Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann

[Splash!]

Good episode even though it only really got exciting near the end.

I'm ashamed to say Viral's role snuck up on me, I mean who else would it be other than that...

You are not the only one. I was expecting viral to pilot his own ganmen and fight alongside the Dai-Gurren Brigade. I too forgot that there was already a place for him in Gurren's cockpit. During the last few episodes, I didn't even care about who was in there anymore. Simon seemed to perform well enough on his own, regardless of whether Rossiu, Kinon, Yoko or even Kamina himself were present. In fact, I don't even think they showed anyone in the cockpit when Simon fought the very first mugan that ended up taking most of the city with it, leading me to believe that Gurren Lagann didn't even need a 2nd pilot.

Anyways, Viral was the most obvious choice ,but yeah, it totally slipped my mind. Viral actually has some skill and experience with Ganmen, whereas for Kamina, it was all about Impulse and being caught in the spur of the moment. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how much more Gurren Lagann can now accomplish.

On another note, this episode was the first time they actually mentioned that spiral energy worked through will power and morale, although most of us already figured that would be the case. No wonder Kamina was having such success with machines he had never even handled before.

[shinta|hikari]

I think that the GL can be piloted by Simon alone. But it always helps to have someone with something other than just guts (ie. skills) to handle half of the work.

[Darknodin]

I think that the GL can be piloted by Simon alone. But it always helps to have someone with something other than just guts (ie. skills) to handle half of the work.

actually... it gives them more spiral energy.


good episode, setting things up nicely for the next battle. i actually still don't really like Yoko but she freed Simon, so she gotta be somewhat useful.

[shinta|hikari]

Does it work that way for the GL? I thought only Simon can give the GL spiral energy (ie Kamina's death just because Simon was distracted, Kamina was burning with fighting spirit but it didnt help a bit)

[Ryllharu]

Force of will alone did get the Gurren to start up when Kamina first hopped in. We know now from the Genome that they run off spiral energy too, and were built for the sole purpose of fighting anti-spirals ("Of course they work." - best line to shut up Rossiu). The graphics always responded to Simon, but Kamina fed the GL a lot of energy. The Giga Drill super attack was mostly him.

Simon was a large factor, but the Gurren-Lagann always worked best when the Simon and his copilot were in concert. Viral isn't the best match, but if they could never kill him before, and now you literally can't kill him...