Animes with futuristic themes usually start with high tech gear, probably the main character running away and or towards something, chasing someone or accidentally bumps into a girl being chased by bad people whom he saves and she becomes a significant part of the story. However Gurren Lagann begins with a completely different scene. In a dystopian future where the human race is forced to live underground by a tyrannical ruler who owns the surface by the name of the The spiral King, earthlings are nothing more than slaves who spend all their lives underground digging to avoid the beatmen who are under directions from the evil dictator who wants keep humanity at sub-geo level forever.
The settlements underground are made of different villages one which the main character Simon is a part of. Simon is a small and hardworking digger who just wants to do his duties to avoid trouble since the death of his parents from tremors. His friend Kamina on the other hand posseses a rebellious personality which has gotten him in trouble as a result of his believes that the surface is the birth right of humanity. After Simon discovers a drill in a shape of a key, a beastman in a huge mecha Robot collapse into the colony from above fighting a girl eith a huge gun by the name of Yoko. All hope seems lost until Simon soon to realize that the cause the tremors that killed his parents and a huge percent of the village populace. Enraged Simon unlocks the drills power which awakens a tiny mecha head he uses to defeat the beastmen moving up to the surface in the process together with Yoko and Kamina.
The three party creates team Gurren solely for the purpose of defeating the spiral King and taking back the surface from the beastmen control . The reputation of the team continues to grow as the defeat beastmen after beastmen, liberating villages and stealing their GUNMEN in the process which also boost the numbers and size of the group led by the enigmatic Kamina. However tragedy strikes after Kamina dies in a battle against one of the generals of the spiral King forcing Simon to automatically become it's defacto leader. Still grieving the loss of his best friend, Simon is shattered but inevitably rises to the challenge to defeat the spiral King restoring humanity back on at its rightful place on the surface.
Several years later humanity is thriving peacefully on the surface with Simon and his friends as it's leaders. There are advancement and technological growth everywhere. But the peace was short lived as another threat known as the anti-spiral attacks the human race. The Anti-spiral is an entity that destroys planets that possess the spiral energy because when it gets to an extreme level it is bound to destroy the entire universe and earth happens to be at that stage. Simon gathers his friend for one last battle to defeat the eminent threat in space. After a gruesome battle the anti-spiral is utterly defeated finally bringing true peace to humanity.
After winning the battle Simon passes the torch down to the next generation preferring to live the reminder of his life as a wanderer.
