imprisoning him. Rossiu is a very interesting character. At first glance, Rossiu is clearly a bad guy, imprisoning the protagonist after saving the city. There’s something distinctly fake and creepy about him - his relationship with Kinon, for example, who he later straps with explosives without second thought, is a clear example why. Yet, upon second glance, Rossiu’s the proud statesman who’s telling his citizens to ‘Stay Home; Save Lives’ - he ensured that as many people who could be saved would be saved, in a kind of utilitarian calculus. But upon third glance, Rossiu really isn’t a good guy at all. In fact he’s utterly contemptible. Despite being pivotal in overthrowing Lordgenome, he’s become Lordgenome Mk II; instead of fighting back even when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves, he instead tries to bury mankind, bury humanities potential, and bury man’s spiral energy back into the little caves from which they’ve come. Rossiu’s plan is to flee back to the warm comfort of mother’s lap. Rossiu believes that in an infantile troglodytic state, mankind will return to the Noble Savages he once knew back in Adai village, where “half his soul still lives.” Once the simulations are calculated, prophesising the Ark’s collapse, Rossiu even ponders whether man should’ve ever gone to the surface, whether mankind should’ve ever grown up. Wishing to trade growth, progress, and hardship for safety, helplessness, and hopelessness, Rossiu wants man to devolve, returning to the caves, just like the good old days under Lordgenome’s fatherly tyranny. Rossiu’s Folly Rossiu’s folly is the will to survive. At every mention of death, Rossiu bravely ran away, saving as many as he possibly could without standing up to the enemy before him. Risk, for Rossiu, is not an option. Forethought is man’s ultimate gift, the gift of Prometheus, but it can tie us up in knots; for every simulation, plan and counter-plan Rossiu had, his simulations didn’t pose any solutions. Which ingredient was missing from his calculations and plans? Why, that would be spiral energy, of course, or more specifically, hope. Rossiu didn’t believe in a new future, he didn’t hope for a new future, and consequently could never bring about a new future. All Rossiu could ever muster was a retreat into the past; he couldn’t drill into the future nor up into the heavens, merely drilling back down into the Earth, drilling into archaeology, into the past, into rosy memories of primitive man. Yoko & Viral Whilst Rossiu’s doomed plan continues, Simon wastes away in jail with his new roommate, Viral. Viral, who I’ve failed to mention up until this point, was Kamina’s long standing arch-nemesis - a beastman who never failed to give Kamina a good fight. After exchanging blows with several cross-counters in the showers, Simon and Viral come to a kind of understanding, gaining a mutual respect for one another. Meanwhile, on a faraway island, Yoko is working as a school teacher, teaching young kids, nurturing the first generation born on the surface. Upon hearing the news of the anti-spiral’s invasion, she scooters across the sea to save Simon and the Earth. Yoko releases Simon from prison, releases Simon from the cage he trapped himself in, unlocking his spiral energy to grow once more. Ultimately, Simon was saved and allied by Kamina’s soul / lover Yoko and Kamina’s arch rival Viral; Kamina’s spirit, that divine masculine force which has guided Simon since his days in the caves, called from beyond the grave and told Simon to “wake up”. It said: enough with pleasantries, like hoping Rossiu’s plan will work - it won’t, and you know that. To save humanity you must go out there with your spiral energy, holding your core drill high as a beacon of hope. As I’ve said earlier, the third act was my favourite upon rewatching, even though it’s usually considered the worst of the four. What hit me hardest was Simon’s revivification, his revitalisation, his rebirth back into a hero by Yoko’s doing. Settling down wasn’t a mistake, but in settling down, Simon lost sight of the future. To Simon, Rossiu’s vision of the future seemed good enough, even though it was a future based upon fleeing, not facing one’s foes. On Simon’s quest to get Nia back, on his Orphic journey to get back his soul, the descent into the underworld has now begun. Hope v.s. Survival Rossiu’s Ark flies in space under attack, nearly sinking due to a loss of spiral energy. Why is the ark losing spiral energy? Because there’s no hope on board. Rossiu’s message of survival is a grim one; it’s a message of ‘we’re nearly dead but the grit of our teeth hasn’t worn down yet’ - certainly not a message for raising morale and spirits. Only once Simon and the Gurren-dan come to rescue the Ark-Gurren and pronounce the gospel of hope, does the spiral energy of the ship surge, keeping it afloat and its shields alive. The Princess is in Another Castle Simon enters the moon, planning to gattai with the Cathedral Terra, but Nia stands in the way of Simon’s drill. To combine with the moon, Simon would have to kill Nia. Nia, under control of the anti-spiral, claims she’s risking her life to produce absolute despair. To this, Simon says no; in absolute despair, Simon argues, is absolute hope. Through hope and trust, Simon drills forth, and at the final moment Nia dodges.

Nia, once hope, has become despair. But in Nia, in despair, Simon still sees her hope

Rossiu could only see despair - his vision was tainted black. Rossiu could only seek survival since in every simulation, forethought, and plan, he saw the death of mankind. Instead Simon sees brightness in all things; he sees hope of victory, not the despair of defeat. To Simon, simulations mean nothing, for he has hope and will drill through the heavens, rewriting the laws of nature if need be. He may have not rescued Nia yet, but sure as hell he will. Simon knows he will because he has hope. Rossiu’s Final Attempt to Return After realising his mistake, Rossiu returns to his village. He walks down into the dark abyss, returning to his childhood, to his origins, to a pre-conscious state. There he plans to shoot himself. Suicide: the final retreat into nothingness. If the retreat into the cave is a retreat into childhood and to your mother’s lap, suicide is a retreat to a time before you were born, to a time when there wasn’t even nothingness. Thankfully Simon and Kinon bring him to his senses, and Rossiu appears a humbled man, now with more love and hope in his heart. The Final Showdown On our journey through Simon’s life, enter the final battle against the anti-spiral. The anti-spiral are the root of the evil Simon is facing; they seek to crush mankind’s spiral energy since they are afraid of ‘Spiral Nemesis’. Spiral Nemesis is the end of the world - the end point of any spiral race who seeks unfettered growth, growing larger and more powerful, inventing ever-more technologies until the universe bursts at the breaches. As a response to this threat, the anti-spiral, who were once also a spiral race, chose the path of Rossiu: to return back to the ground, back into clay, into feeble infantile messes. They chose Human Instrumentality over spiral energy.

Homonculus-like anti-spiral citizens

In an attempt to exact absolute despair, to crush the Gurren-dan’s hope and spiral energy, the anti-spiral takes to using stone hands, feet, and faces to crush Gunmen and Grapearls. Several crew members who’ve been a part of our adventure perish: most memorably the twins Jorgun and Balinbow whose laughs echo as their ship is vapourised. The one which touched me most, however, was Makken, the short mechanic, who sacrifices himself to save the ship without hesitation nor fanfare. The Sea of Despair The hands and feet attacking the crew serve a second purpose: to push. Whilst Simon is charging up his spiral energy to gattai with the Chouginga Dai-Gurren, the ship is pushed down into the Sea of Despair. This despairing depressive environ sucks up spiral energy through the Death Spiral Machine: the heart of the Sea. The team desperately try to avoid fate, trying to bob upwards for air, but no matter how hard they resist the pull, they sink. Simon, however, suggests they sail straight down into the machine, into the core. Crazy. But isn’t this what we’ve seen the Gurren-dan do all along? Bobbing for air and resisting the pull is what Rossiu did, trying to save as many as he could and survive. This will to survive, this will to merely live, is not spiral energy; no, spiral energy is a will directed towards fate, towards the fatal, towards death. Movement towards death is natural, since for every day we grow, we’re one day closer to death; movement towards surviving is hanging on for dear life to the present, or in many cases the past, not letting time pass nor fate be woven. Hence, Simon looks the Death Spiral Machine in the eye and sails into the singularity of chaos.

The Gurren-Dan descending into the belly of the Sea of Despair

In destroying the machine, Kittan makes the ultimate sacrifice. Yet in his final exchanges, and again in his last moments, he finally realises he can’t be a Kamina. With no amount of bravado can he match up to Kamina, the perfect man, who he idolised and felt lesser than. But ultimately Kittan proves his courage, his soul, and only when flying towards his death, he finally accesses his own spiral power to perform a Giga Drill Break. Halcyon Dreaming The anti-spiral’s next trick is to possess each member of the crew into a stupour, sending them into dreams of happier times. Not only are these fantasies fake, but they’re also not of good times: Simon and Kamina thieve, and beg beastmen for forgiveness; Yoko is a famous bounty hunter idol, but she isn’t content with fame and glory. In both worlds, Kamina, that ever-present guiding light, leads Simon and Yoko out of fantasy and back to reality. Kamina’s spirit is the best antidote to the soppy peaceable times they nearly fell for. The anti-spiral have tried crushing their hearts with the despair of pain, but now they’re using the despair of peace. Eternal halcyon worlds where you never cease to be happy are a kind of despair where you can never grow, change nor develop. Again, we see a peaceful world of surviving instead of growing, where you hold on to a tree whilst the stream pulls you along, instead of flowing downstream towards the end as fate intended. Onwards, the Gurren-dan march to the final battle.

Simon refuses to beg and lower his head in his dream

Destiny The final battle with the anti-spiral is too good to describe in words. After galactic frisbees and Big Bang Bombs, Lordgenome undergoes quantum something-or-other, turning into a drill, passing on his spiral energy to Simon for the final assault. As each iteration of Gurren Lagann is crucified, the next pops out like Russian dolls, until Simon piloting Lagann drill straight into the anti-spiral mech. Lordgenome truly passes the torch on to the next generation, becoming the fuel to light their ambitions. Nia, however, begins to pixelate and disappear. Returning to Earth, Simon and Nia marry, kiss, confirm their love, and then Nia disappears. Gone. But this is the end of the story, right? Doesn’t Simon get the girl and live happily ever after? It’s a bitter-sweet ending for our hero who up until this point has not only been trying to save the world, but also trying to recover his waifu. But marriage is eternal - even beyond the grave, Nia and Simon will be married to each other. They’ve entered a rite, a ritual, a mystery, an alchemical union, which has been passed down since time immemorial wherein two become one - that of marriage. Even though Nia has passed away into pixels, she now shares Simon’s heart from where she’ll never leave. Simon has been truly reunited with his soul; his quest is finally over. Simon has become a true hero.

Coniunctio Oppositorum - The Union of Opposites

A Short Summary We’ve covered a lot of ground in this article, so let’s finish off by organising our thoughts. Gurren Lagann has a clear message: rebel against and don’t become a Lordgenome; rebel against and don’t become a Rossiu; and reject the principle of the anti-spiral which permeates through the culture and the world with all your strength. Resist anti-spiralic tendencies by not trying to hold on to the present, and not retreating into fantasies of the past to find solace, for the only way for either yourself, or for society, to grow and remain healthy is to look to the future. The future is terrifying, however, for in the future lurks the death of yourself, society, and the universe: Spiral Nemesis - the fate of those who grow. But don’t shy away. Don’t be discouraged. Walk onwards, staring death in the face, for that is the courage to be.

A face more terrifying than death's