Simon (シモン, Shimon) is the central protagonist of the anime and manga series, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. He begins the story as a short, unassuming and lonely young boy, but grows up into a tall, commanding and well-loved man. To many more, he is a legendary hero who overcame impossible odds and great personal adversity for the good of mankind.
Appearance[]
Simon is underdeveloped for his age so is quite short (shorter than Nia and Rossiu, even though they are the same age group). He's 14, and stands at approximately 5 feet, and is extremely thin. He has dark blue hair and black eyes with peach skin. He is baby faced which makes him look younger than his actual age.
In part two, Simon is now 21, looks very different; he has grown considerably taller (is now taller than Nia and is slightly taller than Kamina, who was originally much larger) and he is more muscular. His hair is spikier and he has more masculine features including much more muscle definition and a deeper voice. 20 years later Simon is now 41.
Outfit[]
Early in the show, Simon wore a brown cloak when in Giha Village, as well as reddish-brown shorts, white socks, and brown boot-like shoes. White bandages circle his abdomen, and his Core Drill is sometimes hanging around his neck when not being used. He replaced his cloak, lost when he reached the surface, with a simple blue jacket with red stripes along the shoulders and sleeves, given to him by Leeron.
Once Team Gurren is formed, Simon gets the logo of Team Gurren on his jacket's back. He also begins wearing a red armband around his left arm-actually a piece of the cape of Kamina's late father.
After the timeskip, Simon has a drastic change of wardrobe; wearing grey, low-rise jeans, a black neck brace, a matching black haramaki, and a long, navy blue trench coat with gold studs and the Team Dai-Gurren logo on the back.
In both seasons, Simon wore digging goggles with built-in flashlights. He usually wore them on his forehead, lowering them over his eyes when digging. After transforming the Super Galaxy Dai-Gurren, Simon's goggles turned into red sunglasses similar to Kamina's, but with three extra points to make them resemble a star (presumably a tribute to the recently-deceased Kittan). These glasses were destroyed during the final battle against the Anti-Spirals.
In the epilogue, Simon's older self was seen wearing a large brown cloak, with a hood to conceal his face. He also carried a staff with a large drill on the tip.
Personality[]
At the start of the series, Simon was a shy, withdrawn boy. After finding Lagann and fighting a Beastmen for the first time, he was less shy but was still incredibly scared of all the pressure to fight and the pressure to be brave for the rest of the team. After Kamina's, death he became depressed and anti-social with the rest of the crew and, because of his emotions, could not operate Lagann correctly. After meeting Nia, he temperarily forgot about his emotions as he was in awe of her. Quickly after getting her back to Dai-Gurren, he returned to his depression, but with help from Nia and other team members he became himself again but more brave and more like a true leader. He mirrors himself in Kamina, trying to become as strong as he was, devoting himself into protecting everyone. To him it's also a way to repent for his believed sin, which is letting Kamina die, and tries to hold all responsibility of everyone's sake on his shoulders.
In part 2, Simon remains generally the same but as Gimmy as pointed out, he seems to have gotten lazier. When Rossiu throws him in jail, Simon does not argue about his life, but rather the lives of the city. This indicates Simon cares about others more then his own well being, as he tells Rossiu to put a bomb inside of Gurren-Lagann to be sure he can't escape before he went off to fight an incoming group of Mugann during his trial.
Relationships[]
Yoko[]
When Simon first met Yoko he had a crush on her. He wasn't very good at talking to her as he get's embarrassed or blushes around her. When he saw Kamina and Yoko kiss, it devastated him, he ran and hid inside of Lagann having flashbacks of him and Yoko together before getting interrupted by Kamina, telling him it's time to go. Because of this he couldn't operate Lagann very well, which he believes is the reason Kamina died. After he got over the crush on Yoko, they became close friends caring about each other a lot and supporting each other.
Powers and abilities[]
By the end of the series, Simon becomes the most powerful Spiral warrior in the Gurren Lagann multiverse, both with and without the use of his Gurren Lagann mecha variants. One of his most important abilities for much of the series is that, when Simon is driven to give his best during combat, his spiral power increases exponentially in an instant, while increasing the power of his mecha and his allies at the same time, something that was initially inspired by Kamina. By the end of the second film, Simon's spiral power is infinite. He can also create matter out of nothing (defying the law of mass-energy conservation), as he occasionally uses his Spiral Energy (created from his will alone, which could also have been homage to his "fighting spirit" and "Spiral Power" working as one) to create new and exponentially larger versions of his Gurren Lagann mecha later in the series, by which point he creates weapons larger than most galaxies (or in the second Gurren Lagann film, weapons that are almost the size of a universe). Later in the series, it shows him having powers on a multi-dimensional scale that can distort the spacetime continuum, while the epilogue shows Simon having metaphysical powers and compares him to a 'God', implying that he has acquired omnipotence.
Spiral Power[]
Simon has the ability to use spiral power since humans are spiral beings. Simon has a large amount of spiral energy and Lord Genome stated he has even more than him. He had no control of his spiral energy at first but after Kamina's death he gained more control and went to a level where he could pilot massive gunmen. His spiral power is infinite, making him the most powerful being in the entire Gurren Lagann multiverse. He usually channels spiral energy into his core-drill but towards the end he learned to unleash it alone. He can fire massive beams of spiral energy from his core drill and can create drills for various purposes the latter requiring a gunman.
When Simon was piloting the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann, Leeron noted that "a galaxy is being born from within the engines" of the mecha due to Simon's large amount of spiral energy. In the final episode, Simon combines his own spiral energy with that of his comrades to create the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is more than a hundred times larger than the Milky Way galaxy. The actual limit of the mecha's abilities is immeasurable, as it gains an infinite amount of power depending on the pilots' will to win; it fights the Anti-Spiral (a being depicted as omniscient and omnipresent on a multiversal scale) at forces powerful enough to create and destroy entire universes, being able to absorb the Anti-Spiral's Infinity Big Bang Storm (which has the power of multiple universal Big Bang explosions). The battle was so intense that it was shown to rip holes through various dimensions, showing that the power of each was on a God-like scale, furthered by the fact that they can alter the fundamental laws of reality, such as altering probability and creating matter larger than most galaxies out of thin air. According to the creators, Tengen Toppa also has the ability to create an entire Super Spiral Space universe within itself.
In Lagann-hen, after absorbing the Infinity Big Bang Storm, he combines that energy with his own spiral energy (and that of his comrades) to create the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which purely consists of spiral energy in the form of a faceless entity resembling both Simon and Kamina, and it is more than a hundred times larger than its preceding form. After the Super Tengen Toppa finds itself in a stalemate with the Anti-Spiral, Simon's spiral power is further emphasized, showing him surpassing the power level that the Super Tengen Toppa was previously at using only the smallest and weakest form of the Gurren Lagann. After the Anti-Spiral shatters the Super Tengen Toppa's Giga Drill, the latter is forced to downgrade to the smallest form of the Gurren Lagann; despite the infinitesimally smaller mecha, Simon manages to summon enough spiral power to destroy the Anti-Spiral's Giga Drill. Simon then matches that same power level without any mecha at all.
Piloting[]
Simon originally had no skills when using a Gunmen. Simon never really fought using Lagann as most of the time, he was in Gurren-Lagann or taking control of a Gunmen. However, once Kamina dies, Simon becomes skilled enough to pilot Gurren-Lagann by himself. Simon also was skilled enough to pilot the other forms of Gurenn-Lagann, Arc Gurren-Lagann, Chōginga Gurren-Lagann and Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. He is also one of the few humans able to use spiral power. Some of the moves include the Giga Drill Breaker and one such as Drill missiles and drills that fly out and hit many foes.
Skills[]
Skilled Digger: Simon is a skilled digger and one of the best diggers in his village. He saved himself and Kamina from Viral's particle laser by digging a tunnel in almost an instant. Early in the series with the Lagann and Gurren Lagann mecha, he can use his drill in various ways, ranging from projectiles and missiles to shields, screws and various melee applications.
Skilled Gunmen Pilot: As a pilot, Simon is skilled enough to pilot Gurren-Lagann on his own. He fought Lordgenome with Lagann and destroyed the Lazengan in single combat.
Fist Fighting: Simon is able to fight hand-to-hand, as shown when he fought Viral for a short time and punched Rossiu hard enough in the face to knock him backwards (though this may also be due to momentum). In the ending of Lagann-hen, the Anti-Spiral is defeated by Simon alone, without any mecha at all. Simon engages the Anti-Spiral in a fist fight, and he uses some of his own blood to create a drill powerful enough to defeat the Anti-Spiral.
Lagann Impact: It can combine with other machines by piercing them with its drills.
Giga Drill Breaker: Simon forms a huge amount of spiral energy into an enormous drill or number of drills much bigger than Gurren Lagann itself (an ability he learnt from Kamina).
Super Tengen Toppa Giga Drill Breaker: A much larger version of the Giga Drill Breaker used by the Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, with the drill being almost the size of a universe. When it collided with a similar and equal attack from the Anti-Spiral, it caused the entire universe the fight was held in to collapse on itself as a side-effect caused by the ripples from their drills.
Reality-Warping Abilities: The physical law of mass-energy conservation is defied early in the series, with the Gurren Lagann using Spiral Energy to create drills out of nothing (by the end of second film, he creates masses that are almost the size of a universe). Later in the series, with the Arc-Gurren Lagann and Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann mecha, he has the ability to rip the fabric of space-time itself through sheer brute force. The Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann can transverse to other dimensions and universes, can alter probability at will, and is equipped with thousands of cannons that appear from the threads of the mecha's drills, each capable of shooting a beam straight through the time-space continuum, used for hitting targets regardless of their locality and temporality in the multiverse, being able to hit targets in the past, present and future. The Super Spiral Space within the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann allows the pilots' recognition to become reality. In the film Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen, it shows Simon escaping from and absorbing the Multiverse Labyrinth of "infinite possibilities" created by the Anti-Spiral; Simon combines it with his own spiral energy and that of his comrades to create the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
Metaphysical Powers: The epilogue shows that Simon alone has the metaphysical power to extend anyone's life and revive everyone back from the dead, but he refuses to do so in order to avoid a possible 'Spiral Nemesis'. In the epilogue, Yoko explains to Gimmy that he should stop viewing Simon as a 'God', implying that Simon is omnipotent.
Other Abilities: Early in the series with the Lagann and Gurren Lagann mecha, his abilities include creating a durable energy shield which can deflect energy blasts even at short range, the ability to wield the sunglasses on the Gurren's chest as a melee weapon, a regenerative function which can restore accumulated damage, and the power to rip open a worm hole in space to travel great distances. Later in the series, his Arc-Gurren Lagann and Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann mecha sport an enormous array of missiles, beam weapons and shielding capabilities. The Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann has the manufacturing capabilities to create hundreds of Arc-Gurren Lagann sized mecha in a small period of time, and is capable of both deflecting and destroying objects on a planetary scale with ease (which the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann extends to a universal scale).
Etymology[]
Simon's name comes from the Japanese word 'shimo', for 'under'. The pronunciation of his name in the Japanese-language version reflects this. Simon may also be based on the biblical figure St. Simon Peter, believed to have been the very first pope, who led the Twelve Apostles after Jesus died, much how Simon led Team Dai-Gurren after Kamina died.
Trivia[]
- Though the extent of his relationship with Nia is never fully explored, Gainax Studios has stated that "seven years is a long time" and that "During the seven year timeskip Simon and Nia did what had to be done."
- The Simon that appeared in the opening prologue of Episode 1 was nicknamed "Garlock" by fans. Later on, his adult form was nicknamed "Starlock". "Gar" refers to a character being "extremely manly". Starlock refers to Simon's goggles transforming into sunglasses. Suffix -lock comes from character called Captain Harlock who is a space pirate and main character from anime of the same name. It is possible that Simon's outfit is a nod to this series.
- Simon, Boota (and Kamina, according to the Otoko series) are the only characters in Gurren Lagann who can handle and enjoy Nia's cooking.
- In his appearance in the epilogue, Simon's left eye developed rings, similar to Lordgenome's. It may suggest that his Spiral Power has reached the level of Lordgenome's.
