Having Lots of Faces Doesn't Make You Great!

On the road toward a suspected Gunmen rallying point, Kamina decides the merge between Gurren and Lagann lacks grace and manliness, so he trains for it by hurling rocks at Simon from Gurren's hands. Four passing strangers read the scene as a Gunman assaulting a human and bring Kamina down with a weapon that proves oddly effective against the machines. Discovering their mistake, they present themselves as the Black Siblings: Kittan, the eldest and only brother, with his sisters Kiyoh, Kinon, and Kiyal. The four are hunting a Gunman said to bear sixteen faces.

With every stomach growling, Yoko and the sisters go foraging and haul back a strange fuzzy creature they find lying motionless, to the alarm of Kittan, Kamina, and Simon. Just as the group prepares to eat it, the catch splits apart into sixteen beastmen, who scramble back to their Gunmen and fuse into a single many-faced machine. Kamina keeps rejecting Simon's docking attempts as insufficiently manly until Simon is flung skyward and a mid-air combination finally meets the standard. Even merged, Gurren Lagann loses ground, and the reason emerges: hungry pilots make a weak machine. Boota solves the problem heroically, offering part of his own behind as food. Restored, Kamina and Simon drive off the beastmen, and the two parties go their separate ways.

The Black Siblings make their first appearance, introducing Kittan, Kiyoh, Kinon, and Kiyal, all of whom become long-running members of the cast.

Gurren Lagann performs its first mid-air combination and prevails over the sixteen-beastman fusion Gunman.

The Japanese title, Kao ga Ōkerya Erai no ka?, corresponds to the English broadcast title Having Lots of Faces Doesn't Make You Great!. Japan aired the episode on April 22, 2007; the English broadcast followed on August 4, 2008. Guest director Osamu Kobayashi handled the entire episode, giving it a visual style that divided fans.

Producer and Gainax co-founder Takami Akai resigned effective the following episode after mocking online criticism of this one's animation on the 2channel forum. In the manga, the Black Siblings appear a chapter earlier, a change made to establish their history with Viral, who destroyed their village and killed their family and friends.