Never one to take the expected path, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann detours right when the danger is reaching its apex.  Simon is about to die in prison, Rossiu and his charges are facing destruction despite fleeing with their tail between their lands and abandoning most of the species, and the moon is bearing down on the Earth’s surface.  In the midst of this, we take a trip back in time – a year to be precise.  But given Yoko’s importance to the story, I don’t think there’s any arguing it’s not justified.

Yoko going off to be a teacher is kind of a left field development to be sure.  But it’s pretty obvious she was no more cut out for the sausage-making of administration than Simon.  And being around him no doubt reminded her that the man she loved was gone, and the boy she might or might not have developed feelings for belonged to someone else.  Her time on the island is an engaging diversion, and casts Yoko in a somewhat different light as a character.  But it’s no more than a way station on her journey, there can be no doubt of that.

It’s such a toady, weasely thing for Rossiu to do, to send Yoko a message telling her “you’re a person who ought to survive”.   To wit, totally in-character.  There’s no question what Yoko is going to do – save Simon, and take on the hopeless scenario Rossiu fled from.  And a good thing, too, because the man he condemned to die in order to save his own ass is his only hope of survival.  Leeron, at least, has had the foresight to make sure Gurren-Lagann survived and was waiting for Simon to pilot it.

But pilot it with who, exactly?  Yoko’s place has never really been in a gunmen cockpit, and Kittan has his own machine to think about.  It was probably inevitable that Viral and Simon were going to team up eventually – their fates have been tied together almost since the very beginnings of this story.  What separated them seems pretty unimportant in the context of what’s happened since they were enemies, and Viral is one of the few men with the strength of will to hold his own with Simon’s.

Rossiu is undeniably lucky, because not only does he have Simon outside the Arc-Gurren saving his ass, but Leeron inside it as well.  Leeron has made sure Simon has the resources he needs to fight, and when Rossiu gets too mired in whiny self-pity Leeron is there to put him in his place.  He’s also got Lordgenome to lean on – though Rossiu at least deserves the credit for making that possible.

If you trace the arc of Simon’s story – which is basically the spine of TTGL itself – one some level it’s a chronicle of escalating gattai.  He stumbles onto that little Lagann near the beginning of the series, but that humble little gunmen really is the little mecha that could.  First Gurren of course, Dai-Gunzan, Teppelin – he just keeps raising the stakes.  Eventually Simon combines with the Arc-Gurren, giving it the much-needed jolt of spiral energy it needs to defend itself, but even that’s only the precursor.  In order to win the day, Lagann must do no less than combine with the moon (actually Lorgenome’s flagship, the Cathedral Terra) itself.

Simon is really fighting two battles here.  In addition to saving the Arc-Gurren and humanity itself, he also has to save Nia.  He’s convinced she’s still in there somewhere, despite all her denials.  This is all going somewhere, and that’s the anti-spirals’ home world (indeed, the second film would revisit that story in grand fashion) – it’s there were both of Simon’s battles will finally come to a head.  Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is never standing still – the tone and style are constantly shifting, an impressive feat for a two-cour series.  It’s rare to see a mecha series demand so much from its audience – but then, once upon a time that was Gainax’ stock and trade.