Team Dai-Gurren

Every hero of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fights under the banner of Team Dai-Gurren, a force that Kamina builds alongside a reluctant Simon, with Simon's pet Boota along from the start. The group begins under the name Team Gurren; once a wave of recruits arrives, the crew adopts its larger title, and many simply call it the Dai-Gurren Brigade. Its roots trace back to Giha Village on Earth, and its cause aligns with the Spiral race itself.

The brigade flies a distinctive emblem: a burning crimson skull wearing shades cut in the shape of Kamina's trademark glasses. After the group evolves into Earth's governing body, rank appears as stars stitched onto uniforms. A single five-pointed star marks the ordinary veterans who anchor the new administration, two stars mark the senior tier, and Simon alone carries three as commander-in-chief.

The earliest incarnation of the team consists of village troublemakers whose attempts to break through to the surface keep failing. Simon, Giha's finest digger, unearths a small drill bit and then a strange relic he calls a giant face. Only Simon, Kamina, Boota, and Yoko, a girl from nearby Littner, actually make it above ground. When Littner Village comes under attack, Kamina and Simon seize a Gunmen and wipe out the beastman raiders, then set off toward the enemy base with Yoko and Leeron joining up. On the road they cross paths with the Black Siblings, who turn down an alliance and keep hunting beastmen alone.

Three Adai Village youths, Rossiu, Gimmy, and Darry, come aboard next. A stop at a hot springs resort turns dangerous when the whole establishment proves to be a disguised Gunmen staffed by shape-shifting beastwomen; fighting beside the Black Siblings, the team wins out and picks up the enigmatic Old Coco amid the confusion. Viral then ambushes them with the colossal Dai-Gunzan. Kamina's recklessness nearly gets the brothers killed, but reinforcements arrive: Dayakka's crew and Kittan in his personal machine, King Kittan. With Kamina ceding control, Simon devises the maneuver that drops Dai-Gunzan into a gorge. The team soon storms and captures the giant fortress outright, though Kamina dies in the operation. Rechristened the Dai-Gurren, it becomes their mobile headquarters.

Grief hollows out the group. Simon sinks into depression while Rossiu takes over the Gurren, and the brigade stumbles along far below its old strength. Everything changes when they rescue Nia, a girl who casually admits she is the Spiral King's own daughter. She wins over nearly the whole crew, and through her Simon climbs out of his despair, emerging stronger than anyone has seen him. Under his leadership the team gains flight for Gurren Lagann, brings down several of the Divine Generals, and draws in throngs of followers, until Simon defeats Lordgenome and closes out his thousand-year reign.

Seven peaceful years follow. On the ruins of Teppelin the brigade raises Kamina City, humanity's new capital, named for Simon's fallen brother. Growth continues until the population count reaches one million, the threshold that provokes the Anti-Spirals into striking Earth to halt Spiral expansion. In the years afterward the team's ranks keep widening, and even beastmen join.

Kamina co-founds the group, leads it before the timeskip, and pilots the Gurren. Simon, the other co-founder, commands the team in both eras, pilots Lagann and Gurren Lagann, and captains the Dai-Gurren, the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, and the Tengen Toppa Dai-Gurren. Boota, his pig-mole companion, later serves as a living reservoir of Spiral energy. In the epilogue, leadership of the brigade passes to Viral, who also captains the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren after piloting the Gurren post-timeskip.

Yoko acts as advisor and long-range sniper, later taking the controls of the Dayakkaiser and the Yoko M Tank. Leeron heads science, research, and intelligence throughout. Dayakka pilots his Dayakkaiser early on and serves as chief officer of the flagship in both wars. Kittan holds second-in-command before the timeskip in his King Kittan, while his sisters Kiyoh, Kinon, and Kiyal handle control-room duty, radar, and the Kiyalunga. Rossiu flies the Gurren before the timeskip; Gimmy and Darry rise to top Grapearl pilots and eventually inherit Gurren Lagann.

Other members include Nia as cook, Old Coco as her caretaker, Tetukan as engineer, Leyte as chief engineer, Artenborough on weapons, Gabal on steering, Cybela heading analysis after the timeskip, and the Gunmen pilots Zorthy, Iraak, Kidd, Jorgun and Balinbow, and Makken. Even Lordgenome joins after the timeskip, functioning as a bio-computer and piloting the Lazengann.