Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars

Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars, known in Japan as Gekijōban Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen (the Spiral Stone Chapter), is the second of the two Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann features and the direct continuation of Childhood's End. It condenses episodes 15 through 27 of the television series, covering the fall of the Spiral King and the entire Anti-Spiral war. The story opens at the climax of the battle for Teppelin, then leaps ahead seven years to a rebuilt world that has forgotten what its freedom cost.

Simon fells Lordgenome by driving his Core Drill through the Spiral King's chest, but the dying tyrant leaves a warning: once the apes climb into space, the Moon will turn on them as a messenger of ruin. Seven years on, Kamina City thrives under Supreme Commander Simon. He proposes to Nia on the same night a probe rocket heads for the Moon, and at that moment the Anti-Spiral activates her as its messenger. Announcing that humanity has tripped the Humanity Annihilation System, Nia declares that the Moon will strike the Earth within three weeks. Faceless machines dubbed Mugann ravage the city, public fury turns on Simon, and Rossiu has him arrested and condemned to death to quell the riots while preparing a partial evacuation aboard the buried ark Arc-Gurren.

Yoko returns to break Simon out of prison together with the veterans of Team Dai-Gurren, and Viral takes Gurren's seat. Rescuing the Arc-Gurren from a Mugann ambush in orbit, Simon forms Arc-Gurren Lagann and shatters the enemy, only for the Moon itself to unfold into Cathedral Lazengann, Lordgenome's stolen flagship. Guided by a bio-computer regenerated from the Spiral King's cells, Simon claims its core, restores the true Moon to orbit, and rechristens the vessel Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann. Using Nia's engagement ring as their coordinates, the team crosses dimensions to strike the Anti-Spiral homeworld directly.

The crossing exacts a brutal toll. A Death Spiral Field drains their power until Kittan destroys its source with a suicidal Giga Drill Break, and the Anti-Spiral then locks the crew inside an Extradimensional Labyrinth of alternate lives. Simon breaks the illusion, and the reunited team converges into the galaxy-sized Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann to face the Granzeboma. When despair threatens to end the fight, Lordgenome gives his life converting the enemy's Infinity Big Bang Storm into raw Spiral Power, birthing Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. The duel collapses through a cascade of shattering drills into a bare-knuckle brawl, and Simon, shaping a drill from his own blood, pierces the Anti-Spiral itself.

Victory carries a price already written. Nia, a virtual being sustained by her creators, dissolves moments after her wedding to Simon. Refusing to resurrect the dead, Simon passes his Core Drill to Gimmy and walks away from power. Twenty years later he roams the world as a nameless driller, telling a child that the lights overhead are stars, and that friends are waiting among them.

The Japanese DVD included Otoko-gumi dayo! Gurren Lagann, closing out the Otoko Series of bonus shorts. The subtitle Lagann-hen puns on Simon's Gunman: the kanji read as Ragan combine the characters for spiral and stone, fitting a machine dug drill-first out of rock.

Animator You Yoshinari worked without finished designs for Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Super Granzeboma, inventing both frame by frame while animating the finale. An infinity symbol flashes briefly onscreen as the two ultimate Giga Drill Breaks collide, and given the combatants' impossible scale, the closing battle would theoretically span more than eight billion years. The film also indulged a studio in-joke: Yoko and Nia are briefly depicted with visible nipples during the Super Tengen Toppa sequence, reportedly so the series would not end up the lone Gainax anime without such a moment.