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Gurren Lagann fans: What exactly is "spiral power"? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by CumbrianCucumber@lemmy.world to c/anime@ani.social

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(spoiler warning)

I feel really stupid for having to ask this after seeing the Gurren Lagann recap movies, but what exactly is this "Spiral Power" that the show starts referring to in its second half? Throughout the whole anime, the main character Simone's favourite weapon is a drill, so in a literal sense, he's physically using the power of a spiral to fight.

But as the show goes on, it's revealed that humans are "spiral beings", meaning they're capable of using spiral power, among other spiral beings in the multiverse. Drills can shoot lasers as part of their spiral power, creatures that hang out with spiral beings can withhold spiral power of their own, and the main antagonists fear that the use of spiral power will lead to the destruction of the universe??

Was there an explanation to this that I totally missed or something? Is spiral power still something that comes primarily from Simone's drill? Is it more of a Dragonball-style energy wave that you're not supposed to think too hard about? Does it refer to the spiralling power upgrades that the characters go through, and it's meant to be a metaphor for humanity's ability to self-improve? Does it not really matter in an anime that's more about the character's ability to break through anything with sheer testosterone and willpower? Is it all meant to be left up to interpretation? I swear, I've seen this anime twice and now the recap movies too, and I STILL have no idea what it's about!

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[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It's mostly a metaphor for humanity's ability to self improve, evolve, and exponentially reproduce. There's some minor things here and there also drawing a line between spiral power and the "spiral" of DNA.

Series spoilers as I get into more detail

Bear in mind that all the animal folk are artificial beings engineered by the big bad of the first half, and that is the main reason why they can't tap into spiral energy. I believe at one point it's stated that they can't reproduce. Viral is the only one the eventually gets access to some spiral power, but he was given the special gift of immortality and also spent a shit ton of time with the humans and trying to better himself.

There is a small undercurrent theme, mostly shown through Rossieu (fuck if I know the spelling) regarding the danger of spiral power, that is, unrestrained uncontrolled evolution growth expansion and reproduction against the limited resources of reality.

This is also part of why the end hits so damn hard, as it basically says "Fuck resource scarcity, we'll find a way. We'll fucking find a way to rewrite reality if we need to, but we're never going to stop trying to keep growing and moving forward"

Edit: Oh, you might also be confused because I'm not sure how much of the finer details pointing at this are in the recap movies. It's also worth noting that the finale movie is a remake/reimagining of the show finale that takes everything that was already there up to another exponential 11, so while the recaps just cut stuff for time the finale movie is effectively an alternate ending.

[–] CumbrianCucumber@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Nice thanks! Yeah, the movies were more climactic, but had a lot less explanations than the original anime, and had some interesting changes in plot. Probably just because of the obviously shorter run time.