I suppose I knew even when I watched Gurren Lagann the first time that a redemption sequence for Rossiu was inevitable.  And even for TTGL, actually having him pull that trigger would have been unbelievably dark.  I’m not a condoner of such things and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so Rossiu being prevented from going out that way is a good thing.  But I sure as hell think he got off too easy, even if that was exactly what I was expecting.

Part of the problem here is that Simon is really too nice a person for his own good.  And indeed, that’s gotten him in trouble numerous times over the course of the story, but it’s also what makes him the spiritual godfather of team Dai-Gurren.  Much of this episode is spent on Leeron hilariously trying to explain quantum physics to a roomful of slack-jawed mecha jockeys, but if he’s right about fighting spirit being essentially what spiral power is all about, you could hardly have a better leader than Simon.  He buys into the whole martial spirit thing hook, line, and sinker, and doesn’t need to put on an act to be convincing.

The fact is, with the warriors headed off to the final showdown – and Ron going with them – someone actually did need to stay behind and keep things ticking over, and Rossiu is the logical choice for that.  He does his journey of penance to his childhood village, quite correctly muses on how little he’s really changed and how so much of his life has been a lie, and hopefully gets the self-pity out of his system.  He doesn’t have the main job in this final struggle, but it’s nevertheless a crucial one.  I hope that punch felt as good to deliver as it did to watch…

There is indeed a lot of sci-fi mumbo jumbo here, but I don’t think it’s projecting to say that Nakashima is poking a little fun at sci-fi’s tendency to indulge in it.  And the core science behind it sort of does make sense, if you squint just right.  The idea that the anti-spirals are former spiral beings themselves is a rather poetic capstone to this setup.  Is it really possible to remove the fire – the burning desire to live and procreate which often leads to death and destruction – from the equation of “life” and still call it life?  Ultimately I think that’s the question Nakashima-sensei is asking with this series, though one probably doesn’t have to think that hard about it to enjoy the ride.