I Said I'm Gonna Pilot That Thing!!

Two Ganmen bear down while Simon keeps the Lagann in retreat, and Yoko recounts that three machines originally attacked, one of which plummeted into his underground home. His attempt to dig back down fails, the Lagann takes a kick, and Kamina climbs out to confront the machines directly, forcing Simon to snatch him clear before he is crushed. When the little mech's power gives out, covering fire from Yoko's comrades brings down one enemy; the other scoops up its shaggy pilot and flees. Yoko identifies the pilot as a beastman and notes their strange rhythm of striking in the morning and withdrawing at dusk.

That evening Kamina thanks Simon for the rescue, and the pair meet Leeron, a flamboyant mechanic fascinated by the Lagann. Gazing up at the constellations, the group wonders whether people long ago walked this same ground, and Leeron suggests humanity once lived on the surface. Yoko asks Simon to haul the downed Ganmen home, but his small drill stays dark until she leans close and his eyes wander; the drill flares and the Lagann starts. On the road the convoy pauses to bury a skull Yoko believes belonged to a Ganmen's victim, and she warns Kamina the surface is no paradise: her people abandoned the underground village of Littner after an accident and now have no option but to fight.

At Yoko's cave settlement, both boys are asleep before the food arrives. Kamina dreams of the day his father carried him up to see the world, then left him behind with a promise to follow when he was ready. Morning brings another raid, and the arrival of a third machine jolts Simon into a memory of the quake that killed his parents; this very Ganmen caused it. His fury ignites the Lagann, and he charges out just as Kamina resolves to steal the orange machine for himself, advising that victory takes a burning heart paired with a cool head.

With Simon dispatching one of the green units and prying open the target's hatch, and Yoko lending timely cover, Kamina scrambles into the cockpit, only for the controls to seize. The remaining greens batter their captured comrade, and a hard landing leaves a skull lying in Kamina's line of sight. Something in him answers it, and the controls come alive in time to spare the Lagann a stomping. To end the fight, Kamina hurls the Lagann as a cannonball that bores through both enemies at once.

Kamina christens his prize the Gurren. Returning to rebury the skeleton the battle exposed, he recognizes a bracelet on its wrist and digs up a red cloak beside it. Both belonged to his father, and the understanding that the man died on this spot leaves Kamina screaming through his tears.

Kamina hijacks an orange Ganmen and names it Gurren, giving the series its second signature machine. Leeron makes his first appearance among Littner's fighters.

Kamina discovers his father's remains on the surface, learning the man he idolized never survived the world he promised to show him.

The Japanese title, Ore ga Norutte Itten da!!, corresponds to the English title I Said I'm Gonna Pilot That Thing!!. The episode premiered in Japan on April 8, 2007, and reached English broadcast on July 28, 2008, sitting between Episode 1 and Episode 3.

The mid-episode eyecatches show Kamina posing with his nodachi in front of the Lagann while Yoko cheers and Simon worries, followed by the two attacking beastmen lunging at the screen as their leader lingers in shadow.